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TZ Clock

DRD

DRD

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1 10 Years
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Oct 26, 2014
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Newark
Had no trouble with it for years until someone mentioned a damned TZ clock on here and boom.

The optos are fine, I have used the test mode to verify this. I think my problem is a lack of oomph to overcome mechanical inertia to get the hands turning.

When it boots up, it fast forwards and fast backwards as you would expect but the minute hand sometimes does not go forward on the slow speed for the final 5 minute reset to 12 o'clock.

It is intermittent. I left the game on for hours yesterday and the clock quite happily showed the correct time in attract mode

It feels as though I might have a weak motor or a lot of friction in the gears. It should not be the latter as I put NOS gears in it a few years back and gave it a good clean out.

Any ideas what it might be please before I dismantle the wretched thing ? Hoping to go in prepared to fix this in one fell swoop as TZ clock maintenance can all too easily become a lifestyle

Thanks
 
Put it in clock test mode, fast forward and let it run a few hours. If it stops you have a dodgy opto. If it doesn't turn fast or intermittent it could be all kinds of things from motor controller board to gears to the hands binding. The way you describe it not resetting I'd suspect the 12 o clock opto.
 
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I dismantled it today. There was congealed "dry" lubricant in there that was introducing friction.

Having totally cleaned it out, the mech moves more freely. Though, it still has trouble moving forward. In test it reverses and slow reverses correctly but it will not go forward at all.

During gameplay it seems to work at the moment.

I wonder if it has some ai memory function that informs the computer how quickly the hands move ? Protects the motor by shutting it down if jammed ?

Am hoping that it will adjust to the new normal. But TZ has a habit of disappointing.

As ever, the best advice to any prospective TZ owner is to buy a TAF.
 
Nothing like that I am afraid. Sounds like your motor board may be broken.
 
Depending on where you are you can drop it off with me and I’ll have a look. TAF is inferior :-).
 
I owned a TZ over 20 yr and after replacing the clock board with the newer repo ones more for the LEDs than opto problems not long after I bought it and the clock never skipped a beat in all that time.
Now the numerous TAFs I’ve had in that time all had problems and I’m still fixing the last one I sold working perfectly just before lockdown to a close mate.
 
There are to optocouplers on the clock board, they go bad from time to time. Do you have a scope to look at it?
 
Fixing the clock is a lot of grief for something that doesn’t affect gameplay one bit 😂 Years ago I spent so much time faffing with mine. It worked fine again for about year ….. then started playing up again . I haven’t touched it since …. Can’t be bothered 😂
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Fixing the clock is a lot of grief for something that doesn’t affect gameplay one bit 😂 Years ago I spent so much time faffing with mine. It worked fine again for about year ….. then started playing up again . I haven’t touched it since …. Can’t be bothered 😂
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When I bought mine I had instant problems with the clock and proximity sensor in the trough, what a pain in the ar5e.
Put an Ingo board in the clock ✅ Ordered the Tangles proximity set up from Aus, but while waiting for it fixed the original by securing the sensor properly, hard wiring the boards and a new optocoupler chip ✅
Its great when it’s working after all the hassle🤯
 
M4carp said:
When I bought mine I had instant problems with the clock and proximity sensor in the trough, what a pain in the ar5e.
Put an Ingo board in the clock ✅ Ordered the Tangles proximity set up from Aus, but while waiting for it fixed the original by securing the sensor properly, hard wiring the boards and a new optocoupler chip ✅
Its great when it’s working after all the hassle🤯
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Oh you def need the proximity sensors working. TZ without the powerball is unthinkable 😁
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Oh you def need the proximity sensors working. TZ without the powerball is unthinkable 😁
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" i want it back" - tough **** mate, some gumball's only gone and lost it.

Stripped and rebuilt my clock about 3yrs ago. New Ingo board in at the same time, plus some light lube on the gears. Runs really well and far quieter than before.
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
" i want it back" - tough **** mate, some gumball's only gone and lost it.

