I enjoy communicating with other IJ owners a lot. Unfortunately I find myself answering the same questions to many different folks. Those of you who have emailed me know that I write very long and detailed emails. These take a lot of time and I thought I would write this page to answer some questions.

When I get a good question from somebody I will add it to this page and answer it here. I will also refer this page to those of you who ask me a question that is answered here. Don't get me wrong I still want to hear from you, I hope that this page will answer any questions that you have to same me a little time in writing my email to you.

I've decided to just build this page slowly, as I get questions from all of you, I will simply answer it here and then refer you to this page. As time goes in, this page will grow with all of the frequently asked questions and hopefully become a great source of answers that you may be wondering about your Indiana Jones pinball machine!

PAGE REVISION 1.05

December 2, 2001

Why does my game list a particular switch as bad in the "Test Report"?

Why does the test report say "ERR MINI PFD. BAD"?

Why does the test report say "ERROR IDOL BAD"?

Why does the test report say "ERR. DROP BNK BAD"?

Why does the test report say "ER. SINGLE DRP. BAD"?

Why is my Indiana Jones resetting during game play for no apparent reason?

My Dot Matrix Display is getting hard to see, it is getting weak or takes awhile to fully illuminate, what can I do?

What basic tools do you recommend for the job?

Where can I get 409, Windex and/or Novus?

What were the original rubber ring colors?

What is my firmware revision and how can you help me upgrade it?

What's the deal with the right inlane/outlane rubber ring(s)?

What's the deal with the fat-top and skinny-top drop targets?

The manual lists 2 clear "double-star" posts, where are they on my IJ?

Can you help me install the missing light bulb up to the right of the INDY lights at the top of the playfield?

I need a part for my machine, where can I get it?

Where can I get a manual for my Indiana Jones?

Where can I get drop target stickers for my IJ?

What is another good pinball machine to buy?

 I would like to upgrade my Indiana Jones PROM chips could you help me get the parts for this?

What is this PinMAME?

HARDWARE PROBLEMS

Why does my game list a particular switch as bad in the "Test Report"?

As a firmware engineer I look at the machine from the firmware/hardware side of things. The guy who wrote the firmware for the WPC machines decided that if any single playfield switch has not been hit in the last 90 balls, then the switch must be "bad". You need to check all switches listed in the test report. If you don't hit the mini-playfield shot very often, then some of the roll-over switches on the mini playfield might be in the test report. To clear any switch from this error condition, just go into "Switch edges" test mode (as described in the opto repair page) and physically hit the switch on the playfield with your finger.

If the game recognizes the switch in Switch Edges, then the switch will no longer be in the test report. If you hit the switch but Switch Edges doesn't report it, then the switch needs checked. You might have a broken wire going to the switch. If the switch is an opto switch, then to "hit" the switch, just pass your finger between the opto sender and receiver (such as the opto switches at the ramp entrances). There are some opto switches on the under-playfield trough. Sometimes a wire will break going to the opto switch. there are 4 wires for each opto switch… 2 wires on the infrared sender, and 2 wires on the infrared receiver. Check them all. The opto switch itself could be dirty or mis-aligned.

The switches are wired in a matrix. It is possible for a wire to break on one switch, but only affect the switches elsewhere on the playfield (further along the wire). Before you start pulling wires or breaking anything. Let me know what switch or switches are not working and I can help guide you through the matrix to see if they are related or I can tell you what wire to look for on other switches in the game. There is also a diode on every switch which is part of the matrix configuration. A broken or shorted diode could cause bizarre behavior on the matrix.

Well, the firmware doesn't have a lot to go on when it declares the mini playfield as bad. There are only the following components:

1. Mini-playfield motor which the firmware makes go left and right.
2. Limit switch, left side. When the MPF is tilted left it hits the left limit, opto switch.
3. Limit switch, right side. When the MPT is tilted right it hits the right limit, opto switch.

 

 

This error message comes up when the game tries to turn the playfield left but does not "see" the left-limit switch. As you may have guessed, this error comes up when the game tries to turn the playfield right, but does not "see" the right-limit switch. That's it. End of story. (well actually the firmware tries turning the MPF motor a few more times before declaring the bad MPF).

When your game says ERR MINI PFD BAD, you need to check the motor and limit switches. Try using the Mini playfield test mode and see if your motor is working, does the MPF tilt left and right during the MPF test mode? If it does not, check motor and wires going to it. If it does tilt, but still reports the error, then check the limit switch and wires going to it. The limit switches are on a small circuit board mounted to the back panel. A small finger on the mini playfield motor shaft will trigger the limit switch appropriately. You can slip a small piece of paper into the limit switch during the MPF test mode and see if the screen changes to indicate the opto switch being blocked. There are small opto switch indicators on the screen during MPF test mode.

The manual also indicates that you should check the up/down post at the mini playfield entrance. Apparently the firmware will throw this error message if the up/down post is not working properly. The post should normally be UP except when to let the ball enter the MPF and during certain jackpot and rope bridge shots.

 

Why does the test report say "ERROR IDOL BAD"?

