Author Topic: Twilight Zone! (Read 31549 times)

nostrebor · « **Reply #80 on:** May 05, 2005, 11:15:16 am »

Quote from: ChadTower on May 03, 2005, 02:20:41 pm

Pics

ChadTower · « **Reply #81 on:** May 05, 2005, 11:45:01 am »

Yep, likely bringing the Shadow home tomorrow, that's the TZ as it currently stands.

ChadTower · « **Reply #82 on:** May 05, 2005, 07:01:22 pm »

Wow, just tested the Shadow... it works. I was able to play a pretty full game with it, though the LED display is out. That could be as simple as a fuse or burned connector... or the whole LED, but either way, it's pretty damn functional.

ChadTower · « **Reply #83 on:** May 05, 2005, 09:27:28 pm »

I have the first step of corner repair drying now. That lengthwise, right side board that has slightly separated is glued and clamped with a pipe clamp. I have pics but can't load them up right now.

ChadTower · « **Reply #84 on:** May 06, 2005, 10:06:54 pm »

UPDATE:

The Shadow is in my basement now, we played it for a while today but terribly leveled and hard to manage. It seems to work pretty well, one or two parts on the playfield don't work and the LED display is out. Excellent shape, though, pics coming.

Futzed around with the TZ, too. Discovered the balls are NOT missing, they were all in the same hidden playfield trough. I tried to get American Demon to let me pay him for the powerball he so generously sent me, but he wanted none of it. I'll repay him by helping someone else out the same way. I took a look at the trough where we found the balls, and sure enough, the popper in it had a wire broken off. My friend (who was helping me) resoldered that wire and at least the diagnostic message in the self test went away. It still registers with no powerball, but we can get it to acknolwedge all steel balls now. We powered it up, it shot three balls up to the gumball machine but had a hard time popping them into it. So, clearly, there is some work to be done, but it's coming along fairly well. The gluing I did of the right cabinet side took excellently, next up is to chisel out the corner support and try to get that corner fully repaired. I may try to inject some glue into the other front corner as well... if I can find some needles.

ChadTower · « **Reply #85 on:** May 07, 2005, 02:00:55 pm »

Update:

I took all of the gameplay parts out of that corner, and chiseled the broken support out gently. It looks pretty good, came off with only a small amount of force. I did notice that the other corner, with the instability is starting to loosen a bit. I think I will make a better effort to get the hypodermic needle and inject glue into that while I have the whole thing clamped down... may as well make it as strong as can be.

I noticed a huge flaw in my plan, though, as I was sizing up the piece I bought for the new support. The other corner has a triangular support piece because it HAS to be that way in order to fit under the leg bracket. The piece I'm trying to use is roughly the same size but rectangular. Now, I don't have any tool with which I could cut that piece lengthwise with any ease... can triangular pieces be bought, maybe a woodwork specialty shop? Precut? The two saws I have are a hand circular saw and a powered zip saw... doubt a decent lengthwise cut can be made with either, certainly not with my skill.

Any recommendations?

AlanS17 · « **Reply #86 on:** May 07, 2005, 02:26:57 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on April 28, 2005, 10:33:39 am

I've never played an Adams Family... is it that good?

It's the best!

ChadTower · « **Reply #87 on:** May 13, 2005, 09:03:22 am »

Got a suitable corner support cut. It's poplar, so it's pretty damn hard wood. I used a power zip saw and just trimmed small bits off until it was very close to what I needed, then held my powersander upside down and held the support on it to finish the shaping.

ClubNinja · « **Reply #88 on:** May 13, 2005, 11:24:01 pm »

Man, I already can't wait to come back over and stare at those machines. Locating the missing balls in the TZ and fixing that solder point made for quite a nice afternoon. How easily amused we are.

ChadTower · « **Reply #89 on:** May 28, 2005, 11:55:12 am »

UPDATE:

Finally have some time this weekend. Between graduations, birthdays, and the job change, I haven't had time to even look at this stuff.

This morning I just got the new corner support in. Screwed, glued, it looks good. I also filled all of the holes from the leg bracket by putting glue in there and snapping off toothpicks in the holes. A little extra support never hurts. No pics of this part of the process because my wife took the camera with her someplace.

I used white glue so the drying time will be most of today. Tomorrow I'll redrill the holes in that support for the leg bracket bolts, put the inner half of the leg bracket back in, and I should be good to get it back on its legs so that I can lock the playfield up and work on the functional issues.

