OK, so would something like this work to simply demagnetize pinballs that have become magnetized, and just throw them back into the game?

RussM

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Man i love some nerd talk! my wife doesnt entertain these convos! I see what you saying, but we're not talking about huge magnetic field that ball has and its very weak. Putting one of the magnets in opposite polarity has no downside, even if it negates some of the magnetic properties. My though is/was if your running the same polarity in every magnet your subject to the same field over and over. Totally going to grab a magnet tonight and one these balls and mess with the north and south poles. HA!

Sure will!

The ball doesn't care whether it's in a north up magnetic field or north down magnetic field. The ball will be in some arbitrary orientation when it encounters the magnetic field. Whichever direction field it encounters, there will be a force that works to align the ball more closely to the field. Agree that there's no real downside to wiring one backwards, but it won't slow the ball magnetization process in any way. The net overall effect can only strengthen the ball's magnetism.

It's better not to mess with the North Pole this close to Christmas.

#1256 landed safe and sound and is up and running! Threw the TSB_ plunger fix on it while setting things up. Luckily dont seem to be having much issue with the left outlines at the moment, but we shall see if that changes haha. Having more issues getting into the upper playfield and keeping it up there long enough to start Capt. Cutler haha. Not completing character modes yet but started quite a few. Loving it so far and super excited to see where upcoming code takes it!

I have a demagetizer I bought from the hardware store. It has a slot at the bottom to "re-magnetize" things like my screwdrivers and a flat spot on the top to demagnetize. So, every month or so, or when I take the balls out of any of my games that sport magnets, I just pass the balls over this demag section and haven't had any issues.

But the ball will randomly encounter both poles of the magnet, and for pulses like the Cpt. Cutler it will likely encounter both poles of the magnet as it gets pulsed and the ball thrown around.

I've read you can demagnetize them by baking them in an oven at 450 degrees. I've never tried it because I just figure if they get magnetized it's a good time to replace them anyway. Of course they used to be a lot cheaper, but with today's energy prices I'm not sure it would be worth it to heat the oven either. If you make sure to just use regular carbon-steel balls with low amounts of chromium in them they will last a long time.

Yea just geeking out, they’re cheap enough at $2 a piece.

I looked in the key posts and didnt see this addressed but I’m getting a bit of a high pitched flipper whine when cradling the ball. Any insight on how to quiet this would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

For lower flippers, change flipper hold power from Boosted to Normal. If already at Normal, switch to Boosted and then switch back to Normal. For upper flipper noise, only solution is to change the setting (can't remember which) that controls whether the upper flippers come on all the time or only when ball is on upper playfield.

Thanks! I’ll give it a try. Appreciate it.

The answer is yes, but with Scooby, not for long. I have Ninjas in every one of my games. Though I've had many games with magnets, I've been able to utilize Ninjas by de-magnetizing the balls with a 110v tool when I am doing cleaning or other maintenance. I even got away with it, pun intended, on Scooby until recently. I had been working my way through all of the other modes, and hadn't really pursued Captain Cutler MB until the past few weeks. Once I started doing several games in a row over a couple of days with the magnets in use, I started having problems. I confirmed that de-magnetizing the balls cured the issue on more than one occasion.

I don't think the magnets on Scooby are necessarily stronger than my Star Wars Premium, Wonka LE or the Munsters I used to have: what IS different is the 7 total balls. I speculate that the additional 2 balls in the game add up to a total gauss strong enough to shift the balls in the trough. Since going back to plain old pinballs, I haven't had those issues even after beating Captain Cutler like Adam Sandler's Spanish teacher. Your mileage may vary, but I suspect not by much.

This is the demagnetizer I have, though the price has doubled, and isn't carried by the supplier I purchased it from:

https://www.penntoolco.com/mini-magic-demagnetizer-110-volt-demagnetizes-tools-dies-punches-cutters-parts-etc-98-270-2/

Just curious if anyone else has noticed (on their SD) that when the Space K. mode starts the ball save isn’t on. The rest of the case modes all have a ball saver to start with except Space K. Is this by design…or do I possibly have an issue with my SD?

Yep. Literally the only one that is brutal like that. My guess is an oversight, or he's just that scary of a villain (let's face it, him and the Phantom Shadows are the ones you definitely don't want to meet down a dark alley!).

This is how I fixed our launcher. Went from 100% power with balls still failing down to 70% and success with every launch. Inspired by TSB.

