New owner here, just added a TZ to my lineup. I will have a few questions as time progresses. What a game, seems you need an audible instruction coach dictating in your ear as you play the game...Lots going on there on the playfield(s).

Next, there are those modifications. Wow! What a selection of mod's. I have always been a fan of the Twilight Zone series, have seen every episode since day one, and can relate to the characters that wind up being featured in the game. That said, I'm about ready to mod it a bit. However, all of my current machines are bone-stock and mint condition, so I need to be convinced.

My first thought is, remove the bulb lighting in the back box and replace it with LED strips - will reduce the total wattage used in the machine and keep those power supplies running cooler. Could even use a fluorescent lamp similar to current production machines.

Anyway, I'm in learning mode, and could use some advice.
img12_(resized).jpg

Ah, thanks for clarifying that. I actually wouldn't use fluorescent bulbs, as they're about as old-school as they get. But, LED strings seem to be a good substitute - as long as you use the right intensity.

I was thinking on trying to reduce OVERALL power usage by weaning-in LED's to replace incandescent bulbs. I just need to decide whether to use self-contained LED bayonet/wedge bulbs, or adapt the 5050 string LED's to work with the lighting needs.

I realize there are LED makeover kits available, but the problem I'm picking up on is when there are power sags or surges from solenoids and magnets, the LED's tend to flicker which would be a major annoyance. I don't know if anyone has addressed this issue yet. A regulated power supply to the LED's would likely solve any flickering issues.

The black socketed bulbs on the back box must all be the flashing lamps it seems. Those would be a shoe-in for flashing LED bulbs, but the rest seem to be general illumination for the translite. It would make sense to replace those lamps with LED's.

I will be digging deep into this machine since my background is electronic and mechanical design, so the inventor hat goes on.

OK I got the mod itch, so here's my first TZ mod. I'm using the coin-on-the-edge scene from A Penny For Your Thoughts. I have four coins that are applicable, so I hot-glued them to a metal plate. Here is the result:
first-model_(resized).jpg

I might add a Roosevelt dime to the bottom edge.
Comments, suggestions?

Not sure where the best place would be to place it. And, since the bracket is large enough, I might go ahead and add the dime in the foreground. I'll have it installed *somewhere* tonight.

I'm leaning towards a coin graveyard scene with at least 6 coins. . But I need to re-think the dates; that episode aired in 1961 so the coins should be that or older. I was using a 1964 quarter, now I need to find an older one. All the other coins I have are 1947 or so.

Just trying to be authentic...

BlackKnight, you nailed it, I'm taking your advice verbatim. Great suggestions, thanks!

Stacked as close as I can get to the original layout, I used some commercial hot glue to bond the coins to a plated steel strip, and mounted it above the plastic cover. The coins are all dated 1941-1945 so they're authentic. Here's the assembly, ready to mount:
img2_(resized).jpg

Positioned on the game as recommended. It mounted very securely using the locknut:
img1_(resized).jpg

Screen shot of the coin tray from the 1961 segment:
coin-on-edge-penny_for_your_thoughts_season_2_1961_(resized).jpg

Digging thru a bunch of old coins, I can replicate that coin tray...what a cool prop that would be! Hmmm...

I'm not sure what the correct dates are, but since the segment was aired in 1961, I can assume the dates on those coins were pre-61, and looking at the wear on the Liberty half dollars, probably 1940's thru 1950's. I have a National brass cash register in my game room that I restored and polish/clearcoated, then for years I have filled it with vintage money from the old days. All of the coins are old dates, even the bills. So I had plenty of coins to choose from. Here's the monster, and you can ring up as much as $7.99!
national-cash-register_(resized).jpg

Those old silver coins are fairly cheap online, depending on the condition. For a prop, an old worn out coin would work just as well.

Hah, yeah, but can you think of a better way to display old silver coins?

I'm new here, just got a TZ. What's the 3rd. magnet?

What's the deal with every ball being a Power Ball? I set the game to "Factory" and powerball on 1st. ball OFF, yet every ball is the somewhat obnoxious POWER BALL callout including the first ball every time. What am I doing wrong? Or maybe a sensor is out of whack? No error codes.

Anyone?

I will open my machine up and post some pictures. Those tiny Molex connectors tend to lose their contact pressure - and the tin plated pins tend to oxidize - so removing them completely is a good choice. I went thru that on some Eddy board connectors on other machines.

