The difference is your board's parts are borderline faulty and go in and out of spec. You're obviously welcome to live with it, but could it negatively affect other components downstream? It's affecting relays. Are those relays a protection circuit?
I mean, only the entire pin is dependent on stable power to perform properly and if you're experiencing the equivalent of little "brown outs" due to unstable power which is clearly tripping relays, so if it were me, I wouldn't ignore that for very long. Components aren't self healing, it's just more likely going to degrade and get worse over time. Could other components suffer by waiting and allowing this to continue?

If you're in on the first run of Premiums, it should be within the next couple weeks I'd think. If second run, I haven't checked back in a few weeks with my distro but last I'd heard they were thinking July. As far as when you will get your machine specifically in any given run, it doesn't really depend on when exactly you ordered, rather it's more on a per-distributor basis.

BTW, got new fans from PinMonk in today, one for FFLE and one for GB. Holy cow, night and day difference between how it sounds after installing the fan, and the jet engines before!

I've installed them in 3 of the 4 sterns I have. Crazy different.

And I'll say, I was "that" guy. I saw Pinmonk's fans, thought to myself "I can find them cheaper" and well...not really. And not with as great a write up as he included. It is worth it, to just buy 'em from him.

I drove 1.5 hours to participate in a Stern Pinball #FooFighters Launch Party Tournament. My first real pinball tourney ever. And guess who took T2nd and took home an awesome Translite prize. I really wanted that banner, so I'll be going to another one tomorrow.

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I don't know about "faulty" but the PDB caps seem to be performing at the low end of their specification, which is causing the power supply to compensate with what seems to be the relay clicking as it works to charge up the caps on the PDB. I'll definitely be following this. I wonder if Stern changed some components between the boards that are not triggering the power supply and the ones that are.

just in case...

Machine - Wanted

Wanted: Foo Fighters Prem or LE for loaded/dialed HUO RM BSE Archived

Wanted! - “You: Have a FF Prem/LE and you're feeling a little *meh* about it. Me: I have a gorgeous HUO Rick and Morty BSE with mods (quiet fan, coil fans, crystal mod under ship, awesome ma...”

2023-05-12

Gaithersburg, MD

27dnast

Wanted

Archived after: 7 days

Viewed: 127 times

Status: Not sold

Thanks. Distributor says "possibly next week or two," so we're crossing our fingers.

Great job on your first tournament!! That Translite will look awesome in a Stern lit frame (just saying).

If you wait and things stay ok but not perfect until your warranty expires, then you're out $$.

I am not getting any brownouts due to unstable power. Trust me, if my game was losing power midstream I would be much more concerned. Right now, it is just three little clicks at power up and a longer boot time. Not anything near what DigitalJedi084 was experiencing.

Am I concerned about it, yes. Am I going into full panic mode over it, no. Will see how DigitalJedi084 ends up. For all we know he will get a new board, still have some clicking, and Stern will tell him to just deal.

I’m heading to Logan’s Arcade tonight to try my luck in theirs. I don’t have a snowball’s chance of winning, but at least I’ll get that IC participation prize and that’s good enough for me!

My premium seems to do the same as yours, and I feel about the same.
Maybe for fun ill bring home the oscope, but probably not because I just want to flip

Im getting 5 to 10 clicks when I power up too.

Same. 5-10 clicks

Just got mine!!! First game had a ball with wicked speed & spin center drain. But it spun up the left outlane far enough to trigger the switch and I got my first DeadPost save out of it! Such a great game. Love that upper PF too!!!

I have to do some back reading , but I had a few minutes to tinker with the pin until I get some time later tonight .Is anyone like me and strictly use the bubble /feel of the game for pitch ? If so , I’m north of the the upper line a bit , completely level front and back and all the shots are feeling real nice and it’s fast just how me likey ,but had some air balls and blew past the van post to start a mode twice . I’m trying to decide whether to drop the flipper strength a touch or lower the back legs a bit .Any thoughts because I’m chomping at the bits to start really playing the game and stop tweaking shit .

Go in the market search Foo.two people make them

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1012-ulekstore/08162-lightning-flipper-bat-topper-mods-for-foo-fighters

Mr Tantrum and Ulek

I use a digital, but at 6.9 it’s really fast and I think I get the least amount of airballs of any of my pins…

But I also install Titan tapered post sleeves on my new pins

I usually use the factory bubble level to get close and then play and tweak from there. I'm an engineer dork by trade so I like to have the final number with a digital level but personally you should play it wherever it feels good to you.

My bubble level looks as below and while there's clearly variation in bubble level performance, this one measures 7.0 degrees at the Overlord's face with the bubble in this spot. Yours may vary. I have had one airball that took off (didn't hit the glass) and one van shot where the up-post missed the ball, but other than that it has been playing great.
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Also, apparently pardon my lint.