The ball is not locking properly in the idol head. This is probably more than needed to list, but here is the sequence of events when you lock the ball:

1. Ball triggers an opto switch at center-shot
2. Ball comes to rest under playfield against a under-playfield gate/solenoid, here it triggers another opto switch.
3. When the game feels it is safe to do so, it kicks the solenoid under the playfield to let the ball roll over to the up-kicker (game only lets one ball sit at the up-kicker at a time).
4. Ball triggers another opto at the up-kicker.
5. Game kicks the ball up at the up-kicker where the player visually sees it again at it emerges from under the playfield.
6. Ball triggers another opto switch as it rests against the idol head (and hasn’t dropped into the idol yet because the head is rotated in a position where the ball can't enter it.
7. Game rotates idol head and uses THREE opto switches that look at a spinning disk with a notch in it to determine the exact placement of the idol head. When the opto switch noted in step #6 indicates the ball is no longer there, the game can assume it has dropped into the idol head. Using the 3 opto switches the game knows exactly which of the 3 idol chambers the ball is in.
8. When game goes to release the ball(s) from the idol, it spins the idol chamber where it knows a ball is at based on step #7 and turns a populated ball chamber to face the player at the idol exit.
9. Next the idol-exit gate solenoid is kicked to let the ball escape the idol head.
10. Lastly the ball triggers the roll-over switch at the idol exit ramp.

 

Now, let's see why the game would flag the idol lock as "bad". The manual indicates that this error message will appear if the idol motor, the idol release solenoid, the up-kicker coil, top idol enter opto, or three idol position opto switches are faulty. So, in the chain of events listed above, it looks like anything at #4 and above is what may be faulty. You need to check all opto switches listed, so you have the up-kicker opto, idol entrance opto and the three idol head position optos to check. The best thing to do is put the game into "Idol test" mode and let the game spin the idol to see if it can give you any indication of which of the above parts is not working properly.

The IJ firmware is trying it's best to keep track of balls and the 5 opto switches, up-kicker solenoid, idol motor, and idol-release solenoid must all be working properly for the game to accurately keep track of exactly where the ball is during the chain of events. If the game loses track of the ball due to a faulty switch, solenoid or motor, the game will throw this error into the test report.

 

Why does the test report say "ERR. DROP BNK BAD"?

Here is where the firmware is really dumb. (not a lot of smart-logic involved when the firmware decides to throw this error message). Pure and simple, here is the reason that this error is thrown:

The machine tried to kick the 3 drop targets UP, but the drop target switches indicate that they are still DOWN. After a few retries to kick them up, this error message will be put into the test report.

Are you running firmware L-5? If so, there is a bug in this firmware that will cause this error to be thrown into the test report if you have the coin door open and the machine tries to kick the targets up (such as during a power-up). Newer firmware will NOT throw this error if the coin door is open. When the coin door is open, playfield high voltage is disabled and the drop target solenoid will not kick.

To clear this error, turn machine on with some drop targets down and the coin door closed. If the drop target assembly is functioning properly, the firmware should see that some targets are down and try to kick them up, after kicking the solenoid, if it sees that they are no longer down, the error should go away. (if the error doesn't go away, then play a game or two to let the game kick the drop targets during game play to see if the error goes away).

If you have a genuine problem with the drop target bank then there are 3 things that need checked:

1. Solenoid kicking when the firmware kicks it?
2. All three opto switches working properly in switch-edges test?
3. Is the drop-target assembly put together properly so that the targets lock in the up position and snap down when the ball hits them?

 

Why does the test report say "ER. SINGLE DRP. BAD"?

Here is another dumb-logic error message. In my understanding, there are 2 and only 2 reasons that this message will occur. Well actually 3 reasons, if you are running firmware L-5 you may be getting this error if your coin door is open when the machine tries to kick the target (see answer above for the drop target bank).

Reason 1: The machine tried to kick the target UP, but after kicking the up-solenoid the drop target switch indicates that the target is still DOWN. After a few re-tries the firmware will give up and throw this error message into the test report.

Reason 2: The machine tried to kick the target DOWN, but after kicking the down-solenoid the drop target switch indicates that the target is still UP. After a few re-tries the firmware will give up and throw this error message into the test report.

You have 4 things to check:

1. Does the target work properly mechanically? Can you physically move it up, have it lock into place, and then drop when you flick the front of it like a ball would?
2. Does the target-UP solenoid kick when the firmware tries to kick it up?
3. Does the target-DOWN solenoid kick the target down when the firmware tries to kick it down?
4. Does the target switch close when the target is down and open when the target is up (using switch-edges to check the switch)?

To clear this error then you might have to play a game and start Castle Grunwald mode where the game kicks the drop target down. At that point, the game has probably tried to kick it up from regular game play and the Castle mode should have exercised the target-down functionality.  

Why is my Indiana Jones resetting during game play for no apparent reason?

This is a common problem with the Williams/Bally machines running the WPC boardset. (specifically, the WPC power-driver board). There are a few reasons that I've seen that commonly cause the machine to reset itself (as if somebody simply unplugged and re-plugged in the machine) during game play and especially when a lot of power is used like when both flippers are pressed at the same time or during multiball..

Reason 1: Low AC voltage. When the machine is on the same AC line as other power-hungry machines then this problem may occur. If your machine is plugged into the same circuit as a refrigerator, neon signs, air-compressor, other pinball machines, etc then the AC voltage that your Indiana Jones is getting may be running a little low or weak. Try plugging the machine into a different circuit in the building which is on a different circuit breaker or fuse.