ChadTower · « **Reply #90 on:** May 30, 2005, 05:07:03 pm »

Pics coming soon, but it is back on its legs now.

ChadTower · « **Reply #91 on:** May 31, 2005, 11:14:43 am »

Up next: repairing the ball trough opto. I found it last night, just have to figure out how to test and repair this sucker.

ChadTower · « **Reply #92 on:** May 31, 2005, 12:22:09 pm »

Woo!

I probably won't do the mod, but this should give me more than enough info to make the repair.

ChadTower · « **Reply #93 on:** May 31, 2005, 09:54:38 pm »

This is without playfield glass or the width rails that hold it in place... but it's back on legs, baby!

ChadTower · « **Reply #94 on:** June 02, 2005, 09:12:21 am »

Okay, I got the trough proximity sensor working (switch 26). It needed adjustment, very common on TZ. Now it detects steel balls but not the powerball. There must be a second detection mechanism in there somewhere that detects any ball and works in combo with the proximity coil to determine if the ball is steel or ceramic. Now to locate that second switch and fix that.

I have also noticed that the ball popper, the coil that pops the balls into the gumball machine, does not work that well. Playing with it manually shows it to be all gummed up. Taking it apart and cleaning or replacing the coil sleeve should bring that back too.

Other than cleaning, that should be the extent of what I have to do to get this sucker back to good standing.

HyperHautian · « **Reply #95 on:** June 02, 2005, 10:08:52 am »

Yeah, Adam's Family is awesome! I remember when our arcade got one.... took me right away from all the other arcade games for quite some time.

I would love to have one also!

KenToad · « **Reply #96 on:** June 02, 2005, 10:13:16 am »

Awesome machine, Chad. I never saw that one in my arcade, but the show was great. It sounds like you've done some good work to get it up on its feet again.

Cheers,
KenToad

ChadTower · « **Reply #97 on:** June 02, 2005, 10:14:55 am »

Quote from: KenToad on June 02, 2005, 10:13:16 am

Awesome machine, Chad.

KenToad · « **Reply #98 on:** June 02, 2005, 10:19:40 am »

Quote from: ChadTower on June 02, 2005, 10:14:55 am

Too bad I actually caused the damage to that corner myself. Eh well, lesson learned the hard way and it is repaired now.

Yeah, I saw that. Don't sweat it. It's making it right again that matters.

Cheers,
KenToad

ChadTower · « **Reply #99 on:** June 10, 2005, 08:44:03 am »

Okay, did a little more last night. Now that the proximity switch is working, I need to get the three trough switches (15, 16, 17 IIRC) working. I went into snigle switch test mode last night, and with balls in the trough, all three were closed. I need to find out if they are supposed to be closed.

ChadTower · « **Reply #100 on:** June 10, 2005, 09:52:10 pm »

Nyerf. So I'm working on the gumball popper... I study carefully how I took it apart so that I can reverse it to put it back together. I take the coil sleeve out, it's clean. I play with all of it away from the machine... good action. Wonder what the problem was, putting it back together the way I found it. Bad action, the plunger keeps being pushed against the rails, wrecking the action. WTF. It just won't go straight... I study the diagram in the book 4-5 times... and realize that the way it was installed was wrong, and THAT was the problem. I put it back in properly, WHAM good action. The person who last serviced this popper put it back together with one of the brackets on backwards. I don't think this coil ever worked well after that service.

Lesson #1 for me: Don't ever assume that the way you found it is the way it's supposed to be.

I'm going to take the related trough out while I'm in it and clean the thing out. It looks like someone wrote in there with black crayon.

ChadTower · « **Reply #101 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:51:42 pm »

YEAH! I was able to play my first test game! I had to be careful, as the glass isn't there, but I was able to get a game going and slap the ball around some without faking switches and such. Awesome!

That ball trough and assembly are back in, smooth action, the trough is transparent now. Good stuff. The more I work on this machine, the farther the end of the tunnel gets, as I see what good work does and how much more I can do.

ChadTower · « **Reply #102 on:** June 13, 2005, 08:52:56 am »

Played a few more test games with the pin badly leveled. Everything seems to function well except the slot machine... kicker works fine, though, and the slot only fails when the ball is hit back into it during gameplay. A little investigation leads me to believe the slot machine microswitch is dead. I'll try to jump it and see if I can get it to register... this is one of the last gameplay items that needs fixing, the rest is all cleanup/refurb stuff. Of course, I don't have much game money to spend at all this summer, so it may stay this way while I move on to cleanup items on this and my other pins (work that doesn't cost anything but time).

