http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sega/Stern_White_Star_Repair#Low_.2B5VDC_and_Game_Resets
Pinwiki suggests "Should the game start randomly resetting, the first course of action is to measure the +5VDC on the I/O Power Driver Board. If the logic voltage is within spec., measure the +5VDC on the CPU / sound board. The +5V test point on the CPU / sound board is located just to the left of the 6809EP CPU chip (U209) on the board. If the voltage drastically differs between the measurement of the I/O Power Driver Board and the CPU / sound board, turn the game off. Remove and reseat connections CN2 on the CPU / sound board and J16 on the I/O power driver board."
So next step is check the +5VDC at the sound board.

I have the same problem Vbobrusev. On my Ripley's, the balls in the trough stick together occasionally and I have to smack the side of the machine several times to get them to roll into proper position. I thought it was something to do with the trough itself like wear and ball trails, tried slightly oiled them and, I replaced the metal channels and tried to incline the trough to create further downward slope to get the balls to roll right down with no improvement.
In my case turned out to be that two of the 4 balls were magnetised by the head and idol under playfield magnets to cause (when in the right particular order in the trough) binding on the metal side of the trough, so either 'de-magnetise' (haven't looked into how) or change out the balls with a new set of standard carbon balls, but it wont last forever before they're magnetised again. If you use 'specialty' balls like ninja's it gets even worse, getting magnetised very quickly.

Valuable because the bonus X multiplier remains for the rest of the game (unless you tilt), its not easy to get, is shoot-able by a lazy back-hand up the right hand lane off the bottom right flipper, a pulsed quick but sloppy style flip does it (like when you're going for Penguin Jackpot). Which upper lane is lit or not lit is hard to pick sometimes, by design as the light show to confuses the player and the flippers change the lit lane.

Very true. I recently bought some Ninja Chrome balls from Ball Baron and they magnetised and started sticking after just a couple of weeks! This despite their description saying magnets can cause them to become magnetized over time (over 100+ games). I played probably 25 games before they got magnetised enough to stick in the trough.

I think RBION is just a particularly bad game for magnetising balls because of the TWO pulsing magnets that get used frequently. I think the multiball start magnet animation probably contributes to this the worst because the magnet pulses extremely quickly too create a shuddering ball effect on the magnet during the puke animation.

I, too, have to smack the machine to get the trough balls to roll down correctly sometimes.

This isn't Stern's fault. The balls that were in this game prior to me owning it were standard non-chrome balls and they never stuck together. The answer is to use regular balls. I wish I knew that before spending too much money importing Ninja balls to New Zealand!

Must be a setting somewhere? Because my factory settings RBION resets the Bonus X every ball (unless "Hold Bonus" is awarded via BION/BOZO).

Can someone who has a RBION confirm that the 2 posts on either side of the scoop are both supposed to be attached to T-nuts on the bottom of the playfield? It appears that the previous owner may have literally glued the right side post into the hole, but the really weird thing is that I can't see any evidence that there was ever a T-nut attached to this hole---did it actually come from the factory this way???

No.
The left is for sure a lock nut on the bottom.
Cant find any pics but I think both of them are lock nuts?

They are both lock nuts. The right post takes a real beating, so it's possible that the hole became so worn that the post was loose and someone just glued it in there to keep it from moving around.

Tonight I finally made it to Frog Frenzy!

I got the first 5 Super Jackpots in the first multiball, the 6th one with the Continent Jackpot and the final one to start Frog Frenzy by completing the '2' row in the temple grid (which is the only way I could see myself getting there the quickest). Pulled it off with two balls to spare. It was a great mode. Tick that off the bucket list

Very cool. 14 years and I have yet to see it.

Congrats!!! Yet to even get close.

Thanks! Before this my best was 4 SJ's in a game. Considering you have to get 7 of them to reach Frog Frenzy I thought I'd never see it. Just had one of those multi balls where every ramp shot went smoothly, ball juggling went perfectly, double-stage flipping for jackpot went well, and I had a couple of rebound shots that went up there too (one during MB and the other to claim the 7th SJ).

