Still calling this a hobby? Lol. Awesome.

Love the violet and the teal!! I think either would look dope on tmnt. Would you make them solid too or just the halos?

Once I decide on which of these new colors I'll bring into the line up I'll be doing both the solid and HALO's. So everyone's input is apprectiated!

Are you making it up to the PNW show nx month?

Hayfarmer not going to be able to make that show this year, perhaps next year.

Yeah, I'd definitely do the orange/bronze since there's nothing quite like it. I dig the pinkish and lighter blue, but would probably stay away from doing really close-together-colors except in limited runs like foo green. If you have similar shades one will be more popular, and you'll wind up sitting on inventory for the other. Think you're better off focusing on adding new colors like orange, white, yellow, etc.

Speaking of which, is that current red color more crimson than it was originally, or is that just the lighting? Dig either way.

I had this exact same thing happen today on the left flipper on a Spooky using the keyed shafts. I took it back apart and figured out what was happening. The EOS activator/spring bracket piece has some play in it and can actually get wedged up tight against the bushing when tightening it down. This only happens on the left flipper because the tightening of the clamp pushes the bracket towards the bushing - whereas tightening the right flipper pushes it away because the orientation is reversed.

It's easy to prevent once you realize what's happening. Here's a couple of pics showing the play:

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IMG_1063 (resized).jpeg

Damonator Thanks for posting that. Yup you are spot on, the releif in the sheet metal is very slim and doesn't allow for much clearance.

Looks like I have flipper creep after just a few games. Guessing this means I didn’t get the clamp tight enough on the new shafts. Not sure how that could be as I cranked down in them a lot as in I can’t tighten any further.

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Could be the top bolt and it's spinning on the spline. Seems funny to be going forward if it's slipping the clamp, usually goes backwards.

So the screw holding the bat on isn’t tight enough then ?

First question - did you oil the shaft?

I ask because I also had this issue on a non-keyed Stern shaft because my drop of oil on the shaft made its way to the clamp. I had to remove and clean the lower shaft and clamp with alcohol - once I did that it was perfect.

Actually I did not use oil.

I did simple test. I took a sharpie and marked a line across the clamp and shaft of each flipper. I also cranked down on the shaft screw again (still not moving) and the flipper bat screw as well. Played several games and rechecked under the hood.

The shaft/clamp are not moving the line was still the same all the way across. It has to be that I am not getting the flipper bat screw tight enough.

I will try tightening those again and play a few more.

When I put the flippers on, use the short end of the Allen wrench, and hold the flipper in place with the other hand. Haven't had one move on 7 games since my first set on slipped, as yours are.

This is my second game - first was MBR and I didn't have any slippage on that one at all.

I will tighten up things again and see what happens.

I will say that in just a few games with these on GZ I think they make a much bigger difference on this game than it has on MBR.

Still need to find the proper power as well - I think I am down 25 on lower flips and 15 on the upper. Upper feels almost spot on. Lowers I think are still too much. Game is 6.9 and level L/R.

(Also posted in Godzilla group...)

I started to notice that fast returning balls hitting the lower flippers would push the flippers down with the buttons pushed and sure enough, both EOS brackets were broken off.

I took the opportunity to change the allen socket head clamping screws out for hex head style to more easily tighten them tight enough. (I don't have the newer keyed shaft setup).

About ~3000 games played total. Luckily I have Precision Flip Halo flippers (~1,000 games played each with with Solids and then Halos), so re-aligning them wasn't that difficult, but did have to reset flipper shaft gap since you have to remove the entire clamping screw to replace the EOS bracket.

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Take the rod and clamp apart, wipe down with isopropyl, reassemble. Even if you don't use oil (I stopped fooling with it, trust John's machining), there's often some residue from manufacturing or oils from your hands. I've taken to giving everything a good wipe down before install. Also, with the stern clamp design I think sometimes loosening and re-tightening does the trick as the clamp can come together and grip slightly differently each time. I've had some luck just starting over when I get one that wants to slip. I've installed/reinstalled about a dozen of these now.

