Thanks for the recommendations. They can also be purchased through the pinside store here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1170-pin-monk/03720-600w-spooky-multimorphic-plug-n-play-quiet-fan-kit

Pinball Life also carries it, and Ministry of Pinball has all three Pin Monk quiet fan kits in Europe. They're a bit more expensive at MoP, but considering the expensive shipping from the US and time, cheaper for Europeans overall.

This isn't true. The stock fans are almost exactly the same dB rating. The Spike 1 (300W Meanwell) fan is 1.0 dB QUIETER than the Spooky, and the Spike 2 (500W meanwell) is an insignificant 0.1dB louder:

Spooky/Multimorphic SE-600-48 34.5dB

Stern SPV-300-48 33.5dB (Spike 1, larger fan)
Stern RSP-500-48 34.6dB (Spike 2, smaller fan)

...and the Spooky one is more annoying than either Spike fan because it doesn't have a thermal switch, so the Spooky one is ALWAYS ON. The Spike one only turns on when the power supply crosses a temperature threshold, then turns off again when it's normalized. The PITCH of the two is slightly different due to the fact that the Spooky one is much larger and the most common 500W Spike power supply fan is tiny, but the amount of noise they produce, measured in decibels, is almost the same, and all three are WAY TOO LOUD as they come from the factory.

Recognizing the death save is a nice resurrected feature from Data East games. Will they be allowed in tournaments now?

That lower left pop by the flipper isn't very active at all. Does it turn off and on in code or something? WAY less action than a sling in this video.

It's cheating even when the game is coded to recognize it? It's literally IN the game's rules. Cheating is generally accepted as meaning operating outside the rules.

And that leads me to...is there a Rick and Morty Death Save champion board for most Death Saves per game?

That's clearly different because by doing that you're ending your game and starting another. Death Save is coded to remain within the bounds of the game.

What's the deal with the lethargic pop bumper, though? I was excited to see something NEW being tried, but it looks like a dud. Very little ball action off it from the stream.

A death save champion board would be even more fun. We're trying to help you.

I'd like to see a more active one on the next stream then. I was disappointed with what I saw of it on the 10 minutes of stream I watched. Good to hear it was an anomaly.

That's what I was originally asking because it seemed like it was dead, as if it were programmed to not kick.

You seem confused by the concept of a question. Because I was CLEARLY ASKING if the pop bumper was turned on and off by code because it seemed dead. For your reference:

"That lower left pop by the flipper isn't very active at all. Does it turn off and on in code or something?"

That's not a programmer note. In the english language, we generally accept that classic format as a question.

Thanks for the answer to my question. There's also a kick straight through the flippers with a ball save in that section.

Well, if you completely ignore the very clear question that came before that, I guess that works.

Well, you are changing a part, with a better part that is higher quality and draws less amps so it causes less stress on the power supply (fractionally). That's good. However, if you screw up the installation, you're not covered, no. But it's not going to affect anything else in the machine. Have an issue and Charlie wants to come to your house personally to inspect it? Swap the fan back first - and insist he wears a mask, too.

That said, there have been 0 installation failures after hundreds of fans installed on Spooky and Spike machines. The illustrated instructions are quite thorough.

Haha! He didn't initially get the joke when I asked if someone started vacuuming at the 13 minute mark. He has a fan for it now.

I'll take "without pinstadiums" for 100, alex.

I agree that a few spotlights is all this needs. Pinstadiums completely ruin the look.

without-pinstadiums (resized).jpg

On the end of that ramp, a piece of clear petg cut to shape over the top would look a lot better.

If no one else is having issues to indicate it may be a software problem, I'd check the output from your power supply in the bottom of the cabinet to make sure it's outputting at least 48v, if it's low, that can cause reboots when the machine has a lot going on. There's a pot where you can turn the output up if it's low.

Spooky uses a Meanwell SE-600-48 power supply, which has a switch for 230 or 115. The pinball machine only uses 48V, which the power supply outputs regardless of which power system is input, so you're fine. It will work in Europe as well as long as the switch on the outside of the power supply is set to 230V (which I assume Spooky is doing at the factory for European games).

