Hey all, just got this in my collection. Picked up a AIQ Pro. I have noticed my plunger does not launch the ball around the back orbit ramp but the button launch will. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Lots of info in this forum if you keyword search “plunge around” or something similar. Main thing with figuring it out is to take slow motion video from above as the ball goes down the shooter lane and enters the orbit.

If it enters the orbit cleanly but doesn’t make it around then try a stronger plunger spring.

If the ball isn’t going straight down the shooter lane ramp and is hitting the ball guide in the orbit and slowing down then look to see if the plunger is aligned properly. If it is then look to see where the ball is going off course and adjust the shooter lane ramp to counter it so the ball will enter the orbit cleanly.

Key is to figure out what the issue is with video then adjust accordingly depending on the issue.

A spinner can get knocked by an airball and need to be adjusted. If it’s working we’ll after you adjusted it then you should be all set.

I just made this adjustment myself ; what eagle has said is all great and sound advice ;

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Also look at the key post second to last one down or last one ;

I did exactly as he did in the thread and I’m very happy right now..

All the info you need on this is on Post #7243 or key post that says “ball launch fix”

awesome1 has done an excellent job in making a guide to fix this issue and I did everything he suggested and now I have a perfect scenario. I even upgraded my coil as he did.

I believe upgrading to the red spring really made the biggest difference as far as manual plunges I can get 100% success rate around the ramp to right flipper about 95% success rate with auto plunger.

Keep in mind though if you upgrade to the stronger spring, especially the red one it’s crazy, strong tension and it’s a lot harder to get the super secret skill shot but I would rather have a go around to the right flipper every time anyways…

Let us know how it goes and good luck.

Anyone near zip 19464? I may have a free mod for you. PM me.

Forgot to post in this group the other day... anyone on the fence about trying the PoMC custom AIQ comic code, I tried it and really like it!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/avengers-infinity-quest-custom-comic-code-106#post-7480050

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So I rebuilt the spinner post today with parts ordered from Marco’s. Thanks to everyone here who provided help and advice. I also took the opportunity to level and adjust disc as it was sticking up a bit above the playfield. It does seem like it’s not spinning as quickly as before not sure if that’s normal. I did adjust the gap and ran the diagnostic to confirm the field level was above 300

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I also fixed some missing screws on the posts holding the plastics around the Black Widow ramp. Since I had to remove the ramp I took the opportunity to clean and inspect everything back there and noticed this post (see pictures) near the popper that seems like it should have something attached. Does anything go here or is that normal on the Pro?

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I also replaced the balls. Too early to tell, but I feel overall like I have more control overall. Things don’t feel so chaotic but not sure that makes any sense.

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That post has nothing attached (either pro or premium, they're the same in that area.) Nobody knows why it ended up that way, but it's normal.

Thanks. That is odd, but good to know. I now want to give it a purpose though

Works good for attaching the Captain America shield mod… I think from Mezel mods…

I will agree, the code is very good! I needed to write it from Pinball Browser for it to work…

I was busy and missed PoMC ‘s work. Just relooked and pretty darn impressive! I have been on Pinside for years and remember him from back in the day. Glad to see he is still around and doing cool stuff like this.

Richter1019 I am actually getting ready to try it out, I pulled the memory card out. Do I just keep the one that I pulled out the way it is and use a seperate memory card? Or can I just overwrite the one I pulled out from the machine?

Also if I do need a second memory card the one I have is a ADATA MLC SDHC #1 I 8 GB

Do I need to get a exact same one? Or can I juse any 8 gb card?

I would keep the one you have as is and just get another one for custom code in case anything doesn’t work you have a good one to fall back on.

I’d also try to match the specs of the current one as close as possible.

