Yeah, I think their response is meant to be kind of funny, but it does leave enough uncertainty. At least Stern replied -- when they posted the recent GoT 1.29 code update, they simply deleted posts asking about the orbit fix (fix being too kind, more swept under the rug).

Just wanted to post a follow up to my subway woes. Despite trying the tape and fiddling with the junction of the wire ramp and plastic subway, I was still getting a LOT of balls not making it out. Some not moving that fast, either. When looking more closely at the way the wire ramp clamps to the plastic subway, I realized the plastic was pushing the outer wire guide so the ball wouldn't rest on the two rails like it should.

This is difficult to explain, so threw this together to illustrate. The image (crude as it is) is a cross section of where the plastic subway is pushing the wire rail in, causing the ball to derail. Using a magnet holding a ball while the playfield was up, I could see the ball wasn't able to contact the lower right rail. The problem is, on my machine, I couldn't seem to shim it quite enough, so put a bit of a spacer on the metal clamp (on the outside of the plastic) so the rail is no longer being pushed in by the plastic subway.

If you're not getting subway exits, check it out with a ball on a magnet so you can see what is going on. Once I shimmed it just slightly, so far, 100% success, no tape. I'm guessing there are enough manufacturing tolerances so each machine might be a bit different.

gbsub (resized).png

The LSOG one snapped? I was thinking the PETG ones would be hard to break.

OK this is weird. Went into tech alerts on my premium (1.11) and seeing 3 alerts:

-Check Switch 52, Left Ramp Enter
-Check Switch 92, Left Ramp 2
-Check Switch 93, Left Ramp 3

According to the manual, switch 52 is pop exit, which is working. The 'real' left ramp enter seems to be working, too. There's no switch 92 or 93 in the manual.

Any ideas?

Hats off to you for taking a drill to your playfield. I couldn't do it.

Sometimes I like them on -- like a xmas tree year round. Like cars, some people enjoy working on them and tinkering more than playing. And a few like drilling into the playfield Seriously, whatever makes you happy!

Yeah it must be an earlier pf, my Nov 3 playfield is correct.

Is the 1 5/8" spacer reducing the height of the right ramp? What's the height of the factory installed one? I get a few rejects out of right ramp, but it's a tough angle. Just wondering what the issue is...

Do you have a sub connected to the speaker terminals? I noticed I get audio at 0 with a sub connected.

I dunno -- not doubting they said this, but seems kind of a weak design/excuse -- like the GOT orbit issue, for those familiar with it ("Oh, it's -supposed- to do that!"). I don't think it's a problem that he drags a little, but I've seen machines (like mine) where he doesn't drag, and some where he does (badly). Now, if he drags, he's lower to the playfield which means he'd be able to be hit, I guess, in a larger arc. Nevertheless, seems like it could be improved.

I had a strange issue where the trough kept feeding balls into the lane, over and over. Very strange... not quite machine gunning, but rapidly. Had to shut it down and on reboot, it was fine. All switches/optos check out.

Depends on background noise levels. In a relatively quiet home use scenario, they can be quite loud and annoying, cycling on and off. Not noticeable while playing, but if left on/attract mode. I posted in another thread somewhere the fans I swapped them with to quiet them down significantly.

Yep, all about the alignment. I have a post somewhere here on this, but if you can hold the ball with a magnet while pf is up, you can slide the ball along the rails and see... on mine, it was pretty obvious how the ball was getting dislodged, losing momentum and not making it out. Since correcting with a small shim, I've had a 100% success rate after hundreds of balls...

Don't doubt it can happen...but just word of warning: I received my scoleri Cliffy protectors and kept them off as I wasn't big on the look. I figured at the first sign of wear, I'd add them. Well, it didn't take long... the left scoleri was showing some wear after a few hundred games, and this is with the newest playfields. I think the speed of the ball, airballs, gaps, etc are enough to be brutal on the area. I thought about mylar but not sure it would be strong enough.

Lol! Did he really say that it was to emulate sliming? That's hilarious! I can buy that a bit of dragging is normal or at least non impacting, but definitely not for that reason.

