Hey, no worries. My fuse is shorter than usual these days.

JP kicked my butt last night and I was ready to f-it up just to teach it a lesson. It better keep it's backbox on a swivel, if you know what I mean.

Anyone on the east coast of Australia want to move a premium?

Just had a Premium Delivered end of June and finally getting some good games in.. and fixing a few issues here are there.

Delivery guy had a shaker motor on the truck so win win, I got to add a shaker motor same day it was delivered.

Then I started to notice some issues that were driving me nuts. I had to add a washer on the left shoot lane first screw. That fixed shots not going up the half pipe every time, I was close to 50% now, I am at about 95%. There was more to it though, like leveling not just front to back but side to side. . I also lowered the Auto ball kick out to 170. I had to bend the tong out on the left side of the shooter a little so that side made contact with the ball at the same time as the right. Now the only think I am missing is my orange spring to replace the green spring it shipped with for the manual shoot rod.

So for the first month I was running stock 1.0 software and I decided to go through the update. I had no issues with the T-Rex before. But after the update, sure enough when he went to drop on the ramp he moved to the left too far and didn't make it all the way down. Of course this was my highest score game and I hit the bottom of the jaw and drained right out, back on topic. So I went to settings and adjusted the T-Rex center -4 and that fixed it for me. He drops in the center and all is well again.

The more I read up on this forum I found some other issues I didn't know I had. So my left ramp will not register the first skill shot if I shoot it too fast and other shots up that ramp if they are too fast. So I slowed down the right flipper to 215 from default and that has helped a little. but I still get a few here and there. I am looking at the sensor in the back and it looks lined up correctly so I will continue to try and figure out the better solution.

Then tonight, I see and hear a black screw drop and slide strait down the center. It landed in the coin box so it was easy to find. I searched the whole machine looking for where this came loose from. nothing, it looked like a black screw on some of the plastic areas. so i put everything back together and fired up another game then the jaw fell off my T-Rex. So now I lift up the play field and look for the other two screws that are also supposed to be in there to hold the jaw on. Sure enough I found them below plus 2 washers and a silver screw. Using a screw driver bit I was able to manually put the 3 screws back in the jaw. T-Rex is good eating balls like normal. However for the life of me I can't figure out where this silver screw and 2 washers came from.

This is my first NIB machines so It kinda bummed I had to so to much to get it working so well. I do enjoy it so at least I have that going for me. Here is a nice picture of the jaw that fell off and the illusive screw that I can't figure out where it goes. So if anyone has any ideas let em know where I should look.
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Looks like what you'd see holding a wireform to a post. Washer under and over the part you are securing.

Yeah I looked at all the wire hold down points. And everything is tight and in place. I am also wondering with the shaker motor if they fell out from being dropped durring assembly and was just stuck somewhere.

Regarding skill shots not registering on left ramp, I had that issue as well. No amount of manual testing revealed any issue. I then discovered it was happening when I didn't have a clean shot and was grazing the supply drop target before making the ramp. That may or may not explain your issue but is worth looking out for.

Yay Stern! Such quality craftsmanship

I got mine Saturday and it also left me thinking hmm what was so special about this thing before I got my hands on it??? But I'm sure once installed it will be far more eye catching my friend lol!

So I’m installing my shaker motor. Saw something on the play field. Interesting?

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I swear I did nothing. Not my handwriting. No one else has touched.

Was "Jaws" the code word for jp2.... like cinnabon was for star wars

This is correct - Jaws was the codename for Jurassic Park

Did some additional spotlights to brighten things up.

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I picked up my LE yesterday and got it set up in my house today. It's about 40 feet away with 2 walls in between me and it right now... its fan sounds like someone is using a hair dryer on the other side of the house. WTF? What in the world is that all about Stern? They have to know that most of the 500 LE's are going to end up in collectors homes not in loud arcades where the noise doesn't matter.

I have a munsters pro and had a SW premium and don't remember a loud hair dryer cycling on and off.

Is there some kind of aftermarket fan for this and why the heck doesn't stern fix this during production?

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Yes...and, your guess is as good as mine.

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-system-plug-n-play-quiet-fan-kit.html

Thank you. It pisses me off that stern could not spend the $16 (surely much less buying in bulk from china) on a quiet fan so their 500 LE customers don't have to go through finding, buying and installing one themselves.

WTF Stern?

I have noticed on some pinball streams where they can lower the upper right flipper while holding the flipper button with the lower right flipper energized. Any suggestions on how that happens. Thanks.

https://funwithbonus.com/new-pinball-dictionary-stage-flipping/

Jmxdc see this fix that has worked 100% for me in getting my TRex ramp shots registering.

It's called stage flipping.

Tip to learn how to do this. This happens because there are two switches on the stack for the flipper button. If you increase the gap of that second switch on the stack it makes the upper flipper slightly less sensitive. In other words gives more room between lower flipper activating and the upper one following. Doing this and practicing helps your brain figure it out. You can then tighten it back up as you get comfortable with it as the looser that gap the longer the delay in flipper activating. Thus you want it tight but learning on a tight stack is really hard and frustrating.

