From what I can tell it's not the light but what powers the light and it's all on the board so there's no fixing except the QR replacement.
I tried mounting a light strip around it but that wasn't satisfactory as the white plastic is too opaque. Stern needs to redesign the light circuit .

They are not made of lead now, so let's not get carried away. An air ball has been known to happen in pinball.

Recommendations on things to check for an upper flipper that seems to "crap out" from time to time (hit button like normal but sometimes, particularly after a few loops, feels like a limp wrist, partial flip)?

I changed the coil stops out from stock a while back which felt like it helped with the flippers overall (and I learned after the fact the gold dust in my cabinet was a sign that at least one had of the originals was failing). When I purchased the stops, I didn't know to also purchase coil sleeves, and so I'm going to order some now

It feels silly to pay to ship just a handful of sleeves, so I figure I can also pick up other items that would be good to have on hand (even if not related to the flipper issue). Any recommendations from this list? https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/GX3273?VIEW_SIZE=60&VIEW_INDEX=0&view=list&sortOrder=SortProductField:totalTimesViewed

The only changes from stock I've made to the machine thus far are non-magnetic balls, coil stops, titan rubbers, and cliffy shooter/drain/inlane protectors. My cleaning/maintenance is microfibers, novus 1, playfield wax, and sprayway for glass.

Thanks!

I didn't expect them to be made of lead. But I did expect them to last more than a couple of weeks. Am I really being unreasonable in saying that before being dismissed that I am just getting "carried away". Reread my post...this is the second tower demolished and honestly it is the 3 time I have had to repair one. I understand airballs happen but that isn't the reason why this last one broke.

I haven't had a chance to look but when I relayed my experience with Pablo from Stern, he said to reseat the ribbon cable. I thought it was only a R45 that connected to it. Did you see any ribbon cable?

Just curious, I have a set of the Tesla towers still waiting on the machine however. You mentioned having to repair them a few times already, do the issues seem to be on the same Tower, or same general area of the mod? I'm wondering if maybe a mod for the mod can be made. Maybe extra support on the tower before installation or a diverter or shield near the ramp or wherever the ball is prone to wreak havoc on the tower.

There are 2 ribbons

RJ45 feeds the node board assembly. There are ribbon cables between the node board PCB and the QR reader components themselves. Basically cables within the larger assembly itself.

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

The up front one with the sign takes a lot of abuse because of it's proximity to the second Tesla target. That tower can just break in half...well more like one third up from the base. The individual coils can break off as well as they are pretty delicate. I am talking about the grey ones that "hang" from the tower...not the large blue one on top that lights up.

I don't think you are being unreasonable.

I’d like to see a fix for this. They look awesome and hope mine don’t end up in the trash because of breaking apart.

I am sure it will be. The towers are really awesome and by far my favorite mod. You get a cool light show every time you rip the middle spinner.

I would rebuild the flipper with all new parts. Whatever is in a rebuild kit.

LE 423 has landed in NZ

20220125_191329 (resized).jpg

Any rumors on when the next update will be.

Check how the leaf switch at the left flipper button is gapped before you go so far to rebuild because it’s probably just set too wide; mine had a similar thing to what you’re saying out of the factory. The blade for the upper flipper was barely making contact because it was set so far apart and occasionally led to the similar issue (and also made it so there was a huge disparity between when the upper and lower flipper would actuate, I’d never had such an easy time staging on a game!).

Beta code has been streamed on IE Pinball and is being played at a test location. My guess is that we'll see an update within the next week before INDISC.

To add to the good ideas…

Make sure it’s gapped from the playfield correctly and that it’s not dragging or binding mechanically.

Did Leer mods make a different version? I would like to know how they are holding up? I think I like the lower profile look.

Trying to decide on my yet to get pro colors for plastic protectors, rubbers and round speaker lights. Please share photos!

You guys spent $120 for some 3D printed towers?

I would suggest if possible, the mod maker should try switching to TPU material. They would be essentially unbreakable.

Can you just peel off the Stern Insider sticker? I was thinking about removing mine. Not sure if it leaves a bunch of sticky residue or not.

Are those PLA or Resin? PETG or Nylon should hold up better, but direct ball hits are rough.

