I had ordered a uv kit from cointaker and have not received it. They said they are still waiting for them from Stern so probably the same thing with Game Exchange.

This may not be directly related to this game - but it’s the only one this happens on - after powering on, game is stuck black screen showing ‘Starting up…’ and the game has essentially fully powered on and is ready to play. Service panel, start button, etc. non-responsive. Turning it off and back on a couple times seems to fix it. Any ideas?

Sounds to me like you need to replace the SD card.

Same.

Got mine last week from JJ

This game may need a lot of work but also can’t think of another game where the works makes such a big difference. STh premium stock is a 6.0 game. STh premium properly dialed in with UV kit is a 9.0 game.

key is to get the all the orbits to work well, most of the games I have played, came with the metal guides incorrectly installed including V1 of this game.
The worst one is typically the left orbit, people at the factory are not installing it correctly and it is within the PF limit (your PF has a line drawn on it marking where the guide goes, ideally, you want the guide outside this line and not within the playfield).

This is a very important adjustment, if the guide falls within then it makes the playfield smaller, changing the geometry and making this shot and other related shots a complete clunk fest. If this orbit is not properly installed the BURN it back shot will sound like a clunk fest.

I have fixed my V1 and I was able to smooth both shots out to a 95%. The geometry of the game is very tight, so any space you can gain on the orbits will make it play better. Unfortunately, to get to the rails, you have to disassemble more than what you really want to... the adjustment begins where the orbit meets the return to right flipper ramp, so you have to dissasemble the entire back. If you gain a good margin here, you will have enough slack to adjust the guide as much as you can towards the left and down the bottom.

without adjusting this, you will never have a:
Smooth Burn it back
proper transition from ball Demo release, etc.

It might work, just not as well.

I have also done adjustments to the burn it back guide and it helps a lot, but you have to make minute adjustments here and there is not a lot of room.

I am yet to play my STTH V2 as I have to do all this work before I can enjoy it as I should.

My V1 came with the left orbit perfectly dialed in. The orbit with that spinner and the burn it back loop are by far the best shots in the game and smooth as butter. So fun in fact that I can't resist going for my 5-way on whichever of those shots I'm feeling right away. So smooth. And by the time your up to the 5th combo of burn it back that ball is moving. Dare I say fastest shot in pinball? I can't keep up after 5.

5 is impressive! I can't get past 3.

Yes some people were lucky lol

Can you take a picture of the left orbit right before the bend at the back to see how yours is.

I agree. My orbits behaved like garbage. Tuning those alone changed the game from a ridiculous drain fest to a fair but tough game.

Ya I will feel like I beat the game when I get everything dialed in 100%. The problem is changing one variable effects other things in the game. Up the flipper power for the TK lock…. Now the gorg shot doesn’t work etc. My biggest gripe by far is the left orbit. I have my game tilted to the left side to try and hug that rail out of the up post shot. Have to nudge the game still to land on the flipper. The burn it back works pretty decent though. I cut the spring on the up post down some and had no effect. I guess I need to dig in deep and try to get it right and do the rails.TK lock is about 85% after paw bend. Never have issues on 2nd and 3rd ball just the 1st ball sometimes.

After 5 hours on the tk,it hasn't missed one time in 30 + games. Left orbit was easy fix, right orbit, don't know what to do. I've tweaked the guide out so far, the plunge actually ticks it and sends the ball to the left of the drops. Guess I'll tweak it up higher next

Recently got my ST Premium, built in December 2023. Issues out of the box included left/right orbits not landing on flippers properly (thanks to Chuck's video, was able to dial in after quite a bit of tinkering), the TK lock which works 70% of the time (gonna leave it for now) and I just discovered that the saucer VUK is supposed to send the ball all the way around the "Burn it Back" loop?? I had no idea!

So we tinkered with the hood of the saucer, but the ball keep "slamming into the ball guide" on the right of the drop targets (and yes, I understand that the drop target at the end, has to be down) and just kind of richochet's back and forth in that area but doesn't go all the way around, unfortunately.

It doesn't seem like the "ball guide" in that area has any "give" and I tried adjusting the POWER of the slingshot from 16 to other numbers, but nothing really seemed to work. Just wondering if there are any other options to try, that I might have missed?

For the life of me I cannot get the left ball eject to shoot the ball around the orbit for the burn.

Adjusted the post and power and best I can get is like half way up.

Any tips?

UV Kit Apron Concern:

I waited what felt like an eternity for my UV kit. It just arrived. Hooray!

I was planning to take advantage of the handy additional cutout in the right side of the apron to move the IC sensor, but, alas, my apron has no such cutout. I'm already using the coindoor panel for a headphone jack and thus can't move the IC sensor there. I asked Stern's parts desk to start a repair ticket to sort this out, but they haven't responded. If one of you reading this has the new apron style, can I trouble you to take a quick photo of it and post it here? I assume I will have to send Stern a photo of the right apron to compare it to mine, etc.
Thanks!

IMG_3109 (resized).jpeg

I can't achieve this on my game, either. I have the deflector bent to direct the ball into the BIB lane - and it does go slightly up there, but it certainly doesn't go through/around. Every time it doesn't, I ask myself: how on earth does Erik's ejected ball go all the way through there? Another example of what my playfield does NOT do that Erik's does is, my return from the pops lane does NOT return to the right flipper but goes either SDTM or gets bumped out to the left flipper.

I find it funny ya'll want the VUK to send to the burn-it-back. It wasn't designed that way.
The most dangerous shot in the game is those 4 drops. The safest way to get 2 of them is the VUK. It shoots at such an angle that SDTM isn't possible. Head on those drops are DANGER. The VUK for the right 2 and the skill shot for the left 2 is how this game was designed.

