Hot Wheels
American Pinball, 2020Quoted from chatplume51:Hi my plastic above "boost" broke today.
I was looking for another in american pinball's store but didn't find.
Is someone knows where i could find one ?
Thanks
That plastic should be available soon to order as a single plastic from the website.
Quoted from rosh:That plastic should be available soon to order as a single plastic from the website.
ok great news thanks
Quoted from rosh:That plastic should be available soon to order as a single plastic from the website.
The kickback plastic is now available on the API store: https://store.american-pinball.com/products/hot-wheels-kickback-plastic-pls0080-12
Got some Novus 2 and wax on the way. Turns out 100 plays shared between me and the kids over our first weekend of ownership leaves a mark! My nine year old kiddo already cracked 500M points (even though he's not strong enough to shimmy the machine for ball saves) and he discovered the brilliant strategy of going Red Line Mania on Ball 1 to get into second gear. So he's well on his way to making me look bad on my own machine. Couldn't be prouder! 
Just a quick question: what's the best way to get all the balls out of the machine? I want to dust em all off when I clean the playfield.
Also made a few small adjustments to the playfield. About 1/5 of balls out of the VUK ended up going flying. Looks like the screw connecting the VUK to the left orange ramp was loose and the VUK wasn't quite lined up. Probably got it nudged over just a couple millimeters but hopefully this will help it be more consistent. If not perhaps I need to turn the VUK power down a little.
I was also getting balls stuck at the bottom of the orange in-lane return ramp. So I bent the little flap on the ball guide bracket back a bit more, hopefully that'll do it (blue ramp has been perfectly fine out of the box).
I did get one or two instances of lights getting stuck on. In both cases it was the arrow lighting the entrance of the outer right orbit. The first time I forgot to make a note of what I was doing. But the second time it happened when I had a Snakes Battle going then triggered a Track Builder multiball, and drained pretty quickly (I'm good at that!). The arrow got stuck on green. Thought I'd mention if it helps with debugging the code.
All in all though we've probably logged 20 hours of play into this thing over the last four days and it's been terrific.
The easiest way to remove the balls are to open the coin door and push up on the ball eject coil. Or lift the playfield onto the rails and do the same procedure. I'm sure the vertical ramp from the vuk is most likely out of alignment. Just make some adjustments to perform better. I'd put loctite on the screws if they are backing out.
My experiences are similar to your 9 year old where if you can get to redline mania quickly, your scores will be better overall. It is risky though, as the ball tends to be out of control more often shooting for the RPM targets. Shooting from the right flipper seems to be safer than the left in my opinion. The highest gear I have been to was 3rd gear, and of course it resulted in a GC score on the table.
Quoted from Scoot:The easiest way to remove the balls are to open the coin door and push up on the ball eject coil.
Ah, thanks for that. Will do!
To remove balls, you can use . . .
service->utilities->clear balls
Use of the utility is more important on games with playfield locks or subways, but with Hot heels the manual approach is fine.
Quoted from RYE_:I did get one or two instances of lights getting stuck on. In both cases it was the arrow lighting the entrance of the outer right orbit. The first time I forgot to make a note of what I was doing. But the second time it happened when I had a Snakes Battle going then triggered a Track Builder multiball, and drained pretty quickly (I'm good at that!). The arrow got stuck on green. Thought I'd mention if it helps with debugging the code.
Look under the playfield and check the connectors (all of them, not just on the affected lamp/PCB)... that fixes the stuck lamp issue for many people. We do not believe stuck lamps are code issues.
Quoted from rosh:with Hot heels the manual approach is fine.
You weren't supposed to reveal our upcoming strip club theme yet!
Quoted from Ferret:You weren't supposed to reveal our upcoming strip club theme yet!
Dennis and Josh at the Desert Star ?
LTG : )
Disclaimer : Terminator 3 reference.
Might have the opportunity to snag a hot wheels locally.
Pros/cons?
Anything to look for specifically?
Quoted from Meegis:Might have the opportunity to snag a hot wheels locally.
Pros/cons?
Anything to look for specifically?
It's an amazing table, replaced JP as my favorite. Not much to look for beyond the typical checks. Maybe see if the ramps have the metal guides that prevents outlane drains?
Quoted from Flipstream:It's an amazing table, replaced JP as my favorite. Not much to look for beyond the typical checks. Maybe see if the ramps have the metal guides that prevents outlane drains?
Metal guides? Is this a mod or factory fix?
Have a pic?
RPM lights all went out tonight. Will work on it tomorrow and check back. I’m still getting lights on every game getting stuck on until power cycle. Happening 100% of the time. Normally a different light every time so not sure what’s happening.
Check the connectors on your light boards -- all of them. Especially when you say the RPM lights died totally, there's a good chance that one or more of the cables aren't seated firmly.