Same here , building engineer but spent many years as a carpenter prior to that and still do it on the side .My hands are like 2 California Framers ,I believe I’m just pounding the flippers too hard even though I don’t mean to as I’m set up exactly like your picture .The game feels great like this and the gameplay looks identical to the first stream Jack did .The only thing is the Ka Foom is only hitting the ramp 40% Id say which is not bad .I might tweak that another time but for now I’m going to stay here , lighten my touch and work on learning the game .Thanks

I have my Titans ready , I’m just too tired as it’s busy season with work now .I’m hoping it rains all day tomorrow so I can square this up and a couple other odds and ends should be 100% with the lineup then

I too am getting the 5-8 clicks on startup with my premium as well. Curious if I need to bother with it or just let it go?

Also my upper playfield flipper after some use is sticking out and not returning. I finally got the ratchet out last night to tighten down the clamp on the shaft that runs up to the flipper hoping that corrects it. Not sure if others have seen that?

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Someone said they has binding on the upper playfield as well, so you're not the only one.

This would make sense because it would stay stuck out until I raise playfield and when playfield is almost vertical it would correct itself... 1st time I thought it was a fluke... So I was like wth and went onto the shaft slipping

I have no clicks,,,, but no game yet either

Since it has something to do with the current inrush on the caps of the Power Distribution Board being less optimal than "normal" operation, I would absolutely push to get it replaced while it's under warranty. Especially at what Stern is charging for these. Who knows, it may affect your resale value in the future. That shouldn't be on you.

It SHOULD be silent. Doesn't matter that it's still "in spec" to have the power supply relay clicking like crazy at the start, it's not great and likely at the low end of operating spec. You're under warranty. I'd make it clear that you've tracked the problem to the PDB, and it's not the power supply. The power supply relay is only clicking BECAUSE of the sub-optimal PDB.

For the record, both my Foo Pro and Foo LE were no clicks at all at startup, like normal.

It comes down to what Stern is going to decide is acceptable, and whether or not the replacement power board will be any better. Obviously there are a few "bad" ones out there, so not a one off. Is it a batch of 10? 100? 500? I can't see Stern tossing out a large number of power boards if they determine the "clicks" are not harmful, just annoying. We'll see I guess.

Seems to be a fraction of all the machines, and you lost the draw. As such, let Stern decide what they want to do with them once you have your normal function replacement. If it's like the bad Ghostbusters playfields with the misspelling on the insert, they'll just dump the US rejects in Europe. As with then, I doubt they're going to eat this one, either, but that's not your concern.

I don't care if they bundle them up and toss them in the ocean. My concern is that Stern is the one that decides what "normal function" is, and if a significant number of warranty requests start coming in for them and the bean counters get involved, what is "normal" may end up being something like "10 clicks or less".

As I said, I will wait and see how things unfold with DigitalJedi.

Mine had zero vertical slop when I got it and would stick up. Loosened it to create some space and no issues after that

my area 51 building looks crooked,anyone know how to straighten that up ,level it ?

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Same here. I think it may be that way on purpose for playfield clearance when pulling the PF out and putting it back.

Thanks,I got the gels in today and they look great.All 3 sets.

Awesome. I've already become so accustomed to them that a stock machine looks wrong to me now.

WOW!!!! PinWoofer is a must for this game. What an improvement. Super clear and can be LOUD if you want it. Really easy to install. Love it! Highly recommend PinWoofer.

My kafoom is 1 in 20 so consider your game pretty dialed in!! It would work better if it had metal support on the back.

This game is so brutal. Great looking and sounding, but a total beast when playing (if a normal 99% person is playing…)

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Pinwoofer here also. Honestly feels like going from a couple of bookshelf speakers and a 6" sub to a 5' Klipsch tower. I'm not joking. Can't explain it but it also makes the game feel like it actually has a shaker in it. Epic.

Pinwoofer here also. Honestly feels like going from a couple of bookshelf speakers and a 6" sub to 5' Klipsch towers. Surround is surreal. I'm not joking. Can't explain it but it also makes the shaker feel like it's 10x better Epic.

Tonight was horrible .Yesterday I was leaning left a bit and was a much lower pitch (I need to grab a digital I guess to make things more clear ) .Yesterday I wanted a forehand for the left ramp as it was almost a gimme , was screaming the spinner , wasn’t getting up the ramp in a full plunge (was hitting the standup ) and tonight after the changes had to move to the backhand for the left ramp , kafoom was doing nothing most the time and no speed the others ,spinner was clunk fest ,the right orbit was definitely harder ,and full plunge was 100% coming around .Looks like I’m going to have to get under the playfield and start tweaking .I put quite a bit of time trying to dial it in and can’t find the sweet spot yet it’s all over the place .I’m staying where I am now and working from there .

Thanks !