Hi all,
I have a IM pro and change my factory speakers for the 502 jbl (like the premium/le).

Has someone the perfect settings for these speakers (some people put 4 ohms with these speakers but i find its not better) ?

Do you think its important to change the speaker in the cabinet under the playfield ?

Thanks a lot,

Yannick

Sorry, I don't have the part number, but I bet you can call them to get it. I placed and picked my order up in person.
I haven't replaced the switch...yet. I was able to make major adjustments to existing spoon and leaf switch after tightening everything in the assembly and it's been working since.

And NO! David Carver from Stern said he was sending me one on 9/14. I sent a follow up email last week and still haven't heard back. The whole thing is a big joke.

No, but I'm 1.02, so I'll try the update tonight. Thanks!

Gotta install a better amp. You're powering a Ferrari with a four cylinder engine.

Updated to 1.05, much, much better. Maybe not perfect, but sooo much better! Even beat my previous score in the second game, so I like it even more.

Thanks all!

I've requested one also.

I’m having an issue with my IMDN premium. The big side flipper works fine but after about 20 minutes of play it returns slower to the resting position. This gets progressively worse as I play. It won’t do it on startup. I checked the playfield and it doesn’t look like it is catching on anything. When I take the glass off I can hear the spring as it returns slowly to the rest position. Any thoughts on this?

Check for up/down play in the flipper shaft. It needs about 1mm for proper operation. The upper left flipper on mine was dragging because of there was no play at all, it was tight.

While you are at it, check the EOS switch on the flipper.

Rob

Today I got a multiball that I really didn't want. The post that holds the front newton ball dropped into the cabinet and my ball, along with the two balls in the newton assembly, came flying down There is a hole in the bottom of that newton ball that I was able to get the post pushed back into. I could then put it through the playfield and reattach from the bottom. It works now, but I'm afraid that it will come loose again. Is that post supposed to be removable? Do I need a new Newton ball? Thanks.

Does anyone have advice on disassembling the newton ball assembly? Specifically how does part #8 come off?

ggg (resized).jpg

I'm going to warn you all now!

There is a reason the netwon ball posts are not threadlocked from the factory. Doing so is going to introduce you to a world of hurt later if you need to disassemble the netwon ball assembly. Both the post (4) and spring retaining colllar (8) are threaded onto the newton ball shaft. I only put a little bit of blue threadlock on earlier today and wish I had not because it made taking part 8 off really difficult. I ended up putting vice grips on the collar below and wrapped fiberglass tape around the ball. I used the tape to pull the ball counter clockwise until the assembly came apart. The residual threadlock made it a real chore!

Rob

Yep
Had same problem
Wins Twerpy award for
Most poorly designed mech of 2018

It's really not that bad once you know how to properly adjust it. The single most important adjustment that affects how well the orb moves and centers, is the spring retaining collar (8). Screwing the collar on all the way isn't always ideal. For the lower orb on my game, it needed to be unscrewed just a very small amount so the centering plate (9) could do its job. Now once it's adjusted, it works perfectly. The switches still need a very close gap which takes some trial and error.

Rob

I am having the same issue with the ramp getting stuck open on my LE. Is there any fix you have found?

The sharp edge at the rear of your ramp is hanging up on the ball guide below. Put a little 3 in 1 oil on the ball guide where the ramp is rubbing. It will eventually dull and won't be a problem. I had to only oil it once a long time ago.

Hey, guess what mine started doing?

That's right. Launched balls started hitting the little flipper and sometimes on the left side of it. 95% of them still take the proper route, but up until 2 days ago 100% of the launched balls were taking the proper path. This can happen with both the auto-launched and manually launched balls.

I noticed a pretty significant hit on the end of the guide on the right side (launch path). I'm guessing that hit moved the guide enough where now the balls sometime take the non-preferred path. It's also possible that since the guide isn't perfectly smooth now, it's taking a slightly different path.

