As a follow-up to my earlier issue, the ground loop isolator from Best Buy solved the audio quality issues. I used an RCA to 3.5mm adapter and RCA cables I had on-hand to hook everything up, no grounding wires needed. I suspect a simpler 3.5mm based isolator will do the job, but I'm impatient and didn't feel like waiting for an Amazon shipment to avoid RCA. During the isolator swap I also noticed that the left and right channels were reversed, so I swapped the speaker wiring on the amp.

the agony of missing Victory lap/loop crash stack by one shot. Poor Mitch Curtis from today's Hot Wheels streaming challenge https://www.twitch.tv/videos/758380202?t=01h03m10s

jo pro has awesome reviews. please write a little comparison pros and cons after the trade. thanks

Had a great game today! Most of my score was on ball 3 with a 1.5 billion bonus.

1B0C1F4E-356C-4E54-B499-FC2198863A36 (resized).jpeg

C22D70E2-A44A-4754-AA6B-FEFD1488AB3B (resized).jpeg

I got a call from the shipping depot that my game came in early! Just finished the 4 hour round trip to pick it up. I have a brother-in-law Coming over later to help me get it into my basement (he doesn’t know that’s part of the visit yet lol).
5BCA4CE0-D43B-4FC1-9016-BDF001EA11C4 (resized).jpeg
8D6ADAB7-1E6C-46D4-BDAB-2D17A5155165 (resized).jpeg

Sweet! What gear?

Third.

Nice work,

Man, can’t imagine getting to 5th. Only managed to get to 1.3B tonight. Third gear.

You got her set up yet?

I had to wait for my extended family to go home, but I did get it set up finally and played a few games. What a fun pin!
I did run into two small issues, but I’ll maybe message one of the American Pinball guys on here or maybe my distributor for advice.
Overall I’m very pleased though!

B1324945-0E14-4BE8-B15C-877A6A0D851C (resized).jpeg

@sixtyfourbits, feel free to ask questions about your issues... we API guys will try to help, maybe other owners can help, and worst case we'll refer you to your distributor or API Support... but it never hurts to try asking here.

Thanks!
I think it may have already been covered before, but my first issue is I’m getting some speaker crackling through the audio. I tried unplugging the wires from the amp, but the crackling remains when I plugged everything back in. I was going to plug in a different speaker tomorrow and see if the crackling comes out that speaker too.
My second issue is I have one dead pixel on my screen. It’s always bright white. In some scenes it’s not very noticeable, but when there is a dark color behind it, it does stand out a fair bit.
Hopefully I don’t come across as rude or complaining in this post. Overall I’m very happy with hot wheels, and I can’t wait to play it more tomorrow. I just thought I’d get advice as to what my next step should be for each issue.
Thanks!

Tests good now, meaning they were backwards before the swap. No biggie.

Check the plug directions on the 3.5mm cable ground loop isolator going into the speaker amp, the "out" plug should go into the amp. You might need to replace the isolator completely like I did.

Hi sixtyfourbits !

Re: audio crackling... Flipstream recently posted here that his ground loop isolator was plugged in backwards, and even then wasn't quite working right. I hope we haven't gotten a bad batch of those, but it's worth checking the easy stuff... remove your backglass, and you should see the ground loop isolator... it's a little rectangular thing between the PC and the audio amplifier. Make sure the cables in and out of it are secure, and that the cable from the PC is going into the "in(put)" of the isolator, and the "out(put)" cable from the isolator is going into the amplifier.

Re: stuck pixel on the screen... ugh. While you're in the backbox checking the audio connections, you can verify that the cable between the PC and the screen is nice and tight on both sides, but realistically, a single stuck pixel is more likely to be a defect in the LCD. Those happen, sadly, on everything from commercial LCD panels like we use, to consumer laptops.