I'm having a bizarre issue with my RBION that I'd love some suggestions to remedy.

I just replaced replaced the right flipper switch (double-stage) with the recommended "new and improved" version (https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=598).

I replaced the switch because the right flipper was weak and I couldn't backhand the right ramp. The new switch has added a lot more power to the right flipper, but it comes with a catch:

The right flipper's power is significantly weakened when the upper-right flipper also flips at the same time.

I can backhand the right ramp no trouble with a very powerful shot if I make sure to only press the button in part-way so as to not flip the upper-right flipper. But if I press in the button the whole way, like one normally does when playing pinball, both flippers flip at the same time but the left flipper is very weak (I estimate roughly 25% strength). It has made the game much tougher when I have to explicitly make half-presses in order to shoot the varitarget from the left flipper!

Any ideas what might be causing this and what I can do to remedy it? Thanks in advance for any input

I think I need to change the opto board in the head. Can't tell which one it is on pbl site. Anyone know?

Also is there a separate opto board for vari target? If so link?

Txs

Added the Tombstone decals. Looks nice!

4D5FB95B-A92C-4089-B917-7D511C1D5935 (resized).jpeg

795973C6-09BC-46A2-A572-C5DF31E422C9 (resized).jpeg

Those DO look nice! Where did you find them?

I have a set on mine as well. They look soooooo much better than the plain white squares. Plus they help new players spot them for certain modes.

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2426

As i was putting my new target decals on this weekend i realized that i have no idea what the "Enter at your own risk" target to the left of the shrunken head does other than count as a hit on the shrunken head during South America mode. Is that all it does? Seems strange to have a stand up target that has only one minor function. Thoughts about this?

Yeah I've thought the same thing. I assume it was intended to be a tomb stone target but there wasn't room for an insert so they couldn't make it function like one.

Also I noticed recently that the two targets flanking the Shrunken Head count hits during South America mode *except* when "Multiball Start" is lit, in which case *only* the Shrunken head counts. So best not be missing the SH when you've got MB lit!

This reminds me, also, that Keith Elwin's RBION tutorial he says that RBION has one timer for all modes. On my RBION this is definitely not true. Should it be true? And, man, watching that tutorial again makes me realise how badly I need to fix my right flipper. I cannot backhand the right ramp AT ALL and Keith does it constantly.

I believe he means that you can start a mode, light another one and then start another one and have them both running on one timer. The mode timers are so short though, this rarely ever happens unless you are really focusing on it.

You definitely should be able to backhand that right ramp. I do it all the time as well.

The context in which Keith says this is when he's half way through Europe mode and he starts Multiball, implying that as long as Multiball is active so will Europe mode. In my experience, starting multiball does nothing to affect any mode timer. Nor does stacking any other mode (timed or multiball). The timed modes simply end when they're supposed to regardless of what you're doing.

Unless, of course, there's something up with my code. Because earlier in this thread there was a discussion about lighting the idol. Mine is always lit no matter how my times I hit it and I can't figure out why that is.

So, I have a couple of requests from the RBION crowd. Short background is that I'm working on a custom speaker panel decal for somebody, but I don't live close enough to take measurements.

1. Does anyone have or can the make a trace of the speaker panel (i.e. the outline with length, width, and exact location and trace of DMD and speaker cutouts?

2. Does anyone have any graphics files I can download of any of the cabinet/backbox art so that I can match the colors?

I can't help with the speaker panel (I think the only reliable result you're going to get, since the cutouts are all bevelled, is for some one to measure all of the sizes and distances of everything, and also measure the corner radii, so you can produce a new drawing to those specs.

I can help with the colour matching. I don't have graphic files but I've got a Pantone swatch book so happy to help match anything you need.

That would be awesome. A pantone number close to the yellow maps on the backbox and the blue used would be perfect. Also, please be sure to note on the Pantone values if you are matching the spot color or the CMYK (if you have a Pantone color bridge the CMYK version of the Pantone color is my preference, otherwise I'll work with whatever you can provide).