That fan is a bit better than the stock one, which is 34.5dB, but it's not all that quiet with a 20dB sound rating. It also doesn't have the right connector and requires and a 3-2 adapter or splicing/soldering, depending on which way you go. Not much improvement for too much work.

The Pinmonk fan kit for spooky is 10.7dB, with better airflow compared to that one, plus the right connector. 20dB is *okay*, but if you're trying to reduce the noise, why only go partway?

If people want to DIY and splice connectors, etc, that's great too, I made a whole thread showing exactly how to do it for the spike machines with part numbers and everything that eventually turned into me selling premade kits, but I didn't erase the DIY info to push people into the plug and play kits. I'm all for DIY for the people that want that.

My point is, if you're going to DIY, get the best fan to DIY with. 20dB is not a great choice for Spooky machines, there are better fans at 17db, 13db, etc.

The plug n play kit is $17.50.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1170-pin-monk/03720-600w-spooky-multimorphic-plug-n-play-quiet-fan-kit

You can also get it from pinballlife.com if you have something else to order to save on/combine shipping as they carry all the Pinmonk fans and select other things like the 3D anubis for Iron Maiden.

Or, Pinmonk.com for international orders since I can't do them through pinside.

May just be optical distortion, but it looks like the metal yoke that goes against is bent in the background, too.

Here's a diagram from B/W.

pop-bumper-diagram (resized).jpg

It seems like it snapped like acrylic. I'd think they should be using PET-G on all the plastics in the game for its durability. Learned that lesson making the Shadow Plastic Supersets...

Those are made of PET-G? That's wild, I've never seen it break like that, even from repeated ball hits (like falling down from The Battlefield on The Shadow).

I'm not sure how a cliffy would help this problem...

Oh, I agree. I'm Cliff's #1 cheerleader. The guy is awesome.

I was just confused about how a cliffy was going to help with this specific area.

That doesn't look like the Megatron I know of...

megatron (resized).jpg

The neat trick would be to put a small motor in the body of Morty's back to change expressions based on the game by rotating the motor to turn the head 180 degrees at a time, alternating expressions.

Inflation accounts for the difference.

The crazy thing is, in the volume Spooky buys, they should be able to get it from Meanwell with the better fan for little or no change in cost just by asking and ordering enough at once. Even moreso with Stern. But honestly, I have no idea why Spooky uses this power supply in the first place. It has a MUCH lower thermal throttle point (104 degrees) than the 500W Stern one (122 degrees) and the fan runs all the time rather than coming on when it's needed. I can't imagine they need 100w more power, especially because they have that side power supply ALSO for the accessories.

Shrug. I'd be thrilled if Spooky got the change made at meanwell for their next bulk power supply order. I doubt that'll ever happen at Stern.

Should have a ramp flap spring steel joint, or have an actual mini hinge with a spring on it.

Lipstick. Got it.

You can do it with a spring steel flap (that would probably break from the constant flexing, too, eventually or a nylon hinge with a E clip and spring on the back end. Should look fine. Either would be much more durable than what's there now.

Even PETG will eventually crack and probably break if being bent slightly over and over and over as it appears that does (I don't have one to verify the action or how far it's being bent when activated). A springloaded joint seems like the best long-term solution.

I don't know what they're using, but it looks like plain acrylic to me.

Polycarbonate is strong for impact resistance, but is not suitable over time for repetitive bending. It WILL stress crack from repetitive minor bending. Potential cleaning products used in/around the playfield will accelerate that. Also, the thicker the piece, the more likely the stress cracks over time. Pretty sure there's a better answer for that area that doesn't involve any plastic piece.

Looks like the red lead for the RGB led strip isn't connected. Red is wrong as is the white one that looks blue on the left because the red mix is missing. Look at the wiring carefully to the left speaker. Try wiggling along the wire up to where it connects to the RGB LED strip in the speaker and see if it comes back intermittently.