If you continue to have these issues, please do file a service ticket at <https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/>, and our service team will be happy to help you. I apologize that your machine wasn't 100% perfect out of the box, but I'm sure we'll be able to get you squared away ASAP. Meanwhile, I hope you and your family have a blast playing the game!

Thanks Flipstream and Ferret for the information.
I just checked the ground loop isolator, and it was plugged in opposite as it should’ve been. So I swapped it so that now the pc is going to the input, and the output is going to the amp. Sadly the hum/crackle is still there. I also disconnected and reconnected the monitor input But sadly that didn’t fix the pixel issue.
I’m not discouraged or anything but thought I’d follow up on here with what I found.
Ferret should I move on to filling out a service ticket? I’ll make sure to follow up here once everything’s fixed too.
Thanks guys!

I just wanted to follow up here and say That even with the few minor hiccups, my family and I couldn’t be happier with this pin. You can tell everyone at American Pinball’s main goal with this was to make it Super fun. It shoots buttery smooth. There’s always lots going on, but the light show makes it super easy for everyone to know what to shoot for. Kids and beginners feel like they have accomplished a lot each ball, but to truly get a huge score takes a fair bit of skill. It’s also a game that’s fun to sit back and watch others play, as you get to see all the animations, cars, etc as they pop up on the monitor.
Another thing I was quite happy with is how American Pinball includes so many extras. An extra hot wheels car, Extra Velcro pads, Extra slingshot plastics, a topper, flipper stickers, shaker motor, etc. My buddy and I both agree that as far as best bang for your buck on a new pin, not much compares to the value you get with hot wheels.
Also, My wife isn’t much into pinball, so far she has really only enjoyed my old Gottlieb super Mario Bros pin. But if today ya any indication, it looks like she has two she enjoys now, so that’s a big win!
A huge congrats to the American Pinball team on creating such a great game, and also a big Thankyou to everyone here who recommended it.

Well said. I completely agree with all of this.

Received my game yesterday. First thing I did was check the ground loop isolator which indeed was backwards! Build date of September 2020. Even with doing this there was still quite a bit of crackling. I made some adjustments with the knobs on the amplifier and it corrected the issue mostly. I can now barely hear anything when the game is not being used.
Question for American Pinball. Is there a menu option to adjust the speech and effects sounds separately? Just wondering.

Hey @meri-cah. Thanks for sharing. Mine is a September 2020 build as well. Do you happen to remember which knobs you adjusted? Or would you be able to take a pic of how you have them all set sometime? I played around with mine and the crackling still remains, but maybe I didn't adjust the amp quite right.

Also rosh , I noticed that my stuck pixel is indeed green and not white. I did open a ticket as you recommended and will troubleshoot with Dave when he gets time.

Not at this time.

Congrats on your new game, hope you and your family love it!

My 6 yr old added a little bit “more” to the topper! I think it looks great!!

62806E3F-1C7F-4A28-9E61-DAD0F9B6EC1E.jpeg

That's awesome, your kiddo had a great idea! Looks like it's stock, I might steal that idea and do something similar on mine!

Ah that’s too bad. I was hoping it was a fix I could do here without you guys having to send parts, I didn’t want it to be a hassle for you. But thanks for the info. When Dave gets back to me I’ll chat with him more about it.
Thanks again

I did something similar until I caught my four year old standing on the glass trying to get his toys down.

I have 2 places where the ball gets stuck occasionally, at the top of the playfield, at the 4-7-9 loop and at the 2-5-11 loop. Wondering if others have had the same issue?

Also, I have found that the flipper strength of 25 seems too strong. Has anyone dialed back the flipper power?

All in all a fun game.

Robert

Did anyone catch the GnR video- Too bad Hot Wheels didn't have a feature like GnR's "boo off the stage" what a cool idea to have some kind of meter to force you to play well and play fast. Sheesh!

i lowered the flippers cause my green target got broken. at first i was at 20 for both but the ls flipper couldnt put the ball up the right ramp so i have left at 23 and right at 22 for now. seems to be ok. and yes i have had balls get stuck on some areas but thats pinball. doesnt happen alot maybe once or twice in 100 games.

