Twilight
Zone Pinball Machine

Page 2 of Twilight Zone
(including robot
mod) is here.
Restoration
Stripping and cleaning this machine was no more work than the previous
WPC machines that I have refurbished. My tip to you is to pay
attention to the dissassembly sequence of the top right portion of the
playfield. Make a note of the order of the components
removed, so
that they can be reassembled in the reverse order. The
layering
of the parts will require this method of reassembly.

Playfield stripped of all parts. Most of the parts under the
playfield
were also removed and cleaned or replaced as needed.

Completely reassembled playfield. I made protectors for all
of the
plastic that can be hit by a fast ball.

I bought this authentic gumball machine at a local thrift store for
$18.
It is made of glass and metal, and looks very similar to the one on the
translite.
Repainting the cab
Although the head had no
fading, the
cab did. Since I do not have the equipment, experience, nor
the
space to properly redecal the cabinet of the machine I decided to
repaint it with opaque and translucent paints.

Before and after pictures of the cab.
The result turned out
very
well. Two aspects that interestingly do not show up in the
above
picture is that the red area of the sunset is gradual from dark red to
orange. This was done with blending using two colors of
paints. The second aspect is that when viewed close-up, you
can
see some streaking in the dark paint due to brush strokes.
This
kind of restoration technique is not for the purists, but I would
rather have well adhering factory decals than risk having wrinkly ones.
Mods
Pop Bumper Light
One of the difficult
part of
rebuilding the pop bumper is how to handle the leads of the light
inside the pop bumper. They are originally stapled down to
the
underside and then soldered to their connections.
Refurbishing
them means finding a means to get a staple gun and soldering iron deep
into a forest of wires and mechanism bodies. Examples of how difficult this can be is discussed
here.
I came up with an alternate method that simultaneously fastens the lead
to the underside, and connects to them electrically. The
method
is very simple, and is illustrated in the photo below.

Detail of how the popbumper light is attached.
The connection is simply
crimped or
soldered onto a lug, and then the lug is screwed down with a
self-tapping screw and washer. Then, the lead of the pop
bumper
is slide under the washer, and the screw is tightened with a long
socket driver.
Clock Lighting
A common problem is that the clock overheats due to the four #86 bulbs
in it. These consume about 200mA each. I changed them to
#84
bulbs, which consume only 40mA.

A normal #86 bulb is in the bottom left,
while a lower power #84 is in the top left.
The result is that the
clock is not
as bright, but it is quite bright enough. At some point in
the
future, I will also try LEDs.
Third Magnet
A common mod is to add a
third
ball-holding magnet to the playfield. The first work to be
done
is to drill the ball guides to accept an optical sensor.

Ball guides drilled for the third magnet. The optical beam is
right
over the third inner spiral band. Compare to
this
page.
Once the ball guides
were drilled,
the next step was to add the opto sensors. I received a
partial
kit as a generous gift from Martin, and had to modify them slightly
because the height of the ball guide holes were not quite right.

The opto sensors installed. The receiver is at the top, the
emitter at the bottom.
In Martin's
instructions,
he recommends putting the two emitter LEDs in series by using a
harness. I decided to simply solder them together as shown
above. The new opto switch appears as #82, which is called
"Unused" in the DMD display during switch test.
Next was the most
difficult part:
drilling the playfield for the magnet pole. First, some
numbers:
The width between the metal ball guides is just under 1 5/8".
The
diameter of the ball is 1 1/16". This means that at most the ball needs
to be moved laterally (to center it over the magnet) about
1/4".
So if the pole were only 1/2" wide, it should still allow the ball to
touch its edges even if it were hugging a ball guide.
One small problem to solve was the magnet pole and bracket. These are
$40 as a set, and my initial impression was that they were not
available. After a conversation with Martin, I hit upon the
idea
of simply using a bolt threaded into the playfield. This
would
perhaps allow the use of a smaller bolt than the 3/4" size of the
conventional magnet pole. If successful, it means I would be able to
put a smaller hole in the playfield.
I set up a small test jig to find out what size bolt was the smallest I
could use. This jig is shown below, and shows the two ball
metal
ball guides, various holes for bolts that I tested, and an opto that is
wired to appear on the switch matrix as the left spiral opto.
Not
shown is the magnet under the plywood plank being held by the bolt
under test.

