Fab. I'd fallen a few pages behind on this thread and yesterday, I read your initial unanswered post of two weeks ago. I thought I'd better read to the latest post to check nobody replied. Nobody did. And then you bump it. Good job.

I have precisely the same issue, under the same circumstances, happening around 50% of the time. It just suddenly started and never went away. Often the most frequent way I make this crucial shot is a lucky bounce! Certainly the slower the balls travel, the easier it goes in. Stop it. Quiet at the back please.

While I'm at it, I'm not sure the top scoop shot is held as much as I'd like. I whack my balls (I said stop it) up the right orbit thinking "That's the money shot, right there. No way is that not staying." and guess what? It jumps back out. I'd say around 10% of the time.

So, sorry Greaseman I have no answer. But I share your pain. We're not really helping by not posting a video are we? You do it. I'm away from the LZ pinball home for a few days.

This is only a guess but usually there would be a switch to let the pin know the EM is in the down position and another to let the pin know it's up. You should see this in the switch test as the EM cycles. Also check the EM spinner opto and make sure the spinner is not blocking the opto at it's rest position.

I would add most times this would be due to a loose connection. Reseat cables at the EM and if that doesn't do it follow cables to node board and reseat those as well. I just fixed my EHOH doing a continuous cycling at the graveyard. A connection was visibley half way off.

Here's the slow motion video of left scoop reject. This was from a right flipper cradle.

Thanks to Hay for video posting instructions and to rb14 for sharing the pain with me. Seriously, I was struggling to believe that no one else was having this same issue.

I fired it up again last night (after avoiding it for a bit), and sure enough - reject city. Hit several shots from the right cradle and had about 2/3 get rejected, including one when extra ball was lit - that one ganked out and ended up going SDTM. I turned off the machine.

No way a slow ball like that should eject. Try unplugging up kicker solenoid and make sure plunger is returning to rest position and not sticking 1/2 way up. Hand toss a ball into hole with machine off. You can manually push the plunger to eject ball. If that seems to work OK you might make the "ball on" switch less sensitive so the ball settles deeper before triggering.

This is the trigger switch. If it won't depress easily or is simply up too high it will cause your problems. You might remove the hamster trail for access or it may be easier to remove the mechanism from below.

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Does look like its rattling around instead of locking in. Is the rail not guiding it to the center maybe?

Any decent Apron Cards around?
The print is so small on the factory ones I can't read it anyway.
Looking for Art or Album covers. It's my game, so I don't need Freeplay card either.

Post 1122 starts a bunch of Zep cards on the following thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/custom-apron-cards-printable-versions-only

So I was feeling pretty good about my 800+ million and my buddy comes over and puts up a 24X Icarus and gets over 4 Billion with the help of a huge mothership. Crazy.

Fun game.
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Finally received my topper yesterday and today I finally cracked the billion!

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Wow…well done. I’ve had this game for months now and My best is 375 mil And I can barely crack 200 mil on a good day. This game kicks my ass up and down daily…. Haha What the hell Am I doing wrong!?

So thats the secret,I will order a topper today.

No topper likely the issue here.

I have a topper ordered and I’m looking forward to the skill bump that will come with it.

Haha Maybe you guys are on to something. My scores haven’t been all that great since my topper broke. I’m at GAP right now picking up some HD Glass and was told I’ll have my replacement topper next week. Hoping for some improvement in my scoring!

That explains it. I always thought the toppers were kinda expensive, but I didn't realize the additional benefits of automatic skill improvements. Thanks for sharing. . I guess I need a topper at this point because after 2 weeks 400M is my best. .

Had topper since day one. Yet to break 600 mil. Will be getting a Shaker motor this afternoon I will let you know if that helps!

I did shaker Motor and real Knocker and my scores improved. I haven't broken 750mil yet thou.

maybe you’ve been getting the bump the whole time and just don’t realize it because you started already leveled up. This is psychology.

Race to 1 bil? I've been trying daily!

your topper may be defective

I also have the shooter rod, maybe that combined with the topper as well as the hermit is the secret!

you mean my highscore is less than another players bad ball ?

