Had the same issue when I first set mine up, it did that ever game.... the ball seemed to move back and forth a lot (now the ball is a bit more stable) when the spinner came back up. Think it auto detected a hit with the optos? I have no idea what I changed other than fixing the spinner, but it stopped doing it. Maybe the ball became more magnetized IDK.

It's supposed to give you like 5 or 10 seconds? to hit the second lock before it starts EM multiball. Or give you a chance to knock it out of the center

So the only time you we be trying to knock it out is when no ball is locked correct?

Ball raises and second ball in play and timer expired.

Just want to know how to replicate scenario to test it.

So I just tried to see how my em is behaving

I locked ball on em went below and second ball was in play and trapped and held until em raised and before I could even flip the ball at the em to hit the ball it was released, just dribbles out.

Either the magnet isn’t holding the ball enough or the timer is only a second or so.

Just tried em magnet hold power at 35/50/75/85 and didn’t make a difference. Just see more ball wobble prior to releasing. It seems regardless of hold power it’s only holding the ball 2-3 seconds max and just releases.
Don’t see a way to hit it with the ball to knock it off and doesn’t appear to be a setting for how long it holds it.

Not sure, I email Stern asking them to explain the operating logic of the EM.

I would think to function as a captive ball it would need to be held for like 10 seconds.

So there is a difficulty setting and tried that too and all that does is change how many times you need to hit the targets to start the mode. Still releases almost immediately.

I’m going to bet it’s a coding thing and all the games are doing this but just don’t realize it.

On on factory defaults

easiest scenario no balls locked while EM down.

It’s 4-5 seconds and release of ball with pulse of shaker.

Doesn’t seem like much time to hit a captive ball and I can’t imagine it’s suppose to be captive during a 3-4 ball mb.

I hope they can make any ball going SDTM from the EM return to the playfield. I've had a good game going then the ball enter from the EM rear then SDTM, end of game. They could change that in coding, seems to already do that in EM multiball.

This seems like it was because the spinner wasn't spinning freely. So instead of the spinner settling on top of the ball, it was in front of the ball and kind of pushing it backwards. Just a theory...

Well I just went back and watched Ray D’s stream from yesterday and his machine acted the same way as mine and what people are reporting. I’m going to assume it’s normal.

He didn’t lock any balls in the scoops for EM and when it came up released ball on its own after 4-5 seconds.

Anyone have a video of it being held and hit as a captive ball?

Again, you can *hear* the opto switch register hits when the ball oscillates, the game plays a sound effect as a result. Sometimes it registers hits enough to fool the game into thinking you hit the captive ball, sometimes it doesn't. I'm not sure how it is coded, but a single hit doesn't appear to be enough - maybe it's on a timer and the ball has to be gone from the center opto for a minimum amount of time for multiball to start, or something of the sorts.

Anyway mine can go both ways, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesen't, but it is clearly supposed to hold the ball always - I can try to record videos of both behaviors showing it clearly.

If you don't lock a ball in either of the scoops, then that is the normal behavior. After the hurry-up runs out, the EM raises back up and releases the ball and MB begins..

If you do lock a ball, then the EM should raise back up and hold the ball during the second phase of the hurry-up. You can then choose to knock the ball off the magnet, OR lock a ball in the other scoop. If you successfully lock a ball in the second scoop, then the EM releases the ball and MB begins.

I will try this and video it.

So I just tested this and once ball is taken below the second ball is launched. Hit either scoop ball held and em rises and almost simultaneously ball ejects from scoop, third ball launches and ball released from em. No time to shirt third ball into scoop while second is in other scoop and certainly no time to hit the captive ball.

Now another possibility is can the launch of third ball be breaking ball free of magnet or the pulse of shaker? Doesn’t really matter though since ball is ejected from scoop at same time.

Can you post video of ball held on the em with balls locked?

My buddy has a Premium, the EM spinner keeps getting stuck horizontally and won’t spin freely. Has anyone had this issue and corrected it? If so, how?

Is there an easy way to remove the spinner? After reading through some posts, it seems like a problem with the spinner target arms getting bent.

This is the original spinner problem Steve commented about - brackets on which the spinner hangs need to be bent outwards.

try it with shaker motor disabled. I am able to lock balls in the ejects most of the time as it counts down. I believe the countdown starts at 16 seconds and resets after you lock the first one. If I shake the machine it will kick the ball out of EM, like I hit it even though I did not.

Can do one tomorrow if someone doesn't beat me to it, but LOTR_breath has the logic down on what it's supposed to do.

Make sure you don't have competition mode enabled in settings, that was another issue I was having from a previous post. I couldn't figure it out, didn't occur to me that it would interfere with the EM mech. I thought it was mainly for making awards even for multiplayer games. It also nerfed the the X40 multiplier to X20 max in star wars which was awesome. is there a list somewhere of the changes that get made?