Bolt size test jig. In 'Magnet Test', the ball is grabbed
when
the opto beam is broken.
In the test menu, I
set up for
'Magnet Test'. I could then fire the ball down the guides,
and
see if it grabs the ball properly when the opto beam is interrupted.
My first test was to use a 1/2" bolt that did not break the top surface
of the wood. I was hoping that it would be possible to leave
about 1/10" of the surface wood and playfield paint so that the new
magnet would be invisible. This addresses everyone's fear of
drilling straight through the playfield. Tests showed that
this
idea, although appropriate for the mini-playfield, is not effective
enough to catch a fast ball.
I then tried various sizes of bolts, and found that at a minimum, a
3/8" bolt was needed to catch the ball. That is the bolt that
is
embedded in the test jig in the photo above (the duct tape is covering
other test holes). For operational margin, I decided to use a
1/2" bolt in the playfield. Specifically, it is a 1/2" x 1
1/2"
hex head bolt.

Drilling the playfield. Unfortunately, the hole is out of
focus,
but the edges of
the hole are very clean. None of the tear outs I was fearing.
I used a brand new 7/16"
spade bit
with very sharp tines on the outside edges to drill the
playfield. One complication was that I had mylared the entire
top
of the playfield, and I did not want to have tears along the hole
edge. This is why I felt a sharp spade bit was the right
solution. Indeed, by going very slowly with the first touch
of
the outer tines, I was able to make a very clean and sharp
hole.
Unfortunately, due to the depth of the above image, the foreground is
in focus, and the subject drill hole is somewhat out of focus.
I then used my 'Dremel' tool with a miniature drum sanding bit to
gently open the hole up towards 1/2". I tapered the hole a
bit so
that the top (near the playfield paint) is slightly smaller.
I
had previously ground down the 1/2" bolt completely flat, with a slight
bevel. This allowed the slight taper at the end of the hole,
so
the hole at the playfield surface is 7/16".
The magnet was mounted with the bolt, and I had to tighten down the
last few turns with a ratchet. This ensures the right balance
between secure mounting and no splitting of the playfield
wood.
Note the large fender washer at the bottom of the magnet. If
I
recall my E-M fields class, its use causes the magnetic field lines to
pass inside the steel fender washer to conduct around the end pole, and
'focuses' the field lines to the top, towards the ball.
The bolt was tightened until its ground-down end was flush with the
playfield.

New magnet mounted with the bolt (left). This latter element
thus
serves double duty as the magnet pole and the mounting bolt.

Finished installation. Note the painted black ring around the
pole.
This is meant to match the artwork on the existing poles.
One thing I have noticed
with the
third magnet installation of others is the missing black ring around
the new magnet. I decided to use some acrylic to touch up
that
area and add that ring. Note that the entire top half of the
playfield is mylared, so I was simply adding paint on top of the
mylar. I then covered the spiral with another small patch to
protect the touch up.
Lastly, I used a spare ROM to program
version
9.4H
of the game code
into the CPU board. This fully utilizes the added hardware.
Thanks to Martin for his
opto
parts. I only had to purchase the
magnet and some bolts for $30 total.
Apron cards

I printed a set made by
Vinito.
They look like they really belong there.
'Lost' Spiral Plastic
There is a yellow
colored light at
the left entrance of the Spiral loop that appears to have no
function. It turns out that there was a plastic at that
location
that was removed from the production version. This can be
seen
here.

Note the yellow light at the left entrance of the Spiral
Loop.
It does not appear to have a purpose.
The set of three
plastics that John
Estill sent me (at no charge I might add) included this lost
plastic. I made a small bracket to mount it near the loop
entrance.

I made a bracket and mounted the plastic above the entrance.
The
yellow lamp is mounted to the top right hole and lights up the words
when it is on.
Blinking lights in the backbox
There are supposed to be
two types of
bulbs in the backbox (behind the translite). One is a regular
#555 wedge style bulb, and the other a blinking #545 (using a bimetalic
switch). These latter type are mounted in a black bulb holder
instead of the white. However, bulbs of these kind are almost
impossible to find and can be
very
expensive. I decided to change these holders to a
bayonet
style so that I could use #455 bulbs.

The back of the original lamp socket for the blinking #555 bulb.
The light panel is only 1/2" thick, so low profile bayonet bulb holders
are needed for this mod. I decided to fasten them with a
single
self-tapping screw instead of a staple. I bought these
sockets at
the Allentown '08 show, so I do not have a part number.
New lamp socket for the
self-blinking
#455
bulb.

