There's a launch power setting in the Advanced Settings menu, though I haven't needed to play with it to see if it actually does something.

Checked the bullseye gaps again tonight, and one of them looked a little close. It also looked like there was some solder droppings or similar in between one set of leaf switches. Adjusted and cleaned it, then played a bunch. Both problems seem to be resolved.

I spent more time looking into it this evening.

It’s definitely a spin problem. Meaning the ball gets too much top spin. As it leaves the shooter lane and crosses the table the top spin makes it arch upwards.

Waxing the ball reduced the effect of the spin so it arched less.

The auto plunge is positioned well above the centerline of the ball. Giving a lot more spin. I noticed the auto plunge return spring was pretty loose allowing the auto plung mech to not fully retract. I stretched the spring a little and it slightly improved the results.

So I think our quest here it to find a way to mimic the minimal spin the manual plunger puts on the ball. I think it may require a modified design of the plunger arm so it contacts the center of the ball. Anyone want to machine one? . Or maybe an anapter for the end where it contacts the ball.

Power launch settings are at max from factory. I'm not totally convinced its not just a power issue as I put over 30 balls through in attract mode and it never failed to reach the mark. Also I closely watched the trajectory and it always hugged that lane guide opposite that top flipper. During game play you could see the trajectory change and start getting closer to that top flipper. Saying all that, I like your idea and I might try and tweak my launcher again. Also, I notice some else on the previous page got a replacement launcher from Stern, so it would be interesting to see if it made a difference. Guess we will keep chasing it and when someone solves it for Stern, they may release a fix.

I am curious, are you using CLR to feed the ball from the trough in you tests or dropping the ball in from the top by hand?

considering getting a pro or premium IM. does anyone know how many of these premium /LE have issues? my fear is getting home with the issues. i'm not a tech fix it up person. are the issues that bad where i should just screw it and get the pro? i'm already 50/50 on the increase in cost being worth it from pro to premium.

Just got a Premium and all the mechs are perfect. Zero problems.

I think 99% of the pros or premiums don’t hit the ramps on auto plunge. And it’s a ball spin thing. Hasn’t effected overall play for me really.,

My Premium autoplunge was working perfectly for a week or two. Now it hits the upper left flipper. I hope you don’t experience the same thing, because it definitely affects the gameplay.

I am having the auto plunger issue as well. I waxed the shooter lane and balls and it’s back to normal. We’ll see for how long.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Once you get familiar with the well documented premium fixes in this Maiden issues thread, those issues (you may or may not have,) will all melt away once you have your premium purring with all that extra KM(F!)E “Kinetic Satisfaction.”

Plus, it’s late enough now that if you ordered a premium today, you’ll most likely get a game that already has the new pointy hex posts with a dab of loctite for the 360 newtons and a properly adjusted/replaced upper switch for the sarcophagus.

My premium’s been playing swish this whole time once the initial fixes went in.
Don’t let your “fear of the dark” or, in this case “mad-basic-pin-tech-skillz”, hold you back on buying one of the greatest playing Sterns in modern history.

I have discovered that my one way gate was getting stuck open. Really hard to tell, because lifting the playfield was getting it unstuck. Eventually powered down the machine with the ball stuck, removed the ramp so I could make see better and was able to tell it was wedged. Not sure how, but at least I know what to look at.

Ok I waxed my shooter lane and auto plunge is perfect for 20 games already. Seems like a real solution?

Ok well now I waxed the whole playfield and it changed again.

Out of box it hit high on the top left flipper. Waxed the shooter lane and it was hitting perfect.

Now I waxed the playfield and it hits the lower post.

So I was able to transform a high to a low all with wax. Pretty annoying! Now everything bricks low.

Also now fully waxed manual plunging bricks low also.

No bending. Full wax just screwed it up. It’s like I need more friction on the playfield to get the shot to hit now.

So pretty much we need a way to dynamically adjust the shooter ramp guide to get the shot to hit consistent which is highly dependent on friction of the playfield and balls in terms of how it’s effected by ball spin.

Unfortunately looks like major surgery to get access to the ramp adjust bolt. So kinda needs to be designed different to make it easy to quickly adjust.

I can't see a forever fix tbh. I had a Skateball that had issues like this. If you look at the layout of Skateball it shoots across the playfield into a loop and up into the rollover lanes on a full plunge.

Now, if the playfield is dirty, clean, plunger doesn't hit it quite right, etc. it won't make that loop 100% of the time. It's just a fact of mathematical angles/physics/whatever you want to call it.

You will be able to get it close, but it will never be 100% imo.

I'd take 80%...

So now try and back off the autoplunger power, setting #64 from memory in game adjusts.

Totally agree, that's why I think a slightly more powerful coil may help. That way as conditions change you can quickly adjust the power to suit. At the moment the stock coil is at max power and not quite enough in some circumstances.

This definitely helped. I waxed 2 balls, and not the rest. Seems like the waxed balls make it now, and the ones cleaned with alcohol brick.

I think its one of those things you can chase forever. And can change based on temperature, conditions on and on. Watching some video streams, most brick. So I think i will write this off as one of the flaws of the layout design and not chase it.

Kind of a pity as it's BAD ASS watching the soldiers march out during trooper multiball. Now half of them brick and it ruins the effect.

Oh well. nature of the beast I guess

Managed to fix it. As suggested, had to undo all of the screws for the plunger and realign it. It now strikes the ball dead center and way harder. Great game so far too

Good to hear.

Was watching your video and saw the price cards included with your UK machine. 2 pounds a game! That's like $2.50! And I thought a dollar was expensive. Can I play with madness!?