No worries. I've only got PMS values on my swatch book, no CMYK. In my work I always ask the printer to give me their CMYK values for any given PMS colour.

The blue is: PMS 2748
The yellow maps are tough to match because there's such an aggressive halftone in the printing and there is so much graduation from the worn paper look. Best I could get from a section with the least amount of 'dirt' is PMS 107.

I'd suggest possibly ignoring the cabinet art when designing the speaker panel anyway because it's much more an extension of the translite artwork than it is an extension of the cabinet artwork.

Thanks. I may have not explained clearly. I do a lot of process printing, so I have a Pantone color bridge (pantone stick with the solid color version of the pantone value on the left and the CMYK version on the right of that same Pantone number). Often times, these colors are the same value, but look different due to one being spot color and the other being process. Therefore, I'm assuming your Pantone stick is most likely not the bridge but just the spot colors, which is fine. My only other question is if you used the coated or uncoated Pantone chart when matching the colors?

FYI, when looking at Solid color on the Pantone chart blue 2758 RGB|0:30:98 & the yellow 107 RGB|251:225:34. However, the blue when processed is more purple and the yellow is a little lighter. Even so, this is great info and very helpful.

Finally, I don't plan on duplicating any artwork that is already on the pin. Rather, I just wanted to make sure that my color scheme doesn't clash in any way. Thanks again for your help!

Correct, I don't have a bridge chart. I've found that the same CMYK values produce different results depending on the printing bureau and the machine they're using, so when a CMYK PMS match is critical I always get them to perform print tests on the same machine and paper stock to determine the matching CMYK values to use for a given job.

Sorry for omitting the C. It's a Coated swatch that I matched to. I had a very similar brand colour with a brand I worked with a few years back and so I'm not surprised to hear you say that the process version is more purple. It was the bane of my existence back then (hence why I established the aforementioned practice of making the printer give me custom CMYK values or each job!).

Thanks to all, I have my speaker panel template by way of Aurich.

So I've been troubleshooting my weak lower-right flipper problem and have some more info. This is getting strange and I need some suggestions as to where to go next. Basically, my current issue is best described thusly:

My lower-right flipper is weak when I hit the flipper button hard. A soft button press, or half press, results in a nice strong shot that backhands up the ramp nicely.

If I hit the button hard it's so weak that it barely makes it past the ramp flap.

It has nothing to do with the upper flipper because I taped over the leaf switch for it to test if that was part of the problem and the behaviour is unchanged.

How in the world would the speed at which I hit the flipper button translate inversely to the power of the flipper?

I can only think of one thing. The contacts on the Stern flipper leaf switches are not large round contact patches like B/W ones, they're thin 45º angled pieces of copper. Opposing contacts are at 90º to each other, so they form an X when they touch. Perhaps what's happening is that as the button is pressed in, and the leaf switches of the lower flipper come together first, continuing to press in causes them to bend together and the contact pieces rub against each other. A slightly rough surface might lead to less electrical contact as they rub.

A hard/fast press of the button makes this weakened electrical contact effect the stroke of the ball because the movement is happening as the flip is happening. I've already adjusted the contacts so that the lower flipper contact has minimal travel, but it's impossible to eliminate it because you definitely need to leave some travel for the upper flipper to stage them effectively during gameplay.

Is there a way I can smooth out the metal on the contacts? What would be the best material to use to do that?

I would check the EOS switch on the lower right flipper.

I've done that, it's fine. I even adjusted it further to ensure that it doesn't kick in until the *very* end of the stroke and it has had no effect.

The problem definitely lies in the button/leaf switch action. If I press it lightly/slowly the flipper flips hard. If I give the button a fast/hard press then the flipper flips weak.

Flexstone - http://pbresource.com/tools.html

Thanks! I just borrowed one and it worked a treat! The right flipper is now working perfectly and I can backhand the right ramp.

Just played a game and got Frog Frenzy again and spelled RIPLEY (just needed the S) which is as far as I’ve ever gotten. 130mil score.

So great to have a fully working game again thanks for the suggestions folks

Or rather, I have set it this way and gives great value using the bonus X

Anyone have ColorDMD on their machine? Looking to add this. LED vs. LCD, any thoughts?

