What are your thoughts about the led? You happy with the choice?

I do not have a gap. But I do put some tape at the top to ensure no light gets in from the backbox. Now they are perfect black!

I’m super impressed how much a difference the color makes. I didn’t think it would be that much better but it definitely is.

As far as led vs lcd until I get an lcd I won’t truly know but I do like the deep colors of the led

I just installed the color DMD lcd version. Does anyone have a preferred setting for dots?

DotsXL for me.

Not sure if this was a good idea, but decided to put some EL wire onto spidey's ramps today...
(regarding the votes from a few days ago...i'd go LED but i like normal DMDs so...)

spid.jpg

Looks great, how did you wire it?

Got the stern cabinet power splitter from Pinball Life (bit of a luxury really), got some blue EL PC-modding wire with the usual connectors, 2 of them into a 12v box - then that into the normal Stern 3-pin molex. All comes with the wire just have to wire red and black into the molex plug.

Then just cable-tied at every ramp rail join. Sadly not really long enough to do the whole length of the ramps - but hey. Mine were 1.5m each length, I think you'd need 3m cable to do a full ramp. Also, there's not really a point where the ball may hit the tie as it only runs along the top edge around corners. Seems to run cleanly. So on mine, there's no point where the wire is tied on a bend, just bend the wire smoothly to shape and keep it tight.

Spider-man is quite handy as it has a hole bang in the middle of the back panel to run cables through invisibly.

Looks great well done

Hi

Could some kind person please take a close-up or two of this area? I'm buying a Spidey at a good price but it looks like the blue pad and end of the ramp might have broken off.

TIA

pasted_image (resized).png

Here you go. Mine was missing this rubber piece and both the Venom ramp and left ramp were broken because of it. Bought new ramps and ordered all the parts and installed it. Now all is right with the world.

Left Ramp 2 (resized).jpg

Left Ramp 3 (resized).jpg

Left ramp 1 (resized).jpg

Thank you so much. Did you have to transfer decals to the new ramps?

Had to buy new ones. Pinball life sells all 3 ramp decals as a set

It's pretty easy for the ramp (I forget which one) to get broken even with the blue nubs in place. If I remember correctly the game came with 3 out of the 4 ramp protectors (the metal pieces on the sides of the ramp entrances) when the game shipped. Why they put 3 on there and left the 4th one off....who knows. I'm sure they save a $1 or less and have sold a shed ton of ramps because of it. Anyway...I can't even remember which one it was. I have all 4 now, but remember one of them being an aftermarket add-on.

It's the right ramp. I bought the full Cliffy's set and it comes with the protector for the right ramp.

As far as I know most of the Stern games have the flipper alignment hole positioned at the tip of the flipper. The holes in my SM are way off from the tip. Why is it like this in SM? Is everyone else’s like that? What good are the alignment holes if they are way off like that? Currently my flippers are in line with the ball guides. Just curious.

35C42F9B-B957-4D3A-8689-9402B36C4B17 (resized).jpeg

I always align my flippers with the ball guides.

I believe that you are looking at the holes for the uninstalled “anti-bounce back” bars. There are two more holes close to the center post.

For this game the flipper alignment holes are slightly under the flipper. Move one up and you will see that you are probably pretty close to being dead on. My flippers are set a little lower relative to the holes, but not much.

Left the club today. I never thought it would come to this but my beautiful Spidey red and I parted today. He has a good new home. We will see how I will go on. Thanks all in this tolic for the support, ideas and discussions. Have fun and if you are fishing for a compliment...try the next pond!.....mic drop.

So my Spidey arrived and there's more broken stuff than I realised. Can I please get a photo of how this part should look? (I know the plastics are missing).

IMG_20200603_202227 (resized).jpg

Hope this picture helps...Ignore the spider man and new goblin figurines, those were added.

sm pic (resized).jpg

Thanks, it looks like I'm missing a long hex post (not sure if that's the correct term) that goes in front of the star post.

Is anyone selling the plastic sides for the VUK arch?

Pinbits.

http://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=13_45

Any use?

15DCE5D4-BFD0-43E2-9B10-0B33F7F03664 (resized).jpeg

457380A7-B0D1-4B4C-8E98-5D4D91E9A2ED (resized).jpeg

67EF81E6-A95B-4E52-A25D-127479BB7678 (resized).jpeg

AD64DB5C-5183-4280-98E3-E45164CC2BDA (resized).jpeg

BFC35E9B-AAAE-46D8-B289-E3FE66F95830 (resized).jpeg

DC8866BF-F5ED-4B90-ADC3-DF46B09690FB (resized).jpeg

Very good, all I need now is the height of the pillar. Maybe that's in the manual.
Update: I don't think the manual is that detailed.

it's 1 and 3/4 inches long (took the glass off to check)

Deleted

My top Sandman arrow and the Sandman flasher are not working. It seems odd that these are the only two lights not working but the wiring at the holders look OK. Is there any weird reason for this or is it just normal lamp/flasher diagnostics at this point?

