No not they aren't. Just seems like diverter to wireform is sticking out and blocking access to Smaug magnet.

I'm curious if anyone has used "J5" off the computer to handle the signal for an external sub? It's labeled as the "Jack in the Back Assembly" and is just an RCA speaker out it appears. I know I can pigtail onto the sub terminals, but would prefer to use this J5, if that's possible. Thanks in advance if anyone knows.

For what it's worth, I've been having intermittent issues with the Right channel cutting out after a few minutes of play. I narrowed it down to the line level cable between the motherboard and amplifier. I replaced it and the issue has gone away. The old cable might have had too much tension on it with one of the zip ties causing strain on the motherboard connection, at least that's my best guess. Or it's just a junky cable. The aux line level is the same type of cable so if you are using that for an external sub or something it might be safer to replace that one too.

Crazy after years of ownership and a ton of games on my hobbit, I started hearing a bunch of new call outs I’ve never heard before. I cannot figure out why all of a sudden they started popping up, and all last night. No recent updates or anything. Pretty cool though.

When the 'DWARF' drops reset they make a loud "BUZZZNCK" sound. Is this normal?

Yes

spent the New Years week breaking down 3 playfields, polishing, and cleaning. Then Installing cliffys.

I redid the Smaug mechanism 3-4 times. A couple of times it looked like it wasn’t seated properly as it was trying to move but the gears were stuck. A as Eyes light up after replying glue to the board. It now pivots left to right cleanly. However the jaw mech isn’t functioning at all. Applied the rubber band per prior advice and it didn't relieve any issues.

Should I be looking at a wiring issue, or a plug issue, or a hardware issue? About to call my pinball tech to come out as I have about trouble shot this to death. That’s just a couple hundred to get it addressed.

I'd guess your jaw servo is cooked from not having its end points properly calibrated. This can also sometimes toast the board that operates the servo. Did that board look burned during your rebuild?

I just completed the whole Smaug mouth servo thing. Ken at JJP was great at helping me through it. I checked voltage on the Smaug Control Board J102 connector pins 1 & 3 when the mouth should be moving using the Smaug mouth min/max settings. These are the 3 pins where the mouth servo motor connects to the board. I set up a stand in the cabinet with the playfield raised to make it easier.

IMG_9391 (resized).jpeg

Here are the settings that I measured:

Min.
Setting, VDC
100, -.206
105, -.216
110, -.226
115, -.236
120, .247

Max.
Setting (Min. at 100)
120, -.246
115, -.235
110, -.224
105, -.213
100, -.202

These progressively inclining/declining numbers showed us that the control board was working but not the servo, so Ken sold me a new servo. The new servo worked and I followed the procedure in the manual to calibrate and mount the control horn. This didn't work for me at all so I pulled the horn off and did my own calibration: I set the min(mouth completely closed)/max(mouth completely open) settings in the middle of their range, selected the min setting, held Smaug's mouth almost all the way closed, and mounted the horn onto the servo (no screw yet). Then I went back and forth between the min & max adjustments to fine tune it by carefully pulling the horn off and rotating it 1 notch at a time then pushing it back on. When I got it close I put the screw in the horn and did final adjustments with the menu settings. Make sure that when the mouth is closed that you can't hear the servo still trying to move. If you can then back the min setting off until you don't hear it, plus a little more.

Perfect!

Gogojohnnyquack Great summary! I wish you'd video'd your horn calibration procedure - I'm just not quite able to visualize it from the text...

Furio - I was hoping your servo wasn't fried, but you can get the servo direct from Hobby King and save a few bucks vs. JJP: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-hk15288a-analog-servo-bb-mg-9kg-0-20sec-51g.html

Just got my used black arrow delivered, not quite as described, mouth not opening and closing, (guessing needs new motor) also my pop up goblin head is damaged/broken. Is there a better looking alternative for these things? Or I am stuck overpaying for same ugly monster?

I installed and connected the new servo but didn't mount the control horn onto it, went into the Smaug Mouth Test (page B-21) and cycled back and forth between the 'min' and 'max' settings to make sure the new motor worked while also changing the values up and down, making note of the highest and lowest possible values then setting each in the middle of the range to allow adjustment up and down once I connected the control horn. Then, I selected the 'min' setting which moved the servo to the position that closes Smaug's mouth and while manually holding Smaug's mouth closed with one hand, I pushed the control horn onto the motor hub. Then I went back and forth between the Min and Max settings again to adjust and fine tune his jaw position. If I had to change the settings more than 5 numbers then I would put it back to zero and carefully pull the servo horn barely off the motor, rotate it one gear tooth, push it back on, and go through the tests and number adjustments again. I did this a few times until I was happy and still close to the middle of the numbers adjustment range.

Does that help visualize it better? I'm not going to take Smaug out and go through this again to make a video!

My Orc head is a wobbler too. They aren't that expensive - $45.99.

Does anyone have the service bulletin/directions for the attached beast mech parts? I do not have the paperwork and have yet to hear back from JJP on the directions.

I've had trouble with the spider mech getting stuck in the up positions and have lost both screws from the back if the sculpture. Hoping to do these updates at the same time.

Appreciate any help you can provide!

20210117_132150 (resized).jpg

Yes, thanks! This makes perfect sense to me now

Anyone have a link to off brand servo motor to replace Smaug mouth? also I would like to find some kind of better looking Goblin and Orc? also anyone find a replica Black Arrow like in the movie? would love one for a topper. and also some advice adding more spotlights and light strips, should I just tap into existing spotlights?

