Open a ticket to see if you can get a new flap and rivets.

LTG : )

Both Mirco (who makes the DI playfields) and CGC (MMR, AFMR) are using a totally different clear coat mixture/process than Stern and older WMS games use. The result is a playfield that is shinier and has a thicker clear coat, but one that chips and scratches very easily. Mirco in particular uses a ceramic clear coat that they claim is the hardest around, but seems irrelevant because it shows scratches and chips far more visibly than other playfields. Mirco has come on here and attempted to defend this with "some people don't know what they're talking about" but you don't need to be an expert in playfield painting to know crap clear coating when you see it. Though to that respect, I've worked with Sterns, CGC, and JJP games. I've restored countless WMS games. None of my restores or WMS games have chips or scratches....in fact my TAF with 600 plays after a proper clear coating with PPG shows no signs that it's even been played. My MMR has 460 plays and the outhole is chipping. Inexcusable. I've never seen a Stern with chipping (though like older WMS games, some can have insert lifting) or scratching like that. It's all about proper surface prep and using the right clear coat. These guys haven't figured out yet, but I hope they do for the overall benefit of everyone buying these games, myself included.

In short, it's not you. It's the manufacturers not giving a care about the durability of their playfields.

Thanks for the info, I am indeed concerned with quality of the clear coat, I don't mean to dredge up this topic again. I am mostly concerned with what my play field will look like down the road. I will make sure to keep a good coat of Wax on it, hopefully saving me from replacing the PF in a couple years. Not sure why JJP doesn't use the same clear coat as TH and WOZ. My TH is still in immaculate condition after nearly 1000 plays.

Has anybody had the problem where the ball loops all the way around and exits the left orbit when shooting the right ramp? It happens rarely, but the only think I can guess is that it is hitting something in the back and popping the ball up.

That has happened to me a few times too. I think its the same problem as sometimes a right ramp shot will somehow rattle and not make it all the way. Like you say, the ball must be bouncing up and taking the exit. Its a poor design in my opinion, the way the left orbit connects to the right ramp.

Sadly, mine has a lot of this too. I’m the only owner, have had the game about a month

As long as it dont wear down to the art (which it won't) then the clearcoat is there to protect which its doing. Di is hard on balls . . If u want it to stay super shiney then mylar the playfield or use a playfield protector to keep it perfect....otherwise its doing its job imo.

Have you waxed it and buffed it out since you got it?

The newer Stern playfields definitely chip. If they're going to do it, it will likely happen in the shooter lane first, but also possibly at the drop-in to the ball trough. Crap clear process.

Yep all sterns ive owned have chipped at some point

Picking my Dialed In LE up next week. Has any one compiled a list of must buy mods?

I have over 5000 plays on my Met and 1000 on my Hobbit and nothing even close to this. I have perfect vision, I can see a major difference, this play field is not the quality of my other games, that is all I am saying. I don't want to f**king mylar a play field and shouldn't have too buddy. Happy to hear this is what I can expect for a 10k pin.

It really dont need any...

Yep it gonna happen with these new shiney clearcoats. I just went around with a bright led light and looked at my pins...dile, st, met, rrwoz, afm,bsd and all had these types of scratches. You cldnt see them on the b/w pins as much bc the clear is very dull compared to the others but they were there. The clear is just there to protect the art underneath which is what it is doing. A metal ball on clearcoat will mark it up especially if not waxed and balls not changed regularly. Take a pinball it rub it across a car and see what happens..... well that happens millions of times on pinball machines. They will come out with a buffing compound if you want to do that after a bit. Ive seen some rough b/w playfields brought back to a brilliant shine with the treasure cove kit.

The ball on my skill shot was getting stuck on day one. I installed the cliffy and continued tweaking it but never got it right. I just took off the cliffy and it seems to be working great. That switch really doesn't need a cliffy, it's not a high impact area. I removed it using a plastic razor blade. Depending on how big your fingers are, you can just get the blade in there and pry it up, it was easy. If you need a plastic razor blade, pm me and I'll mail one out to you.

I'd love to see you buff these scratches out I can feel the edge of them with my fingernail, and I wax my machines as per Vids instruction, Blitz. I guess we'll find out in a couple of years if this clear holds up. I don't have to hold up a light to mine, that is the overhead light in my 10 ft high garage, I just took a picture with the glare so it was easier for everyone to see. I can see the scratches clear as day, I don't need a microscope or a magnifying lens.