I did the order the part myself, around 3$ for the fan. Installation is ok to do. Now did that with all my new Sterns.

Does anyone know if Stern intended for the two right flippers to operate in this loosely coupled mode? I suspect that is simply an artifact of their schematic and manufacturing differences with the blades themselves. Depending on the assembly of the button stack, each game will have a different offset. My machine has both of the blade contact stack pairs touching essentially at the same time. I could bend the blades to give me more timing space between the two, but I feel like Stern wanted them to be the same. But then again, they could have used a single pair of contacts (like the left one) and operated BOTH right upper and lower flipper coils in software at the same time. I am confused on this one...

They are designed to be staged. Just a different gap which can be adjusted. Mine stage nicely from the factory.

This. There are some pins that don't have the switch constructed this way, and it's impossible to stage the flippers.
There are even modern Sterns that differ depending on which flipper (right or left). If I'm not mistaken, TSPP is like this: R flipper can stage the main PF upper flipper and living room R mini flipper, but the living room L mini flipper does not stage.

Contrary to what many think, lowering the pitch makes many games significantly harder, especially those with tricky outlanes like JP.

At 6.5 (which Stern support says it should be at) the game has a lot of side-to-side action, and saving outlane drains becomes more difficult. Also catching the ball on your flippers is harder, because there is less force to deaden it.

I've played mine at 6.5 since day one, but decided to try 7.0 the other day. I immediately found it easier to control the ball and felt less balls were headed to the outlane. Scores and progress dramatically increased since doing this.

And about having young kids playing... I have a 5 year old that barely looks at these games, but in the short amount of time he does play, he has an unbelievable amount of coordination. Don't worry about dumbing it down for kids! They' learn faster than us, and they'll adapt and whip our asses in no time.

It is intended. If your game doesn't do that, a quick adjustment to the leaf switches on the flipper buttons will remedy it.

Yup. I took a look and can easily tweak the blade to put some space between the time the first set and the second set make contact.

Related topic: mechanical contacts seem like a big step backward versus the opto-set used on other machines. Still a bit surprising, but then again the much lower cost must be driving that choice. An opto set like Williams A-20207 (including LED, Detector, molded plastics, a few resistors, the PCB, connectors, leaf spring and screws) probably costs $2.50 all in for a volume production line. The machanical blade approach and two screws are probably 30-cents or so. To get an idea of their costing structure, I multiple their COST by 10X to get an idea of what the retail price would have to be increased to pay for the parts.

I personally think the Williams opto approach was a step backward. Optos have their place, but shouldn't be used everywhere. I'm not certain about the replacement availability of the optos today, but they were getting real scarce a few years ago. Leaf switches work great and have always been available.

I 100% prefer stack flippers. They feel different than opto as the stack provides some resistance to pushing the button in and also have a less likely chance of complete failure. Some things aren't due to cost cutting IMHO. Flippers is where I prefer the "just keep it simple" approach. With stacks you can adjust sensitivity, stage flip and if it fails it cost less than a buck to fix. Staging a flipper is a huge skill to learn as it allows you to continue to shoot the whole PF while in MB with a ball cradled to. Some games can be extra frustrating when they have opto flippers and/or designed not to stage. Biggest example I can think of would be Congo MB.

On the topic of flipper stacks and staging. Ironically enough, a lot of games (predominantly Maiden) came out with the flippers reverse staged (the lowers dropped before the uppers) in error. That was fun learning in a tournament. I quickly learned to test that before playing now.

There are flipper optos on my STTNG and blades on my other two games. I'm not sure, but I've heard people mention the mechanical blades are a bit more consistent and reliable. I know on my optos they occasionally start to lose power flipping if they need to be cleaned, so I'd think that could impact a game on route. Also I think the blades can be adjusted to preference a bit more.

Ha! And all this flipper talk is just reminding me it's been too long since I've made pancakes for breakfast

Got the last of the MODs I ordered from Pinside sellers installed in my Pro. Boy oh boy is this game fun and looks so nice!

Installed: ultra quiet fan upgrade, raptor pen top, signs for the T-Rex beams, helicopter spinner, Jurassic looking sign covers and of course replacement T-Rex for the head and Raptor to replace the plastic standee.

Now that I think about it, I am waiting for the Control Room replacement plastic to finish her off.

What's that, there is a new alternate translite coming? Sigh.

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Vinyl or CDs? Solid state or tubes?

Your choice.

Is there a way to show a scoreboard for say the top 20 scores? Or is this limited to 4 + grand champion?

Yep I seen games where operators have replaced the original flipper optos with mechanical blade switches, I can only assume that they found the blades more reliable and possibly that was what they had on hand at the time

I don't believe so, these are hard coded.

