Ben is designing and coding game #4 and that is not expected until 2018. Charlie is designing game #3 for 2017 and this likely means Fawzma on coding. Presumably Fawma would also code any contract games that come up during the same period. The positive takeaway is that Fawzma has stated he will continue to code the hell out of RZ until it is finished and the game's full potential is realized. Spooky has a great track record of polishing their games.

I see the concern about not knowing how the coding can be accomplished with so many projects going on, but their answer to this was - no schedule will be given, and like it or not, is the response we must accept. Was selfishly hoping to hear that everything will be baked prior to the last RZ rolling off the assembly line in July, similar to AMH (AMH's code was complete by end of production cycle, yet had a few later updates). They probably will hit that deadline anyways, just without making a commitment.

Whoa! I was still very occasionally seeing the phantom tilt even after adding ferrites, so this is welcome news. What was happening with the flippers, though. Were there people who had flipper buttons get false closures?

Basically the rampup was set to 1 on the tilt and flippers no less. That was enough for the false signal to trigger the switch. Same thing could have technically happened with the flippers. Flippers could show up as strange menu selections.

I haven't read any of this... but just to be clear.

Fawzma will polish up Domino's, and get Jetsons (much simpler rules) done... he's also tinkering with the glaring RZ code issues now.

But make no mistake... I was listening to Sid Haig audio while working on 50 other things last night, and there is a MOUNTAIN of call outs from both him AND Rob Zombie yet to be implemented.

As soon as things settle, Fawzma will hit RZ hard and really polish it up... tons of things to do, and I blame me. I'm the guy abusing the poor dude with 3 games to work on.

All in due time. Zombie isn't done by a long shot, and it will ROCK HARD before we ever call it "finished" ... which Ben Heck tells me no game code ever is.

Just be careful not to let Stern steal away your programmer.

GLAD TO HEAR, YOU ALL ROCK, I want RZ to never be done, so much more this game can be!

I had asked about extra songs being put in as well, any chance that can happen???
P-P-P-P-Please!

And "I'm in the club!!

Very thrilled to get my regular RZ. Love the pin and I think it will only get better and better with new code. Love the game modes, add a ball, the adult call outs and art work.

Already bought lights, flipper toppers, the Laseriffic topper, pinblades, etc.

Gonna add some McFarlane figures - guess I gotta watch some horror movies now....

So I haven't messed with the wires re the phantom tilts, don't at this point? Code will fix the problem?

I know Stern did it with at least Metallica, but I doubt it will happen with RZ. Would really like to be able to swap songs as I can with Stern games (would appreciate a PM if someone knows how [early on it seemed like some thought we could]). Even just swapping What for Meet the Creeper would make me happy :p I pretty much cringe every time What plays.

Is anyone working on a headphone adapter?

They aren't wise enough to try and FAWZMA is smart enough to stay away.

All speculation on my part. :p

I think it's in the 240's, but we have an RZ coming to D&D in Tucson pretty soon now.

Exciting stuff! I thought it would be Q3 before I had a chance of taking delivery on 291, but maybe it'll be sooner!

It's been awhile since we've had an undated production graph. Herg was maintaining it, and now might be a good time to request a current version. I remember being impressed how regular and consistent pins were being delivered and how close actual was to planned quantities for the first ten months. RZ #189 was ready for shipping prior to 12/31/16.

pasted_image (resized).png

RZ #181 was ready on 12/27/16, which looks to coincide with the information you have about #189. I just figured I would put it out there.

Brad

I received #207 2 weeks go.

Play AMH..... I'm not surprised at all by the support that RZ received.

not possible from our end, not part of license.

Dont bother at this point. Just set to disabled for the time being. I'm pretty confident this is the nail in this bug.

Couldn't you put a splitter on the amp, and run through your coin door?