Trough Ball Sensor adjustment. I got the sensor within maybe .030" from the ball and it senses correctly. Here's what it looks like:
img02_(resized).jpg
img01_(resized).jpg
img03_(resized).jpg

Take a close look at that chute. I find the same problem exists, and after further inspection, there are two broken welds on the chute. this would cause unusual launches from that chute, being as it flexes differently each time.

Time to disassemble and tack new welds on the stainless steel chute.

Wouldn't be the same coil. But, if the last digits refer to the ohms rating, a 900 ohm coil would exhibit 10% more magnetic flux compared to a 1000 ohm coil.

Probably a bit stronger pull made the difference.

Another real handy tool to have is a 1/4 in. extra-long nut driver. For that matter, you will eventually use 5/16" and 11/32" but the 1/4" is widely used. Longer (6 in) reach is very useful in certain spots.
nutdriver_(resized).jpg

Thanks, I stand corrected. I ASSumed the 900 was ohms, it's not.

That makes sense to label the coils this way, but there is no way to verify the specs if the label has burned off or is missing. A quick ohm-reference chart would be helpful for various coils.

Then there are the AC coils...different specs altogether with lower turns-ratio. Anyone ever chart pinball coils?

Have a question. I am looking for a stock cabinet woofer for my TZ, seems the original speaker paper is shredded. Just want to replace it with the standard woofer.

Who carries these, or does anyone have one to sell?
speaker_(resized).jpg

^^Thanks for the replies. Should have checked Marco from the start. Got it on order.

I just rebuilt the clock boards in my TZ machine. I found correct optical switches at Mouser - conventional phototransistor optical switch, but the leads are short, so I used a machined pin IC socket on the board to mount the switch. Front board uses elevated optos, the rear board uses flush-mount optos, but they're all the same basic switch.

Also, converted to high output LEDs for the lighting. Simple to do; change the zero ohm resistors out for 470 ohm resistors. You only need to determine which pin is positive, which is negative, on the board.

Check for cold solder joints, corroded jumper pins and look for burned resistors. The boards are very easy to repair.

There is, you can use the 12 volt midget bayonet socketed bulbs. I tried that, but wasn't bright enough, so I removed the sockets and soldered the LEDs directly to the board. Simple procedure to replace those parts. Be sure you use a desoldering machine, or braided solder wick when removing the components.
tzpcbmods_(resized).jpg

You should remove D1 thru D4 and replace them with 470 ohm resistors. When you install the LEDs, be sure the anode (long lead) of each is placed on the board properly (I put a red dot on each anodegv4 location to properly install them).

Here's the assembly with sockets and diodes prior to the mod.; I tried red and blue LED wedge bulbs. Not bright enough.
tz-led-bulbs_(resized).jpg

The power ball sensor detects the absence of steel when parked in the exit of the shooter lane. When the ball is launched, the game will indicate "Power Ball" if that sensor does not sense a steel prior to launch.

The trough also uses an Eddy sensor assembly, located just past the trough switch. When the ball travels through the trough, it contacts that switch. If the Eddy sensor does not sense a steel ball immediately after the switch, the game assumes "Power Ball". If it senses a steel ball though, the game will operate normally.

An Eddy sensor at the shooter lane which is defective or positioned improperly will either tell the game that EVERY ball is a power ball, or it will never sense the power ball at launch.

In the trough, a sensor that's defective or positioned improperly will likely never recognize the power ball in play.

The shooter pickup has two wires on it, and a short cable. At the end of the cable is a tiny connector which is known to fail. On my TZ, I cut off the connector and soldered the two wires directly to the pins on the Eddy sensor PC board, to eliminate a potential connector failure.

trough_sensor_(resized).jpg
shooter_sensor_(resized).jpg
shooter_position_closeup_(resized).jpg

Homemade Clock Board Tester. It tests all 8 optos and four lamps:
tz-clock-tester_(resized).jpg

I installed a cointaker kit in mine. It does brighten it up considerably, but if you're an epileptic, you're in for a rough ride...amazing the strobing effect when you hit the jackpot.

There is some merit to the subdued incandescent lighting in certain places vs. LEDs. Still, I converted all of my pins for the benefit of lower power consumption, and it definitely does the trick with LEDs. I can now easily put six pins on a single 20 amp circuit.

