Just joined the club

But of course, I'm encountering issues after a few games, like... The goblin pop up figure broke. After disassembling the mech (and losing a spring and the blocking part of the spring in the process...), I can't believe how low quality the figures are. I don't understand how they can withstand the abuse (and they didn't, as can attest by broken goblin head).

I'll try to repair it, but just in case, any source for a replacement part of higher quality than stock? Ideally in Europe (that's where I live).

PU-parts carry the replacement parts, but at 56 euros EACH. That's insanely high. At this price, I might as well get Lior replacement at 350 dollars for the whole set.

Cheers

I'm not disgruntled. I'm just trying to find options. Not happy for sure that it happened literally within 10 games after installing the machine, kind of frustrating not being able to play, but that's pinball, things break.

But I do think the price of these specific replacements parts is ludicrous compared to other parts, especially for target which are prone to abuse.

Anyway, time to use some epoxy

Cheers

One thing that surprised me when playing the game is the sound made by the drop target when they are all released almost simultaneously. I even thought something was broken.

Is there a way to mitigate that noise?

Oh, and my left switch for smaug head is dead... Certainly hope it's accessible

Hit the button to attenuate the noise made by all drop target getting up almost at once? I must say I'm confused on that statement

OK understood.

It's not really the target cycling which I find distracting, it's when all target are simultaneously raised. That's a lot of coils firing at the same time, generating a very bizarre noise.

I disassembled smaug head, the switch is actually an opto. There are two connectors, one a standard mta-156, the other a small 4 pins dupont connector.

Which one carries is responsible for opto information?

And.... Well...

I've also experienced some weird insert behavior :
- at boot time some of the leds keep blinking, until the machine has finished booting, at which point the leds operate normally
- I've had cases where the insert and GI matrix gets completely stuck, no further animation, nothing resolves it except a complete power cycle

Anyone has seen this behavior as well?

I'm rather unlucky with a machine which is supposed to have 390 plays only

Otherwise it's a nice game, theme integration is really well done

Ah there's an indication there, given that the left limit switch does not register so at startup the head moves left and right, and the stepper motor clearly force movement since it does not detect the end of movement.

Until I repair the opto I'd like to keep mouth movement and eye lighting though, will need to identify which connector is what

Never thought I'd see drop targets dance. Now I have. The first time it happens you kind of wonder 'what the hell is going on!'

Despite my issues with the game (now both optos for the head end of movement do not register anymore, odd for both to fail almost simultaneously), I really enjoy it, there are really a lot of innovative gameplay (the ball save requiring to hit the ring button, some clever modes, the rollover switch, the various skill shots, etc etc)

Many thanks for the advice. I suspected there was a bad contact issue, as after disassembling the head to check for something obvious, all of sudden the right switch also stopped working, I'll try that

Could someone please post a picture of the wiring harness for smaug (below playfield).

I'm very puzzled, as when reassembling it it looks like I'm missing some kind of adapter cable, as I have three male connectors, but only one female connector (see attached picture).... And I can't find this adapter cable, if indeed there's one... Maybe I misplaced it, but that's rather surprising, it's not like it's a small screw

When testing, I can see that Smaug eyes and the gold pile flasher are not working anymore. So I'm almost positive there's an adapter cable somewhere... If only I knew where I misplaced it...

Also, two of my drop targets are not playing nice: The R target from the DWARF bank does not want to lock in the upper position, and the N target from the MAN bank does not want to get released unless hit... Sigh... All of this relatively new. Do I have to disassemble the whole bank to get access to an individual drop target ?

Thanks
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We'll those I have, just don't know where they connect, at least the small one (the big one is the stepper motor). There's also an additional 4 pins which is the limit switches. I know where the limit switch connector and the stepper motor connect, but not the other two 4 pin, which I presume connect to a 6 pin connector from the BAG board using an adapter cable

In the manual they mention a 6 pin in-line connector, which I think is what this adapter cable is

I'd like to add some custom mods to Hobbit, which require 5V DC or 6V AC (as in older machine, using GI for power). What would be the best place to get this ?