Low voltage may also cause resets if your IJ is plugged into a long extension cord. I've seen this problem when a machine was plugged into a long, low-quality extension cord.

Reason 2: Bad or weak bridge rectifier on the power-driver board in the backbox. A bridge rectifier is a big square block with 4 wires coming out of the bottom. This block's 4 wires are soldered to the circuit board. There are 5 bridge rectifiers on the power-driver board:

BR5. Top-left corner area of the board

BR3. Top-center of the board.

BR4. Top-center of the board.

BR2. Top-right area of the board near fuses and MOUNTED TO A HEATSINK

BR1. Top-right area of the board near fuses and MOUNTED TO A HEATSINK

Notice that BR2 and BR1 are mounted to the same heatsink.

A bridge rectifier is nothing more than 4 diodes inside a neat little package. When 4 diodes are connected together in a certain combination they convert a sine-wave of AC voltage from a flowing S of up and down and up and down, into a 'wave' of M's. (The lower half of each wave is flipped to make an S wave into an M shaped wave). Now, when a capacitor is placed with the bridge rectifier just right, it basically holds to voltage near the crest of the wave so instead of a bunch of M-shaped wave if is just a straight line since the cap is being charged and not letting voltage on the waveform arch down. This combination of a bridge rectifier (4 diodes) and a capacitor is a called a linear power supply (converts AC to DC).

Indiana Jones uses this sort of AC to DC all over the place. Now back to this question…. it turns out that when bridge-rectifier BR2 fails, it causes the machine to reset.

There may be other methods… but to properly test BR2 you need a digital meter. My meter has a diode test function on it. I turn my dial to the diode symbol to set my meter to diode test. Whenever I've found a bad BR2 which caused this problem, I always found that 1 or more of the 4 internal diodes inside it had shorted short-circuit (as opposed to failing open-circuit so no connection internally). Now BR2 can be tested sufficiently in-circuit. Don't have to remove it to test it for failure. I put my meter into diode test and check all combinations around the pins of the bridge-rectifier and make sure I can measure 4 normal diode readings all around it. The diodes are in a square arrangement inside the part, so I just try all combinations around the part to make sure I get 4 normal readings. On a bad bridge rectifier I usually find that a diode has shorted and instead of a normal diode reading on my meter I get a short indication. If your meter does not have diode check, this problem can probably be isolated by just checking for a short between any 2 pins on the bridge (I haven't tested with this method but a meter without diode test can probably isolate a bad bridge rectifier).

I should note, that occasionally I find a bridge that appears good on the test-bench, however still causes resets. I sometimes have to put a hair dryer or heat-gun on the bridge rectifiers and test for shorts while they are at a hot temperature.

At this point, I want to mention that you should check your heatsink on BR1 and BR2. This heatsink should be mounted TIGHT against the bridges. If there is any looseness then you may fix your problem by simply tightening that heatsink against the bridges. It is advised that you apply some fresh heatsink compound (that white gunk between the heatsink and the bridge rectifier). Heatsink compound can be found at Radio Shack. If you can't get this stuff, don't worry about it, just TIGHTEN THE 2 PHILLIPS SCREWS from the underside of the board which tightens the heatsink to the bridges. This requires removing the power driver board and reinstalling it. There is a description of what you should to when removing the power driver board elsewhere in this section.

It is good to test all 5 bridge rectifiers on the power-driver board for shorts.

If you found a bad bridge rectifier then it needs to be unsoldered, removed and replaced. If the bad rectifier is BR1 or BR2, then the heatsink will need to be removed by unscrewing it from the under-side of the board. When re-installing the heatsink later, it is good to apply some of that white heatsink compound to help the heat dissipation from the top of the bridge rectifiers to the heatsink. Heatsink compound is sold at Radio Shack.

You might be able to find suitable replacement bridge rectifiers by just doing a web search for something like "bridge rectifier pinball" or something similar for a pinball parts dealer who sells a part that will work. At the time of this writing, a concrete source for this part is not known, but it is known that this is a generic part and should not cost more than a few US dollars. If somebody tries to sell you one that is designed specially for your pinball machine and trying to charge a high price, then they are probably not being honest and trying to take advantage of the unknowing buyer.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO TEST OR REPLACE YOUR POSSIBLY BAD BRIDGE RECTIFIER then you should take the board to somebody who can. First remove that power driver board. Before unplugging anything, mark all connectors that have nothing plugged into them. Put some sort of marking at all of the unused connector pins. When you go to re-install this board, the marked unused connectors will be a GREAT help. Now, (WITH MACHINE TURNED OFF) unplug every connector around the power driver board. You may want to write down every connector when you unplug it just so you have a record of all connectors that you'll need to re-install later. Each connector is marked with a Jxxx like J123, J111, J110, etc. The connectors are also keyed with a plugged pin so you cannot accidentally plug a connector into a wrong set of pins. Now loosen all of the screws around the board. The holes are eye-drop shaped so you only need to loosen them and not completely remove the screws. With all screws loose, lift up on the board a little and pull it out of the machine.