It took me almost 20 years to find the right TZ for my collection. The Ghost Busters is just an addition to the collection.

DO NOT give up your pins - just keep on adding, justifying, over-spending and rationalizing. Take it from an expert...

Switch with the wire broken is a slam-tilt switch. You don't need it.

It's purpose was to detect a slam on the body of the machine, such as a kick to the bottom or lift-and-drop the game during play. If the switch contacts connect, it will initiate a tilt.

Here's a coin recreation I added that duplicates the edgewise coin group of the original episode "Penny For Your Thoughts". Used authentic silver coins as seen in that coin box scene:
img2 (resized).jpg

In place:
img1 (resized).jpg

Original screenshot:
coin-on-edge-penny for your thoughts season 2 1961 (resized).jpg

Hey I think you have something there. Use the back box of a WOZ, and have it play sequential season after season Twilight Zone clips, replacing the standard backglass with a flat screen LED monitor. You could even default the still shot with an exact image of the original backglass.

Hmm....

...You'd never leave your pin. With episode after episode of Rod Serling's creations, you could sit and watch a Twilight Zone Marathon any time. Pause it, play a game or two, then resume watching the shows.

Purpose-built TV right at home with the pinball machine. Use a large computer monitor and stream the episodes on thumb drives to keep it compact. Put each season on a thumb drive, and swap drives whenever you get the urge. No need for a DVD, the computer can do it all nicely.

I like it. A lot.

***Teaser***

Stay tuned on the clock board. I have a new design I'm working on, using the "carpet lighting" effect, with 12 LEDs. The illuminated clock will look just like the backglass clock image, with even and full lighting on the entire face of the clock. The prototype looks much better than any current lighted clock face. Pics to follow.

NEW PRODUCT. In my efforts to fully and evenly light the clock, I came up with this design which is considerably different than other clock mods available. This will be supplied as a replacement front PC board for your standard clock system, with "carpet lighting" LEDs - 12 of them - which now evenly illuminate your clock face. Because it's direct lighting, the excess light doesn't spill much out of the clock housing. See image below.
white_LED_board (resized).jpg

Here's the deal: I need four volunteers - you must be capable of taking your own clock apart and swapping in the new board. It plugs right in. I will send four beta test units to the first four who PM me with an address and in exchange, all I ask is that you install it and send me your opinions and comments. I have tried a few different designs and this one seems to be the best of the best. The finished product will be offered with a choice of colors (bright white, incandescent white, blue, green or red). It uses standard strip lighting trios so it's pretty simple. I am finding that the bright white makes the clock pop beautifully, although I have a blue unit in my machine right now, and it's growing on me.
blue_LED_board (resized).jpg

Here's the board, which will be supplied with new standoffs and an "ogeesis" ring that you will probably lose when you remove the original one from your clock.
new_board01 (resized).jpg
new_board_hardware (resized).jpg

Remember, first four volunteers and thanks for looking.

Altogether different than the Ingo board. This uses only one color of LED and a lot of them. Its lighting makes the clock face look like the one printed on the backglass where it's evenly lit.

Just another variation of clock mods...

All four are claimed, thanks for the response. Looking forward to your comments.

I'll be putting together a pictorial and set of instructions for clock maintenance. Stay tuned.

I have used synthetic grease for my clock gears, and it quieted the noise considerably. I recommend "Super Lube" available on Amazon. It won't oxidize and harden like Lithium grease. Actually it's the best there is. I use that grease and oil on antique slot machines and it works great.

The same lube is available in oil form, which can be used on levers and hinges as well.

I put four of them out there, and they got snapped up within half an hour. No more to test right now. They're being installed, tested, and the people who have them will post their comments.

If it's favorable, I'll post a link and a big discount when available. Hmm, maybe Black Friday if I get some feedback this week...

In stock and now available: This is an alternative replacement to the factory clock board. All-new construction, it uses the "carpet" effect to illuminate the face of the clock without spilling outside of the housing. The standard assembly is fitted with white LEDs. Blue, green, and red are optional.

The new design is fitted with 12 high intensity LEDs which flood the clock face insert evenly with illumination, while using less power than the original four incandescent bulbs and creating MUCH less heat.

