Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Got it. Thanks.
This is troubling. I don't know how to rebuild the guts of the clock to beat the slop. Perhaps no one does. I may try yzfguy's fix, or I may just buy the Pindora board from Ministry of Pinball and wait four weeks for it ship. Perhaps its optos are mounted higher and can work with even drooping minute hands. I could try to modify the minute hand's interrupter nubbin. Maybe dip it in epoxy, then shape it into a longer finger. I don't know. Just another thing to fix on this delicate machine.

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Never to be Repeated!
One-flip Powerfield defeats:
Ball one:
First time on: one flip!
Second time on: one flip!
Third time on: one flip!
Drain.
Ball two:
First time on: one flip!
So, first four trips onto the Powerfield and four single-flip defeats! Imagine!
Maybe some of you veterans do that routinely, but I'm assuming I will never do even two in a row again.

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Impressions of TZ Gameplay From a First-time Owner:
I don't presume that readers here will care too much about one member's opinion, but I wanted to share my impressions of this game, for whatever that's worth.
Layout:
- Interesting, stress-me-out position of the dangerous/active pops low on the PF
- I wish there was a way to shoot the lock shot from the upper left flipper
- I love the smooth Spiral orbits
- I like the magnet "helpers" and am surprised they don't appear in other games. (Elwin uses up-posts for this purpose, perhaps because they add less to the B.O.M. than magnets would.)
- I wish there were more shots from the upper-right flipper. It would be clever if an upper-right-flipper shot to the 5M target just to the left of the Hitchhiker lane would award a double value, given how hard that shot is to time. I also wish a loop from the upper-right to the left Spiral were more geometrically aligned.
- I would also love to see a target nested in the right Spiral ballguide that could be struck by an upper-left-flipper shot through that channel just above the Slot Scoop island. That would be a great, needle-threading shot!
I will tackle the code in another post, but I want to voice the two MOST salient features of this game:
1. Chris Granner is a wonderful musician and his work here is the best I've ever heard in a pinball machine from any manufacturer. He's groovy. He's jazzy. He's so talented! Oh, and you get multiple compositions for the same mode, depending on whether you reach the mode before or after LITZ. (Fast-Lock is a great example.) GREAT sound effects, too! (Tallying Hitchhiker pickups is one heck of a sound!)
2. Much too much time is spent waiting for the ball to emerge from the subway! Too many sinkholes feeding the Slot Machine kickout. I haven't counted, but I would think I wait for and then juggle a ball kicked from that scoop at least fifty times per game. That's too many. The "bucket" diverter from the right ramp shot is another time suck. I had read about "stop-and-go" in TZ before I bought the game, and now I know what they were talking about. It's not a deal breaker, but I do find myself getting impatient waiting for the ball to return to the PF.

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Crooked auto-Fire: can it be fixed?
My auto-fire kicker sends the ball careening up the lane, bouncing off the walls and often running into the post bumper that separates the two lanes, mucking up the ball's trajectory, etc.
I've rebuilt this kicker but that's not its problem. Something is out of alignment although it's not visible to the naked eye. I can't experiment with alternate alignments as the pivot bracket has only one, fixed position, as does the coil bracket. The kicker arm is original, straight, and appears to be fine. The coil and its bracket are also stock and look fine. What is a smart way to sort this? Do I remove the pivot bracket, fill the holes with glue-slathered dowels, and then drill new mounting holes just a few degrees away? I spoke to LTG about this. He said I was asking for trouble by chasing perfection. I don't think asking your TZ to auto-fire straight up the lane reliably is chasing perfection. I would say it's demanding basic functionality, no? It sucks when the game tries to auto-fire the ball but it ends up dribbling back down the right Spiral because it collided with too many things in the lane.