Yes & it looks really nice.

There are plenty of threads in LCD vs LED so you can search for those; long story short it's personal pref and no "correct" answer. LCD gives you more options, which is why it costs more (IE making the dots bigger etc).

I have one and I LOVE it! I went with LCD for the reason stated by Thelaw. The LCD version is an actual screen made to look like dots, and you can change the display settings easily to change the look. The LED version is actual LEDs, so there arent any options for changing the appearance

I would search the forum for this if I only knew what to search for...
My rbion is kind of beat up in som places. The scoop hole is one of those places along with the two posts that guards the hole. I have just now done my best at fixing this. I unscrewed the scoop from underneath and worked the hole and the hole for the left post with jb weld. It’s far from perfect since I’m not a handy man, but it will work. But when I put it all together again and tried the game the scoop fires to the right flipper and not to the left. I am for sure getting a nervous breakdown... what am I supposed to adjust?

When you had the scoop out, did you check the welds on it? They're notorious for breaking, causing the ball to eject all over the place. I had to have mine re-welded. If the welds are good, you must have something not aligned properly. That's a pretty big shift from left to right.

Yeah crappy welds is usually it. If your screw holes are blown out i guess that could casue a little...but from left to right flipper is a lot.
If you cant get it welded and that's it there's a mantis for it

https://mantispinball.com/product/ripleys-believe-it-or-not-scoop/

You may have built out the left edge of the scoop too much and the ball is impacting it on it's way out, changing it's trajectory.

Always the best way to diagnose kinetic issues is to put your smart phone into slow-mo mode. Film the ball ejecting from the scoop and watch what it does. You'll soon see what the issue is.

My game was restored by a previous owner and he repaired the scoop with wood epoxy resin. Over time the tightness of one of the posts and the impacts from the ball caused the epoxy to crack and separate from the play field, slowing moving the edge further inward until it started protruding in the way of the ball. This caused the ball to go STDM. Instead of dealing with the major headache of fixing the epoxy, I just moved the scoop over a few mm and solved it.

That's probably what I have done. I wish I was a better craftsman or had someone to do it for me. I would love to have this game with a perfect playfield but I have what I have. It's playable but with minor issues...
I solved this one with washers on the left side between scoop and playfield. Next thing is to get my flippers to funktion more precise. I seem to get crappy parts when I buy parts to rebuild them. Coilstops that break in two and baseplate with holes that no screws fit in and so forth... I might sell this one even thou it's a fun game...

I just committed the cardinal sin of taking some clear plastic pieces off of the top of the right ramp on my RBION without taking pictures of how it looked when I got started. If anyone is near a Ripley's, could you be so kind as to post a picture of the top of the right ramp near the "Did you know" sign? The plastics I am referring are 2 clear ones... one is a small crescent moon shaped one with 2 holes in it, and the other is a larger oblong piece. They are seperated by posts. As careful as I was when I laid them out in my parts dish as I took them out, my memory isn't what it used to be and I can't figure out which one goes where.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I can when I get home from work if no one else helps out first

Hope this helps!

Previous owner put a rubber dome underneath one of the holes in my ramp cover. Not sure what normally goes there TBH, so maybe ignore that particular part. But I hope I captured everything you need. Let me know if not. I work right beside my RBION

Side note: thanks for also causing me to take photos to notice the rubber dome affixed to my lower bumper skirt. The previous owner must have done this to stop balls getting trapped here. Which seems a stupid remedy before attempting to adjust the sensitivity of the bumper switch. When I got the game the bumper switches (along with all the others in the game) were replaced for new but not adjusted at all. I've removed it and I don't expect to need to replace it.

IMG_9289-JPG (resized).jpgIMG_7120-JPG (resized).jpgIMG_6178-JPG (resized).jpgIMG_5686-JPG (resized).jpgIMG_3955-JPG (resized).jpgIMG_3220-JPG (resized).jpg

That’s exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Accidental, I Just noticed, is that a rubber on the pop bumper skirt in photo 5686?