Ok, thanks. So I'll have a look at that. I didn't have the impression that on mine there's the tab sticking out, but it might be just a tiny bit. The narrow part of the plastic sure is sticking out a bit. But I don't think the ball touches the plastic.

I'm assuming you have the right orbit shot with the blue arrow chosen as your skill shot award (default). This is normal with a short plunge. Some people do this by choice. Myself, I'm always trying for the K (multipliers), and the mode start may be awarded instead if I really short plunge it.

oh mine was very little, almost unnoticeable. Its the little things, been great since. as you can see in my pic I moved the plastic over as much as I could. Had my brother come over and play today. First thing he said when he played his first game he was, damn no balls bouncing off stay puff, he was hitting the skill shots much easier, he played about 10 or so games, not a single ball hit stay puff, or the wall, or gate. There is no fix for a weak manual plunge.

My slimer mechanism seems to have trouble registering hits every few weeks and I have to adjust it. It also seems to work better the first time it drops in a game compared to subsequent drops later in a game - very strange.

Btw, I hooked up a sub to this game yesterday and it sounds amazing!

Not sure if that's really how it's supposed to work. In my logic, short plunge should not instantly start the mode. But I might be wrong...

I have the new slimer mechanism and it worked perfectly fine for the first twenty games or so. Then it suddenly stopped registering the shots. I unscrewed the cover and made sure the white ball can move. Afterwards I put the cover back on but didn't fasten the screws too much. Not that it's loose or something, just not like it was before. Since then it works fine.

It's not that. I did bend that part a little bit and it might have been the issue with some balls, but I filmed some auto plunges with slow motion and it turns out the balls come already flying into that part of the lane. The balls already are airborne and hitting the left lane when they reach the height of the latch you mean. So I guess it's one of the screws where the v shaped metal part is installed might cause it. Will check that tomorrow. My wife's not a big fan of me autoplunging the pinball machine a million times when I get home from work...

Also, I have another question. Is the ball supposed to go around the orbit after auto plunge? It does on pinball arcade. It sure doesn't on my machine. Always stays in the pke area after auto plunge.

The code ignores the right orbit switch at the top for a few seconds after opening the shooter lane switch (not actually sure how long) to prevent it from registering when plunging. If you short plunge, sometimes it takes long enough for the switch to start counting again. This can also happen regularly if your shooter lane switch is malfunctioning. This is also the what leads to the "skill shot cheat" people talk about.

Cool, thanks for clearing that up. So it doesn't necessarily have to be the shooter lane switch not working properly.

Just got this issue myself after doing both service bulletins. Diverter works and so does subway eject in coil test. I get no sound when I test the lock up coil. Will recheck all connections and test to be sure it’s getting power. Had 5 balls locked down in subway today and the machine went into ball search mode and no balls cleared.

Do you have metal or wood outlanes/rails whatever they are called?

Yes the screw holding down the metal ramp, as its transitions from playfield wood to metal can cause the ball to spin or deflect. I don't have anymore issues with my auto plunge hitting the wall or stay puff, my auto plunge still has the factory spring. I did have to center my manual plunge it was off a fair bit.

I just went down there an manually plunged at full power no issues, thankfully! I do get some slowdown when the ball goes through the curve of course.

I have metal rails. See, that's what puzzles me. The manual plunger works perfectly fine. So it must be because of the plunger itself, I guess. Maybe the auto plunger is not straight.

yup that's what I am thinking now, I wentand looked at it more in detail. Gotta be the auto plunge power or how it contacts the ball.

Has anyone had any negative side effects from installing the new service bulletins? I'm getting ready to install mine and I want to make sure it's a good idea.

The only thing I've noticed, and it could be 100% my imagination, is that the ball doesn't fire quite as hard out of the library scoop as it used to. With the eject power set to max, it used to consistently hit the middle of the right flipper. Now it hits closer to the tip of the flipper.

I did mine 2 weeks ago and no issues so far

no issues, just be careful to not rock that transistor back and forth while installing the spacer, it's loosey-goosey.

See my post above, #3710

no, don't think so. I put in it in a few weeks back.

anyone have any suggestions about premium airball deflectors. I've had 5 of them crack so far from front end impacts.

