I'm in the club!

Edit: How tricky is rigging up the barrel pop bumpers in a standard? i see the plastic molds for sale @ jjp, but what about the bracket? diy?

Been having an issue that I hope someone here may have experience/know a fix. Sometimes in the middle of a game, the game will think I have drained while a ball is still in play, flippers go dead, music acts like I just lost my ball, and of course the ball will drain. The game then goes through the usual end of ball score tally.

Now at this point, sometimes it will go into the next ball and kick the next ball into the shotter lane and proceed as normal. However, some other times it will not kick a ball out. It will just go into an endless ball search. The weirdest thing is that if I open the door and then close it (and turn the key to close it), it will then kick a ball into the shooter lane.

If I was on multiball, and it was supposed to kick adfditional balls into the lane, it will not kick them out. I'll keep playing multiball with only one ball. If it drains, multiball keeps going. I can do the trick opening and closing the door, but it will only kick out one ball.

Any ideas? Thought it was the through opto, but I reconnected all the cables and no luck. The strange things are:

-I can get a good 30 minutes or so of the game operating normally but then this starts happening at some point.
-No idea why opening and closing the door helps to kick a ball into the shooter lane when the game can't find one during ball search.

This is driving me crazy! Hope someone has some ideas before I reach out to JJP.

Balls magnetized ?

LTG : )

That does makes sense. I'm almost sure I have a pack of new balls. I'll try that tomorrow and report back.

yeah, if the game is ending with the ball still on the field then the machine "thinks" that the ball drained into the trough. take the glass off, remove all the balls from the game and put the game into switch test. Now, with the palm of your hand, tap (with a little force, like knocking on a heavy door) on the playfield (especially by the trough). Do any of the trough switches register?

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Thanks Zach - I've been Jonesing for a nice topper for my Hobbit and this one is truly preciousssssss!

Order placed and SDTM credited!

yeah a lot of us that appreciate Hobbit have wanted a royal crown for the top of it

Thanks for your business! Love the "truly precioussssss" Is that trade marked? Hah

I wanted to give a quick update. We have 22 of the 50 limited edition Hobbit toppers spoken for in the first 24 hours. If your interested, let us know. Shoot me a PM or visit us online and I can get a spot secured for you.

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Question for Hobbit owners. I have always hesitated purchasing this pin because of the excessive ball times, especially if you really want to get deep into the code. I have played the pin on location many times and the games I played lasted much longer then any other pin. I know you can set up the pin at a steeper angle and take out the center post. Is there a way to adjust the code in the settings to make it easier to get deeper into the code? Instead of taking 45 minutes to kill Smaug, can you change something to make it easier? It doesn't make sense as a solve to just physically adjust the game at a greater angle and take out the center post if that means you'll never get deep into the code as a result. Sure, you'll have shorter games but you'll never get to experience anything?

Center post won't make bugger all difference. I took mine out for a long time, then put it back. You so rarely use it that it may as well not be there.

Keep the keys in the door. Get the ball to a VUK and open the door. Apply beverage to brain as required and resume. Just watch countdown modes, pretty sure they continue.

My favorite event in all the games in my collection is the hobbits mini wizard modes. I can typically get to one within every 3 or 4 games if I try. Sometimes 2 of them. It’s something about them... there is different stages.. the music.. the callouts... it just gets your blood pumping.

I also find it so much fun to kill Smaug, you can do it in a single multiball if your really talented. A lot easier than people make it out to be. The hardest part is actually killing him. Shooting between the upper left drops is a pain. But getting there is a blast and attempting that shot is a nail Biter. It’s probably my most played pin in my collection currently for those reasons.

A friend of mine said you can adjust the difficulty for killing Smaug. Have not played with that however.

My opinion, grab one!

Noticed a couple of my spotlights were flickering, so change the bulbs and within a few minutes they started overheating and smoking.

Any idea what's gone wrong here?

Wrong bulbs?

Did you use 12 volt ones ?

LTG : )

I'll have to check that. Thanks Llyod!

Edit: I'm a moron. Wrong game lol

It's Lior's birthday sale:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjp-the-hobbit-sculpted-pinball-mods-by-the-art-of-pinball/page/2#post-5963636

Just saw that too!

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Officially in the club.

So, LOTR's chubby sister moved in yesterday (well she's actually boarderline obese.. ).
She is an "LE" and when arriving she had 1.01 code and 412 games played.
Took me a lot of struggling to get her to swallow.. the 3.10 code pill.

Next..
Fix the ork target, get yellow filter on the led strip in the backbox, barrel-mod the spotlights, green convolux, whipe it down, new rubbers and play the heck out of her

This is going to be a journey, meeting Smaug, battle the 5 and everything in between.

Game On.

Hello everyone.

I have a question on the Smaug mouth/jaw motor. It doesn't move at all during the game or in test mode. I took the dragon head and body off to get to the motor and if I move the jaw down by hand and then try it in test mode it moves it back just a little bit. Then it stops working again.