Now remember that static discharge can destroy electronic components. Just put the board into a bag (preferably plastic) for transport. Take the board into a local electronic shop that fixes things like stereos, radios, and/or maybe a TV repair shop. Just present the board and ask if they can test the bridge rectifiers and specifically check BR2. Ask if they can't find any problem, if they can put a heat-gun onto BR2 and test it while it is hot since this is the most common part that fails and causes resets. Ask them if they can replace this part if they find it to be bad. The IJ manual lists this as a 35Amp, 200volt part. This means this the maximum handling capacity of this part. This is important information that the repair shop may want to know.

At this point, the repair shop technician may simply not want to mess with your board and they will just shake their head and say that you need to provide them with an EXACT part number for that bridge rectifier. If they say they this then they really don't want to work on your board. It is my belief that this is a common part and a good reputable technician will be willing to replace the bridge with one of similar size and rating as this one (this one's rating is up to 35Amp and 200volt). In the very least ANY technician can test the bridge in-circuit in about 1 minute (unless heat-gun is required to find the bad part). If a shop refuses to work on the board then you know who NOT to take your equipment to when you need something fixed. Remember, this part probably costs about 2 to 3 US dollars. So I wouldn't expect to pay more than $15 or $20 US dollars total for the parts and labor to get that bridge rectifier tested and replaced. If they want more than $20 US dollars, then they it is my belief that they are taking advantage of you. In fact, many would say, that $20 US would be a rip-off. When I fixed pinballs for a living, we asked $90 US per hour for this sort of repair, and this job would take about 10 to 15 minutes.

If you still have troubles then email me and I can help you get your board repaired personally.

In my experience of repairing pinball machines, I've never heard of a way to fix the dot-matrix-display tube itself. When the display starts to go weak or takes awhile to fully illuminate (usually with a portion of the display working but another cloud of pixels taking longer to illuminate) then this means that the actual glass dot-matrix-display is just plain getting old and starting to die. Eventually it will get so bad that you cannot see your score or anything no matter how long you wait for it to power up.

On some older pins (such as Terminator 2), the glass dot-matrix-display was actually soldered to a circuit board which could be unsoldered and replaced with some replacement displays that we had. This took a LONG time and was not very economical to replace in that manner. The newer pins including Indiana Jones use a ribbon-type cable to solder the glass to the circuit board so it is common-place to just replace that entire circuit-board and with the glass dot-matrix-display as a single part. This part should cost around $100 to $120 for a new unit (last time I checked prices). This is a generic part (the circuit-board and dot-matrix-display mounted to it) which has connectors that interface with all pinball machines of this vintage including Indiana Jones. There are actually 2 different manufactures' schematics included in the Indiana Jones schematic manual since Williams apparently installed one or the other brand of display into their products. Maybe, if you're cleaver, you can find some alternate source for this part which sells to a non-pinball related industry for a cheaper price, since this is a generic part which can be used in all sorts of products (if you think you've found a cheaper source in this manner, email me and I can help verify if it would work in your pinball machine).

I would check out the sources listed above such as Pinball Resource for this part. The part number (out of my IJ manual) is 5901-12784-00 but I'm sure you can just ask for the dot-matrix-display assembly for your Indiana Jones and the sales person will know exactly what you mean and will be happy to sell this higher priced part to you.

While you're servicing your display, you might want to check out your dot-matrix-display driver board. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Here is a story. I was just tinkering in the backbox of an IJ and I pushed in on all connectors to make sure they were snug and pushed in on all socketed chips to make sure they were snug. When I was done, the dot-matrix-display board didn't work anymore. A resistor on the dot-matrix-display board mounted in the backbox had failed open-circuit. My small movements around that board must have somehow caused the failing part to just suddenly fail. I replaced the resistor and the display came up just fine. That being said, if you look at your dot-matrix display board in the backbox, you will probably find that the solder around all of the pins at the bottom edge of the board is getting pretty dry. If you remove the board you will probably find a lot of dry solder with lots of small cracks around the solder-pads where parts are soldered. These small micro-cracks cause heat due to very small arcing once in awhile as electrons try to cross the small cracks. This heat build-up causes the solder to dry out even more and causes parts on the board to fail due to the heat. I usually remove the board and just apply fresh solder over all of the solder pads on the bottom side of that board and sometimes on the component-side I add some solder in places where it looks necessary. This could increase the life of this board as reducing the cracks, reduces heat and hopefully makes the board last longer. Remember anti-static precautions. Lots of chips on this board just waiting to die due to a static-discharge when you touch the board after walking across the carpet or concrete and then touch the board without first discharging your static on a grounded point (such as the metal edge of the machine when the machine is plugged in and turned off).

What basic tools do you recommend for the job?

First let me say, be sure to read the "Overview" page where I list off things that I had to make trips to the hardware store for during the shop-out process.

This is from my memory, but I would say that the following:

Phillips screwdriver, normal average size for "regular" size screws

Phillips screwdriver, small/tiny size for ramp entrance screws.

3/8" nut driver for various nuts around the playfield

11/32" nut driver for various nuts around the playfield

1/4" nut driver for various nuts and screws around the playfield

Allen wrench, small, standard (not metric) for mini-playfield lock-nut

Allen wrench, large, standard (not metric) for things like flipper coil brackets.

An assortment of other common tools may come in handy such as pliers, wire clippers/strippers and possibly a flat-head screwdriver.

