Thanks, I will do so, best to get the real deal

I think I'm going to give it a go and install my Cliffy's today, and the plastic protectors set from Little Shop!

http://www.passionforpinball.com/WIP/API-Houdini-complete-001.jpg

So aside from the catapults, these are just simple screw in installations? Do the Switch slots just pop in? I watched a Cliffy installation on a pin, and they used a vice to tighten down the shooter lane piece. Is that necessary?

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

I bought the entire kit, but so far only installed the scoop one. And that turned into chore. Started to install the Cliffy's near the plunger, but the the piece of wood on the left didn't want to lift up after loosening the screws...likely missed one somewhere. Haven't looked into further.

Take pics for us!

Just a note on the update. It looks like it worked but it fooled me at first. This is the first time I have done an update. I put in the beta code on a USB stick and it started the update automatically. I left the room and came back in 15 minutes later and the screen was just black. There was no indication if the update had taken. I shut the game off and pulled the USB stick and powered back up. The game came up and the new software was loaded fine. That was a relief. It was also a relief to see that all of the setting for coil strength, etc were still there.

As a side note, the game hits the trunk literally every time now with the new power supply and the proper power setting. It has hit at least 40 times in a row since the last miss.

After a few games, I haven't seen any bugs although it did appear that the game thought trunk multiball was over when there were still 2 balls in play. I don't know for sure because I ended up losing both balls at exactly the same time.

Check this topic before you start. I believe you will have to remove or loosen the VUK in addition to all the stuff on top to install the scoop protector - but check that, I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure someone did the install on this forum

And yes, take pictures. I’m doing mine when off for the holidays in a week or two.

Speaking of aftermarket, did Hooked On Pinball do something for Houdini? I remember seeing that something was coming, but I don’t recall ever seeing anything released.

Since the download of the latest code the game dies during play.
Completely dies, lights out etc., then restarts. Has done it 3 times.
Will pull logs tomorrow.

FAVORITE
King of Cards
Chinese Water Torture Cell
Indian Needle Swallow

LEAST FAVORITE
Milkcan't Escape
Vanishing Elephant
Handcuff Escape

I'm not sure of the purpose of protective plastic that goes around the ball catapult , and another one near the top of the PF. Seems more cosmetic than anything. Doesn't protect the edges of the PF holes. I bought the entire, but no plans on installing once I saw how time consuming it would be.

Got to Master Magician mode last night but hadn’t paid too much attention to the reports of the game restarting upon completion. Is it correct this is being addressed in a coming code update?

Nope, it's just yours. I'll send someone over to dispose of that thing right away.

Pics on how to install the cliffy for the upper catapult would be nice to get And yes, I believe one has to use a clamp to install the cliffy under the right rail on the shooter lane.

You mean these? Yes 90% there waiting on my blue led lights. Been a slow process but everything paint wise is done and jackets are boxed ready to go.
Will be announced officially to those on the wait list and site newsletter first then forums.
Thanks to all waiting it will be worth it.

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OK, so there is an easy way to power the topper and have it switch on when the game is switched on. Rather than tap into the 12v power in the game and possibly overload the power supply, I decided to look for a way to tap into 110 volt AC power. Inside the cabinet where the power feeds into the power supply; notice the splitter cable that came with the new 48v power supply. This splits the AC power to both the new power supply and the old one. One of the three connectors on this splitter has two unused sockets that has black and white AC power wire connected on the other side. So the solution was simple as described below. As with all electrical mods, do this at your own risk based on your level of experience. I do not pretend to represent AP either. This obviously won't work if you haven't installed the 48v power supply yet!

1) Find an extension cord and cut off the female end leaving a couple of feet of wire.

2) Strip the wires and install 0.093 molex sockets on the cut extension cord.

3) Insert the contacts into the unused spots on the molex connector. You will see black and white wires looped to the other side of the connector.

4) At this point you have an outlet inside the machine that provides fused AC power for low power mods like the topper when the game is switched on. Position it somewhere out of the way and put a tie down on it.

Now all that is left is to route the power cord from the topper down to the new outlet inside the cabinet. Rather than drilling holes or modifying the game in a way that could not be reversed, I removed the screen from the vent holes on the head to allow me to passed the power brick from the topper into the game and then reinstalled the screen and routed the power cord down to the outlet. You will want to put something over the edge of the screen so it doesn't dig into the wires when you screw it back down. I used a little Gorilla tape over the edge.

That's it. The topper now comes on and off with the game!
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Nice write up and install.

