I fiddled alot with the bond audio and got it reasonable but not great with a diy replacement.

Sound engineer had his work cut out with the mix of old audio, new zinger sounds, effects, old and new music. Some of the sounds are way too shrill and have to be toned down and some balancing is needed. Most voices are clean but some are scratchy. Definitely needed more bass but careful with pop bumper sounds as they drown out everything. I’m sure Dan can help, as he knows his products.

I was surprised by the photo too. Mine stock is not that well lit. Either it’s been modified or just happened to be a good photo caught at the exact peak of the lighting, or it was the angle.

I bought it second hand. It may have been modified. I can see the diver when it goes off. I do play with the lights on too

About how far did you guys turn dosn the upper left flipper power?

This may have already been addressed but for anyone interested these 1/43 scale Little Nellie and Dragon Tank replicas are available prime on Amazon for $25 and $20. I used motherboard risers to mount the Little Nellie model and used one female-female riser in place of the lock nut that was originally there.

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Did they come out as expected?

Looks good to me.

I wonder if it would be too much draw to pigtail a light to the existing light to really brighten it.

I get nervous adding more lights because they really metered it down to give exactly the draw needed. I’ve heard horror stories of people adding additional lights off the GI and blowing the node boards.

The jetpack loop isn't registering. I went through the switch test and it seems like the back ramp opto (#77 on page 17 in the manual) isn't working. I believe the part numbers are: (8 520-8116-00 PCB, IR OPTO RECEIVER, ANTI-ROTATION 19 523-0033-00 FISCHE PAPER, MINI OPTOS 2). Bond is my first modern machine (I have two older SS machines)... so, this is my first with opto switches.

How do I go about diagnosing the problem? I suppose it could be any of the following: 1.) Emitter bad. 2.) No power to emitter. 3.) receiver bad 4.) Bad alignment. 5.) Dirt or something else on emitter or receiver.

I did unscrew and re-install both the emitter and receiver and there was nothing obviously wrong. I don't know whether these particular optos have the red led indicating an unbroken beam like the larger optos on the game

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Did you unplug and replug from the node board?

Is there another pair you can scavenge off and swap in?

heres some pics from under my PF of the scuba scene. brights up pretty good. folks had asked for this yesterday sorry Im just getting to it

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Awesome!!! So you have 2 flashers whereas pro owners only have 1. Easy to fix, thanks!!!

I haven’t turned down my flipper power yet. Once I do I’ll get back to you with my setting.

Thanks again!!

So I turned my upper left flipper power down to 200 and that seems to work well. It will vary from machine to machine I guess.

First thing to check is both Active Switch Test and Switch Test. Active Switch Test will tell you which switches are currently registering. For example, with no ball in play the Active Switch Test should show the trough optos registering (because there are balls breaking those opto beams in the trough), but the ramp optos should not be registering. if a ramp opto does show up in Active Switch Test, then view the emitter on your phone camera to see if the emitter is glowing. If it's glowing then the emitter is good and the problem could be the receiver. If the emitter is not glowing then that's likely your problem.

Last picture of added toys, I promise. I couldn't resist. It speaks for itself

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Where can I buy that 007 etched plastic?
Be cool of it glowed red or was color changing.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1167-gameroom-mods/08440-stern-bond-007-ramp-guards

Yeah they have all different colors. Looks great imo.

I've had a couple opto sets on my modern sterns get flaky on me. Both times I fixed it by reflowing the solder where the wires connect to the board. Might be worth a shot if your handy with a solder iron.

Makes sense. Thanks. I'll check this tonight. I'm guessing I would need an old phone to "see" IR?

I'm OK with a soldering iron. I'll definitely try this before ordering replacement parts.

Nope, should work on any current phone. Just point the camera at the emitter and it should show glowing on the phone screen. You can test it by looking at an opto that you know is working.

My understanding is that many newer phones don't show the emitter due to some filter better cameras have? I was told once that I needed to use the selfie camera to see it? That could be total BS though, lol.
I'm gonna go test the theory right now

Same with me! I had to reflow my rocket opto to get it to work.

Could be. But either way, testing it on an emitter known to be working will let you know if it works on your phone.

Well, I can see the martini/u-turn ramp optos with my iPhone but these are the "larger" sized optos. I can't see anything from the emitter on the bad switch in question.

Any idea what sort of voltage I should be able to measure across the emitter? I get about 4.2V for the emitters on the larger optos...

Just checked on mine and I see what you mean. Different style of opto at that spot. Not sure if it will help, but I took pics of the emitter and receiver on mine to show the red LED power indicator lights on them. Is there a red light on for each of your opto boards?
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Thanks, this is super helpful. No lights showing on mine. I did notice on the other larger optos the red led turns off when the beam is broken. I wasn't sure whether these smaller optos also had this feature. Seems like it could be a wiring/power issue. I'll have to figure out the node board (as suggested above) etc. when I get home tonight.

Just checked the lights on my opto boards. When I break the beam, the red light stays on for the one on the left (viewed from the playing position). I think that one is the emitter.

For the one on the right (viewing from the playing position, I think it's the receiver), that red light turns off when I break the beam.