It will be necessary to own a soldering iron if you ever want to fix your machine, be sure to get a spool of solder also. I like the Radio Shack cordless soldering irons (butane). You will also find a digital multi-meter to be very handy for checking voltages, diodes and fuses. Radio Shack has a small meter for $15 or so which may come in very handy. I'll be sure to help you via email to troubleshoot anything that would require the use of these tools.

If you can get a magnet inside the 1/4" nut driver to hold screws into the driver when removing or installing, it will come in VERY handy. I can never find one of these for sale and have to glue a small magnet into the 1/4 nut driver for this effect.

Where can I get 409, Windex and/or Novus? 

It's been pointed out to be that many of you who don't live in the United States are not familiar with these name-brand products:

409: This is a household cleaner that is very common in the US. If you don't have 409 in your stores, then use a popular cleaner that you would use to clean counter-tops and the inside of your microwave oven, for example. Generally, 409 is used for these household surfaces and I've learned to use it for cleaning dirty pinball parts also!

Windex: (danger, half-dozen ads will pop-up on the Windex web-link). This is a household window cleaner which is very common in the US. This is the "blue stuff" that is specifically designed for cleaning window surfaces because it leaves no streaks like 409 does. If you don't have Windex in your stores then just use whatever glass cleaner is popular for your region.

Novus Plastic Polish: This is a tricky one. I've never gone out to actively purchase this product. I purchased my Novus from an on-line store called Marco several years ago. If you can't find this locally then you'll probably have to order it online. If the seller does not ship to your country then email me and maybe I can arrange to buy it and then resell it to you since I live in the U.S. and don't mind oversea shipping.

A quick web-search has produced the following results…

Action Pinball sells Novus polishes.

Moss-Motors sells Novus 1, 2 and 3 (I only use 1 and 2, 3 is for heavy scratches).

Boston-Rentals sells Novus 1 and 2.

MG-Store carries Novus

As you can see, there are many places that sell Novus. You can do a web-search for "Novus Plastic Polish" and find many places that will sell this product. It is not specific to pinball and you may find places such as automotive, motorcycle, marine and other types of stores selling this product.

Other Pinball Playfield Cleaners: There is Gemini (the blue stuff) and Wildcat. I have about equal thoughts on both products… well Gemeni might be easier for people since it doesn't leave a white, waxy residue like a car wax does. You'll need to do a little web-shopping to find a store that sells this, I would try Pinball Resource or Marco or any other store that sells this type of thing. For these, just do a web-search for the appropriate product that you want to buy and hopefully you'll find a store in your area. Here in the US, I like to use Metacrawler search engine because it actually searches several other major search engines all at once and provides you the results.

What were the original rubber ring colors?

As far as I know, the rings were white the flipper rubbers were black and the rubber sleeves were black except for the two at the captive ball which the manual calls for 2 yellow sleeves. The original flipper-bats (plastic part of flippers) were white, however I've seen IJ's with yellow bats installed by technicians and the yellow flipper bats don't look too bad in the IJ with the yellow-orange color scheme they fit right in.

What is my firmware revision and how can you help me upgrade it?

Your machine will report the firmware version when you press the "enter" button on the coin door. AFTER the test report flashes, the screen will show the firmware versions for sound and then the CPU board. There are only 2 chips that ever need to be changed:

CPU Board. There is only 1 EPROM chip on this board that would need to be upgraded. The latest version is L-7, however there are a lot of L-5 out there. Your version could be any of a handful of version from L-1 to L-7. There is a "revision info" sheet available at the Williams Pinball web-site in the ROM section for Indiana Jones. I strongly recommend going with the L-7 firmware since it reduces wear and tear on the mini-playfield motor by injecting a super-small delay between left-to-right and vice versa movements. The human eye cannot see this delay but the gears probably can and they appreciate the chance to stop before switching directions. In time, if you have L-5 and your mini-playfield motor or gears start to go out, you'll wish you upgraded to L-7.

Sound board. There are several ROM chips on this board, however only the bottom-most chip on the board needs replaced with L-3 sound. They must have only released L-2 and L-3 roms from the factory on the sound board, I've never seen the L-1. I have seen a sound board with all roms labled L-3, and my IJ has all roms marked L-2 except for the single rom that needs upgraded. I have removed all of the chips from the L-3 board and from my L-2 board and read their contents, the L-2 roms were identical to the L-3 except for that one chip that needs upgraded. So basically, they decided to label all of the chips L-3 even though only one of them truly changed just so that they all had the L-3 sticker on them and looked nicer. If you are upgrading your CPU board to L-7, then you have to make sure your sound board gets L-3 sound rom in the bottom-most chip.

These chips are just plug and play. You need to be careful with not bending the pins and making sure they are installed properly. I will be happy to burn some roms for you for no charge if you provide me with some roms to burn. I can even erase the EPROMS from your current machine and update them if you don't mind being without your IJ for awhile while I have their ROMs.

It is also important to use proper static-discharge precautions when messing around in the backbox. Be sure to ground yourself often. The worst thing would be to walk across your carpet floor and immediately touch a circuit board or ROM chip. You could do some damage by doing that, you need to always touch the grounded metal edge of your machine when working on it. I always leave my machine plugged in so I can do this and discharge my body static electricity through the machine ground into the ground-prong on the AC-plug and into the earth.

