Get rid of the arcade games. Priorities!

And pool tables, and "formal dining rooms", and extra bedrooms.... Those are all nonsense words in this hobby.

The above is true only for the upper flipper. Keith has posted that the lower flippers should be aligned with the center of the flipper bat to the PF alignment hole https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/welcome-to-the-jurassic-park-le-club/page/96#post-5516155

But it is what works with your pitch and setup, as Keith also says "It's your game to align the flippers as you wish"

LOL time will tell. One of them is a large project I did with a switcher setup so that one would be very hard to get rid of. As would my KI2 cab.

I kind of have that in my KI2 cab right now with a pi2jamma setup. My light gun cab I have a switcher in with about 16 light gun boards. Other 2 are matching sit down racers. So I kinda have most of the variety. And now I’ll be adding a pin.

It's a tough shot that has to be hit very late even with suggested droopy flippers. I find it easier to craddle the ball first with left flipper and then focusing on the shot. Much harder to hit on the fly. Try raising the right upper flipper before you shoot to open up the shot. If something seems out of place, take the glass off and try rolling a ball up by hand.

Just picked up a NIB Pro and was wondering if the one-way gate into the pops (missile shot) is supposed to let the ball back out when it's bouncing in the pops. I saw a post where apparently Elwin said that was by design, but that seems strange to me. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Have a premium model with the external headphone add on. When I received the game I was able to control the volume with the headphone knob which was great. I “upgraded” my machine to include some movie clips, but in the process now my volume control does not work, nor can I find any menu item that allows for it. Any help appreciated.

Edit* got it!

Yes it does that on occasion but shouldn’t majority of the time.

I agree it’s strange but it does seem like an intentional decision. If he wanted it to close he would have used a gate like on the captain marvel in the pro avengers with spring steel to force it closed quickly.

It's normal. Happens similarly on another machine I have too. I took slow motion video of it once on the other machine and saw that it happens in the blink of an eye when the ball bounces back through very quickly before the gate drops back down, so it's just physics at work. It's your machine so it's up to you if you want to adjust it or keep it as is though.

I have a new Tilt Topper that I'm not going to use. If anyone is interested, please let me know. Here's the ad:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/124541

Thanks!

Rick

Oh speaking of Tilt Toppers, does anyone know the height of it?

My basement ceiling is not very tall and once I get my JP setup I want to measure to see if I have the space for it or not.

Here's what Keith said about the gate on this thread https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/126#post-5789947

Some people have made changes to limit/stop balls coming back through by using either a looped zip tie or a part of a leaf spring to limit the amount the gate can open or stays open.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/78#post-5456180
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/82#post-5486029

EaglePin jdoz2 Manny65

thank you for your responses. I honestly don't mind it kicking out from time to time

It's about 11.25". Maybe allow 11.5" to be safe.

Great thanks I should definitely have room then.

I've officially joined the club! Unfortunately I don't think I will have time to set it up tonight as I have prior engagements until 9:30pm that involves a lot of alcohol. Depending how much I have, I may set it up when I get home.

jpbox (resized).jpg

I am pretty certain you'll start setting it up when you get home (otherwise it will be calling your name all night long)....

Yeah you were right, but I didn't get a game with it because I'm super tired and want to install the lane protector before ever playing a ball. It's also not leveled so I'll mess with all of that in the morning.

Then other mods will also be installed lol.

jpsetup (resized).jpg

Hey all,

I've already reached out to my distributor and Stern but I'm also posting here just to see if anyone's experienced this issue.

Having an issue with my T-rex moving horizontally...I saw a post about 10 months ago was a bad stepper driver board and that may be my problem not sure at this point

Mine will move vertically and move the jaw fine but will not move at all to the left or right in game or during diagnostics.. no stepper motor movement horizontally at all, and no sound that the motor is engaging.  The diagnostics also show the center switch position and I can move the TREX manually left to right to stimulate the head homing to position 68 but the test does not engage the stepper motor either.

I've checked the pinouts on the CN2 driver board for drive a drive b continuity as well as the 5v on cn1 and 48v on cn3... The led 1 and led 2 are illuminated on the stepper motor driver board as well.

Not sure what to make of it from here or what else to check

All node boards pass tests with no errors

Seems like it might either be a bad driver board or a bad stepper motor... Just guessing obviously

Thank you all for any insight

So I finally got some time to play my game and I had a couple of questions. I still need to fix some minor leveling issues but there are 2 things I am wondering about.