Do you have a multimeter to see if the led strip is getting power where the wires connect to it on the red wire? If it is getting power (check it against the G and B wires to make sure the measurement method is good) then likely bad LED strip. If it's NOT getting power, then the problem is somewhere earlier in the power path to that board.

But are you a very good driver?

I would use the little LED spotlights Stern has been using lately. Almost no bulk and very bright. You could easily hide them in some 3D printed crap to keep the visual continuity.

But only on the driveway.

The little spotlights that you can barely see on games like Deadpool Prem/LE that highlight the figurines. Stern manuals probably have the part numbers...

Here's one from the right side of deadpool.
deadpool-mini-spotlight (resized).jpg

They're in the Deadpool manual. I don't think the actual light is broken out. If I remember right they list it as an assembly with the light and bracket and maybe a trim ring or something?

They're nothing super-special now, though. You can find similar (same?) super bright LED directional lights on Alibaba if you look around.

Looks like a dead button battery on your motherboard.

Did you try plugging in a USB keyboard? Does it recognize it so you can hit the function key to bypass the error?

If you have a CR2032 laying around you can try replacing that then bypassing the error to see if that gets you back in business.

If the USB doesn't recognize the keyboard (because it's bad?) you can use the USB header pins on the motherboard (for external USB port connections) to connect a computer case usb outlet, too.

ASROCK-J4105-ITX-battery (resized).jpg

Since we're past the support dead zone of the weekend. I'd call Spooky first to make sure it isn't some other issue before you order a usb keyboard. If you were close I'd just give you one. I have stacks of them from various computers over the years...

That's great. What was the solution (for posterity)?

He actually said that AND he sent over a file on what to set to get it back running right. I was mostly interested in the second part - the settings to get it running after the battery was changed - for posterity.

This is great information to have in this thread for late night issues that may crop up when no one's around to help. I keyposted it.

Party line!

Coil Stop (post) loose or busted. It'd be surprised if that wasn't it. Classic sign. Fortunately you can have the coil stop off to inspect and replace if necessary in less than 5 minutes. Very easy.

Intermittently sticking up that you can knock down with your hand or more flips (vibration) is almost always a coil stop in my experience. MAAAAAYBE not enough vertical clearance between the flipper bushing and the shaft (if you pull up on the flipper do you get some movement?). But more likely coil stop IMO.

Good luck on the fan install. We haven't lost anyone yet. The improvement in sound levels is pretty immense.

Ah, in that case, sounds like maybe the EOS switch is sticking, so the "hold" power is engaged on the flipper (not the stronger flip power). When it's stuck up, go into switch test and see if that flipper's EOS switch is stuck.

Wow, what a waste. Is that a limitation of the hardware platform? Are there plans for the firmware to be updated to allow the EOS it to be used as intended in a more robust way?

Yeah, the facial expressions are a problem.

rickandmorty-ball.gif

Maybe the long and short golf game shots in the kitchen in the meeseeks episode? Tomato, ball 1. Onion, ball 2 lock. Meeseeks even says "nice" on the onion shot.

Golf-long-game.gif

Golf-short-game.gif

The animation is so simple, you could basically cut the car and them out of a closeup and paste it into a wide shot empty background of something else. Yes it would be a lot of work, but the raw materials are there.

Meanwell will do it (I asked them about it on Spike and Spooky machines specifically), but Spooky has to ask and commit to buying X amount of fans from them to get the Meanwell ones stock with a quiet fans pre-installed after an engineering review. From a prior conversation I had with Charlie when I first started looking into finding a solution for the terrible Spooky power supply fans, I wouldn't say he was excited about the idea. However, ANYONE that has heard the difference is likely very excited to have the vacuum cleaner in the cabinet turned off.

So, unless you hear otherwise, I would say don't hold your breath. (But I really hope they do offer that upgrade one day, or change to a better power supply with a thermal switch for the fan so it doesn't run all the time)

Tempting fate with a Friday code release?