The part number for chips that you need to get for me to program with the IJ ROM files will be something like 27c040 or 27c4001. A quick search of Digikey, looks like part number AT27C040-90PC-ND and AT27C040-70PC-ND is what would work (70nS is a faster chip than the 90nS but it doesn't matter since the Indiana Jones CPU board will access the chip at 120nS I believe). I've also purchased various electronic chips from Pioneer. Be careful there are a lot of different versions of the 27C040 and you need to make sure you get a DIP chip (dual, inline pins) and I believe at least 120nS speed or faster such as 90 or 70nS. The temperature rating doesn't matter, commercial rating is cheaper (industrial is more expensive). This chip comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes such as PLCC, SIOC, TSOP and all sorts of other acronyms, but DIP or PDIP is what you want which specifies the physical appearance of the chip with the pins along the two long edges of it.

The original IJ apparently had a single rubber ring around the two posts at the right side inlane-outlane divider. This single rubber ring basically pulls those two posts toward each other and I decided that over time, this might cause playfield damage at their bases where they mount against the playfield. I decided to always put small rubber bumpers on these posts, one bumper around each post. To me this looks nicer and reduces playfield wear around those posts. I've seen older machines (not IJ) where loose posts or posts with stress on them have cut into the playfield and damaged it.

It's up to you what you want to do with that rubber ring(s). My updated rubber-page on my web site accounts for two separate rubber rings there instead of a single ring (which isn't listed on the rubber page anyways).

What's the deal with the fat-top and skinny-top drop targets?

There are two types of drop targets used in all Williams/Bally machines since the early 90's. The skinny-minnie and the fat-top. The two are exactly the same except the fat-top has a wider top so that when the target is in the down position the ball can roll over it without getting stuck in the slot in the playfield where the target is down.

I can't find it in the manual right now, but I've been told (and it makes sense) that the IJ is supposed to have 3 fat-top targets and 1 skinny-top target. 2 of the 3 fat-tops go on the right two of the 3-bank targets and the third fat-top goes on the single drop target. The one skinny-top target goes on the left-most of the three-bank targets since the ball can't get stuck on the slot when it is down.

The short answer is, "I don't know". But I believe that one of these posts is mounted to the backbox light-board to keep the lights from breaking against the backbox when the light panel is swung out too far. The other post is a mystery. I believe that historically, pinball machines had a few of these posts mounted to the underside of the playfield to provide some place to route wires and attach wire-ties. I would bet that the technical writer for Williams did not put a lot of effort into finding out exactly what the deal is with these posts and decided to list '2'. I believe that things like this are at the whim of the tech writer and nobody really double checked his or her work. When I shopped out pinball machines at my last job I can not remember a SINGLE pinball manual that correctly listed the rubber ring count. They were always off by 1 or 2 of the smaller sized rings. Also, the "Playfield plastics" kit for most pinball machines rarely contains every plastic… they often don't include the raised plastics and other small plastics that are on a pinball plafield.

So I have to believe that this is just another one of those mystery incorrect listings in the IJ manual. If anybody points out the second double-star clear post I'll be happy to update this FAQ with the correct location but I looked all over my IJ for the second double-star post and can't seem to find it. I think one reason that the manual (and pinball manuals in general) contain so many small errors such as this is because the intended audience for the manual is the machine coin-operators and technicians and not home-buyers and hobbyists.

Can you help me install the missing light bulb up to the right of the INDY lights at the top of the playfield?

First off… this lamp is not 'missing', the engineers at Williams decided that this lamp should not be installed. I do not have the information on the transistors that drive the General Illumination strings (there are 5 GI strings in your machine), so I don't know the amount of power that each GI line can drive… how many light bulbs are allowed on each string before the circuit is overloaded. I would have to guess that the boys at Williams decided that adding that extra light bulb would probably be just over the limit and cause people's GI circuit to fail over time and cause undue repairs on behalf of their service department or their customers.

You can easily attach a light socket (the hard part is acquiring the socket itself…. who sells these… Pinball Resource?), and just soldering the socket in parallel with the socket for the 'Y' of the INDY lights. It doesn't matter which wire goes to which tab on the socket, just as long as one wire goes to each tab to get power to the light bulb that will install into the socket… please keep in mind..

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

By adding the extra light to the GI string, you may be trying to suck more power from that GI circuit than the transistor driver is supposed to provide, this could cause the transistor to heat-up more than usual and eventually fail. Here is the trick and a likely solution to prevent this from happening. Indiana Jones was designed to have #44 light bulbs. A lot of people (including myself) replace #44 with #47 bulbs. #47 bulbs burn a tiny bit dimmer and are lower-power consumption bulbs. If you replace all of your #44's with #47s (at least on the same GI string as the INDY lights), then there will probably be enough "left over" current to allow that GI circuit to provide power to that new light bulb you add.

I simply don't have time to look up this information at this time, but the more technical thing to do is to research the transistor that they use on the GI circuit and see how much power it can provide. An understanding of transistor circuitry would be necessary. Another easier method is to find out the exact difference between #44 and #47 bulbs. Say FOR EXAMPLE that #44's are rated as "10 Watt" bulbs and #47 are rated "7 Watt". Now count the number of bulbs along the circuit for the INDY. For now, lets say there are 15 bulbs on that circuit. If you replaced all 15 #44s with #47s, you just lowered the power consumption from 150Watts (15, 10Watt bulbs) to 105Watts (15 7Watt bulbs). Now you know that the string can provide 150 watts since it left the factory with 15 #44s, and with 15 #47s it is not only sucking 105 Watts, then adding a 16^th bulb to the string will only cause a power draw of 112 Watts, so there would actually be LESS power drain by running 16 7-Watt bulbs to 15 10-Watt bulbs. ALL NUMBERS HERE WERE JUST MADE UP, I have no idea the wattage of these bulbs nor, off hand, the number of bulbs on that INDY circuit. You will need to research this information and if you wish to email me this information I'll be happy to post it here for others….

