Birthday wishes do come true. Game is repaired.

Game behaving as it should, not changing stuff today too much on my brithday! Will stay away from boards if at all possible.
Did confirm that the Orbit pin coil is getting fouled by the wires running from the backboard /playfield to the head. Found that some rerouting and tucking them back under the playfield before putting it down stops this. Must remember to check fire the orbit pin from Coil Diags each time I close the playfield.

Only mod today was to add 2 GI Red LEDs, one by Orthanc where it was shining in my eyes- you get the red from the optos there anyway.  I also put one under the ring ramp.

Note: These LEDs have since been removed and replaced with #44 colored bulbs on 26th March.

Another good tip from Steve Marsh is to unscrew the lamp sockets from underneath:

"I think the yellow bulbs along the back and under the ramps, and green bulbs under the slings and along the left side (incl. under the left ramp) really look great. Bulbs are easy to switch by unscrewing the sockets from below. Takes seconds with a power screwdriver, and each socket has a rubber grommet holding the screw to the socket."

I ordered some yellow #44 bulbs today, I have the glass paint to make green ones.

OMG Maybe the worst week for my LOTR LE so far. Worst day was today!

Don't want to admit these even happened, but...
I'm going to push on and document this as it's a game log including all the gory details.  Maybe it will help someone else some day. Won't get "Bored of the Rings" at this rate, just tired.

Playing a game and the diverter in front of the Orthanc tower stuck and wouldn't return.

• Looked under the playfield at flipper mech that Stern used, ugh!  Spring didn't appear able to return the gate to "home". 
• Mechs including links and plunger did not seem to be binding.
•  Took the coil stop out and removed the coil and had a good look. Everything still looked new, so put it back together.
• Got a hex key set and followed instructions to adjust the "Diverter Gate" properly, in the inside front cover of the LOTR manual.
• Also in Service Bulletin #147.  Working correctly again.

I noticed that the orbit pin was never working when playing a game.  Found out later that this is a common problem, and not just from binding.

• Suspected that during the mode "Ents go to War", when you take the Right Orbit shot the ball should land in the back of Orthanc.  Makes sense.
• In fact I couldn't think of a single time that the orbit was stopped by that pin coming up. So I watched it with someone else playing, not happening.
• Next, game on diags coil test and pulsed the orbit pin coil #13, got a very weak result. It seemed to be trying to push the pin up.
• Open backbox, grounded the transistor for that coil (Q13) same weak result.  Put the playfield up and pushed the coil by hand. No problem moved freely.
• Tried to ground the coil, with the playfield up.  The pin extended fully. It would also coil test correctly, but not with the with the playfield down. 
• Had correct voltage on the coil at both sides all the time.  I had continuity from the transistor to the non-power side of the coil on the BLU-GRN wire.




My theory is that the copex (plastic sleeving) containing the playfield wires running from the backbox was fouling the coil action. 

Rearranged those cables and now the pin fires to full height with the playfield down. Game finally happy?  No. It gets worse.

Played a game and the diverter gate was fine, and even the Orbit Pin seemed OK. But had scoring coming from the PoTD when no ball was there.
• On the first ball, it collected 5,000 souls mostly 100 at a time. Gimli said "That's an army!" right away.  Stopped playing and started looking at the PoTD switches.  They seemed OK.
• Vibration? Went to active switch test, PoTD switches seemed OK to me.  Banged on the PoTD, didn't seem to be the source of the fault.
• Realised that when the spinner was closed, all the switches in that ROW were made. Took the spinner switch off the ramp, unplugged below and removed it from the game to test. You have to close a micro-switch to test the diode, or take it off the switch. Diode and switch both tested OK, put it back on the ramp checking for shorts to ground.
• Did some more switch tests, and found the same was true for ANY switch in that column (COL 7).  Including plumb bob tilt. If you closed, say the Left Bumper skirt switch (ROW 1, COL 7) then all the switches in ROW 1 lit up as being made. So that meant all the pop bumpers and the spinner were scoring PoTD hits.  Hmmm... not good.

