Got # 222 LE and loving it. JJP packed it very well. The entire unboxing experience was great

I had one where the plunger had no rollpin holding the plastic part to the plunger

Maybe the top of the plunger armature that hits the ball is the problem, check that

am kinda lost here. i orderd the hobbit el in febr. 2014. 2,5 year from now and still even hear nothing. no email nothing. i hope it comes before christmas

le* afcours

Smaug #5 ordered 1/24/2014 just received a couple days ago...only issues out of the box we're lo(c)k switch gap and lock down bar needed adjusting. Lots to learn about game play and little chance to look st the monitor to see what to shoot for. Had a frantic set of multiballs ending up over a million points.

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I just got mine on Saturday. I thought the little book lcd was supposed to tell you what is going on, but it seems to display stuff that's irrelevant to what's going on in game play. Can anyone tell me what the little lcd is for?

Oh, and I ordered mine direct from JJP in October 2014.

Mode instructions. If a mode isn't active its just a book and each page is the mode that will start when you shoot mode ramp

Ok, thanks!

Has anyone had to remove one of the beast mechs on their game before? One of the beast molds on the mech itself came lose and I need to tighten down the screws again holding it on. From what I can tell the entire mech will need to come off...

Take the top flap off first by lifting the springs and removing the clips. Flap lifts right off. Playfield up, remove 5 or so screws and the mech slides right out. Very easy.
Oh, disconnect wires. They are all fitted with connectors.

Now why would somebody cancel their pre-order and lose $1000 in order to receive a machine in "three" days when they might receive their pre-order in 2-3 weeks? I'm beginning to think that distributors are getting preferential treatment over private individuals with older pre-order dates. By the way, my order is with JJP direct.

That stinks. Preordering is The Unexpected Journey.

Well gave it a try this morning with high hopes. Currently back to version 1.01 but no luck. Same thing. I made a video of it this morning. The clicking in the background is just the drop target skill shot.

Hope this helps some. I tried to follow the wiring and the little bit i can see looks good before it gets lost in the big wire clump.

Try manually operating the plunger with the power off, see if you can get it to feed a ball by hand.
Remove the mechanism to inspect it if necessary.
Check that the ball isnt hitting the wire gate that keeps the balls from falling out when the playfield is raised.
An improperly mounted or broken wire gate will block the ball feeder.

The ball feeder solenoid definitely looks a little weak. Its moving slow and anemic.
Its possible that the soldered connections to the coil are poor. Its called a cold joint (looks good but its not). If you wiggle the wires on the coil they should not move within the solder blob. I would re-heat those connections just as a test.

I think that because the game fired correctly at first, and then failed, it looks like a wire gate problem or a loose connection/cracked wire or cold solder joint.

You can also gently comb thru the wires from the coil into the main harness with your fingertips to see if anything else is loose.
Sometimes the problem is elsewhere and you see the effect at that coil. The connection on the driver board might also be loose, or possibly a connector pin not making good contact on the computer side of the harness.

I have seen the same behavior when only a single strand of the wire is touching the contact due to a poor solder joint (not enough current flow makes low power).
After checking for bad connections and verifying good solder joints by re-heating them, if the problem persists I would check voltage at the coil and work from there, and replace the coil if necessary.

Thank you! I'll try that.

Check the rear of the manual for wiring pinouts on the back of the big metal box. Check there, inside, and to the I/O board. Look for loose connector, wire loose in a connector.

If nothing turns up, call Frank or Victor tomorrow at JJP ext 222 for more ideas.

LTG : )

Interesting... glad you got your game, but I wonder why you got yours before others who ordered before you.

i had the same problem, for me it was hitting the apron and bouncing back down. I shimmed the apron forward with a couple washers and that cured it for me. The tolerance on the notch cut in the apron is too tight........could be your trough VUK power setting too, what is that set to? Mine is 16

I'm not really sure.

Ok bought a soldering iron and reheated the connections. Now its kicking up!! Must have been the cold solder??? Reinstalled the 1.31 version and im back in buisness!! Finally giving the new code a run and its been great. Did into the fire this evening and wow the changes from the original version are fantastic! Thanks you guys for the help and i learned so much even taking the few things apart. One step closer to fixing these issues on my own in the future hopefully.

I did find another issue though. After a number of games the light show kind of stops?? It has everything lit a single color but nothing is flashing or changing color or anything. If i turn the game off and turn it back on it works fine again for between 3 to 8 games before doing it again. Known issue? Heat issue or possibly code bug? Here what the lights look like the last time and the dont change or flash.

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I ordered my The Hobbit Smaug 0n 8/16/2016 and received it 8/19/2016, only took 4 days!

This lil F*^%$# wont leave my game and claimed it as his precious .....

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Is there a ramp flap fix kit yet?

I had the light issue you are having. The light board in the middle of the playfield in between the 4 pop up monsters, there is a micro usb connector that came loose. Unplug fully, reinsert again, power up and it shouldn't happen again. Mine had too much tension on it and pulling at it some.

Got my Hobbit LE #10. Added a red led strip in the back.

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Couple of new issues have reared their head on my Hobbit LE:

1. As others have reported, the strength in the plunger seemed to be getting weaker with use and so I was thinking about buying a stronger plunger spring. But now I am clearly detecting a lot of friction in the plunger itself and it is starting to feel like it is sticking as it is pulled out. Any ideas how to best lubricate a shooter lane plunger? Or is their a plastic insert that may need replacing in a similar style to those used inside coils?

