7.0 right on the Overlord’s face on the playfield.

I always measure pitch from between the flippers. Not sure if that's correct, but it's how I do

I can swap PBDs easy enough tommorow.

I do currently have Zillas PSU in FF, and FF PSU in Zilla. So the FF PSU is currently paired to the Zilla PDB, and Zilla PSU to the FF PDB…just in different bodies.

I’ll swap though just to ensure nothing downstream would be effecting it.

I don’t think there’s a “correct”, just what plays good for you + a consistent reference point you have to work off of / measure.

Got my LE yesterday. Changed the rubbers and posts, plastic protectors. Got a Little Rock section going on.

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It's one of the top 3 hottest flipper coil Stern Spike2 machines after about an hour. Plus it has that very steep ramp on the right. So when the fade starts, it's more noticeable, sooner. I believe that's because the ball is always coming back to your flipper quickly. There are no mechanical locks (aside from the single overlord captive ball) or pop bumpers to create pauses in the play. As a result, you're flipping a lot more (the fastest way to build heat on Spike2, much faster than hold/trap).

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Very interested to see what the result is. I wonder if cheaper caps or other components on the PDB are the root problem. I've had almost every Spike2 NIB of various levels (Pro to LE) and never had the clicking.

I get 5 or 6 clicks on boot every time. Nowhere near as many as you’re getting. Never gave it a thought as it’s my first new in box Spike 2 game. But I’m interested in what you learn.

Man, shitty power supply,

C'mon Stern Pinball.....

Awesome. Thanks for that little nugget. It’s pretty cool

Are you using the service outlet?

Anyone went with clear rubbers all around? I was Gona go clear with purple posts but now thinking of going glow in dark ones…

I always go clear Titans all around on my pins. Did this on my FF Premium. I’ve ordered the Glowing Green set. First pin where I find it necessary.

Interesting ? I have preference for clear these days.

Have to admit some photos I have seen of green glow look cool but,
Why glowing green better ?

Maybe I'm too old to play in the dark

Ditto.

Awesome line up man !
That beautiful ol' Bally RS, wow Winner.

Love it ! 10/10

Rock on \m/

For a band fronted by a drummer, they shoulda gone with a paradiddle for the easter egg - L,R,LL,R,L,RR

I haven’t added them to ff yet, but I love the look of clear and I think it brightens up the game, and they’re super bouncy and easy to clean (like any other silicone). It’s just a matter of taste with clear vs other colors, but I like clear the best by a long shot!

Oh man the FLO on the PRO is sensational! Well done team stern!

I did,was thinking about going to glow in the dark, but lately I’ve been leaning toward leaving them. I think they look pretty clean

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At this point everyone should replace that coil stop and/or add a drop of loctite to the screws. I know some people thought I was crazy when I posted this, but it has happened to too many people.

Mine has a few pops, on startup and shit down. Thought it was normal as well.

Nope

Mine did the same. Found it once, restuck it and it was knocked off again and now no clue where it has migrated to. That target does get hit pretty hard. I have a open tix with Stern about it.

Clean the target and decal with alcohol and get all the adhesive residue off, get a roll of 3M 467MP tape, and use an exacto knife to cut out a target-sized bit of tape with a hole for the rivet. This happened with multiple targets on my STh, prevailing thought being the targets weren't 100% clean when the decals were installed at the factory. Haven't had one pop off again after doing this for ones that did come off.

Thanks bud, I will do that.

Probably right. Based on your post, at least I suspected what was happening when my flipper power dropped to virtually zero

Long story short, in Vegas, killing time waiting for the others flights to get in, and I went to the Pinball museum. Man such a cool place and some cool people. They had Stern IC leaderboards on steroids donated by Stern from a previous trade show. They had 2 premiums and a pro or two. Helped a lady explaining the rules to her and noticed the upper playfield was missing a rubber on the flipper, I also noticed that the pitch on one had the bubble at the top center on one and the other the bubble was in the upper section. The reason I mentioned this is both auto plunges we’re consistently falling short. Also both dead posts would fire, but the ball did not have enough momentum. And wouldn’t clear the right flipper. Spoke with the manager, asked if he was open to feedback had a great conversation and had me play test them ( free games ) for a hour until I needed to bail. Felt good helping them and seeing this special game shine. Dam IC now I need to go back to scan in and keep my streak. Not sure how I will pull this one off with the wife and friends today as we rented a cabana and Sick New World (festival) tomorrow. Where there is a will, there is a way.

