Mbwalker,
Thanks for info. I just double checked packaging and no luck. I will email Nirmal. Thanks.

I believe Barry can also help you out with that. I just found mine after having installed the power supply months ago - magic glass time baby! I just wish there were more
Mods to install.. I would love to spruce up the game more but it’s so nice just out of the box!

Yet, Josh seemed to think that the problem could come from the LEDs and the control system.

Hmm...interesting. Wonder if the lights are dragging down a 5V (or whatever they run on) line, and that's causing an issue somewhere (i.e. timing, reference voltage, trip point, etc.).

I think it's not a power issue but rather, lost pulses somewhere in the data chain.

Intetference that causes the flippers to lose communication.

Possibly needs a firmware update. If so then it's difficult to address.

Might need to hook the PROC to a PC to flash it etc.

Hope that would be the easiest way. Would do it instant if i get the firmware
So now I'm 4 weeks in canada and maybe if I'm back I can upgrade houdini

I agree, it's easy for me, but for others it could be difficult.

I can not put 10 in the menu, it seems that 5 is the maximum for the number of mission to obtain a letter.

Why connect to a PC? by an update, it is not possible?

OK, that makes sense. Can't say I've ever seen that issue, might be dumb luck on my end.

And now it would be could to know which Houdini buildnumbers are affected by this phenomenon.
Maybe only a small part is affected.

My Buildnumber is 1407

Me the N ° 1521 but beware, I have not yet received the EOS and the second food!
So everyone is not concerned by this problem?

If it really is some dropped bits, probably better to look at the S/N of the computer or driver board, maybe not so much the S/N of the pin. Just speculating. AP's guru will sort it out. Looking for missing bits in a data stream is out of our hands, although I'm capable of looking at it.

BTW: Mine's 359

I see. I thought it was possible, but I guess it is the 2nd stage letter that can be set for 10.

Hadn't read this thread in a month or so but just read the last few pages. Wish somebody had reached out directly instead of guessing about the P-ROC. I'm easy to contact and am always happy to talk about non-confidential technical details.

There are a lot of incorrect assumptions about how the P-ROC works being discussed in this thread. The P-ROC doesn't slow down when a lot of different things are happening. Rather, that's where it shines. The P-ROC logic is implemented in an FPGA, which performs all of its logic simultaneously, very much unlike a sequentially operating processor. Switch events processing and driver updates are completely independent and can't/won't bog each other down. Yes, it's possible to overload the driver bus if the number of commands being sent exceeds the max bandwidth of the bus (P-ROC driver bus runs at 8 mbps vs 1mbps from other manufacturers).

We're currently working with Josh to add more features to manage priority driver requests. This will make the hardware smarter about what to do when too many commands are sent. We've also been jointly debugging some other things that happen in Houdini that don't happen in any other P-ROC-based game. If the root causes are in the P-ROC, rest assured, they'll be fixed.

- Gerry
https://www.multimorphic.com

Happy to read this message and solutions will be found ... Thank you

Happy to hear that.

big thanks to Josh and Gerry

Fingers crossesed you find a solution

Thanks for the information!

Thanks Gerry, always a gentleman.

Just a quick note to say thanks for the advice everyone. The game is at a vacation house and I haven't been able to get there but once I do I'll report back.

I have a couple adjustments to make today. The stage alley switch seemed to be registering intermittently, so i bent the wire form a bit, and now it is registering every time- but on a soft shot through the alley, the ball sometimes gets trapped between the wire and the gate, so i will reduce the arc a little. The other switch that is acting up is the switch on the upper catapult- again intermittently will not register with the ball just sitting in the cup- will eventually hick out on a ball search, but will lose out on the movie mode if qualified. I will fumble around with it and see what is up. I can hear the switch clicking when i manually push on it.
Has anyone else been getting random extra balls put into play at the scoop? I had not noticed it
in prior codes, but today had 3 times in the same game where this occurred.Still some minor tweaks needed, but this is really a great game.

On those catapult switches, when they don't register 100%, slightly bend them up.

Sorry for all the problems you have encountered.

////////////////

On game 3 we are breaking from traditional pinball shaker location and we are moving it to a more accessible location.

Our shipping and receiving person has been replaced.

Nirmal is no longer involved with API day to day activities.

If your 3 shaker motor bolts are tight you will have no problems with operating with only 3 bolts.

Please call or email me directly if you need anything... We are still experiencing growing pains and we are trying our best to do right by everyone.

224.422.3191 [email protected]

Nirmal is no longer working with API on day to day stuff.