Anyone feel like the EM mech is over-used? I mean once, maybe twice a game would be good I suppose but 4, 5, 6 times in the same game is too many imo.

you may be right,I am a horrible player but enjoy it as much as most.It does seem to pop up frequently but I still have a lot of rules and strategies to learn here

Where are the accessories (topper, shooter rod, armor)? I see shooter knobs already on Ebay.

i would like to see photos of zepp owners self maid toppers ,mines in the works.probably could spend a couple hundred bucks on materials and make something cool.i cant imagine the price of a store bought topper these days

I recently upped my EM Led Zep difficulty to Hard. On medium it still came up way too often. On Hard it actually still comes up too often, but I can deal with it.

Ha! I have mine on hard as well but it seems to come up just as much. Maybe they'll dial it back a bit in code updates. Seems to come up every time I'm in a good song combo groove.

Maybe Stern needs to just fix the fuckin spinner and not the code.

I’ll give it a try but if it’s the shaker how will they correct that? Code it so shaker doesn’t go off I guess?
I cranked the magnet hold power up to 85 and didn’t help at all.

I don’t even have a shaker on my premium and the EM can’t hold the ball when it raises up so…

Well different f’n people work on f’n mechs than on the f’n code.

Didn’t make a difference turned off so that isn’t the issue.

It really seems like a timing issue, it released the damn ball before the new ball in shooter lane was even launched or ejected from scoop.

It is also impossible to lock a ball in each scoop before it releases.

Honestly don’t know because I didn’t really know the full logic of shot options for it.

Hopefully someone else can answer this though. Just seems odd that adjusting magnet strength doesn’t make a difference either.

On the plus side at least my spinner isn’t acting up.

Hi. Just got my LE and love it. 10 games and I noticed that the electric magnet plastic on left side catches a bit when lowering leaving it slightly above the playfield as a jump ramp and keeps it stuck during electric magic modes. I take the glass off and pull it to the right snd it pops back into place. It will be fine for awhile and then do it again. It seems that it will position itself to the left snd thats when a jam occurs.

Has anyone else had this occur and found a simple fix? I could try sanded down the left side of the plastic but that seems extreme.

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No No No, just the thought of sanding makes me cringe. We will walk you through it, probably need to remove entire assembly and flip it or tighten connections? There have been a couple of others that have had the same issue. Try and fix it before you play it and do more damage, you do not want balls to strike the top plastic and do not want air-balls. It should sit flush with playfield, may want to read up on this thread and may have luck reversing and tightening all connections on assembly. Keep us posted and if you do not have any success for a fix you may reach out to Pablo at Stern.

Can the EM ball release issue be ball being magnetized?

I’ve noticed some odd directional changes when ball rolls over the metal bezel.

Could be some English on the ball but sometimes it really changes the ball path.

My game is playing really fast now. Added more tri-flow to spinner(have not had one issue) waxed with Blitz which I feel made a big difference because I could literally feel rough patches throughout playfield? Finally just swapped out my factory balls for Silver Jets and it may be the placebo effect but I can swear it feels faster and smoother? My pitch is also 7+
I turned to difficult for EMS and then my children and wife complained about not being able to see the EMS, so I turned it back down to easy. If they can tweak some of the timing it may help with the ball holds, mech rising and lowering and initiation of multi-ball. One thing I dislike is plunging the ball and having it dribble into EMS from behind starting the multi-ball, still would like to shoot from flippers.

Or have the magnet hold until it reaches flippers? It seems like you sneeze and the ball comes loose?

If I need to raise the right side of em plastic a mm or two what screws do I need to adjust from bottom side?

I received the drum stick flipper toppers and custom engraved drumsticks from ULEK and he did a fantastic job making them. The drumstick toppers really tie in well with the theme and the drumstick adds a nice touch of respect and remembrance for John Bonham, and fits perfect on the side rail (easily removable with Velcro).

Thank you so much ULEK! You are a Rock star and you made my day!

Now I have to figure out what ones I like the best? The blue and gold or gold and black?(leaning towards blue and gold)
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The drumstick flipper toppers look flippin amazing! I am really happy with the way they turned out!

If you are interested in a set of flipper toppers or custom drumsticks-contact ULEK @ https://www.ulekstore.com/
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Just wanted to show off some pictures of my new mods for Led Zep. I have a pinside shop Space Coast Pinball and will be selling these for the time being. From the first day I got the machine, I noticed the ugly diverter mech on backboard and figured someone needed to make a dress up kit. Eventually after designing and 3D printing just a cover, I made two more versions of increasing complexity to fill the whole corner. So there is the basic cover only, cover with nice looking wood Gibson guitar and the deluxe version with guitar and my custom designed, hand painted, 3D printed Zosa amp.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1312-space-coast-pinball/by-game/2932-stern-led-zeppelin-le

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After the latest software update mine does this too. It used to hold the ball until I knocked it out, now it just releases it, ... kind of stupid, I hope this changes back with the next release.

So cool and professional, I place an order right away