I’ll be joining the club tomorrow! Picking up a Black Arrow Special Edition.
This is my third pin but my first JJP so I have a few questions:

1. I read about a lot of issues with beasts switches (andleaf switches in general) and Smaug not working properly. Would it be a good idea to run some sort of full diagnostics on the game before I put it in my car? Or would the game alert me of such issues while booting up?

2. Does the Black Arrow edition come standard with the fixes for Smaug Gold Edition? I mean the balls getting trapped under the beast flaps and the metal flaps for the ramps curling up.

Thanks!!

I became a member today with my Black Arrow edition! Amazing game experience so far!

It seems that I need to stretch the plunger spring since I cannot hit ‘F’ with a full plunge.
But the major concern I have right now is that sometimes the auto plunger launches the ball when I push the ring button to change the skill shots. Did I wait too long? Is this a bug? Or maybe some kind of short caused by the ring button?

And is it normal that all drop targets are down on a new game and then go up a few seconds after the ball is launched?

Thanks!!

Great tip! Will try that tomorrow!

Is there a 3.4 code?? 3.1 is latest right?

Is it normal behaviour that the magnet up at Smaug (ball lock) is not catching my ball 50% of the time? I'm not talking about the magnet in the orbit, I mean the magnet on the steel rail up next to his head.

Even when the ball travels slowly it just drops richt of the rail instead of holding a second or two on the magnet.

Just wondering if this is normal.

I tried this and all switches seem to work reliably. But it still happens almost every time so I checked switch history right after the issue. It appears there’s a problem with my E for Elf drop target this switch is registered multiple time because it’s retrying several times.

Please see the video I’ve made. In the beginning of the video I ‘manually’ control this letter up and down with the coil test. Everything seems normal right?
Right after I start the drop target bank test and this shows the same issue as during gameplay.

I’ve investigated below the Playfield but everything seems fine.

Any ideas on this? Driving me crazy that I’m unable to switch between skill shots reliably!

Maybe a stupid question but what part is the actual switch? I obviously see the large coil to push it up and the tiny small coil that pushes the drop target back to drop it.
Wires to the coils look perfectly fine by the way.

Thanks for your help!

Thanks LTG ! Ill clean the optos and check wire connections.
But can you explain to me an individual up/down via coil test is working fine but resetting the whole bank isn’t?

I have my pf at 6.7 degrees and all settings (cool power) at stock settings.

For some reason the PinGuy app op my iPhone measures the angle of the of differently on the bottom and top so I measure at the center of the playfield.

Looking forward to your test results! My Smaug catches maybe 30-40% of the time. In coil test the magnet works fine without any issues.

It seems my problems with Smaug’s magnet are getting worse. Ik think it now only catches about 1 out of 10 times.

I have no idea how to fix this. The magnet works perfectly fine during coils test and the opto on the ramp does so as well. The diverters on the ramp work fine as well which might be an indication that detecting a ball on the ramp works fine as well.

Any ideas?

Hey Guys. I did some investigation on Smaugs magnet and found that the timing was off. When the magnet does not catch the ball it was late. Even when I shoot the ball up by hand and it wasn’t going that fast. But the magnets timing was of.

I also discovered that this magnet was getting really hot! I mean like burn my finger when I touch the aluminum above it for too long! That can’t be normal right?

Does that mean I’m betting of replacing the magnet? Could this cause it to react too slow?
And how would I replace this magnet? Is seems like it’s welded on the aluminum or something? There are no screws or anything. I’ve disconnected this magnet for now. I don’t want other damage to occur.

Any help will be appreciated.

I did reconnect the magnet and it starts getting warm immediately. Even if the magnet is not triggered in gameplay. The first few locks it grabs the ball immediately. But after it gets warmer and warmer it gets ‘slower’ and doesn’t catches the ball anymore.

This Smaug magnet gets really really hot! Like burn your fingers hot! The other magnets in the back don’t even get warm.

Is this really normal? Should I replace the magnet?

I know this has been discussed before but I cannot found a proper “solution” or a way I should proceed adjusting this.

My rollover seems to launch the balls at higher speeds and it’s also impossible to successfully complete “ L O C K “ on a skillshot because they give to much resistance.

Then I remembered that the previous owner removed the playfield protector which was installed in factory. So my rollovers are probably to high above the playfield? But I can’t see any way lowering them except to put washers between the screws and the playfield. But how were these rollovers moved higher above the playfield then in the first place?

Thanks for your help guys!

https://pu-parts.com/the-hobbit-lockdown-bar-ring-button-platte

They also still have the ring button in stock.

I’m impressed with your result! The matte gold finish might even look better then the glossy one!