If you own a Twilight Zone pinball, you might have a very common "Clock is Broken" diagnostics message and your clock is not working properly, there is a great alternative.

Jim of Rottendog Amusements produced, made and completely redesigned, a great and competitively priced board replacing a troublesome Twilight Zone clock opto board design with a fresh, new approach.

This board is hassle-free and greatly improves the look of the clock (uses white LED lights) and ensures a smooth clock operation for many years to come. If you wish to visit them or ask any questions, their website is here.

TXPinball has not been paid by Rottendog Amusements or anyone else for making this page. We have not been "encouraged" by Rottendog to review their products, we have not received a "freebie" boards from them, nobody put a gun to our head and said: "Review or else", and there was no communication of any kind regarding this between us at all.

We are simply a very satisfied customer who bought their board and paid for it just like anyone else, are pleased with the design and craftsmanship of it, and we honestly believe it is a great product, beneficial to all Twilight Zone pinball machine owners.

If your clock doesn't work at all, or is sorta/kinda working, this board will get it going. Due to a faulty Williams design, and a flawed execution, most original TZ clock boards will eventualy fail and this is a great aftermarket replacement available.

IMPORTANT! Standard displaimer.
Please use due care, common sense and a lot of precaution while using this advice as TXPinball will not be held accountable for use/misuse/abuse or for any other way for you to mess something up. If in doubt, get a professional repairman. If you're electronically challenged, please do not use any advice on TXPinball.com website, or any tips and tricks offered at all, and please do not try to friggin' measure, poke around, do this or that, "diagnose" something and "fix" what you think is the great way to do something (like putting WD-40™ on flipper assemblies to "grease/lube them up to "work" better).

Do not touch and/or replace anything at all, if you are unsure of what exactly are you doing! Just friggin' stay away from the soldering iron, if you think you saw a few pictures here and think it is a piece of cake, but you have limited or no experience with it. Email us if you're stuck with a problem, we'll gladly try to help you.

If you suspect that your machine has faulty components, please seek advice from a qualified pinball rapairman to look at it and fix it properly. If you have any questions about modern pinball machines, we'll try to help within reason, so email us with your problem.

Here we have Twilight Zone clock boards. The old, original boards have a different design than Rottendog boards. It's a 2 board design connected by .100 Molex connector, which is susceptible to damage. Rottendog eliminates that.

Another look at the old boards. The original design was faulty to begin with using 4 #86 lamps and the boards would overheat. Since there was no way for heat to dissipate (escape) from the encased clock housing, it would burn up the optos (especially "noon" or 12 o'clock one) and cook/roast/grill & broil the rest of the board.

Smaller detail showing the boards being roasted. The temperature inside the clock housing would reach upwards of 160 degrees Fahrenheit (as measured by Bipolar Joel). And since heat would tend to go upwards (being lighter that the colder air, mainly upper optos on the clock (12 o'clock opto) would get damaged. All that results in a dreaded and all too common "Clock is broken" message.

Bottom of the Rottendog Amusements TZ clock board.

Unique design, which in our opinion is way better than a "sandwich 2 board design". All optos are on only 1 board eliminating the need for board inter-connectivity and 4 posts, frequently prone to malfunction. Both minute and hour optos are on one board on different sides. Clearly a better design than other boards on the market and way better than what the game originaly came with.

In addition to better board design, it is designed with bright white LED lights instead of old, heat dispensing #86 bulbs.

Another bottom of the board close up shot. Board traces and component holes are somewhat smallish, though (our only complaint of these boards besides hot resistors spaced close to 12 o'clock opto AGAIN. There was plenty of space on the board to redesign, reposition components and eliminate that. But, it is still WAY better and the heat produced is minimal compared to the Fry-Daddy temps of the original boards).

In the unlikely even your board will malfunction, I believe Rottendog Amusements offers a very generous warranty. Please contact them for any details.

Efficient design with components spaced wide, again there will be great heat reduction and the clock will operate normally, as intended, for a long time.

New pair of connectors is also sturdy. Very beneficial.

This board is designed to be a direct replacement, a plug-and-play replacement solution for your old crispy fried boards.

Clock assembly being scattered around before reassembling the whole thing with a new board.

Clock gears that move the hour and minute hads. While you have the thing disassembled, inspect and clean and readjust everything if necessary...

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