Email me [email protected] and I will help you out.

I finally got around to fixing my bad connection on the tilt switch. No major bugs or issues since I reverted the backboard dimming to full light. We are loving Houdini and expect to keep it a long while.

A few quick items . . .

I'll be at Southern Fried Gaming this coming weekend. At 4PM on Saturday, in what should be an entertaining and informative seminar, I'll be sitting down with Zach Meny (Straight Down the Middle, Flip N Out Pinball and the This Week in Pinball Podcast), to talk about the making of Oktoberfest, rules and tips for game play, whats up at American Pinball and whatever else Zach, or those who attend, ask about. Warning, part of this seminar will NOT be family friendly.

I am working on another release, some bug fixes, some minor improvements and a work around for the dimming issue. However, we are still a few weeks from a beta.

As Gerry indicated, there is a lot of 'wrong' things being posted on how things work with P-roc (shocking that pinside would have any posts that are not 100% accurate), regardless, as he indicated I am working with him on changes to the p3-roc.

Also, please take with more than a grain of salt any post that starts with "josh told me".

Hello Josh, sorry for quoting you wrongly, I do not understand English well and I did not understand what you said in message. Still sorry, my only goal is to help as I can for the houdini to be perfect.

Update on my dead Houdini. Houdini is once again ALIVE! Thanks to BarryJ at API for the trouble shooting advice - I learned a lot about the underneath of the Houdini playfield from him. Turned out to be a fuse blew on the (blue wire) coil driver board after installing my shaker and knocker. The knocker is still not working but I'm just thankful that I don't have a $7000 brick.

Hard to tell what caused the fuse to blow but I do know that the wall nuts were not holding the power supply wires in place. Plug one in and one pops out. So I replaced the wall nuts with terminal blocks. For me, this is a much better setup. Like $12 from Amazon for 5 blocks (you just need 2). So if you installed the new powersupply this may be of interest to you.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CLY5N9T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00

IMG_3920 (resized).jpg

Did the Dremel trick last night and changed the angle of my catapult. Hitting trunk 100% now so far. Very satisfying.

Open terminal blocks are a bad idea in the cabinet below a playfield. One falling screw or other metal part can cause a real problem. At the very least I'd get a plastic shield over them.

And yes, Wall Nuts suck.

There are plastic shields over them. They're very clear so you can't see them in the image. They came with the covers and insulated barrier strips... nothing is exposed to falling parts.

I have used similar T-blocks on other projects and love them. might be over kill here with 5 slots, all you need one connection (3 wires) I really like crimp caps but have not used them on pins.

https://www.amazon.com/Farmunion-300pcs-Closed-Terminals-Connectors/dp/B01M65K6PY/ref=sr_1_3

I fried a coil and shorted a transistor as well as the associated fuse. Barry was great help. There are several fuses located on the under playfield. My advice is that it is best to have some of those fuses on hand. they are the little short ones 5X20 6.3amp slo blow I believe

As you can see from the photo I needed 5 slots for the black wires.

It looks great.
What's going on with the knocker?

Any one else have there rails dent like this, even through cardboard? Guess I need to get some heavy foam as that back box has some weight! Guess I might as well buy the power supply now and get some new rails.

Dent 1 (resized).jpg

Dent 2 (resized).jpg

Wow. I have not folded my game head down more than twice, but especially since the game is powdercoated, you should use foam or at least cardboard!

Rolled up towels to protect siderails. They dent super easy.

They gotta be thick.

do you cinch the head down really hard? I have had that on other games remnant from previous owners. I would try to remove and pound out from the backside before just ordering new ones. I use towels or shipping quilts and heavy cardboard corners that are used to ship solar panels when I transport my games and don't cinch the head to body very hard.

The kind of side rail damage can only be a slam of head from almost as big as drop you can get. Or, the dreaded ratchet strap, over cranking those around when head is lowered.

My Congo which was a re-import had gorilla sized dents, I always wondered slam? cinch? shipping? I did replace them.

And yes, ratchet do not need to be very tight

I guess that explains why I never got a followup on my checkout issue...

Something unnormal with Nirmal? Oh my

nothing unnormal his coming nuptials and position at our parent company are keeping him too busy to be here on a daily basis

Ah, normal Nirmal nuptials. Got it

Ab...nirmal?

Abby Nirmal Cider!

Has anyone experienced a 'dead' Houdini? Was going to do a code update as previous games were looping. I left the machine for a couple of days then went to turn it on and it was 'dead', no power at all. All I've got at the moment is a very nice looking and large paper weight !!!