Regarding the shooter. I had mine dialed in very nice to work 90+% auto plunge and 95%+ manual plunge. I then sold a pin and rearranged my room for a better 3-pin fit moving IMDN over about 6 inches. I then had shooter problems again and spent countless hours trying to get it re-adjusted to how it was but just couldn’t do it.

That said, weeks later, i ‘think’ I got it dialed back in finally *knocks on wood*. This thread helped a lot in solving the issue because like a lot of others have posted is I would make adjustments then manually kick a ball in the trough over and over and watch it work. Then, start a game and watch it fail over and over. Very frustrating.

In the end; i put the auto plunge power to 245 (down from 255 default) and I adjusted the shooter lane end to be in the furthest open position by loosening the screw that holds it in place and apply a good amount of pressure with my thumb while tightening the screw back in place. I’ll double check my pitch but last I checked it was roughly 7deg. I think another part of my issue is my games are on carpet so when I move a game it takes a couple weeks for the weight and game to settle in. Lucky for me, I’m moving in a couple weeks and get to experience this all over again as I re-dial it in on hardwood floors.

In either case, hope my tips help someone out there as it is a finicky pos shooter lol.

In short, TLDR: don’t test your auto plunge with the game not running. Adjust, test play game, adjust, test play game, etc... tedious but effective.

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.

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...

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

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

Try the 'foam fix' it's been working out great for me *knock on wood a million times*

When you manually test the switch, do it by hand, and slowly trigger it - do you hear a click from the switch? If so, your switch should be good. You can test the other spinner switch to hear the click. Next step would be check wiring to the switch; make sure none of the wires broke off.

I posted this in another IMDN thread. Thought I’d share here in case anyone else is successful doing it, this post can get indexed if so...

You guys can give my fix a shot. I did this probably about 7 mos ago, and besides one minor quirk (noted below), it has been flawless *knock on the biggest wooden boat ever*
I added (2) 1/4” e-clips to the inside of the right elbow of the auto plunger (see pic). This helps keep the prongs stay in place from the torque of the coil. A bigger size coil helps as it Speeds up coil reducing the chance of any movement with the prongs.
I had one anomaly issue with this fix. After about 3 mos of flawless play, I had to lift the playfield, when I put it back, my ball from the shooter plunger would hit the bottom tip of the upper right flipper. To fix, I just replaced it with a lightning flipper and has been perfect since (going on approx 4 mos.).
Give it a shot; I’d like to hear other people’s results from this or wonder if I’m just lucky or not. Last couple fixes I shared on this issue caused my game to go out of whack the next day, so hoping I don’t repeat history lol. But it’s been 99.9999% solid with the e-clip fix for a long time, even after cleaning the playfield. Good luck!

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Sounds like it was trooper multiball that was started? If so, it can be triggered from either the spinner switch at top or the right loop switch; and I think there might actually be 2 switches in that right loop so check both. Also make sure you have the most up to date code installed.

Make sure you’re on the most up to date code. This was an issue on early code. Also, there are certain modes or sequence of events where the trooper won’t lock. It’s quite rare, it seems to happen most often in FOTD or on a ongoing combo sequence, but it’s happened in other instances too. So I’m not sure if that’s the case for you, but it may just be a code issue if it’s rare.

This drove me nuts when it was broke on early code and I thought it was a switch when it wasn’t.