That's odd. I thought the minion and regular MB were stacking OK.

Could have something to do with ball trough. It was a BITCH getting that old school Bally style trough to work like a "modern" trough.

I don't even have an AMH, and the last one at spooky has a blown board. Charlie wants me to get a RZ board to work on it, when I have time to do that maybe I could take a look.

I never mentioned it before until I seen someone else had the same problem. But most others don't have the same problem so it can't be a software glitch. I generally try to not start minion multi ball if already in regular multi ball. I may have to try to run some switch tests and not sure what else to look for. Other than that, she appears to works normal.

Ahhhh that’s a good idea to check trough. Pretty sure my tech coming over next week, We will check switches and trough.

Any chance of doing a small run of boards for AMH? I'd love to have a spare "just in case".

Same here

It's at the bottom of my to-do list but Charlie wants me to convert a RZ/DOM/JET board to run his only remaining AMH.

Shouldn't be that hard, IIRC it's basically the same with maybe 1 wire different on the DMD cable. (and more robust, more layers, better power filtering etc)

I added a knocker to mine, but I had to write the code for it myself. I'd be glad to share, but I have not gotten approval to share modified game firmware.

My hardware installation is pictured here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/amh-club-a-spooky-start/page/21#post-3932182

So the issue was modified firmware was a reaction to the code base being used by Homepin. We wanted to be open at first but then had to get more tight knit.

Its also why Thunder turds can't update itself, because the code they forked was pre-Rob Zombie.

Been part of the owners club for 3 years plus now and love all the enhancements that this group offers up... really amazing. I have the color screen that herg did the work on and just tried updating to that latest version that was posted back in March that also supports the external DAC sound mod (that is the main reason for the upgrade). Followed the instructions to a T (I hope)... formatted SD card, unzipped to local directory on hard drive, copied prop_088.bin to DMD directory and then copied all files over at once onto the formatted card. When I powered up the machine took the upgrade to 088, but upon reboot, gave me an SFX ERROR. I tried re-formatting and doing it all over again and even tried another class 10 card... no luck, same SFX ERROR. Game seems to boot into attract but just no audio or video (looping an audio pop every couple seconds). Thoughts??? Help!

If it were me, I'd start over and get it back to the original set up. Then try again.. Maybe try cutting the file and moving it instead of copying and pasting? Hate when things don't work....

And make sure you do a full format of the SD card and not just a quick format.

If you see SFX ERROR, you have working firmware, but a problem with the card. Either files are not in the correct locations, they aren't named correctly, or the game cannot read the card. It can be super picky, and it is easy to mess up, even when you think you're doing it right. If you think it would be easier, I could post a card image rather than separate files that you could write using something like Win32diskimager.

Maybe post pictures of your directory structures so we could verify.

The first time I did the quick format. This is what is shown in Ben Heck's instructions and this is what was used for the 088 upgrade the first time I power ed the game up with the updated SD card. After it didn't work, I did the full format and tried it that way with no luck. Used the FAT32 file system format with 32 kb allocation unit size as recommended.

I don't suspect the card has a physical issue as it was working fine until I did the upgrade and it didn't work on a second new card. I attached pictures of the error, of the game booted with the error and of my file directory structure (it matches what is on Ben's site). I'd be all for a card image... I use win32diskimager for building alternative versions of Stern software on SD cards. Let me know if you want any more data or have any other suggestions. Thanks!

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So, it can read the card. The video image shown has an offset like if a file was fragmented. SFX ERROR is aligned properly, so it's not a problem with the display link. The audio files aren't properly detected, which also points toward a card filesystem issue. I'm making an image now.

Pretty sure I've read either herg or Ben write that if you don't do a full format the files will fragment and not copy correctly to the game. I had an issue because of this in the past and after doing a recovery and then formatting the card correctly it worked fine.

[edit] Actually Ben's site does say fully format and not quick format...

Screenshot_20201224-140122 (resized).png

And in the same breath, the screenshot shows otherwise. Maybe Ben could clean up the procedure so it's consistent if a full, non-quick format is needed. Based on what I'm reading, I think I'm gonna have to recover the AV firmware, but I'll try an image from Herg before that to confirm its needed. Thank you all for your help!

Screenshot_20201224-131831 (resized).png

Most of the time, you can get away with a quick format, but it's much more reliable if you full format. The image is uploading (slowly) now.

In your case, I do not think a recovery is necessary. It seems like it is booting and running, but doesn't read the files from the card correctly. Just to get that image on the DMD, it is doing a lot that gives me clues about what all is working.

I'm back in business. With the state my machine was in from the failed upgrade, I could not do anything native to make AV files work or change the version of the AV files (downgrading). That in combination with a mis-behaving original SD card (that worked fine until the most recent upgrade) created the headache. I'm happy to report I'm back up and running on a new SD card with the Propeller IDE recovery method. Thanks herg for the binary SD card to ensure I wasn't doing anything stupid.

