Howdy DI owners and players,

Its been a 2 year effort to find the right pin. Started into this hobby by building a nice collection of EM's but now its time for that NEW game! My journey of searching, playing, talking, dreaming, deliberating and debating has come to a proper end -- right here at the Dialed In Owners and Fans club.

Will be picking up a NIB LE at Texas Pinball Fest in a couple weeks and am so excited about unboxing with the entire JJ team right there. Also really looking forward to meeting a few of you and getting to talk about DI in person. *Come play my pin!* And please do share your thoughts, play strategy, impressions, mods and ideas about this marvelous title.

I'll have a guest book there as well, where you can sign with your Pinside handle, and players initials plus anything else in mind. Gotta know who's behind the high scores, right? (plus I'll have your mug shot) HA!!

Cheers y'all ... see you @ TPF !!!

- Bill

Thanks Chris. Fantastic!

Much talk about the drones failing in this thread. There are two possible reasons why, in my view as a life long RC hobbyist, they're failing with such frequency:

1) The drone motors are "coreless" DC motors that contain very small permanent magnets inside. I think the 5 industrial strength magnets in DI, in proximity pulsing on/off constantly might be a major culprit to the efficiency & life of the little drone motors. This might depend on the North-South orientation of the game magnets mounted in the table, and the N-S orientation of the drone motor magnets. *if* these poles happen to be aligned the wrong way, I think its possible the game magnets might actually be acting as demagnetizers to the permanent magnets in the drone motors, which would fail the drone motors.
2) The drone motors are reportedly wired in series inside each drone body. DC motors can be run in series, and in *theory* they'll equally proportion the voltage among themselves but in practice this doesn't work well at all. What will happen is due to variations in each motor's efficiency and the load its running under, in time the motors will develop current draw imbalances leading to imbalances in how voltage drops across each motor in a series circuit. The result is that in time, as the motors change, the circuit goes so far out of balance it results in one or more motors failing to run at all.

In all the years I've flown RC airplanes, heli's and drones (over 40) I've never had a DC motor failure outright (one did catch on fire in flight, but that was my fault for running it on 150% of design voltage with insufficient cooling). Yes, it does happen, but its very unusual. Certainly, these micro drone motors aren't the best in quality but in actual drone use they're amazingly reliable. So I think its related to the pinball installation, not the motors per se.

Sorry I'm not offering a fix here, but just thought I'd add my .02 based on experience as to possible sources of trouble.

Really REALLY looking forward to taking delivery @ TPF! Cheers ...

Who ever EVER thought that a game mode called "EMP Strike" would ACTUALLY do damage to the machine? Might it be that JJP/Lawlor - with this theme and tech - has actually (accidentally) reached out beyond the realm of fantasy into reality?

And how is all this EMP affecting the phone in the game? Any electrical engineers out there? Maybe we just need a topper that has drones in it that can take off and fly around when needed.

Lol... its time for a beer.

Took delivery of DILE s/n 0770 at TPF from Chris KingPinGames . So I thought I'd post some feedback on the delivery, the machine, and game play during the show.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Jack, Eric Meunier, Jean-Paul de Win, and Butch Peel all from the JJP Team. Chris from KingPin games was fantastic in every way. 100% recommended.

Chris and crew had the pin unboxed and set up by the time we arrived late Thursday afternoon. I looked it over very carefully, inside and out - and am happy to say it was all in absolutely perfect shape. Not a scratch! The playfield was absolutely pristine, clean and ready to play.

Eric Meunier showed me how to extract the supplied balls and I inspected them with a 60X pocket microscope - all looked just fine. The surface finish is exactly the same as on Ball Baron standard's or the ones you'd get from Marco. I did install 5 new balls each morning of the show, and inspected the outgoing sets for problems in surface finish. I never could find any problems, so this DI isn't chewing up balls.

There were only 3 very minor issues with the pin that showed up: on Saturday a player reported the balls weren't always registering correctly when entering the return trough. And wouldn't you know it - just to my right was Lloyd LTG who simply opened the coin door, and found a connector a bit loose on the trough assembly. Problem fixed, and thank you Lloyd! It was a real pleasure to get to meet you!

The second problem appeared to be a mis-adjusted side flipper. When at rest, it was hanging just about 1/16" open which was deflecting fast moving balls around the loop STDM. After getting the game home, I found a small screw lodged behind the flipper (probably some factory hardware that somehow got in there) and was keeping it from returning to the proper position. It was actually jammed down in the PF in a small opening and was hard to see. Removing that fixed the flipper return issue.