Does Rick and Morty still use the small power supply to the left of the main cabinet power supply for auxillary 5v/12v power? Going to be making the coil cooling kits available for Spooky pins, but need to know if the power setup for the latest one, Rick and Morty, is still the same as it was for Rob Zombie so I can make some Spooky-specific harnesses.

You mean with the head down?

Wait---so the portal topper spins backwards down under? That Spooky attention to detail...

Has it even been established if it's truly locked up or simply busy in an endless loop?

Why suffer? You only paid a deposit on your R&M, so use the rest to buy a jjGnR, enjoy it for 3-6 months and sell it before you have to pay for the rest of your R&M. Problem solved.

Oh, in that case you have my permission to wait. I thought you were way out on the list.

I have the coil cooling kits modified for Spooky machines and pretty close to done using TNA, but I'd like to also have them tried on Rick and Morty.

EDIT: Have Spooky coil cooling kit testing slots full up now, thanks!

Not leg protectors. They need standoffs. I'm surprised spooky machines don't ship with them...

https://www.pinballlife.com/metal-cabinet-protectors-set-of-4.html

Weird, I can't wrap my head around how gonzo73 got a decal tear from the leg then, UNLESS it's like Dialed In where the top detail groove on the leg curved like 1mm too far back toward the cabinet and overcame the standoff's spacing. On the one we had, it started puckering the decal, and I added a washer between the standoff and the back of the leg to give it just a little more space.

It would be nice to have pictures/confirmation of how the decal tear from the leg happened...

Well, drinking IS kind of on-point for the theme, so...expected.

Ah, they didn't cut the decal around the standoff so when it shifts a little it's bunching the decal and eventually digging through it. Maybe Spooky would want to do a running change for R&M from here on so the decal is cut short around the standoff area so it doesn't actually touch the metal standoff at all (which is what Stern and JJP do) to prevent this.

After the fact, yes. But it would be better if the butter cabs or sticker art didn't run under the standoff.

Exactly. Leave that to me.

Very similar to the issue I had on the back legs for Dialed In. I just put two nylon washers between the inside leg and the metal standoff and that moved it out enough to stop the contact with the cabinet. Short of a leg redesign, a thicker metal standoff would also take care of this.

Spooky flipper coil cooling kits are getting close to being done. As with the spike kit, they seem to solve coil fade completely, holding coil temps under 110F regardless of how hard you play, whereas without cooling they are 140F and up. I had to re-design them for Spooky machines (edited to clarify - this is not an official Spooky product!) due to the flipper placements, and it took a little more hardware, but the result is cooling roughly similar to the spike kit.

I'd also put a nylon washer between the bolt and the leg so the bolts don't chew up the legs when you take then off or put them on again. SOP on pins I bring in with powdercoated legs. Stern has started adding thin metal washers there from Batman '66 SLE onward, which is nice.

Bedtime is 2-3am PST/PDT when Asia day ends.

Seems like a good place for Spooky to add a clear or purple mini-post in a running change to the line.

Check your gap between the bottom of the flipper and the top of the white nylon flipper bushing poking through the playfield. If it's too tight that will rob power. There should be about the thickness of a credit card of vertical play.

If that has a gap so there's some play, REMOVE the flipper coil stop and inspect. Nothing should be loose on it. You sometimes can't tell if the flipper coil stop has broken without removing it, but it will cause what you describe, and sometimes the flipper will stick briefly in the up position, too.

A broken coil doesn't always cause occasional flipper stick but it will rob power, so you can still have a broken coil even if you're not seeing the occasional sticking.

That sticking might be related to the EOS being too tightly adjusted which is a quirk related to the Spooky hardware somehow.

Or, it could be a broken coil stop.

Is the speaker on R&M an actual subwoofer and not just a woofer? If it is a sub then yeah, it would be the right thing to have an air port of 4" or so in the cabinet bottom or back.

Do they work in test mode?

Open the coin door, pull the white post on the inside left of the coin door frame and go into DIAG then Coil tests and test the individual coils.