Quoted from Meegis:Metal guides? Is this a mod or factory fix?
Have a pic?
I think he is referring to the parts described in the "Hot Wheels Ramp Exit Plate Installation Guide" https://www.american-pinball.com/support/ . It's a little metal bracket inserted where the orange and blue in-lane return ramps are attached to the slings. Apparently keeps the ball from spinning into the outlane. My March 2021 build had them installed already but earlier builds don't have them.
In other news I've been watching the American Pinball "Welcome to Pinball Maintenance You Noob!" videos on YouTube. Very very helpful to a new owner like me, especially to see Dave B working on my actual machine. Would love to see an episode that covers recommended bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly maintenance I can do to keep things in tip-top shape. Hell a downloadable maintenance schedule I could follow would really be awesome.
Quoted from Ferret:You weren't supposed to reveal our upcoming strip club theme yet!
Put me in for Game #4 !
Quoted from RYE_:I think he is referring to the parts described in the "Hot Wheels Ramp Exit Plate Installation Guide" https://www.american-pinball.com/support/ . It's a little metal bracket inserted where the orange and blue in-lane return ramps are attached to the slings. Apparently keeps the ball from spinning into the outlane. My March 2021 build had them installed already but earlier builds don't have them.
they were added pretty early in the production run, and parts were sent to owners (through their distributor) of the games that shipped without them, so should not be too many games out there with them missing.
Quoted from rosh:they were added pretty early in the production run, and parts were sent to owners (through their distributor) of the games that shipped without them, so should not be too many games out there with them missing.
Appreciate the heads up on this. Will check when I see it.
Quoted from rosh:they were added pretty early in the production run, and parts were sent to owners (through their distributor) of the games that shipped without them, so should not be too many games out there with them missing.
I have none in my game but have had no problems.
Quoted from RYE_:In other news I've been watching the American Pinball "Welcome to Pinball Maintenance You Noob!" videos on YouTube. Very very helpful to a new owner like me, especially to see Dave B working on my actual machine. Would love to see an episode that covers recommended bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly maintenance I can do to keep things in tip-top shape. Hell a downloadable maintenance schedule I could follow would really be awesome.
Thanks for the positive feedback! I keep a list of all future video ideas, so I'll put some thought into how I would present this.
For those that haven't been to the API youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9_k0XRo6IbeyeOuQy4Hseg/videos
Subscribe to get notified of new videos.
Quoted from smitherssp:know how to correct it?
Turn game off. Lift playfield up and lean back. Loosen three screws holding the shooter rod assembly on. Position it better. Tighten the screws. Lower playfield. Look good ? Party on.
LTG : )
Quoted from smitherssp:Just noticed my shooter rod is off center and interfering with the auto launcher. Anyone else experience this problem or know how to correct it?
Watch my latest video
Quoted from brenna98:Watch my latest video
What timing! Great video. Genius move on chucking the rod for polishing!
Quoted from Venetic:Also interested in Scorbit integration, I just started automating stream things to happen via scorbit values!
You're welcome 
Quoted from brenna98:Watch my latest video
This method worked flawlessly. Plunger is now dead center. Thanks again!
Man, loving this table the more I play. Me and the kids have about 200 games on it in the last 10 days, albeit average game length is like 5 mins.
But scores are definitely getting up there, I'm starting to find the shots a lot more consistently, and my game length is getting into the 15 min range. Bunch of high scores clustered around 650M at the moment.
Definitely like starting a new game with Red Line Mania to get right into second gear. I find triggering that easiest and most reliable.
Stacking Track Mania with the Snakes Battle is my new happy place. Just saying "SHHNNAAKESS!" makes it worth it.
Effing EPIC Fails though. Last one I had drained 80M SDTM. >.<
Speaking of which, when anyone asks "what I like best about this table" my answer is definitely "the center post." OMG some of the intentional and unintentional saves off that thing have just been glorious to watch.
So happy that you and your family are loving the game, RYE_ !
Nice, @pinstyle!
It's so dang addicting when you're just playing the game, finish the race, and it cheerfully tells you "Time = 01:50, Record = 01:48"... my brain immediately dwells on some shot I remember missing along the way. But then when you finally shave a few seconds off the record time, it feels soooo good. And then the cycle starts again. 
If you did X last game, surely you can manage X - 1 second this time.....
That's me. I haven't cracked 5 minutes yet to hit the board. Just over 5:00 is my best time. 5:03 or 5:04 if I remember correctly.