I found this in a Hobbit repair thread

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-hk15288a-analog-servo-bb-mg-9kg-0-20sec-51g.html

With some help and insights from @allhokie3, I've finalized the design and installation instructions for the "Gate at Bag End" mod and I finished an initial production run of 13 kits. I've got a Pinside ad, so you can grab one here, but it's easier for me if you use Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/trumpanchemods That's the only way for me to do international - they figure out the shipping.

I hope those of you who get one like them as much as I do! Also, please please please share your thoughts and feedback!

DrDoom Toppers joetechbob

IMG_1529 (resized).jpg

Awesome! Just placed an order for one.

It would have been nice if they had that in the core design. It would be great if the bag end shot fed the top right flipper every time

Really good idea.

Goronic Thanks! I thought the exact same thing, like there was a communication break down at some point there...

A good analogy for how this works is JUST like the CHAOS/AMBER shot in Jurassic Park, if you're familiar with that game... come to think of it, I doubt I would have thought of this mod if I hadn't played so much Jurassic Park before getting my Hobbit

Screen Shot 2021-01-19 at 12.15.43 AM (resized).png

Cool, order placed
Thanks

Great! Ordered

Hi folks, hoping someone has experienced this problem and has a fix or some troubleshooting tips. Both of the beast mechs towards the back of the game make an attempt, come up half way, go back down, fire again, and raise up the whole way and stay up via the hold. The two beasts closer to the flippers do not have this issue. They're both also pretty squeaky

I've made sure there are no wires in the way and they've got freedom of movement, and checked the alignment. Any other thoughts or have folks had this before and come across a fix?

Thanks!

I just ordered a worg head. 70$ here. I'd be honestly surprised if it cost more then a dollar to make.
It's the kind of thing the kids wouldnt even open if it came with a happy meal or kinder egg.
Outrageous.

If every thing is running free, check the coils. Also make sure one of the screws from the beasts hasnt dropped of hindering the mech.

Thanks much, I will definitely do that.

Maybe LIOR will be able to provide some nice replacements. I would love to get those beasts looking better, and more solid to be honest.

They are not even up long enough for me to look at before i've got at them except in some of the modes. I don't really look at them when i aim at them either, it's a pherephial thing.

The switch might be out of alignment(might need a little more gap on the beast switch) and it thinks it’s getting hit on the way up which causes it to go right back down...maybe.

Easy to check just playing. Can you go beasts and best multiball, that may be the case, else not.

Hope someone will talk about easy money.

Skipnatty Is this every time, or only in multi-ball? In multi-ball, the upper beasts will drop to prevent the auto-launched ball from hitting them...

Otherwise, I'm at a loss. The software timer prevents a premature hit from registering, so it doesn't sound electrical... I would have guessed misalignment/sticking, but you checked that... Good luck!

BTW - Fun stream yesterday!

Every time, and the beasts aren't registering extraneous hits so the microswitches are working as intended.

Yeah I'm a bit stumped but I'm gonna open up one of them and give it a good look. And thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and comments.

Appreciate the compliment and thanks for tuning in!

That is a leaf blade switch behind the beast head. Too sensitive and it registers a hit going up and drops down.

LTG : )

If that happens, is the behavior for it to come back up and stay up until hit or time out? That's what I'm seeing so yeah I'll definitely check the switches first and go from there.

Appreciate the thoughts again.

My bet is that it's binding slightly and you will find it hard to notice. That's what it was on my goblin.
The spider atm does this, but it pops all the way up and then drops straight away. That one is a switch registering a hit.

Dude, you paid how many tens of thousands of Krona for a Hobbit and are complaining about a $70 custom sculpted and limited production part?! Come on!!! It sucks that they break but that's pinball. We should be happy that replacements are even available! I will admit that I would love to see the kid's face who finds one in a Kinder egg.

Weren't there rumors at the end of last year of a possible code update? Or am I imagining things?

At some point the Wifi stuff for updates, etc. Not sure of anything else.

LTG : )

I see. 2-player co-op would be the bee's knees, if it ever could be done. A game with code this massive could really benefit from it.

Keith said he could program co-op in about an hour , if they wanted .

If JJP can add a few new nuggets like that in the next patch that would be nice. Also, it is always nice to see additional features or audio/video assets integrated

why update code to not update code in the future I have found the rumors confusing on hobbit and woz

Scorbit, Bluetooth headphone capabilities and updates for those. They have more future internet related plans/ideas for all the pins that they haven't revealed yet. Might take a while to get to that code though.

Thanks I was so confused on the strategy

I find headphones somewhat pointless with Hobbit. The drop target banks are so loud that when the headphones are in, it still makes way too much noise for everyone else. If anything, the noise of the drop target banks without any music to mask the sound is even worse.

That's true for flipper noise too. I see the point of headphones as being able to hear the callouts in a noisy environment.

Yeah, I have some noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds that overall make the music and call outs louder relative to the game sounds and I like that, but I’m sure it’s still loud to everyone else in the house. The crazy dog finds it soothing - she comes and falls asleep under it when we’re playing

When I got my first pin, my dog would go outside and bark at it through the sliding glass door the living room had.

He has gotten used to the constant smacking sounds now, and will sleep with the occasional little twitch at a loud sound.