Quoted from pinballinreno:

Installed cliffy's tonight.
Wasn't too bad at all.
You dont have to remove a lot of stuff just loosen to get it out of the way.
Remove upper right edge plastic.
Remove nuts and screws from planchet plastic. Push aside.
Remove screws from metal lane guides. Remove 2 nuts from underneath.
Remove scoop.
Raise playfield remove 3 screws holding scoop VUK tie it up or let it hang. Or remove this first before starting everything...
Remove 4 of the wooden side rail screws.
I had to loosen the autolaunch 4 screws to access the first screw for the wooden siderail.
You can finagle the scoop protector into the hole now by lifting up on the metal lane guide and lifting up on the wooden siderail.
Slipping the scoop cliffy under the wooden siderail slightly really helped to get it in
I put a fender washer under the wooden rail to hold it up temporarily while working the metal guide.
After installing the scoop cliffy, install the right side of the shooter lane cliffy while the siderail is loose.
Reassemble everything working from the top.
Replace the siderail screws last.
This way you can get the shooter lane protector where you want it.
Installation of the left shooter lane protector is super easy.
Remove the 2 screws in the apron from the front playfield hangers.
You have to remove the 3 screws for the inner wooden siderail to make it easier to adjust.
Remove 2 of the 3 machine screws from the trough.
Install and adjust as neccesary.
That's it . It took me about 35 mins total and I took my time.
Next one will take 15 mins.

Quoted from Ericpinballfan:

Pinballinreno- For several months Ive appreciated your posts, tech ideas, trouble shooting, fixes and just in general damn good info!!!
Sadly I cannot hold my tongue any more.
Ive had over 75 pinball machines. Check my history, its all real. There is also probably 5 or 6 Ive missed.
I have never, ever had to buy a variac to make a machine work.
You and I have made many posts.
I do feel at a certain point or posts go ignored by AP.
Ive spoken with both Barry and Josh in the past months regarding this power issue.
I love my game, not selling it. I feel American Pinball and the entire team have created a great game and company. Several companys have come and gone these past 8 years. JJP is the only one left to survive. AP has done everything right and there business model was very well done.....But, and a Big But.
1- Make a daughter board to fix the bad transformer.
2- If game 2 has this same design, I may very well may never buy it.
3-This design flaw has to be fixed!
4- I personally would not ship another game to this power issue is fixed.
5-No customer should have to buy any supporting power source to make a NIB work.
Thank you American pinball for all your excellent customer service, and it is much better than Stern.
However the time has come to fix the most important issue for NIB there is.

Quoted from Josho:

So my Houdini has been making the trunk shot a good 90-95% of the time, for months. No problems, really.
Then, last night, five times in a row, it sent the ball careening wildly off to the right, missing the trunk shot by a mile.
Any ideas as to what might be causing this? I'm not a technician, so if it's something more complicated than loosening a few screws or adjusting something in the menu, I'll have to call a $90/hr technician.
Josh

Quoted from wesman:

Ooooh! Thanks everyone for the answers!
So it's a pretty simple, remove screws, place underneath, and screw back into place kind of affair? Is there enough thread in the screws to hold in both pieces?
(I'd been watching some unboxing videos, to see how Stern and JJP send their machines, and wondered about legs, and if there were differences!) It's amazing how many people slice into their boxes, versus slide them out, in case they'd need to ship them out again. Most in videos cut, and cut really quickly. I'd be wary of cutting into the machine. Eek!

Quoted from pinballinreno:

I respectfully disagree.
I live by the colors.
Without them I wouldn't know about the stacked shots per target.
The alternating colors let me know that there is way more going on per target than I can see on the surface.
It's been really well thought out and executed.

Quoted from chuckwurt:

You’ve beaten the game. Game over. I think it’s fine and a nice change up. It’s borderline impossible to get there, so i think it’s fitting.

Quoted from PhantomO:

I hear you about RFM But TOTAN does the same thing after you free Princess and take a long carpet ride with her. Most people wont part with that machine...

Quoted from PinMonk:

An interactive topper with this would have so many possibilities. Timers, scores, match numbers, it would be great. But it would require an interface and programming from Josh.

Quoted from wesman:

Thanks everyone for the quick and informative replies!
Those hilmors look sooooo nice, but are maybe a bit pricy for me currently. Thank you though, and I'll definitely note them for a future purchase!
Would these work okay?
https://m.harborfreight.com/7-Pc-Professional-SAE-Nut-Driver-Set-69239.html
And is this the notch on the right of the scoop protector you guys are referring to? [quoted image]

Quoted from wesman:

Ah, so that helps stabilize/hook it into place, under the playfield? I didn't even notice it!

These would work then?
Klein Tools 647M Magnetic Nut Driver Set, 6-Inch Shafts, 7-Piece amazon.com link »
How does the hollow shaft help?
Thanks again everyone for your help!

Quoted from meSz:

Anyone else that purchased the Houdini Custom Water Torture Mod have theirs fall off? Not looking to bash the maker, just looking to see if anyone else had an issue. Was in the midst of a game and all of a sudden it fell over. Upon inspecting it the screw has plastic in its threads so just appears it was a poor way of fixing the unit to the bracket.[quoted image]

Quoted from meSz:

Appreciate the info .... now all I need is a 3D Printer
and yeah agree...where the mod sets you have to be very careful when raising the playfield for which I am.
Thanks again for the info!

