Hello everyone! I just bought my first pinball machine ever and it was the WPT to match the theme of my Man Cave. I love it so far...and haven't even tapped into deep gameplay, etc. I'm working my way through the 19 page thread here. I'll need to catch up on the terminology, etc (like mirror blades?). I'm impressed by those that installed side mirrors! I'm contemplating converting mine to LED. I've never worked on a machine before but it doesn't seem that hard to swap out bulbs and do minor things like upgrade the game code, etc.

I have a couple of bulbs to replace... In looking at photos, it seems like some owners change the bulb colors and don't always sub white for white? I bought a few blue LED's to replace the back wall lights just to see what it does. I see that LED kits vary from $130 to $230. Which site would you buy from?

One thing that bugs me about the machine, albeit minor. is the piece of plexiglass that separates the levels (the playfield from the elevated playfield). It's hazy and it looks like it needs to be cleaned. However, I think it's just scratched up from balls rolling over it. It bothers my eyes a bit when playing but I'm getting used it. I might want to replace it with a new one some day.

Is the chrome trim around the backbox. Is that replaceable or at least removable?

I've read all 19 pages finally. Wow...a lot of information there and it looks like I have about $700 of mods to do.

One thing I can't understand is why the DMD board is orange dots instead of red. The color DMD board is awesome though since I'm going to have this pin for a long long time.

I love the translite on page 15 the best...but that one isn't for sale anywhere. At least there are a few options on ebay right now.

I can't decide if I should got LED or not. And is a OCD board required or recommended?

I'm not completely against the stock translight...so I will definitely do as you suggest. It's not great, but there's something to be said for the hosts of the show to be on the translight since you hear them so much in the game.

My wife was standing off to the side last night and noticed my Q of spades drop targets doesn't come up during play. The machine tries to put it in the up position at the beginning of the game by thumping (pushing from the bottom) 3 times during game start but it never stays. I'll be taking the target assembly off and trying to clean it and or applying the Stern #165 service bulletin. My first pin repair but I'm a mechanical engineer so I think I can handle it.

I'm ready to upgrade to a color DMD. The screen needs to show red and black cards, not orange. I've read through the LED vs LCD debate. I'm thinking LED with a filter is the way to go but I don't see any specific reference to LED vs LCD on the WPT. I'm thinking that Reds need an LED. I won't have anything side by side to compare it to. What are your thoughts on LED or LCD for this machine?

Can someone take a photo of the "top left orbit gate"? It's been noted to remove it several times here but I am curious exactly which piece it is. It looks to me like there area a couple of orbit gates on the top left and I'm not sure what exactly I'm trying to improve here. It was also noted to combine this removal with turning off the flop/turn posts in the settings to improve flow....which might or might not be Feature Adjustment #35.

I see it. Thanks!

Interesting. So I don't need to do anything mechanical to the targets...I need to just buy an opto board and replace it? Now I need to find a part number/part.

Updated. Looks like 520-5252-04 Wow. $120 ! Welcome to the wonderful world of pinball ownership!

Does anyone recommend this one vs OEM?
ebay.com link: itm

This is all new to me. I'm not even sure what an opto is yet except it's short for optics. I'm a mechanical engineer so I can figure it out I guess. I'm not sure I've been successful at soldering on PCBs and troubleshooting circuitry but I'll see what I can do first before buying a new component. Any links that you have on troubleshooting and opto board is appreciated. I'll do the search too.

I guess I might have more problems than I thought I had. Hopefully this is the correct place to troubleshoot?

Issue #1: Qc is down when the machine starts and the light is lit bright. The Pin tries 3 times to push it up but it never stays up. From what you said, broke target (mechanical issue)

Issue #2 (new): Qh and Qs are both up when the game starts and seem to function normally when hit. However, they are lit (lightly) when the game starts. Those two optos on the board are bad? (Electronic issue) It looks like my machine has 2 opto boards on that side and both could be affected.

Correct?
IMG_3915 (resized).JPGIMG_3916 (resized).JPG

It looks like I have some homework to do. Thank you all...I'll get back to you when I've had time to disassemble and check things out.

Hey everyone...I think have something figured out and I want to run it by you to see if my logic is sound.

The Qc is down and won't come back up. We know that's a mechanical issue. After playing a few games and watching close, I realized that the other two Queens are flashing lightly from the start because the Qc target is down. The game is telling me that I need to hit either of the two Queens to make a pair. Once I fix the mechanical issue with the Qc, the issue of the other two flashing should go away because once I make better hand than QQ during gameplay, the Queens quit flashing as normal. I'm in luck, I don't think its an opto issue at all, just that one Qc being stuck.

I took the drop target assembly off and applied the service bulletin 165 of adding washers. I used 0.04" instead of the recommended 1/16". The drop target assembly works perfect now...no issues...it stands up when it's supposed to and falls when it should also. Success! Thank you all! My first successful fix.

One thing I'm not happy about is the official Stern drop target assembly diagram 500-7029-04 is flawed. A couple of the parts are shown to be assembled in the wrong orientation. That's really frustrating but luckily was able to figure it out from trial and error and looking at one of the fully assembled drop target assemblies. That and I learned that gravity is not your friend when working on pins. There is still a screw that dropped and hung under the playfield that I still can't find.... I need to be more careful next time.

I also polished the upper playfield plexiglass with Novus 2. Although it didn't take out the deeper scratches, it did take out the dirt and light scratches which removed about 85+% of the haze. It looks much better and I can deal with it now that I can see the ball on the main playfield without the haze. Much appreciated for the tip!

I'm really amazed how much black leather T-molding around the backbox changes the entire WPT pin's appearance. All of a sudden, the stock translite looks nice and the colors pop more. That chrome T-molding was really taking away from overall looks of the machine.

Up next is a color DMD install

Wow... $150? That's amazing but it sounds like there were a lot things to fix. Amazing deal though. Mine also had the old code. I updated to the new code and the original owner was missing out because the latest code is so much better....More usage of the lights, more options and the elimination of some bugs that I noticed. I find the game rather difficult which is good....but it is my first pin too. I think I'll be playing this machine for a long long time regularly while my 60 in 1 Galaga game is used only when friends/family come over to visit.

Is there anywhere that actually describes the difference between the different skill level settings in the WPT pin? I have mine set to Easy and I've noticed that if you have a bad first couple of balls, the pin goes into an almost "I feel sorry for you, Multiball Mode". I assume that's corrected in a harder skill level setting but it is nice for a child or inexperienced person playing it. It would be nice to see the skill levels broken down side by side.

Thank you so much for that. I have the manual saved but it has a ton of information in it and I guess I was looking for a chart more than text. I'll review it for sure.

Completely agree. I've had the game for a few months now and I still achieve modes and levels that I've never seen before and I'm not sure how I've activated them. With the open playfield and challenging game structure, I still can't understand why this pin doesn't get more credit. I guess there a lot of people that aren't poker fans.

RIP Mike Sexton. It's nice that his voice is still around in the house through the pin.

Hey everyone, I tried to play my WPT pin today and Vince didn't go through the Welcome speech. Pressing the start button didn't start the game and it appears that it is wanting quarters instead of being on Freeplay.

There are no errors but I went through the settings and it appears that all of my settings have been reset...including Free Play, all of my High Scores are gone, the welcome message, everything. Is there an onboard battery that went dead and how do you replace it?

Thanks....So it appears to be as easy as this?

I changed the battery...we'll see if that fixes it. Interesting that my center drop targets had the 7 of spades that wouldn't drop so I had to perform the ole' Service bulletin #165 again (this was a different target than a few years ago). it's interesting how over time the target sticks after working for so many years.