Could we reinstall the latest Beta and change the setting youre describing to "On," in the menu?

Yes, set it 5 and first letter to 4

Any tips on getting the flippers to have a little more power to them? We have a Houdini at the Western Mass Pinball Club and the flippers just feel......mushy. The game has the upgraded power supply (with shaker and knocker) but not the EOS switches. We dialed up the flipper power about 4 up from default (26 from 22) but it’s still doesn’t feel great. Any ideas? What voltage should the flipper coils be getting when engaged?

48v flippers are not the same as 70v flippers.

Im my experience, the higher the flipper power the more stage rejects you get.

The more you play it, the lower you want the flipper power, as the stage is a main focus.

I installed the Pinnovaters PinPac9 (American Headphone kit) system on my Houdini... it has the external volume controls, subwoofer out and headphone adapter. The subwoofer really improves the sound and I love being able to adjust the volume without opening the door... being able to play with headphones is an added bonus... I recommend it highly if it interests you. https://pinnovators.myshopify.com/collections/all/products/pinpac-9-mac-american-pinball-headphone-kit-1
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Who did he replace?

Jim Patla is coming (to the TPF) with American Pinball as their interim Chief Operations Officer and will be visiting with fans and guests all weekend.

Don't know if he replaced anybody. Great guy. Maybe they added his expertise to the company. He has a good history in pinball.

LTG : )

I will test this in the next 2 days or so. Have had 0 issues with previous release and have been really enjoying putting up some scores.

Missed Master Magician by one shot. Argh.

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So my catapult is playing up AGAIN! Glass of 20/20. Glass on 0/3. Fml. Glass on shots missing far right. Glass off shots going bang in the middle of the fking trunk

I’ve found if I bend the bracket towards the outside of the cabinet it’ll work for about 4 or 5 glass on catapult shots. Wit the catapult set at either 27 or 28 glass off 30/30. I put the glass on played a game (was a cracker of a game too 2.112mil) first 6 maybe 8 catapult shots went in! I had trunk multiball go a couple of times and I’m sure the ball made it into the trunk during multiball too. The next few missed. I’m guessing I’ll need to bend the bracket a bit more towards the outside of the cab again. But damn it’s frustrating to have it work glass of all the time and then all of a sudden stop working

Glass on or glass off sounds like the ball is barely scraping the glass maybe?

Thats really strange.

I do have it miss once in awhile during heavy solenoid use periods.

I was thinking of going to an even bigger upgraded power supply.

Maybe 1200 watts. This would give the game a little more ceiling for power utilization.

I tell you what it’s absolutely infuriating! I’m thinking I’m sweet 30x in a row glass on 0!!!! And it goes from in the middle of the trunk to somewhere around the middle between the trunk and the upper catapult wire form.

So, it must be hitting the glass since that’s the only variable. So, your arch is too high. Is there anything mechanical that is causing the catapult to stop a bit early, like the solenoid stop is adjusted in too far In or something else that causes the ball to leave the arm a tiny bit early? Weird.

I had a look at that I think it might have been grazing the plastic around the catapult area and pushing it that far right hence if I bend the bracket as if it’s missing left, according to the instructions (towards the outside of the cabinet), it clears the plastic and now shoots properly with glass off. I’ll try and bend it a bit more and we’ll see what happens from there.

But I’m truely perplexed

When I had my Houdini I had same issue (hitting the plastic ramp), I went in and reduced the catapult coil by 1, I think it was 26, and it resolved the issue. After I sold the game the buyer calls me and tells me he's having an issue with the catapult. I told him what I did previously and he text me back advising it fixed the issue.

In short, anyone having an issue with the pinball not making it into the trunk, mess with the coil strength.
Take the glass off
Turn machine on and go into settings find catapult set it to 26
place pinball into catapult and see what happens
adjust up/down strength by 1 and test again.

The ball is definitely hitting something

Rulewise I count only one flaw. When attempting missions, any errant switch hit will end and restart the mission. This includes triggering the flipper inlane switches or magnet stand ups. To me those are minor hits and shouldn’t count against the mission. It is close to impossible to slow and capture the ball, but then to have no allowance for these minor hits means that collecting 2 missions per game will be the norm and on a super game collect 3. But collecting 5 is a no go. Allowing for the minor hits to occur would still be plenty challenging and would offer hope.

I actually agree with this, although multiball does make it a bit easier - by accident!

I tested this theory about hitting the glass with my hand about 1/2” below where the glass sit and it didn’t hit my hand until it was a little further down, say 15mm, and when the ball did hit my hand it just knocked it down. Tested again tonight 20/20 in the trunk glass on 0...

I too a slow mo video too and it doesn’t look like anything is happening with the mech either

I do realise the mech is a little skew in the hole but glass off 20/20!

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And here’s a video to show 10/10 catapult launches with glass off.

Sorry I lied it was 11/11!

I haven’t read all the way back but have you tried to lower the catapult coil strength?

Is it consisently missing to one side or is it short? Maybe the glass is squaring up the cabinet and tweaking the side to side geometry? You might have to open up the catapult bracket holes with a Dremel and adjust to compensate.