The other thing I noticed while working on this, is that the balls are pretty heavily marked up. Nothing deep, they just don't look new any longer, but if I compare them to my Deadpool, they look considerably more 'used' considering the games have had similar amount of play.

See https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/up-the-irons-the-iron-maiden-pinball-official-owners-club/page/29#post-4453139.

Mine were the same way. After covering the sharp metal edges below the ramp and installing new balls things are much better. I'll pull the balls and post a pic when I get a chance. Recommend that people take action on this if they are worried about potential long-term PF damage, esp. if the game is on-route, etc.

I wonder if the auto-plunger has the same effect? It is metal-on-metal unlike the manual plunger.

Thanks Fytr and @maide. I think I probably have a combination of both.

I need to learn how to take better pictures of the balls, this picture doesn't capture the difference. The ball on the left is from Dead Pool, a game with more plays. It looks more or less as it did when it went in. The ball on the right is from Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro). I high-lighted the marking that go around the whole ball. There's a ton more marks and dings, but I was trying to capture the bigger scratch. I think this is probably coming from the auto-launch as there's very few things that would go around the whole ball like that. The dings are probably coming from where Fytr mentioned.

20181017_000049071_iOS (resized).jpg

Once again, these pictures don't really capture the problem, but I have a lot of scratches already like the one here. The picture doesn't capture the full length of the scratch.

20181017_000358227_iOS (resized).jpg

And once again, difficult to capture with the camera, but you can see the path the ball takes up the shooter lane, and it goes out past the shooter lane, but it was impossible to capture with the camera.

20181017_000604973_iOS (resized).jpg

As I mentioned, the game started not launching the ball 100% (either manual or auto), my theory is that the guide is slowly being moved.

20181016_235332884_iOS (resized).jpg

Lastly, you can really see the ramp taking a pounding, but that one is probably more expected, but you can totally see the line where the ball meets the ramp.

20181016_235345124_iOS (resized).jpg

I don't understand why there's so much exposed metal edges on this game. It'll be fine one every place has been hit and it's pounded smooth, but I'll have to replace the balls once a month at this rate. Kinda sad for a game that's less than a month old to take this sort of pounding. My Deadpool (Pro) looks brand new still and has way more plays.

You worry way too much. Just play pinball and have fun and enjoy your games.

Sorry if this is answered in another thread.

Wondering if I can hook up an external subwoofer to my IM pro? Wanted a louder sound with a deeper bass. I have an unused Samsung wired sound bar sitting around and wondering if the sub could be used for this.

This is the first pin I've ever owned so excuse my ignorance.

As stated above, you're worrying too much. Restore a few older machines so that you can see games that had the same balls in them for 20 years and show wear that isn't bad at all. Many of these games are full of sharp metal too. Yes, you should change balls here and there and keep your games generally clean, but it's going to take 10+ years of horrid neglect before you see any sort of serious PF wear.

My game stopped playing consistently, when I started inspecting I found that the guide was hit. I figure the ball hit is what moved it, but then it made me wonder how the balls look. I then noticed the balls were pretty beat up and I have scratches all over the playfield after less than 3 weeks of ownership. I then wondered how my other game was, it is fine (with more plays none the less).

So, worried? No. Making sure there's not something causing excessive wear that I can prevent? Yup.

I had a Theatre of Magic, Earthshaker and Jokerz!. I did complete playfield replacement on Earthshaker because it was worn to the bare wood, so I know how bad it can be. I had the same balls in ToM that I put in shortly after I got it, and they looked nothing like these after 10+ years of use. I think I get it.

Admittedly, what I don't get is having a new game. Dimpling is a good example. My prior games were all pre-dimpled. This might be similar experience. Maybe this ball wear is similar to dimpling in the way that I just need more of it. All I know is this is the first set of balls that made me say "Holy crap." and made me take a closer look.

I find the new clear to be thicker and clearer, making new pfs far more vivid, like rain on a car. This makes every dimple and scratch stand out. My older machines all have dimpling and scratches everywhere, albeit they are more difficult to see because the pfs are old.