And finally, the mylar covering the Theater magnet is already showing significant distortion where it contacts the magnet. I think I'm just going to cut the mylar away as described in this thread, and be done with it. The mylar over the Drones magnet still looks fine, so I'll keep an eye on it.

I know your next question: how many games did it get at TPF? And unfortunately I didn't think of looking before having to head out on a business trip. So when I return I can report the actual game count, but for now I'm guessing around 500 plays.

The playfield still looks amazing. Literally not a scratch, and the dimples are quite shallow and can only be seen with lighting at a specific angle. Very satisfied with this PF.

Here's a shot of the KingPinGames area: Busy place and lots of fun!

image1 (resized).jpeg

Sure is! And it will be even better once I get your Translite Illumination kit installed. Nice meeting y'all at TPF!

I did have a close look at the back of the phone today. The loose screw is a Truss Head type sheet metal screw. Not a machine screw like would be in the back of the phone. This screw is a match of the type that are used to hold stuff down along the wood side rails on the playfield, so I'm just guessing it was loose hardware during the assembly process. All is well now.

... and this is a FREAKING AWESOME PIN!! Played a couple hours tonight. Low scores. Who cares, it was simply amazing!

I believe it! Last night, with everything set to default a friend and I saw things that looked impossible: During EMP Strike, a ball taken from the middle of the playfield was actually *launched airborne* by magnets (!) - thrown over top of the right outlanes and into the gutter. Balls moving fast downhill on the PF immediately reversing course and tossed back uphill: up the left ramp, into the phone scoop, into the Theater, and more! And one ball already moving fast toward the flippers was Warp Drive accelerated to incredible speed by a magnet pulse - STDM. BANG! into the metal backstop for the ball return (no damage thankfully). Talk about incredible ball behavior. This pin is in a league all by itself.

This morning I was looking at game reviews of DI and others, and found something I cannot explain: Why is it that the player rating on DI continues to decline, while submitted ratings are consistently high? For example, here's a screen shot of the rating trend on DI, from this morning (lower graph with the blue line):

So I recorded all the ratings submitted from the last 4 months - ie, since Jan this year. In that time there have been 27 ratings added, with an average of 9.005. Yet, the ratings chart shows a continual decline in rating in the same time period: from January to April, DI has gone from 8.575 to 8.541.

Is the rating system screwed up? This cannot be correct, at least as far as I see and understand what's being presented on the ratings page. The last 27 submissions average 9.005, so the game average should be moving UP not down. ???

Screenshot_2019-04-22 Dialed In Pinball Machine (Jersey Jack, 2017) - Reviews and ratings Pinside Game Archive (resized).png

What I'm putting focus on here isn't the actual ranking of the pin. Its what looks like a bug in the Pinside software to me. Why is the ranking going down, when the data should be driving it up?

Thanks. I'll drop him a note and let y'all know of I get an answer.

Pinsider Staff Ratings aren't used to rank the Top 100. Its only submitted ratings that are used for the rankings.

Ah HA! That was it. There have been a number of very low scores for DI submitted with no comment.

Yeah I think so, but also lots of morons.

I believe it is. Happens rarely though.

+1 on waynetrane decals. After around 300 plays since installing, they still show zero signs of wear. That second set (included) won't be needed for a long time!

I took delivery of a new LE earlier this year. From my experience so far, nothing in DI really needed to be altered before play. However, there are a few things you might want to keep an eye on:

1) I was seeing recurring issues with balls not feeding in the trough during game play. They seemed to be getting stuck together, and not rolling toward the VUK in there. Problem was the balls were getting magnetized after about 70 games, and so wouldn't roll when grouped together in the trough. The fix is to demagnetize the balls when I see that becoming an issue. I bought a cheap degausser on ebay that does the trick. (pic below) I'm a bit surprised others here aren't reporting this problem... I play with Ball Baron standards and rotate them out for a demagged set about every 70 plays.
2) Mylar covering the Theater and Drone magnets got chewed up after about 500 games. You'll find in the thread here that the best long term fix is simply to cut the mylar away from around these magnets using a brand new X-Acto knife. I did that, and no more issues.
3) Have a good look at the Bob trap door. Run a test on it: when in the UP position, it should NOT hit the wire form ramp going into Station 3. Many here have reported a broken trap door flap due to it hitting the ramp. I'm surprised that would ever happen, since the ramp flap is made from hardened spring steel, but it does happen. It is adjustable if needed... just make sure its not hitting the ramp when the door is raised up. Mine is over 1000 plays now and no issues at all.
4) Take some time setting the game up correctly so you don't get STDM drains when a ball is released out of the Theater. The fix is to simply adjust the right rear leg a bit so the ball doesn't go STDM if released. Mine was doing that, and it was a simple fix.
5) Also on the Theater magnet: the magnet probably will need some setup to properly "toss" the ball up and around to the side. Read up on how to do that and get your magnet strength adjusted correctly for the "toss".
6) Make sure the lightening bolts that the QED guy is holding on to are correctly positioned in his hands. I've read of more than one case where they weren't mounted properly, and wound up causing the $300 InvisiGlass getting scratched. Just be careful about that.