I would think this is not necessary. As stated previously I had the same issues with the ball hitting off the glass and also hitting off the side of the plastic ramp. Both issues were resolved with adjusting the catapult strength.

might be helpful if post the slow motion one where it is missing the trunk. I'd shoot it from directly above and then from the side. If the issue only pops up with the glass on, seems likely it is nicking the glass (which the side view might show better than the top view).

Missions were always intended as a set of objectives for higher skilled players and to give breadth to the game. So success with Missions requires developing the skill to make the four right side shots when the ball is coming down from the left orbit.

The first two are practically gimmies, especially since the magic stand-up support for missions was added. The third one is certainly attainable if you are trying to make it and I don't think that requires a 'super game', as you can easily get it by accident.

The fourth is certainly much, much tougher and does require a certain degree of skill and precision and is not just going to happen without you focusing on it, very unlikely it just happens. It is also a very different set of shots than the others so skill developed for the first three is of no help on this one.

The fifth one is equally hard, but only because of the challenge of the second shot (milkcan off of a made left orbit shot), but what really makes it challenging is the pressure of it. After you make the difficult second shot, your mind jumps to "ok, now don't blow it" and considering the last three shots are shots you made on earlier missions, at that point it should not be super hard, but, well, the mind can . . . . What is also challenging ab out it, is that over time you try to train yourself to always go ramp after milkcan, but for the mission it is right orbit, not ramp, and while that is an easier shot than the ramp it may not be, if your mind is thinking 'ramp'.

Did you video with glass at least partially on? Enough to catch the top of the arch. Other than hitting it or, as jgaltr56 notes, the glass slightly reshaping or squaring things up, there does not seem to be anything else physically at play. The only other difference is that the VUK fires the ball up the wire work ramp a few seconds before. If that’s doing something, someone with a lot more practical electronics experience will have to chime in.

Originally I had a lot of trouble with the catapult missing (it was shooting to the left of the trunk). I fixed the problem by drilling a new bottom hole in the ramp and shifting it to the right (only took a few minutes without having to remove the ramp). Since then it rarely misses the shot except during multiball frenzies when many coils are simultaneously firing. Your problem may be a combination of the ball barely hitting the ramp and then deflecting off the bottom of the glass. It's either that or the arc of the throw is such that it hits the glass.

To check this, you could cut a piece of wood or plastic that is the width of the glass and 4"-6" long and slide it up and down the channel while catapulting the ball to find out where in the arc the ball is hitting the glass. To eliminate the ramp from the equation, loosen it up and slide it out of the way during the tests. This would help sort out the glass-on, glass-off different success rate.

The catapult must be very straight in its slot. Yours is way crooked.
Fix that first and readjust the power setting.

I've been having the same issue as well. My catapult would shoot on the right side of the trunk which usually means to lower your coil 1 strength down. But with 1 strength down it'll make the trunk sometimes, but most the time it'll just go to the left side of trunk.. Is this a power supply issue maybe?

lower the strength down to (26 ? i think) and lift the playfield and unscrew the catapult mount a tiny bit and move it so it throws more to the right. just a touch. then re-screw

Hey guys...very infrequent poster in this thread but own the machine and ABSOLUTELY LOVE it!
Quick question (well 2).

1. I installed the knocker and the upgraded power supply...my knocker doesn't work in game play, nor does it fire in test. I have triple checked my connections and instructions...could I be missing something?

2. When I play a game and I get a rocket shot back to my flippers (because I have thrown up a brick), it will sometimes cause my flipper(s) to "bend back" - sorry for the bad explanation - if I have it in the upright position trying to catch the bad shot. Any idea what this is or how to correct it?

Either way, no knocker and the sporadic mushy flipper(s)...this game may be my all-time favourite!!

Have you turned on the knocker in the game settings?

Good call. From the installation instructions.

9) Put the machine into Test>Adjustments>Standard. Change the Knocker setting to “Mechanical”. Exit test mode and enjoy your new KNOCKER!

LTG : )

As of today...

I'm officially in the club......

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Looks great!

You won’t be disappointed. Haven’t played a game on Houdini in a week or two (been work busy), but it never fails to be engaging and fun, and “one more game..”. Now hopefully another code release soon!

I picked up a NIB Houdini yesterday.

The game has code version 18.5.4 installed.

I'm trying to do any update, but the only screen mesage I get is Audits and settings have been saved to USB.

The machine isn't taking the new code. What am I doing wrong? Ive tried several different USB sticks.

Make sure that the cable that goes from the USB receptacle next to the coin door is fully seated into the computer in the backbox. When I first got my Houdini, it had worked itself loose from the computer during shipping and wouldn't see the remote USB receptacle (by the coin door). Just needed a reseating to work. I've heard that others have had a formatting issue with the type of USB drive but I personally haven't had an issue with this.

Congratulations on your new game and the hours of fun ahead!

Change the name of the new code file to be houdini-gamecode.pkg remove any version info from the name. In the future it will not be necessary to do this.

Thanks Rosh....

That did the trick....

Congratulations on the new game! Houdini is a butt kicker

When will the new code be available?
Looking forward to it.

Ditto

Anyone experiencing a random dead flipper, coupled with inconsistent flipper power?

My right flipper stopped the other day. The return spring had broken.

Do you have the power supply upgrade installed?

It has the upgraded power supply, yes. I’m almost positive this started happening after updating the code. Both flippers are wonky (half flips, weak/dead)