Lead is quite malleable. No?
Jks

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll read up on what these things mean (this is my first pin and my pinball knowledge beyond how to play started at zero) and then investigate.

Check your switch blades at the flipper button. See how the connection is when the flipper button is depressed. A poor connection there can cause that weak flip thing.

Comes off pretty clean. If it leaves residue, goo gone will clean it right up. I cleaned the back of the vinyl sticker of the used adhesive and put a 467MP strip on so it was ready to be re-stuck in case someone wanted to in the future.

BEFORE
speaker-panel-with-connected-sml (resized).jpg

AFTER
speaker-panel-without-connected-sml (resized).jpg

READY TO GO AGAIN IF NEEDED
qr-sticker-storage-ready-sml (resized).jpg

Much better. Taking mine off tonight. Gracias.

I'm sure trying to track down and fix the two lockups (at different places) that happened in Karl's beta streams is what's holding it up. Other than that, it looked really solid.

Thank you, yes that's what fooled me. IC now working fine except the reader isn't lit appart from flashing during boot. Some might say that's a good thing but for £10k ( yes a premium is $13,500 in UK! ) I want it working properly. I'll try ribbon cables tomorrow and try it on another machine.

We took ours off as well. We stuck it on the inside of the coin door.

so no one else is having issues with airballs hitting the metal ball guides in the middle of the playfield?

Try raising your flipper rubbers up a bit so you are not scooping the ball, might be easy as that to fix

I have the Lermods on mine... No issues at this point; I chose them for the same reason you mention... I liked that the view of the mod wasn't really in line-of-sight of the building signs, and the blue LEDs appeared to be larger (though I could be wrong about that; just my impression from photos). But no question the diddy mod is an impressive sight as well.

The Tesla Towers? I have no idea, really. I can only guess they are PLA. They are also made up of several smaller components that are glued together, and the glue seems to let go of the parts pretty easily in some spots.

just had the arm of my tower that's to the right of my right ramp break off..hopefully, this can be resolved with a change in material.

Yes, we make a different lower profile version. We have sold a lot of them, one failure. That one failure was due to a combination of a weak print from a different filament we used and the customer placing it in a vulnerable spot. Zero reports of failure otherwise. Very few mods can take a hit from a steel ball moving at 35mph, but some are weaker than others it seems.

https://lermods.com/shop/ols/products/godzilla-pinball-interactive-tesla-coils

I got a closer look and can see lines, so either PLA or PETG FDM print, but I would guess PLA. That forward one is very close to the target, which isn't great. I wonder if nylon would hold up better?

Yes, I have started to see this as well...I'm going to try to lean the targets toward the playfield by around 5° using a 3D printed wedge. That and the foam backing might be getting a little soft, may try replacing that as well.

Oh...I assumed you were talking about air balls from the Tesla targets to the right and left of the building...

Hey guys just wanted to say we hear you and are trying our best to make this as unbreakable as possible but with the randomness of pinball it's really hard. The original set of Towers Tom put in our league machine back in November have had zero issues with 2k plays on it.

Over the last couple days Tom has been working beefing up the Tower lower bodies and coils while maintaining the same look. The pictures below show a 50% increase in mass on the legs and cross sections, all of the increase is pushed into the center of the towers to maintain the same look. We are really hoping this increase the rigidity of the model even more, not that it's horrible by no means.

Tom prides himself on his designs and mods and wants to give the best looking piece for your machine possible.

Thank you
Jen Deister

20220126_171807 (resized).jpg

Can anyone help with part # for the blue snubber on the turntable please ?
It does not appear to be listed in the manual

Where is all the discussion of the stream of KME getting to Planet X ? Don’t have the game yet but looks like a winner….at least if you play like skateball does

Question? I'm installing Cliffy's on the shooter lane, and would like to understand how to remove these threaded studs without doing something silly. Can anyone enlighten me?

IMG_7874 (resized).JPG

What are you using for filament? You might have a better chance of it not breaking even if hit by the ball if you use nylon.

Dunno, but Karl's second beta stream (the most recent Godzilla on his twitch) also has him getting to Planet X. Keith is occasionally chiming in on the chat with rule details.

PlanetX mini-wizard mode starts here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1273847175?t=02h46m46s