I agree. This happens much more on my RZ than on any other game. Even when doing it by hand and trying my best to throw it at about the same speed and force. Seems to me that on RZ it takes MUCH less force to cause the flipper to be pushed down. Is the hold power the same for all coils or is that something that is set by the software?

Hold coil it separate and needs to be pulsed to hold. Pulse too long and you start blowing fuses (or burn up the coil), pulse too short and the flipper won't hold up strong enough to keep EOS contact. I'll keep testing, maybe I can find a better happy point. Maybe I can use a 80/20 ratio, instead of 70/30

I've never written coil control code, so I'm really just trying to learn here, but why would a hold coil that was properly sized need to be pulsed? Stern pulses theirs, but that's because it's a single coil, right? Certainly, old games before solid state control simply have a switch that applies power. Are coils pulsed in WPC games?

I've tried pinnovators, Lorenzo, and the gang periodically on this. Good guys! But unfortunately far as I know they've focused their efforts on other things.

I'd love to have headphones for this. It's the single most applicable pinball game ever to benefit from headphones with the amazing music and vulgar adult mode callouts

Here's a couple of quick pictures of mirror blades in my RZ from https://PinballSideMirrors.com/. I really dig their side mirrors. They are high quality and aren't flimsy. I have them in my RFM/SWE1 also. Great packaging to make sure they arrive in one piece. Highly recommended.

IMG_1945 (resized).JPG
IMG_1951 (resized).JPG

I'd really like to have headphones as well. I'm not sure how much I'd end up actually using them, but I'd love to have the option. Maybe I'll take a look at what it would take, if I can find the time.

I did a bit of research. RZ uses FL-11629 coils, and the hold coil is 132 ohms. I still need to research the coil power source for RZ, but on WPC games, it's 50VAC off the transformer, through a bridge to make ~70VDC.

Ohms law: V = I * R
70 = I * 132
I = 0.530 A

I don't see why the hold coil would have to be pulsed. That IS about 35W that would generate heat, but it shouldn't blow fuses.

Edit:

A look at the AMH v22 source, shows there was code in there to pulse the hold coil, but there was either a bug or hack that would prevent it from actually pulsing. It is setting the I/O high when trying to turn off the coil. Maybe it has been fixed since then, or maybe RZ uses something completely different. I'm just curious.

if (LholdTime) {

if (LholdTime == holdTop) {
digitalWrite(LFlipLow, 1); //Switch hold ON.
}
if (LholdTime == holdHalf) {
digitalWrite(LFlipLow, 1); //Switch hold OFF
}
if (LholdTime == 1) { //Almost done?
LholdTime = holdTop + 1; //Reset it
}
LholdTime -= 1;
}

.53 amps I take it.. You have to also consider the amps being pulled from other sources. the Fuses are 3A slow blow. And the code you quoted is fixed at least in RZ ( holdHalf turns the low power coil off. ) I noticed in v23 AMH its still in there..this could very well be causing the phantom flipper amp blow issue.

Just about every game since EM inception has separate fuses for flippers only. Are you saying that other circuits share the flipper fuse? That's problem #1.

I was literally just thinking this, if only they were on their own fuse.

are you 100% sure about this?

Those look great. Which of their blades fit on Spooky pins? Stern? Williams? Didn't see an option for Spooky on their site.

For WPC-95, it definitely is somewhat true. They all share one, but also have individual fuses.

F108 Solenoid Secondary T6.3A - this goes to all of the coils, including the flippers, but there are individual fuses
F115 - F118 Flippers T4.0A - one for each of the four flippers
F102 - F104 Solenoids T4.0A - one for each bank of 8 solenoids

I can't speak for all 10,000 titles if you're taking me literally, but

WMS System 9-11 did
Data East System 3 on did
WPC did (pretty much anything with fliptronic style)
Stern Whitestar did (using Simpsons as an example, 1 fuse for each flipper)

A closer look at the RZ docs, and there are actually 3x 3A fuses for the coils. One fuse goes to each of the 3 solenoid connectors on the board. The flippers are spread across two of the connectors, so they do not share a fuse, but things like slings, pops, trough, autolaunch are also on those connectors. The shaker is not on the same connector as either of the flippers, so there's a plus.