Plug-and-play system completely replaces your original, heat-damaged opto clock board assembly using current-design opto switches. Several prototypes have been tested by TZ owners, and documented on some previous posts in this thread - check it out.
board_assembly01 (resized).jpg
img06-modded_led_clock_brightness (resized).jpg

$84.95 retail. However, pinsiders get it for $70 shipped. You need to PM me for that deal.

Makes your clock light up completely natural and even, and can be special-ordered in blue, green or red.

Trough sensor at the end of the ball trough. It's not close enough to the parked ball, and thinks that every ball is non-metallic.

Ceramic balls are "fired" like clay products, under intense heat, to cure the material. Then they are ground between two abrasive plates until the size is reached. Then polished under those parallel plates, in a bath of oil.

If there is any impurity in the material, it would burn off during the firing process. Impurities would show up as dark patches or inclusions. The firing process makes the material a pearly-white with no coloring.

Try using a toothbrush with Comet cleanser on the ball - I'd guess it'd take the dark areas right off. I'm pretty sure they boil the ceramic in an acid to clean it.

If you're looking for the brightest light for your clock, "Carpet" lighting:

http://www.casperselectronics.com/cart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=967&search=clock&description=true

For your clock: If you are looking for the brightest, most evenly lighted system available in the US:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4537

Here's the US-made version. Check out the illumination. Lighted like the clock on the backbox art:
white_LED_board (resized).jpg

12 LEDs vs 4 LEDs. The extra lights cover the clock face with even lighting rather than hot spots. Visible difference.

The Ingo board has a number of bells and whistles added, but functionally, they're identical.

Not an inherent problem, but rather a "potential" problem. If it were inherent, every single Twilight Zone clock would have failed early on. IMPO, the problem is created by the excess heat built up from the incandescent bulbs - four of them - that cause the internal temperature to rise above the maximum ratings of the opto switches - which were rated at 85degC (operating temperature) back then. The board temperature would rise above 110degC, and possibly above 150 degrees which explains the scorched PC board behind the bulbs. The board interconnect takes a hit as well because of the heat - the terminals lose connectivity and pick up resistance due to temperature derating, leading to a potential "clock is broken" failure.

Remove the heat by eliminating the filament bulbs and replacing them with LEDs and the problem goes away. The current-day opto switches are more robust than their obsolete predecessors and it would be very rare to see a clock failure using new technology. Any added circuitry really won't improve the odds of having a heat-related component failure since the underlying cause gets addressed with heat reduction.

There are likely hundreds of machines that have not had an error in the last 20 years - probably because the lamps burned out a long time ago.

So, inherent, no. Potential, yes. The LEDs alone provide corrective measures by eliminating damaging heat.

Here is what consistent lighting looks like, more natural and lit evenly. This is lit with 12 white LED's. Looks like a clock should, no hot spots, and matches the clock on the backglass:

white_face01 (resized).jpg

I have a laser cutter that can handle 12 x 18 inches. I'm sure I can do that part. Let me know if you need it done.

Step-by-step instructions to remove your clock board:

http://www.installationinstructions.com/103501.pdf

Or the ojesus clip.

Absolutely lower power consumption with LED's. Consider the GI lighting - look at the connectors that have had years of abuse due to excessive current. That "charring" would be non-existent with LED's in place of incandescent.

I have six pins on one 20 amp circuit with room for at least two more, BECAUSE I had replaced all incandescent bulbs on all the machines with LED's.

In fact, EVERY light in my game room is LED converted. Power consumption is minimal by comparison.

You'll find much less connector-terminal aging, discoloration, and heat-related problems on the latest version of pinball machines. LED's play a significant role in longevity of the recent technology. Simple physics here.

Your 90's pins have already been thru the aging process. LED's slow the further aging in a big way.

Now, if some new technology could produce more efficient magnetic solenoids and coils, that would be mah-vellis. Imagine future pinball machines being powered by a simple wall-wart transformer.....

I own a company that specializes in automotive engine-bay wiring, using OEM spec connectors. We use a huge variety of different connectors, seals and terminals, and miles of automotive wiring on a daily basis. Every connector allowed to be used by the automotive industry has a spec attached to it and every spec has to be considered when designing a particular connector for a particular application. We build around 16,000 wiring harnesses per month of varying complexity.