Edit - my forum sarcasm detector has failed me yet again lol
Fair to point this out though

I’m guessing Chuck was joking.

I’m also guessing JJP didn’t “copy” the Tach per se, just happenstance that there are similar rules... just like having two new games in a month with a spinning disc mech. Synchronicity of the universe.

I'm curious if anyone here has purchased and installed one of these.

Not on Hot Wheels, but there is one on my B66. Seems pretty effective at reducing playfield wear and dimpling if that is something you care about. Some claim it impacts ball behavior, though. I can't tell.

Yes- i was joking

I've tried them on a few of my games and ended up pulling them off. There is a difference in the way the ball behaves. It's not really good or bad - just different. for me it was the extra stuck balls i would get because of them. I host a lot of tournaments and leagues and stuck balls are major annoyances. I think it comes down to personal preference.

Got my HW Sunday and finally got some time to set it up...
Ground Loop was wired backwards - Fixed.
20.09.01 was not installed even though game date was Sept - Installed.

Sound is much better than the Houdini I recently had. Play is fast and smooth. Now I need to go read the rules! Love the lighting effects......

TWO issues
1. Any else spinning car shaft loose? Can actually see it is not straight when it rotates. Everything is tight, must be the bearing?

2. Any others getting pitted pinballs? Only 1 of the 6 pinballs was shinny, the other 5 were actually pitted! Luckily I had 6 new balls otherwise I would not have gotten to play the game today as the ones they provided were bad enough I would NOT use them.

Have not called the distributor or American yet, wanted to see if either issue was common. Thanks for any feedback

Do the last 3 digits in the serial number represent the pin's production number?

suppose its the same as OF, than yes should be...
was 1150 on mine, from memory sampler games were 1001 1002 & 1003

i dont install them. so much work sometimes and for the most part i can probably play 20 years and not have a wear spot on any of the newer pins, i think its overkill. as for this playfield ive had other nib pins with crazy dimples after 50 plays. i have almost 200 plays and hardly see any dimpling.

Thanks for the insight everyone.
I've noticed some dimpling on my playfield (maybe 15-20 dimples in the first week), so I started to get a bit nervous as its my first NIB, and whether I should be doing more to protect the playfield. But after talking to a few friends, most assured me that dimpling is just a normal part of new pin ownership, and to not lose sleep over it. I've also dialed the flipper coils down from 25 to 23, and that has helped a bit with reducing air balls.

I was the exact same, and we must have the same friends, All good!

Hi all-- I want to share the good news that at American Pinball we have caught up on shipping our backlog of orders, so now is a great time to order Hot Wheels because we are now shipping immediately. No wait time!

Yes (resized).jpg

Order one - you'll be happy.

I’m having issues with my Hot Wheels drop targets.

The lower drop (draven) will not catch on the reset.
I have changed power settings, added a spacer to tilt the “reset unit“ back To make more room.
It will pop Around three Times and then stay down.

I finally got the upper drop (track build) to reset correctly and stay up, but it seems to reset often.
What is the sequence, down on start up, then blocked as you need to build more track?
As I hit it during gameplay, it seemed to come back more than necessary.

I tried to ad a small strip of LEDs to the back box, to fill in dead zone next to the monitor and must have shorted the set out.
The strips have a single ‘pixel’ On on each of them (See photo)

I have no idea if the strips are screwed up or if I need to dig inside to the power source to reset or change them out.
Does anyone know if I can buy replacement strips and get an extra connector to splice in a new strip for the dead space?

7E236527-61BD-4D6A-A87C-C35A1D038375 (resized).jpeg

What voltage is the strip you’re using rated? The strips in the head are 12v

Please invest in some molex plugs and a set of crimpers so you can connect to the positive and negative header pins on the led strip end.