But it’s...pi... nvm. =P

Oh and on a side note any tips on hitting the devels triangle. Im getting fairly decent at most of the other main shots but cannot hit devils triangle for the life of me.

Tuna_Delight At least you can play your game.

I’ll go away now...

Absolutely Not rubbing it in but yes POTC CE was a no brainer as it was in my opinion loaded with enough value added to justify the guilty pleasure. Sadly, WW CE not so much. An acrylic topper sign, added gold dust in the playfield, and shiny cabinet art was just not in the 3K value to me. The LE and CE are virtually the Same game so I found it hard to stay on board. Plus I think the art on the LE was actually better granted on Both games I am puzzled why they went sparkle red and blue and not purple which is the art color?? They did purple on DI and that was a blue game???

I agree. I would not spend $12.5 on WW CE. Nope!

I really can’t believe it’s priced that high. $11.5 would seem a lot more fair albeit a thousand less for what you are getting with the package.

Okay... let's try this.

Would someone/anyone be as kind to snap a pic of their BP left and right flippers while pressed in?
I'm just trying to determine what it "should look" like as now I'm learning there's really no such thing as flipper pitch...and MAYBE the left is actually higher than it should be. Maybe neither of them are where they should be? Idk...

Okay fair enough..

Here's where I'm just a bit puzzled ... or maybe I'm not.

Are you guys trying to tell me that based on the tightness of this nut, that essentially determines or dictates how high or not the flipper will flip?

If it makes anyone else feel better outside of myself, my other 3 flippers...like the standard ones, seem "perfect."

I'm getting tired of talking about flippers... =P

If/When JJP re-release a new CE-tier of this game, I think there will be a lot of happy new owners in this thread, with me as one of them.

Or maybe a foolish soul will sell me their CE before then. Either or.

Really don't understand the issue your having setting your flippers? Slightly loosen the one nut on both the pawl clamps to make them Barely adjustable. Lift both flippers at the same time with your fingers and see if the tips look parallel to each other. If you're not sure put a straight edge across them. If one is low slowly rotate it till it's even. Slowly lower them back down to see if they are resting against the stop on the BP. If not then you adjusted them both to High. Set them then simply tighten the pawl nuts firmly and Play The Game!

Possibly the best response I have seen yet.

Thank you.

I'm working on this...

As I did not mention it, do make sure there is a very Slight up and down (pull up and down) gap on the flippers so they do not bind on the flipper guide. Just a Little click up and down Not a lot. Good luck.

Yea.

I'm not sure if you saw my other post, but my left BP flipper isn't responsive at all. I checked the molex cables underneath for the Black Pearl and all seem fine. I'm probably definitely going to try and just take out the pings on the back and see if I get enough room to investigate further.

Otherwise looks like I'll be cutting zip ties and everything else to get the BP out.

Page c-12 of the manual has a couple views of what the flipper assembly looks like. Adjusting it just means making sure they are even and tight enough not to become loose. 2g is the nut that releases flipper from assembly. Loosen it enough to where you can move it but not easily. Get them adjusted how you want then tighten the nut back. have to remember there is a bit of force when flipping so make sure it is pretty tight. Monitor it over a few games and if you see your flippers changing positions that nut wasnt tight enough. After you tighten a little bit of play up and down is needed. They make a spacer for this but most people use a credit card to space it. The return spring is #6 on the chart

Or, it might not be responsive because the flipper is Dragging on the flipper guide as I noted. A flipper is actually a rather simple mechanism. If its moving odds are its simply binding. Adjust it and try not to over think or investigate. That often leads to more issues.

Yea.. I'm working on testing out the right flipper now with the manual adjustments and tightening.

As a side, I'm struggling with the plunger slamming into the auto-plunge. I fixed it once and it seemed good for awhile and the issue is back. Also, my bubble meter isn't at the second line so I downloaded the Pinguy app as a curiosity of where it was and it's actually 7.0 degrees. It's also not entirely level left to right. Pretty handy...

I'll have to look through the various posts on plunging. I can try to fix it again by simply moving the plate around and see what happens. The shimming with foam or something seems like an easy enough fix though.

Probably makes sense to level it out first and get that ideal 6.5 before trying to play with the plunger more.

... These are basically the two issues that I have atm. Otherwise, I do believe the game is in pretty great shape.