Kinda shocked that the plastic guard for my marvel ramp has cracked in like 5-6 different places typical spider crack

You don’t want to overwrite the original. You can swap them out, nice to have options. You just need a class 10 card with 16 GB is what I have…

Wow. That looks amazing. Love the coin door art

Just updated using the PoMC, freaking game changer. So freaking good

Glad to hear it! PoMC and Spiders are really cool! Enjoy switching between them. I should really leave a tip. What is acceptable here??

Thanks so much for your post!

I just discovered I had an inner opto issue on my machine as well. I was worried it was bad so I tested it and nothing. I decided to pull it so I could check the board light and that seemed fine. While it was out I connected it and tested by breaking the beam and sure enough it registered fine. So I put it back in and tested again and no go. Definitely an alignment issue. The left hole on the plate had a little play so I loosened the screws a bit with it in test mode and adjusted it until it was registering reliably and then locked it in. Everything is working as it should. Thought I’d share in case this info helps others,

Twice this week, after completing the Battle Royale, normal flipper pause, drain, then animation: the game went into “ball find” and ended the turn. Super annoying. Not sure if bug or unfortunate situation. Completed BR on Hulk too…(early Wasp and good use of space/mind gem to get multiple level 2 booms)

Bug. Ending Battle Royale should never end your ball. I've seen this several times too and haven't figured out what causes it. I think it's a timing bug based on exactly when the ball hits the trough. If I'm paying attention to react quick enough, what I do is open the coin door quickly (I keep the keys in the lock) and manually push the trough eject to put a ball in the shooter lane.

Great idea! I use coin door pause often….not sure why i didn’t think of that. Thanks!

I've run into this phenomenon a few times as well. I usually didn't realize what was happening in time to try the coin door trick. Hopefully I'll think of that next time!

I've actually had the reverse happen on earlier code - after finishing the mini game version of Battle Royale, the game kept playing. I reported it as a bug and it was fixed in the next update.

Seems like there is still a bug in there somewhere with the mode.

Long post SUMMARY: Black widow rejects..

I was watching Karl play avengers and I was astonished how easy he is hitting the black widow ramp from either flipper;

Unless I have the ball cradled I have zero chance in making it ; If the ball is rolling down the inlane and I go for black widow it goes half way up the ramp and rejects;

Even when I cradle it and shoot the ball barely has enough power to get up there;

I’ve cleaned game thoroughly
Replaced coil stops
Checked flippers and angles
I’ve done almost everything as I had this issue before ;

Keep in mind I’m new ;

I think the issue is my game pitch is too high, because by the captain Marvel ramp, and in the middle, it said 7.0 but at the flippers 6.3;(I’ve since lowered the back two pegs)

I’m thinking of it’s readjusting and lowering the back two levels so around the middle and top of the playfield I’ll get 6.5 but at the bottom it will read 6.0ish;

Does this make sense or can anyone chime in; the black widow shot is giving me hell when it should be a gimme every time….

Any ideas welcome I feel like after watching others play the game something is definitely wrong with my game or setup!

Many thanks for the suggestion friends

The Bubble in the game is little help it’s always in the middle …

Attached are pics of different readings

6.2 at flipper 6.8 middle 6.5 near black widow ramp

Why is it so variable ? Maybe the level I have is super sensitive or something; I thought the pitch should be constant on a slope ?

Kinda out of ideas it’s a super bummer because that shot set up all my combos and can barley hit it 15% of the time same percentage in marvel ramp; I’m getting to the point where I’m going to Have to call a tech for $150 an hour but what would he do that I haven’t..

Any ideas or thoughts welcome

Many thanks I’m hoping I can get this fixed
With your help !

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If you grab each lower flipper around the base and pull up, do they both feel the same / "clunk" the same? The right flipper on my pro did not / felt mushy vs. a clean clunk and when I addressed that (adjusted angle of the EOS actuator arm thinger when tightening down the crank arm screw) I definitely had more snap on the right flipper. Was not able to hit the widow ramp from an inlane feed before - only from a trap, but I could afterwards.