This. One additional thing I did was use a screw under the playfield to secure the cliffy. This pulls the cliffy slightly, which helps keep it flatter (at least on my machine). I didn't want to remove the cliffy's because there was obvious dinging/chipping at the rear of the target -- mind you, VERY small -- the kind of thing only a pinsider would notice. But, I don't want it to get any worse. I've spent a good amount of time adjusting heights, pitch, etc. and I think I got it. Hard to say because airballs can be caused by lots of things and with the ball travelling so fast, even at 240fps I had to go frame to frame to troubleshoot. Seems better though -- might not be 100%.

I think the latter. In my case, it was obvious the targets when hit hard enough were rubbing on the playfield. It may have been for milliseconds, but still happening.

Yeah this, too... especially if the target sits too low as the ball will hit the edge. On mine, I couldn't even get the Cliffy in without sanding the target down, as it was incredibly tight. The ball can hit the target ridiculously hard, and I think the playfield edge is the weakest spot. Even though the target is tapered, it can still, on some machines, rub the playfield in the right circumstances.

Agree they aren't great looking but with the Cliffys on the scoops, honestly, I hardly notice them. My experience is yes for #2, though every machine is a bit different. I didn't put mine on until a little wear starting showing up along that back ledge. YMMV.

It was rubbing on mine as it dropped when hit hard enough. Doesn't happen on my other machines. The important thing is to be able to assess what is going on and decide how to correct ... recording at 240fps helps quite a bit.

Could've sanded it down and may have been ok, but because damage began, I figured protecting it was prudent.

So it hits the drop target, it drops, but bounces back as an airball? On occasion this happens. I tilted my drop slightly by wedging a thin piece of styrene under the front of the bracket and made sure the target was centered. This helps a little with rebound air balls, but the main reason I did it was to smooth the transition to the Cliffy on the drop target. I was getting massive air balls with the drop down, as the ball would gain just a slight amount of air passing over the Cliffy and then ricochet off the left ramp launching it wherever.

Also try reducing coil power. Even on low/soft/whatever, it seems too strong.

Basically means the spring is too strong so the target can't stay up (or the ledge is too weak/broken), as the spring pulls it back down right away. The game will try to pop it back up over and over again, hence the machine-gunning.

If you shortened the spring already, you can try shortening it more, or just wait for it to break in. I'd say go ahead and shorten it a few more rings...

Going off memory... there is the main spring that should be obvious and pulls the target down. This is the one you shortened. I think there is a second spring that is placed on the top of the two posts that connect the target to the assembly. The two posts are secured with an e clip, easy to remove but be careful because parts can go flying if not removed carefully. The second spring, I would guess, just holds the target forward so it's over the ledge that keeps it up.

I use the Shiny ones from PBL. I do have to say, they seem to be getting wear faster than on my other machines, at least by casual observation. In fairness, it's getting more play, but even so. On the other hand, I look at my WoZ -- it's much darker (dimmer) and slower than GB, I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Maybe it's from the trough kicking the balls into the lane -- given that I use the ball save significantly, the number of balls ejected on my GB is probably close to double what it is on my other machines.

For what it's worth -- mine had quite a bit of a gap on the right side of the target (meaning the target was skewed to the left, like yours). This was causing a lot of airballs -- using slow motion video, when the ball went over this gap it was getting slightly airborne when hitting the ramp. Amazingly, it was still under the airball protector in most cases, but occasionally was hitting the protector.

I ended up drilling out the mounting holes a bit to slide the whole assembly to the right a bit. Completely solved all airballs off the ramp, minus those you get off the targets/etc.

I just used a dremel to widen the holes on the metal bracket about 2mm. That way, it can be slid back and forth. Similar to what Art is suggesting for his protector.

It depends on what kind of airballs you are getting. When the target is up and the ball is getting rebounded/air? Or as the ball passes over when it's down?

I'm not sure if this is a software or hardware issue... every once in awhile, right after I launch the ball, the skill shot gets awarded when the ball hits the right orbit switch (I think). All switches seem to be fine ... optos working. Anyone else experience this?

Thanks Chuck! Will check this out!