Monday, April 15, 2013

Some New Features...



Added some outer coverings over the lanes to prevent the ball from jumping out of bounds and getting stuck (happens more frequently now that the ball moves faster). These are more or less placeholders until I get the time and energy to make better ones. For now, they are made of foam core with paper printouts of the same old wood texture I used for the inner walls. Not only does it effectively save the ball from getting stuck outside the playing field, it also makes it look really cool. Also finally broke down and used car wax to polish the heck out of the surface. I didn't do a full strip of the play field. I only removed the rails that go across the field from the right ramp to get it out of the way. After that, I added a generous layer of Armor All.



Added 2 blue LED strips across the inside on the bottom. Gives an eerie "haunted seas" look.

Here's a video of the new and improved machine in action...



13 comments:

  1. Super cool effect. Are the LED strips automotive 12 volt? What's the power source?

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    1. Did you get any answers yet? Thanks!!
      Regards,
      W.H.

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  2. Greetings,
    What a WONDERFUL job you have done with your Zizzle: "Pirates of the Caribbean"!
    I just bought an adult-owned, mint, one of the same.

    I have been out of pinball for a while but still have three nice full-size machines.
    My five-year old son's (which has been the reason I strayed from pinball) arms are not wide enough to use the Big-Boys Toys but just perfect for Zizzle 'Dead Man's Chest'.

    I LOVE your idea of using the Japanese flipper buttons but wondered why you said you had to drill holes for the buttons when previously you mentioned that they just fit perfectly. I can't stand to drill unnecessary holes.

    I can understand the second set of holes was for the wires.

    I also love the blue LED lights on the lower playing surface - super cool!

    As you can tell, my electrical skills are near zero although mechanically I'm quite good. How can I place those blue LED lights on the bottom? What do they hook-up to?

    What type of wax did you use on the playing field? One time you said you waxed it then put Armor All over it but later, it seems that you just used good old regular Armor All without wax. Please straighten me out.
    Can I cover the wax with 'Novus 1'?
    Would it be possible to Mylar the playing field like we used to do on the Big Machines?
    Whew, one last question. How is the top and bottom of the machine taken apart without breaking anything?

    Thank you SOOO much for your genius help! I will send you a scan of my finished product.

    PS: Have you located a source of parts? Breaks do happen, like the plastic plunger etc.
    Thanks again!

    With Kindest Regards,
    W.H.

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    Replies
    1. I had to drill two large holes from the new flipper buttons because, as you can see in the picture, they are deeper than the slim stock buttons (deeper than the wood cabinet), so the button connectors will be visible on the inside of the cabinet (see pic http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QPzb-2m4qxc/UTzUawwHJMI/AAAAAAAAAgo/Tg_xnbkbVt0/s1600/flipperbuttoninside.jpg)

      One large hole for the button to slide through, and a smaller one for the wiring to go in where the original button wire went. What I meant by it fitting perfectly is the plastic bezel that the original stock buttons were attached to fit the diameter of the new buttons perfectly, so no extra sanding necessary.

      The blue LED strips are on their own power supply hooked up to an extension cable. The only custom wiring I did was the flipper buttons, in which I soldered new wires to the existing wires to extend their length so they can reach the button terminals.

      The wax is regular synthetic car wax (Mother's brand). I resisted using wax at first, but I broke down later and tried it, followed by a coat of Armor All. Sorry for the confusion. I'm not familiar with Novus 1 so I can't answer that. Mylar... hmm that would be a huge chore but I suppose it could work, though I don't think it's that necessary.

      By the top and bottom of the machine, do you mean the plexiglass cover? If so, you just simply remove the screws surrounding the frame. Very easy. If you mean the play field parts, I haven't done that other than removing the metal rails that go across the play field from the cannon-battle ramp to ease the application of wax to the surface. If you mean the legs, again, simple screws with a hex wrench.

