Just had a mind blowingly fun game on this with the wife. I usually have, like 20 sorta poor games for every one "holy shit" game. This game goes from very slow, "let's see... what do I shoot now," to "oh hell oh hell oh hell, I have ten things I'm doing all at once while hitting my ring button every time it turns purple."

Especially scary when you manage to finish a five star mode, bring it into a wizard mode, and hope to Gandalf you don't shit the bed... like I just did.

The Hobbit Pinball Mods - Part 5 - Updating Code 3.11 + Adding Wifi and Bluetooth + Easter Egg

In this video, we revisit The Hobbit Pinball and I do a step by step video explaining and showing how to backup your existing settings, updating to the latest code 3.11, setting up Wifi and Bluetooth and revealing the Easter Egg secret code.

All this and more in this video...
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Here are the video's minutes/chapters to help you navigate if you need help:

-Intro - 0:00-2:05
-Backing up and saving existing settings - 2:05-6:00
-Showing Easter Egg on old code 3.10 - 6:00-8:21
-Downloading newest code 3.11 and putting it on USB Memory Stick 8:22-20:04
-Installing 3.11 code on The Hobbit 20:05-31:10
-Restoring saved existing settings to the new code 31:22-34:50
-Downloading G&R manual that has Wifi and Bluetooth set-up instructions and printing page 34:55-36:37
-Setting up Wifi and Bluetooth 36:37-46:45
-Showing Easter Egg on new code 3.11, IT STILL WORKS! 46:46-47:33
-Outro 47:34-49:27

On a different note my Smaug mouth magically started working after I moved the machine over to move my Ghostbusters in next to it! So I don't know if the ghosts in the machine were busted or if this means it was something lose not the servo... I think its working like 80% but since I've never seen it move before it may be finally working correctly for the first time since I got it?! What are the details of your rubber band solution again? I'm wondering if this is what I need to do to ensure it stays working and if its still got 20% more to go this could do the trick. Thanks!

Sure here’s the post I made on that. There’s some videos on my YouTube page showing the testing and effects too…

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hobbit-owners-thread/page/191#post-6030172

Awesome gate mod for Hobbit! Installed easy and works great!!
I also installed the Bad End House. What a beautiful mod that is!!

Bagend House

https://arai-create.net/en/badend/

That gate mod feels like a cheat/hack to me. I never get pop rejects SDTM. This just makes that area feel more linear , by artificially increasing the pop hits and always lines up the Thorin shot from the upper flipper. It's not fot me.

Its part of one of the early design layouts.

The mod isn't perfect, lots of shots break out of the gate.

I really like it.

Beast mech issues: was recently rebuilt and coil is good, also swapped out for a new one just in case. Took off the spring completely per other recent posts, no help there. Anyone have any idea why this guy would pop up a few times then give up? Notice the pulsing power once he gets up when he does? Appreciate any help anyone could give. My next step will probably be another complete tear down of this one.

Poor leaf switch adjustment.
Character head could be scraping the edge.

Assembly might be dragging.

It should drop like a rock.

Mr_Outlane I'm very happy you like it as much as I do! Thanks very much for the feedback!

:-/ thewool - Others have shared your sentiment of "it's cheating", but I'm curious whether you actually played a machine with the Gate added? I find that the game code doesn't call for many shots to Bag End, so when it does and you hit the shot successfully, it's a very welcome reward for the shot to feed the (otherwise underutilized) third flipper. It's my baby, so I'm OBVIOUSLY biased and no purist , but I don't see why the ball dribbling back out to the center from the pops is fun (Keith Elwin didn't think so when he designed Jurassic Park ).

PinballHaven It sure appears to be sticky at the bottom of travel, huh? Might see if you feel any binding in the mechanism at that point of travel... I recall some posters saying they were able to manually 'bend' the mechanism back into shape slightly to relive binds in the mech travel - no first hand experience, though, unfortunately...

My guess is that it has to be caught on something. Do this....make sure the mech is not getting caught at the blue plastic washer area where the riser pole (whatever that is called) goes up. I removed my blue washer and it goes up smoothly. I need to put it back and adjust but was waiting until I get the new Lior Beasts so I can check all 4 and make sure they are smooth up and down, and drop like a rock when I screw them back into the playfield.

Good luck!

It doesn't just feel like cheating.... it's cheating. You're literally lining yourself up for infinite kickbacks. Might as well put that gate mod and slap it on the left outlane.

I installed a temporary one-way gate to get a feel and didn't like it, it felt stunted. Even my wife said it spoiled the area, lol. Maybe it's my setup but I get plenty of shots to the top flipper from the pops, and never and sdtm drains.

Each to their own though, it's all good. I'm just glad Pat opened this area up at all!

Good!
With the sheer depth or this game and the number of objectives there are, a few less SDTM B.S. drains can only help! My wife agrees.

Doctor6 I adjusted my kickback settings (to make them harder to earn, not stack, and not carry over) as we discussed previously and I agree it's more fun to have to earn them!

thewool - Interesting! I wonder if your pops are setup better than mine somehow... did you ever tweak the switches or the power levels or something to get the ball to flow to the right? Or perhaps you have your machine leveled much flatter than I do - I keep mine steep to make it play faster, and perhaps dribbling out to the center is a side effect...

