Same here. That purple post is a titan. I also just waxed the middle of the playfield. Anytime mine starts to fail to grab reliably, I clean and wax the center of the playfield.. I've had good luck with using Maguire's Gold Class Wax. No white residue.

https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-Class-Carnauba-Premium-Paste/dp/B0009IQXCM

So I redid the washer setup a little thicker, 2 thicker washers instead of 3 thinner ones and it’s not catching but it’s moving the ball a bit. Also waxed but that didn’t do anything. I didn’t have any extra posts sleeves that fit laying around but I did have some Titan stuff from LW3 so I added this sleeve. The ball actually goes to the left of the magnet now and it grabs it better but not perfect. I think it really just needs a slightly thicker sleeve than what is on there. Here’s a picture of the sleeve I added, and where the ball no rolls over compared with the second picture which is where the ball was rolling over.
As far as pitch and level I’m perfectly level with a digital level and at 6.6 degrees pitch. I played with the left and right and even getting it leaning to the right wouldn’t make it go where I wanted it. More or less pitch didn’t seem to change anything either. Yes my drop target does make the ball go up first then roll down and hit the post each time.
So, I think between the right spacing with the washers and having a slightly thicker post and it will be perfect.

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Whoops double post when I tried to edit

https://mezelmods.com/products/guardians-of-the-galaxy-pinball-plastic-protectors

No need to apologize! Like I said, for a long time I was also convinced it had to do with the magnet timing.. You should see the underside of my playfield - I became so obsessed with the theory that I drilled about 30 holes in order to position the magnet progressively lower down the field to try and solve the issue.

Long story short, it's back where it was placed from the factory and my magnet grabs 100% of the time. I saw someone else post a video of what the ball should do, so figured I'd add another one so you can compare where the ball hits and the timing it goes through as another sample:

https://www.veed.io/view/a1391e5e-e045-4137-a452-219e5f63f8b5

One other idea - If you haven't already you might want to order carbon core balls and replace the Stern ones.

What is the voltage at the magnet when it turns on?

My magnet isnt close to the pf. It has at least 1/4 inch play. It work 100%.

Assuming we believe the designers built a machine designed to do a thing:
What is the voltage at the coil?
Compare to a working game.
*Is it the same?
Yes.
Check connectors at the node.
Are these connected well connected?
Yes.
Back to the drawing board.

*No.
Pass the information along to Stern and wait.

Believe your node boards are at fault?
Have u tried swapping 8-9? Do not forget to adjust the dips.

I like to approach this logically and waxing a game isnt the logical answer. I think there is something else at the electrical level that isnt working well.

EDIT: FIGURED OUT IT"S THE MICRO SD..Well SD big or small, lol) it's still very early here, so I'm not digging into the machine yet.
I just received my new GOTG build date: Sept. 30th 2022 yesterday So far I love it, despite my housemate destroying my score, lol. I have a question about the cleland code..and without looking at the boards atm, I am confused as some people are saying update with the SD card, yet I see many videos on the USB thumb drive instead? Which is the right media to update to Cleland? I already have it flashed, but obvioulsy need to know if it's Micro SD? SD? USB? MANY THANKS!!! (and wait until you see my custom topper soon

I'm sure a few of you have seen this on Etsy..A guy in turkey makes these, and I'm having one done custom; 19.5" wide by 12.5" high..I asked him to put carve the marvel logo, under the 90 min (right side). And I also had him use the original handwriting from the film 'awesome mix vol. 1' ..It will come with a larger acrylic stand..I might even mod it so I have a servo running two reels behind it, so it will give the illusion of the tape running. Will be shipped out on Monday. PS. The standard size of this product is 14.5" long..I paid an extra $72 to have a bigger version..$274 shipped..

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There is a microSD on the CPU board at the bottom - don't mess with that. You want to replace the SD card on the TOP edge of the CPU board. To update code you can use the system menu and a USB, but for cleland's code you just skip that and image the whole SD card at once.

MANY THANKS!!! This saved me some hair-pull-outs..it worked!