(This also started more fun airballs from my sanctum target when hit with the right flipper, including randomly hopping up onto the return rail)

No issues with my flippers that I can see or tell both seem same ; but maybe I should switch node board 8 out as a last resort tests that’s what Stern told me;

Making the pitch shallower helped a little still sick of these half way up rejects

Is it because there's not enough power to get up the ramp, or is it because it's clunking around inside the ramp?

I have the latter problem on mine and never been able to solve it.

Cleaning and waxing does *not* help - instead it visibly makes the problem worse, and the Widow rejects get better when I haven't cleaned in a while.

I'm pretty sure the cause is that the ball is going too fast and hitting the roof of the ramp, so it loses momentum to fall back down. I haven't figured out any adjustment to the roof cover to do anything about it, though. It seems like the roof wants to be higher (at least half an inch), but it can't be raised like that because it sticks through a hole in the back panel.

My problem is there is nearly not even close enough power to get off the ramps; 90% of the time it goes up half way or 3/4 way and SDTM rejects ;

I’ve tried so many fixes something is definitely up especially after watch dead flip and other online players hit that shot with ridiculous ease if that happened on my game I’ll be the happiest person on earth ;

Every time I get this issue, I wax, then it’s gone. When I adjusted flipper angles, all I could hit was Widow and Gauntlet. Have you waxed, and can we get a pic of the flipper angle’s please…

I'm at 6.8° ~ 7.0° and have no issues making any shots from a roll. In my case waxing does help on AIQ. I very rarely will get a reject from Black Widow ramp like Vikingerik mentions, usually just after waxing when ball speed is the fastest. You could potentially heat that plastic with a hair dryer and flex it upward a little.

If your flippers are underpowered and you have replaced coil stops and the actual mechs look fine, you can verify in the settings that the power is turned all the way up and then check the voltages going to the coils are correct. Otherwise, you could go to stronger coils or the aluminum Precision Flippers are definitely stronger than stock. I don't have them on AIQ though.

Here's my latest AIQ video (I have others as well), just to show you some game play on my AIQ.

I don’t wax my games but I just clean them with the Marco appliance cleaner that’s blue.

Here’s a picture of my flippers to me. They are dead on the center. It may appear off a little bit because of the angle you can see they’re not totally really off.

Seems like my percentage, for the captain Marvel ramp is also awful

I just took down some attempts and scores. Take a look at this.

Black widow attempts 30/ success 15(mostly all cradled)

Marvel ramp attempts 15 success 5

Also issues with the hitting the gauntlet with the left flipper…

Do you think I should try dropping the back pedestals a little bit more even though it’s at 6.6;

let me stay that the black widow Misses. aren’t even close to making it up the ramp.mostly on a roll…

I don’t know what else say beyond frustrating been dealing with this a while…

If my flipper power was just a little stronger, it would be perfect

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Wow, thank you so much for the response in video. Your game is totally playing different than mine. I can’t believe how fast it shoots up your Ramps.. I’m genuinely upset .

Let me ask your expertise on some thing I upgraded to the stronger coil(700 one) from my auto launcher and have the setting on Max and still 70% of the balls are only making it to the left flipper still getting rejects there so maybe it is related to my flipper power I don’t know…

Flipper power is maxed all the way around auto Eject power is max all the way around. I check for stupid things. Everything else seems to be in order.

Play field has just been cleaned and wipe down and is spotless and fast…

Thank you for input

On the auto launch power, I actually have mine turned down a bit once I went to the stronger coil. So maybe try reducing there to see if it gets more consistent.

On AIQ (I don't use it on all my games, but in my case it helps on AIQ) I use this Turtle Wax 53477 Hybrid Solutions Pro Flex Wax, Graphene Spray Wax. Now some "purists" will scream only use Carnauba wax, but I've tried many waxes through the years and this stuff is great in my opinion and super easy to use and cleans up with no residue. I spray onto a microfiber towel to apply to the playfield and then use another microfiber towel to wipe and buff off.