Not /quite/ the same. When a machine is put out on a route, opto will behave the same on Day-1 and on Day-1000. (Unless it fails altogether). With mechanical switch blades, they change behaviour over time and may take tweaking periodically if you get some aggressive players for a few months slowly bending those blades, not to mention dirt and grime that can cause them to respond poorly. I am not certain which hold up longer, but I would guess the optos have higher consistency in performance. (Yes, I may be showing my age as those cabinet mounted contact blades used to switch the COIL voltage directly on some of the circa-60s machines which would destroy the contacts due to arcing with a few thousand presses).

Thanks I will try that and report back.

To me it almost looks like the hole in the plastic is too small. I was thinking about drilling it with a larger diameter. But I will try this first.

I noticed a washer shoot across the playfield and see I'm missing a screw at the Trex ramp.

So I lift the playfield and find this screw in the cab. Can someone confirm this goes there? And if not where do they even use this type?

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This has happened to me 3-4x. It is right.

Are you missing the spacer too?

I've also had screws fly off this ramp. I ended up replacing one of them when another screw. I think maybe Stern has been using the wrong size.

So funny. I started at 6.5, then 6.8, and we are at 7 now! Trapping the ball is easier, outlanes seem smaller. I think 7 is the way to go

The screw that is missing in your pic - the right TRex post/ramp screw - on mine it looks exactly like the screw on the left side of the ramp. A dome phillips head with a star ‘lock washer’ on it.

And as seenev mentioned - you’re missing the black spacer that goes under the clear plastic.

Actually I think the flipper power can be affected with "harder pushing/pressing/slapping", some people even give the machine a nudge at the time they are flipping, but i will exclude this scenario here. I often play better with a more violent approach, seen from good players (Escher Lefkoff for example). I am not sure what it is, but I try to express what I feel and think about it. A fast press/slap does some vibration and can overpower the momentum/spin of the ball to a certain degree, resulting in more accurately and powerful shots. I also feel more connected to the ball due to timing differences and the more control. Being more connected with the game enhances my alertness and geive me better reaction times and motivation to save the ball from draining. I am just playing for a year now, but thats my experience so far.. however there are also very good players with a soft playingstyle.

A modern game doesn't know if you hit the button hard or soft. It's just a switch. Once it closes it sends a signal to the CPU to fire the coil. The main difference from what you are talking about is that when you are playing with soft hands it takes a fraction of a second longer to close the gap in the flipper gap than if you are pushing hard and fast. If you are nudging or hitting the game it can effect ball direction and power but that's not because of the flipper plunger it's because of the nudge.

It's noticeably easier. I always wondered why good players say the first thing they do is crank the games up... Made more sense to me to keep it at 6.5 and let them side drains really beat you up. I probably could have reached the wizard mode in TWD way quicker if I had it higher, but at 6.5, the drains were insanely brutal. Felt pretty satisfying when I finally got it though!

I will say though... JP does play more fun at 6.8-7.

Personal Mod update: Print your own JP Pro Helicopter Spinner, Dilophosaurus figure, Raptor Figure update

My kids really wanted a spinning helicopter blade like the premium edition so I tried to hand make one and 3d print it. It took more iterations that I would like to admit and a lot of trial and error, but I finally found a very easy and simple drop-in solution that works great. I've posted the 3d file for anyone to print their own. Just need to print and then paint it (maybe a little bit of sanding). I recommend Black for the post cap, blue for the blades, and yellow tips. The yellow tips really make it look awesome when it spins.

Video of it in action: https://vimeo.com/452298235
3D file to print your own: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4566669

I tried initially with the blades higher up and then posts below the blades that the ball would hit. But with the 3d printing orientation they kept getting stressed and broken. So I gave up on that design and moved the blades to the bottom, rounded the tips and thinned them out (so the balls wouldn't get stuck when hit at a specific angle which was an issue). So far this last version has been in the machine for over a week and absolutely no issues. Again, the only modification you need to do to the machine is take off the top screw and the plastic of the existing blades art. Leave long metal post. If your post is the same length as mine, the blades should rotate just above the helipad switch and not hit it.

The Dilophosaurus Amber Collection figure came out a month ago and as my favorite JP Dino, I had to find a place for it. Wouldn't fit around the spitter spinner, but my wife suggested behind the helipad scoop. Worked out great and he is only secured with a single small rubber band to the scoop structure / lights. It works well that when the flasher goes off it highlights his crest. Worked out better than I anticipated. Just had to kind of work his tail and legs to get out of the way of the right loop.

I posted a while ago that I replaced the JP Pro raptor plastic figure with an Amber Collection Raptor figure. Where I placed it originally I found that it eventually slid down and would sometimes cause the ball to get stuck there. So reversed the direction of the base (JP logo up top) and drilled a hole in the amber plastic base just over the screw / nut to the side of the Raptor tower. I 3d printed a screw top that screwed into that just above the nut (red arrow pointing to it in the picture). You could use a real screw post and remove the nut if you wanted to, anything to just extend it so it holds the base from sliding down. This kept the figure base sliding and kept it open enough that the ball (if it got up there) wouldn't get stuck anymore. Haven't had any issues since and it works great now. Also added the popular raptor pen mod from Mezelmods and posed the raptor so that it looks like it is tearing open the fence. I like it

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