I think I did a bad thing and I'm in need of some guidance. I had my AMH in switch edge test mode and was adjusting the pop bumper bumper switches bc they were gapped too wide so the ball wasn't consistently activating them. My leaf switch adjuster tool was on the pop bumper 1 switch (WHT/VIO, GRN/BLU) and bumped a lug on the pop bumper 1 coil (probably RED). The speakers started making some noise and I looked at the display to see it now looked like it was in a multiplayer game and one of the scores was constantly increasing. It lasted a couple seconds. I think it stopped before I got to the power switch.

When I powered up all seemed normal and I went back to switch edge test mode. What I found was all switches associated to column 6 (GRN/VIO) and column 5 (GRN/BLU) were not functioning.

I found no obvious damage in the area I had been working on.
All looked normal at the connector at the board for all the GRN switch wires.
Lighting and coils function normally.
Switches on all other columns are also normal.

Any idea what I've damaged or what the next step is to troubleshoot this?

Happy New Year

Screenshot_20201231-113610 (resized).png

Hopefully it's just chip IC4. Should be socketed.

BTW, you can try switching IC3 & IC4 to see if the trouble follows the chip. If it does, you'll have two rows out instead.

Yes the socketed buffers act as a "fuse" so glitches under the PF can't seep up and fry the CPU.

You can get them from any component supplier.

Many thanks for the replies, I feel lucky its a cheap easy fix!

Good work Ben!

Question about coil settings: When adjusting coil strength I see a noticeable difference on all my coils except for the flipper coils. Doesn’t seem to matter if I’m at zero or nine I can’t tell a difference in flipper strength. I’ve broken the door arm for doctor ghost twice, in addition to some serious air balls. I’m running the latest and greatest software versions and I’ve tried resetting factory defaults, but my flipper coils are way too strong. Anyone else seen this before? I’m about to the point of wanting to try weaker coils. Thanks in advance for any help!

Yeah the coil thing has to do with how the system timers control them. It's a coding bug, the solenoids are not controlled at a fast enough rate to allow the minute difference in high current flippers to be noticable.

Thanks Ben!

I actually couldn’t find the ones that the game came with not too long ago. I figured when I needed one, I would ask spooky, but it would be cool to know this.

My machine had the HKs and I had purchased them before off Amazon. The last time I looked though, a few months ago, I couldn’t find them. So, the other 2 have the right specs for the game? I guess so if spooky sent you the feetech. Thanks for this!

Thanks for the info! Timfenske11 Going to order a couple in case mine goes down.

I am sorry for using servos. I deserve a lashing!

I have had my AMH since new and I have had to replace each of the servos exactly one time. I can live with that. The bigger issue is that when the door servo burned up, it was during a party and the game was left on. This somehow bricked the pinheck board and I ultimately had to send the pcb back to Spooky after exhausting every fix they suggested.

I agree with that. Murray always breaks down and getting it to fit back in the pop bumper blows.

It wouldn't be the same driven with a coil (nor would the hellevator). The servo is awesome, I just think there needed to be more gap underneath / more powerful servo to overcome the resistance (but cost is everything).

Believe me, I was there! Servos were a lazy shortcut. Allowed us to avoid making DC motor drivers (which is what my next game uses)

It also sucks because they're a closed loop system but not in a good way.

Oh man, my AMH had been on location since forever so I finally brought it home last week b/c the barbershop it was most recently in was shutting down to do some construction work. I finally installed the color display from herg and it works perfectly and looks fantastic! Also finally learning this game since I only got to play it pretty infrequently since I bought it when it came out since it was either at my photography studio or on location (or at shows) so I didn't have much time to put on it. My friend EJW and I are trying to see if we can get to (and beat?) the wizard mode before this COVID lockdown ends. Also a friend of ours said he did a voice in the machine but he doesn't remember which one (and I can't tell from playing it). benheck do you know Scott Bromley - do you recall what voice he did in AMH?

Speaking of servos, my main ghost stop rotating today. I haven't played it in a while, so after a little playfield cleaning I gave it a play and no ghost rotate.
It still lights up but just doesn't rotate. Is it safe to say it is a servo problem?
I have escaped changing any servos yet so I must be due, but is there anything else I should check? The fuses in the head are ok.

Thanks for the advice Tim, off to Amazon to order servo stock.

Also, when you put the ghost back on, don't tighten the surrounding plastic down completely. You want to leave it slightly loose so the ghost spins freely in the plastic.

Sound advice that will save some headaches. Thanks.

Installed some weaker flipper coils, 11722 for left flipper and 11753 for the right flipper. Mine were way too strong even when set to zero. Play is much better and hopefully I won’t break anymore doctor ghost armatures.

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Like 2 years later .... today is colour display install day!!

rd

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