Still waiting for Spooky to release a fix update for this
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A big pile of Scoobys arrived in New Zealand this morning! More standards and another CE arriving in the new year as well.

The quality of the game is amazing .. powder and playfield are next level.

#6 is set up in my place - 100% plug and play, perfect out of the box even after it’s 13,000km journey from Benton.

Patrick Star gave it his approval.

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HaHaa! I dig it! Mine did take a bit longer to design, but it installs faster than the tape. lol

I'm not sure Spooky will change the design this late in the game. The auto launch mech design is what's problematic, though the dangly tab may also be giving some people grief.
I've had similar issues on older games with this same style mech (Data East/Sega/Old Stern).
In order to fix the underlying issue, you'd have to swap out the mech and shooter lane switch for something like what stern/bally/CG use (if they fit): #500-9818-02 or #500-9818-01 or #500-9818-00 or #A-21022-1

I designed the plunger plate to remediate the issue without permanently modifying the machine, but swapping mechs and modifying the playfield is also an option.

Hope you guys enjoys them Scoobys. Great to see them making their presence world wide. Curious, what is the source voltage and frequency you guys use in New Zealand?

$1.79, think these SHOULD flip over the forks, if painters tape is working this should as well. ill take one for the cause and grab a set on my lunch break and report back.
https://www.harborfreight.com/9-pairs-c-clamp-jaw-pads-91952.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiNTY3NzI0ODIiLCJza3UiOiI5MTk1MiIsImlzIjoiMS43OSJ9&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12169518939&campaignid=12169518939&utm_content=114845781537&adsetid=114845781537&product=91952&store=3398&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwPe2486RgwMV4WdHAR0rgwXTEAQYBiABEgIT_PD_BwE

Maybe it's the camera angle but yours looks like it's saggy way left (closer to the middle of the machine), perhaps the washers and C clips are really loose??

Yeah I am also getting flipper whine when the buttons are held. It's not bad on the right side and I can kinda ignore it, but the left side is pretty loud. I've played a game on the boosted setting (makes the whine a lot louder), restarted and put it back to normal setting, but the whine is still there.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this, please let me know.

It may be like what was wrong with my launcher and Spooky sent me a new one. The pins/studs on the ball launch arm were about to fall out they were so loose. Not sure if they are normally just pressed in or spot welded, but mine was not manufactured properly and that caused the droop on my launcher just like the picture in the previous post. No issues after putting the new one in!

We can prove this or permanently fix this by taking a set of needle nose pilers and spreading and spreading the mount fork, where the crank goes through with the cirlips and washers. But bending the tab up 90 degs fix it for me.

Re the plunger overhang issue w/playfield, do you all recommend bending it up and screwing into the side of the playfield? Or going the route of buying the 3d printed mod that extends the playfield?

As I understand it, both require drilling and screwing into the playfield regardless, correct?

The bending up is free, and doesn’t need a screw. I played a whole bunch of games with out it. I put one in anyways. Once you bend it up if it doesn’t fully fix your issue. Take pliers to the fork of the bracket and spread it apart to take up the slop. The bend took out 90% of the issues. Occasionally I would get a ball that would come out wonky and slow down in the wire form, like it hit something. I took my duckbill pliers and used it as wedge and used the handles to open up my mouth of the pliers in order to make the bracket tighten up on the outer clips etc.

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Had some spare time and wanted to correct some stuff that wasnt to my liking.

Airfield back rail, before and after. Guide was honed and barnished to remove sharp points. then machine polished. wasnt sure if i want a full mirror finish so stopped at this gloss level.

also to note you can see even after de-burring the metal, theres still jagged edges all over but its way smoother, highlighted by the dark spots. After polishing this up the shot got way smoother and faster.

while i had that off decided, to grab my extra fine Clay bar and see what was buried in the paint, this what was in that area after one quick pass, using a ceramic detailer as clay lube.
Kept having week or rejected ramp shots to the upper playfield, found the wire gate switch dislodged and rotated against the the plastic. rotating this and tightening it down fixed the issue. One thing i dont like is that the ramp screws or ramp wasnt counter sunk so the head of the screw would sit flush with the ramp. Ill do this next time im in here.
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also fixed cutlers hand dangling wire, routed behind the horseshoe switch and zip tied it to the post as seen.
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Yes it's saggy as hell! It's also the second mech. First one started sagging. Spooky sent a replacement and now this is sagging. It's the design, they installed it hanging off the playfield. Ninjacamp mods has a 3d printed support bracket that fixes Spooky's build error. Spooky should be buying the file from ninjamods or mocking up their own and sending out the part.

