After following all of the TBL threads over the years, I feel like the most common theme is the frequent and various switch issues.i don't recall another game with this many switch issues...it seems very unusual. Is the machine not using the same standard switches that most other manufacturers use? Given the number of various improvements that have already been made to this machine, perhaps better switches should be on that list?

Thanks for sharing and certainly not encouraging news for folks like myself that are close (hopefully) to getting their machine. Hopefully your issues are resolved quickly!

I also noticed that the 1 and 1.6 amp fuses aren't stocked by Pinball Life. I called them to see if they happened to have them and perhaps they just aren't listed or out of stock and they don't. They claim they are not commonly used in Pinball and don't carry them as a result. Can you provide a link for Amazon for what you ordered?

Thanks!

I don't have my machine just yet but proactively stocking up on a few things in preparation

Is there a way to increase the sensitivity of the rug to make it register hits more consistently? Right now it only register very strong hits...probably less than half. Thanks!

Anyone do anything creative to make the rug toy more consistent in terms of registering hits? Curious if anyone was able to adjust the switch to make the rug more sensitive

A couple of items that I'd appreciate some help with:

1) About 1 or 2 out of every 10 shots from with the Jesus VUK or the upper playfield skillshot go up to the upper playfield and come down the Walter ramp instead of being fed into the upper playfield towards the upper flipper. How can this be addressed?

2) Tonight, the bowling alley started misfeeding the ball into the bowling ball launcher. Once you go becoming and select your ball to bowl for, the bowling shooter starts rotating before the ball is fed to it. The ball is being fed fairly hard and is hitting off of the bowling shooter and falling down the bowling alley. This can happen multiple times until it's fed correctly. It's either the ball is fed too fast/hard or the bowling shooter is already rotating and the feed only really works if the shooter is centered and not moving. I tried lowering the coil strength on the bowling ball return down to 22 but that doesn't seems to have any impact. Is lower the ms number make it harder or softer? What else can I try.

3) The launch button doesn't seem to light in gameplay. It lights up in test but I've only seen it light a few times in either attract mode or in gameplay. It consistently lights in test.

Thanks for your help!

1) seems fixed by lowering VUK strength a couple of notches...thank you!

2) the issue is that the bowling launcher sometimes starts rotating side to side before the ball is loaded into it. The ball isn't going through it due to the pin not working correctly. The ball is being loaded in while the launcher is moving. When the launcher isn't moving or it happens to be centered the ball loads fine. I don't understand why it sometimes waits for a ball to load before moving (successful load) and sometimes it starts moving and the ball doesn't load correctly. Is there a switch or something I could adjust?

3) the launch button is definitely not lighting consistently. Every so often I'll see it lot but 95% of the time it isn't lit. Any idea of what I could look at? Since it 100% works in test, it's not a loose bulb.

Thanks!

Rensh - Can you confirm with the bowling launcher should start rotating before a ball is fed into it? I believe that it should not, and I need help diagnosing why it would be doing this so I can fix it? When the launcher stays centered and doesn't move until the ball is fed into it, the feed works perfectly. But when the launcher starts moving directly after I select the ball I want to bowl for, that's when the ball doesn't feed properly into the launcher. The feed can't happen correctly when the ball is being fed into a moving target

Appreciate the help but don't fully understand what I'm supposed to check in this case. Do you mean the switch at the bottom on the bowling alley where the ball sits before it's fired up to load into the launcher? If yes, what exactly am I checking? I need to know what it is supposed to look like so I can compare with mine.

Thank you!

Appreciate the clarification and will take a look later today and will report back

I ran both the bowling opto and bowling stepper tests and everything seems to be working 100% in test. I've attached a pic of the switch test with 5 balls in the trough, the bowling ball at rest at the bottom of the bowling mech, and the coin door opened. Seems correct to me meaning no switches seem to be behaving incorrectly.

I also slightly bent one of the metal guide arms at the top of the bowling mech to guide the ball a bit to the right when it loads into the launcher.

I'll need to play test later. To ensure I understand the bowling mech correctly, what triggers the bowling launcher to start moving left and right? I would assume that would be what is causing my issue.

PXL_20220205_004248775 (resized).jpg

The launcher is working 100% in terms of it's operation and the switches in all tests. What is happening in gamplay is that, once I select a ball to bowl for, the launcher starts it's rotational movement and doesn't always wait for the ball to load. I am trying to understand why it would be doing that only about 50% of the time. If the code has a delay built in to wait for the ball to load before the launcher moves then I'd say it's a code bug. If not and a switch tells the launcher to move, then what triggers that switch?

Figured I'd cross-post a potential solution for anyone who has a rug that requires a really hard shot to register a hit. I spent a bunch of time trying to readjust the switch to make the rug register shots more effectively and ended up finding a great solution: move the switch lower.

I've attached two pics. The first is the switch the way it was installed at the factory. The second is the adjusted position. You can see from the pics that it was screwed in at an angle from the factory. The adjustment has it a bit lowered and the screws are parallel.

I also tried removing the switch and moving the switch blade to the inside mounting nubs but that didn't work...made the rug barely register at all.

Now the rug registers hits much more easily and is playing perfectly. You don't need to nail the shot and can even hit it with a backhand! Hope that this is helpful to all the dudes out there!

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I did the same thing!

I was planning on installing the scoop cliffy having just received mine. Where exactly are you experiencing stuck balls?

Rensh - I have a current build and just confirmed the pinball life 5/16 rubber o rings won't work as a proper bowling pin limiter. That said, I don't have access to a 3d printer and curious if DP will provide me a set of the approved limiters? If so, how do I obtain them?