You do have a point about pre diamond-plated games like earthshaker, but i'd still say it was likely routed for most of its early life, completely neglected and played to shit. I'm currently fixing aToM for a friend and recently finished a CBL, both routed and neglected. Both games came with rusty, scratched balls and a thick layer of crusted dirt covering the inlanes. Both cleaned up great.

You would have a tough task on your hands to wear even half way through current clear with the worst balls in a home environment. Tumbling can help if you're really worried about it. I tumble all balls once per year if I get around to it as I don't see scratches on balls and playfields as alarming as some others do. All this said, maybe my IMDN LE will look like a turd in ten years and yours will look pristine.

As a new pin owner, this thread has been invaluable! I noticed that 2 of my flippers did not have vertical play, and felt slightly underpowered during gameplay (for example, on hard flipper setting, it was difficult for my right bottom flipper to hit the pharaoh target). Got that raised, and I had to turn them to normal power since it really increased the force. Thank you!

Here is my guide on adjusting the manual and autoplunger, which is really just a compilation of other posts that have been written on the subject. I'm a new pinsider, but...I did spend at least 6 hours trying to get 90%+ accuracy on both manual and auto, which I have now done,...so, I have at least some experience on the plunger. I'm also writing this post to act as a reference for myself in case I start losing accuracy in the future.

Step 1: You should make sure the prongs of the auto plunger are hitting both sides of the pinball. You can use needle nose pliers to bend them. Manually push the auto plunger forward to ensure that at full stroke, both sides are still being hit.

Step 2: Start with having the manual plunger hitting the pinball dead center.
When I did this...I first tried to keep the bottom two bolts in the same position instead of creating new holes. So, I cut some strips from a credit card and used them as shims on the outside of the plunger. Which...actually does totally work but later I found I wasn't the ideal way to adjust the manual plunger.
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So I went ahead and removed the two bottom bolts. The bolt on the left was stripped anyway, which..was obvious once I fully removed the plunger....from the factory the bolt was barely "eating" any of the wood.

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They don't really seem necessary anyway, especially in home use where the cab won't be as abused as out in the wild. The 3 other screws seem to keep the plunger in place plenty fine.

Step 3: Make sure the pinballs are not hitting the upper right flipper.
After I did step 1 and 2...I went to about 0% accuracy. I kept hitting the lower post/wall (below the upper left flipper). However, if I held the upper right flipper up, the balls would hit the upper left flipper. And, I noticed that the upper right flipper would "wobble" after each pinball would pass it. It was obviously being hit and then being redirected to the lower post on the opposite side of the PF.

First...I went ahead removed the right side plastics. Not that hard...maybe 6 screws/nuts. It makes the most sense to me, to have the screw holding the guide wall be all the way forward. That way, if balls hit the guide wall, you don't have to worry about the metal guide moving under the screw when you don't want it to. And for future adjustments, you won't have to take the plastics off.

20181019_134731 (resized).jpg

Its much easier/quicker to bend the end of the ball guide wall. I inserted a flat head screw driver between the post and guide wall and used a tiny bit of leverage to push the guide wall metal away from the post. Super easy to make adjustments later...I can either use my fingers to push the wall back towards the post, or use the screw driver to push it away. No removing plastics.

20181019_173725 (resized).jpg

Edit: Some users also found that adding a washer under the guide wall attachment tab seemed to help. Basically, the screw can possibly torque the guide wall enough where its not perpendicular with the playfield. If you are noticing that your guide wall is not perpendicular with the playfield, add a washer under the attachment tab at this time.

2018-11-08_1718 (resized).png

Step 4: You need both the auto and manual plungers to send the balls on the same path.

Here is where it starts getting fun. You can't just start bending the guide wall to hope everything works. That's step 5. In my case...the manual plunger was hitting the bottom post, and the auto was hitting the top left flipper. Since bending the guide wall affects both equally, moving the guide wall away from the post would make the auto plunger work, but would make the manual even worse and vice versa.