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I would rather find a solution that doesn't require installing a significant "mod" like that. I my book, the game needs to work as designed in stock trim.
After looking carefully at the action of that kicker arm, I realized I had two ways to affect a change on the motion:
The angle of the stud on the pivot bracket; and the Z-bracket that holds the coil.
I took the pivot bracket out and used a vice/crescent wrench to carefully bend the tang that holds the pivot stud. This can correct deflection in any axis if done right. I also put the z-bracket in the vice (sans coil) and put some "wind" in it, thereby moving the coil more squarely beneath the kicker arm.
What I learned from numerous attempts is that a perfectly aligned kicker arm doesn't translate to a perfect auto-fire. There are too many variables at play for me to tell you exactly how to solve this problem, but at the very least I wanted to share with this group that these two "controls" are significant if you want to make the adjustment yourself.
Oh, and I want to make clear that the *last* thing I suggest is to hog out the mounting holes on these parts to move them into more desirable positions. Parts with larger-than-necessary mounting holes never stay put! They will eventually migrate out of position and you will end up stuck in a cycle of returning them to position and retightening their mounting screws. No fun!
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Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

I would wager that the parts that make up the ball-release kicker are all stock. There is certainly a chance that mine were mounted slightly out of position, but I bet you would see that my kicker tip meets the ball in very nearly the same place that yours does if you were to inspect my game. I'm not going to demount the kicker, fill the holes with glue-slathered dowels, drill new holes, and remount the parts. I'm just going to continue scrubbing power from the coil however I can. No one has commented on my mechanical solution involving a limiter, but that's what I will try next.
Thanks for your ideas.

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Because I know very little about electronics and that solution was never mentioned when I brought this up earlier.
It sounds more affordable anyway.
How do I choose the right resistor and where do I wire it in?

Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

It's central.
I replaced the U20 IC chip on the MPU and my switch column has returned.
Big thanks to LTG for supplying me with a replacement chip.
I still need to deal with excessive power of the ball-release coil, but at least I have my switches back. I'm going to try a dual-wind coil like this one. 322 Ohms in the secondary position sounds high enough to give this coil a small fraction of the stock coil's power. I have one in there now that has 69 Ohms of resistance and it's much too powerful. How much power do I lose to the additional 250 Ohms of resistance? What percent? Can it be calculated?
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Quoted from Jason_Jehosaphat:

Wiring a "Load" Coil in Series: Please Help
In my effort to tame my ball-release coil, it was suggested to me by Steve at The Pinball Resource that I wire a second ("load") coil in series with the game's coil to add resistance and thereby figure out how much resistance will be necessary to attenuate the game's coil sufficiently. This information would help me choose a single coil to replace the stock coil. His method is as follows:
1. Desolder the power lead to the game coil.
2. Use a jumper to jump from that hanging lead to the identical lug on the "load" coil.
3. Use a second jumper to jump from the remaining lug on the load coil to the power lug on the game coil.
4. Lay the load coil on a folded rag laid in the bottom of the cabinet where the coin box ordinarily sits.
5. Power up the game and test the kicker strength.
6. Repeat with other donor coils as necessary until the optimum resistance combination is found. (I have a range of coils of various resistances.)
If I'm careful to avoid shorting the power lead to any part of the game other than the load coil, will this wiring scenario keep me out of trouble? Will it accomplish what I hope it will?
Thanks.

Quoted from ray-dude:

I agree 100% (my apologies, did not mean that literally, just to say very low play for a commercial location) Once I find the cabinet key (or my cobalt bit set), I'll have a real number

Quoted from JohnTTwo:

Looks like they are not bend up at all.
So whats the next way to get the shooter rod centered up? [quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from JohnTTwo:

If I put 1/4" of felt on the hooks will the hooks then hit the glass?