I just got a switch error from the test report stating "MPF Scoop (stuck closed)." When I go to the switch test, the MPF Scoop is listed which I don't think is correct. I looked at the manual but having trouble figuring out what switch this is referring to and how to access it to adjust it.

Also, and this may be unrelated, but I recently started having a fair amount of shots around the upper playfield loop not register. I have checked those switches and they are all fine, this includes me running 30 balls through it in test to see which switches are registering....that is perfect.

Thanks!

I have a newer build and was able to fix/adjust the switch in the loop which fixed the loop not registering...unrelated problem so it seems.

The MPF Scoop is not registering. I can qualify bowling or a car mode, then hit the scoop and nothing happens. I'll take a look at the service faq and check that cable

I followed up via email to dutch support, but I did remove the back panel and checked the flat ribbon cable (it was fine) but even reseated it and the problem didn't go away.

With the back panel out, I have a pretty good look at that opto pair and it doesn't look like those wires, on either side, have come loose. If I get the MPF out and the wires seem fine, would you suspect that the opto pair went bad? Can you tell me where, on what board, do those optos plug in so I can check that connection?

I had mentioned that I have a newer build, but my serial number is DP-01-00595. I will unfortunately disassemble the MPF and check the optos and their wiring more closely. I have already checked their alignment and they look perfectly centered and in position. I was wondering if perhaps something came loose on the PCB under the playfield which I'll only be able to see once the thing is removed.

The flat cable is firmly seated on both sides and I did reseat both sides but that didn't solve the issue.

I'll take pics of these components and provide via the support email if I'm still unable to solve the issue.

That's what I'm thinking and really would love to avoid taking the upper playfield out if I don't have to. Not sure how to test it. If it's a bad opto, is this a part I'd need from DP or something more easily obtainable?

Following up on this after some excellent tech support via email from @rensh. It ended up being a bad opto and DP is sending me out a new pair. For what it's worth, I did remove the upper playfield and it wasn't too bad...took me about 10-15 mins as previously quoted. I do have a newer build so YMMV.

Has anyone had to replace the ribbon cable that runs from the upper playfield to the main board underneath the main playfield. My upper playfield scoop opto switches aren't working and most of the lights in the upper playfield are out. I've tried resetting the ribbon cable and just replaced the opto pair but this hasn't fixed my issues. Curious if anyone has experienced this and if replacing the ribbon cable worked

This didn't work for me but figured I'd pass the info along to ya in case it solves your issue. Check fuses F10 and F11 which are next to where the ribbon cable plugs into the board under the main playfield. Based on info received from DP these fuses relate to power being fed to the upper playfield

Have you checked those two fuses? Is anything on the MPF working?

I'm awaiting a new board for my upper playfield to hopefully resolve this but remember to check the fuses (I think it's F10 or F11) to make sure it's not blown. That fuse controls the upper playfield 12v power

Any chance you snapped a pic of that wedge installed in your machine? Would be helpful to see what you did.

If not, could you possible circle on the pic Rens provided to indicate where you installed it?

Thanks!

Any chance you were able to do it without removing the upper playfield? Perhaps with just removing the back panel? I had just removed and replaced the upper playfield to resolve another issue and don't really want to do it again

Thanks!

I would recommend taking a close look at the lower playfield window to ensure that it is flush to the playfield. If it's slightly raised in the top right corner, then that could be the cause of your airballs to that post. Similar conversations have been documented about the upper left side contributing to airballs off of the right stand-up lock switch on the left ramp. I have had to adjust my window a few times but it really makes a difference. To adjust, you'll need some trial and error by either loosening or tightening the fastners underneath the playfield that secure the window and then putting the playfield down to test how flush it is

Me too!

Appreciate you updating this. I will definitely give this a shot as I feel like my rug mech could register hits better. I'll try bending the switch blade downwards

For anyone interested in making their rug mech more sensitive to hits, I highly recommend doing what Rensh posted and bending the switch blade downwards a bit. I did this last night and the difference is VERY noticeable. The rug now registers pretty much every hit from either flipper and even from a cradle position off of the right flipper. It really changes the game!

I followed his instructions by unplugging the motor, manually twisting the rug spindle down to get better access to the switch, pressing down on the mech to access the switch and putting a flat head screwdriver in there to hold it open, and finally used a small mirror and a leaf adjustment tool to bend the switch blade downwards a bit.

Amazing results that greatly improves gameplay.

I just fired up the machine after being on vacation for 5 days and an error message popped up on the screen. Never seen an error message like this and would appreciate some guidance on how to resolve it.

I've attached a pic

Thanks!

PXL_20230209_160007336 (resized).jpg

Thanks!

I am experiencing an issue with the skill shots and the diverter that controls whether the ball is fed to the upper playfield or not when you select the skill shot. If I hold the right flipper to select the upper playfield skillshot it will divert properly to the upper playfield. If it don't hold the right flipper and go for the upper lane skillshot, it will normally still divert to the upper playfield. If I hold the left flipper for the skillshot shot to the rug, it will only send the ball all the way around the orbit to the flippers about 50% of the time...the other 50% will still divert to the upper playfield.

Seems like something is wrong with the diverter since it's very inconsistent. The code correctly applies the selected skill shot, so perhaps the diverter is getting stuck or something and isn't able to properly open all of the time. If I select the upper lane skill shot and just plunge without holding one of the flipper buttons and it incorrectly diverts to the upper playfield, the upper lane skillshot is still lit on the playfield and the upper playfield one is not

I'd also check the associated fuses for the upper playfield before removing it. Have you noticed that any of the insert lighting up there is acting up as well? Regardless, I'd suggest inspecting those two fuses (don't remember their fuse numbers) before going through the effort of removing the upper playfield