Note that one of the mod will be driving small WS2812 ledstrip, so amp could add up. Another mod is essentially a fan cooling the flipper coils

Thanks

Well I have dozen of these, so yeah that might be an option

So what's the best place to get 12v easily?

Just took the time to read the rulesheet, man this is a deep game... And it seems to be one of the first (if not the only), at least that I know off, where playing modes in movie order yields a bonus.

There are some shots though that I find super difficult, primarily the Man and Elf drop target, how do you achieve them ?

Speaking of the drop target, one of them in my case (the "N" of MAN) cannot retract automatically (it does in case of ball hit).

Based on the manual and attached picture, I'm assuming in normal operation the small coil located at 16 (which is labelled as "retract coil assembly") actually pushes the L shape metal, which then release the drop target.

Given the mechanism, I can only think of the small coil not working for this case, unless there is another point of failure ?

pasted_image (resized).png

No it does not. I can't hear the coil energizing. Time to check the wiring.

And it's the wiring. A wire unsoldered from the coil lug.
Same on the gold smaug flasher actually

Time to solder

So actually, the board I use can go up to 36V DC, so I could use 12V. Now just need to figure out the best place to hook it up under the playfield. I believe there is a 12V power connector at the bottom of the cabinet somewhere, but is there a closer location, like a GI socket for example ? Or is everything RGB leds and no permanent GI bulbs ?

Err... Even in Europe?

Asking for a friend, what are those unused connectors inside the cabinet ? Some look like ATX HDD connectors, which i can understand if there are some spare, but there's a three pin connector with green and white, black wire, and a two pin with blue.

I seem to recall blue is the 12V power plug for the topper ?

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Any way/adjustment to reduce ball reject on the right hole (shot from the left bottom flipper)?

It happens to me quite often, more than half of the time

Thanks

Hmmm, tried that, but the shot is blocked by the slingshot. Need to check it again just to be sure

Is there a line out in the machine for subwoofer or external Amp?

Thanks for the pointer, I'll take a look.

On another note, my LED Bag board (is that how's it's called?) sometimes hangs, all lights frozen. Someone mentioned a current pull from the dragon mouth servo that could cause this problem, but I paid close attention and when this happens is not necessarily when the mouth is activated. It's rather random, could not figure out a pattern. It was fine for quite a few dozen games, then all of sudden I get it every 10 games or so.

So questions:
- is there a way to reset the board without power cycling? Maybe a reset header to which I could wire a switch?
- what can cause the Bag board to hangs like this? I have an oscilloscope, I could measure and trigger but need to get advice on which signal to monitor.

Thanks

I was always wondering on this one : for me in test mode, the opto register fine the end of movement, every time. But at startup of the machine, and only at startup, it seems to try to force when going left, then go back toward the middle. Looks like you have a similar behavior.

Can someone record the normal movement of smaug at power up?

Regards

OK, so mine absolutely does not do that. It tries to force rotating clockwise but it only does so at startup.

During gameplay, it does not, it seems to register the end of movement optos correctly

It does register them correctly in test mode.

Is there a different behavior code wise at startup vs gameplay? Is the safety mechanism with the optos built in at the smaug control board level, or higher up the control chain? The schematics of the smaug board are not very explicit on that subject

Edit : I take it back, it is explicit, all control is upstream. So unless the optos are not operating correctly only during startup (how can I check that???), I don't understand why it would try to force during startup, but not during gameplay

So while I'm dismantling smaug head, I found quite a few issues.

I dare say that 'designed for maintenance' is not the first thing that defines 'the hobbit' pinball there are quite a few very fragile wires connecting the RGB PCBs, just next to screws that you need to remove to access the drop target mechs.