I had enough interest in doing another run of wireforms for guardians. I ended up making stainless steel ramps for it as well. If your interested in wireforms please pm me to be added to the list.
The ramps I have to figure out a cost for, but currently I am only considering making 10 sets of them. They are time consuming and expensive to make. The wireforms I can make as many as requested.

Posting pictures in here for those who dont look in mod threads.

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Cool, how much?

Will the wire forms work on a premium?

Just curious if your new stainless ramps will attach/work with the factory straight plastic sections down to the slings?

$345 shipped to U.S. That is for the 2 wireforms and 2 adapter plates that install directly to the Stern plastic ramps. The set takes 6 hours to make and I playtest everything on my machine prior to shipping.

I can only go off a buyer that has hands and my wireforms on his machine. He said they do..

I could do it. I would just need to counter sink ramp bolt holes.

Picture below (minus flashers) is how the wireform mod is sold. Along with adapters, not shown.

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Not sure I understand the wax hate.

It is logical if you stop to consider this may have a mechanical component and is not a not a purely electrical issue (unless you are the guy who swapped node boards and had a different component fail each time, you either have a short or 2 bad boards).

At the moment the magnet engages it needs to overcome both the gravitational force [m g sin(theta) where theta is the pitch of the playfield] as well as the friction resistance of the ball interaction with the playfield. We know the strength of the magnetic field (B) is inversely proportional to the distance (r) from the core of the magnet (and directly proportional to the current passing through the wire), so for the ball to change direction we need the the force applied from magnetic field to be greater than the sum of the the gravitational force and the friction force at that distance which we can think of as the following:

B(r) > m*g*sin(theta)+Fk.

You can see here why reducing the friction will help. The more friction you have, the further that ball is going to travel away from the core of the magnet to where the magnetic field gets weaker the the less ability it has to overcome the angular momentum of the ball rolling.

pasted_image (resized).png

We've also seen on location games that once the area is waxed well the magnet grabs for quite a long time. Just cleaning with novus 1 every so often seems to be all that's needed

I'm not saying that it will fix issues with anyone who just got a new one that doesn't work from the factory.

That said, if it is just new to you, or stops working after it has been working for a while, a clean and wax goes a long way. It's a cheep easy fix to start with (and something you should be doing anyways from time to time).

Ever had great single ball play but just terrible multiball play?!!
Usually I’m pretty good at multiball, I can cradle up, cradle separate, manage shots etc. not tonight. tonight my single ball play was on fire! Completed all 8 modes without needing a multiball to do it. Completely bombed with my worst cherry bomb ever, had groots mouth ready for the super maybe 30 seconds in and the balls just kept getting in the way and couldn’t make it. Ready for immolation and I looked and hadn’t even played orb yet! Played orb, did terrible, got to immolation and only got half a billion, last time I was over 4 billion. Now I just need Groot and Orb to finish to get save Xander, play Groot twice and I just can’t hit his opening and closing mouth!!! Play orb again and nothing. Super disappointing after finishing the modes by ball 2 and didn’t finish. Barely a billion for the game.
Oh well, leaves more to do another time.

speed of a machine is probably more depended than that of the ol' days..which I would theorisze that if you have a faster/factory playfield, the expectancy of the ball/mag would become more in alignment...so I ONLY agree from my hypothesis...And my intuition...eh? Sometimes I like the good 'ol days of LAH, Goldeneye, X-men..the list goes on..too much digital shit going on now..

Installed powder coated armor done by Steve pinball Refinery and the mirrored decal art blades by Pingraffix.

If you are thinking about doing any powder coating, I highly recommend Steve at Pinball Refinery. He does awesome work, price is reasonable and is he is really great to work with! This is my third machine done by him and the work is always excellent.

