I took a different approach

https://lermods.com/products/the-hobbit-pinball-led-strip-color-changing-backbox-light-kit

Not sure if it’s the video but not really a fan of what I see? Seems like every color simply washes out All color in the back glass. Especially the green which looks like they live in the land of Shrek. Personal opinion. Could just be the lighting of the video?

I have version one the wiring is a tad smaller and can break from the connector. They have replacement parts and it's rock solid just not as good as 2.0 I would buy any version that fits your price range my game had thousands of plays on it and only 3 light issues that were inexpensive to fix.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hobbit-owners-thread/page/9#post-3168161

Post #402 seems like an easier way of achieving the same goal.

It’s the video, taken with my phone, washes out leds. It’s very clear and more detailed in person. That said, some colors are better than others. Green and red look great on woz, but the warmer tones, like yellow, gold, warm white, etc, look better on the hobbit. I have it set on fade effect, but you can pick the individual color you want.

Whatever works. I liked the cold white because there is a lot of solid white in the backglass and I didn't want to lose that. The orig setup should have come with a dimmer. Not sure how it was released like that. A "glaring" mistake.

I'm still having trouble with the lock roll overs after removing playfield protector. Lifted adjusted tested. About 20x got 3 to work "ok" but the "o" is being a bear. I really think a star rollover design would have been a lot better. Still getting airballs and fly's over my ramp shots. Can't get o switch to work. I gave up for the night.

2ndly My goblin pop up is shaking like crazy back and forth when it comes up. That's why it falls back down immediately. Does t look like the face is clipping anything on the way to cause it.

Lower the flipper power until the balls just barely stay on the wire forms.

Open the leaf switch on the goblin that keeps dropping down, a little until it stops that behavior.

Generally the Warg Target is one of the worst because the long snout on the character head.

The rollovers are a little touchy to adjust but once you get them right they stay a long time before needing to be adjusted again.

Make sure that when they're fully down they are level with the Playfield.

If you don't have one already a leaf switch adjusting tool is a must have to get proper adjustments.

My rollover targets are not perfectly level with the play field and I don't get any airballs and they register perfectly for over a year of play, never adjusted them once. Just sharing my experience so others don't think the rollovers have to be perfectly level, mine have been this way from factory, no adjusting necessary for me.

I adjusted my roll overs when it was new to compensate for a low inertia ball once in awhile.

Other than that I agree the rollovers are set pretty good as far as height from the factory.

I did have to close the gap on two of them though to make them more sensitive, fast-moving balls wouldn't activate them at all initially.

Looks sick love it

Im not completely sure what you mean by open the leaf switch. So far for the goblin all i could tell to do was try to pull his head forward to open the gap of the leaf switch behind him. Is there another way of adjusting the monsters hit switches>?

But as for the roll overs im guessing since this game came with pf protector they were adjusted up from the factory? The switch itself from what i can tell is what controls how far the roll overs stick up from the pf. But maybe im wrong in thinking that. As there is a clear base to them under the pf with screws. But it didnt seem to be adjustable. Ill try to snap some pics just to make sure im not a idiot. But my rollovers worked fine before i removed the pf protector. Its just a matter of getting them adjusted without it now.

If you don't have one already a leaf switch adjusting tool is a must have to get proper adjustments:

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1518&parent=0

Adjustments are made from underneath the playfield.

Adjust the thicker blade to make proper long lasting adjustments.

The blades should be relatively straight with no bends in them other than adjustments made near the switch body.
There should be a gap of your own choosing based on the sensitivity you want between the contacts.
Adjust the blade from a location closest to the switch body.

Also check that the character head is not loose on its mount or loose at all.

I have almost 1/8" gap on my warg head due to its wobble when it comes up.

There are some pictures around this site related to leaf switch adjusting.

I did purchase the 3 pack of leaf switch adjusters.

Here’s my thought for a code update:

Have the feeder modes visualized on the back glass. Signify which Modes should be played in the current state for bonus points by outlining their hexagons in a special colour.