It's a location game, so it probably get a bit more regular play then home use. seems like every time I try again they break almost instantly, or within a week.
If the deflector isn't installed, then the ball flys around the playfield and breaks other stuff. I tried the modfather ones & the ones from little shop (which were made by one of the pinsiders here I think). The modfather ones hold up better, since they are thicker.

Tried installing it normally a couple times
Tried low profile 5/16 nuts on with a little bit of thread locker.
Tried flipping the nylon on the other side to keep the deflector somewhat loose.
Tried added F/F 6/32 threaded 1/4" long post things to raise it a bit, but the slimmer got in the way.

Currently I put small fender washers on the deflector to help distribute how the nut holds the plastic down. to help distribute the force from front end impacts.
next I was thinking about stacking 2 deflectors somehow.
if all this still doesn't work, I was thinking making a metal deflector.
crazy how bad the airballs are on this game.

I just made one out of PET-G. Took a few tries to get the thickness right so the ball wasn't inhibited going up the ramp, but this has been in use on location for thousands of plays and not cracked or broken yet. I ended up trimming the left inside manually with scissors but the one below is pretty close to the final shape.

version1 (resized).jpg
Small-Protector-Version 3 (resized).png

I’ll keep you posted. I find it odd that it started after service bulletin install. Hoping to work on it this weekend.

What exactly do the caps do in this case? I get the transistor issue. I should go re-read the paper work.

I asked chas at stern, think he said something about phantom switches and something else. It reduces the A/C noise on the line, which can cause issues with D/C circuitry.

appreciate it, was thinking I was gonna have to make something myself. Wasn't sure what yet.

Do you have a cliffy on the Scoleri target? If so, this is most likely causing the ball to get more air and greatly increases the chance of the deflector taking a direct hit?

Subway lockup coil update. No voltage at solenoid, no voltage at connector. Node that it connects to seems to be working. Any ideas?

Ok. Found the issue. After checking and rechecking for continuity, I found that where the solenoid plugs in to the harness sits right over where I installed the service kit. Not sure if I pushed on it or not during install, but the wiring is tight there on mine, and my guess is it pulled the wire out from the back of the connector just enough to break the circuit. After a little massaging of the harness and removing some tension, all is well.

I designed these brackets and for me a couple others that gave me feedback have said that they have made a large improvement.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/GRBNG4DQK/stern-target-bracket-v2-5deg2mm?optionId=63971960&li=marketplace

I believe it is to do with the angle of the bracket and the deflectors are just taming the air balls as the ball has already gone airborne and they are not made of polycarb so will break, where I had a theory and for me it has proven correct to cut airballs down by 90-95% with the small remaining amount still occuring but tiny in comparison hops. Now with a power shot to those targets it fires it right back at lightning speed and not in the air and I am no longer nervous of hitting those targets.

I believe the problem is that Stern have taken the lean forward out of the design and make it now vertical and the rivot is too low so with that combination encourages the ball to follow a upwards trajectory = airballs.

My apologies on the price but it is made at Shapeways so you guys in the US avoid the heavy postage fees (from Aus) and it is made of stainless steel.

screen-capture-4 (resized).png

I had designed and made available plastic wedge prior to this design which was an improvement compared to the standard but needed additional target foam to be a little more effective, but the above is a much better option.

very cool. honestly, I didn't even think about the targets.
I'm down to try something else besides plastic.

if they work even half as good as your saying I'll be very happy.

thank you

Check those poke&hope connectors (aka Insulation displacement connectors)
(power off and connector off board), use a flat blade screwdriver to press the wires down into the connector.
Disclaimer: not sure if that solenoid use uses this type of connector, but its been a problem for others.

hmmmmm........
damnit, that sucks. Think the airballs have already broken a few plastics, so chipping the playfield a little won't be the end of the world. just need to make sure the target it as flush as it can be to prevent that from happening. I know airballs have always been a thing, I didn't put those on until later. maybe it made it worse? to be honest I don't remember.

Loving this game so far but those gozer SDTM drains are for the birds... Has anyone ever added a 1 way gate up there to allow the ball to pass to the gozer target, but feed the return ball to the pops?

