I took some slow-mo video of the drop targets to see how they were occurring, but already pretty much knew the answer before as you had stated. The drop targets are bending back upon impact more than they really should and creating a slingshot/catapult effect for the ball once they rebound. Check out the video on youtube. Sorry for the poor lighting as the slo-mo on the phone greatly reduces the exposure aperture or something along those lines. Also planning to replace target stickers soon... but now that there is positive feedback about the lighted polyacrylic drop targets, I might have to look into a full scale replacement.

Also... I cut a small lexan shield to put over the drop target bank and it has eliminated airballs completely for me so far, though I've only had it installed for a few days. Not too unsightly, but the thicker replacement drop targets still might be nicer (albeit much more expensive).

I would like to round the corners and shape it up more eventually, but just threw something in there at first to see if the concept works. And at a cost of less than $1 (8x10 lexan at $3.95) it is a cheap way to experiment.

I also imagime if I could polish the edges of the final product it would be less visible than it already is (which is barely). All in all, I think I would prefer drop targets that don't bend as much. But need to get my head around the huge price difference in that solution versus mine. Of course adding led lights to be drop targets is also part of the cost and an excellent mod in my opinion.

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Glad it worked for you. I have already been in discussion with someone that has contacts at a company with laser cutting abilities to see if we can get these professionally laser cut and what he cost would be. I would not want to make any money (because lord knows it would be peanuts) but would definitely like to provide it as a service to other IJ owners. I guess it was dumb of me to post it before we finished the design process, but I'm naive that way.

I would ask that you not offer these for sale since it was my mod originally (at least as far as I can tell). Ok, there's no rocket science behind the idea and my thought was that anyone could make it for themselves (thus, no profit to be made). But I would still like to see the design process through myself as a service I was hoping to offer for those that don't have the ability to cut and shape themselves.

This was my original thoughts. But didn't want to spend time cutting and shaping if it didn't even deflect the airballs. Wanted to play it for a few weeks to make sure there weren't any unwanted side effects (like stuck balls, etc). Also made a smaller version for the back target to stop those airballs as well. After I find out how much to get these laser cut I would sell both as a package at pretty much cost of materials, labor and shipping.

And in all fairness, my design thoughts for this came from and original idea in a thread for POTC where someone wanted to remove the sneeze guard from the pirate ship. Much larger area with more curves and his design came out great.

I may have a solution to the backplate fix and the eject hole cliffy mounting. But it's in a warehouse full of other fixes that I'm acquiring soon and I will release pics and a list of the fix after the first of the year when I get time to unbox everything.

Wait... wrong thread... apologies. Please resume your normal banter about all the fixes.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. And no local chapter of pin-aholics anonymous for me either.

I didn't look, but if there isn't already a thread on this one, you gotta start it.

I'd add this to the list.

You are reading and posting to pinside from your phone while out in a bar with your wife on New Year's Eve!

Small update on the deflector plastic I had been designing for above the drop targets to reduce airballs. I had shaped the plastic a bit and was preparing to get this scanned and converted to a cad file so we could get pricing on multiple orders. However, last week the middle drop target of the front bank snapped off after a ball strike during a game. They were a bit old (original?) anyway, so I'm not overly worried, but I want to replace them (already received new ones from Marco) first. My goal is to put the new targets on and play for a few weeks or more to see if there is any unintended wear on the targets. I really think the breaking was due to the age of the targets, but the last thing I want to do is put a mod out there that somehow squeezes the ball between the deflector and the target as it rebounds and puts undue stress on the target. Especially for anyone who has replaced their drops with the LED target mod that can be quite expensive. I think the thicker LED targets may reduce airballs anyway, so not sure you would need/want to do both.

Bottom line, it may be a while before I offer these up for sale for anyone, but if anyone makes their own out of the pictures/descriptions already posted in this thread, please share with me if you get any targets breaking.

According to the Pinbits website description of the shaker motor... "This shaker motor shakes when the gun is fired, during a dog fight, and when the Idol grinds and turns."

Could be a fair amount if your able to hammer the ramps continually and get some balls locked. Might also be nice if it was somehow possible to add "falling into the pit on POA" as a trigger event.