Thanks to all who have posted in assisting GCS2000. From the looks of his flipper angle, and since they are both moving upward, I'm 99.9% sure the shafts are moving in the clamps, it's not a flipper bat to shaft issue, that interface is pretty secure even with the screws partially tight due to the splines on the shafts.

The shaft doesn't have to rotate very much in the clamp to change the angle, so marking a line on the shaft/clamp is a good idea for reference, but I still think they the shaft are moving in the clamps. I recommend removing the screws from the clamps, clean the shaft's and clamps IPA and a Q-Tip. Put a very small drop of light oil on the end of the threads of the clamp screw, yup that's right, the clamp screw. The reason for this is to allow the screws to be torqued down tightly without thread gawling/friction, it allows the screws to do their job to pull the opposite side of the clamp inward and pinch the shaft and not give a false impression the screws are really tight. The friction between the threads in the clamp and screws will be reduced, this will help a lot in feeling the screws tightening and reduce the metal to metal friction while torquing the screws.

@GCS200, if needed feel free to give me a call as well.
John

Thanks for the comments everyone. I went back and tightened everything up. Clamp bolt flipper bat screw etc and after about a dozen or more games everything seems to be holding.

The clamp bolts felt like they didn’t budge at all but they must have done something since things seem to be ok right now. I have a feeling that I didn’t get the flipper bat screws tight enough as I was able to simply lift the bat off with no effort at all vs needing the removal tool so I cranked on them pretty hard this time. All done while holding things in place also so we will see how it goes

And I know I said this already but the impact of the flipper change feels much greater on this GZ premium than it did/does on my MBRLE. Everything just feels tighter and the flips seem effortless. Might be that things were tired on GZ to begin with as mine has over 1300 games on it.

I rebuilt the flippers on DP after about 4000 games. Didn't feel like it needed it, but maintenance.

I doubt you would have noticed anything after 1300 games, but i'd always replace coil stops on new Sterns as a matter of course when they come in the house.

I assume you mean coil stops or are you speaking about the EOS stops?

Coil stops in my game were all replaced before I bought it 3 weeks ago.

GCS2000 Sounds like you got it sorted out, if you were able to remove the flipper bats without the puller then you might not have had them tight enough.

When I put these flippers on my Godzilla it was night and day, I had to turn down the coil power about 15 clicks from default, you will most likely need to do the same. Just keep lowering the power until it start to feel sluggish or lazy, then turn back up one or two clicks/numbers at a time until you find the sweet spot. Each machine is going to be a bit different, so just take your time, you'll be happy with the results!

Coil stops mate. Stern ones are shit. There are cheap and easy to replace, but seeing as yours are done you won't need to bother. Unless the owner used Stern ones to put back in of course.

Yep already down about 15 on upper flipper and at least 20 on both lower flippers (a little more on the left lower). Feeling pretty good about the power settings at this point. Still fiddling with the alignment on the upper flipper. I think I have it too low, but I am not missing shots so maybe not.

Thanks

I would really like a set of bronze solid bats for my Pharaoh. I would need a mini bat for it as well. Will any mini's be available in Bronze?

A reddit user reports that some Halographics in an on-location Foo Fighters broke:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pinball/comments/13by3kw/broken_foo_fighters_pinball_fliper/

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Surprising! I'm sure John will take care of them quickly.

It's just a flesh wound

Jackaltr Yes, I'll be doing the Bronze/Copper for both the solids and HALO's, as well as the mini's too. Should be coming on the next production run in about 4 weeks.

...I've had worse...!

I haven't kept up on the development of this product but I've been curious about the halo's. Are they just an aesthetic thing or does the reduced material lighten them and cause them to perform better? I'm kind surprised to see one structurally fail like this.

I've had a few of the HALO's break in the past couple weeks, replacements are being sent at no cost. My investigation into the cause showed that a small number of flippers appears to have shifted during the machining process. An update is being made in my tooling on the next production run to prevent this from reocurring.

