And furthermore...why does pinbits say "based on Eli's" blah blah.... how is it their light boards don't require the huge heatsinks and brackets that Eli's did? Are they substantially dimmer or what?

I think the old heatsinks were overkill, but Eli did mention that the production ones might be slightly dimmer. I'll see if I can find it in my email.

I'm sure its a miscommunication. Perhaps pinbits got some in and didn't notify Eli. Those that were hitting refresh on the webpage for weeks finally grabbed one. We all knew that pinbits was selling them, but they were waiting on supply. I'm sure more are coming very soon.

I'm okay with overkill... I'm not okay with spending 400$ for something that doesn't have the same visual impact... mods of mods incoming, I guess...

I haven't had any luck finding the comment that I seem to remember, but I would be really surprised if there's any noticeable difference.

Don't let it get you down.. they're just fiber optic lights fellas.

Hm..interesting. That's a pretty bad failure rate, especially if they were croaking with those huge heatsinks.

Hm..interesting. That's a pretty bad failure rate, especially if they were croaking with those huge heatsinks.

I'm not sure what type of failure Eli was seeing, but on my beta kit, one of the domes/lenses that are on the LEDs popped off during installation. Obviously, this had nothing to do with the heatsink. I was able to glue it back in place, but it would be a huge headache for "production" units.

The production units do not look like they're inferior in any way.

I know we're all a little testy now and undoubtedly busy, but is there any ETA or estimated build rate on these bad boys now that they are 'in production'?

I know you'll be hesitant to offer anything in public because pinside will crucify you later when/if something changes but I thought I'd ask anyway hehe

oh and for everyone upset about the ebay auction - real easy solution. DO NOT BUY IT

IMHO, anyone that buys it is a fool. Is this really the kind of thing that you need so urgently that it's worth paying an extra $400?

As long as EBay guy doesn't find a buyer that doesn't know better. I've done my part to educate potential buyers.

1) Please don't gang up on Eli for this. It was our mistake to put up a couple of units on the page. Never expected to see one go to eBay.

2) It isn't practical for us to maintain a pre-order list, nor will we take money ahead of availability.

3) That said, we'll work with Eli to get notice to people with PMs on file. We do have parts for a good bunch of kits in hand, but there's programming, assembly, testing, packaging to do. That takes time. There will be a batch this weekend.

4) We worked with Eli on making the kit more manufacturable, and for a super clean installation. The new LEDs are very similar to the ones that Stern used, and they are plenty bright enough.

Cool, thanks Pam. After the explanations it makes sense and is understandable. All this anticipation makes us a bit mental sometimes.

The first productions were offered to the front of the line people with exclusive links. None were sold on pinbits publicly. That included me, who turned down the opportunity to beta-test in favor of being in the front of the line for the production units. Mine is installed and is plenty bright. In time, more will be released, so calm down and just be a little more patient. You have waited a year, will another few weeks kill you? Probably not.

Speaking as someone who was lucky enough to get one of the prototypes from Eli with the "smaller" light engines I can tell you it doesn't diminish the visual impact one bit. They look awesome. You won't be disappointed & they're so much easier to install.

Just be careful when trimming the fiber optics. Razor blades are sharp.

Interesting. What sketch are you using for the new kits? Tron_Ramps_r2g (latest from the dev kits) or something different for these kits?

I would guess the software has to be different than what we're using. Eli was already working on the drag-drop thing back in June. Requiring production boards to be programmed using the Arduino IDE would be a nightmare to support.

I can attest their kit made installation much simpler than what I saw out there before. Plenty bright enough. The two units can be put directly underneath the playfield making brackets unnecessary.

Please everyone be patient Eli and Pinbits will get them rolling out soon. I know it has been a long journey but we are at the tail end and they are just trying to make sure that everything is the best it can be.

So would it be wise to say to subscribe to an update via Pinbits to get an email when the kits go from "sold out" to "in stock"?

I am new to this thread and this mod looks fantastic.

Please put me on list if this is still possible. I will buy this in a heartbeat the second it is available

Hey Eli, My question would be . If the beta kits LEDs go bad how do we replace them or is there even a replacement. I love the high intensity brightness but now Im worried if they ever go out. ( No problems but kinda got me nervous with that comment)

Would it be possible to produce more than a handful of kits at a time? If Eli has an unofficial list, it would at least give a rough idea of the number of those interested. I wouldn't assume all of those would be a final sale, but maybe produce 50% of that list so that we all have a fighting chance of getting one in a reasonable time frame.