DJ... sorry, my initial text wasn't intended to be harsh (as in "back off" as you mentioned), but I noted that my drop target broke after I mounted the small acrylic plate above them and wanted to hold off before putting something out there that indirectly caused other problems. I replaced all 4 drop targets and have been watching for wear, so far with positive results. I agree that this mod is nice to basically 100% eliminate air balls in my case. So, feel free to distribute as you see fit. It's just a piece of plastic with a couple holes and easily produced by anyone with a few minutes.

Not worried about IP theft so to speak, so distribute as you see fit. Might be nice to give me a bit of credit for the very minor idea I had to create this (I have so few great ideas), just as I gave maffewl credit for his original idea for a similar deflector on potc. If you somehow get super rich off this be sure to invite me for some champagne on your new yacht!!

Sounds like we have similar lives!! Ha. Tell you what... I'll race you to see who can get them drawn up and converted to CAD the quickest for mass production. You give me a two month head start and we'll call it even... GO!

In reality, I would like to see others benefit from this so I may give it one more college try this week before giving up if you're not already working on it. PM me separately if you've already started down that road and i can hold up. My intention is not to delay what might be a useful mod for others, even if only to a few.

Lastly, I've heard others mention that simply changing to newer, stiffer drop targets may be sufficient to eliminate many air balls because the older ones flexed too much due to age (acting as catapults on rebound so to speak). Have no idea if this is true, because I put my deflector back on after replacing my drops. Might play around with that also in all that abundant time I have on my hands.

Can you make one a bit more faded to match my cabinet??

Awesome news. Do you have a link to the announcement? Looked on their website and couldn't find the announcement. And Google and pinside search was unsuccessful. Just trying to find out if this is for their existing boards, or if they are changing/updating their board to do this.

Switch 34 is the gun trigger. Maybe knocked something lose.

Thanks Delt... finally found it. From what I'm reading, we would need to wait for them to release the kit due to someone else trying to hook their own relay up to the board and messing up some stuff. It's unclear in the unofficial "announcement" if the kit will work with existing boards or if the board will be updated... very limited information. I think I will wait til the kit is released rather than risk the chance that backwards compatibility with the kit won't be there.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinsound-card-reviews-anyone/page/20#post-3738526

As an FYI... I've also been waiting since last years "announcement" that whitestar support is coming. Learned to be patient in this hobby for sure.

Very nice!! That inspires me to get around to doing mine someday. Now... to find the time...

You, sir, just made me spit out my beer!! Well done...

That does look nice. Were any paint touchups required also? or only clear coat? I need to disassemble mine and get it cleared, but I think I need a few touchups, but mostly just around the keylines of some of the inserts. Per Vid's guide, I'm assuming all the inserts would need to be checked and glued, etc, though I don't think any are coming up.

As lior has said, novus. But to be more specific, start with novus 1 and see how good it can get. I had similar trails on my POTD in my LOTR. Novus 1 wasn't enough, so i had to bring out the big guns, Novus 2 (well, technically Novus 3 is the big guns but I've never had to use that on a pin yet). After a thorough polishing with many cycles of Novus 2, back to Novus 1 for a final shine/polish. Lior also hinted at it when stating "Novus, Novus, Novus", but if you haven't done this before be sure to allow a lot of time. It's a slower process than you might think.

I applaud you on this restore. Those trails will never be seen, but you'll know they're there. Great job!!

Ummmm... yes!!!

Another good thing is that pin probably has very low use, as all the time was spent modding rather plan playing!

Nice job WB!!

Looking at the switch matrix (which I'm assuming you have gone through multiple times already), the start button and right outlane switch are both on the Green-Brown wire. Clearly, there is a problem with the path somewhere, most likely a bad diode that is letting the signal through the start button. Check the diodes and for proper function on all the other switches on that path (Single Drop Top, Buy-in Button, Plumb Bob Tilt, Left Outlane, Left Return Lane, Right Return Lane) in addition to the diodes for the start button and right outlane switch. Maybe somebody else knows how to find the problem quicker, so apologies if this is bad advice, but that's where I'd start.

Here's an excerpt from http://pinballrehab.com/1-articles/solid-state-repair/repair-guides/146-switch-matrix-theory-and-troubleshooting#common-problems

Random Switch Indications
Random switch indications occur when one switch is closed and another switch erroneously thinks it has also been closed. For example, A ball hits the left sling and one of the pop bumpers fires. This is typically caused by a reversed diode, a shorted diode, the switch improperly wired or diode lead touching one of the other switch lugs. Any of these issues allows current to flow backwards and take a row low that shouldn't be low at that time.
While this is often a one to one relationship (one switch closes and one switch thinks it's closed when it isn't) there can be multiple one to one relationships.