      Source for parts... unfortunately, not enough people care about these briefly-produced machines to merit production of replacement parts. I could as I'm experienced in casting parts, but it's just cost prohibitive. The plastic plunger isn't that fragile but it can't take the same abuse real commercial machines get. What DOES break is a tiny plastic tab that holds a spring that attaches to a little white plastic arm that resets (pushes) the drained ball back to the plunger. It WILL break. If yours hasn't yet, it will. Simple fix. Replace the plastic tab with a little screw. The rest of the machine seems pretty solid and as long as you keep the internal plastic parts lubed it "should" last you many years.

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  3. Thanks so much. You have me fired up to make some additional changes. Have you considered replacing the plastic "glass" covering? I read they originally planned on making it glass but ran over budget. Seems like the legs were built to hold the weight. I'm also considering add an older tablet to the back board to run related video or camera of the playing service.

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  4. how did you go about printing the graphics around the boards, as well as the plastic covers? can you please share some information on this?

    Also, how easy was it to rewire the new buttons once you put them in? I just bought one of these machines and plan on doing exactly what you have done.. this is great stuff

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  5. It was just printed from a color laser printer then double-sided taped to the inside walls. The decals on the slingshot covers were printed on photo paper on an inkjet printer, cut and again, double-sided taped on there. The wires are super easy. Just solder in just a couple inches of extra wire to ease the process. The wiring is super easy. These buttons only have two prongs and makes no difference which wire goes where because all the button does is momentarily close the circuit. Good luck!

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  6. Wow Nice post, thanks for sharing. Pinball machines have a great deal of parts which move, and include electronics. Of course, there are many out there that do not have electronic parts. However, a great deal of modern ones do have these parts, and they can become broken quite easily. They need to be properly maintained and cleaned by someone who knows what they are doing.Pinball LED’s

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  7. I replaced the stock buttons with Sanwa 30mm buttons which actually snap right into the original button housing as if they were meant to be there. I also flipped over the flipper grommet and put the plastic washer below the playfield instead of above the grommet. This seemed to stabilize the flipper arm by the solenoid which had a lot of play in the stock arrangement.

    Now, this last one I think may have actually lost me some flipper power. A lot of people say to take the smaller / weaker springs from the old buttons and replace the flipper solenoid springs. I can now no longer hit the venom ramp no matter what, whereas I could before I did all this. I'm thinking that the smaller springs do perhaps result in snappier response time as they take less time to compress and release. However, I believe you end up with a net deficit in overall power since the springs are weaker. So I'm going to switch back tot he old springs and hopefully I'll be able to hit that ramp again.

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    1. Okay nevermind I realized why smaller flipper return springs are better. They put up less resistance for the solenoids, yet still get the job done. I had it backwards in my head where the springs were powering the flippers to go forward. Anyway, I fixed my left flipper. The spring was kinked up a bit from when we switched in the smaller springs. Now I'm able to hit the right Venom ramp every try. The left Mystique ramp takes some built up momentum but is much more doable now. I'm not sure if Zizzles came stock with rubber on the flippers or not, but mine doesn't have any. So when those arrive in the mail that should help with ball control a bit more as well. Overall I'm pretty happy with the flippers now. Just gotta add the drain posts and maybe tweak the skill shot return a bit more. I just used some hair tie scrunchy things to the posts beneath the skill shot to bump the ball up a bit. This works most of the time but a lot of the time the ball ends up on the very edge of the right flipper, to where I can just flip it over to the left flipper haphazardly. Some people actually moved the ball guide up a bit here, and I'm considering doing that. I'm got some adhesive rubber strips for preventing door dinging other peoples' cars, that I may use to change the shape of the ball guide slightly. I do prefer options that are non destructive.

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  8. Just curious if you would have any ideas on what I could check on a problem I have with a Zizzle Marvel Heroes machine. When I plug in the power supply and turn the switch on, the scoring display lights up orange, with nothing on it, and there is no power to the playing field. If I push the start button, there is a little crackle to the speaker, but no other signs of life. I opened up the bottom, and all the wires seem to be in place, including the ribbon cable. I see no damage to the circuit board.

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