Better start practicing your slide saves!

I'd have to slide it out the door and down the street to save those drains...

Put a center post in it if you think it will make it more fun for you (and your guests).

Not a fan of the look. I honestly don't mind the gap too much. It's just those all too often center drains from Gozer.

Hocus, I would agree that your machine produces a lot of air balls. When I play it at Einsteins I noticed I was getting a ton. I have a premium as well and have the plastic deflector for the left ramp and never have any. I never thought of the scoleri bros protectors causing more airballs but it makes sense.

Backbox lights (LEDs on the board) won't light up. I've checked every plug in the back box and still no luck. Any ideas would be great. GB Pro
Cheers

What is the backbox lighting level (Adjustment 65 and 66) set to in the standard adjustments menu?

To anyone that has repaired the shooter lane... There are areas of my shooter lane that the clear has chipped away and some areas where the clear isn't chipped, but you can tell it has delaminated ( appears milky) from the wood. Whats the procedure to fix those areas? Should I cut out the delaminated area or just leave it as is and repair the bare spots? I have Cliffy's on order but they are about 3 months out, so my intention is to repair what I can and put some mylar down in the meantime.

I'd just put Mylar down and call it good until the Cliffies show up.

This is probably a stupid question since I’m new to the Ghostbusters ownership but shouldn’t we came we saw we kicked its ass be lit when you’re on those modes? I get to those in the box isn’t lit like we’re ready to believe you is flashing. Just curious.

Checked them and played around with it. It was on 100% and still is

The other person I remembered that had this problem with no backbox lights had to contact Stern to get the whole board replaced. The post is here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-there-any-problem-free-gbles-out-there#post-3376243

That was my intent, but I want to repaired the existing damage first. I have some chipped areas that the cliffy will not cover. I'd like to get it out of the way so when the cliffys arrive I can just put them on. Not wait like 7 days for the clear to cure.

How bad is your damage? Pic?

+/- 900 plays...Shame *ding ding*

IMG_20180222_203714 (resized).jpg

That looks pretty bad for my taste. GB is my first NIB, so I can't really tell if that's normal or not. I have one small chip on the right side after about 150 plays. I'm definitely going to install the cliffies.

So, after a few weeks of ownership and close to 200 games played, I have the following problems resolved:

Left ramp deflector not working properly is solved. Easy fix using the screw on the side of the deflector to get it just a little bit closer to the magnet.

Airballs are minimized using a deflector. There are still a few airballs, but not often. The ones coming from the Scolari Brothers are still an issue. But for some reason cautious playing seems to work for me.

I don't know why I had weird callout problems, but the problem solved itself. I hooked up a led strip from Mezelmods to the power board and it turned out the thing was not wired properly. Maybe that's what caused the weird behaviour.

Gameplay difficulty: I managed to get some pretty decent scores. My high score is in betwenn 200 and 300 mio. I know there's still room, but that's ok. Problem is, I get like one good game out of ten games. The other nine games being really bad. But I guess that's just the way it is. It's probably hard to play good consistently.

The following problem remains:

Autoplunger still is not reliable. Sometimes the shots still don't make it to the bumpers. This affects maybe 30% of the shots. Too much for my taste. It must be either the autoplunger that's misaligned or a screw on the v part that's sticking out too much. I will have to resolve that.

The following questions remain for me:

Do you guys recommend installing all the cliffy protectors? As I have a small chip in the shooting lane, I will install the set for the shooting lane for sure. But do I really need the drain protector? There's no particular power behind the balls when they drain. Also, same question for the storage facility. The ball is always pretty slow moving when it hits this hole. Last, I was wondering whether it is a good idea to install the Scolari Bros protectors. I can imagine there's some stress on the pf behind the targets, but also many report increasing airballs. What's recommanded here?

When I tested the coil for the left ramp diverter, I noticed the coil for the gate at the orbit moves as well. Are these two connected? Or do they just share the same test?

All in all I really enjoy the game. I was thinking maybe I should have bought something else. But it's more this whole dialing in process that I think is a bit unnecessary. Gameplay itself is really great, once it works fine.