In relation to MET code. I would be on the side that it was done but at 8 mins on this video it's said otherwise. Curious to know what else they would add.

Modified my backbox to remove the fluorescent tube and replaced it with led strips. The center area has rgb color changing and fading effects. sides and bottom are blue, top is orange for fire area and green for metallica lettering, those are lit all the time. Really brightens and evens out the backbox lighting, particularly the outside edges.

Looks nice! Where do you draw the power from?

Could you post pics with the translight out and where you plug it in?

Yep, no problem. Power is pulled from the auxillary plug in the front of the cabinet. I have it hooked up two different ways, but off the same controller. One set is on all the time, other set has fading effects. It's a little complicated. There's a lot of soldering involved and in very small spaces.

The effects are very significant. Look how bright the outside edges are. Compare to a stock game.

I'm willing to make these for anyone who wants one, it's plug and play. Takes several hours to make and get right. I can also tie them to flashers if requested. Can be done to any stern.

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Wow, fantastic.

I would absolutely be interested in one for my SM. I got it in a trade, and there's some issue with the florescent tube. There were some hacks done, and I can't wrap my head around what they did. I was hoping to replace it with LED strips, and your setup blows away anything I'd be able to do on my own. I'd get better visual results and wouldn't have to troubleshoot the previous hacks.

Let me know what you think they'd cost, and thanks for offering up your service.

Could someone help me with my Sparky? Mine never seemed to shake much at the beginning of mb. On observation with the glass off, it rarely pulls the metal plate with the magnet on hits to Sparky and at start of mb. It does work correctly if I push back on the shoulder a bit. I don't see why, it just takes a little slack off the spring holding it to the metal plate that is grabbed by the magnet. Does that make sense?

Turn and retighten the coil spring so it oriented roughly 90 degrees from the bottom closer to the side of the chair.
This will increase the tension, and get him moving more violently.
If you really want to see him shake, use a slightly stiffer spring, but ensure it is the same size.

My Metallica has arrived safe and sound! Merry Christmas to me! This is what we work hard for. I am an official Metallica pro wooden backbox owner. What an awesome game! 600 plays on it since new. Looks like it's got most of the Cliffys' done. I guess the guy did LED's on this one. I had it set up played 2 games and installed the color DMD what a difference! I did one in my Monopoly and it was a huge difference but the Metallica color DMD really pops! I love it! I guess speakers and shaker motor will be first up for mods! Is there a color changing led flourcent tube for these? Be nice to just do something like a color changing tube for a quick and easy change. I know I want to get that out of there quick before it kills the translate and ribbon cables!

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Here's my translite mod...

Sparky's head is turned to his right, should be staring at ya while you play. Nice game!

The stock fluorescent bulb will not kill the translite or ribbon cables.

Thanks I'll fix him up!

Very nice now you just have to show me how you did it and where you got the parts!

You can get the parts on eBay, you need a 12v rgb strip, controller, remote and power supply, plus any individual color strips you want. Runs off the 12v plug in the game. The mod runs off two circuits, one to allow fading rgb (center area on met) and one so lights are always on. This requies either tapping off the controller or running a separate line and using a 12v splitter. The parts aren't expensive, rgb strip is about $12 and individual colors are about $10, foam poster board and some hardware, but it's very labor intensive and tedious. Takes 3-4 hours to make and there are at least 50 solder points. You need decent soldering skills as soldering wires to an rgb strip isn't that easy and if you screw it up, can take some time finding a short. The tube comes right out as do the brackets that hold it (1 screw)

We sell these on our website for modern non-spike games, but I'm happy to walk people through it if they want to do it themselves, just pm me.

http://lermods.com/p/custom-work

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Very nice. Get some magnet protectors and a sparky airball protector on there pronto!

I see we are related!

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I think I have the Sparky plastic protector already? Here is a pic of my Sparky is that it on top of his feet? I have the Cliffy set just looks like I need the magnet protectors only. I'll have to see if I can just order those.

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Merry Xmas guys!

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My custom made sparky!

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Nope, the extended protector actually makes a big difference. I have a clear one, because I like it to look like he is just sitting there, but two posts beneath yours is a busy fluorescent one that almost looks like shackles around his ankles.

I was wondering if anyone can tell me what distributor you got your Met from. Who would you recommend? Is Met premium still available?

Lastly can u buy confident in the quality coming from stern right now?

Merry Christmas everyone

Your close to Cointaker so check them out.

MET premium/pro are still available new and will be as the license has been renewed.
If you were considering one in box, you have a week before prices go up in 2017.
I used JJ at game exchange of CO, others have reliable distributors as well.