I want to thank Eli and everyone else involved in making this happen. There seems to be many many people wanting and waiting for this awesome kit to become available. I do hope I am still on "the list" somewhere but I will wait patiently until the lucky day arrives and I am able to purchase it. Thanks again Eli. You rock dude!

Harnesses, ugh! I wish I could point you to someone, but I ended up making all of mine by hand as well. The closest I came to finding someone was through Bill Ung, but I think they would have still been building them by hand; it just wouldn't have been me building them. You might also try talking to Terry at PBL. He contacted a company in Chicago on my behalf, but they chose to no-quote the job.

A++++++++++++ my friend, I really dont think I could feel the same about my game without your kit .

Allen

I have seen one of these 15 kits from pinbits installed and played it a ton. it's amazing!! It makes the machine a piece of art, just watching the light show is soothing and stimulating. I will say that no harness is necessary. The units can be mounted directly to the bottom of the Playfield, all the hardware is provided in the kit. Pinbits included quite a bit in the kit. In comparing the pinbits model from Eli with the pre-production test models, it's much more compact and elegant in design and thus easier to mount, there are actually options on where to mount the units. The pinbit's unit look a lot like the finished models under the LE's.

This is the best pinball mod I have ever seen by far!! THANK YOU ELI!!

Eli was referring to the electrical wiring harnesses.

if I can wait almost 3 years for my WoZ, another month or two for this kit ain't nuthin'!

Sounds amazing and I'm waiting patiently for that "sold out" to disappear!
Thanks for all involved in making this available!

D

Ahhhh okay, that makes more sense.

Here's some evidence that things are moving along. The boards are all programmed and play tested. There's also a (small) pile of harnesses, and about 1/2 a mile of uncut fiber. Each kit takes about an hour to complete assembly, test and pack.

i-fJpTQDf-XL.jpg

Payment ready to be sent! Hope I can get it soon

No need to test mine, just send it out! I really love TRON, like really love it! Will that help me jump the line over everyone?

If you think about it, this mod is actually a lot like a lamp.

So i'm confused. Is Pinbits going to be the reseller to buy these from? Or will Eli sell them directly?

Pinbits is the supplier. We worked with Eli to bring the kit to production. Once we get some inventory, it will show on the web site. There are no preorders, but we do have a crude priority system in place and we are shipping.

How do you get your name put on this "priority system"??

just indicate in this thread that you want on the list from what we've seen they will then let you know in the order that you got on the list when they have inventory available (ask me how I know )

The wait is almost as painful as the anticipation has been sweet.. so excited !

I was posting on page FOUR of this thread, Don...where were you posting? Just saying...

I PM'd Eli himself four months ago, is that the same as being on the list? Or do you have to PM PAM??

I'm on page 10 also ten months ago (not so good as page 4). However i can wait. Good to hear pinbits is selling the kit. I need to order some other stuff. It will save me some shipping costs

I just know that they've been sending out notices to those on the list when they have a few available. That's just from reading the last few pages recently.

I think I asked to be put on the list on page five, maybe six. Frax, are you hoping for a kit still, I thought you had sold your Tron and werent' interested in getting another as it is too easy to get to Portal?

I did sell Tron, I'm interested in getting one back, and yes, selling it because it was too easy was part of it. The other part was becuase I'd pretty much lost any faith that these kits were going to be available for real. Considering I sold my Tron 6 months ago and still don't have a kit in hand, I can't really say I made a bad decision necessarily. I made bad decisions about what to replace it with. But I've been playing Tron in the arcade again, and it's not the same as playing it at home. It's not nearly as enjoyable frankly. And my kid really REALLY wants it back. We're going to have four pins. My wife has STTNG. I have Future Spa. My older kid wants Jack-Bot (And so do I for that matter), and the little one wants Tron back.

Sounds fair to me.

Can we not get a list posted here that shows where everybody is on the list? I think it would really answer alot of questions.

More than fair for sure.

Buying Tron for the youngest puts you firmly in Dad of the Year position

Sorry guys! I already hold the Dad of the year position this year (Tron is in route to me)
Better luck next year