No, or you have the wrong connector.

It should match the picture.

It’s actually the more recent ones, the latest Houdini games were manufactured with a different power supply, and there were no current instructions with the kit. I dont think its the end of the world, and both Houdini and Oktoberfest have been Rock solid, well built and reliable. Also Dave at tech support was very friendly and accommodating. I have no issue buying and supporting Americans product as i always have and will continue to do so. I feel this is where manufacturers always fail, this problem occurred, this is a houdini thread and i feel its the appropriate place to discuss it.
So, if anyone bought a Houdini recently, be sure to check with tech support before installation of a knocker in houdini

I forgot to pull out the door switch! Now only the pops, upper post, upper catapult and trunk lid do not work.

My J5 wire has 2 brown on one slot and 2 black wires on one slot. One of each is from one board and the other two are from the board on the other side.

I think all the fuses are OK. I will check connections. I did use the walnuts. I will sends some pictures.

Thanks.

My game matches the picture.

Im not sure what the difference is.

A picture might help.

Check the fuses with a meter.
Often they look good but are not.

Pull and check with a meter, if connections are solid.

LTG : )

Last picture shows J6 as single brown and single black. Instructions look like the other board though.

Edit: posted after too many drinks, wrong information included.

I got it to fix the scoop. It is advertised as coil improvement kit. It is not specified as for flippers.

What is your scoop issue?? I've rarely seen the scoop act differently under heavy load and if it does fail to eject the first time it will certainly recover for the second one.

It may take 3 or 4 times to come out. This is the only issue my Houdini has. My trunk catapult has never missed since I put in the new 48v power supply.

My boards look like this

20200819_165700 (resized).jpg
There is only one black and brown wire on this lower connector. Its a bad camera angle.
20200819_165759 (resized).jpg20200819_165627 (resized).jpg

I think you had it hooked up right.

The 2 paired boards are exactly the same, they just have different purposes.

My lower J5 just has a couple black wires going into one hole.

None of my connectors have the 2 black and 2 brown in J5.

API needs to sort this out.

The black and brown wires all go down to the power supply thru the black hose.

So, i imagine that it makes no difference whether there is one wire or two in the connector.

It should work the same.

It may be that the coils not working has nothing to do with the capacitor board or fuses.

We are only adding a capacitor to the power line.

Possibly bad connections at the wal-nuts since the problem remains with the cap out of the circuit.

I think you may be right. When I had the capacitor hooked up the scoop was working better.

I am waiting for AP to answer my email. I think the 4 items must be on the same circuit. A hard copy manual would be great to trace the circuit.

Is you machine one of the early ones? Mine is.

Mine is august, the first year of production, i told them to hold off on mine until the shaker and magic glass was available.

Otherwise, as early as i could.
I was ready to buy immediately, when i played it at TPF!

While waiting i would pull fuses and test them with a meter.

They will probably tell you to do the same.

Capacitor board update:

I had PinGoddess play a few games so i could observe.

She's a deadly aggressive player...perfect for the task. She does not play lightly or delicately, lol.

Wall power 119v.

Coil system is much improved.

More stable.

Very consistant power under the heaviest of loads.

Oddly flippers are a bit more consistant, no flipper collapse during the test.

Some coils needed adjusting

Lower catapult has way more power, and very consistant power during game play.

I had to lower the lower catapult power by 3 to get the ball back in the trunk.

Interestingly i could get the ball in the trunk across 3 integers during settings

I had way better control.

Before, it had to be dead on or the ball would miss.

Slingshots had to be raised by 2.
Oddly they came out a little low.

Flippers were a little more powerful by one integer but im leaving it for now. I was seeing some high power stage rejects.

I rebooted tbe game several times.

The trunk remained deadly accurate. Even during seance + trunk multiball + elephant mode with shakers running.

All in all the game seems more lively.

Seems to have more power when power is needed.

The game play is better, more consistant.

The scoop never failed.

It ejected the ball quickly and efficiently each time without trying 3 or 4 times. Even during heavy load periods.

Again this was during a test of 5 single player games in a row

On an unrelated note;

Something possibly beta code related:

Empty balls utility resets the game.
It took 3 reboots to empty the balls.
The reset happens around the second or 3rd ball eject.

This has been mentioned by others in the recent past. So, i don't think the capacitor has anything to do with this particular reset.

Part 2 of this review next.

Part 2:

After adjusting coils to get everything set the way i like it, i decided to play a few games myself.

Remember, my game is highly tweaked and adjusted, it plays really well.

I will know immediately if something is off.

First game was a throw away.

Everything played as it should, trunk catapult was deadly accurate. Scoop never missed a beat.

I played terribly but got trunk and seance to run at the same time.

No flipper collapse. No trunk misses, no scoop problems.

I only got the knocker up and running today so, i hadn't heard it in action.

Game 2.

I played much better!

Went through a few modes early on.

Got seance, trunk multiball plus bullet catch running at the same time.

Wow, I LOVE THE KNOCKER!!!!
It goes off exactly when you want it to, and is amazing in bullet catch!

Extra ball knocker, replay knocker, I love it! If you dont have it. You're missing out lol.

No resets, trunk deadly accurate. Scoop running perfectly.

Everything seems a bit more energetic.