My problem is my second one is already sagging as you can see and ninja's listing says the part may not fix an already saggy unit. So I'd have to get a replacement launcher first and then fork out $50 for the part.

I've been away from this thread for a while but came back looking to see if launcher issues were still an issue and found TSBs solution. Sorry if I missed it but I still didn't see a Spooky design fix for this....

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Will that Ninjacamp mod actually resolve this when it gets that sloppy? I think this is a function of poor tolerances in the manufacturing process that leads to a lot of slop in those pins and clips. Mine has been great once I spread and then closed up the forks, it doesn't have any lean at all like yours does.

How hard is to get access to the center ramp that goes to the upper playfield?

I get occasional stuck balls and it's annoying. Not terribly common but the kids can't shake it hard enough to set it free.

So I'll bust into it and fix whatever's ailing it if I can. Thanks!

Their listing says it may not help an already saggy unit. So it was painters tape for me. I'm glad I saw TSBs fix

Not that hard at all, just remove the plastic that covers it on the upper playfield, 3 Philips screws and a zip tie

What a cool post. Its neat seeing that map and the journey that those machines took. Enjoy!

230v 50hz. Same as Uk, Germany, France, Australia.

The power supplies Spooky use are auto switching, they will work on voltages 100-230v automatically. Clever!

rd

Much obliged. I'll open her up and see why it's getting stuck. I hope the reason is obvious - mechanical hang-ups usually are.

Those that have replaced your art blades after you snagged them, did you remove the playfield, or anything different since it’s so tight? I’ve done them a bunch in sterns (even in my TNA I did mirrors) but TNA and sterns aren’t nearly as tight. Plan to attack this later tonight. Thanks.

If anyone could please help, having a time with this machine. First when it came from the factory the amplifier was faulty. We got sent a new amplifier installed it.

The main issue is we are having a high pitch frequency being played over the speakers during gameplay. It is extremely annoying. The high pitch frequency increasing when pressing down the flipper buttons.

Anyone have this issue or have any ideas to solve?

Thanks!!

Did you ever figure out a solution? This is EXACTLY what is happening with mine.

Unplug the audio cable from the HDMI controller in the head and the amp in the cabinet. Connect a different 3.5mm cable between those same plugs, but do not route it with the main harness; keep it completely separate. This fixed all kinds of background noise in my Halloween game. You can use the original cable if you fish it out of the harness and reroute it, but it was easier for me to just run a new cable.

We need to do this also. I'd love to hear how you go about removing the originals

Thinking a blow dryer or heat gun, where mine have come off completely there’s a good bit of adhesive left behind. Imagine the playfield can be left in the game and complete one half at a time. Just split the masking paper at the midway point

I need to do mine as well, but waiting till the gremlins find a new home.

Will try and report back, thank you!

Just grabbed a corner and peeled it off. Only left a couple small spots of goo. Wiped off with a microfiber and glass cleaner.

Stand playfield all the way up. Then all I did was put painters tape at front edge by flipper button, and then like a 12inch piece under the artwork to show how low it was. Peeled old one off. Wiped it off. Aligned new decal with edges of painters tape and laid it down. Once front half was lightly attached, I put playfield down so the metal bars were on the coindoor bar, then did back half. Then pressed the whole thing down firmly to finalize it. Wasn’t really noticeably tighter than any previous game I’ve done. But I was concerned because this was also the only artwork I’ve ever scratched before. I had like a 1inch gouge above the orange led.

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I recommend using Rapid-Tac when applying the new decals.

Really works well, lets you reposition the entire decal as much as you need, then squeegee it down.

Don't need to half-and half the release paper.

Do one side, then put the protector over the new decal, and then do the other side.

NEVER raise or lower the playfield without the protectors in.

And that's for any game with blades.

RussM

Curious what the current expected wait time is on a ce.. If anyone knows?

i dont think there is a fix unfortunately. spooky recommended the boost settings for coils in game menu. that didnt fix mine, but i turned the volume up one notch and i cant hear it anymore. this assumes your sound is the resonance of the coils and not actually coming from the speakers. sounds like this is common, and happened in past games to

This sound is awful! How can this not be addressed

Post 7805, I did this to mine and the speaker hiss is gone

The high frequency sound is not coming from the speakers. It is from the coils on the upper playfield. If i turn off coil pulse and hold power to 0-10%, the flippers do not emit the noise. Any ideas on how to stop the upper flippers from emiting the high pitch frequency?