Here's what to do next:

• Remove CN5 (COL Drive) and CN7 (ROW Return) from the CPU board.
• Power up the game and go into switch test, active switches.  The whole Switch Matrix should show blank.
• Take a jumper cable and put a diode at the end.  The banded side of the diode points to COL Drive so attach that side with the jumper to CN5 pin1.
• Touch the NON-banded side to pins 1-9 of CN7 (ROWs).  You should get an indication of a switch closure for COL 1 at the ROWS 8 to 1 for each pin you touch.
• Fine for me until CN5 pin 8 (COL 7), which I feared.  As I touched each row pin ALL the switches in that ROW were closed.  The problem was on the CPU and not the playfield.

If this test is perfect, then start looking for shorted switches out on the playfield.  Shorts to ground or between COLumns would be likely.

• Next I took a logic probe and connected it to +5v and Ground.  Touching the probe to each of the pins at CN7 you should see "High" (not pin #10 as this is not used).
• Touching the probe to each of the pins at CN5 you should see a pulse.  But my pin 8 (COL 7) was "Low".

*** WARNING *** If I was not 100% sure of the fix and my ability to do it, I would have sent the board to a repair person.  Or back to the Stern Distributor.
Because I was the probable cause of this fault (yes, I'll get to that embarrassment shortly) and being fairly good with board repairs, I went for it. YMMV.

• The fault was looking like Q7 (a 2n3904 according to the manual).  I took the CPU board out of the game and measured continuity between the outside legs (C-E) of Q1 through Q8. Only Q7 was shorted.  Found an exact replacement for the 2n3904 in my spares(!) - Clipped it off the board, desoldered the legs and replaced it.
• After dinner, put the CPU back in the game without connecting CN5 or CN7 and repeated the switch matrix test with a diode and jumper. Tested perfectly.
  Turned it off and replaced the connectors for CN5 and CN7.  Need a complete shake-out game, but the switch matrix is good now. Didn't even loose the settings or high scores.

I figured out what I could have had done.  D'OH!  Looking for a place to test ground the "orbit pin" coil, I picked the worst place.  Connected the jumper to the frame of the plumb bob tilt.

• It looked like a black wire on it. I could try and blame the dodgy wiring colors Stern used for the LOTR LE.  But it was my mistake.
• Grounded 24v DC (or so) through the Switch Matrix!  Looking at a switch wiring diagram later, it went back through CN5 pin 8 and shorted out Q7. Thank goodness it wasn't worse.

Tomorrow is my Birthday, would be cool to be able to play the game at my party with the figures on and most of the mods completed. It's still possible.

Fitted Plastic Figures to my LOTR LE game

The LOTR LE did not come with AOME plastic action figures, the earlier versions of this Stern Pinball game did.  I wanted to add back all the original figures to my game.

Finally went ahead and fitted the figures with a Pinbits LE mounting kit. Very much worth the $15, some of the plastics are not needed on an LE (* means duplicates of the small ones included in the LE "goody bag". As some folks like to leave the goody bag intact, it's a nice touch. I got in my Pinbits set:

• 2 x sling protectors with the holes cut for Sam,Golum,Frodo (right) and Merry,Pippin (left),
• 4 x Clear washers, there are very important as I found out the hard way.
• 5 x small circle mounts (the original plastics if you are using cable ties) #28(S*), #33(G*), #31(F*), #28(M*) and #28(P*).
• 1 x Mount #39 (* Ugluk Uruk-Hai with sword and severed Goblin head). Stands at the back next to Barad-dur tower.
• 1 x Mount #50 Long pointed mount (* Mauhur and Uruk-Hai with Helmet).  Stand along shooter Lane.
• 1 x Mount #36 Mount for Ringwraith. 4 x Cable tie holes for base of figure.  I replaced existing plastic with this one.
• 1 x Mount #?? Clear plastic for mounting Gandalf behind Balrog.  You may need to ask Pinbits for a "Gandalf on Shadowfax" clear plastic if you need that.