For those not as mechanically/electrically inclined, they should be able to use a smart outlet strip which turns on other outlets when the pin is turned on. Haven't tried the one posted in the pic. Plug Houdini in the control outlet, then plug the topper into a switched outlet. Capture (resized).PNG

Cool! I've never seen one of those before. I'll have to keep them in mind for the future. As well as being simpler, this would be a better solution for mods that pull lots of power which you would not want to be running through the main fuse in the machine.

For the shooter lane protector, you do have to loosen the wood rails on too on both sides, and below you need to move or remove the plunger vuk bracket to access the screws you need. Do the scoop and shoootsr lane at the same time and save effort on the wood raiks, which must be loosened for both jobs. A Cliffy tip is to keep the screwss just barely still in the playfield. That way, you dont have to gouge new spirals in the wood when screwing them back in.

You and I are in synch on the least favorites, for sure.

Havent had this happen with the latest test version. The buggy game reset during Master mode seem to have been fixed, at least for me. Just needs tweaking for 5 ball games.

I’ve started doing this on (mostly older, coincidentally) games I’m adding a lot of stuff to. My TZ has plasma pop bumpers, a special LCD DMD, lit speaker panel and a couple other small things. It’s a LOT, but I know not everybody likes all this stuff, so this makes them incredibly simple to remove.

Installed my knocker and shaker kit yesterday, the shaker was a real PITA as there is so little clearance to the left side of the cabinet. I'm guessing this is because my early game had the slightly narrower cabinet the cover had to be forced into the spot as it hits the cabinet support rail for the cashbox. I love the knocker usage so far, very happy that it pops for extra balls!

Wait until you get into Bullet Catch, especially if you stack with Trunk Multiball - sounds like your popping popcorn.

After a month with Knocker, Im considering moving it to head, similar to Bally/Williams etc... maybe give it a louder sound.
Im on coil strength 15 right now for knocker.

I’ve had recurring errors three times each. 1) I got to Master Magician and the screen went black. Whenever I scored a lit arrow, it would show the shot name on screen - for instance king of cards. I think I won and since it was my last ball, the game stopped, reset and the screen came back on, showing the game was over. 2) problems playing Q - left orbit shot would not register and I couldn’t exit the mode. Game wouldn’t time out and I eventually lost the ball and mode ended. I have played Q many times it works fine, just sometimes. Wrote six files to usb disk and sent log files to Barry.

If there is no setting in menu to write files, and all that is required is to insert usb stick, at least allow multiple versions of files to be written. IE second time to save will either write over existing files or not. But it won’t allow you to keep two or more versions. Please add that capability.

Oh man, glad I held off on attempting this. Sounds a bit above my paygrade. Are other cliffy installs easier on this machine, sans the catapults, which I've heard are difficult?

The scoop is pretty easy. takes about 15 mins to install.
The shooter lane is easier and you can install the right edge of it during the scoop install.

Use a quick clamp and a paint stirring stick to clamp down the siderail, its pretty easy.

I finally got around to hooking up a powered subwoofer. I used a RCA extension cable, cut off the male end, stripped and tinned the wires which I inserted into the Houdini amp sub output and ran the remaining female ends out the vents in the backbox. Only ran about 2" out the back - didn't want wires dangling in case I moved it. My home theater has a couple of big 12" subs, too big for Houdini. But great for a test drive.

The 12" sub could be easily overbearing...just way too much. And way too big for my taste. No surprises there. So I went to Monoprice to see what they had. I should add I had a couple of their 8" powered subs, still too big for my liking. I finally opted for their slim-line series they had, 8" sub, ported. Fits just about right. Not obtrusive. Standing up now, but can be placed horizontal.

So how does it sound? First off, it will never sound like TNA or AFMr with their subs in the cabinet, but it really does a nice job. This kind of surprised me, but you really don't need much to make a big difference. It can still easily overwhelm the backbox speakers. You really just want ambience, not a lot of thumping. I bet a 6" might even be adequate, especially it was sealed. Since the Houdini sub output is turned way down. I doubt if someone would need a powered sub since the Houdini sub output is fairly high power, but I wanted a powered sub anyway.

One neat feature on the 8" slim-line series is there's a mounting bracket for a wall mount. That might be a really interesting option if someone wanted to hang it off the bottom but I wouldn't do it for fear of warping the bottom panel.

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I’m having zero luck with this. I have the sub noted below. It is not powered. I wired the sub woofer into the left hand bottom row sub woofer output “tabs” on the back of the amplifier. The only thing I got was a mild thump out of the sub when I powered up the pinball machine and then nothing out of the subwoofer. The other pinball speakers continue to work just fine. I turned the adjustment knob for subwoofer volume on the amp all the way up. Additionally I fiddled with the crossover setting, but it made no difference. The only other thing I’ve noticed was that the signal indicator on the front of the amp by the sub adjustment knobs never blinked or came on. So, other than the thump at start, I get absolutely nothing.