Go to Special Regular Mirrors and in the pull down menu there is an option for RZ.
https://pinballsidemirrors.com/product/special-regular-mirrors/

On Jungle lord there's a fuse for both flipper that shares with that side controlled magnet. And each magnet has its own fuse.

It all adds up. Here are my coin reject inserts.

IMG_0747.JPG

I like those. Nice idea and detail work.

Sorry to harp on the subject, but I found another reason the flipper hold is weaker than WPC.

On RZ, coil power is supplied by a Meanwell SE-600-48 switching supply. It outputs 48VDC, which is used to power the coils.

So, RZ: 48VDC being pulsed at 70% duty
WPC: ~70VDC held on solid (100%)

Looks awesome. Wish I could see your RZ in person. Probably looks amazing up close.

I had a motordome that had a factory installed repower flasher harness. Supplied fresh voltage to the flashers.
If the hold is an issue why not offer a harness that supplied fresh separate fused power and a setting in the code to provide 100 percent power. Aka update installed.

I'm not sure that a new harness is necessary. Granted they are bringing 48V into the board on a single Molex KK 0.156" pin (or similar, I don't know what exact part). Those are typically rated at 7A per pin. The power supply is rated at 12.5A. Since there are 3 parallel 3A fuses, it's possible for the input pin current rating to be exceeded, but it would have to spread across all three solenoid banks. If it were my design, I'd rather have two or three pins for the input power, or at minimum, put a separate fuse (maybe 5A or 6A) on the input. Maybe there IS a fuse on the input somewhere and I've just missed it.

The 3A per bank seems conservative to me. You would NOT want to increase those without a separate fuse on the main input, however. Again, there is a single pin per bank being used to supply power out to the coils, but here, it's spread across the 3 banks.

Even with all of that considered, I don't see where keeping the hold coils on 100% would cause any issues. Knowing now that the input power is 48V, the current for a hold coil would be closer to 0.36A (360 mA).

Having them working like they are now is really not that big of a deal. It's not like it keeps me from enjoying the game, but do think it could easily be better.

Edit:
Oh, and before I forget. I want to check the wire gauge. Mine has a single wire running from the supply, through the interlock, then up to the board. At a glance, it looked like 18AWG, which seems a bit small if the only fuses are the 3 parallel ones on the board.

Are you saying the 12.5A supply is fed by a single 18AWG? That's okay as long as the current protection device (fuse) is less than 9.5A...which if there are only 3 possible paths, and each has a 3A fuse, then it's close but ok. For main power feeds I usually don't use anything less than 14 AWG, 16 AWG for lamps and solenoids, 18AWG and 22AWG for low current inputs (switches) and comms.

It IS a single wire. Well, actually one supply and one return. I am not positive on the size, which is why I want to check. It sure looked like 18AWG, though.

I'm almost positive it's 16AWG.

Has anyone else noticed a lot more shooter lane switch errors on the latest code?

The printing is too smeared to read, but what's in my game looks and feels like 18AWG to me. It probably doesn't matter much since the connector is likely the weak point.

20170206_214610 (resized).jpg

20170206_214851 (resized).jpg

I've gotten it a couple of times since code update.

I have V019 being testing to help with this.

In the mean time, double check your shooter lane switch to make sure the ball is activating the switch properly. The ball could be landing on the shooter lane, but not actually making proper contact.

Does anyone know the game update process and can speak/write Japanese?

Yep, have had it 4 times in 2 weeks.

Tappubiru kudasai! Arigato!

(Tap beer please!! Thanks!)

That's my limit.

rd

Ha ha. The hands on the other foot.

Normally we are getting the bad translations.

Ha ha ! Nice , how many languages can you say that in Dave?