Not too expensive, but not super cheap, but could always be used on a car (works great there too! ), etc if you don't like it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08P53V7KN/

Thank you !

Yeah, I actually have been following your post religiously and set the power originally to 230 but we’re still getting rejects that’s why I upped it to the max;

I will give that wax a try, but I am a bit leery of waxing on a machine; I currently use the Marco specialties, complete appliance cleaner and polish and it does a great job and makes the playfield , silky smooth and cleans ;

My distributor and Tech both said do not use wax ; I honestly don’t know enough about it but I don’t think that will completely solve this issue I’m having, although it may help.

Plan Z once I’m done with all the options and opinions of the great people here is to switch out node board 8 with Godzilla, and see if it still shoots the same…

If there is anyway you can prop a phone up or use a tripod or have a friend help and take some video it would be a lot better for people to see exactly what is going on.

In the end it is your machine, so definitely only do what you are comfortable with. If you don't want to wax, I understand and agree it's not needed on most modern machines.

If you have another Node board to try and Stern recommended that, it's a fairly quick and easy thing to try and shouldn't risk damaging the Node board.

Thanks for the help and suggestions

Good idea I will try to capture some video which will just show the ball going 1/2-3/4 way up black widow then straight back down but it will help I’m sure ;

If you’re doing videos you could do one of pulling up on both flippers for me. The issue I had wasn’t super obvious & I could see someone overlooking it. (At the same rate it might be difficult to capture on video but maybe worth a shot - probably more the sound it would make than anything)

I had this issue where the ball would have plenty of speed to make it up the ramp but would get rejected by the plastic roof piece. I found that the metal flap at the ramp entrance had an aggressive bend that was launching the ball too high as it went up the ramp. I removed the ramp, smoothed out the bend of the metal flap, and put a thin piece of cardboard under the flap and then reassembled the ramp to the playfield. That fixed the problem with the rejects 100%.

Thanks. Mine does look like that flap has more of a crease than it should. I observed this long ago but kinda forgot about it, mostly since I didn't want to deal with disassembling it... but if you had that exact same problem and solution then I guess I gotta go roll up my sleeves and do it

The digital level that you are using may not be perpendicular to the playfield and that is why you are getting variable measurements. Your level looks like a cube so it may be difficult to tell if it is perpendicular. I suggest laying a 12" ruler on the playfield and setting your level against the ruler to help you get more accurate readings.

There are only two nuts holding the bottom of the ramp in and a couple of screws at the top. It was surprisingly easy to fix! I took advantage of the time I had with the ramp off and cleaned the playfield / polished the metal guide for that right orbit.

Here is a short video of what happens 90% of the time I shoot at black widow ramp with either flipper but especially the right on a rolling clean shot ;

This video is basically what it looks like every time; I can capture more video but kinda limited being by myself ; if you open it up on YouTube I think you can loop it sorry for the short time.. I accidentally edited it to 2 seconds but it shows the issue

Yeah, I think this worked. I did this to bend the ramp flap flatter, and never got any Widow ramp rejects in about an hour of playing. Yeah, the ramp is much easier to take off than I would have thought - it's only two nuts underneath and two screws on top - I thought the ramp seemed much bigger, but it's really all wireform. I did have to take off the back panel for enough room to actually get the ramp out, but that's easy too, four screws on the back and one underneath.

That was a fun one!

My best Super Victory Laps Wizard mode yet!

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Hot damn. Was that with Reality Gem on Captain Marvel at 10x? I've gotten some wild laps that way, upwards of 360m for one shot, though never a ton of times in one play.

Thanks! Yeah, I had Captain Marvel with Reality Gem at 10X and got Super victory laps single jackpots of 497 million, 498 Million and 724 million!

Too bad I wasn’t having a “great” game otherwise, I got to Battle Thanos with only 5 gems and didn’t do great on Trophy Mania or computer frenzy and ended up at 5.8B.

Here's a quick "shorts" video I made showing the three big jackpots...