I really don't care that much, love the game, I just don't need someone telling me this is what to expect from every pin. Cmon man, maybe your game isn't scratched as bad as mine, don't tell me every game is like this, it isn't, I OWN OTHER PINBALLS THEY ARE NOT SCRATCHED EVEN CLOSE TO THIS BAD.

Yes! Here it is:

I didn't use the cliffy there - the only one I didn't use in the end. That particular switch is already a queenie bitch, and I didn't need more aggrivation dialing it in. Once I got it adjusted right without the cliffy it hasn't needed further adjustment, but getting it working 100% took weeks of tweaking and playing.

I think this days are gone, as I know there is no more "ceramic coat". With the actual clearcode from Mirco I am happier than with the cermic stuff.
As written, the coat looks thicker and glossier than on STERN, CPR or BuT. Myfavorite clear is from BuT ... handcrafted, thin, clean, flat ... but because it is not thick as Mircos coating it "fells in" after several month. had a BoP and T2 on the wall for longer time and you can feel the inserts more after some month.
Same with a CPR ToTAN and FT.

As far as scratched playfields, I know that some of the earlier builds of DI had a particularly nasty metal edge, located at the right of the theater entrance, which could really damage a ball when hit directly...and then, those damaged balls would really scratch the hell out of the playfield. Seen it happen. On later builds, JJP started bending the tip of that metal piece to the right a little bit, so the ball couldn't strike the sharp edge directly.

Pictures are taken from earlier posts in this thread. Red circle is original problematic edge. Green circle shows the JJP fix on later builds.

926c5b7ffbcb7e3e2b9f3f887e3b64891dce4b84 (resized).jpg
7b6b9dd473b885344ffc306f29e056295ec873b4 (resized).jpg

*gets out pliers* I can fix this.

Here’s the impact spot on mine. Ugh.

Looks like I need to remove the theater to get that piece out to bend it properly. Which means removing the upper PF I assume

43C69D5E-87DD-4607-A995-052DC3A8872B (resized).jpeg

I have a blue led strip from Mezel Mods for sale in the Market Place if anybody is interested.

SOLD!

Mod - For Sale

Dialed In Subway Station led strip (blue) Brand New Archived

New (selling multiple, business) - “I have a brand new blue led strip from Mezel Mods for your Dialed In Subway Station. I was sent a white one by mistake instead of the listed blue one and I'm too lazy to swap it ou...”

2018-04-10

Vienna, VA

Ramjet

14 (Firm)

Archived after: 1 day

Viewed: 55 times

Status: Sold (amount undisclosed)

Having a minor issue on my DILE. Sometimes, left ramp shots & right orbit/ramp shots where the ball is travelling very fast will not register. Doesn't seem to happen when the ball is going slower......only on my fastest shots.

Should I just try bending those little metal arms on the microswitches a little bit inwards, towards the switch mechanism? They SEEM okay....but this is definitely happening a lot on my fast ramp shots. Annoying!

Anyone hear any news on the manuals?

The guy that writes the manuals was at the Ohio show as a JJP representative and said that the final draft was in and being reviewed. He said that he would make any necessary tweaks and it should be out real soon. That was a few weeks ago. I asked how they would know where to send them if you bought from a distributor and he said that JJP has the info. We should hear something soon. I'll ask some JJP people at he MGC show this weekend for an update.

Yep. You just need to adjust the switch blades out a bit more so they make better/quicker contact. Same thing happened on the one here. Adjusting the blade fixed it.

Ahh, I see.......so I should bend the blade ends OUT a bit more! Now that I stop & think about it, that makes perfect sense.
I think I tried the opposite last week, and bent the blade closer to the switch. NO WONDER it seemed to get worse!

Thank you!

So installed a mantis phone scoop protector.
And wow its a difference like night and day.

Now 9/10 direct shots are landig in the scoop and its looks way better then a cliffy.

But Installation was around 30minutes cause working under the playfield is very tricky....

But now i can say the mantis protector is a must

Just received DI LE#2000 ! Thanks to Joe from PinballSTAR who was great to work with. Stayed up way too late playing; game is just flat out amazing. Knock on wood, no issues.. game plays smoothly. Nothing broken, no weird ball travel issues or anything wonky. Never got a chance to see the attract mode video at Replay since it was always being played; pretty neat!

So, I've tried to skim through this thread, but I didn't see this mentioned, forgive me if this is an old issue already talked through that I'm resurrecting, but, ever since the 1.52 update (I just did this last week), none of the GI LEDs are working on my DILE. :/

I've traced connections and checked them all, but still no joy.

any ideas on what I can try next?

If it happened immediately after the update, reinstall update. Also, check fuses.