If the coils work in test, you probably just need to regap the switch leaves to make them closer on your pop bumper and your left flipper button.

Forgot where I was and was giving you spike2 solutions. For Spooky, yes, there are fuses that control the coils on the board inside the backbox. 3A slo blow. If the board in the backbox looks like the one below, then it's the fuse at F2 on that board in the lower right area.

Spooky-cpu_board-close.jpg

Can you take a picture of the fuse you took out? I don't have a spooky machine, but the diagram doesn't specify if they're full size or the short ones like WPC'95/Houdini, etc. Spooky documentation leaves a lot to be desired.

Thanks!

That's 4A, not the 3A the board diagram says it should be. Was that fuse in the F2 spot?

Maybe Spooky started overfusing with 4A fuses in post RZ games to stop them from popping randomly when they were 3A as the diagram shows? There's quite a few posts about it in the Rob Zombie era.

According to the diagram, F1, F2 and F3 all should be 3A, so this 4A one is a surprise.

Also, for the record, this is an "L" ranked slo-blo fuse, which is middle of the ratings for time to blow (according to the IEC 60127-2 spec). H is faster slo-blo and E is even slower slo-blo. Fast blow fuses can have speed ratings, too.

So T is timed or slo-blow fuse type
4A is the amp rating
L is the blow speed within the fuse type (slo/fast blo)
250V is the voltage rating

Are your Rick and Morty F1 to F3 fuses all 4A, too?

Well, that would explain it, thanks. Rob Zombie is the last spooky I've had the backglass off of.

Where's the pic/diagram for that board? The P-ROC I see on multimorphic's site I don't see the fuses.

Thanks. Is there documentation specific to each Spooky game that uses the P-ROC that would show fuse differences, for example? I couldn't find any...

I wonder why they routed that switch hole so close to the inside rather than in the middle, angled? If they don't have all their playfields made yet, they can make a running change and fix this pretty easily with just an adjustment to the switch hole placement/angle.

Just an update on Spooky pin flipper coil temp testing with some temps and fade results. I only have a few more beta tests to finish and these will be ready to go. I had to make a custom bracket for Spooky pins since the Spike configuration wouldn't work, and that took extra testing to make sure it was effective. The cooling kit solves the Spooky pin fade problems in all cases.

(These are all at least 60 minutes of continuous play)

Moderate fade with temps in the low-mid 140s:
TNA, Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle

Severe fade with temps in the low-mid 150s (on the right flipper):
Rick and Morty

Still to be tested: Rob Zombie, America's Most Haunted

The coil cooling fans are the same ones I use in the Spike power supplies. Two of them together add up to less than 17dB. Super quiet.

Making a JJP machine kit is literally the next thing on my list as soon as GnR gets here. I estimate the Spooky kits will be ready in about two weeks.

Rick and Morty seems to be worse than the other spooky ones tested so far (on the right flipper, mainly as it gets a workout). Although of all the machines tested so far, Stranger Things is the champ with temps that maxed out my gauge at over 157 degrees (so I don't know how high STh goes).

But in general, with coils you're fighting the laws of thermodynamics. Energy is converted to action and heat, and if there's not enough time between pulses to let the heat dissipate, the heat continues building, which increases electrical resistance of the coil windings, which increases heat, in a loop. Unlike the other coils in the game, the flippers are firing all the time with few pauses of more than a few seconds, so they just build up heat, which affects their performance over time. Some games are better at building pauses into the action that gives the coils time to cool for short bursts. The fans just help continuously dissipate the heat to prevent heat buildup and in turn, electrical resistance. All of that said, if your playing time is 30 minutes or less, you don't have to worry about fade. It only happens over time, but once it starts, it only gets worse unless you let the machine rest (allowing time for the heat of the coils dissipate).

Here's a really easy explanation of electrical resistance:
https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/watch-play/interactive/heat-resistance

Unloading the container with a forklift (or moving it around the receiving warehouse). Pretty clear it was dropped.