Any ideas on it? Is the motor just bad? if so where would I find a replacement?

Thank you in advance!

It might need to be recalibrated, have you tried that? The fact that it moves at all means your connections are good. Servo Motor could be failing I suppose, but try messing with the numbers and recalibrate it.

Agree. If the servo is shot it can be replaced. I haven't had to yet, but there seems to be options out there to replace it.

My servo was burned out. I swapped in overkill: digital hitec servo. Had to set it ccw, so look for that if you buy a better servo than the hobbyking.

Do you guys think we are going to get another software update that adds WiFi support and Scorbit support like JJP just did for GnR? It has been a while since we have gotten a software update on Hobbit.

Yes, it will come.

What’s Scorbit?

Long story.

The best way to learn more is to either visit the Pinside thread here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scorbit-official-thread

or the website here: https://scorbit.io

Yes! And she weighs a ton too! No fun to dance with at all!!

Also, when I bought mine from previous owner, he had installed this yellow plastic filter over the B.B. LED's. But, it still looks washed out and nothing like other pics I have seen. I tried covering some of the LED's with electrical tape to dim it, but still looks washed out. I haven't bought the recommended color filter, because I'm not sure it's going to help it, as I don't know what he put in there (if it's the same stuff or not).
** Can anyone verify if these LEE FILTERS 1/2 C.T. ORANGE Gel-Sheets (link below) actually give good color? Thanks!!

https://www.amazon.com/FILTERS-SHEET-ORANGE-CONVERTS-Gel-Sheets/dp/B003DIDK3U/ref=sr_1_12

Yes and some minor bug fixes too

I used this one (It may be the same thing).

https://www.amazon.com/Filters-Full-24x21-Filter-Sheet/dp/B00FR32300/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/136-0127016-4405763

Without it the translite is very washed out - this helps a bit, but still not as vibrant as it should be in my opinion.

I wish they would create a new translite that has the proper contrast when lit, and sell them to owners that would like have an improved translite. I don't mind paying for it. However, I don't think JJP would because others would complain it should have been like that to begin with and they should get it free. Therefore, we won't see an improved one.

can someone post a pic of their washed out translight? Mine does not look washed out, maybe because the lights added around the frame provide some contrasts and I used a warmer white strip on the top.

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Your mod is the best I have seen to properly light it.

Here is a link for others

https://lermods.com/shop/ols/products/the-hobbit-slash-woz-pinball-full-translight

Yes, 1/2 CTO is correct, or 2 layers of 1/4 CTO.

In my opinion the 2 layers of 1/4 CT diffuses better.

Im using 2 layers of 1/4 CTO and it looks dead on.

The backglass (not a translight) on my Hobbit Black Arrow made on 9/25/2017 looks great lit, as it came from the factory. Did they change the lighting in the Black Arrow?

My back glass doesn't look that washed out , but it was one of the last ones made .
Your LED strip is like an Easter egg revealing what it could be .

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Thanks, appreciate that!

Yours looks pretty good, just a little dark in the corners compared to mine. Your lettering looks good, nice and vivid.

That's what I was thinking! They should have used warm white LEDs. Maybe those weren't available at that time. I know they came much later as it took a while for that quantum dot based white LED tech to emerge. Before that, it was all cool white LEDs which suck for displaying color properly.

So you have a B.A. edition then? Maybe J.J. used warm white LEDs in later models for B.G. then?

Which model Hobbit do you own?

Any chance co-op will be added soon?

Honestly don't know.

Original Smaug edition from week 4 of production.

Please consider having making it through all the 3 Arkenstones an alternative route to getting to TABA. Just another way of getting there. There really should be an award for making it through all 3 Arkenstones instead of just starting over. Or maybe the fourth time you collect all jewels TABA is lit? Something like that.Thanks for your consideration!!

Anyone else have issues with the right habit trail putting an English spin on the ball as it drops? The ball has a mind of its own after it drops most of the time it jumps the post to the right and goes straight out the out lane. It will even jump the slingshot to the left. I've tried bending the metal up and down but it still doesn't change the English spin.
I was just messing around to see if there is a way to put a rubber stop at the end with some small post rubbers but don't really see a way.
It's not hitting anything, I've recorded several slow motion videos and it's just a spin that gets put on the ball as it drops. Last thing I just did was put neoprene washers at the end of the habit trail to soften the blow at the end which has worked on other games but not here.

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Any chance your balls are magnetized? I could see this adding spin as it rubs the upper rail.

I’ve had this issue too, not sure why, pretty frustrating when it happens. I’ve tried moving the wireform a little.

Bend both end loops on both wireform ramps up about1/4" or 5/16", just poke a 3/8 or 1/2" nut driver thru the loops and bend them back upon them selves towards the wireforn. They are dual loops so bend the upper one also if you want so it matches.

It makes the ball spin laterally so that the ball stays in the lane.

I wrote about it in the hobbit setup and tweaks thread.

2 min fix, works perfectly.