So three questions :
- one of the wire on this RGB connector is cut. It will be far easier if i can unplug the connector, however I dare not pull too strongly, there seems to be a lock mechanism which i can't figure out. Any pointer?
- one blocking plastic which 'locks' the drop target in up position is broken and rotates around the rivet (see picture of the part). I assume that to access it I need to remove the drop target, and this is done by removing the small blocking ring on the ring behind the target?
- the arkenstone flasher was not working, checking the wire the pin has been dislodged from it's header. It's the same type of connector than what's on the RGB board it seems. Likewise, I can't unplug it... And I don't want to pull too much. Also, can I hope to reinsert the pin in the header? Or do I need a new header, in which case what is the reference?

[EDIT] Figured out how to remove the drop target in front of the mech. But the plastic part is damaged, I'll attempt some superglue repair. Otherwise I'll have to print a 3D part to replace it and replace the rivet... Lovely...

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Anyone would have any advice on how to unplug the RGB board connectors? The cabling is super fragile, I really don't want to try to force

I'm not having a lot of luck repairing the few remaining issues in my Hobbit. Well I did manage to repair one (the cut wire on one of the drop target mini coils), but I have three remaining which are a pita to fix:

- One of the green channel on the DWARF target RGB insert is cut. I tried to fix it, but unfortunately the wire is so thin, and the location so close to the connector, that I could not get a good access to the wire to solder the strands back together (even though I thought I had). Note that I had to unscrew the insert PCB to be able to work on the harness, because I could never figure out how to unplug the connector....
- One of the pin in the arkenstone flasher is disconnected. And like for the big RGB insert, I can't figure out how to unplug it from it's PCB
- Smaug mouth head is causing the BAG board to lock up. Still to be confirmed, I unplugged just the servo to check so far so good. I did try the rubber fix, but unfortunately with the rubber in place (even though it was relatively loose), the servo could not open the mouth...

I'll contact JJP support to get some new wiring harness, or at a minimum connectors reference, but for the third point any additionnal tip ?

In addition, here is the movement of Smaug head during calibration:

End of movement optos do register fine in test mode, and the head never forces it's movement during gameplay.

Thanks

Just to clarify, this is the dwarf drop target, not the pop up mechs.

In any case I did remove the whole drop target mech to be able to access the insert PCB. The cut unfortunately was very close to the connector (less than one inch), so I could not strip a long part of insulation with my insulation removal tool, thus resulting into a less than ideal connection length, affecting the solder joint I did.

So I'd like to use one of these :
€ 0,76 40%de réduction | Connecteurs de Fil à Souder Thermorétractable Isolé, Bornes de Fil Électrique, Épissure Bout à Bout Étanche, 3, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 Pièces
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPWnOdq

But the min gauge it can accommodate is 26AWG, and I suspect the RGB insert cabling is actually 28awg, is that the case?

I also have the "hobbit house" mod just above the right VUK, and sometimes I get airball being stuck behind it (usually left ramp - right wireform, high speed, ball fly above the bumpers and gets stuck behind the hobbit house).

How did anyone solve this issue ?

I'm not saying the mod is bad, just that in my case I get airball getting stuck here on regular occasions, and not sure how to fix it, aside of designing a deflector

Manufacturing date is June 2016

If I have to remove the ramp, remove the existing flaps to replace them...

Is there a picture of original vs new flaps ?

pasted_image (resized).png

I only have available right now a shot of the entire playfield. Not very practical to identify the flaps, but in case you can, here it is.

I'll take a close up shot tomorrow

Regards

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Sigh, it's not Smaug head which is causing by BAG board to lock up.

I have disconnected the head (to be more precise, the mouth), but i just had the board lock up today after 20 games or so.

And it even appeared after power on, in attract mode, no game played

Any other pointer for debugging this ?

No it's not. It's the original one in the machine.

It was exchanged under warranty?

In my case, if I have to pay full price for it, plus shipping and tax, that's not going to be fun.

Where and how can you take a measurement of the power supply on the BAG board?