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Good diag. Did you follow up with Stern with the results?

I just did, however, not too sure if there will be much traction.

Their initial reply was pretty generic saying it was normal, and the click sound can vary with different manufacturing periods and batches of components.

It’s just my OCD killing me now, I’ve had a few NIB sterns, and never this relay clicking sound

If it were to happen to be diagnosed as failed completely, say, on Monday, you'd get a warranty replacement. good thing you'd have a good one to play whichever game you want while waiting on the replacement.

Its not the caps clicking… but likely the performance of the caps causing the relays in the psu to throw because of voltage or current swings.

So you can read stern’s email different ways… the caps are the reason for the noise… but not the source of the noise. So not ‘wrong’ to refer to the caps… but also kind of confusing to say it is the caps

Ah, thanks- makes much more sense! I was definitely reading it the other way.

There is inrush current when the caps are charging. Could be something related to that and why it stops after a few seconds (after the caps have charged). Relay noise could be over current protection throwing in the psu.

If you had an amp meter you could watch the psu output.

I’d ask for new pdu

I will let mine be. If the boards crap out Stern will fix it.

Who makes the sticker to cover this ?

Thanks

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so no one ran into this issue then? Guess it's time to talk to my distrubor/stern-

I would try re-seating all of your light board cables (cat-5) with the game off. If that doesn't help I would reach out to your distributor.

New PDU is incoming,they agreed to RMA it. I was actually expecting a bit more pushback.

My distro will be taking things from here, but I’ll make sure to follow up with pinside

I will have an awesome sticker in the next few days to share and have in my Pinside store.

Not sure if this is a bug or if I made some super secret combo … but I had 2x playfield running for the rest of the game. Even after I drained. The playfield was not lit but the icon on the screen was there for the rest of the game. Anyone else have this experience?

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I just 3D printed a thin plate that I put there using 3M double stick. Same on my GZ and Bond, easy peasy.
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#708 has landed

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Great that it's narrowed down. Crap that it's a brand new power distribution board performing at the low end of acceptable charging up, causing the power supply relay to click. I'd push for a new PDB.

If Stern stands hard on the "no replacement" I'd cost you $75, but Pinball Life has new PDBs in stock for $75:

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-power-distribution-board.html

Great that they went for the swap! Definitely post the ultimate outcome. It sounds like a few others have been stuck with the same under-achieving PDBs you have.

looks great where can i order ?

Nope. Lucky duck. If that's a feature, I'd like to know how to achieve it.

Mine is a bit annoying, but nothing I am going to worry about swapping. If it starts getting worse/taking longer I will raise a flag. Wonder what the differences are with the boards. Will be watching to see if the replacement board is any different.

For those waiting, what was your order date?

I'm in on a Premium (my distributor was out of LE's) and my order date was March 5.
Obviously I'm further back in line than those in on LE's... just curious as to how big of a queue we're in.

Some have mentioned having loose coil stops. Definitely worth checking but note that it's easy (like most fasteners in Pinball) to over-tighten and strip out the receiving part, so don't over-tighten!

We noticed some funky behavior here last night when trying to stop/trap a ball with the left flipper. The flipper would "dip" when the ball hit it and with the glass off, you could easily confirm that when held up, the flipper itself could be pushed down even with the coil engaged. Turns out in my case, I had a bad coil stop. The insert looks like it was never really struck to mushroom over the end and firmly attach it to the bracket. Pics tell the story. I had a number of PBL coil stops handy so I just swapped it out and back in business. The coil stop on the right flipper is fine. I pulled and inspected it, but it's properly riveted and looks identical to the replacements I got from PBL so I reinstalled and will keep using the original on that side until it wears or loosens up.

You can see the failure to flatten the end of the pin here:
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In my case, the insert was free from the stop by the time it was noted and came out in pieces.
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