Just a warning that this happened. The nut was backed off as well. The washer has since been added.

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100% agreed. I feel like this is how the game should have been designed in the first place. It took bag end shots & pop activity from "meh, weak" to great and makes the pops much more active and fun overall.

Can somebody tell me the dimensions of the Erebor Throne mod please?
I'm wondering if it would fit in the back left corner, behind the ramp, behind Smaug in that dead space there. Also would it reach to to wire in from that spot (EDIT: Trumpanche already let me know it would plug right into his Arkenstone light mod to pulse just like the Haord stone. So that's badass)?
Thanks.

Agreed Mr. Outlane. Cheating schmeating. I wish I had something similar to cut down on the bullshit SDTM drains from the pops on my Willy Wonka as well.

Okay, so I checked on my Smaug mouth that stopped working and when I removed the glass and tried the adjustments, nothing happened. I tried the adjustment while attempting to push the mouth closed, but nothing happened there either. As a matter of fact, the jaw gives zero resistance. It's just like it it flopping there/completely loose.

Travahontas LTG New servo or rubberband fix?

Interesting - rubber band won't help with that situation. There is play in the mechanism, so the floppy jaw may be normal and the servo may just not be doing anything. Regardless, you'll have to pull the Smaug assy out of the game and disassemble it to inspect it, so that's probably the next step. The servo's not too expensive, so you might go ahead and order one and get one headed your way... If it were me, I'd put the rubber band in at the same time as the servo because it relieves strain on the motor and would help prevent a future failure, but one step at a time Good luck!

Ruler says the base is about 2"x2" and it's about 4" tall You can see it pulsing at the beginning of this video:

Playing last night and realized my ramp diverter and the back magnet have both stopped working.
Any hints what to look for?

Weird combination - those two things don't share much of anything in common. Different voltages, harnesses etc...

Screen Shot 2021-07-01 at 6.27.02 PM (resized).png

Guess it's call in a tech time then.

You might check the LED next to fuse F707 see if it's lit.

LTG : )

Thanks Lloyd, that's right at my skill/.tolerance level. Top flipper got stuck halfway up in the same game, so may be a few weeks till i look at it.

SnakeTankPrioritiesPunkin

I set my pop switches to fire with the slightest touch. Makes it much more interesting up there. Also you can nudge the ball out the right side a little easier.

Definitely to big to fit there then. Thanks

Scorbit released v1.1.0 today:

https://scorbit.io/major-app-update-scorbit-version-1-1-is-here/

I noticed some of the features are even backward compatible to old scores - sweet!!

Yeah, we have so many features we're just bottlenecked about creating the user interfaces for them all. A good problem to have!

I do that to all my games! On The Hobbit, don't forget the switch behind the top rubber ring above the pop bumpers. This switch triggers the two upper bumpers and adds a lot of action to the pop bumpers.
Mine were kind of dead until I adjusted that switch.

.

Which switch do you mean

Interesting! I’m gonna look into this Monday!

need some help any ideas what happened. I pulled out the Playfield and wax it put it back, and now my 2 lower flippers don’t work (top right works) and I got this message?? Did some thing get disconnected??
Also does those wires look normal and blue one isn’t connect not sure we’re it goes??

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You lost half of your high power. Blue wire plugs onto spot where yellow arrow points.

LTG : )

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LTG sweet thank you very much everything works now.. I knew that was the problem but wasn’t sure which one it plugs into. Always good to have knowledge people on Pinside..

You pulled out the playfield to wax it?!

It's Switch 71 in the manual - here are screenshots with the switch circled in red. It's called the "Pop Bumper Area Rubber" switch. It triggers both of the upper pop bumpers when hit.
I noticed it because the rubber ring around it was broken on mine. You have to be careful installing the rubber there because you can nick it on the pop bumper ring and then it breaks after a short time.
I thought it was just a scoring switch until I tested it and saw that it was actually an extra pop bumper actuating switch.
I put on a new rubber ring, set the switch very close so it triggers easily, and the pop bumpers got much more active on our Hobbit!

HobbitSwitchLocations71 (resized).jpg

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I didn’t pull out the Playfield completely out, it’s easier to pull Playfield out to reach all the needy greedy spots that are hard to reach. Makes it that much more easier.

Oh, I thought you meant took it out of the cab! LOL!

Is there any way to fix/replace one of the light bundle connectors?

The red channel on my ring light doesn't work. I've verified there is nothing wrong with the LED itself (it works fine when swapped to another location. I've also verified the board itself is powering the red channel by swapping a different bundle. The problem is seems to be at the connector (I can't see any issue with the wire itself).

The problem is the connector bundles so many wires together with tiny contacts that it's almost impossible to work on.

Not sure I’m following 100%, but it sounds like you can replace it and get it to work, so maybe try going to JJP’s website and open up a tech support ticket to ask to buy the replacement part?

It’s not for SDTM rejects, it’s to help get the ball to the upper flipper more often. It still ejects around the gate some times.

Hello, I am trying to kill Smaug and have a question. I know there are four levels to it and I think you need to score 6 jackpots on each level, then get a Super Jackpot to level up...

My question is, is there a way to tell what level you're currently on? Like on the display somewhere?