I'm getting random lock up of the inserts (not so random now, it even appears in attract mode - and smaug mouth is disconnected) . JJP support suggested to reseat the USB connectors, and it still failed, to measure voltage.

But looking at the wiring, the power connector on the bag board is located in such a way that I don't see how to access it's pins. Worse, there's a metal plate below the PCB, so I can't access any signal from the bottom either.

Suggestions would be welcome

Well I do have a meter. I even have an oscilloscope.

It's just that I find JJP support comment rather hilarious, because reading the pinout, I need to put the meter probe at a connector which very close to the playfield, completely inaccessible under normal operation. And because the issue does not appear immediately, in theory I need to connect my oscilloscope probe during operation.

Sigh

Apologies, I was referring to the official message I received from JJP support by email, not your statement in the forum

So my BAG board is considered as dead

While debugging this issue, it turns out I realized that machines built prior to August 11 2016 are using high density wiring harness and PCB, whereas machines built after that date are using more regular 2.54mm connectors and wiring harness.

And unfortunately, JJP is not building nor keeping inventory of wire harness anymore of either generations. For the 2.54mm that's probably not a big deal as you can likely easily rebuild it, but for the 1mm version (mine), this is really problematic: I have one harness which is damaged, which I managed to repair somewhat, and one harness where the pin was actually dislodged from the connector body. I'm trying to repair it, but it's a pain without proper equipment for this type of connector.

Also I'm concerned that what caused the BAG board to fail in the first place will cause the new board to fail again over time. Someone mention an excessive current draw due to Smaug mouth, anyone with a build date prior to August 11 2016 has any indication that newer BAG boards are less affected than original boards ?

Thanks

It's in the documentation ... And since I had to repair one of my wiring harness and it was a pita (and I still have one to repair), I asked JJP if they had any stock and they stated they don't build them anymore.

Hobbit is the second machine built by JJP, and I suspect they realized that their design choices were problematic for maintenance, so they changed all the PCBs mid production (not only the BAG board, but all LED PCB).

They have the board. Just not the wiring harness.

I was hoping I could take advantage of this failure to migrate, at least partially, to the 2.54mm pitch connectors (on the BAG board and all connected boards), but while I can buy the boards, I can't buy the wiring harness, so it's rather useless unless I want to rebuild it completely myself... Not practical.

So I have to revert back to the original 1mm pitch board version.

Sidenote: the BAG board is $150. It's not terribly expensive, although based on the bill of material, it probably cost less than 50 dollars to build.

Combination of bad design choice and bad handling on my part: the wires are super thin, and the RGB PCB just below the drop target are located in such a way that when you disassemble the drop target assembly, there is a risk if you're not super extra careful that the sharp edge of the metal bracket assembly will quite simply cut the wire. They should at least have protected the wire in sensitive area using tubing. I did not see the 2.54 pitch wiring harness, but I would hope they did not use the same wire gauge.

On another area (Smaug flasher), I'm not sure how it happened, but the pin inside the connector housing was dislodged. I suspect this happened when I disassembled Smaug head to fix the end of movement optos.

One concern that I have is long term reliability of the 1mm variant. When you compare schematics in the manual, you can see that on the 2.54mm variant they added 1000pF capacitors on the 5V rail, on pretty much every single IC on the board (plus ferrite beads and other caps for noise reduction on the output signals). The 1mm board version does not have any of these.

For me this is an indication that the quality of the 5V rail has an impact on the board reliability long term, and they decided to add these 1000pF to prevent any hang or reset during operation. I do hope that I'm not going to be faced with the same issue in a few years from now.

Appreciate the offer !!

I managed to fix the drop target 3 RGB insert wire harness. But the wiring harness for the gold pile flasher is more difficult, as it's the pin that got dislodged from the connector housing, and I'm not sure I can plug it back (not to mention I still did not really figure out how to unplug the cable from the PCB, the latching mechanism is not obvious). If I can't fix it, I'll be sure to contact you.