I apologize for not having the time to look up the exact values right now, but the above example should provide a clue for what information you need to determine if it is safe to jumper an extra bulb to the right of the INDY light bulbs in your IJ.

I need a part for my machine, where can I get it?

I've heard EXCELLENT things about a company called The Pinball Resource. You should be able to find their phone number on the internet. If you can't find it, try searching www.deja.com for the following text string --> "rec.games.pinball pinball resource".

When you call to place an order, HAVE THE WILLIAMS PART NUMBERS!! Please don't waste their time trying to buy a 20 cent part when you make them look up numbers they don't make any profit. We want to keep them in business and that means quick and easy transactions. The IJ manual has part numbers for just about everything.

If you can't find what you want at PR, then the only other suggestion that I have is to check out the "Mr Pinball Classifieds" on the the internet, or try www.ebay.com. Unfortunately Ebay has caused prices to go outrageously high. Beware of Ebay prices and just hang in there and you may find what you need eventually.

You can either buy one from the Pinball Resource, from a seller on Ebay or Mr. Pinball Classifieds, or you can download a scanned manual on the internet. There is a web site called "Shivista" which has a ton of manuals for download. I always access Shivista via www.pinmame.com in the "LINKS" section.

If the Shivista web-site no longer has the manual available I can arrange to send you the manual on a CD-R if you provide me with your address. The file was very large and I cannot possibly email it to anybody.

You can either buy them from Pinball Resource, or other internet resource, or you can make your own! I have some scans of the original IJ drop targets which I can email you, if I have enough web space, I'll have the big scan and the smaller scan available for download. All you have to do is print them out on a high quality color printer on to some address labels (takes time to get them to align properly), and them have them laminated at your local copy-center store. Cut them out and apply to your drop targets! Special thanks to a fellow IJ owner who sent me a sample of his finished results using this method. I apologize that I don't remember who did this for me, but I remember he lived in New York? (email me a refresher if you read this!). I also want to thank whoever scanned these target stickers several years ago and posted them on a web-site. I've long since lost the web-link and any indication of who was the original provider of these JPG files. Whoever you are, thanks!!

What is another good pinball machine to buy?

I'm in the market for a automobile…. could you tell me what is a good one to buy? Same goes with pinball machines. Play, play and play. Find out what machine you like the best, how much money you can afford and how much room you have in your garage or game room for the new toy! Everybody likes different machines and has their own preferences. All I can say is never buy before you play a machine. For example, just about everybody loves Addams Family and would give their left arm for the machine, but I personally wouldn't want to own it. On the other end of things, a lot of people hate Demolition Man, but I really like the game and wouldn’t' mind buying one. One way to play before you buy is with PinMAME (see PinMAME question on this page).

This is a cut-and-paste from an email that I sent one of you fellow IJ owners. This was a pretty good discussion on the ROM chip so I thought I would include it here on the FAQ page! This question answers an email from an Indiana Jones owner who owns an EPROM reader device which plugs into his computer to read/write the ROM chips. Note this question-answer is an answer-in-progress and the best solution is probably at the very end of this answer so read the whole thing. You don't want to buy chips from digikey.com and then read on to find out that mouser might have a better product.

You have a few options:

Option 1: You can probably erase your current EPROMS installed and reburn them with the latest and greatest code. You can only erase and reburn EPROMS, PROMS, on the otherhand are not erasable. You and determine if the existing ROMS in your machine are EPROMS by removing the sticker and if you see a window in the middle of the chip which exposes the internals of the chip, then it is an EPROM which you can erase and reprogram. You can erase an EPROM with a device called a an EPROM eraser which is simply a small box with an ultraviolet light bulb. The UV light causes the chip to erase. If you don't have an EPROM eraser you MIGHT be able to erase it by placing it very close to a flourscent light bulb for a few days but I'm not sure how well this works, An 'erased' EPROM reads as all 1's or all 0xFF (an FF is 8 1s in a row...a byte) in the memory dump. You can think of a EPROM chip like a floppy disk. You can erase the contents and put new data on it if you want. In fact I've saved vital computer data onto an EPROM chip as a ZIP file for long-term storage once.

Let me mention this now... if you never removed a PROM chip before then you first need to learn how to remove chips properly. I've done it so many times it's no big deal to me but I forget that for inexperienced people, this can be a difficult process. To remove an eprom chip you need to exercise anti-static precautions (machine plugged in to grounded outlet, switched OFF and touch grounded metal edge while working on machine). Insert a small flat screwdriver under the chip (but not under the SOCKET!) and gently pry the chip a little. Next pry at the other end of the chip a little, and then at the other end again and repeat a few times until the chip comes out of the socket. This takes time and patience. I've had to unplug a nearby connector near the sound board rom chip to get at the chip… if you do this, remember to plug that connector back in when you're done.