A software update would not trigger this problem. Check the circuit board circled in the photo below. Make sure the power connector (white with black/red/purple wires) is firmly seated. Same thing with the data connector (RJ-45 black cable).

--Ted

di_bagboard (resized).png

I checked that board and all of it's connectors, all were seated good, I removed and reseated them all, still nothing.

which fuse is connected to these that I should check?

If the rest of the lamps are working, it's not a fuse problem. You'll note that the lamp board right above that one uses the same power feed.

Are the green LEDs on the board lit?

Sometimes (maybe 1 out of 10) when the ball ejects out of the phone scoop it barely hits the left sling post and will go straight into the middle drain.
Has anybody else had this problem? It seems level, but I'm using a 24" level across the entire cabinet to set it up. I may need to get a better level.
What about coil strength?
Added over 6 years ago: Edit: right sling post

Added over 6 years ago: Edit: right sling post

Do you mean the right sling? Sounds like you may want to up the coil strength a little. I had to lower my phone eject and adjust flippers after I updated code. This machine requires tuning of both flippers, phone scoop and theatre magnet, at least on my copy. Takes very little time, and I like the control.

Did you try reinstalling the update?

I’m not sure how the fuse system works on DI as I haven’t had any reason to learn it yet. I’d just check them all, but as a previous poster said, it may not be the issue. Again, if it happened after the update, I would reinstall as my first course of action. Then I’d work backwards. What else did you touch? Did you raise the playfield? Did you adjust anything?

Yes, my mistake, the right sling post.

What are you looking for when you find your flippers? I did adjust the theater time delay to 125 and that seemed to help.

Change coil strength one unit at a time and test and retest until you get it to eject consistently approx where you want it.

Yeah all other groups are working fine, it's just the GI that are all dead.

Yes, there are green LEDs on the board. I'm not by the machine right now, but I believe it was blinking vs solid

Sounds stupid but try bending the scoop down, I've experienced the same problem. Over time the scoop lifts and the ball starts clipping the underside of the wireform from the right ramp to the right inlane, this deflects the ball enough that it catches the slingshot. It happens so fast you can't really see it. I've had to bend mine back down twice now, to me the metal just isn't thick enough to maintain its position or it should have been braced. You can literally just push it down with your thumb.

Yes, if the eject is too strong, it will do this. iphone with slo-mo recording is your friend if you're not sure this is happening. Bending it down is absolutely the fix, but probably reducing eject strength, too.

Just got around to watching this, great video, thanks! I'm now considering purchasing a Dialed In for my next pinball machine.

Ok- so I was having consistent trouble with my phone booting properly (I posted the issue here around page 61 or so) where only the lower 3rd would light up. The top 2/3's was blank.

Anyway, Stephen at JJP was able to send me a brand new video card and a new phone which I installed today. In case anyone needs a video card in the future I took a photo of the box- these are avail on Amazon for about $45 bucks.

With that all said- it seems to be working now. Interestingly something new its doing that it didn't before is that it says "auto configuring" then it clears (just like on a PC). My other phone never showed that- so perhaps there was something wrong w/the video card and phone. As of now after 15 or so reboots- its seems to be coming on each time.

He also sent me an audio sound isolator as I was getting a lot of audio noise. That gadget did the trick.

Before I switch these parts out I had to disconnect the VGA cord and reattach to get it to work. Obviously something wasn't quite right. Fingers crossed this was the fix and I'm done

IMG_1589 (resized).jpg

IMG_1590 (resized).jpg

IMG_1592 (resized).jpg

IMG_1591 (resized).jpg

IMG_1593 (resized).jpg

IMG_1594 (resized).jpg

I received a new phone and a new graphics card for my phone not casting colours correctly (usually red does not show), but it didn't fix the issue like it did with yours. I also tried several different VGA cords. Glad to see the fix worked for you!

Can someone take a look at this and see if I am imagining things. It feels and looks like the left flipper is not aligned quite right, I mean it feels like it is if by just a bit. Does the alignment look ok or does the left flipper look too low?

894FDCAF-DBF6-4CF8-B5BD-F3A3A2333659 (resized).jpeg

Definitely too low. Adjust it. I usually use a straight edge to make the flippers parallel to the guide rails, but DI has that hexagon, which makes it really easy. Adjust so that the bat is just touching that left point. Done!

Thanks

Oh man- you've literally tried everything I could even think of to do including the VGA cable. Does it happen when you swap the theater and the phone VGA cords too ?

Does it ever rectify ? or does it stay with the wrong colors?