There are several vendors of after-market mini-playfield lamps that
dress up that area of the playfield. One of them sent me one
of
these
lamps in return for photographing his line of lamps.
The tricked out mini-playfield lamp courtesy of Skooter.
Note the ghosty reflection of "Zone" in the plastic.
The lamp is very
beautifully made,
and its reflective chrome really shines. This makes it tricky
to
photograph as it simply reflects the area around it. I shot
the
series of photos with some LED lighting to provide highlights to show
off the lamp's finish. One nice touch is his use of
heavy-gauge
ribbon cable for the wiring, as this keeps the wire routing clean.
Skooter has several varieties of lamps, some say "Lost in the Zone", or
are blue, or do not have the end panel pyramid cut out. The
lamp
is easily installed with an inline connector, but you do have to remove
the mini-playfield to install it. His web site is here.
Robby the Robot
Picture of Robby on the playfield.
In the past, this mod has fetched $100 to $200 in Ebay
auctions.
It is based on the one from Masudaya. Click
here for a comparison. I figured it was beyond my
reach
until Hallmark
decided to market one for the 2009 Holiday season.
It was
only $18.50, so I went by the local store and purchased the four that
they had in stock. After examination, I decided to put three
LEDs
into the unit. The first two were to replace the ones already
provided (the yellow buttons and the blue 'mouth'). The third
would be a way to light up the clear domed helmet.
Opening the robot case.
The first task is to safely open the robot. I studied Martin's
pictures of the robot, and tried his suggested method of
"levering"
the legs apart. This worked partially, but the main body's
glue
joints did not come apart. I then used a miniature screw
driver
as shown above to pry the body open. Once open, I removed the
battery holder, circuit board and speaker, and I glued the case and
legs back together.
Hook removed and head opened.
The next step was to
figure out a way
into the head. I first removed the ornament hook at the top
by
simply pulling it out. I had tried unscrewing it, but it
simply
spun. However, I am sure that the initial spinning did loosen
it
up, and prevented any damage.
I then used a miniature screwdriver in the back to pry the head
open. The result is shown above. As can be seen,
the center
post holds the two parts together, and was glued into place.
Trim
the center stud and widen the hole so that they two halves fit back
together.
From this vantage point, you can finally see that the clear domed
helmet is held down by glue tabs deep inside the head. Use a
miniature screwdriver to clean these out, and the helmet should come
out.
The 'face' of Robby without his clear helmet. This latter
part is
glued into the two holes at the top.
While Robby had his face
shield off,
I decided to repaint him slightly to match the playfield image (see
above). This meant adding some red accents with my favorite
detail paint brush: a sewing pin.
Robby with his makeup on. Compare to the playfield image
above.
Much of my painting on playfields is done with this blunt sewing pin.
Once this was done, I
decided to
light up the helmet by drilling a hole near the top back of the face,
and putting an LED inside the head. I used a white LED that
was
filed flat on front and back side.
LED inserted into the head to light up the helmet.
Next, I drilled a small
hole into the
post of the head so that I could put in a screw to hold the two halves
together. A washer is needed due to the size of the hole in
the
head disk. I then selected a white (not blue) wide angle LED
to
face towards the player to produce the brightest spot of blue in the
mouth plastic. One leg of this LED was held down by the
washer,
and then the body of the LED was glued into place.
Finished head disk assembly. A screw is used to hold the LED
down, and to join the two halves of the head.
After this, I prepared
the body (now
mainly empty) by glueing a bright yellow LED (a gift from Martin) that
faced forward into the chest openings.
The two halves of Robby ready to come back together.
I received a bracket for this robot courtesy of Cliffy.
He made
these for the original Masudaya robot mod.
The completed robot, mounted on a bracket courtesy of Cliffy.
The disconnect is made using IC socket pins.
Note the other color accents on the robot's body.
I decided to wire the
three new LEDs
to
the three lamps that are next to the image of Robby on the
playfield.
They happen to be on the same column of the lamp matrix, which makes it
convenient for wiring. I only needed four wires for the three
LEDs. I prepared a harness made from ribbon cable with a
connector as I usually do to allow disconnection of the mod.
Wiring Diagram of the LEDs. Wire colors for the lamp matrix
connections are shown.
The lamp column wire is the anode connection, and I put diodes in
series (inside the body) to protect the LEDs from
reverse voltage. I
also put a 51 ohm resistor in series to
control the current, but that was placed under the playfield for easy
access to change the brightness.