So it could be that if the emitter is bad then the light on the emitter board would be out, and it would also then cause the red light on the receiver to be off even if the receiver is working correctly.

Tough to know though which board is the problem without having a way to test the receiver on an emitter you know is working. And searching the manual for that part number it of course looks like that's the only place in the machine where that emitter board is used on Bond. Maybe try jiggling wires and tracing the wiring on both boards to reseat the connectors to see if you can get the emitter red light to come on. Switch matrix says it plugs into Node 9 at CN13.

re-seated the connector at node 9 CN13 and what I think is the supply for the emitter behind the backboard... still nothing. Reflowed the solder... nothing. Bummer

Quick question, when you start Jetpack MB, is it always supposed to grab the ball, swing to the middle, then hold until you hit the center shot with the lit orange insert?

I thought I had read something previously about using the action button to drop it, as it moves left and right.

Also, sometimes my game just releases the ball without picking it up and carrying it.

Curious to know what the intended behaviour should be.

I think first jet pack MB it swings out and holds, 2nd it swings left to right and 3rd you control it

So the first one, it should hold the ball on the magnet, take it to the center position, and hold until you hit the orange shot?

Exactly

Second one you need to shoot the tank target when the ball is over the target on the top of the tank, that gives you an add a ball

My second ball just releases from the magnet at the beginning of the MB. Guess it's supposed to carry it to the middle.

Any suggestions on fixing this?

My magnet isn't grabbing any of the balls, so every Jetpack MB just starts with both balls.

Anyone know how to fix this issue?

Mine had the same problem. Try going into diagnostics mode for game and calibrate the jetpack. Do a successful calibration twice and then try the game. It worked to fix my issue.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1338-pino-pinball-mods-shop/by-game/3057-james-bond-007-pro

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You can check to see if magnet works by holding the ball up to it in coil test or hold it up to the magnet by starting jet pack MB.

If the magnet works. Check where the magnet / bolt behind bond on a wand rests in the home position. It should be right over the ball when post is up (when jet pack MB is initiated).

If magnet works you’ll need to adjust where the magnet rests in the home position so it is right above the ball. Pull playground out, grab a nut driver, find the bolt on the wand behind the back board, loosen, move bond some, tighten and test.

The magnet works occasionally, so I think it's the position, not the magnet.

I feel like the magnet is too high to make contact.

Can this bolt be loosed to bring it closer to the ball, or do I have to do some adjustments behind the backboard?

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Also, who thinks it would be a good idea for them to add a quick ball save after the ball is ejected from the scuba VUK?

A lot of my ejects hit the tank target, and right down the middle.

I'm thinking a super short save like they did in EHOH

Thoughts?

I'd be good with that.

So many times this has happened when I'm in Power Pack.

Make your required shot and get rewarded with a kickout to tank center drain. Oof.

I have played location Bonds that have the eject power turned WAY down. Where the ball just dribbles out to the left flipper cradle. Thought that felt weird though.

I think this little change could vastly improve the game. If Elvira didn't have the save for the VUK eject, it would have been a PITA to play. That little change can go a long way for a game.

One other thought I had was that either the mode timers should be shorter, or modes could be reduced by a couple of shots (or bombs do more).

I love a tough game, and I consider myself a half decent player, and I have only had one or two games where the movie inserts get lit.

People want to get deep into a game, play well and maybe get to sniff the final wizard mode, but when you have these super long mode times that pause after a few seconds, I highly doubt anyone outside of the very elite players will ever come close to beating this game.

Thoughts?

You can loosen the bolt some but don’t think that helped me. Here’s a photo of my bolt way behind where the ball rests when the post is up before I adjusted the wand. I loosened the nut, moved the wand forward so the bolt is right over the ball then tightened the bolt. The bolt you need to loosen to adjust the wand is behind the backboard.

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The top picture is exactly what mine looks like, so the magnet is behind the ball.

Is this the what you loosen to adjust the wand?

Also, could you share a pic of yours in the proper position after the adjustment so I have some reference.

Thanks!

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Yes this is the bolt you loosen to adjust the wand. I don’t have a photo on hand but will show later. Envision the post is up, ball is stopped and nut centered right above the ball.

Stern code team:
The treatment of the Spectre weapons could use improvement. For example, There are some oddities when spelling SPECTRE. Sometimes when it has been fully spelled out but you activate another mode, you lose letters when that mode is done. And you can get all the letters, then hit the sensors again and it starts a new SPECTRE letter set. Sometimes you can still activate the SW after a new set of letters begins, and sometimes it doesn’t activate an SW even though you already completed spelling it before. Maybe the ruleset spells this out but here’s my thought:
1. Any letters should carry over from ball to ball.
2. When someone spells SPECTRE, the screen should just show that an SW is available and not confuse the player by starting new letters even though they’ve already spelled it.

Yes, this would be a good idea. They always seem to happen at the most inopportune time.

However, my biggest problem is the ejection strength varies. I've turned it down some but it seems like as the game goes on, it's kicking the ball out differently.

This is becoming my all time favorite game.

And I have a lot of the all time greats.