A tip for Noobs ( that's us and I just luv that term). Every 300 games or so, rotate the slingshot rubbers and flipper rubbers a small amount, so that the tip rubber is rotated behind the flippers and the slingshot rubber tips are rotated to a "quieter"area. The tips of the rubbers take an absolute hammering and this is where they are likely to crack and break. This will prolong the life of the rubbers. But if you're really desperate, like we were! You can use a couple of heavy duty staples with a bit of UV glue and you are back in business! Next post I have will be about how to fix stuck lights and the LED matrix issue. ( I have been investigating. )
Resized_20210421_130703 (resized).jpegQuoted from Ferret:Nice, pinstyle!
It's so dang addicting when you're just playing the game, finish the race, and it cheerfully tells you "Time = 01:50, Record = 01:48"... my brain immediately dwells on some shot I remember missing along the way. But then when you finally shave a few seconds off the record time, it feels soooo good. And then the cycle starts again. If you did X last game, surely you can manage X - 1 second this time.....
I have started thinking about calculating what the fastest time it could be completed in, I think it will be a while before I top it but you never know.
Yea, Scoot that is still a really good time man.
During the IFPA/Hot Wheels Challenge Series last autumn, the best times were around 0:55. Those runs weren't completely flawless, so it's probably feasible to get down around 0:50, but I have a hard time seeing completion much faster than that.
Quoted from Weazel:A tip for Noobs ( that's us and I just luv that term). Every 300 games or so, rotate the slingshot rubbers and flipper rubbers a small amount, so that the tip rubber is rotated behind the flippers and the slingshot rubber tips are rotated to a "quieter"area. The tips of the rubbers take an absolute hammering and this is where they are likely to crack and break. This will prolong the life of the rubbers. But if you're really desperate, like we were! You can use a couple of heavy duty staples with a bit of UV glue and you are back in business! Next post I have will be about how to fix stuck lights and the LED matrix issue. ( I have been investigating. )
[quoted image]
That is some serious desperation there. I haven't gotten anywhere with the LED issue. So far it looks like if I unplug a group of LED's from the LED driver board the issue goes away...so far, but I would need to run the game a lot longer to confirm. I took some voltage readings here and there of the 12v and 5v. 12v is a hair low, 5v being the lowest at around 4.82v at some LED boards. The 5v seems to fluctuate but could be normal depending on the demand on the system at a given time.
One of my stand-ups for the cars seems to be stuck and is triggering like 432 car hits per play. Fun for high scores! Not so fun for authenticity.
Any tips on separating the contacts? Just grab some needle-nose pliers and give one side or the other a squeeze?
Quoted from RYE_:Any tips on separating the contacts? Just grab some needle-nose pliers and give one side or the other a squeeze?
Turn the game off. Very gently gap the switch contact points a little farther apart. Fingers or leaf blade adjuster work too.
Turn game on and check.
LTG : )
Quoted from pinstyle:Oh...faster yet..., shaved off a few seconds. I think I can get it lower. I dont know if I will get as low as 50 some seconds but I should be able to shave a little more off yet.
[quoted image]
Next post you'll show us something like 1:37, all the time knowing you can get a faster time. You can do it
Quoted from pinstyle:Oh...faster yet..., shaved off a few seconds. I think I can get it lower. I dont know if I will get as low as 50 some seconds but I should be able to shave a little more off yet.
Keep in mind the sub one minute times were done with some aggressive methods to get a fast time. For example, timing out the skill shot and then using a rapid double flip, timed just right, on race start to avoid the magnet grab and drop into the pops, using tilts to stop the clock when in the pops, etc.
Quoted from Weazel:A tip for Noobs ( that's us and I just luv that term). Every 300 games or so, rotate the slingshot rubbers and flipper rubbers a small amount, so that the tip rubber is rotated behind the flippers and the slingshot rubber tips are rotated to a "quieter"area. The tips of the rubbers take an absolute hammering and this is where they are likely to crack and break. This will prolong the life of the rubbers.
Thank you! Great tip. As it happens we've put like 350 plays on this thing in like two weeks. Checked the flipper rubber and indeed you can see some warping already happening at the tip. Wild. Gave it a "tire rotation" like you suggested.
Quoted from LTG:Fingers or leaf blade adjuster work too.
Thank you for this. I tried the finger method but that only lasted for the first game or two. I looked it up and found a leaf blade adjuster tool that I ordered.
Quoted from rosh:Keep in mind the sub one minute times were done with some aggressive methods to get a fast time. For example, timing out the skill shot and then using a rapid double flip, timed just right, on race start to avoid the magnet grab and drop into the pops, using tilts to stop the clock when in the pops, etc.
I see. I am not looking to exploit the system, just going to keep trying to get it a little lower. Not that there is anything wrong with taking advantages of loop holes just to see how low you can get it.
On another note I haven't been able to get out of third gear. I have loosely pursued it but moved over to focusing on race time.
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