Fortunately there are adjusters for both the auto and manual plungers.

Now...counter-intuitively (at least for me), increasing power makes the ball path move towards the bottom post and decreasing moves it towards the top left flipper. I would assume...that decreasing power would make it move "downward" due to gravity...but...such is not the case.

Auto plunger, after fixing the prongs in step 1 which would increase power (ball path moving downwards), you have:

Increase power: You could set your coil strength higher (like to hard). I would avoid this if at all possible because that also affects everything else (like flipper strength, popbumpers, slings, etc).

Decrease power: Easy....you just turn down the auto plunger strength setting (for example, moving it to 225 instead of 255). You can't decrease it too much because once you get past a certain point in power, a decrease in power really does move the ball in a downward path due to gravity (or not making it around the loop).

Manual plunger
Increase power: Setting the manual plunger to hit dead center on the pinball. If it already is...then you would have to switch the spring to a stronger colored spring.

Decrease power: Easy....move the auto plunger so its not quite centered. I would recommend that you keep the left/right alignment and move the plunger vertically to decrease power (if the plunger hits off centered horizontally it might slightly move the ball out of the ball guide in the lane). Its also possible maybe you could add a small washer to the plunger so it doesn't hit the ball quite as hard.

In my example....my manual ball path was lower than the auto (manual hitting post and auto hitting top flipper). So, I left the auto alone and decreased power to my manual. It was enough to get them close to the same path.

Step 5: Move the guide wall
Once both plungers have the same ball path, the easy part is then moving the guide wall so the path doesn't hit either the top left flipper or the bottom post. I would recommend trying to get the path closer to the bottom post. That way, for the manual if you don't plunge at full strength (like going for skill shot), the ball path will move upward so you want to leave some "space" so it doesn't hit the flipper. And for the auto...I would assume during the game after its used frequently (IMDN does have a lot of auto balls, revives, etc), the spring will warm up and thus lose power as well.
Now, if your ball path can't be quite exactly the same between manual/auto...hopefully they are close enough that you can still be within "tolerance" where you can move the guide wall so both paths don't hit corresponding obstacles (post/flipper).

Step 6: Add spacer to the guide wall (still under research)
I noticed that after adjustment, it doesn't take much for the alignment to get off again. I check the guide wall, and I see that its already pushed back enough to cause misalignment. With the guide wall (step 5), you are doing micro adjustments, so I can definitely understand how it quickly misaligns...the pinballs are acting like small hammer strikes every time they hit it.

So, currently I'm trying to find the best solution to the problem, which at the moment is inserting a small rubber spacer.

20181021_134754 (resized).jpg

I took a rubber cabinet door stopper, which was initially too big, and slowly sanded it down. It only took about 10 minutes of trial and error. I would push the wall back towards the post, insert the spacer, and test. If it was too big still (i.e., hitting the left post), I would take it out, sand it down, push the wall back in, insert spacer and retest. I did it slowly because if you sand it too much, you have to start over from the beginning. You can take away material, but you can't put it back! I'll edit this step if I find a better/easier to adjust spacer.

Step 7: Maintenance
Now, what about leveling the PF, or adjusting the pitch, or excessive nudging and now accuracy drops? Hopefully the auto/manual ball paths are still roughly the same, so you would just need to do step 5 again. If they aren't...have fun going through the steps again! I would assume that its mainly going to be step 5 maintenance...especially since after balls keep hitting the guide wall it could change the shape.

Final Notes:
To me, if you can only get 1 plunger to work correctly, I would do the auto-plunger. On a game, you are ever only doing the manual plunger 3 times, but the auto plunger gets used much more than that (well, as long as you don't have an awful game). And...its easier to do adjustments on the manual plunger "on the fly". I.e., if you are hitting the left post, then just don't do full power plunges. Hitting flipper? Try to only do full power plunges (or hold the left flipper up).