Any consolation, my high score is close to one of your bad balls...

In full disclosure I’m yet to break 100 million. My best game ever is worse than a pros bad ball.

And I was just going to post that I was so happy to beat my high score of 803 million and got 1 325 000 000 and then i read this. Thanks for the ego deflation. Haha

New to this game and came here looking for this. I'm having the same issue. If I hit a decent right orbit shot, it bounces out a decent percentage. If I want to try for the lock, it's better if I just hit it in the bumpers and "hope".

If someone gets an answer....

Same problem here, I posted on this same thread a couple weeks ago, but got few responses and none that would help...yesterday I wrote to Stern tech support. Here's my e-mail:

"Good morning,

I bought a new Led Zeppelin Premium in the Spring and it has developed issues at the top lock (saucer): 80-90 percent of the shots up the right orbit get rejected...meaning, the ball immediately bounces out of the saucer without registering. The only time the pinball consistently settles in the saucer is from a week shot up the right orbit, or when the jets direct the ball into the saucer.

Weirdly enough, in the first several dozen plays, the saucer didn't have this problem, and shots up the right orbit would consistently settle in the saucer and register the shot. I tried changing the playfield pitch but this has made no difference.

As you might imagine, this is frustrating. Just last night, I was on song 9 and 'change song' was lit; but then three shots up the right orbit were rejected at the saucer, and then the ball drained.

I'm writing to ask if this is a problem you've encountered before, and if there is a recommended solution. My thought is to remove the entire mechanism below the saucer, and reattach it with some washers under the play field so it 'sits' lower in the saucer, with the idea that the ball would settle lower in the saucer and be less likely to bounce out. But, I'm open to suggestions if there's a better way."

So it seems I'm not alone.

Are y'alls shots being rejected at the gate or the saucer?

Chalkey asks a good question about whether your shots are getting rejected at the gate or saucer. Take a look at my post #5714 - it may help.

***EDIT***

So I had been quite sure it was the saucer, because the hard/cleaner the shot, the more likely it was to reject...so my assumption had been that the harder shots were more likely to skate along the edge and hit the saucer, while weaker shots wore more likely to lose momentum and float down towards the gate.

But...your question prompted me to make a video [which I'll soon edit and post] which proves that yes...it actually *is* rejecting off the gate.

I stand corrected!!! Thank you!!!!

That said, how do it fix it?

All the metal guide/rubbers just to the right of the saucer and everything there appears to be in order. So what could be causing this?

Incidentally, WRT post 5714, it doesn't look like I'm getting airballs up the right orbit before the ball heads to the saucer. But I'll try making some more videos and using slo-mo to confirm.

Okay, I made a video...I shot the right orbit repeatedly, and edited out all the dead space, so I have a video that just shows a series of shots up the right orbit. Most get rejected. The first two and a half minutes show approximately 22 shots at regular speed, and then the video shows the same shots at half speed. The half speed video is revealing. Although the rejects vary, there is one thing that seems to happen consistently: a solid right orbit shot skates across the rubber along the top of the playfield, and then strikes the metal guide just above the saucer...from there, the ball ricochets downwards into the gate for the reject (examples at 7:07, 8:20 and 9:24). Even some of the balls that don't get rejected seem to bounce off the ball guide above the saucer and then ricochet off the gate, but the gate sometimes bounces them into the saucer.

Based on this, I see two possible fixes: bend the ball guide above the saucer upwards to reduce the angle of downward ricochet, or bend the gate wireform to try and get the ball to bounce upwards into the saucer instead of away from the saucer.

But, I'm open to better ideas...I'm not sure "bending" metal is the best solution.

Hard to say what exactly is going on there. But I would say one thing is clear. The problem is that the ball is not coming through the area just before the controlled gate at a consistent angle. Sometimes it is hugging the ball guide and it seems to do fine. Other times it seems to be banking off the ball guide and then it goes too low to make the scoop. Maybe some slow mo video of the area near the end of the orbit would shed some light on this?

