Yah, so, no idea what to do about the right ramp airball:

Slo-mo's great, but can you do that at 1080p? 240p is a little rough. Also, get closer so only the middle to the bottom of the ramp (just before where it's leaving the ramp) is the main part of the video.

It looks like two of the wires are too close together (bent) and the ball's going off because of that, but at 240p it's impossible to know for sure.

Now that I’ve watched it a few times, you can see where the Ball appears to hit the left (from our persoective) side of the rail and then it’s thrown right and out.

I’ll take a good look there tomorrow.

To me, it looks like the outside corner on your wire form is low. Video isn’t clear though. I’d be looking to raise it or devise a way to slow the ball down prior to the corner. I slowed ball travel on my DILE ramp return to fix a similar issue.

Seems like the ball is traveling on the side track vs. center track of the wire form. Maybe the wire form isn’t seated in the ramp fully/properly.

The way I understand it, this is not the case. Let’s say you have a short in one of the light sockets. The node associated with it just shuts off until you clear it.

No matter what, I can’t get YouTube to process this in 1080, here is a link for download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnl9wzqklonrhkr/IMG_0168.TRIM.MOV?dl=0

It looks like the problem starts as it hits the first bend on the rail. Since it's taller there, Stern knew this could happen. The problem is, instead of settling back down onto the floor, the momentum from riding up the rail seems to make it ride high on the opposite side and the ball is ejected at the second bend.

The ball going up the rail at the first bend might not be an issue, Stern appears to have planned for this, but the balls inability to settle back down is what leads to it being ejected at the second bend.

If I had to guess, I'd say my ramp probably wasn't constructed 100%, all I can really do is bend what I can, but a new ramp from Stern is probably in order.

There’s Mylar back there. It’s getting chewed up. I would replace it or remove it.

Yeah, I slowed it down much more and it goes wide at that first turn, but then it looks like the wire is bent out slightly where I put the second arrow, which allows it to go off the rails. You can try bending them, but the spot welds on these Stern ramps are really crappy and the supports might just snap off in the process.

IM-ball (resized).jpg

The problem is the ball guide at the first corner. If you watch closely, that is where the ball goes off the track the first time. This creates a back and forth motion, causing the ball to have the perfect momentum and timing at the final corner to fly off.

Two easy fixes:
1. Raise your machine at the back to slow the ball travel up the ramp. Makes the game better anyway.
2. Slow the ball travel by putting something on the track.

One hard fix:
1. Use two pairs of vice grips with shop toweis to prevent scratching. Bend the wireform at the first corner to keep the ball on the center track.

I used sticker foam on my DILE to prevent jumps. 2mins to fix, no bending and works like a charm.
IMG_20181026_124445 (resized).jpg
Here is where I would do the same, if I were you:IMG_20181026_124532 (resized).jpg

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm going to try some of that stuff, David at Stern is sending me a new wireform. Maybe I can cut down on the airballs until that comes. Excellent game with excellent support.

My playfield has horizontal play in the rear of the game. It seems to lean too much towards the right. When this happens, the upper right flipper thumbs against the cabinet, and it also throws the auto fire path off. Simply shifting the back of the playfield to the left fixes the problem, however, in time, it seems to shift back to the right. The cabinet is level at the bottom of the playfield, on the playfield and with the glass on, so the game is level.

Is there a proper way of making an adjustment so that when lowering the playfield, it is centered in the rear? If you look at the pictures (easier to see if you look at the backboard plastic), there is more space in the back left than the back right. This is the issue.

IMG_2346 (resized).JPG

IMG_2347 (resized).JPG

So I just joined the club on Monday. Great machine! The only trouble I’m really having with it now is that in about 1 out of every 3 games (i.e. frequently), the game will just lose track of the ball when it goes into the sarcophagus (that’s the left ramp when the diverter is up, right?). Ball search does NOT find it, and then eventually the ball pops up out of nowhere and rolls into the sarcophagus lock behind the captive ball. I haven’t quite worked it out where it’s coming from. Maybe this has been discussed and I didn’t catch all the terminology, but what’s going on here?

It's likely getting stuck on the little u-turn behind the backboard. Might need to loosen the screws and make it a smidge steeper so there's a little more gravity to help it out.

Thanks - I will check my pitch too; maybe it’s not set steep enough. Couldnt hurt, haha.

Thanks BTW for the suggestions re: speakers and amp. I am absolutely doing that, especially when i replace one or two of the songs via Pinball Browser. I want to get a couple newer songs in there (Wicker man, speed of light). My son told me he doesn’t like 2 Minutes to Midnight, so Speed of Light, which is his favorite song, goes in there!

But 2 Minutes to Midnight is a mode. I don't think the visuals will fit at all with Speed of Light.

The only thing that's weird about using the external amp is when you shut the machine off, it almost makes a wheezing sound since the amp is always powered and you hear the line out lose signal. Not bad, just strange the first time.

Oh, I know; i wouldn’t leave it permanently. I can swap out the SDcards to change it back. Hey if it gets him to play a little more, I’m all for it! I am curious if maybe I can change some of the visuals as well. The Speed of Light video looks a lot like the Legacy of the Beast game so it may just work

Why not run the amp off the post-switch power?

