LOTR dmd update!

My friend lent me his NOS DMD and we swapped it in and the power went out again, so we know there was much more to investigate.
We finally traced down cracked solder on the power supply, reflowed that, and put the old DMD back in.

SUCCESS

Lord Of The Rings: oh to play it again one day...

My LOTR's DMD was crisp and clear, no lines missing. One day when playing, the DMD just went blank. No glow, no lines, no single pixels.
I turned the game off. Next day, it played fine and bright and clear.
Happened again a week later (I was playing sparingly,) was displaying fine, then the DMD turned off mid-game. Turned the game off, then tested it the next day, and the DMD turns on fine.
Then it happened a third time, and now the DMD won't come back on at all.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Seems like odd behaviour.
5V LED light on the DMD back is on.
I tried reseating all of the cables, then tried jostling them a bit, didn't help.
I unplugged the cable from the power and tested the power supply outputs. Got all good readings, except the 12V was reading as 0, but I don't didn't see that the 12V did anything in the schematics. Then found an old RGP post saying that 12V wasn't used, so not that?

soooo that 12V goes nowhere?

Also there have been a few other stuck ball issues, like the ball getting stuck at the bottom of the Legolas ramp, or in the Gimli VUK, wedged between the post and the wire ramp, sometimes with the help of the Balrog toy.

These issues are addressed in this post, and I will look to follow their fixes.

I really wish I could be playing this classic game!  It's spent far too long out for service, considering how long I had to wait for that darn switch switch to arrive.

I guess I could play it without the DMD?  But mehhhhh

quick updates: LOTR & Stars

Hey all!  Summer's been going great.  We had a mini pinball flea market / convention / tournament out in Hawkesbury, Pinball Women Ottawa has been going strong, and the weather has been wonderful.

Stars:  
I installed a proper sized lock.  It took forever to get the old drilled-out lock mech out for whatever reason, then the first lock I installed was a bit too long.  That means the door has wiggle room to move out, and when you move it back in, you can trigger a tilt/slam switch.  There are actually like THREE different standard replacement lock sizes, so I will start to stock them all.

The metal inlane rail also popped out again, but a friend who was playing at the time glued it back down.  Just in case it happens again?  I noticed over the the PBResource Specials page they actually have NOS Stars inlane guides!  WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
Steve Young is a precious treasure to pinball.  He has been sitting on these damn things for probably 38 years waiting for me to start work on an old Stars with bent-to-shit metal rails.

Another great thing from Hawkesbury:  a friend brought me 2 old Stern/Bally displays.  One had a sticky that the 10s and 10000s were out.  The other had no sticky.  And at the flea market I bought one that was degassing for $5.  One of these would do the trick!
I  popped in the one with no sticky and it works!

Now, if we look closely, we can see that it is not perfect:

note the damage to some digit segments

But hey it's readable, bright, and better than no score.  And only $5 was spent!

I took a look at the display that had the 10s and 10000s out.  Do you think you can spot where the problem might be?

I think I am going to also order some replacement fuses.
Check the fuse chart in the machine.  Most pinball machines use slow-blow fuses, but the early Sterns are one of my first odd-duck examples.   the slow-blow fuses are marked, so the rest of the fuses here are fast blow.

Lord Of The Rings:
LOTR was down for want of the gollum hole.
Or, as a friend exclaimed "GOLLUM'S HOLE IS BROKEN!" as she laughed to herself.
Well, Mr. Gollum, I will RESPECT your hole, and I ordered a replacement switch.  At first I thought it was just out of shape and I could bend the wire to register properly, but no.  With my multimeter in continuity mode, I checked the switch and there was no continuity when pressed.
The switches are kind of cool that they have their center connector, then you can connected to one node for NO (Normally Open) behaviour, or the other node for NC (Normally Closed).  The NC terminals registered as expected, the NO one not at all.
Part got delivered to me in Hawkesbury the other weekend, and I was stymied by not being able to unscrew the darn switch screws:

I remembered something my tech friend Andrew taught me:  when in doubt, tear the whole damn thing down.
So I disassembled the entire VUK assembly and removed it from the playfield.  Only then, with a clear 90 degree angle on the plate, could I impact the nuts in any meaningful way.
Removed switch, desoldered, soldered in a new one, and reassembled.  Then played my first game of LOTR in maybe a month.  JOY!

pinball party status report

Had a PWO meetup and as we all know, inviting people over for a night is the best way to stress test your machines.  Here's how they all stood up.

Rollergames:
The ball gets stuck up at the top a lot.  Unsure if just a diverter issue, or it is bounces awkwardly and that is why it sits between the first and second exits.
Magnet sometimes does not grab the ball.  I think when I realigned that upper flipper I put it too far to the right and now there is less friction for the ball, so it sails past.

Jurassic Park:
After 2 hours, the DMD kept resetting, showing the software version.  I opened it up and noticed one of the screws was missing from the board, so perhaps was losing it's grounding.  I moved around the screws, but will have to go buy a proper replacement.

The standups certainly need reinforcement / rebuilding.  I think all of the Data East standups are super rare to find replacements for.

Lord Of The Rings:
Palantir target might need adjusting, as direct hits send the ball up to smack the glass.
The sword lock (white post) doesn't stop the ball properly, and balls are jumping out of the lock.
And finally by the end of the night, the DMD itself just went out!  Gone!  No idea what happened, but it was time for bed anyways.  The next day I turned the machine on, and it was fine. 

Apollo 13: 
perfect.

Introducing: LORDS OF THE FRICKIN RINGS

Wow, I am one lucky woman, let me count the ways...
LUCKY
DOUBLE LUCKY
SUPER DOUBLE LUCKY JACKPOT!!!

So happy to have a local friend that was craving to have my Corvette for a bit, and were willing to lend me their LOTR.
Playtrades are: THE. BEST.
And it was vindicating of all of that work put in to Corvette that I should now have a chance to play this wonderful machine.

This is not a machine in need of much, but it was passed to me with a bucket of mods and accessories that I might take a stab at installing.
I won't get in to the mods now, but here are a few things I was told and/or noticed:

On occasion the ball bounces out of the sword lock.  It rockets up the ramp, hits the white stopper, and hops the rail.  I have a new stopper to install here, that might help that situation.

When 2 (or 3) balls rest at Gollum's saucer, the switch won't register it, and ball search has to begin to try and free one of them.  I wonder if a switch adjustment might assist?
The back ball is pushing the front ball JUST SO that it is not sitting on the switch adequately.

And the shooter rod needs to be rebuilt.  Right now a full plunge perfectly nails the Orthanc skill shot, but perhaps that's an unfair advantage.


Passing on a message from another friend:  Lord Of The Rings is apparently just a lesser copy of Stern's Austin Powers.
You heard it here first!
Well, maybe 2nd...
I'm currently unconvinced.  :)