Anyway...hope you enjoy the guide and let me know if I should edit/add anything!

I am so glad that my auto plunger was much easier to adjust than the various steps laid out here. I "just" adjusted the guide wall and was done. Apparently, everything else was okay. I wonder, though, is there anyone who has purchased an IMDN who has NEVER had to do any type of adjustment to the manual or auto plunger? I think this is a common maintenance item, though one I am glad to do as I love the game.

My 2nd IMDN PRO I got, just recently, worked flawlessly for about a week. Then, out of nowhere the auto plunge started acting up (manual plunge has and always has been fine). From memory, my first IMDN PRO was the same way, flawless for the first week. It's as if the the auto plunge mech just starts getting loose and worn out. Every other IMDN ive played on location and/or seen in videos always seems to have an issue with the auto plunge so in that respect, it's a relief that it's not just mine.

That said, I did the needle nose pliers thing and bent the prongs and re-aligned them on the ball. That works great for about another 10 games or so then goes out of whack again. Rinse + Repeat.

I may have finally found a fix but I am not going to post about it, nor jinx it quite yet (too late? ), as I just did it today so want to give it a few days and see if it's the same 'ol, same 'ol, where it works for days then puts itself out of alignment again. I'll post back next week if it's still working 95+%.

Under the pf at that pop bumper is a leaf switch. You’ll have to slightly gap the two prongs away from themselves so they aren’t so sensitive. Pop bumper switches can be tricky. This is the best tool you can ever own as a pinball hobbyist:

https://www.pinballlife.com/ultimate-leaf-adjuster-tool.html

You want to make very subtle adjustments when it comes to adjusting leaf switches.

Ok...I edited my plunger guide. (look at step 6 a few posts back). Basically, I added a small spacer so balls wouldn't push back the guide wall when they hit it.

20181021_134754 (resized).jpg

Can anybody think of a better spacer idea that hopefully can be easily adjusted? Maybe a variety of different sized O-rings from home depot? That wouldn't require sanding, though would require buying a bunch of O-rings, plus you would have to figure out how to make sure it stays there....but maybe.

Actually...if you could have a o-ring that had the interior diameter of the post, you could slip it over the post sleeve and then hopefully you can get different thickness O-rings depending on your needs, though it would need to clear the rail behind the upper right flipper too....

I don't know...what do you all think?

Ok, my uppermost target is doing this ->

I can temporarily fix it. The problem is that the end of the coil spring for that target is getting stuck in the washer. I.e., the washer has some play to it with his inner hole, and the end of the spring is making its way in that hole and essentially getting jammed.

You can see it in the picture...the end of the spring is jammed on the left washer.

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I can take some tweezers and unjam it though and make it look correct ->

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It will happen again though eventually....any ideas for a permanent solution?

I would try replacing that washer since it looks like the inner diameter may be slightly too large. You can probably swap it with another washer that is at the lower end of the target where no spring is.

Rob

OK...I took apart the drop target mechanism, and both washers were exactly the same size interior diameter. So, I did what I thought best....just bend the spring a bit at the end ->

20181021_190555 (resized).jpg

So now it overhangs the washer and hopefully shouldn't get caught anymore.

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I guess this is just the state of pinball, huh? Where most NIB pins require various fixes and adjustments...and since I'm a newbie, I sure am getting a baptism by fire!

OK...I'm also getting this problem. Yesterday I adjusted the bottom right and top right flippers because they had no vertical play, which improved their power. However, now the top right flipper is really squeaky. I believe its coming from in the diode...

For info purposes....when I adjusted the flippers I loosened the allen screw, moved the flipper vertically up, then retightened. I didn't use a credit card to gauge distant...I just moved it a bit so it felt about the same as the left 2 flippers with their vertical play...

