Installing a Shaker Motor (in a standard LOTR)

[DRANO]

For anyone who's ever wanted to install a shaker motor in a standard LOTR (only the LE version was able to support this from factory) there is a great how-to guide on pinside posted by MARKMON. I did this mod last night and it works pretty well.

I'm copying a lot of Markmon's directions here and adding in a few notes of my own.
If any of you are just looking to install a shaker in a newer stern and have never done it, a lot of this still applies... I will point out the differences for the LOTR install as we go.



To install a shaker motor in your Lord of the Rings standard edition, you need to be running the special edition of Lord of the Rings software on your regular machine. However, the special edition of the machine has been updated to the SAM chipset while the original machine ran the whitestar chipset. The shaker motor code will only run if it detects the SAM chipset. Therefore, you will need some items for this:

1) Stern shaker motor kit. Rev B works. Get from standard suppliers like marco, cointaker, etc.
2) Lord of the Rings special PAL chip. Get from pinbits.
3) Lord of the Rings 10.02 ROM. (I got mine from Dave Astill in Collingwood (http://www.angelfire.com/ca/astilent/)

Once you have these things, it's time to install:

1) Install the new PAL chip in your machine. It replaces the chip in the CPU board directly to the left of your game ROM.
2) Install your new 10.02 game rom into your machine.
3) Install display ROM 10.0 or higher into your DMD controller board on the back side of the DMD. You must run the 10.0 display ROM along with the 10.0 or 10.02 code.
4) Fire up your machine. If it doesn't boot up, turn it off, remove your batteries, wait 30 secs, and try again. Or reseat your CPU ROM.
5) Once the game boots up and you're satisfied that 10.02 is working fine, it's time to install the shaker motor. Follow the standard instructions to mount the shaker into the game.
6) Stern released a service bulletin about upgrading sound software on the whitestar platforms. If you get random call outs during attract mode, you need a sound update. The rom can be downloaded from their site. Here is the service bulletin instructions:
http://sternpinball.com/SB/ServiceBulletin_157.html
(NOTE: my game appears to have version 7 of the sound ROM and I am noticing some random callouts. I've contacted Dave to also get the OS8 ROM)

 

[DRANO]

These are the chips mentioned above (minus the sound ROM).
The smaller one is the PAL chip from PINBITS

NOTE: if you are installing a shaker in a newer game like Tron, ACDC, etc. you will not need to change any chips at all. This step is only for original runs of standard LOTR



This is a great tool for pulling chips and ROMs off boards with minimal effort and damage. You can get it at Marcos and other suppliers.
Otherwise, gently slide a small flathead screwdriver under the chip and pry it up. Be very gentle so you don't crack any of the legs.



Here is the loaction of the main CPU ROM and the smaller chip to the left of it is where we will put the new PAL from pinbits.



Finally, flip down the speaker panel to reveal the back of the DMD and swap out the display ROM mentioned earlier.




VERY IMPORTANT: All chips have a small marker. Usually an indent on one end in the shape of a half-circle. Please make sure to note what direction this marker is facing on your original chip prior to removal, and make sure the new chip is facing the same way

 

[DRANO]

If you have never seen a Stern shaker kit, here is what you get in the box.

Clockwise from upper left:
Plastic tub housing, shaker motor, wiring harness/zip ties, control board and a bag of hardware.



You also get this handy template that you can cut and place in the bottom of the cabinet (to the left of the cash box) to help line up your drill. You have to drill 4 holes in the bottom of the cab.



NOTE: Newer stern games do not require drilling. Most are pre-drilled to accept a shaker already

Once drilled, you tap in these 4 threaded inserts from the bottom of the cabinet.

 

[DRANO]

Okay, now we can properly install our shaker.
For those of you installing a regular shaker on a newer machine, this is about where you would start since you don't need new chips or drilling.

The motor gets screwed through the cabinet and to the threaded inserts we pounded into the holes. Make sure it's good and tight. The screws will likely pull the inserts into the wood a bit more.



Now you can place the protective plastic tub over the shaler and screw it down. Make sure the wiring from the motor does not get pinched and it should be closer to the front of the game.

Then you will screw the provided control board to the side of the cabinet (newer games will have little dimples for the screw locations)
Make sure the side with the 7-pin connector faces the back of the game and 5-pin towards the front



Now we are ready to wires it all up. Again, for a regular installation you just connect the harness as directed in the instructions (I won't go into detail here, but it's super dead easy). But, for us lucky LOTR owners, we will be making some modifications to get power and control signals to our motor.

Here is the harness. Basically it has one connector for power (red wire) that goes to a 7-pin connector that plugs into the board, and that feeds out to a brown wire that we will connect to one of our PCBs in the head cabinet.