On to the fitting, no real problems others have documented with Pictures.  Closest to what I did is in the middle of this slideshow.
Cable tied Saruman, Ringwraith (Dark Rider), Aragorn and the Ugluk Uruk-Hai.  When it came time to fit my Gandalf on horseback, just couldn't find him.  Must have hid him good, so used Gandalf the Grey standing for now. Just like the story, guess he's off fighting the Balrog.  When I'm good enough to defeat the Balrog, Gandalf the White will return on Shadofax and will belong on my game.  Funny how life imitates art.

Two points worth a mention:

1. Left the little swords off the characters on the slings, and Saruman dropped his staff right away.  Waiting for some "4 oz. museum gel" to arrive and don't want to lose the swords. Amazing stuff! One of the brands is called Quake-hold, because collectors use it to hold down glassware in case of an Earthquake.  It holds fast, comes right off when you need it to. Steve Marsh advised me that he is sticking many of his figures down with "Museum putty"- a similar product.  Army of the Dead to the PoTD, and even figures on top of pop bumpers!



2. Didn't put the 4 x washers that came in the pinbits set.  Already put clear plastic defender washers under the sling plastics when the metal ones were removed.  So I didn't need them.  Big mistake!

Half way through the first game after my figures were added, a sling arm stuck out. I thought a coil had "locked on" and switched the game off.  Looking underneath, I could feel it was binding.
But it took a while to understand that the feet of the figures were pushing down on the sling plastic.  The sling kicker was binding on the screened plastics! ARRRGH!  Fitted the 4 x washers between the sling plastics and pinbits mounts.  Didn't crank the nuts down as tight as before.  But now I have some lovely "lines" on my screened plastics where the kickers rubbed.  Not getting new LE slings in a hurry, so  will have to live with it.

What I like about the figures.
They really help tell the story, especially the Ringwraith was missing from his platform.  What was the point of the flashing Red light without a figure there? I also like Aragorn charging at the Uruk-Hai warriors,
and the funny shaped plastic on the shooter lane that makes sense next to the horse's leg.  There probably are other points of interest, but overall it ties the game together.
Haven't fit any figures that weren't factory (yet).  But there is a Ringwraith standing in my spares, he might look good somewhere... :o))

Sword Ball Lock changes

Found that the balls were falling off the "original" sword lock too much in play, especially the first ball locked. (After that they seem to settle in behind the 1st one).

Found a solution that keeps the look of the sword, without putting the "hooded ball lock guide" back on again.  The solution is to use another "original ball lock" (buy for $7 from Pinball Life below, or make one very similar if you are handy with metalwork.

It goes on the other side and further down the sword.  One of the holes is held in place by the metal habitrail, the other side by double sided 3M tape along the bottom.  I couldn't bear to drill though my sword to locate it like the one on the other side.

My mantra is that any mod needs to be able to be removed by a new owner if they want to put the game back to original. Here is a picture, this change looks cleaner from the player's viewpoint.

Note: *This was updated later, first the extra guide was moved up the sword, and then removed on April 5th.  Two guides slows the balls down and isn't needed if the game and lock is set up correctly.

Ring Magnet Fuse Answer from Stern

Ring Magnet fuse value discussed in #4, #5 and #8

Got the following answer from Stern today, 5A SB is good to leave in F7 on my LOTR LE:

Hello Richard,
I was just informed by our engineers that fuse # 7 should be changed from a 4A Slo-Blo to a 5A Slo-Blo.
Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Regards,Pat

Fitted the Cliffy Protector Set today

Started to take off the mirror and plastics behind Barad-dur tower on the right, until it became clear to me that the hole protector was for the long Orthanc tower hole.  D'OH !

Corrected my post above for 4th March which talked about Barad-dur.  Not too hard to fit, spent more time putting the plastics and mirror back on that I took off by accident.

Fitted the other one for the "Gilmi" VUK, needed to take off two posts behind the Palantir.  Uses some 3M adhesive between the front lip and the playfield.  They fit well, and I hardly notice them.