The two bulbs side-by-side. Left:non-blinking, right:blinking.
After the translite was
reinstalled I
realized that the location of the six blinkers is not totally random,
but the following elements are highlighted by a blinking light:
- Faceless mannequin
- Gumball machine
- Pyramid
- Small Invader Robot
- Slot machine
- Dummy in case
The end effect is so good, I may add it to my other machines.
Total time was about 30 minutes.
Dressing up the gumball machine
A very common mod is to
light up the
gumball machine. I received the kit as a gift from
Martin. It
includes a small
circuit board that goes into the top of the gumball
dispenser.
The excellent installation instructions are
here.

The lit gumball machine after installation. It is normally
lit by
white LEDs, and flashes red when it is ready to be loaded by the player.
In addition to the lighting, I put in a small quantity of glass
irridescent beads to represent gumballs. This was the biggest
hassle of the installation because I had to remove the dispenser and
open the clear dome halves. I was not able to squeeze them in
from the top.
Although it looks very bright in the above image, from the player's
perspective it is a nice balance of brightness that dresses up a dark
corner of the playfield.
Reassembling the TZ clock
gears
After reassembling the
clock a few
times, I realized that the alignment of the big black hour hand gear to
the rest of the clock is important. If that is not aligned
properly, the clock will not show perfect "noon" after the power-up
homing operation. In addition to the cosmetic aspect, this
misalignment may affect the sequencing of the optos as the clock moves,
which may confuse the CPU. A
reader
on RGP (BP) suspected that was his problem, so he asked me to
figure out how the gears should be aligned.
This is how to register the big black gear:
- On the front face, there is a tiny hole in the drive shaft
of the
minute hand (under
the hand). With all the white gears in place, and the big
black
gear out, rotate the minute hand shaft until that tiny hole points to
12 o'clock. See the second picture below.
- Look at the back of the big black hour hand gear.
Locate
the line that is on the back of the disk and that is highlighted with a
red arrow in the image below.
- Locate the drive gear of the hour hand. This is
near 7
o'clock position. It is the gear that actually engages with
the
black hour gear.
- Slide the hour hand gear over the minute hand shaft, and
engage
the teeth of the gears such that the line is over the drive shaft of
the drive gear as shown below. The view in this photo is from
the
9 o'clock position.
- Before reassembling everything, place the hour and minute
hand
onto their shafts to check alignment.
- If it looks good, remove the hands, and reassemble the
clock.

Note the location of the index mark (red arrow) with respect to the
hour hand drive gear. This is viewed from the 9 o'clock position.

Start with the hole in the minute hand gear pointing to noon.
The
shadow
of the hole can be seen on the white background.
This viewed from the 12 o'clock position.
I also took this opportunity to very lightly lube the white gears in
the clock with plastic compatible Teflon lube. I put a small
dab
on each engagment point between two gears. Initially, it did
not seem to make a difference, but I could tell half way my first game
that it was quieting down. The clock now runs so smooth, I
think
this is a very important mod to make. Thanks to Ben Patrick
for
sending me a small amount of this lube.
Auto Ball Launcher mis-fire
A common problem with this machine is the operation of the auto ball
launcher. On my machine, the problem is that about one third
the
time, the ball (once
launched) will rattle near the ball gate area, and lose all its
velocity. It then makes it onto the playfield, but dribbles
out
of the right end of the spiral loop.
I had done some fixes in the past, and then posted for
help
on RGP. This gave me some ideas to take another
look.
After some tests, I found the main reason the ball was hanging up on my
machine.

When the ball launch fails, the ball bangs into the area in the blue
circle. I had previously removed the rubber ring from the
post.
By putting my hand on
the ball guide
circled above, I could tell that failed ball launches was associated
with the ball banging into that area. I had previously
removed
the small rubber ring on that post, and that improved things a
bit. In my opinion, the angled ball gate below this post
tends to
deflect the ball to the right, and into the post. When I
opened
the ball gate manually, things improved dramatically. I
needed to
find a way to get the ball to run up the ball lane on the left side, so
that some deflection would not cause the ball to bang into the
post. This is consistent with my results in the past as
leaning
the machine slightly to the left produced better launches.
Another issue suggested by responders to my post on RGP was to make
sure the ball launch bracket is not sloppy. I found that the
major source of looseness was the connection from the angle bracket to
the plunger.
The solution for both of these was to add washers on the left hand side
of the bracket. This causes the launch bracket to hug the
plunger
linkage, and to turn to the
left slightly, and greatly reduces the slop of the mechanism.

Mod to reduce slop in the kicker, and to rotate
the launcher slightly to the left. This consists of
two washers shown with the arrow.
After this mod, I was
able to have a
successful test of 30 consecutive successful ball launches.
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