Quoted from pinballinreno:

Fortunately the ramp currently is just a decoration mostly.
The impossible to make ramp shot is the only thing i dislike about the game.
Ive struggled with a fix for it but tbe only thing i come up with is a redesign.
I wish API would release an easier to hit ramp that bends to the right 1/2" and is slightly wider at the bottom. Or faces the flipper more.
For a main feature, it ends up being useless. Really too bad, it could have been epic.
Ive only hit it 50 times in the life of the game.
We all would but it.
Maybe freeplay40 or someone can come up with something.
It would open up the game dramatically.

Quoted from pinballinreno:

The stage rejects are a similar problem to the IJ mode start rejects.

Quoted from Platypus:

If it uses the same audio amp it should be simple. I built my own speaker and added a phono jack in the bottom of the machine
My game has the Lepai amp
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
I mounted a phono jack from inside the cabinet
[quoted image]
From the bottom it is recessed so as to never be impacted when transporting the machine

Quoted from BarryJ:

Buy them here
https://store.american-pinball.com/products/houdini-pop-bumper-toy-hardware

Quoted from mk47:

The LP-168 amp that is used in this pinball machine isn't a high end amplifier. Both inputs - Aux and RCA - are bridged. You can't select the input. Therefore you can use the RCA jacks as "outputs", just like an Y adapter. I attached an active subwoofer this way instead of using the high power outputs.
The advantage is that you get the full frequency range and that you can do all the adjustments on your subwoofer. And you don't need to limit the frequency range on the internal speakers.

Quoted from bobukcat:

It would be an interesting experiment to bump the coil voltage from 48V to 70V for the flippers but I'd have to really study the power distribution system in detail (the manual is not real clear in this regard). Keep in mind that, like any pinball machine I know of, the voltage applied is always the same (or it should be), it is the ground that gets switched on and off for each coil as it's activated. This is done by the P3-ROC driver boards mounted under the playfield and in theory they wouldn't really need to be modified at all but I don't think you'd want 70V going to the pop-bumpers and vuks though it may help stabilize the catapult during heavy use too. I have been so close to buying a nice digital storage oscilloscope many times to try to diagnose what happens under load but I just can't justify the cost. I should check eBay for used ones. It's a shame because this is really the only chink in the armor for this game but given the relatively low number of games sold (supposedly) and the fact they have moved on to other titles I don't really expect this to ever be addressed by API.

Quoted from zahner:

That sounds pretty cool. I also thought about adding the gold rimmed flipper button from Mezel at: https://mezelmods.com/products/hobbit-pinball-gold-ring-button?_pos=1&_sid=4b5e237c1&_ss=r
This is not a lighted button [?], and a little pricey, but would look pretty cool I think. I really would like something that has the same kind of industrial, metallic look of the game. Anyone have any leads on something metallic that would fall into that category?

Quoted from Rshackxd:

The instructions included with the Hooked water torture mod proper to make in interactive with the mod? Mine just stays lit up all the time.

Quoted from pinballinreno:

Is it possible to wire up the Mod Couple one to make it interactive?
This sounds like a fun thing to do!

Quoted from bobukcat:

Damn, come home after being away for two weeks and jonesing to play Houdini but the 5VDC is dead so the P3-Roc board is incommunicado. Looks like they use a sealed DC-DC converter for both the 5 and 12 VDC, time to work on that google-fu. I did open a support case and e-mail Dave / Service as well just for the fun of it but since the 12 VDC works I'm pretty confident this is the problem.

Quoted from bobukcat:

I posted the resolution in this thread, the sealed converter was bad. I found the exact same one on eBay relatively cheap and replaced it myself. Since then brenna98 has said they can sell you the part or a replacement unit (I think, have to look it up again). If you're handy you should have no problem also replacing it, if not open a support ticket and reach out to Dave to purchase a replacement (assuming it's out of warranty).

Quoted from bobukcat:

I posted the resolution in this thread, the sealed converter was bad. I found the exact same one on eBay relatively cheap and replaced it myself. Since then brenna98 has said they can sell you the part or a replacement unit (I think, have to look it up again). If you're handy you should have no problem also replacing it, if not open a support ticket and reach out to Dave to purchase a replacement (assuming it's out of warranty).

Quoted from pinballinreno:

Hole saws cut pretty clean.
If I can, I would start from the bottom then finish from the top.
Let the saw do the work, It should be a very clean cut.

Quoted from c818919taylor:

The shaker adds great jackpot effects. Added the flipper cap upgrade and I think the sub would sound great. Did the particle board come with the speaker? Where did you get the wire harness? And where does it connect in the back box?
Thank you for sharing.
Respectfully.

Quoted from 27dnast:

Are you guys running the woofer off the 2.1 amp in the backbox? Or replacing that with something more powerful?
Jgaltr56, how’s it sound?

Quoted from 27dnast:

I guess I was asking… is it a significant upgrade over the original speaker array?

Quoted from pinballinreno:

Flipper fidelity has 4 ohm and 8 ohm subwoofers on their site.
Which one will work best with the existing amp in Houdini?

Quoted from pinballinreno:

I think so too and possibly mot burn up the little amplifier.

Quoted from pinballinreno:

Thanks for this!
Ok, 4 ohms it is.
Im gonna shake the house!