I’ve had the game a year, and still need a cheat sheet except for a few. Pinball shouldn’t be about memorization, that’s what flunking high school is for!

I just try and complete quests from right to left, top to bottom. I think this allows max bonus for mode completion.

I need to lower my rollovers too. I would like a good step by step on how to adjust them if anyone would mind sharing how. Pics on adjusting on hobbit specifically a plus

I did find this - and it may help (especially for how to correct the beast switches)

But I guess I just need to get in there an learn how the rollovers work on JJP/Hobbit machines. I guess getting to them is going to require a fair amount of tear down?

Anyway, here is the link: http://homepinballrepair.com/index.php/pinball-switches-fixing-adjusting/

So, I'm late to the update party and only yesterday updated my Hobbit from 1.90 to 2.00 (after a lot of USB stick difficulties). Today, I did the 2.00 to 2.01 delta update with no issues. However, when I try to restore my settings from a USB stick backup that I made just before updating from 1.90, the system appears to do nothing. I see a message on screen showing that there is a valid settings file on the USB stick and when I select OK I see a red message saying the machine will restart when the settings have been restored, but no matter how long I leave it nothing happens.

Is a 1.90 settings backup incompatible with 2.01????

Something must have gone wrong. Didn't save right. Bad memory stick. Etc. Etc. Not blaming you. Could have been a few different things.

I've never had an issue saving and restoring on any JJP pin or update.

LTG : )

I used a memory stick that worked for a prior update so I had assumed it would be a good one to use. Well, I guess it didn't save right which if it is the case is frustrating that this can happen and that the Hobbit software doesn't do some kind of verify on the save settings file immediately after it is created.

Oh well, I'll have to manually trudge through the settings and see if I need to change any.

BTW - does Save Settings also save the High Scores? I can find no mention anywhere if it does that or not.

I had that happen once. I had to copy the files from the one flash drive to another because my flash drive that had the back-up wasnt tested on my WOZ and it wouldnt read it properly. the backup data was still good it was a incompatible flash drive.

The second flash drive was one I had successfully used for a delta update so I knew it would work. But there are no guarantees...
Al in all I was successful after all of this in restoring my settings.

It was important to reload my hi-scores.

I also had to replace my USB cable in the game. The original was too finicky and would reject flash drives that had worked before.

Yes.

LTG : )

Copied the settings backup file to a different flash drive and this time it restored fine. Thanks for the suggestion

YAY!

Anyone have a new or used Hobbit Laseriffic topper for sale? I’m looking for the topper and the gold ring button if anyone has those mods for sale. Thanks

Does anyone know where this may have broken off from? I found it sitting on top of the lid of the metal computer/PCB box in the bottom of my Hobbit cabinet. I had a good look around at the bottom of the playfield but couldn't see where it might have come from. In the picture the top right and left corners show signs of broken plastic.

In addition to the above, about a month after owning The Hobbit I found what appeared to be an 8-32 x 3/8" machine screw (like those found on the beast pop-up assemblies) on the metal lid. I checked all over the beast assemblies but could find no missing machine screws. Now, two years later another identical machine screw has appeared on the lid in the cabinet. Again, checked the beast assemblies and everywhere else I could see and no missing screws. I did see one loose machine screw in one of the beast assemblies and have now put thread lock on it and tightened it back up.

Has anyone else had these 8-32 x 3/8" machine screws coming loose? And if so did you find where they came from. I'm rather worried that I now have two of these missing from somewhere.

DSC01876 (resized).JPG
DSC01879.JPG

Looks like a part of the popup antiballstuck thingy that keeps balls from getting caught in the mech when the popups retreat.

Might be one of the plastic leaf switch holders/guides from one of the character heads.

The screw is a common item, it might have come loose from either the top of the playfield of the bottom.
Check around the active areas of the game, Ramps, VUK's, tunnels or drop targets etc.

Front of the leaf blade stack on one of the characters. Like this :

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-9808

See picture.

No idea on the screw.

LTG : )

DSC00003 (resized).JPG

Perfect picture!
We gotta get you a Houdini to play with!