While I strive to deliver perfection in the products I make unfortunately stuff can and does happen at times, this is one of those occasions. I appreciate the support, suggestions, comments, and recommendations everyone has given me over the past 11 months while this product has continued to evolve. This is but one more step in the direction of it's evolution and continued refinement.

Thanks,
John

SiN13 In answer to your question the HALO's do perform differently, that's by design due to their being a little lighter, and because of their dissipation of energy. The solid flippers are very rigid so in turn they react with more authority and deliver more energy to the ball. They were designed using modern day CAD techniques to optomize the design and material properties.

Update for anyone with a DP. I am currently at 235 on the power and it seems to be about right. Still amazed at some of the shots I am able to hit at times.

Scooby Doo was a bit of a challenge because of the bookcase flipper. I have other games to convert, but I wanted to do the hardest one first!

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Damonator Nice job!

Come on fuchsia bats!

Here's an update for everyone on the additional colors. I'll be adding the Violet, Ruby Red, Bronze/Copper, and Gray to the line up. I'm in the middle of my next production run and will start anodizing batches of HALO's and Standard flippers near the end of this month. I'll let everyone know when they are available.

Just FYI: I had a long game of Hobbit this week end (Halo installed), and I did get some flipper fade toward the end of the game. Power setting are slightly down to accomodate for the higher transmission power of the Halos, but seems it's not sufficient to prevent heating.

Oh well, I was hoping to avoid putting fansink on the coils, looks like I have to do it after all.

I will be bringing my R&M to the NWPAS again this year but this time with freshly installed halos. Plenty of people will get a chance to experience the improved game play.

Speaking of fan heatsinks on the coils.... 1956PINHEAD how is your testing going with your coil heatsinks? Are you almost ready to release them into the wild? I'm still very interested in them after seeing them at TPF and talking about them with you.

Also posted in GZ forum...
Hey all - I recently installed Precision Halos on my GZ and AIQ - love the looks and the feels. On GZ though, both left flippers are now way weak - upper flipper now rarely hits the loop and the lower flipper only hits the ramp 25% of the time. AIQ - all good though. Any suggestions on what could be the issues? I replaced coil stops and sleeves on all - looked at EOS and seems good - spacing seems good with playfield/flipper bat.... No tech alerts - Coil tests work - Node Board tests ok... What else could it be? Thanks

greenmonk Good to see you pop in here, been a while. I'm still making a few tweaks and testing, but getting closer. I'll update again when I'm closer.

heynonny From a mechanical aspect the only thing that would degrade the flipper performance is wear on the components. If you've manually actuated the flippers by hand and they move smooth and freely with no sloppy feel or binding then it must be something else. Not really sure what else I can add other than it might be bad coils? What happens when you increase the flipper coil power on those two flippers, have you tried that to see what happens?

Thanks John - Maxed both top and bottom flippers and same power - maybe the bottom one a little more but barely - just had a game where three times in a row it went half way up the ramp and back down.... everything seems smooth mechanically. Seems to be a bit random as AIQ is all good and has the same setup.

Also check your EOS switches in switch test mode. They should activate just a hair before full flipper extension. If they are activating too early, you will lose power.

Recently installed some gold solid bats and replacement bushings on my Rush LE (look amazing), and noticed the flipper strength boost instantly.

I did notice a very slight dead bounce difference which took some getting used to a I dead bounce a lot. The bounce is a little less, which I expected, and to be honest it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Are the Halo’s more or less bouncy? From 1956PINHEAD comments, they may be less bouncy?

IMG_6873 (resized).jpeg

More flex=more bouncy
I'm going with halos in copper
That may be your next order

Maybe it's my imagination, but I think there is a slightly bigger bounce with the Halos than a stock flipper (using standard Titan rubbers).

The HALO's do seem to have a very slight more amount of rebound at comparative ball speeds. I also think the game layout has a bit to do with this also, I get more bounce off of them on my Foo Fighters, it's a faster playing game so that's logical I suspect.

Here's an update on the availability for the new colors, looking like end of this month or first week of June I'll have them available. I'm on the home stretch of my current production run of both Solid's and HALO's so they'll all be going out for anodizing at the same time.