When I went to wire the robot into the playfield, I found out that
these three lamps are on a small board. This made it even
easier
to wire the robot into the playfield as I could remove the board to
attach the wires.
The original Hallmark Twilight Zone ornament. I removed the
ornament
hook at the top by first twisting and then pulling it out.
The plan is to integrate
into this
ornament a digital
photo keychain and load it with photos from the Twilight Zone episodes
that
are featured on this machine. The combined assembly would
then be
able to play a slide show of the particular scenes that inspired the
machine's elements.
30 of the images that I
selected for use on the key chain.
Each of these has a tie-in to the pinball machine, and
they are displayed in the above order.
One side benefit of this
project is
all the episodes I watched on YouTube to fish these snapshots
out. It gave me a new appreciation of the series, and I
really
liked seeing the look of the 60s (hair, car, and home styles, etc).
TV with the back removed.
The first thing to do is
to pry the
back off. Then the protruding posts that held the back need
to be
cut down to size so that the little keychain can be mounted onto a
plastic panel. The result is shown above.
Once you are done, build the small circuit board that allows the
keychain to be powered from the pinball machine. It is shown
below.
The circuit board with the diode and test jumper.
The power leads from the
pinball
machine exit the above photo on the left. Connect a red
alligator
clip to the top wire, and a black one to the bottom. You then
connect a diode in series with the power lead (banded side on the
right) and solder it in. The result is that the diode drops
the
voltage from the pinball machine from 5.0 volts to 4.2 volts.
Note that there are three solder pads in the bottom edge of the board
above. Call them 'left' (ground), 'middle' (keychain supply),
and
'right' (battery).
The electronics module inside the Insignia
keychain remote.
The above photo shows
the electronics
module inside the keychain. Prepare it by desoldering the red
lead from the circuit board of the module. Solder the red
lead of
the battery to the 'right' lead of the diode board. Then take
a
lead and solder the 'middle' terminal of the diode board to the
location on the electronics module where the red lead _used_ to
go. This will power the keychain when the machine is
powered. Finally splice into the black battery lead (do not
interrupt it), and solder that to the 'left' terminal of the diode
board.
The small jumper on the diode board allows the reconnection of the
battery, and is useful for testing the mod, or restoring it for loading
of images.
The finished back of the TV mod. Note the three wires
exiting from the module, and their attachment to the diode
board.
The assembled TV. It looks really amazing, just like a
miniature
TV. The first two
images show "Twilight Zone" in two zoom levels as shown in the thumb
nails.
The image is extremely crisp and this image does not do it justice.
The TV mod mounted into the machine. Note the white paper in
the
back
to reflect the LED sequencer's light.
I have always wanted to
dress up the
back right corner of the playfield. The back left is lit
nicely
by the gumball machine, and there always seemed to be something missing
in the other corner. This location seemed perfect for the
TV. The mod needs to be mounted beyond the right edge of the
DMD
so that its reflection on the playfield glass would not interfere with
the TV's screen. I made a bracket by using a small
piece of Lexan that was glued to the top of the TV. The
bracket
is not visible to the player due to the overhang of the
backbox. This is then screwed onto the top of the backboard
so
that the TV is placed at an angle facing the player. The mod
is
very easily removable and leaves just a small mark in a hidden area.
Once installed connect the red and black alligator to the gumball
machine control board under the playfield. There is a ceramic
bypass capacitor near the voltage regulator that is a good location for
the connection.
View of the top of the playfield. Note that the bracket is
hidden. The new mod
lights up the back right corner quite well. The back of the
TV is
lit by the
sequencing LEDs in a glittering fashion.
YouTube video of this mod.
After I finished this
mod, I did a
Google search for "TZ TV mod", and found this TV
mod at bumper.com. Although it shows videos of the
series
(without sound), it costs more than 15x the one described here, and has
a 1.3" screen.
If you enjoyed this
write-up, you may
be interested in the
following mods of similar complexity:
I got such a big response when I
wrote about my mod that
I decided to build them. Here is the first four.
They are installed without soldering.
Another batch of TVs. I ran out of the white connect wires,
and
these are grey.
This Ebay sale closed above $290 (item 280446813207).
It was just a matter of time! In January 2010, I had
an imitator trying to sell their version. No
bidders.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery 8-).
This was from Rob Ventura, who now sells under the
Ebay name "pinballmodspinball". His design looks like a
straight copy of mine. Even the images displayed is the same
(although he did mention he would not use my files).
I subsequently developed an alternate version of this mod using a
different
ornament. This one shows images from "Nightmare on Elm
Street".
This version is also available for sale.