I think I found the inspiration for Ick on a Stick

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I think the first thing I would try is to loosen the vertical post that the rubber is on and justify it as far south as possible, then retighten and see if that removes the gap that is causing the ball to strike the metal guide. If that doesn't take care of it I feel like a bend to the metal guide might be the only way to make a smooth transition, barring some kind of modification to the rubber someone smarter than me comes up with. Conversion to a different style post maybe?

Tips needed on how to get to a Billion on Led (Premium Edition)?

As a average player, I struggle to get past 300,000+ on my best games after 3 weeks using all of the out of the box settings. I know that the first answer is to get better, but I would like to get some suggestions from those who break 1 billion. It seems like there are 3 main components to a high score - 1) Keeping the ball in play 2) Getting as many extra balls as possible. 3) Knowing what are the accomplishments that will drive the highest score and obviously being able to hit those targets.

I have looked at the rules at a couple of different places, but they really don't describe the strategy to maximize scoring.

What are the first 5 things that you try to accomplish to get higher bonuses and scores? The good news is that even though I stink - I love playing this pin.

Thanks

It's all about timing your icarus multiplier with multiballs and getting those extra balls from the tour modes.. THIS GAME IS BRUTAL. I've put around 800 games or so and still havent broke 500 mil.

There's no magic combination. What it takes is a solid knowledge of the whole rule set. Let me ask you a few questions:

1: Are you attempting and achieving add-a-ball on most every MB?
2: Do you understand how to get the center shot lit for almost endless shots during Kashmir?
3: Are you listening to the songs so that you know when the guitar solo is about to begin to start looping the center shot?
4: Are you trying to change songs at the top scoop as soon as it becomes available(5 gold records).
5: Are you using MB's to help make song shots?
6: Do you know which song has the longest guitar solo? (It's R&R)
7: Are you able to backhand the spinner? The left ramp? The right ramp?(not possible on all LZ's)
8: How often are you getting to EM Frenzy?(big points possible)
9: Do you have a good understanding of the green and red functions of the button?(in both MB and single ball play)
10: Do you have a good understanding of how Icarus X is built up and activated?(not activating it by accident is important)

You'll notice most of my questions involve the songs. Yes, the multiballs can be good for points. But completing songs gets you to the wizard modes where the really big points are.

Thanks for this! This is very helpful. I found Raymond Davidson’s YouTube videos to be really helpful. I’m still not good but I think I understand most aspects of the game based on that. I’m just bad at pinball. I need to go back and watch how he backhands shots as that is something I find to be difficult. I also think that slowing down my play style a bit would be helpful. Those combos seem to demand that you be intentional with the shots you take, but I think the amount of time given to continue a combo is fair.

Thanks for a great detailed list LOTR_breath . Since I scored about a 10-20 on your quiz, you have given me a good homework assignment for this week. I have focused more on the multi balls than the song aspects but I will start working on improving my song strategy.

All of this is great advice. The first week I owned the game I played it a lot and couldn’t break 200 mil. I finally figured out how important it is to use that repeating center shot and also maximize multiballs and frenzy bonuses with icarus. That got me up to 800 mil and Mothership multiball for the first time.

My next goal is 1 bil but I need to learn the rules for Mothership, I pretty much wasted it.

My buddy has an early run premium and has been having issues with the electric magic. Spinner getting stuck/not spinning freely, electric magic sometimes staying up/not lowering properly. He’s on the most current code. Has anyone else had these issues, and what was the resolution with Stern?

Ray Day’s tutorial is priceless .He really explains the rules in a way where I understand him completly .Others it seems they’re expecting you to know most of it and skip a lot .Ray Day’s my guy going forward .

His tutorial has upped my game immensely .

if you go to the top of the page and do a search for spinner problems you will get a lot of really good usable answers.for instance on old style straighten and flip your spinner,lightly lubricate the spinner,Stern replacing the spinner and sometimes the whole spinner mech.checking em is level and more

many helpful photos as well