Enjoy the game! Its thoroughly amazing, extremely challenging and always fun.

- Bill.
s-l1600 (resized).jpg

Hey there... I'm a bit surprised this topic hasn't been thrashed about here in the thread yet. DI has more EMP action than any other pin I'm aware of. The magnets used are bigger and seem to be pulsed much harder than anything else. So this is why I've been forced into degaussing the balls on DI. Other games with magnets don't seem to have the EMP pulse DI has. Hell, it even has a mode called "EMP Pulse" that does real damage to stuff! (where's the warning sticker for players who have a pacemaker installed?)

The little Chinese degausser works fine for the intended purpose, but I wouldn't count on it lasting very long. To demagnetize a ball, I position the ball on the degausser, and press the button to give just a very short ON burst - maybe 1 second. Then I sort of randomly turn the ball to a different orientation and do it again... this done maybe 20 times in all sorts of different orientations at random as best I can. Then I test to see if the ball is still magnetized.

To test if the ball is still magnetized, simply put a paper clip up to it and see if it can hold the clip up. Try this in a few different orientations. If so, then probably needs more demagnetizing. If it can't hold a paper clip up, then that one is done. I also happen to have a very sensitive magnetic field tester in my shop, so I do know the actual gauss level of every ball. So I know the paper clip test is adequate.

I'm running Ball Baron standard carbon steel pinballs. Exactly the same thing shipped with DI, and exactly the same as SilverJet's you can get from Marco. And YES, I do demag these balls as many times as needed. To date, the set in the game now has been degaussed 8 times.

From what I've found about the magnetic properties of carbon steel, through-hardening makes the steel MUCH more capable of holding a magnetic state than non hardened steel. For that reason, I don't run Ninja balls in DI. Just standard high quality carbon steel balls.

The thing that stops balls getting re-used is surface wear. When pulled for degaussing, I also inspect the surface finish of each ball with a 60x pocket microscope. When they start showing too much wear, they're replaced. Balls that are torn up are the main source of playfield wear, along with dirt/debris on the PF.

The link that LTG sent looks perfect. Or do a search on eBay for "degausser" or "demagnetizer" and find one like the picture I posted on this page. They're cheap, and do the job good enough.

I thought in-trough degaussing might really be the answer, but after more research found its more complicated than meets the eye. So just have a couple sets of balls or more: when the ones you're playing begin to get stuck in the trough, rotate in another set and you're good for a while. I seem to be degaussing here about every 70 games or so.

5 balls. Do NOT use Ninja's due to how easily they can become magnetized.

Another data point for CPU upgrade: i5-4590 just installed running 1.71

The Celeron was obviously choking on the job, while the i5 doesn't miss a beat. Considering the CPU is responsible for so much of what goes on - it affects everything going on in the pin (not saying it fully directly controls everything. Saying it AFFECTS everything). That means graphics, lights, coils - everything.

Should it PLAY better as a result?

Right away, the immediate improvement in graphics performance was evident. Coils seem to be more consistent. Flippers too? Not sure, but the game absolutely positively DOES play different. And I'll say "better" to describe what "different" means.

This was without a doubt the best 60 bucks I've spent on DI so far. That's less than 1% of the price of this thing. Fair deal.

1.73 Change Log dated 25 Sep - just 2 days ago.

Because if I upgraded the CPU first, I knew that would alert Dialed In Electronics (DIE) to do an update to fix the problem that would make my CPU upgrade worthless. I ordered the CPU about 10 days ago.

See? They ARE watching us.

I have SIM card carry-over turned ON. But also, I'd like to know how y'all rate the different disaster modes:

Which modes do you like to do first? Which do you think are the most difficult? Do you save the Big Bang to complete modes that are more difficult?