1. I installed the amber shooter and it seems like it's not hitting the all as hard as it should be. Like sometimes it barely makes it up the little ramp. I'd say like half the time it doesn't. And when it does, it BARELY makes it up and it slowly rolls past the copter. When the ball save thing plunges it, it shoots much faster, which is what I remember happening with the normal shooter when playing this game elsewhere. I didn't play mine at all with the normal plunger so I can't compare. But why would the amber one be going weaker though? Is there something I can adjust?

2. I don't know if this is how it's supposed to work or not, but when I press the right flipper button like half way, only the bottom flipper goes. I have to press it fully to make the top flipper flip. Is this normal or should they both go off every time I press the button at all?

I also am noticing a very slight button stick on my left button every now and then on some presses. Like it doesn't press completely smooth and I notice just a slight stick before it goes all the way in. Not sure if this is a simple fix either but it's nothing really annoying or anything.

Contact Stern support. If you have an early game they'll replace it for you after some troubleshooting. That was an issue for me on my LE. If you have a later game it could be a different problem.

1. There should be slight adjustment to be able to center the shooter tip dead center on the ball. Loosen the screws and then you should be able to move the shooter rod enough to adjust it. If the tip is too high,low, or off right/left it could be taking some power away from the plunge or rattling around.

2. That’s totally normal. That’s called “staging” the flipper. If you are in multiball and have two balls trapped on the bottom flippers, you can carefully release pressure on the right flipper button to allow you to make the O shot with the left flipper. The top flipper will drop while keeping a ball trapped on the bottom right

Okay thanks. From the eye test it looked like I had it centered but hopefully that is the problem.

I also didn't even screw in the 3rd screw that is closest to the side edge and on the top of the panel. I just couldn't even get my screw driver in the tight space with the switch/button there. I don't have a longer screw driver so be able to turn from past there and the one I have just wouldn't let me do that. It's definitely not "loose" at all though and no movement.

And that's good to know about the upper/lower flippers. I had no clue about that.

Get a different spring. When I made my own amber shooter rod, had the same issue. Go with an orange, purple or red spring. Stock one doesn’t really work. You could, however, try to stretch out the spring you have and that might help.

What spring do you recommend?

I have the orange spring on my Stern amber shooter rod. I have never had any issues with the orange spring, it works perfectly

I definitely noticed that there was some orange on the spring on the inside spring. I will see if I can adjust the plate sightly and see if that fixes it before I mess with the spring.

Hey thanks for the response. Mine was an earlier game Oct 17 2019

Was it the Stepper board or the motor they replaced for you, or something else entirely?

I have contacted my distro who has also contacted Stern support (Pat Powers etc) it's the weekend, so I'l see in a couple days I'm thinking

I also have a question about leveling this game, or maybe this is a general leveling thing.

When I was leveling it yesterday I was using the Pinguy app on my iPhone 12. I kept it in my case because if it's not in the case it isn't "flat" because of the lenses on the back of it.

I laid it vertically flat up near the jeep, up a bit right of that, and also down where the flippers are.

I pretty much was getting different angles everywhere.

If I had 6.5 up top, it would be like 6.7 or 6.8 down below. Then if I got it to 6.5 down at the bottom, it would be like 6.2 up top. I also noticed the same thing on the sideways angle too, although that didn't vary much from 0.1 - 0.3.

I also noticed even when I had 6.5 down near the flippers, the level built into the game wasn't even really close to being centered. The bubble was like halfway through the line at the top of the level.

So I've been playing it this way just because I wanted to play the damn thing, but I'm a bit confused about how exactly to level this and what setting it should be at. How do I get 6.5 everywhere when measuring and/or should I worry about the built in level at all?

That’s common. It’s been mentioned that the game plays better at 7deg so I stay between 6.5 and 7.

So you're saying that between 6.5 - 7 anywhere on the playfield seems to be the good setting? Like it doesn't matter that it's different on different parts of the board? Just seems strange to the engineer in me that you can have a flat piece of wood having different angles when measuring not too far apart lol.

I'm on carpet with sliders under the legs too so I'm sure it takes a few minutes to settle after I adjust the levels, but even after that period of time it wasn't the same on different parts of the playfield.