So the left flipper used to work and now it doesn't at all? If you pull out the white switch inside the left side of the coin door frame and go into diagnostics, can you trigger the left upper flipper coil there? If so, have you checked the left flipper switch in the cabinet to see if it's the switch that's the problem?

OH... I was going to add.

My regular right flipper seems great. The left is actually a bit loose in comparison despite being in alignment so just thought I would share.

Just raise the playfield hooks a tiny bit and put the tip of a screw under the right hook and let it rest on that. It will raise the PF enough temporarily that the plunger will work fine. You can return to that problem after you get the flipper issue worked out.

plunger-temp-fix (resized).jpg

That's right... I'm still amiss as to what happened..

You kinda lost me at "if you pull out the white switch." What white switch? So I loosened the flipper assembly too much and it's not intact now. I shared a photo several posts ago. Hopefully it's easy enough to put back in ideally without putting the BP on it's side or w/e, but idk ...

If you haven't put that linkage back yet, the flipper has no chance of working. That's the part that grabs the flipper and makes it move. I would loosen the ramp (3 screws, 2 in front, and one in back on the right) to get it out of the way and then take the Black Pearl loose so you can work on it a little better without having to take the whole thing off.

The part highlighted in green is what dropped out of yours, right?

BP_flipper_assy (resized).jpg

Speaking of plunger issues, and I have not investigated yet, but with the ball to be plunged it does not reach tip of plunger (maybe a 2mm gap). Im pretty sure this is causing my inconsistent plunge issues.

Unlikely. Most-likely drag on the autolauncher bracket where it runs over the top of the plunger. Do what I showed in the pic a couple posts up with the screw under the right PF hook temporarily and see if it fixes your issues. Then if confirmed you can do a long-term fix.

Yea I hear you.

So I'm working on this right flipper. To confirm, if when I release the flipper and it's catching before it rests on the silver "thing" lol then I adjusted too high right?

I honestly don't think these flip as high as I think they do. It's just hard for me to wrap my head around it because the left flipper was definitely going higher than the right .. Also I have that gap under the right flipper so it wouldn't be catching there.

Possible it's just catching somewhere else?

This is why having that photo of both flippers up would do a lot of good for me. =)

Let me just find that photo ...

Screw it... let me work on this ramp and that pin and screw or w/e on the back ...

I really appreciate the help and would LOVE to get this straight!

pasted_image (resized).png

Power off.

So tighten the nut on the assembly that grabs the flipper shaft JUST ENOUGH to give some resistance, but not so much you can't manually move the flipper with your hand (also, make sure the return spring is attached so it drags it down when you let go). Then rotate the flipper up and let go, then repeat until when you let it go it DOES NOT rest at the home position when you let go, but it slightly above it. Then hold the linkage underneath and raise the flipper to the top position with your other hand and back the flipper back away from the top a little and let go again to see if you backed it off enough so it is fully in the rest position (not floating above it) when you let go. If not repeat this backing off procedure. Then, when you're done, tighten the nut so the flipper does not move or slip.

Ok you keep going back to travel distance. The travel distance will not change only where your starting and ending points are. The flippers on the BP have the metal guide to go by. In the pic to me it looks more like your left flipper is way to high, but cant look at my machine right now.

actually now that I think of it I know you said you watched the sir tuna BP removal video. At the end I believe he checks his flippers and if I remember right they both went to about the third wooden plank. Like how your right one is.

Okay so if I read that first part right...it won't return home if the spring isn't tight enough or if the nut isn't tight enough...

I don't recall him actually showing the flippers going up and down.

I'm probably wrong...

I'm working on loosening the ramp now and will try to undo the part from the back of the playfield for the BP to have a little wiggle room.

You guys are awesome... don't you realize how late it is!?

I'm going to upset some pinsiders when they come back to this thread and there are like a 100 unread responses about me babbling about this. haha

I'm moving my answers from here out over to the tech thread. It's where this belongs anyway. I'll post pics of the max height of the BP flippers on mine there.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjpirates-of-the-caribbean-troubleshooting-tips-issues

Maybe not the greatest shot, but was able to catch him engage both upper flippers in it.

Looks like the right is actually a little low haha, but his left flipper is as high as mine or possibly even a little higher...