Ha yeah you're not the first person to mention that. It does include a £1 a game card as well but the £2 one is the default. I'd never pay that!

Even £1 is like $1.30. What's the machine price in pounds?

Don't sell up and come to the UK vic.
Pro is £6,395.00 Prem is £8,695.00 and the Le is £10,000.00

Is that the coin door they are shipping games with now? Gonna be a little irritated If I got to spend another 200 to get one with a dollar bill slot.

edit:
ok never mind, didn't realize he was from a different country.

Just got my new newton ball actuators from Stern. Problem was new ones look just like the old ones. So I call Stern and talk to David. He told me they were expecting calls, as a bunch of the old ones went out by mistake. So I'll wait for the pointed ones to arrive. I asked if there was a fix for the auto launch. He said there are not any new parts, just to keep adjusting it--and once adjusted give it at least 20 games so that it can try and correct itself before re-adjusting. If that doesn't work, "call back".

I just received mine yesterday and the same thing happened to me. Just sent an email this morning asking them to send the correct ones.

It's like a bowling alley. Conditions just change game to game.

Hmmm...using some linseed oil on the shooter lane might be a good idea...man I miss that smell!

I have a premium coming in a few days.

This thread is a little scary! At least it sounds like people have found solutions for all of the common problems. I was debating going with the pro, but I love the egyptian themed art on the premium (can't stand the LE personally, but it's all a matter of opinion) and I think the physical lock and underworld shot add a lot of fun to the gameplay.

Don't sell up and come to the UK vic.
Pro is £6,395.00 Prem is £8,695.00 and the Le is £10,000.00</blockquote

I thought my LE was expensive at $15.5k NZ - 0r 8,000 Pounds, but you win.. $19.500 NZ , 10,000 Pounds

Speaking only for myself here, but I have learned a ton about adjusting a NIB pin and have enjoyed it as a learning experience.

You are going to enjoy the $#1+ out of this machine.

Wow, so they're about $3000 more than the US across the board. No wonder pinball's not as widely seen on route in Europe in the 21st century!

I had to lube up my rails because this pin has been glass off and up and down like no other pin ever!!!

Got my new Sarcophagus mech installed. Solved the Mummy MB issues.

Now it won't drain out the locked ball in the lock during and after the game if a ball is in there.

It goes into down position but won't go quite all the way. Have to pull the glass and push it down so drops the ball into the underground.

Did mech test, works fine, made sure nothing was binding it, fine.

Bend the metal drop tabs?

Anybody else experience this!

Having the oft-discussed ‘autoplunge-hitting-upper-left-flipper’ issue, I thought I would experiment a bit with playfield waxing this morning as you guys were discussing (My game is at a 7 degree incline, and set to factory defaults for power adjustments.)

I applied a small amount of wax to my shooter lane, as well as across the playfield and around the top left flipper. I let it dry for 20 minutes. When I came down to test it, 18 of 20 autoplunges succeed.

Manual plunges, however, are now bricking on the lower orbit guide (these were perfect before). I suspect the wax is merely providing enough friction to temporarily correct the angle on the autoplunge shot. I am wondering if the only way to truly correct this shot is actually adjusting the angle of the top of the shooter guide (under the right wireframe and plastics) to accommodate the incline you choose to play the game at. I am unsure how much ballspin will affect the angle though.

you have wax that provides friction? we've always called that dirt.

How would you describe the reason a ball slows down a slight bit on waxed clearcoat? Perhaps I am incorrect. Are you saying the ball is moving faster now? It seems like that would have the opposite effect of what I am seeing.

Well your description doesn't take into account the manual plunger hitting the ball diff'rently than the auto. So that's another factor.

True. It seemed to affect both shots in a similar way though, as the end trajectory was slightly lower on both.

Wax reduces friction, the balls will more faster and spin will not be as effective.

So it is likely that the ballspin is what was causing the ball to climb high enough on autoplunge to hit that upper flipper? I could buy that.

This does make me rethink what I should be doing to get both manual and autoplunge to work though. It would be nice if Stern had an FAQ / adjustments recommendation document for each of their machines (or is there one that I haven’t found yet?)

I still think it's ball spin. The manual plunger hits close to the ball center. While the auto plunge applies top spin. So we're always going to fight manual vs auto because of different spin.

I got mine hitting good for 50 games or so. Then on a humid night it's missing again. So I'm not sure this will be any easy quest for consistency. I also have 4 balls that hit more accurate than the others. I waxed all my balls, yet there is a difference.

Anyway - I've resided to not working about this, enjoying the game, and getting to cyborg multiball. Keep getting to a few ramp hits needed and draining. Is agonizing pressure.

My Eddie piece of mind figure has slowly over time drooped over and now the left ramp balls get stuck on his head. Wondering what the best fix for this would be. I can’t seem to “bend” him back into shape as he just eventually droops back over. I stuck some tissue paper under his left foot and that is a temporary fix but it looks like he went insane after stepping in toilet tissue.

Also don’t want to super glue his butt to the wall as that will mess up my resale value. Any ideas?

60A00414-893A-4129-93F7-8239E3436416 (resized).jpeg

Anyone have a good adhesive they have used to affix the rubber bumpers to the top/front of the head? Mine both came off during shipment.

3M 467MP tape.

Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/AidBrace-Back-Brace-Support-Belt/dp/B01L9OCCPG/ref=sr_1_10_s_it

I REALLY hope this doesn’t happen to all of us (sorry it happened to you though!) Do you think your environment/climate (hot summer, etc) had anything to do with it?

I truly hope you find a good solution for this but LOL I have to admit for some reason this problem made me laugh this morning... I'm definitely overtired haha