I can’t speak for everyone one, but I always put my level right between the slings or as close to the flippers as I can. I set the pitch of all my sterns at 7 degrees. I stopped using PinGuy because I was getting inaccurate results. I purchased a digital level off Amazon and have found it’s much more accurate. And decent level will be better than PinGuy IMO.

I was looking at Amazon earlier today.

Did you get the Klein square looking one?

That one seemed to have really high ratings.

Just searching this forum and google though people are saying the apps are just as accurate as the levels.

Also if you had a 7 degree between the flippers, is it also 7 degrees up above or was it different? Or did you not even check it and just care about that area as the basis?

The whole damn head. Mine would frequently go to sleep on the side of the ramp rather than start T-Rex multiball. Didn't matter what settings I tried; it didn't work until they sent me a new one.

This was the one I got:

Klein Tools 935DAG Digital Electronic Level and Angle Gauge, Measures 0 - 90 and 0 - 180 Degree Ranges, Measures and Sets Angles https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZWW3BW5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_M7E5DEV1TEY6XGBWRG4H

I only measure between the flippers, don’t really care about other areas of the Playfield. Someone reputable posted here about only measuring between the flippers, just can’t remember who. I’ve had great results ever since then.

I've had this one for years and it works great:

iGaging AngleCube Digital Level + Bevel Gauge 2 in 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LL0BIC/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_KGAF5Q0H6NRT4TAEXAEW

Yeah that is the one I was looking at.

Okay thanks I'm going to hit up Home Depot tomorrow and grab it.

Yes you will often get some variation because the PF is not exactly flat - some people will just set the angle from down towards the flippers, while others use an average of the across the overall PF. For JP start at 7 degrees (based on the below) at the flippers (important for the wide shots of"C" and "S") then adjust it marginally if you need in dialing it in

Even though the manual states setting the machine up to the standard 6.5 degrees, Keith Elwin has posted that JP was designed for 7 degrees - hence why there are plenty of posts referring to 7 degrees

I got mine adjusted to 7.0/0 right at the flippers between them so I think it's pretty dialed in.

I am salty though I just realized there is a small scuff on the right front leg. I hadn't noticed it prior but now I can't un-notice it.

Switch that one to the back?

That is the plan when I get around to it lol. But I just leveled it so I'll deal with it for a bit. It's SUPER minor but since it is a little bit of white color it sticks out like a sore thumb to me. I took a sharpie to it and now it's even harder to see, if at all.

Hey all,

I've already reached out to my distributor and Stern but I'm also posting here just to see if anyone's experienced this issue.

Having an issue with my T-rex moving horizontally...I saw a post about 10 months ago was a bad stepper driver board and that may be my problem not sure at this point

Mine will move vertically and move the jaw fine but will not move at all to the left or right in game or during diagnostics.. no stepper motor movement horizontally at all, and no sound that the motor is engaging. The diagnostics also show the center switch position and I can move the TREX manually left to right to stimulate the head homing to position 68 but the test does not engage the stepper motor either.

I've checked the pinouts on the CN2 driver board for drive a drive b continuity as well as the 5v on cn1 and 48v on cn3... The led 1 and led 2 are illuminated on the stepper motor driver board as well.

Not sure what to make of it from here or what else to check

All node boards pass tests with no errors

Seems like it might either be a bad driver board or a bad stepper motor... Just guessing obviously

Thank you all for any insight

New to the club- - my lookout tower shot is not registering. Any advice?

Edit* I tore down the tower and realligned the optos, added a sponge to the left side of it to press against the plastic outer housing. That kept it in place. All good now.

I spent some time yesterday realigning my amber shooter and I got it a bit better aligned and it feels pretty much as center as I can get it, but I still feel like it is not hitting the ball nearly as hard as the stock one does on other machines I've played on. It's not hitting it as hard as when the ball save auto-shooter thing shoots it, not really even close to that. That is how hard I remember it shooting when I played it on location at places. It doesn't make it all the way up to the rail with the helicopter like 1/4 times, and when it does, it's just kind of slowly making it up there.

Would the only option to get a stronger spring or something? Or is it still most likely an alignment issue?

Are you able to post a slo-mo video from your phone of the ball when it does this?

Yeah I can try. Can probably do 240fps with my GoPro to make it even slower.

Stern released updated code today!!