Here's my list - in order of difficulty for me. (and disclaimer: I probably have some of the rules wrong here. Rules link posted below)

11) Meteor Storm - easiest mode for me. If available, its the first I will get done. High success rate with this one.
10) EMP Pulse - I can get this one done as long as the ball doesn't get tossed STDM or directly into an outlane.
9) Acid Rain - Shot into the jets, then hitting the left ramp 3x is "doable" for me, but difficult within the time frame.
8.) Flash Fires - Left ramp / Bob targets. I can do it if its a day where I'm making the Bob shot.
7) Tidal Wave - One left ramp shot to complete the mode. Maybe a tie with Acid Rain for difficulty.
6) Eruption - Theater / right ramp / theater / right ramp. Can do maybe 1 in 5 attempts.
5) Singularity - left orbit / left ramp / theater / right ramp (?). Hard. Its those orbit shots that kill me.
4) Sink Holes - shoot either orbit 3 times to complete. Again, orbits for me are hard.
3) Earth Shaker - shoot either lit target not sure how many times... never done it yet.
2) WhirlWind - Left ramp / right ramp / left orbit / side ramp. Yeah, right. Done it once.
1) Alien Invasion - I LOVE how the saucers look when they blow up! But damn its hard to make all those shots. Completed this maybe 2 times ever. Fun to watch!

Link to DI rules:

http://tiltforums.com/t/dialed-in-rulesheet-wiki/2855

So, what modes do you like the best and what ones are the hardest for you? What's your strategy?

altan

Yeah for sure theres LOTS going on on the big display. Much of the time I can't spare even an instant to look up. But still there's plenty of opportunity to glance up now and then and catch whats going on which just adds to the enjoyment/excitement of playing this awesome pin.

I'm an ex-USAF pilot, and currently a commercial airline pilot. In our job, its a skill set to develop: closely watching the outside picture while at the same time being able to interpret the instruments below to accurately fly the jet. I think one thing about DI that just seemed oddly familiar to me is that it sort of has an "outside world" (the 27" display) as well as the playfield world. Divided sources of input, but that's just fine with me. In aviation, its a skill set we learn to develop: typically in an airplane under VFR conditions its about 80% outside and 20% inside. Just flip those around for pinball where our attention is highly focused on whats happening under the glass, and the rest of our attention strategically picks up the inputs coming through the big upper display. Us pilots call this a "composite scan".

At TPF this year, Jack Guarnieri asked me an interesting question: "Why do you think I put a 27" display in DI?" I chuckled, and simply answered "because you got a good deal on them" ... and Jack said "Nope. Its because 27" is the biggest thing I could fit in there." Is JJP getting ahead of what will be the larger trend in pinball tech? Is the rest of the industry headed this way also? I personally think he's right.

Now, I sort of digressed a bit with this discussion, BUT -IF- (and that might be a big "if") pinball in general is heading toward using larger and larger LCD displays in the back box, then wouldn't it make sense for us as pinball players to develop composite scan skills also?

I'm certainly not the guy you want representing what a good player should be (turned 58 today!) but I think its certainly not asking too much to ask you better (read: younger) players to develop some new tricks when there's a need to look up to see what's happening on a nice big high-def LCD.

So ... how about those disaster modes now?

Gogdog

Wow! Fantastic strategy. Can't wait to try some of this out.

Many many thanks...

NightTrain yes there should be rubber on that post. Looks like previous owner might have taken it off to make SIM shot easier.

There are a few pictures of the SIM hole in the image gallery attached to this thread. There you can see how it should look, along with some shots of the old and new "Cliffy" type protectors.

I think it was Butch Peel who told me last TPF those were what they call the "dog hair" type protectors that they put on customer's pins, but never on their own. The JJP cabinets all have metal plate spacers between the legs and cabinet, so the Dog Hair type cushions really aren't needed. I took mine off when I got it home...

Tranquilize DO IT. It’s less than 1% of the value of this machine but makes a complete difference in how it plays. Call me crazy, but I’d say the BEST money I’ve spent so far on DI is the processor upgrade. Quick / Cheap / Easy. You’ll never want to look back.

Theres a ton of info on processors that will work with this MB. I went with the upper end in terms of performance in terms of passmark scores: the i5-4590. Refer to post #9212 this thread for more info on passmark scores:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dialed-in-owners-and-fans-club/page/185#post-5230320

Modern Stern flippers to me are harder hitting than on DI. They just have more power behind them I think.

But whatever ... my DI is completely stock and easily makes ALL the shots needed. It definitely is a "smoother" flip than Stern. I think its just a personal preference difference.

And - yeah - DI is simply AMAZING. What a show!