Ah thank you I was trying to work out what it was flashing I think blue during smart middle. Will pay more attention to that thank you.

It's the side of one of the actuators, on one of the flippers. They break once in awhile. Ironically, I think Stern left that part off off their Jurassic Park manual parts diagram.

Quick fix, and most of the places sell replacements. You will see one missing if you look at all three from under the mechanism, near the EOS blades. https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=515-7257-00
Make sure you order the correct LEFT or RIGHT!! (From the picture, it looks like the RIGHT SIDE actuator broke and if you remember where in the cabinet you found the piece, it will probably be the flipper directly above that area.)

Looks like part of the end of stop mechanism for a flipper. Look at all 3 flippers and you'll probably see one is missing that piece!

That's a broken switch actuator from either the lower or upper right flipper that triggers the end or stroke switch. You are definitely going to need to replace/fix it. There is a chance you will break/strip the bolt and or crank arm so you will want to purchase those too.

Here is the switch actuator (if from one of the right flippers): https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/515-7257-00
Crank arm block: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/530-5070-02
Cap Screw: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/4010-01086-12

Here's a pic from the manual where you can see all of the parts (not all are enumerated).

pasted_image (resized).png

.

It is pictured, but I think it's the ONE part not listed in the parts list? The screw and the spring that attaches to it are called out, but not the 515-7257-00 part! Weird....

With all this flipper mechanism talk, I got this pack of screws today at Home Depot to replace my stripped screw and it’s a perfect match. I got my upper flipper working fine again with my stock flipper. It’s part #12 on the diagram a few pages up.

EBF525A4-E18F-4AB3-9F20-6717AB6A3F92 (resized).jpeg

Glad you found what you needed, and thanks for posting that to help others out.

Thanks for everyone’s help. It’s from the upper flipper. I’ll order the parts for all 3 flippers in case those break next. Also good to know HD carries those screws.

Flipper mech. It’s the EOS switch actuator. They break all the time. Pinball life has them.

I was messing with the service menu today and saw the image below in my tech alerts.

I then messed with the shooter lane switch and the auto plunger nearly took my finger off. However it cleared the alert so I was like whatever.

Then I played again and I noticed that after I plunged, the auto plunger went off as the ball was going past the helicopter area and it got to the right flipper. Then it hit me that I remember hearing the auto plunger pretty often after I plunge manually. Like almost 50% of the time or so.

I went back into the service menu and again that tech alert was showing.

So I think something is up where it is making the auto plunger happen when it shouldn't be.

I do have a plastic shooter lane protecter over there so maybe that is making it sense something?

Or could something else just be wrong over there?

Any ideas?

IMG_6133 (resized).jpg

More than likely the switch actuator wire isn't moving freely and is getting snagged on the side of the shooter lane protector or the PF slot itself.

Leave the coin door open when you work on it, as this disables the solenoid coils from working (so the auto-plunger won't fire)

Can you elaborate a little bit on the first sentence you said?

As for the second one, the switch test wasn't registering at all unless I closed the coin door.

The switch is made up of 2 main components, the switch body and the actuator - this is the triangular looking metal wire that the ball pushes down when in the shooter lane and triggers the switch. This wire must be able to move freely, if it is rubbing against the side of the slot in the shooter lane then while the ball might be able to push it down (due to the weight of the ball) the tiny spring inside the switch might not be strong enough to push the actuator wire back up into position once the ball has been plunged.

Yes you're right opening the coin door (ie disabling the 48V) stops the switches being tested - in which case have the machine off when playing with the shooter lane switch. You should be able to hear it click as it opens & closes.

Remove plastic shooter lane protector - bet your problem goes away.

I've never used one, and I can certainly see the future value in protecting the shooter lane, but in HUO games and taking care of the game meticulously, etc, etc, you really shouldn't need it.
I was tempted to recommend the same thing.
I also vote to just remove the shooter lane protector.
Remove it and see if your problem goes away and let us know.

Okay gotcha.

I will play around with it later on. When I was pressing it with my finger it definitely was clicking and I could hear it.

Another thing I noticed, not sure if this is normal or not, is that when a new ball is pushed up into the shooter lane after I have lost a ball, I can wait there as long as I want and it never auto plunges. I thought after a while it would automatically shoot but it never does. However, when I get a ball save or multi-ball, the auto plunger shoots it all the time. I have noticed like out of 400 games, maybe two or 3 times, when getting a save on a multiball, that it doesn't auto plunge. But again, that's super rare.