As for the BAG board, I'll have to take a look, but since it's working for a while before locking up, it's probably not a fuse. I wish JJP would provide guidance so I could fix it.

I did order one, with shipping and tax it ended up about 250 euros...

Now that's funny. And it appeared during 'into the fire' multiball of course...

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Oh my.... I've had the same issue. It appeared randomly at first, then in the end it appeared within 5min after power on.

One thing JJP told me to check is voltage level (you can check at another connector, the one at the bottom right led board when the playfield is up is easy to get access to). If voltages are good, and GI and lighting are completely stuck, then it's your bag board.

I had to order a replacement. It fixed the most frequent issue, BUT I still get it occasionally, so honestly I'm concerned there's something else causing the failure.

What's your Hobbit build date? JJP changed PCB version halfway through. Production before June 2016 have the super thin wires and connectors, after June they have the regular 2.54 connectors. The latter version has much more capacitors and isolation on all signals, but you can't retrofit the new version into the first production batch, because JJP does not build the wiring harness anymore.

I have a first batch machine btw

There was a comment earlier in the thread that the servo motor used for Smaug mouth was causing overcurrent and causing the issue. In my case I disconnected the servo (so I keep the flasher and the rotation), but that did not solve the issue, and eventually the board failed completely.

Given that my brand new board also fails (although at a lower failure rate), JJP is suggesting to monitor power and see if there's a drop, which requires an oscilloscope... Not exactly straightforward, fortunately I have one but I need to find a way to monitor it easily during operation, so need a test point.

To me, the hologram topper is really not that good, at least if you are referring to what looks like a big fan at rest. First, it's loud. It's a set of spinning blades after all. The 3D effect is not 3D, it's actually a 2D image floating in space. Sure it has a wow factor, but it's not aesthetically integrated. I bought mine on Aliexpress for 60 bucks or so, never bothered to install it after testing it. Granted, mine was the two blade version (4 blades are much more expensive, but should be quieter because they don't run as fast).

My Bag End mod is damaged (the mounting 'bar' is broken at each tip)

Before I attempt a repair, could someone please post a picture of what it should look like when complete?

Here's a picture of it

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@JJP

The sudden announcement of Scorbit support removal is a blow to all your customers.

Personally, I've had my share of issues with my Hobbit, which traced back to product maturity (first manufacturing batch with super thin wires) but also to general service availability across the world (no replacement board available across all European resellers, come on! I had to pay 100 dollars of shipping and tax for my BAG board replacement).

This had me seriously reconsider buying any JJP machines in the future (not even taking into account playfield issues and how they were addressed).

The removal of Scorbit, and the way this was done, is really sending a super bad message to customers, and is the last drop to me.

As of now, I won't buy a single JJP product. I'll probably resell both my current JJP machines in the near future.

A few gameplay related questions:
- What's the trick to consistently lit and access the Warg and Spider inlane ? These are kind of random, if I miss the first shot to hit the beast, I'm toasted until I luck out and hit these inlanes
- Likewise, is it possible to hit the Elf and Man drop target from a cradle position ? I tried various flipper angles, but could not find one that would work
- Is there a way for the "unlock" conditions to stack up ? For ex, once I have lit "Smaug Multiball" or "Collect all dwarves", is there a way for these to carry over to the next stage ? That would make things easier to access later arkenstone modes
- Is there a setting to extend the "hit window" for any of the beasts ? As noted above, you basically get one shot, if you miss it no second chance most of the time because of the very short duration window

Cheers

One learn everyday, I did not know this trick. Works like a charm with a little bit of practice, thanks !

Thanks for the information, that did happen to me from time to time

However, English not being my narive language, I must say I'm a little bit struggling to vizualize what you mean. That, or my understanding is wrong, because I can't figure out how to fold, you need some leverage for the nut driver, don't you ? Care to share a picture ?

Cheers