Quoted from horseflesh:

Good question! I've not been paying attention to the forum for a little while, but came back to catch up on the TZ thread and post an update.
After some more prototypes in plastic I went ahead and got parts in laser-cut steel from OSH Cut. They were delivered today.
I am actually testing 2 versions... the larger one matches the whole top of the diverter and has a nice factory look. The smaller version also sticks to the top of the diverter but because of its size, you can scoot left and right a little bit without making the outline of the diverter even uglier than it already is.
Why would you adjust the position? I found that how close the one-way gate is to the diverter is the main way you can tune the mechanism. If the gate is too close to the diverter, the ball can bounce back out before the gate falls. When the gate is farther away, it can fall down and trap the ball, but the ball has a larger cage. With more wiggle room, it is possible for the ball not be at rest on the left side of the wireform when the diverter tilts, and get knocked off.
The spacing of the large part is what I determined to work best on my machine, and it works really well... though I already have ideas for improvements! But it was cheap to get the repositionable version made too, so I did for insurance. I guess it is possible that someone else's machine might tolerate a smaller "cage" and enjoy even better reliability.
Here are some flat parts and two with bends added. I got both parts in 20 and 24 gauge brushed stainless--I have never worked in metal before and wasn't sure which thickness would be best. The thicker metal is more like what is in the game, but this part doesn't need to be thick, it doesn't get pounded... the thinner part is less obtrusive, and after comparing how they looked it is what I installed in my game.
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Here's the XL 24 gauge version installed in my game. Looks pretty good, but I am going to make one with the starfield that I showed before, too.
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Quoted from Gavino:

A whole row (or column I can’t remember) of the lamp matrix is always on and flickering...

Quoted from Gavino:

Thanks. Yeah it's definitely row 5. Every light on that row is constantly on and dim, with the Upper Right 5 Million going apeshit. Are the diodes for the door panel lights on the opposite side of the board when viewed from underneath?

Quoted from Spannerhead:

Yeah it’s interesting that there are a decent number of machines with earlier build dates that don’t appear to have the odd gumball sticker. The original TZ brochure has no sticker at all right?
Thanks for looking it over, sounds like you know your stuff.
Another kinda interesting piece is the hand written paper explaining the cost, and it’s different then the standard card as it says 5 games for $2 instead of 6 for $2. Dunno why whoever wrote that would be stingy on the extra game.
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Quoted from Gorgar666:

Got a Pic installed?

Quoted from ParisPinballAdct:

geez, was watching the latest TZ stream of Dalton Pinball on Twitch, and just when i thought i had seen it all and knew it all about Twilight Zone, he pulls a shocker to me:
did you know about the "Triple Hitchhikers award" ?!
you need to combo the left loop then hit the Hitchikers lane/loop and if you do so you are awarded 3x Hitchhikers instead of 1x.
who knew dat?!

Quoted from Smokenmirrors:

Hey all, I’ve got a sample TZ with the third magnet that has a light red clock housing and front lens which needs to be repaired or replaced (the rear screw holes on the housing are stripped and the clock keeps falling onto the playfield). My question is whether the light red housing is factory original — if it is I’ll try to repair it and if not I’ll replace it with a new white housing. Thoughts?

Quoted from Miguel351:

Was it the semi-opaque clear like the original, or was it completely glossy like that red one Zee posted? I've been trying to get my hands on a completely transparent/glossy clear housing for a while now. Seems everybody that makes the clear, makes it semi-opaque like the factory original.

Quoted from GILV:

Can anybody explain the difference between Lexan and Polycarbonate, I would use polycarbonate since it's very easy to cut and drill without shattering/cracking it, plus it's unbreakable, Polycarbonate is what they use to make pinball plastic protectors.
It's so easy to work with that I've always made my own plastic protectors for the last 15 years.
I use a scroll saw to cut polycarbonate, very easy to cut tight round corners with it.....

Quoted from awesome1:

Lexan actually is Polycarbonate.

Quoted from monkfe:

Use elevator bolts when installing radcals...you will thank yourself for it...not just the side panel,back box and front coin door area too (for the smaller bolts like for the light board supports I ground down the carriage bolt heads and recessed the holes with a router).

Quoted from ProjektPat:

The ball keeps getting lost/stuck somewhere under the mini playfield. It bounces up there and never comes out unless I violently shake the machine and tilt and then it’ll spit out. I believe it goes in the same hole as the camera which works perfectly so it must be something keeping it from coming out.

Quoted from atg1469:

...I was let down that the blue florescent failed to provide the pop of color I was really hoping for...