Lazy. The service plug's right there.

Ahh, good answer. Playing more pinball is probably better

After maybe 150 games, the auto launch on my Premium began missing %100 of the shots, always hitting the post below the upper left flipper. I decided to not touch the launch mechanism because it seemed to have decent alignment. The manual plunger alignment needed adjusting though, about 1/16 inch left. I also slightly tweaked the launch guide. So far so good, but there doesn't seem to be much room for error in the adjustments. At least it's making the loop from manual and auto plunges.

On a side note, please don't lube the netwon ball assemblies because it's not necessary. If the newtwon ball is sticking, the spring retainer needs to probably be unscrewed a little. Mine are working perfect after adjustment, no sticking and no lubrication needed.

Rob

Had the exact same problem, but on my Pro, I have a post above about it, but until this weekend I never solved the problem. My theory was that it had to be in the auto-plunge mech since my manual plunger was working. After several hours of messing with the auto-plunge mech all I did was make it so neither worked.

On mine the problem was the screw at the end of the guide (by the upper-right flipper, under the plastics). The screw was pulling the end of the ball guide down from where the guide naturally wanted to be, so the guide was being torqued in a way that caused the ball to go more left. I noticed this when I was removing the screw to try to adjust the guide (there's a slot for adjustment, but mine was as far right as it go already and still hitting the post). As I removed the screw I could see the guide come up and straighten out. I wound up putting a washer in between the playfield and adjustment tab on the ball guide. This kept the ball guide from being torqued while being tightened down. Back to 100%, no bending, no nothing. Launched balls working like a champ again (both kinds). My theory is that over time, the guide settled into the wood an slowly became torqued. Not sure, time will tell.

I've seen lots of theories and solutions for this problem, I actually feel like my solution might be the one as it makes a lot of sense and it doesn't require fine adjustments or bending that some of the other solutions seem to require. It doesn't require a ton of precision from either the auto or manual launchers, which makes me feel better as well.

Any chance you can post a pic? Im not 100% following but I definitely need to make this change.

TLDR: I’m using the foam fix - drop dead ball foam magic for the win. The stuff is like magic for pinball.

The problem with my plunger and shooter lane, and it was the same for my 1st IMDN as well as the ones I’ve played on location and at shows, is that the manual plunger works fine - 100%. It’s the auto plunger that gets ‘iffy’ from time to time.

I tried the needlenose torque the auto plunge prongs idea and that seems to work well for about a day then it goes to whack again. All the while the manual plunge remains in tact.

So to me, i didn’t feel that the shooter lane needed adjusting. I spent many countless hours on my 1st IMDN tweaking the shooter lane, sometimes it would help the auto plunge and mess up the manual and vice versa. But a common theme was that after many many plays the auto plunge would always go back to inconsistent behavior and this shows from location games and streams across the board.

On my new (2nd) IMDN the auto plunge worked flawlessly for about a week or more then started going to whack. I believe the problem is with the mech and how loose it gets over time giving the plunge more side to side movement over time.

That all said; my fix (for now) is 2 pieces of drop dead ball foam on the inside part of the prongs of the auto plunger. This has been the best result I’ve had yet with this issue. The auto plunge mech has right to left movement so each time it fires its inconsistent. The foam acts as a shock absorber if you will, and helps keep the ball secure and in place during the full plunge of the mech giving me roughly 98% accuracy....at least for now. Ive had this working for about 1-2 weeks and has been great but did hhave to make one adjustment to it last night so will report back in another week or 2 if it’s still doing the trick.

One thing I did have to do is change my manual plunge spring to red; the foam would put the ball about a 1/2 millimeter further away from the manual plunge that I needed a stronger spring to get a better plunge to the supper skill shot. Though without changing the spring, a full 100% plunge would still sometimes make it.

I don’t know why, but if the auto plunge isn’t working during multiballs, it completely ruins the game for me (OCD?). So I am happy with the foam fix. I do have a replacement auto prong and an idea to keep it more secure with no side to side movement that I may try if the foam fails me.

More to come...

It wrecks the trooper multiball start and that's not OCD, the game is not working as designed. And the unfortunate problem is that it doesn't take much of a mechanical divergence for ball launches to start missing. Ball launches on some games is just tricky business it seems. The auto launcher on TZ is another one that can be finicky.

I will maybe look at shimming the launcher to remove play. For now it seems to be working again.

Rob

Or give the foam fix a shot and see if you have as positive consistent results as I have.

I'll try to make a guide for this as it's a quick easy fix. My fix has resulted in it working 100% with the slop in the auto mech that's naturally there.

The reason that the slightest mechanical divergence causes a problem is that ball guide is no longer perpendicular to the playfield. By putting a washer under the adjustment part of the rail keeps the rail perpendicular with the playfield. The goal is to keep the rail perpendicular with the playfield, in my case it required a washer at the end.