Wow. I'm jealous. I can't really loop either shot even three times in a row, let alone five. Where the orbit's concerned, there's too much flutter in the flipper return lane to time the flip. Often the ball has bounced away from the flipper by that point so I'm swatting at it and not truly flipping. Kind of hard that way to loop the left orbit. The BIT orbit is also hard to loop because the left orbit's flatrail is apt to send the ball SDTM after some real pace gets on it. That piece of flatrail was set at the factory fairly far inside the line marked beneath it. Honestly, if were it were not set inside that line, a ball released by the Mystery up-post would fall to the left sling.

Agree with the above. On my original LE I adjusted so the vuk would send the ball around burn it back. But with my new premium Ive kept it as is so it hits the drops nicely. It still does burn it back sometimes when the right side is down.

The burn it back is an easy enough shot to get your extra balls.

This isn't possible on my game. If the saucer's deflector is bent to aim the ball into the last TWO drop targets, an ejected ball with the Demo ramp down will crash into the left edge of the ramp. Only if the ejected ball is aimed at the LAST target will it roll over the lowered Demo ramp.

I’m in the same boat. The distro I bought from (who are great) has asked Stern about the apron not having the cut out 2-3 times and hasn’t got any response at all. I really doubt Stern is going to do anything for anyone. The apron situation is a mess. I put my IC inside the coin door hanging down from a plastic wire harness. I open the door and scan on the rare occasion I need to due to home team. But what a half baked situation.

IMG_1634 (resized).jpeg

They make coin door IC kits with headphone hookups / controls.

Oh, no!
Not what I hoped to hear!
Yeah, your solution is rather half-baked. (No offense!)
Your Premium has been quite the handful. Your next game will seem like a cakewalk by comparison!

Oh, yeah?
Thanks for the heads up.
I will look into it, but my headphone kit is made by Pinnovators, not Stern. I may be out of luck.

Can you link the video, please?

Finally have my stranger things “dialed in” after hours of tinkering with it. I could still do a little more on the demo shot, but overall everything is done. I didn’t have to bend the actuator arm, but rather trial n error with the software settings and adding a washer to the right side of the demo post.

IMG_4561 (resized).jpeg

Newish current run Stranger Things premium owner here also. Loving the game so far. Literally had zero issues out of the box, but have to give a shout out to our local distro AMD - they go through and troubleshoot every game before delivery.

Have uv kit installed (another shout out to AMD - they threw this in for free) and, combined with the projector in a dark room, the immersion is unlike any game I’ve owned.

Also have Pinwoofer kit installed which is a must have upgrade on this game especially for Premiums which have the cheapest/crapest stock speakers I’ve ever seen or heard.

The UV kit makes it a MUCH more immersive experience for sure. I was really surprised by what it added.

I thought the sound on my Premium was really good for stock. Maybe I need to rethink that.

Chris

New speakers and subwoofer. First thing I did and glad I did.

I'm confused on what the issue is here. Put the IC sensor in the proper place which is by removing the right plastic. I put mine there and all went fine. What am I missing here?

Looks.

Mine didn’t fit you had to snip the metal at a 45 degree angle for it to align. I dont care about insider connected so it’s currently just sitting in my coin box.

I agree, the sound upgrade is a must on this game. The low quality speakers affect this game greatly, I dont mind these crappy speakers on other titles, but this one really needs the upgrade.

OK. I didn't have to snip mine. It was very close and I put a sliver of electrical tape between it but otherwise all good. I have all of mine in that spot so in my lineup its consistent.

I had to use a dremel on the IC mount to round the edge off to fit back in the apron as it was from the factory replacing that tight triangle plastic…. There was zero chance mine was fitting without rounding it off. I then used 3M tape as an extra precaution. If you want to chat further shoot me a pm.

IMG_3258 (resized).jpeg

IMG_3260 (resized).png

90 second job with a flat file. mine looks just like yours, except i stuck the black tape over the solder joints on the LED board.

dremels are fun though!

I beta tested the new code and can confirm NO static on Save Will on V2.

what speakers and sub are you using ExSquid ?

https://www.pinballlife.com/boom-boom-3000-8-speaker-upgrade-for-spike-spike-2-machines.html

and

https://www.pinballlife.com/rgb-led-round-speaker-upgrade-and-light-kit-for-most-stern-spike-2-pro-premium-machines.html

Is this the version with Separate Ways? Or will that be v3?

From Stern Support, regarding my UV kit’s apron which is missing the additional cutout:

“ Pablo Padilla (Stern Pinball)
Mar 20, 2024, 12:04 PM CDT

Jason,

Good afternoon.

Production of the UV kit shows' that you have received the correct apron for this accessory and the RIGHT plastic will need to be removed for the installation of the QR camera. Unfortunately we do not carry a different apron for the UV kit that has a cut out for the QR camera below the right plastic.”

If he is telling me the whole story, how did some kit buyers end up with aprons that have an additional cutout? I’m confused.

I just snipped the corner with metal shears.
I asked stern about the issue. They said it’s tight but fits. I’m curious how many people have shorted that light on the metal corner.

Does this help? (the bottom of the image is the start of the bend at the top of playfield - was the best angle to get a photo with my phone)

image_67200769 (resized).JPG

I said I go for 5 - often don't get there. but when i do...

Every version whether it's pro or premium/LE has the original version and a Separate Ways version.

It is super hard to get a good shot.
The issue is typically just a few inches above that.

Both those upgrades are great but just as important, if not more so, is upgrading to an external amp.

That doesn't make sense, my uv kit came two weeks ago and has the cut out for IC on the lower right side where the rule card goes.

Same.