There is a physical characteristic for ALL connectors that is called a "Temperature De-rating Curve" that especially relates to our pinball machines. The unsealed Molex connectors that are customarily used on our pins are generally, and always have been, at the bottom of the desirability for commercial or industrial use, since the terminal design is simplistic and resistance factors are sort of off the chart.

The de-rating curve is consistent with temperature rise. So, the hotter the connector gets, the less current it is able to conduct, as the resistance in its connection induces heat. They sort of self-destruct as they warm up. Also, the more high-current terminations within a single connector, the higher the heat factor rises, and the higher the heat, the less current they are capable of conducting. A snowball effect that applies to every connector within the machine to some extent.

To put it in perspective, if a typical terminal connection can handle 10 amps at 25 deg.C, it would only handle 8 amps at 80 deg.C, 4 amps at 100deg.C and 2 amps at 140deg.C. Eventually the heat factor makes that terminal connection incapable of carrying any current without meltdown. Factor in that de-rating by the number of high current connections within that same connector, and you see where I'm going with this. Induced temperature along with ambient temperature play into the mix. This is exactly why we see so many connectors melted down, discolored (nylon material is one of the worst, I won't even go into that), and eventually failing.

IMPO, I would always use LED lighting whenever possible, if for no other reason, to preserve the life cycle of the machine and its components.

...Off soapbox now...

Be careful on setting the coil stop too tight. If it has zero play, you will create problems later. As the coil heats up, it expands, creating shear tension on the mounts. Eventually, the mounts crack and fail.

Always allow a slight amount of clearance.

This works perfectly:

ebay.com link: CMS Magnetics N52 Neodymium Magnet 3 4 x 1 16 w 3M Adhesive Package of 10

Those sensor circuit boards use low-rent trimpots which are way too sensitive. A slight movement and they're out of adjustment and the sensor won't trigger. Best thing to do (outside of replacing the circuits with the costly and hard to get auto-adjust boards) is to replace the single-turn trimpot with a ten-turn trimpot. Problem solved.

I guess I never paid much attention to mine. Theatre of Magic is the only machine I've had problems with on those. Thanks for the info. Now I gotta go and look...

Also, keep a grip on that drive pin that links the minute hand. It's a 1 in. long, 1/16 in. diameter pin that is almost impossible to pick up once you drop it. Place a towel on your playfield, and put all the loose parts on it so they won't roll off into never-never-land.

I add synthetic grease to the gears, mostly to reduce the gear clash noise. Nylon gears technically don't require lubricant, but the synthetic "Super Lube" doesn't harden and stays in a somewhat fluid state. Putting it on the fast-moving gears keeps the noise down, and also adding a .030 in. shim washer inside the driven shaft keeps the axial movement down to a minimum, further reducing gear train noise.

Start with a squeaky-clean gear drive and you won't see a whole lot of dirt attraction there.

If you are planning on disassembling your clock, I am looking for TWO volunteers - beta testers - who would be interested in installing and evaluating a new design clock face. Installing this would involve removing the clock hands, hardware, clock face and lens, then replacing the clock face and lens with the beta version.

This clock face assembly is an entirely new product etched onto a mirror, and does not use the conventional decals.

It would require use of your non-stock (LED) clock board with between 4 and 12 LED's lighting the clock face, so you must have already converted your clock to a new-style LED system.

First two forum members who PM me will be on board.

OK, deal is gobbled up. I have the two volunteers and will be getting this thing up and running.

Thanks!

Close-up
j120-121 (resized).jpg

Actually there's quite a bit of fudge factor, since the opto light path is way at the top outside end of the device. If the interrupter hits in the rectangular window, trimming even as much as 1/16" off the end won't affect the location at the interrupter window.

If you use the grease-version of Super Lube, by nature, the shafts will flow with lubricant by "wicking". Applying grease to the gear teeth will quiet the action considerably, with no real downside. Just don't use too much as it would tend to cake up.

Running the gears dry tends to make the clock very noisy. Noise is friction, friction makes wear, so reducing the noise reduces wear.

Since the wear of the gears is nylon on nylon, everything should technically wear evenly - but will still wear out in time.

Yes. The synthetic grease has a low viscosity, so it will climb while it's in motion.

Uh, that's C D O. Keep it alphabetically correct and in order...!

I believe there should be 3 balls in the trough, and 3 in the gumball machine. If you have four in the trough, it will launch two instead of one.