 

[DRANO]

Okay, the home stretch

You LOTR guys will be getting power via this 12V circuit that conveniently travels through the coin door switch. This switch normally controls power to the solenoids depending on whether the door is open or closed. Make sure to locate the lug at the top of the top-most switch (there are two) see picture. Remove the lug. We will be cutting this wire. Make sure to leave at least 4-5" of wire attached to the lug.



You will need to strip both ends of the wire that you just cut.
In addition, you will cut off the molex connector on the end of the red wire on the provided motor wiring harness.
Get all three exposed wires together and we will be splicing them.



Here is the finished connection. I just used a twist-on connector that I had handy.
Now your motor has power

 

[DRANO]

Our last connection will be in the head.
You can plug in the 7-pin connector on the control board above the shaker.

Then, find the other end of the harness. There is a brown and white wire with a molex connector.
Feed this under the playfield (try to insert it into the plastic wiring clips throughout the cabinet for a cleaner look) and feed it up into the head.

You will need to locate this connector that has two orange wires and several blue ones.



The 5th slot on this IDC connector is unused. You will clip the molex off the wire (do not strip it) and place it into the 5th space on the connector.
In this picture you can see that I have an IDC tool which allows me to press the wire into the slot perfectly. You can also do this with a flat head screwdriver if you are carefull.
This wire will send impulses to the board and motor so it knows when to work and how hard to shake.



That's it, you are done!

If you have a later version of the game, you may be alright.
If you are like me and your game is an earlier run, you will likely need that sound ROM upgrade mentioned earlier.

Now go and bash some Balrog and enjoy!

 

[mwong168]

Thanks for the post and can't wait to try your LOTR out now with shaker to see if I want to do the same with mine. I also want to add a shaker to my SM and Tron in the near future too and wish i had stocked up last summer when PBL had a sale on their shakers for $125.

 

[tkaye]

Great post Adriano! I may install one in my LOTR. I love the one in Tron.

 

[DRANO]

I think you'll enjoy it. The balrog hits alone are cool. The multi-balls really shake on any jackpot shot.


One thing I forgot to mention:

Make sure to leave the game on normal boot setting. Do not change your settings to "fast boot". When you change the ROMs the factory defaults will do this automatically for you.... just set it to free play but leave the normal boot option

 

[WARLOCK]

Thanks for the posting Drano. Awesome insight and info. for this neat mod.
I will be following suit once my lotr makes it home to my house from my shop.
I assume Wong will beat me to it, but a group ordering time for shakers is coming soon I bet.

 

[mwong168]

I might organize a group buy for the pinbits PAL chip as I know Dave Astill was interested in this too. I want to play Adriano's first and see how well integrated the shaker or get his opinion after more play time.

 

[Menace]

I might organize a group buy for the pinbits PAL chip as I know Dave Astill was interested in this too. I want to play Adriano's first and see how well integrated the shaker or get his opinion after more play time.

Just do it. We will revoke your "Baller Status" card if you don't.

D

 

[DRANO]

I might organize a group buy for the pinbits PAL chip as I know Dave Astill was interested in this too. I want to play Adriano's first and see how well integrated the shaker or get his opinion after more play time.

Dave already installed this mod. Sounds like it's working great for him. He may have a later production game with v.8 of the sound code.

I ordered the sound ROM but I was having no issues with random callouts last night. I guess it is intermittent?

 

[mwong168]

I guess it is intermittent?

Sounds like my STTNG :FP:

 

[DRANO]

Some guys don't even experience it until the game has been on for an hour... but the new ROM is a few bucks and seems to prevent the issue.
Easy Peasy

 

[yellowmustard]

thanks for the HOW TO?...i just need the LOTR pin nOW!!! :FP:

 

[DRANO]

There was a small mix-up and a delay, but I finally got my LOTR OS8 sound ROM to complete this mod.
I'll install it tonight and let everyone know if the random callouts dissapear.

They're actually pretty funny and always out of context... but not enough to disrupt the game.

 

[DRANO]

Okay, well LOTR seems to be playing fine and without any strange callouts.

One quick point. If you do this mod and your game needs this last little adjustment, don't do what I did.
I assumed the ROMs just got swapped. This is not the case.
The file on the os8 ROM actually has to be uploaded, jumpers need to be moved around on the board, and then the original sound ROM gets put back and the jumpers put back in place.

The service bulletin from Stern posted above in step #6 of the original post is important. Read the installation instructions. Also, they tell you to wait for the green LED to flash repeatedly. This is how you know the file was uploaded successfully. In reality, it flashes during the upload, so you have to wait for a rapid flash... so be careful and patient.

Good luck. It was a fairly easy and uncomplicated mod, and pretty awesome considering this was one of the few differentiators between the LE and the standard editions. Fooling the game into believing it's an LE is pretty cool!

Now.... Go bash some more Balrog

 

[Pharoah007]

Did your LOTR have a transistor at Q12?

I am about to install a shaker kit and noticed I do not have a Q12 transistor.

Edit, added a Q12 and everything works fine.