The plastic 'square' that protects the leaf switch on the spider broke for me too. I talked to JJP and ordered 4 (just in case it happens again) - and replaced the one that was broke.

You guys are awesome - thanks for all replying so quickly - and yes that picture is perfect

I can't order from Marco as I'm in Canada and the cheapest shipping option for ANYTHING is just under $50 - ridiculous.

Goronic - so is it possible to just buy these from JJP?

Sure did - call JJP. Awesome support.

See The Hobbit Manual
http://159.203.76.48/th/Hobbit_Manual_3_0_Dec_2016.pdf See Pages: C-50 and C-51

Item/Part Number: 28 c) | 10-0113-00 | Pop-Up Character Switch Protector
Item/Part Number: 12 | 30-0055-00 | Pop-Up Character Switch Locator

TheHobbitSupportRocks (resized).png

THANK YOU. Contacting JJP right now

I got my Hobbit today. The ELF drop targets won't come up. Tests don't indicate a problem. Coil tests on each target raises them so I have not tampered with coil settings. They are not turned off . They do wiggle when the others come up at beggining of game but ELF stays down. The UP REQUESTS and UP RETRIES say 0 whereas for DWARF and MAN they are several hundred each on requests with about 10% of requests number in retries.

I do not see anything loose or unattached.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

20180413_233909 (resized).jpg

20180413_235741 (resized).jpg

20180413_234802 (resized).jpg

20180413_234120 (resized).jpg

I am thinking to get The Hobbit. Does it have the same problem as WOZ? like the early production The Hobbit has some issues and I should go for a later built machine?

Thanks you.

No, they are all the same. The very early games had some minor issues, but jjp supplied a free update kit to address them.

Based on the large number of "Down Retries", it looks like the switches on the drop targets are not working. The result is that the software thinks that the targets are always up.

Look for a loose connector on the ELF drop target bank switches. Check all the way back to the opto switch board.
--Ted

Pinballpro.com is now promoting Pinhedz Wax,Cleaner & Maintenance Products made specifically for new generation pinball machines. Are any Hobbit owners familiar/used said products?

I am very interested as to how they compare with the regular cleaners and waxes I already own.

Its hard to compete with Blitz or P21S as far as a hard wax, and novus2 on ball tracks etc.

A waterless playfield cleaner that smells better than naptha or lighter fluid would be nice. I dont like putting water on older playfields.
Newer playfields can be cleaned with just about anything other than 409.

New plastic and rubber cleaners could be interesting.
I use novus1 on plastics and RC-88 on rubber.

My Smaug mouth motor appear to have gone kaputt. Anyone figure out a fix, other than a complete assembly swap? I spent a couple hours trying to move the mouth and get the servo to re-engage. I can get it to work a couple times after moving the jaw a little side-to-side and hearing the servo motor make some noise, and then would fail again after a few more tests.

Most times it doesn't seem like it's engaged to the servo motor at all, the mouth just hangs open and there is no resistance when manually opening closing the mouth.

I guess my next step is trying to perform the Calibrate the Servo Horn from the manual. Has anyone had success in this?

Did you take it apart and check the servo?

Mine is now doing the same thing, so will be interested with any help offered.

Thanks. Did that with no change

My Smaug mouth has been dead for months. I bought a new Futaba servo but haven't had the time to work on mine yet. My original servo moves freely.

Check the switches in Switch Test. Manually raise/lower the drop targets and observe if they change on the display. Also check the Kili Spinner and Bag End switches; they are connected to the same opto driver board.

Here is what the ELF target switches look like when the drop targets are down:
hobbit_switches1 (resized).png

And here they are when the targets are up:
hobbit_switches2 (resized).png

--Ted

Hopefully doing that tonight. Saw appendix E of the manual basically covers all the stuff I need to do. Just hoping the servo isn't shot, but if it is I would rather only replace that, than the whole assembly.

I dont think replacing the whole assembly is in order.
The little pc board and the servo are easily replaceable parts.
The whole assembly comes out pretty easy for testing.