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I'm pretty sure it has to be a powered sub???

The amp sub output is a fair amount of wattage, not low level. At work, so can't look up the specs. Passive should be fine to.

Looks great. But I think the straightjacket covers up the nude in the window....

while I get the challenge of Milkcan escape makes it less popular, it is the highest scoring mode, by itself, but is also then jacking up the playfield multiplier.

I will say my preference is to do it when I can stack it with Seance. The seance magnet action will help get balls through the milkcan loop, and since you don't have to hit the ramp to increase the multiplier, it can quickly become quite valuable to be getting that playfield multiplier up while in multiball. Since you only need to hit a magic stand-up to get one, pretty much guaranteed you will have at least 2X playfield scoring at some point during the multiball.

Yes in that shot it does but it can be located anywhere on the PF.
Personally I like it next to the trunk upper left.
Detailed shots being loaded to our site tonight prepping before the launch.
Hookedonpinball.com

https://www.hookedonpinball.com/store/c28/Houdini-Pinball-Mods

That actually indicates a lot. Tells me the speaker wires are OK (didn't doubt it, but you never know). It's also sort of an indicator that the actual output stage on the amp is OK (at least it did something). Just a wag, but it sort of sounds like something is amiss somewhere in the amp prior to the outputs. You can get a new amp on Amazon for ~$35 Prime. Look up a LP-168HA.

bobuk - To answer your question, see below. Looks like the sub out is 68W.
Capture (resized).PNG

Thanks everyone. I too wonder about the amp, but will hook up a cheap speaker on low volume and see if it works. That should indicate if it’s some odd issue with my sub or the game’s amp. Game is only about six weeks old, so if the amp either a warranty item or a $35 output for me - either way, no big deal. I’ll experiment further. Thanks again.

Hmm. I don't own a clamp. If I install it without that, will I chip up balls or damage anything? My level of mechanical inclination and tool ownership is incredibly basic....

Tool use is only a matter of experience.
If you can feed yourself with knife and fork, those are tools.
That being said, if you are alive and fed, you can use tools.
Go slow at first and be careful.

Get a set of quick clamps from harbor freight or home depot.
They are very handy.

Get paint stirring sticks for free form a paint store or home depot.

They are also very handy and you can break them up or cut them to size. They work good as shims under furnature etc.

And they are free.

I installed it without clamping it, probably have been easier if I had used one but I don't think it's necessary at all.

Hey Gang!
Question about the Polk 10" powered sub.
What settings on back are you all using?
What is your amp in back box set at for sub?
Thanks

I don't have the Polk, I have the Monoprice. One thing I figured out was to set the amp crossover to the highest freq. That allows you to adjust it on your sub instead (I assume you have the adjustment). If you set it to the lowest freq, and you wanted to up the crossover freq a bit, you'd have to open up the backbox. So set it to the highest, and adjust on the sub itself - easy peezy. For the amplifier sub volume control...likely barely anything since the sub has an amp. If the knob was 0 to 10, I don't think mine is even at 1. Even then I think I need to lower mine. Your mileage will vary, of course.

I was thinking you mentioned you tried the sub on something else? Regardless, I'd do what you suggested (try another speaker).

It's absolutely necessary if you don't want the metal cliffy on the right to start slipping out of place from use over time. It's not an optional step for correct installation of the shooter lane cliffy on the right side. Slipped shooter lane cliffies are the #1 issue I see in pics people post where this is visible, and it's almost always because they didn't clamp it when installing. Once they move, why bother having installed them in the first place? Do it once right and forget about it.

Why would it slip when installed without a clamp versus with one as long and you tighten the rail back down sufficiently? I'm not doubting your experience but I looked at it, realized the prongs on the cliffy are they to gain purchase in the wood rail and hence hold it in place. I've cleaned the shooter lane (and the cliffy) many times since installing it and it certainly doesn't show any sign of being able to move. My machine has over 1500 games on it, most of those post-cliffy install.

It has something to do with the way the screw pulls into the siderail unclamped vs the way the screw penetrates the siderail if it's clamped. Cliff explained the physics once. All I know is zero have slipped out of place since I started clamping like he recommends.

I have a couple clamped and a couple unclamped.

in a non-routed environment they haven't moved, for what its worth.

Not a large enough sample for machines or plays.

That isa good point and great strategy to stack with seance, if the magnets actually help rather than divert my shots to the mc loop. I can usually get one or 2 mc shots, but not all of them to complete the mode

Are they using Titan silicone rings ?

https://www.titanpinball.com/

LTG : )