Nice I may give this a shot too if my bandaid foam fix doesn’t hold up

On a side note, you need to keep up on cleaning and waxing the PF. If mine gets dirty at all, the misses start happening. After I clean and wax, she's back to 100%.

Piss-poor design by Stern, but not a surprise.

Tell that to Game of Thrones owners. Stern's official answer for the factory design problem that ruins Martell mode is it's "as designed."

My fix to making the loop consistently

Like many, perhaps all users, my pin was able to make the loop 100% out of the box with both the auto-launch and the manual. Then mysteriously over time (about 4 weeks) the auto-launch would miss 1/20,1/10 and eventually 19/20, but for whatever reason manual would still work. It was consistently hitting the post right below the loop (low). I was sure the auto-launch mech was to blame and I focused on that. I eventually made it so both the auto-launch and the manual would hit low (but I never touched the manual launch). but as it turns out the auto-launch wasn't the problem.

I saw other guides that mentioned bending the right-side guide rail to solve this problem, but I really didn't want to do that (I didn't like the idea of bending something that didn't seem like it needed bending). Plus, it seemed like this solution was susceptible to wax, cleanings, or even strange looks. Regardless, after exhausting all possible adjustments to the manual/auto-launch mech, I started down the bending the guide path. What I noticed was that as I removed the end screw the guide, the end lifted up and became more vertical (closer to perpendicular to the playfield). I tried a shot with the rail in this position, made the loop instantly. Tried a few more. Perfect, just like day 1. I found a washer that was the size of the gap and tightened it down. It hasn't missed a shot yet. The guide is not 100% perpendicular, but it is the natural position the rail wants to be in as opposed to being torqued down.

Simulated view looking at the far end of the right-side rail.
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This might require re-adjustment too over time, it's too early to tell. Good luck, and let me know if this works for anyone else!

I think this is BS. A NIB game like this should not need these kinds of adjustements. Fix the fuckin problem Stern! I wanted to buy this game and was going to sell one of mine to get it. Thinking about it now, I’m out. I’d have to sell a perfectly good working game, add more cash to the deal, and once I finally get it, I have to constantly fix or mess with the manual/auto plungers to play the game correctly. For $5600 you can kiss my ass Stern! I’d rather keep what I have.

Said every NIB buyer ever

Same shit is going on with a lot of MET machines too. The first thing of getting a pinball in play and Stern is having issues with the plunger and auto launch mech. Hum, leading pinball manufacturer and they can’t fix a ball plunging issue. I really like Stern, it’s all the games I own, but this shit has to stop. I’m not gonna support a company that can’t fix their own frickin product.

I sunk 5+ hours into figuring out this problem and it's way too early to determine if it's permanent. That said, if this is the only problem I have and it stays this way, I'll chalk it up to needing to 'settle in' and I'll be happy. This game is one of the more enjoyable games I've played or owned, so I'm not giving up on it yet.

I've monkey'd with mine and tried most of the fixes. Some helped, some didn't. Now all of a sudden it is auto launching at about 90% or better. Hope whatever bent into the right shape stays that way.

They just needed to make adjusting it easier. I may put a notch in the plastic so that I can access the adjustment nut on the fly. A higher post screw would be better as well. Many machines have this feature, and Stern should have planned for this issue.

I read this thread in its entirety before I bought a premium from JJ. I had some very minor issues like switch adjustments and my launches don’t make the loop. Also, stern is sending me a new right wire form cause the original was made a bit out of spec.

I haven’t owned this game long, but I purposely waited 6 months before buying it, just buy it. Maybe the launch gets figured out, maybe it doesn’t, but if not, this game still does 98 things right out of 100.

I’d love for the launch to get fixed, maybe the washer fix will prove to be a fix, but it’s just a launch. This game is too good to pass over that.

I had this problem with mine as well......a new wire form fixed it up!
While waiting for the wireform I did bend it a little in a few places which made it a little better

Mine will be here Thursday, still very playable, maybe 2 out of 10 jump the ramp and half of those end up in the shooter lane.

What is the post-switch power? Thanks for the help.

So, I have this exact same issue. Did you ever find a good solution? Thanks! -- Craig

Power that's regulated by the switch action, so when you turn the power switch off, it loses power, too, as opposed to the service outlet that runs whether the power is on or off as long as the machine is plugged in.

Nope, not yet. It’s obviously something with a switch not being triggered but it hasn’t happened enough recently for me to cstch what’s going on.

The auto-fire issue is actually more of a big deal, since it wrecks the Trooper multiball set up

What do you all think of this? I can rest a ball on the screw, so it definitely hits the ball every time I make the right ramp, possibly nicking, but also probably slowing the ball as well. Should I try and just bend the wire guide? I would have to bend it a bit to try and clear that screw....

Do any of your maidens have the screw protruding into the path of the ball?

20181031_202626 (resized).jpg

No way is that right.

Check end of ramp - do you have the black spacer that raises the ramp?

IMG_4310 (resized).jpg

That wireform looks trashed !

get a new one

Is there also suppose to be a spacer at the end of the left wireform?

I have an issue with balls jumping of the ramp and wondering if this could be the problem.