Ok... it's quite obvious I knew nothing about the complex nature of "phantom" switch signals based on my previous post. I did watch the video at the bottom of the page I linked to earlier and it cleared it up tremendously as what would cause the erroneous switch signal. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching the full video for anyone not already familiar with switch matrix theory. If you're trying to troubleshoot switch matrix problems, this knowledge is essential.

Here's a direct link to the video... but can also be found by scrolling down to the bottom the page previously linked.

Do we know what an "all-in" price for this would be once we pay for shipping from Europe and 2nd shipping in US? I am thinking of routing my current one, but for the right price would be in for the group buy.

I knew it gave you a jack for direct hookup, but was unaware it changed any of the audio quality. How does it do this?

+1 on this advice. Trace power from the wall to the boards and reseat every connector. My IJ was resetting when I got it two years ago. Had gone through everything and the last thing I did a clean and reseat on was the fuse in the incoming power switch box. After that, I haven’t had a reset in 2 yrs. I couldn’t believe it could be that simple. Still might not be your issue, but doesn’t hurt to try. Good luck!!

What protectors are you claiming to have made the prototypes for? I'm a bit unclear...

Well, that's a pretty cool version you came up with for a prototype of the airball deflector. Is it possibly you never saw post #1235?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ij-williams-you-cheat-dr-jones-club/page/25#post-3511721

Just so we don't re-write history for some of the newer club members, I thought of this idea just a bit under 2 years ago after looking at @maffewl's creation on his Stern POTC. Not saying mine was original by any means, but then Djshakes asked me if I was going to make them. I toyed with the idea, but in the end didn't have the time. DJ has done a great service to the club by making and distributing these. And his are much more refined with rounded corners. I recommend these to anyone as they have completely changed the gameplay for my IJ.

@medisinyl... There is a pull down box where you attach your images (on the right side) that specifies the resolutions. Default setting is to convert the image to Med-res (max 2048 largest side). In order to upload a GIF you need to change that to "Original Size (no rescaling)".. and you do this BEFORE you attach the image because that's when the resolution is downsampled. For a GIF, the downsampling creates a single static image. (Edit: I see that Davi already mentioned the no rescaling option. Looking forward to checking out the GIF...)

I missed the posts a few days ago about people’s art blades getting damaged. Maybe you already know about these, but I’m honestly still surprised that every pinball owner doesn’t own a set. Never damaged a mirror blade or art blade since purchasing these. Wise investment.

https://www.pinballlife.com/interior-cabinet-protector-blade-set.html

If you have a label maker put a little label under your lockdown bar that says “Place Protectors BEFORE Lifting”. Saw this idea from another pinsider (Yelobird I think).

The tip that helped me the most is that you should think that you’re trying to “throw” the ball from one side of the POA playfield to the other. If you tilt the playfield at the wrong time (usually too early), the ball will just follow the rail curve and end up in the middle hole. You have to play around with the timing so that when you tilt the playfield, the rail actually gives the ball some momentum to get to the other side. Took me some time to get the hang of it, but I can run the path pretty good now. The funny thing is that once you zero in on the timing to cross the field, you have to resort to your old timing to let the ball fall in the extra ball hole. Good luck...

Oh, and I didn’t have to resort to washers or anything other than factory... but did have to bend the initial deflector metal thingy to get the ball to fall left or right depending on my choice (rather than going always right when I first got the game).

I’d consider myself a photoshop “intermediate”... definitely not an expert. I’m not sure I understand what your asking for? Is your 2nd pic what you’re looking for but without the free play and super pin graphic? If not, explain a bit more please.

I had to zoom in on your photo because I thought you had a tree stump as a topper. Guess my eyes are getting bad.

After pulling off an upset in the last round IJ really needs your support in the voting now to pull off another win.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/round-4-greatest-pinball-game-of-all-time-tournament-edition

They look great. Would definitely consider a set.

Haven’t checked this thread in over a week... looks like I missed the deadline for the list. If so, please add me to the second list or I’ll just keep an eye out for your store inventory. Either way, mod looks to be a success.