That transformer looks more like a converter, 240 to 120 or 120 to 240v, probably because it has a center tap (unused).

Manual is a photocopy. You can see the outline of the circular punch-hole marks near the binding.

SOUND BOARD INTERNAL FAILURE

Looks like my machine shat the bed. Won't boot properly (comes up four players, no start action, no pinball launch), and this is what I get.

Anyone else have experience with this error? I ran the manual sound test, all is well and every sound is correct. Nothing burnt on the sound card, connectors appear to be good, no cold solder joints.

_1010552 (resized).JPG

It wouldn't boot properly to the "free play". Instead it would start up as four players "00 00 00 00" but no ball trough launch. ALso, the "Testing" screen seemed to take an unusually long time to run.

So I went thru all of the connectors, checked for overheated terminals, and re-seated all socketed chips on the sound board. Overall, it looks pretty good inside the back box. So I performed the factory reset just to be on the safe side.

It now appears to be working (didn't get the sound failure display), but haven't fully tested it yet.

On the main PC board, a couple of the power caps seem to bulge a bit, so I'm going to re-cap the electrolytics for starters. Then I'll look at the ball handling solenoids and see if there is any odd wiring issues.

That's what I have so far. I'll report back once I get off the damn phone and get back to reality....

My variation of that mod:
img1 (resized).jpg
img2 (resized).jpg

The actual scene:
coin-on-edge-penny for your thoughts season 2 1961 (resized).jpg

Actually a metal plate. I matched the original coins and dates as best as I could, used clear epoxy to mount the coins in the same relative position as in the episode. Considered making a complete coin box to clone that image, but no place to put it inside the machine. Hmm...maybe a topper or back box feature?

Ver. 94CH game ROM. I did a factory reset: Whenever I go into the slot machine or piano, it starts Lost In The Zone multiball.

Does the default LITZ setting change that back to normal, or are there other settings that are needed to bring the game back to normal?

Talk about racking up points...can't imagine why you'd want that going. One ball could last all day....

The CH was in the machine when I got it.

Anyone have a binary download for the H code handy? Binary or hex, either way I can burn it.

Thanks!

I want to upgrade/replace my speakers - they sound like they're under water and I believe they're original equipment.

Looking for suggestions based on your experience. What do you recommend?

Troubleshooting the gumball machine. The motor doesn't run during any of the tests, and the error message tells me to check the Geneva switch.

Switch checks OK. Wiring to the motor checks OK. So, after referring to the schematic, I'm leaning toward problems with Q31, Q32 or U3 which relate to the motor drive circuit.

Anyone here ever see an issue with these, relating to the gumball machine motor? I'll probably go ahead and replace all three because it's such a PITA to remove the driver board. Once it's out, I'll probably re-cap the board as the big caps are slightly bulging on the tops.

I have a couple of prototype "mirror" clock faces and also the clear lens for the front of the clock if you are looking for something different. These are cut from an acrylic mirror, where the light illuminates the characters on the face:
tz-clock-lenses (resized).jpg

Here is the Twilight Zone clock face with the standard insert using the blue 12-LED carpet lighting board.

tz face (resized).jpg

Lettered board in place:

mirror_clock_assembly (resized).jpg

A leaky diode within the bridge rectifier can cause that. Also, an electrolytic cap that lost its capacity would be suspect.

When in doubt, replace the bridge recs and filter caps.

NOTE: When you remove the chip, pay attention to the notch on one end of the chip. INSERT THE NEW CHIP IN THE SAME EXACT WAY.

Since the chip is concentric, you can easily put it in backwards, which will result in smoking the chip and permanent damage.

Always note where that notch is, and insert the new chip with the notch on the same side. Normally, the silk screening on the PC board shows the direction of that notch. Also, the socket that the chip is inserted into will have its own notch on one end only. And usually all other socketed chips lie on the PC board in the same direction with notches all on the same ends.

Read the above twice so you understand that doing it wrong will destroy the new chip.

I went with LCD on all of my pins. I like the pixel "smoothing" that goes along with LCD, as compared to LED. And the LCDs run cooler and use less power.

More a matter of preference I guess.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8819

..

I packed my gearbox with synthetic white grease, mainly to silence some of the clatter noise. Technically, the gears don't need lube, but when they wear, they get noisy.