Yeah if I can't figure it out I can try removing it temporarily and see if the problem goes away.

But I am also trying to understand what that actual tech alert means. And it sounds basically like the switch isn't being pushed down all the way when it does trigger that alert? And if the switch isn't pushed all the way down, how come the autoplunger goes off?

Is it something along the lines of like, the ball is pushed up into the shooter lane, and the helicopter switch is being triggered BEFORE the shooter lane switch, and the games thinks something is wrong because it expected the shooter lane switch to go off before the helicopter lane?

And if that is the case, why would that then trigger the auto plunge?

The engineer in me is trying to understand the underlying logic/issue here lol.

Guilty pleasure install...totally not necessary but completely worth it

Lior's Trex Mod

I put down two layers of mylar in the critical areas of the shooter lane before playing the first ball... Mylar can barely be seen and I have not had any issues in home use.

I’m looking at it now and yeah it appears the shooter protector is making the ball sit up high and it’s not engaging the switch. I am guessing that switch is supposed to be hit every time a ball is sitting in the shooter lane?

Check out the pics below. I’m wondering if I can somehow modify the actuator so that it sticks up higher and engages with the protector on. This could also maybe explain why I was getting weak plunges with the stock amber shooter rod.

72D78215-C16B-4002-9BB0-544B89CA6F68 (resized).jpeg

99C641B4-2210-49F7-AB77-A2B2EC50E284 (resized).jpeg

Ditto. Cliffys and move on

Pretty easy fix! You modified the game and it’s now not working right. Remove modification instead of trying to bend actuators etc.

https://passionforpinball.com/JP3-Stern.htm

Those plastic shooter lanes are trash, never fit and give a cheap feel...

Cliffy for the win all day long

The plastic shooter lane protectors all work perfectly on my machines

I guess it's different on different machines I tried one of those on my JP and had the same gap issue... No amount of trimming or tape or fiddling would keep it down and it floated all over the lane

Yeah I'm going to send a pic of that to mezel and see what they say. That's where I got it from and they claim it's laser cut for precision. Clearly it isn't since it sits so high off the wood. I had no clue it was doing that until I looked at that angle.

I'm not concerned about it looking "cheap" you can't even notice it in there.

My distro recommendation for JP was a Star Wars lane protector

The instructions for those things do say that you may have to adjust the shooter lane switch. I've had to do it only once and I have it on about 7 games. And as stated before, you can't even see it in there.

Cliffys are great, to be sure, but the installation of these is so much easier.

It’s your machine so of course do what you want, but I’m in the camp of not using that protector. On all my machines I do 3 things for the shooter lane:
1) Turn down the trough eject power
2) Install the $8 side protector from Pinball Life

https://www.pinballlife.com/pinguard-spike-shooter-lane-protector.html

3) Put in a very small strip of Mylar right where the ball kicks out.

Here’s a pic of how I have it set up. Currently at 13,992 balls played on my JP and it still looks pretty good.

FD2D44C5-AC1A-4227-AD3D-CC86EFAE013E (resized).jpeg

Exactly the right way to do it. For a HUO pin you need not do anything more then this. All the protection you’ll need.

Well I just adjusted the actuator on the switch and now it's working fine for me with the protector so going to just keep that on there. It was pretty simple. Mezel mods actually has a video about doing this so I'm assuming this is a very common problem.

Not having that switch work for me completely made it so I couldn't get skill shots. Once I had it fixed, I can now get skill shots lol. That switch not being pressed never started the timer for it I guess. I've left quite a bit of points on the table!

I also have a side protector already installed and have lowered the eject power as well. I did that per recommendations on this thread when I first got it.

Nice. Really like your side blades with the gate too, which ones are those?

Why do people give a shit what their shooter lane looks like?
I mean, when i see a nice one I am like, FUCK no one played this game.
Play your games people. DONT PUT GRANDMAS PLASTIC FURNITURE PROTECTORS ON EVERYTHING.

I think you answered your own question. We want to play our games but want you to think we didn't! Especially when we list it for 15k! I'll take a clean shooter lane over a still stapled goodie bag all day!!

The tilt graphics ones, love how they give the fenced in look

I had installed Lior's sculpted T-Rex head about a month ago. Since then, my T-Rex tends to drop the ball to the left (T-Rex's right, away from the wireform ramp), rather than dropping it onto the wireform ramp that returns to the left flipper. Sometimes she just holds onto it for a moment and then released it back onto the left ramp (where she catches it). Everything worked perfectly, prior to installing the T-Rex and I'm wondering if I just bumped something out of place, during the install. I must say that both my wife and I really love LIOR's sculpted head, as it is a beautiful enhancement to the game.