ChadTower · « **Reply #103 on:** June 17, 2005, 10:13:17 am »

Took out another metal trough and a second plastic trough and completely cleaned them. It's amazing how much of a difference that is making, these things were FILTHY. I still have one more plastic trough to go, the biggest by far with several switches on it. It will be a bit of a pain but I can get it done this weekend.

Still need to get up more pics.

ChadTower · « **Reply #104 on:** June 20, 2005, 10:17:44 pm »

Cleaned out two bumper coils and replaced the sleeves. Quite a few more to go but I have to wait, don't have any more in stock. I have an order coming in this week that should be enough to cover this machine and 2-3 more.

ChadTower · « **Reply #105 on:** June 22, 2005, 09:56:54 pm »

Cleaned/replaced sleeves on 4 more coils tonight... 6 down, 10 to go.

ChadTower · « **Reply #106 on:** June 24, 2005, 08:59:52 am »

Took apart and cleaned the right main flipper mechanism, replaced the coil sleeve.

ChadTower · « **Reply #107 on:** June 24, 2005, 11:35:19 am »

Note:

Dropping a tiny screw down the inside of a raised playfield sucks balls. They're next to impossible to find, but you have to find it, so it doesn't short something out or get stuck in a moving part.

SirPeale · « **Reply #108 on:** June 26, 2005, 08:19:55 am »

Two words: magnetic screwdriver.

ChadTower · « **Reply #109 on:** June 26, 2005, 10:23:17 am »

I have one... the screws are so many different sizes, and many of them aren't notched, they are hex screws. I'm going to have to learn how to magnetize regular ones, since I'd have to buy about 45 magnetic tools to fit all the various sizes of screws and nuts.

SirPeale · « **Reply #110 on:** June 26, 2005, 09:20:17 pm »

If you have a speaker just slide it against the magnet quite a few times, until it's to your liking.

ChadTower · « **Reply #111 on:** June 27, 2005, 08:49:21 am »

I figured it was something like that, thanks. I'll use the subwoofer magnet in the TZ itself.

ChadTower · « **Reply #112 on:** June 28, 2005, 09:29:47 am »

Last night, disassembled/cleaned/replaced sleeve on the right kicker coil.

ChadTower · « **Reply #113 on:** June 29, 2005, 11:25:35 am »

Two more coil sleeves/cleaned coils last night. I only have an hour or so most of the time to work on this thing... it's getting there!

ChadTower · « **Reply #114 on:** June 29, 2005, 09:51:25 pm »

Two more coils tonight... seems like they never stop, though there's only 16.

ChadTower · « **Reply #115 on:** June 30, 2005, 04:19:39 pm »

I was just googling for info on the different rom revisions and came across this tidbit in an article written by the software's original author, about a home version of the software he wrote:

Quote

Mute and Pause function - Have you ever been in the middle of a great game of pinball, only to have the phone ring? Well, Twilight Zone, now has a feature to allow you to pause your game. Catch the ball on a flipper then tap the Extra Ball button. The flipper will be held, and the game will go silent. To resume play, hold in the flipper button and tap the Extra Ball button again. (The game will resume automatically after 15 minutes.) This function can be disabled by a new adjustment, "MUTE & PAUSE OK."

This pinball machine has a pause.

nipsmg · « **Reply #116 on:** July 01, 2005, 09:13:24 am »

Just like Visual Pinball, but real!

I want one.

ChadTower · « **Reply #117 on:** July 01, 2005, 09:33:49 am »

A bit more research shows the pause to only be in the home version, and the home version is freeplay only. I want to eventually have matching token mechs in all of my machines. So, I may not go with this. I don't like the idea of having a coil energized for minutes at a time anyway.

ChadTower · « **Reply #118 on:** July 05, 2005, 11:11:24 am »

Two more coils rebuilt. The only remaining coils to clean/replace sleeves are the big ones, the main flipper mechs. I'm not going to do a complete rebuild as I don't have the cash for rebuild kits, but I will completely disassemble them and clean everything in them, replace the sleeve. I don't think the parts are worn out enough to really need a full rebuild with replacement parts other than the sleeve.

ChadTower · « **Reply #119 on:** July 05, 2005, 06:36:45 pm »

Just finished up the last two coils... now to lower the playfield and test some stuff out.


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