Around act 7. I lost the music but the game played ok.

I started a movie mode and the music came back over time.

I started seance plus trunk multiball. Trunk was perfect. Game had good energy and speed.

After all balls drained. One was left in the scoop.

Seance didnt end and the ball stayed in the scoop until a ball search kicked it out.

Seance stayed on s bit longer and then ended after i made a few more shots.

This was a 40 min game.!

I didn't finish all the stage acts this game but had 4 extra balls with the knocker ! Amazing!

All in all the game performed better than ever.

No flipper collapse today at all.

I think the capacitor really makes the game better and way more stable.

Losing audio and losing track of a ball happens once in awhile.

I have to say that this is code related. My switches are perfect

Other than a couple small code snags. I can say that my game has never played better.

Im very happy with the capacitor and knocker.

My head hurts after reading all that tech stuff. Am I going to regret buying one of these.
After selling TWD this was on my want list.....hope it’s not a mistake. Love the theme and followed the making of this. Was very impressed with AP and specifically rosh for all the feedback. Fingers crossed, I guess I find out in 2 weeks when game arrives. Less than 100 lifetime plays out of a large collection so not much use and mods galore. The wait begins!!

What tech stuff are you concerned about?

In my experience this is caused by the coil power being set too high or too low or you need to bend the upper part out a bit, what is yours set at?

This sounds like your "Red" bank of coils is out. Look at the two PD-16 boards and find the one with all the Red wires attached to it, with the game on, in service mode and the coin door closed or the interlock switch pulled out is there a red LED lit next to the brown / black power input, near the fuse? I suspect it's not and the first thing you should check is that fuse.

pasted_image (resized).png

I've had my Houdini since February. Set it up and played. No problemo.
As time goes by, I actually enjoy the game even more.
If I were you, I wouldn't sweat it.

I got your ticket. I'll call you later today to walk through the installation.

American Pinball... The BEST customer service!!

No. Help is available should you need it.

LTG : )

You were close. All fuses are OK. It was the brown/black wire connector that is very loose on that board. Light was off. Got it working now.

Thanks to bobukcat and everyone else for the guidance.

Will talk with AP later today to make sure I have the capacitor plugged in correctly.

Great troubleshooting and repair!

I just noticed yesterday (during my tests) my (I) in film light, left magic standup light and 3 chain links were not lit.
One of the short little ribbon cables on the film board fell off. took me 30 mins to find it, 30 seconds to fix it.

Those ribbons are mounted against gravity, as they age I might hot glue them on a bit.

This game just keeps getting better and better!

Hoping for a substantial code update soon!

Just got a call from AP. Outstanding service. All is good again. Capacitor was hooked up correctly. All coils working. Now I have to dial them in. Scoop puts ball out on first try! Thanks again to everyone for the help.

Sounds promising. Thanks for the update. I have one of these capacitors on the way. My right flipper collapse is most common during inverted straightjacket stacked with some other multiball. My trunk shot is missed (shorted) more than not during multiball. I have had knocker for quite a while set mid level.

I just bought a passive sub and was wondering can you just remove the amp to get at the terminals on the amp or do I need to remove the lcd to get at them.

I really can’t take the credit. It’s the amazing community we have right here!
Thanks for having my back guys.

I’m glad the cap kit is working for people.

pinballinreno I’ll be making edits to the instructions in the next few days.

So how do I go about ordering a cap kit? Can’t seem to find a link.

Please contact them - https://www.american-pinball.com/about/contact/

LTG : )

Try this:

https://store.american-pinball.com/products/kit0006-00

Awesome!

I hope my little review was helpful

Now can you lock Josh in a room stocked with tequila, chicken wings and nachos for a weekend?

Updates needed.! Lol

Awesome. I went through ten pages of store. I didn't scroll to the little "search" at the bottom of the store page.

LTG : )

So would the capacitor be helpful if I have little to no flipper fade? Does it make the whole game just play better?

Lol, I just knew it was there, because I looked for it the other day!

Youre still the best Lloyd! Pinballgoddess says Hi!
Maybe see you at TPF 2021 if it happens.

In my opinion you need it.
As well as the EOS switch kit.

But thats just my experience, take it for what its worth lol.

Get the Knocker if you dont have it!

EOS kit for folks with upgraded power supply? Or anyone?

Thanks, The LCD is it then, lol

Thanks appreciate the feedback.

Thanks Lloyd. Josh has assured me it will be ok. Just get a bit freaked out with all the talk of flipper issues, power supply issues and I’m in Australia with completely different voltage wondering if it will be better or worse. I’ve been wanting to buy one since they came out.

EOS doesn’t need the upgraded power supply. But if you don’t have it, you should get it for sure.

Yes and yes.

YES!

I have the 48v upgrade power supply. I have never had flipper issues before or after. I do not have the EOS kit.

The capacitor kit I just installed has made a dramatic change for the better.

After AP guidance I have the capacitor kit working. I have played a few games and the difference is dramatic!

The scoop puts the ball out the first time. The upper catapult is smooth and puts the ball right in the center of the ramp. The lower catapult sends the ball directly in the trunk. The game is now totally smooth.

On a side note I adjusted the pops leaf switches to barely not touching. Now there is lots of ball action between the three pops.

Thanks to brenna98!