+1 for JJ gexchange.
He has a thread on pinside and keeps his stock updated frequently.
I bought a SMVE earlier this year. It was in stock. Had it in hand cross country in a week.

+1 for JJ as well, in before the increase on Metallica pro. JJ is easy to deal with.

How much are they raising the prices on a met pro next year?!

Do you know who sells the extended protector? I saw a guy on here was making them but he don't have them anymore.

Pinbits. I don't have it, but thinking about it.

https://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_74&products_id=630&zenid=7303c06b0f747191d12df812953b44a7

I'd suspect 300.. I think that's about what the last increase was... and the one before...

I wonder if it would be possible to mod a met to use newer style magnets.

A follow up: I tried increasing the tension of the spring but that didn't work at all. The plate would just flex the spring but Sparky would not shake. The spring needs slack otherwise Sparky is always pulled back against the chair. I tried bending the metal stop of the swing arm toward the magnet. It seemed like I was just making things worse but somehow I found the sweet spot where it all worked. I'm not sure why mine is so sensitive.

What do you mean?

Like walking dead or imve... I'm sure It can be done but the bigger question is: do you really wanna drill a hole into your pf that big?!

Every game is a little different.
The Sparky coil is essentially a coin lockout coil that is used for a different purpose.
The "flap" or coil plate is part of the equation which you figured out.
It has to be far enough away from the coil to provide movement, but the spring rebound remains critical in order to get the body bouncing.
It is a two part process.
That is the reason if a stiffer spring is used, the plate has to be bent slightly away from the coil in order for movement to be maintained.

Good to see you found your game's perfect position.

Magnet cores?
They are the same that have been used for nearly every game Stern has made since 2001.
They are nearly identical to DE ones, and those used by WMS games.
Sometimes the threading was slightly different, but that was about it.
The ring solenoid assemblies are also identical based on composition and have been since all the way back into the early 1980s.

I am just curious as well.

I think he's talkin about ones like these

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Just installed a color dmd and it flickers of the wrong colors every once in a while! What the heck?!? Besides that.. frikkin awesome!Haha.. but what should I do?!?!

What Met firmware version are you running and what ColorDMD firmware version are you running? You should be running the latest 1.7 code and the latest ColorDMD rom to match it and have no flickering.

I was on V1.6 and no issues with my color DMD just upgraded today to V1.7 and still good. Might be a loose connection or something. I did some blue LED's along the back board since I was playing it

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make sure that you're running a matched version of the game's software and the colordmd's firmware (eg. 1.70 and 1.70

there have been small changes (eg. fixes) to the way that colordmd colors the game and if the versions don't match, then it could potentially cause some weird artifacting like you've noticed

Reading about firmware 1.70 reminded me that I should update my Metallica code. I tried doing this but the machine does not seem to recognize that there is a USB stick inserted. The screen reads "INSERT USB MEMORY STICK". I re-formatted the stick to FAT-32 but still nothing. Has anybody ran into this? Any ideas?

I'm looking for a MOPLE in California. PM me if you have any leads, thx

did you flip switch no. 8 on the cpu / sound pc board?
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once you do that, the machine should recognize any flash drive in the usb port and menu instructions will step you through the process

if you need more help, JimBoSS made a youtube video on the steps to update the firmware in your machine:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-update-code-on-stern-sam-pinball-machine

I did flip dip switch 8. Still nothing. When I insert the USB stick, a green light lights up. This leads me to believe that the machine recognizes that there is indeed a USB in there. However, it never advances from this screen.

Side note: I can also not back up data to a USB. No USB functionality seems to work. I have tried multiple sticks as well.

Easiest thing first. Try a different USB stick.

Make sure it's clear of everything but the file.

I went thru hours of frustration trying to install my last colordmd. I was so set in my ways, I kept naming the file " colordmd.rom" , as I always have. It kept saying something like " no USB recognized", I tried several memory sticks and eventually learned that the newer chroma boards require something else at the end instead of "colordmd.rom". It has to be named Chroma.rom.First try after I changed it and it worked.

I think he's updating the machine's code, not Colordmd.

Also, if you have tried different usb sticks, are they 8gb or smaller?

Thanks all. I hate it when the solution is something so obvious. I tried 3 different sticks and ran into the same failure. I asked my gf if she has a USB stick and hers worked fine on the first try. I inspected the different sticks and the only difference is the capacity. The one that worked was 8 GB and the ones that did not work are all 16 GB or greater. Anyways, as always, I appreciate all the help!

Yep. I don't know if it officially says to use 8gb or smaller in the upload instructions, but that comes up a lot.