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Had a weird night with my guardians pro, haven’t troubleshot extensively yet, just posting to see if maybe someone has seen a similar issue. Noticed that the groot jaw wasn’t going down but there were balls trying to be kicked out. Removed the balls and noticed that the mechanism was very rough when pulling the jaw down. Cleaned the posts and the sliding action was much nicer, but noticed that the post attached to the motor was spinning quite freely. Attempted to tighten the hex screw, but didn’t seem to have any effect. So I figured I would just disable the groot jaw for the time being and when I did (disabled groot motor, enabled virtual locks) it appears that any couple of switch hits (pops, rollovers, whatever) will trigger groot multiball - good for my scores, but bad for everything else. No interesting switches activated or technician alerts, and everything software wise is set to default. Before digging myself into a deeper hole at the end of a weekend, I took the step of going to sleep before trying to figure it all out tonight. If anyone has experienced similar, would love to hear!

I've never had this issue but my guess would be that when you reinstalled it the optos that register hits to the Jaw are not properly aligned or are loose and vibration is triggering them. You could put game in switch edge test and bang on the pf with your hand to check / correct this.

Just ordered a NIB PRO to get back in the club. What are the chances stern re runs a topper like they are doing for Iron Maiden? Id love one to go with.

Who knows. It would be cool, but I wonder if there is a licensing deal that needs to be renewed to make it happen. I love this game and it's a keeper, but am still on the fence about a topper if it is priced over $500 since there is no mode or and special integration that goes with it.

I have been messaging them on facebook, please reach out to them so they can see there is still a demand! I would love one

THAT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY S T U N N I N G !!!

I’ve finally got around to installing the spinner on mine. Going to finish it in a couple days.

Do you happen to know if there's a particular thread on adding this spinner? and does it actually hook up to the cabinet?? I'm a newbie GotG owner, so this would be awesome to bring my pro more to a premium..(and got the pinstadium Atoms to put in it, to simulate more RGB'ness).

Does anyone know if the new guardians machines that are being shipped out now excepting the Cleland mod?

Yes they do.

You have to run 1.09 code so insider connected will work but home team feature will not work.

Yes! My shipped about two weeks ago machine is now running clealands 1.09 code. Only draw back I see is Maybe I lost juke box mode? If that’s the case it’s not a giant loss. Insider connected seems to be working fine as well. (Sans the latest updates to it)

Mods are going nicely. Got the clealand code running, added stern art blades, a character or two (and a baby groot!) then installed the kenwood LE style speaker kit + flipper top covers from mezel mods.

Still need a shaker, a damn topper (HELLO STERN!) and the fluorescent plastic protectors.

I probably have more fun modding than using lol

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My nib pro comes today. Can someone DM me the cleland code 1.09 and any instructions?

Do i put the new SD card even before booting the game up the first time? Or do I need to set the game up with original code first?

Same here please.

You can do either, I'd recommend playing some games on stock code first just to make sure there are no issues and so you will REALLY appreciate the cleland code after you swap it in.

Agreed. Play stock first, then update or you will be chasing your tail thinking it is the code

heh Ive owned GotG in the past with stock code. I know what to expect. now ready to experience Cleland code if anyone can share.

You can drop in the updated SDCARD anytime you like, A correctly written SDCARD is all-inclusive and doesn't rely on anything previously loaded in the machine... (nothing stays in the machine through a card swap except a few audit items). (Updated)

Just PM cleland so you get the link AND the instructions. I also suggest a donation. The man does God's work to really improve the experience of the machines he works his magic on.

I'm pretty sure the high score and settings are also on the SD card. Thank goodness they added the dump settings and audits to usb features if you want to keep everything sync'd. The only permanent setting I'm aware of is the lifetime plays. That gets written to memory not on the sd card.

Yes, the high scores are on the SD, so when you change to a cleland SD, you lose the high scores unless you've backed them up.

Going to play a bit with stock code first, but are most going with the v1 or v2 Cleland code?

Got my game from Cointaker today!

I personally go with the Applejuice code

Ok got my new pro all set up. All seems well but what is the preferred pitch on this game? Im at like 6.7 and you definetly need a perfect hit to get it up the ramps. Maybe not perfect but a decent amount of balls going halfway up the ramps. That to be expected?

Get a strip of mylar on the left side of the lower scoop (the front of it has it already) or a cliffy before you play it much. I've seen machines where that left edge started chipping in as little as 100 plays.

Scoop protector is already on order. Do I have to take apart much to install?

How about pitch?