Here is the sound ->

Also saw this today...when I lowered the PF right after I made the video about the squeaky flipper, I got this when I turned it on ->

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I went around and checked all of the connections, which some were a tiny bit loose but nothing major. Still couldn't find the node board. Looked at the manual and then double checked that particular node board's connections....seemed fine, but I still wiggled a bit. Turned it on and it worked so if it happens again I'll contact stern.

Am I missing something here?

To lower the power of a manual plunge, simply don't pull the plunger back so far. There should be no need for any other adjustment.

The only important adjustment is to ensure that the plunger tip hits the centre of the ball consistently.

No, you are absolutely right. Which is why I mentioned it in the final notes:

The problem with that mentality is....how about all the users that don't know they have to do that? Like, when its routed? Or...even at your own home, are you going to tell every person that comes and play that they shouldn't do full power plunges? I think you should still aim for allowing users to do full plunges and have them work.

Mine was perfect for about the first two weeks, then it started acting up (this is when I noticed the balls taking on more than average damage), but then as Who-Dey suggested, I just enjoyed my game, right up until the auto-plunge starting hitting low about 90% of the time this weekend (manual was still 100%).

My theory was that nothing else really must have changed as the manual is hitting 100%, the problem has to be in the auto-plunge mech.

Taking a slo-mo video of my auto-plunger captured what I think the root cause is. The auto-plunger actually bends back and to the left as it hits the ball. My thinking is this is because it's made out of somewhat flimsy metal to begin with, but then made worse because it only has the one arm on the right side where all the torque gets applied (and slowly bent back and to the left by the weight of the ball over time). This leads to the large plastic bushing getting enlarged over time, and then this causes even more play in the assembly (this may ultimately be causing the demise, it could explain the similar timing in everyone's experiences). This causes my ball to go left, bounce off the left side, hit someplace in the middle of the right side and then hit on the low side of the loop. This could also explain why most people have to close the left prong, or open the right (the launcher is now torqued counter-clockwise).

This plunger design is not a problem in Deadpool or Guardians etc, in fact it probably adds to the randomness of where the ball eventually comes down. It is however a huge issue with this game since the ball needs to accurately go the same way every time.

Yes, I know I could adjust the right side ball rail, but for now I'm going to remain stubborn and see if I can't resolve this with the auto-plunger assembly alone. Maybe someone could confirm my findings and we could design (or even better, inspire Stern to design) a launcher that has two arms, or something as to have less slop over time. Adjustments to the launcher would be awesome.

Given that Stern's fix to Game of Thrones problem that BROKE THE GAMEPLAY was to disable the feature of the game that required it in the menus in an update then say it worked "as designed" I doubt they're making a new launcher for Iron Maiden.

Stern reengineer a cheap part? Pure comedy. Vote with your wallet. IMDN is my last Stern, no matter what theme/design comes in the future. IMDNLE was the same price as DILE, and I'd argue DI has 30% more value and plays just as good if not better. Plus it has replaceable transistors. Wait till your IMDN breaks. When the node boards start failing, peeps gonna be pissed.

Spike node boards have transistors you can replace. The other stuff? Not so much. But it DOES have transistors.

Ah, good point. I don't know the node system too well yet. Hoping that I never have to learn it!

What are you guys doing for balls flying off the right ramp?

Instead of the ball remaining on my wire form where it pitches down, it flies into the shooter lane or over the lanes into the apron.

6.5 pitch, wax, nothing else stupid or setup wrong.

I have an occasional airball, but I haven't had any balls fly off my right ramp.

snaroff

Yes, but I thought because of not being fused they are taking out additional surface mounted components when they go

We don't have that problem with the Pro here. Maybe your wireform is tweaked a little to encourage the ball to leave it? Maybe use slo-mo mode on a iphone to record exactly where it's having the problem and bend the wire up a little there?

Always possible, but the transistors can be replaced. It would be nice if Stern actually released the schematics they promised were coming like a year ago. They definitely HAVE them. I really doubt any competitor is jonesing to copy crappy Spike.