Stripped and rebuilt my clock about 3yrs ago. New Ingo board in at the same time, plus some light lube on the gears. Runs really well and far quieter than before.
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“Too hot to handle ?”

Nope, perfect temperature for Sgt GrizZ but thanks for asking 😎…oh and also no I won’t put it back as I am going to Lock it and then use it in Multiball to Double the Jackpot.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr The Power 😁

 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Nope, perfect temperature for Sgt GrizZ but thanks for asking 😎…oh and also no I won’t put it back as I am going to Lock it and then use it in Multiball to Double the Jackpot.
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Exactly what I'd do. I'd also hold off trying for the lock lane during 'Fast Lock' until it had gone back to Earthshaker audio.
 
The one about holding off during Fast Lock is just due to my preference for Earthshaker's audio over the other Pat Lawlor games. It probably costs scoring wise.
 
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Sorry, meant the motor driver board underneath the playfield. That has two optocouplers on the input side, sounds like U1 or U2 may be flakey. If you have a scope you can look at the pulses on both sides in clock test and make sure they are as expected.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions.

I rebuilt a roasted connector. The intermittent fault remained.

I then desoldered and replaced the relevant chip, putting in a socket. That seems to have done it.

The clock currently working in gameplay and test mode. No credit dot - though this situation does not tend to last long in the Twilight Zone
20220323_154248.jpg20220323_154244.jpg
 
There you go, good work. May it continue long... Still waiting for my new boards from Ingo but have repaired my existing one in the meantime - should maybe cancel...
 
My game came with a Rottendog clock board, fliptronics board and main solenoid board fitted.

The fliptronics and main solenoid board both failed and I replaced with Williams originals.

To be fair, the Clock Board has been fine. Should it ever fail I would go for an Ingo as everyone speaks highly of these
 
drhex said:
Apparently two to three more days until mine is in the post…
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They’ve told me that too after they’ve been telling me every week for the last 3 weeks “We ship on a Monday - sure yours will be ready for next Monday”. They have offered a full refund if I’m not happy to wait and I was tempted to do that and buy a rotten dog one but the reviews for this Ingo board seem to be the best.
 
Andy B said:
They’ve told me that too after they’ve been telling me every week for the last 3 weeks “We ship on a Monday - sure yours will be ready for next Monday”. They have offered a full refund if I’m not happy to wait and I was tempted to do that and buy a rotten dog one but the reviews for this Ingo board seem to be the best.
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It’s worth it if you can wait, mine was broke and it was a newer after market one that came out.
 
Andy B said:
They’ve told me that too after they’ve been telling me every week for the last 3 weeks “We ship on a Monday - sure yours will be ready for next Monday”. They have offered a full refund if I’m not happy to wait and I was tempted to do that and buy a rotten dog one but the reviews for this Ingo board seem to be the best.
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I spoke via email with them a couple weeks ago inquiring about lead time. They said shortage of parts etc so 3 weeks. I was a bit confused so I asked should I place an order and it will be ready in 3 weeks, or just wait a few weeks before ordering ? They said either , and asked me what colour circuit board I would like.

I haven’t placed order yet as I’m still none the wiser as to when it might come 😂
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
I spoke via email with them a couple weeks ago inquiring about lead time. They said shortage of parts etc so 3 weeks. I was a bit confused so I asked should I place an order and it will be ready in 3 weeks, or just wait a few weeks before ordering ? They said either , and asked me what colour circuit board I would like.

I haven’t placed order yet as I’m still none the wiser as to when it might come 😂
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I ordered and paid for one online. To their credit they emailed me the next day and said it would be a few weeks so I could wait or have a refund.

I’ve been in touch with them every week and, like I say, they keep saying “Ready soon” etc. They sent me a photo this week of what they said was my board under construction and said it will be ready in 2-3 days - I’m not sure why it would take 2-3 days to put the thing together but sounds like they have a backlog…
 
Probably the same photo I got which seemed pretty generic to me as they have all kinds of colours there. Not sure if these are flowed or hand soldered, if the latter it will take a while to do one.
 
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