Anyway...

pasted_image (resized).png

Sounds good.. I'll meet you over there.

Sorry everyone! Maybe someone will realize their stuff isn't perfect and it will benefit them or they won't care.. don't know!

Last week pinballs.com had 9 CE’s in stock when I called.

There are things pirates has going for it that are better. I'm just saying that overall Wonka was just a tiny bit better for me. Pirates is a bit too heavy on multiballs for my taste, and the flow and geometry is better on Wonka. But if you weight art animations or main toy like the Black Pearl and canon higher, then I can see why JJPOTC would end up higher for you. Also if you didn't play Wonka on friday, unfortunately you played a bit of a lesser game as the flippers were soft and mushy on saturday for some reason, but Friday they were perfect.

By the way don’t get me wrong. I’m splitting hairs here. It’s a tough call.

I take it you played Wonka this weekend then?

Yeah its little out of control but as a newbie it's very understandable...there is a lot to learn at times! Keep at it and if it makes sense make your own personal thread on your machine for people to respond to on your game issues...good luck and keep learning

I agree sometimes it feels like multiballs happen way too often.. Easy fix go into software and make multiballs a bit harder to get. Ive already thought about changing dead mans chest and stranger tides multiball to make them a bit more harder the first time around. BP multiball is hard enough to get to. and the others feel somewhat good maybe a few less spins on devils triangle for the first one. I think doing this games wont be who can multiball longer or stack more of them and force a bit more strategy.

Doubt they will, especially if Wonka and/or Toy Story kill it. I mean, they want to make 6000 Wonka between the LE and the CE. Plus a ton of SEs.

With the high cost of materials in POTC and it's poor sales record, as in, maybe 800-1000 games sold across all editions, like the most recent movie, I think it's fair to say the game is done and Jersey Jack won't come back. Five years from now, it might even be thought of as JJP's Medieval Madness. I had to scramble to get one when I realized my dream of an HUO used PoTC LE for $7K would never come true.

I mean, what could they strip out to make it more profitable to return, AND hope it doesn't belly flop a second time? No ships= no game.

Thanks!

Now that's a good idea.

If you follow the maintenance thread you'll discover that it looks like the roll pin came loose in the flipper assembly and it's B**CH to get back through.

They make roll pin punch kits. Like that's a thing...

So much learning.

Any news out of MGC regarding Pirates code?

Not that I saw...

Met Eric at MGC. It was awesome to see his face light up when I said I was a Pirates owner. So, if you ever see him, give him a hello and compliment. It's his first game and I for one think he knocked it out of the park. Still the fastest playing JJP in my opinion. And still has the best shot with the upper flipper loop.

He is an awesome and friendly guy! I got to meet him at TPF myself.

He has a lot to be proud of and I can’t wait to see what he makes in the future.

I think they have sold more than you think. Just because it wasnt sold out in 2 days doesnt mean it wasnt a success. I think alot of the reason there are still machines available is because at their price point LE is the way to go. $1000 difference between SE and LE is a no brainer just the glass and shaker motor were worth that. So most people are looking for LE not SE and the LE are sold out for the most part (still a few here and there). The CE are still available because a good portion of people cant afford to spend that cash. 1 JJP CE vs 2.5 Stern Pro or 1 JJP vs a semester or 2 of college for your kid. Machine is plenty popular and wont be long before you will not be able to find them NIB.

Yes, it would be nice not to have a black screen when it counts up the bonus and the black screen with "GAME#84" in the middle all by itself.

Incorrect. Lots of people have confirmed. The LE and CE are both sold out. Here and there is wishful thinking. The standard is all that's left and its just not home collector highly sought after. At least not right now. I suspect they'll sell too, in time, especially to new large barcades that hadn't gotten one yet. As for the game not being a commerical success, it wasn't mate. Certainly not by past JJP standards. The writing is on the wall. It's barely been out and it's already gone.

PotC LEs are gone for sure, but pretty sure automated/pinballs.com has a few CEs left.

Maybe, but doubtful. A couple buyers who wanted CEs made their rounds and didn't sell their LEs that they posted on Pinside when they couldn't be found, despite previous reports like this.

I talked to Mike at Automated last week and he had 9 CE’s left.

Nice. Hope y'all who are in the market pick one up. Previous hopefuls couldn't find em. Seems like the last of the litter.