Option 2: Buy new EPROM or PROM chips. I haven't done a lot of hard-core searching for this part since I have a few spares that I usually erase and reprogram when I want to mess around with it. (like changing text strings and things in the memory just for fun) I helped a fellow buy some ROM chips from digikey.com I looked over their site and they seem to only sell PROM chips, not EPROM, so they were one-time only program and cannot be erased. at digikey.com this ONE TIME PROGRAMMABLE (OTP) part is part number AT27C040-70PC. This is the 70nS speed part, they also have a 90nS part number AT27C040-90PC. Either chip should work since I believe I heard that IJ access the chip at something like 120nanaseconds. (hence, any chip rated at a faster speed will work).

Notice that the DigiKey site lists this as an EPROM, but it is not erasable, so unless I'm missing something, it is a typo. If I recall correctly, even the Atmel datasheet for this part listed EPROM, I don't know why the 'E' is in there, since EPROM stands for Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. Let me check out the Poineer site for you www.pios.com ....Searching for 27C040... I see they have PLCC and DIP packages, the pinball machine boards takes the DIP style (Dual Inline Pin), the PLCC is a Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier which is a square shaped chip with pins going out all 4 edges. I see they have the same part that digikey had in the 120nS speed which should work. AT27C040-12PC

Let me try mouser (www.mouser.com) 27c040 part search. Let's see, their 511-M27C4001-10F is a 32 pin DIP EPROM which goes at 100nS. It mentions the fact that the 27c040 (or 27c4001) part is a 512Kx8 which means it stores 512Kb worth of data (same as the pinball image file sizes), this chip is also listed sometimes, as a 4Meg chip. This means it stores 4megaBITS, 4 million bits, 8 bits-in-a-byte is 512 thousand bytes or 512kb. Now the mouser part is listed as a EPROM which implies that it is erasable but remember the Atmel part at digikey was listed as EPROM but was only a one-time-programmable. I see mouser has a link to view the PDF catalog on the 511-M27C4001-10F part page http://www.mouser.com/products/detail.cfm?MPart=511-M27C4001-10F&CustRef=&source=search

Clicking on the PDF link brings up a catalog which clearly shows that the chips are erasable with the little window and also the top of the page lists UV erasable. So at the PDF page: http://www.mouser.com/catalog/cat_607/70.pdf They list 5 27c4001 parts of various speed ratings and prices. I would get the 100nS although the 120nS will probably work too. Remember it is also a 32-pin DIP (P-DIP) with 512Kx8 bits.

Personally, I'd get the mouser part since they are erasable chips. Digikey and Pios appear to only sell one-time-programmable parts.

What is this PinMAME?

This is a pretty cool software project that some very smart and nice people are working on and releasing for free on the internet. Check out www.pinmame.com for details. PinMAME is a pinball emulator which basically tricks YOUR computer into believing that it is the computer running inside the pinball machine. Yes, this means that you can sorta play actual pinball machines on your computer. PinMAME is just a emulator… like your Indiana Jones without ROM chips installed. To play pinball machines you need copies of ROM chips for PinMAME to run. So first you install PinMAME, next you locate the ROMs of the games that you want to play (Shivista web site has a lot, link from PinMAME web page).

Now, your computer is running actual pinball ROMs. At this point you can actually see the dot-matrix or alphanumeric game information on your computer screen and hear actual game sounds. PinMAME (actually what I'm talking about is called PinMAME32) has been programmed with a bunch of games to run in a "simulator" mode where pressing various keys on your keyboard will cause a sequence of playfield switches to be activated. For example, if you press Left shift+R it will cause the left ramp entrance switch, the left ramp made switch, and the left inlane switch to activate in sequential order. Also, with some games being simulated they mapped the actual lights on the screen in the orientation of how they appear on the playfield. For games that are not simulated in the PinMAME32 environment, it is possible to at least play with the switch-matrix directly using the top two rows of keys on your keyboard to at least hit various switches on the playfield (be careful of hitting the slam-tilt switch).

Okay this is all said and done, but you might want to see a ball and actually PLAY the darn games. Well, they came out with a program called VisualPinMAME which is a graphical environment for PinMAME32. VisualPinMAME will play the ROMs and interact with a GRAPHICAL PLAYFIELD on your screen of the actual playfield. Some very nice guys have created playfields and programmed them to interact with PinMAME so that all of the different graphical playfield switches will map to each switch matrix in the machine. This allows a pretty darn neat graphical version of actual pinball machines on your home PC! Complete with actual sounds and dot-matrix or alphanumeric graphics from the game.

Pretty Neat except you need at least a 500Mhz PC to do all of this. My PC is 233 Mhz and I can only run PinMAME32 and play with all of the game sounds and dot-matrix effects but my computer can't run VisualPinMAME at a decent speed.

Well, this is all I know about PinMAME, if you have any questions you should probably direct them toward the forums in the PinMAME web site or to somebody who knows more about it than myself. I hope to have at least made you aware of this if you didn't already know about it and if I introduced you who a whole new world that you didn't realize existed on the internet, at least throw an email at me and let me know! This is a very exciting project that some very talented people have came up with, I really appreciate their efforts. There are legal issues that you will need to check into before downloading ROMs.

That’s it! <end of this page>

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