I have a complete door with coin mechs, button switch and harness available if you're looking for one. Has a chunk of the coin return bezel broken off, see images.

door-original (resized).jpg

EDIT Wrong inside pic. Here's the correct inside image:
20200112_101731 (resized).jpg

Those big caps look to be a bit parabolic on the top. Time to replace them all. And the regulator definitely took some heat, possibly drifting from 5V. Bridges look like they've either been replaced or re-flowed.

Removing the large caps requires loads of patience and plenty of solder wick. And, a 100 watt soldering iron minimum. Or a Weller soldering gun as a backup.

You wick the solder out once the pad it fully heated and solder all melted, then you re-solder and do it again. Repeat until you can see daylight thru the plated hole. Wiggle the component until you see movement. Sometimes added heat along with non-stop wiggling will shake it loose.

Painstaking and long winded, but it does work. I've done it dozens and dozens of times over the years.

12 LED clock board that provides "carpet lighting".

This one lights the clock face completely, like the clock seen on the translite:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CLK001P

Check out these two "alternate" TZ clock faces. Made from acrylic mirror material. Falls into the mod category.

tz-alt (resized).jpg

The best thing you can do is solder the two proximity sensor wires to the pins on the prox board. Remove and eliminate those connectors. The failure rate is astronomical.

Marco sells them as well. Carpet lighting with 12 LEDs.
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CLK001P

What do you need to know? I designed it.

board_assembly01 (resized).jpg

The opto design flaw was due to inferior semiconductor materials used on the original 1990s components. Electronics have come a long way since those days. The adaptation of RoHS (non Pb content) has forced semiconductor design to accommodate higher temperatures for normal operation.

Current design opto couplers have overcome the reliability issues. Also, one of the biggest problems with the original clock board was the use of four socketed incandescent lamps mounted parallel to the circuit board; they collectively produced excessive heat which damaged the glass epoxy PC board material and copper traces, and prematurely aged the opto couplers, resulting in electrical failure.

That's all been prevented by the use of LEDs. This design uses 12 LEDs to evenly backlight the clock face, with minimal heat being generated. They have been in operation for years now, with near zero defects. The simple design is efficient, without the use of additional components and poses no issues with setting failure codes.

The 12 LEDs blanket the light across the entire clock face, creating a very well lit clock, much better than the illumination of 4 LEDs - kind of matches the clock on the backbox graphic. Then I produced some variations on the clock face using mirror material, different characters, etc. I don't have a video, but could put one up. The clock face lights up nicely. White LEDs are the standard, but I have done other colors in the past. Blue seems to be a popular alternative.

mirrored-variations (resized).jpg

How would a magnetic reed switch work with the powerball?

Killerrobots: If you want to try a "loaner" clock board with the 12 LEDs, let me know. You're local (I'm in Loveland) and we build that clock circuit in-house.

This is what you need to pack the gearbox
superlube (resized).jpeg

Shameless plug here for the Marco part. I invented it. Hundreds in operation. If you want that clock face to pop, 12 LEDs is the only way. It'll match the translite clock.

It won't work correctly with the OCD board as I understand it, since it wasn't designed around that option. I'm not sure how that board functions, so I haven't tested it.

It was designed to work properly with the factory system.

Reason I did it that way was to fill requests for different color LEDs. Some people want blue, some red, and even a few green. Simple procedure to remove the 3-LED strip and replace it with a different color.

If the LEDs were mounted on the surface, I'd have to keep several versions on the shelf. And, SMT assemblies are generally designed to be done in multiple production, i.e. maybe 200 or 300 boards at a time. Lots of overhead right there.

RGB LEDs are less desirable because the light output is diminished when combining the mix to make a specific color. So individual 5050 LEDs are much more robust, and when you multiply by 12, they produce lots of light.

Not sure what the GIOCD does - I assume it PWMs the LEDs to taper the outputs for both rising and falling illumination. If so, the system just might work with the 12 LED system. Never tried it though.

The clock LEDs are powered by DC so there is no AC source. Polarity is determined by the original design layout. The LED board follows that polarity. The clock lighting is not GI lighting, so I assume the GIOCD won't affect or control the clock lighting.

Again, just guessing on the operation since I have no experience with the GIOCD system. Presuming it controls the intensity and ramping of the general lighting via PWM.