If LEDs, make sure the little wires on the plastic end are turned out a bit.

Otherwise, for the controlled light, look at the lamp matrix and follow the two wires to other lights on the row and on the column and make sure that the wire didn't break off on the upstream wire from either the row or column.

For the flasher, also check the wires from the other flashers to ensure the wire did not break at an upstream flasher.

Just for sanity check, if above does not work, you went into the all lamp test and the top arrow is the only one not working? Same for testing the flashers?

Just joined the club again with a Spiderman Vault Edition. Love the game and it is in like new condition. This one has interactive lights in the backboard that I have never seen before. They are awesome, but a bit bright, as are the stock LED's.

I owned a Spidy Vault in the past and I do not remember the LED's being so bright.

I may end up replacing some of the factory LED's with softer ones and add a color dmd.

The arrow lamp was the only one not lighting in the all lamps test and the arrow flasher was not lighting during the flasher cycle. However, I just had the weirdest repair session ever. I couldn't see any breaks in the wiring so I tested for volts at the arrow lamp and saw some so I replaced the bulb and it worked. The reason it's weird is that the bulb I replaced was a brand new one. After that, I tested the flasher in the single flasher test and it worked.

Great. I have had brand new LEDs and regular lights not work also. Strange that changing a light would somehow affect the flasher. But if it works, don't question it.

Are the general illumination LEDs frosted or clear. When I got my vault it had the factory clear top LEDs and they were horrible, swapped em all out for frosted dome topped LEDs

I just looked and they are all clear. Looks like I need to visit Comet LED's again. Thanks

stick an LED OCD board in it - that way you can lower brightness uniformly. Plus you get a much smoother lightshow, the way it was designed. I'd do that before swapping out the LEDs, although i also prefer frosted domes over clears.

ColorDMD goes without saying!

My Spidey spinner constantly finishes spinning in the horizontal position so that the ball then just rolls under it without a single spin. I adjust it and first hit it finishes in the same position. Any tips to make it finish its spin facing vertically?

EE3F50F1-A3C3-4421-B18C-AA0FAB7CB29D (resized).jpeg

I’ve just posted about this in the AC-DC thread.

You can gently bend the spinner rods that go through the holes. You may need to support the spinner bracket with one hand (depending on how much it flexes). Firmly grab the spinner blade and push it upwards (firmly but gently). It will alter how the spinner sits. You may need to push the spinner in different directions to get the angle you want. Try it, you will soon see what I am talking about.

Try loosening the screw on the right and slide the bracket. Sometimes my spinner gets stuck in the up direction and this is how I’ve fixed it

This is a good idea I had not thought of and much easier than swapping out all the LED’s

LED OCD may require a little different hook up on the vault edition that came set up already with LEDs. I don’t remember specifically but I’d ask around how to do it first

It’s just removal of the little crappy sub boards on each lamp matrix connector (bottom left of the left board). Iron Man VE, MET Pro & TWD Pro (amongst others) had them too. They’re there to mask the ghosting! LED OCD solves that for you too.

Good to know as I ordered the LED OCD board a few hours ago. Does anyone know if instructions are included for installing into the Spidy Vault Edition ?

Not explicitly for SM Vault, but generically for Stern SAM games:

Install:
http://www.ledocd.com/install_sam_r5.html

Software usage:
http://www.ledocd.com/usage_led.html

(You may decide that Profile 7, the one it defaults to for all inserts, needs to be less bright at the top end, in which case maybe use Profile 6 for all inserts. The only thing i always change is the delay number to either 1 or 2).

Also read up around this post https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/club-spidey-members-and-guests-welcome/page/32#post-5402774
as there's a setting (maybe more than 1), which may be worth playing with after install, but then you're into "fiddly & subtle" territory.

Herg should have SMVE on his site. I corrected the naming differences from SM to SMVE and sent it to him a while ago.

Thank you. Appreciate the help !

Well I installed the LED OCD board into my Spidy Vault and what a difference it makes. I had to use the default settings as I am unable to get the LedOcd App to open on either of my laptops, but that is ok as it looks so much better.

I did not receive a USB cable with my kit so I am using an old one I had laying around, so that could be part of the issue with getting the app to load.

Now I need one for my TSPP that is also running all LED's

Glad you’re happy. Great product.

Contact herg as he’s usually good at supporting.

Games like TSPP and LOTR look terrible without LED OCD. Apologies if I just cost you a lot more money....

No problem and this hobby always cost me money, but that is ok.

I think this may be one of the best bang for buck mods out there. I did a before and after video just so I could see the difference and it is amazing how much better it looks with the LED OCD board installed.

herg did reach out to me this morning via email and I sent him a screenshot of the error I am getting. I am sure it is something I am doing wrong.

Could you post the video? I’d love to see it!