Does anyone know where in the adjustment menu settings that I can try to fix this. I found some adjustment settings at the very end of the adjustment menu, but am uncertain which ones I should try and whether to go up or down in number. It talks about ticks but not sure what they mean by ticks.

If all else fails, we may end up removing the LIOR head, which would be a real shame as we really like it.

As mentioned, everything worked perfect prior to install.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

I also had issues post my install of LIOR head... it seemed to be off....would not line up for a catch.... and would not home to the same position every time. I am sure it was self inflicted. I removed and installed original head and it has been fine... will reinstall here soon and see what happens.... but just playing now...

Does anyone know of an online store that still has the side armor in stock?

First thing I would check, with the power off, is that your trex isn't hitting the plastic guard right behind the head by moving it manually full left and right with the head in the neutral homed position, you can set this in the system test menu and then turn the power off when it's lined up

If your spacers aren't correct, the back of the plastic may hit either the trex or the crank shaft for the Stepper motor and limit the head travel.

You can use washers to space things properly or even cut the spacers if need be

Watch his install video at the beginning for correct placement

Another thing is the 3 screws used to connect the lower jaw... The stock factory ones are too long, either cut them to custom size with a Dremel and file and burring off (I did this) or get new ones, they poke through the bottom tongue plate otherwise and could cause ball interference

I have a little more experience with my TREX unfortunately, as my Stepper Motor Driver board got fried a month ago somehow, probably a short, and I got intimately familiar with the trex just doing all the checks and traces... So I've taken it apart and put it back on and off including the motor etc multiple times... My first instinct would be a mechanical issue in reassembly... It could be the jaw spring, alignment guides also, or a crooked optic jaw sensor...I would do a reinstall before tinkering with the tick settings

Hey guys... was thinking of adding trees; but not too sure about what to use for a base? I stumbled upon these trees I just want to add six to 8 trees. https://www.amazon.com/Trounistro-Coconut-Miniature-Landscape-Architecture/dp/B07S23Q1WX/ref=asc_df_B07S23Q1WX/

I installed the head upgrade last week and had issues. One of the issues was the spacers. The other issue for me was the new trex wouldn't catch the ball as frequently. I went thru all the alignment procedures both mechanically and software wise. After reinstalling and tinkering for hours, I put the original jaw on with the new head. That fixed all the issues. I'm not sure if the original jaw is a little longer?? When I have more time, I will try to dive deeper into the issue. However, I can hardly tell the jaw is different and plays and looks amazing.

Here!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/140#post-5863800

If you did all that I would check the jaw test in the system settings and make sure that the jaw is just touching the ramp Lior did say that the profile was a little bit different on the new head so that may include the jaw and the point of touching for your specific machine... A quick and easy fix is to actually lower the vertical serial motor attachment screws on the back wall which will lower the travel of the jaw without touching the tick settings and that made just be enough to do the trick for you..

You may have to also loosen the four screws that hold the main head in place to allow you to lower the head just slightly to give slack to the vertical attachment plate

Thanks. I did all that already and it still sat a little higher off the ramp. The slots in the plate where the 4 screws are now maxxed out. I did not want to ream the plate out or modify anything that far from factory. I sent Lior an email. Next time I take out the mech, I want to compare the jaws. My original lines up perfectly.

Hi fellow JP:PE owners!!

Curious to hear some of your strategies when playing. Do you go for the CHAOS right away? Do you go for the Paddocks? The T-REX modes?

Where do you find yourself getting the most points?

I feel I am trying to do too many things at once and am not focused on progressing through the Paddock.

Also, I feel there are a lot of 'kill shots' (I think this is right term) that can send the ball straight to the outlanes / drain:

-Hitting the 'Lite Escape' target
-Either of the two posts in the raptor pit
-The door to the raptor pit
-Either two left ramp posts
-Either two right ramp posts
-Upper flipper guard post
-2x scoring target
-And a very common double bumper back-and-forth that seems to be the perfect balance to toss the ball into the outlanes

I know you gotta be spot on with your shots, but boy is it frustrating to be knocking on the raptor pit door only to have the ball shoot straight into the outlane.

Final question: what is your most difficult shot? For me it is the right ramp.

Its a love / hate relationship!

I just placed an order for Titan rubbers. I picked the normal first class shipping but hoping they arrive by this weekend so I have a little project I can work on.

I opted to go for the low bounce flipper rubbers based on feedback in here.