2. After only a few hundred games my left slingshot rubber snapped - literally. Completely clean tear. Looking over the other slingshot rubber I can see that this has a small tear. I have no problem with replacing rubbers after a decent amount of use and wear and tear, but these slingshot rubbers are failing way too soon. Anyone else had similar issues?

Yes - contact JJP tech support and they'll help you out.

fantastic!! cant wait to see the different toppers and mod that come out for this game! do you have him tied down somehow from behind the machine??? as long as nudging doesn't cause him to come crashing down on the invisiglass hahaha

Thanks for the response I will give this a try tonight!!

he is very light but still he will be tied to the wall, my wife thinks its extremly creepy....

Use a little dry lube on the plunger (silicone spray).

JJP uses STC rubber, in theory its very good over-all.

Terry over at pinballlife.com makes his own rubber that you can order if you dont like the STC rubber.

None of the rubber is perfect, nor has it ever been.

The Rubber these days is not as good as the rubber from way back it seems. Just replace it and hope the next rings last longer.

People like Rick at PPS can tell you all about the ins and outs of making rubber, from molding to various recipes, to specific durometer values of the different colors etc...He has had quite a time of it.

The rubber can vary in quality from batch to batch depending on who made it and whether they followed the recipe correctly.

Also you can try the newer silicone or urethane products.

I really like the red glow in the back.
Thats a mod that I can buy into.

I found my order mail and that was september 2013. so 3 years ago. middle earth seems to have some trouble to ship to holland (amsterdam) i guess.

I contacted and they said they weren't out yet, but would be announced when they were.

Silicone and urethane can be grabby when fresh.
Apply a little talcum powder to the new rings until they break in and get a little dirtier.

White rubber is bouncier than the black but is not as robust.
WOZ has black rubber TH has white.

I think that the TH with the open PF definitely benefits from the white rubber.
That said, we will just replace the rubber more frequently as it frays or wears out.
Im using STC rubber for now as I have a ton of it.
But, I am curious if pinball life rubber is better or about the same, as far as bounce vs durability.

Im not sold on silicone, it plays diferently that I am used too.

However I do like the titan silicone flipper bands compared to the pinball life urethane flipper bands.
They seem more robust than latex and have a similar bounce and feel. But really its just a matter of feel and you might like just the opposite.

Yeah, I forgot the discount people got on the preorder. It is probably worth sticking it out. But not having any clue to arrival time is frustrating. I know automated does get preferential supplies. I think it's a longstanding deal with jjp.

Very valid concern actually.

On mine that has a factory protector I think I have some protector wear on the back of the beasts.

I'm doing more cliffy installs tonight so I'll take some pics.

edit: added pic. Seems to only be slight scuffing on the plastic.

"It seems possible because the edge of the protector is not perfectly flush with the back edge. At least not as flush as applied mylar would be"

My protector is seems to be a very good fit around the beasts.

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Wonder if anything can be done about failed kick backs. The switch is super close to the coil. So a fast ball has no chance of being there when the coil shoots.
If it happens during multiball... It's no big deal... There are plenty of add-a-balls. But when it happens when there is only 1 ball in play it's quite Annoying.

Maybe if there is only one ball in play. If the ball drains when kick back is active then

1. if there are no switch hits before the ball through opto is hit
2. within a certain time like 2 seconds

Then
it should kick out another ball

Anyone recognize this spring?

Found it last night sitting on top of my lock down which was on the floor below the coin door.

I'm guessing it would have to have been something from the lower end of the playfield but there is no other springs of this style that I can find.

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You check all your beast mechs?

Looks like one of the two springs that hold the "roof" on the beast mechs. Could have been drooped during assembly and hanging in the wires until it finally worked it's way out and dropped. I found several screws and cut wire ties that must have been dropped and hiding in the wires that fell during the first week of playing and adjusting.

Unfortunately, sadly this is likely true. Happened to me when I bought my WOZ, ordered right at beginning. Main reason why I'm buying a used Hobbit over NIB.

I'm a JJP fan, but it infuriated me when I confirmed disti's who were placing new orders for games were getting them before many of us who preordered years in advance. That's why preorder system doesn't work. I get JJP needs to keep disti channel happy, but then don't take preorders direct from customers.

Still happy WOZ owner and JJP fan though.

It's a beast mech flap spring
If all 8 are there, it might be a spare. I found one near to the right of the Balin hole when I opened my machine, just randomly there

Yes. Beast mechs have a tighter spiraled spring and it's also a different color (brown/bronze). Almost the same size though so a pretty good guess.

Received mine yesterday, today my upper flipper quit working.

Looks like if it was a driver or fuse more than just that flipper wouldn't work. Dragon diverter right next to it is working fine.

If it was the cabinet switch, it'd still work in test. Anything left I should be looking at before I resolder the coil, and replace if it doesn't work still?

Please go into Tests - Dedicated, and slowly push the right flipper button in. First lower should register on the screen, then the upper.

Most likely you just need to adjust the one farthest from the flipper button.

LTG : )

hey thanks for the quick response lloyd! I haven't been able to get the jjp ticket thing to send me the email to verify my account figured it was after hours likely and I would call tomorrow if needed.

the cabinet switch is working great, coil won't fire in coil test either. the coils wires go from the coil straight to J107 on the i/o board it looks like, correct?

Yes.

LTG : )