been having audio clipping for the last 2 versions. I used the 10 band eq to reduce bass in the backbox speakers and increased it in the cab speaker to compensate. By default it's on the high/low pass filters but I couldn't find settings for those that got rid of the clipping

Not sure if it’s just me. But I noticed, that if I have spell of Protection lit, and ball save on at the same time, and I drain on the left, it registers as spell of Protection, using it up.

I thought if the ball save was on, you wouldn’t lose the spell save. Noticed this a few times during TK multi ball.

When do you think we’ll get a video mode?

I’m adding some. Just don’t I’ll do the ones in the back. Hard to see not worth the effort. Buried under back ramps

So... what's the lockdown bar button for?

Same as iron maiden. Launching the ball, entering the high score letters, starting the game. I assume the video mode will use it, though.

I ordered some of those forest sideblades for my premium, going to pick up those glow rubbers too

I was looking into glow in the dark balls but there doesnt seem to be high quality option for that, I see some with low reviews

n00b here,

Don't own a single pin and considering a STh Premium as our first for the fam. Code aside, all the mech problems kinda scare me (TK ball lock, ramp gap, flipper power, ball post...etc.) especially for someone who has NEVER worked on a pin before. I'm not adverse to being hands on, just wondering if it's worth the trouble/$ for a first time pin owner; especially since I may not even know if there is actually a problem!

Local dealer is selling a premium, with UV kit. I don't know how many plays it has, and don't know if he's tweaked it/tuned it all the way.

Go for it? Get a NIB from a distributor? Or go with a safer option for a first pin?

Get a Deadpool Prem. Circle back to STh once the code is more mature and issues on the Prem/LE are worked out. Deadpool Prem/LE is fantastic. Play it, enjoy it for a year then decide if you still want Stranger Things.

If your family loves the theme and you’re not sure about the lock/projector then pick up a pro and have fun. With the money you save add the UV kit. Pinball machines have moving parts so sooner or later you might need to tweak something.

I wonder what it’s going to be...bashing Demogorgons/Demodogs with Steve the hair Harrington? Kids on bikes racing away from Vans? Maybe something more retro like AFM?

Hope that video mode will come soon.
On an another topic, what do you think about a menu for each mission launch?
Per example, on Batman 66, you can choose a specific mission in the menu (a banner with the options on the DMD at startup, and left or right flip navigation). it would be fantastic if the code were improved in this way. I think that the idea of ​​leaving the choice to the player will always give more interactivity and would make it easier to achieve total isolations
Best,

These forums can be helpful, but sometimes a bit intimidating. Not all games have problems etc. I am quite happy with my game.

Those problems are small, any my game doesn’t have them. I would suggest going a playing the game at the local dealer. It’s really fun! Ask them about the reported issues and see for yourself how there game plays. They might even offer local setup and delivery.

As for Price, that’s up to your budget. ST Prem MSRP is $7699. A price near that for used is not a good deal. UV kit is essentially $300 shipped. I think any Premium in the low $7000 range that includes a UV kit is a good price, any game with a $6 as the first digit is a very good price. Use that to compare to your local dealer.

Feel free to give me a pm. I love to chat pinball and would be happy to chat about my game etc.

Chris

I'll put more time on it this weekend, it was just odd.

My pro Iron Maiden does not have that button, do the premium/le's have it?

Is it just me, or during TK multiball everything seems quiet like the music is low or not present??

Loving my pro UpsideDown edition !

Maiden LE doesn't have the button nor do the premiums I've seen. I saw a post of a recent one that had a lock bar button and thought it was some kind of joke at first, but apparently they are including these on new builds.

My experience with the LE was that the TK lock was one of the most difficult mechs to get working properly, and I've owned about 25 games, most of them modern if not NIB. Some say they had one that worked well out of the box, but I've also seen multiple Twitch streamers turn the mech off in frustration. I've probably spent a total of 12 hours on mine and know another guy who has spent about the same on his LE, so work can go well beyond what is described in Stern's PDF. That said a lot of the issues have been worked out by others now so it will likely be less trial and error for future owners. I think it is a good game and my family loves it - largely due to the theme and projector.

Other issues are the demogorgon often needs to be adjusted for the shot to be makable, a gate often falls off under the demogorgon, some ball guides need to be adjusted, the Stern lighting kit needs to be installed, the projector can get out of focus, kick out of the ball from dish on the left side often needs adjustment, the stickers on the standup targets fall off frequently, but of these are relatively simple to fix. Pretty much every new or used game has needed some adjustment or minor modification to get it optimized though.

I'm terribly sorry, but can someone reiterate this potential "ramp gap" problem or at least point me to the post that makes mention of it. My ramps seem fine, but I'm curious about it. I have a December 2019 build, so if it's a problem, I'm sure I have it.

I went with the pro, I’m usually a premium guy but for this title the pro is great! Less fiddling and more playing!

My daughter and I played stranger things on stream for a bit last night. We bid it farewell as we traded with a friend. He may put it up on stream soon now!

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/614527552

I can see us having this one in our collection again at some point.

After WAY too many hours I'm about ready to wave the white flag. This TK lock is possibly the WORST lock mech in ALL of pinball! It works for a game or two and then it won't work for multiple games. It may correctly grab 4 balls in a row and then won't grab the next 20. The guide rod appears to slow or stop the travel of the ball most of the time.
I could really use some help here guys. I apologize because it's been beat to death. I've read multiple posts. I've followed the Stern PDF doc. I've checked the tolerances and rechecked them.

The only tolerance that is off is step 6 in the PDF. I've included a pic.
The doc says that the ramp rear wall should be slightly OUT 1/32 to 1/16" from the magnet cover. Mine is the opposite. My magnet cover is very slightly out from the ramp wall. Even with the magnet cover being OUT from the ramp wall, the distance from the guide rod to the magnet cover is within spec (25/32-13/16").

The instructions say to loosen the snug plate screw (red arrow on my pic) along with 4 screws on hex posts (mine only has 3) and the 2 at the ramp entrance. Then we're supposed to pull the ramp out away from the magnet cover and re-tighten everything. This does not work because as soon as I tighten the snug plate it pulls the ramp wall back. There isn't a way to keep the ramp wall forward AND tighten the snug plate.
Could this be causing all of my headaches with this mech? What have you guys done to be successful with this? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Nick
stern STh doc (resized).png

Finally managed to find barb in the first shot and like someone else found you see the 40 mil award but nothing gets added to your score. Would have been my GC game had that 40 mill been added lol. I've reported it to Stern as another data point.

I just had this happen too. Wouldn't have been a GC score with the 40 million, but I blame it for my subsequent draining...

I've been where you are in terms of frustration with this mech. I've now gotten mine to work pretty well. There seem to be a lot of opinions on this, but here is what I did:

1. Put lock washers on the back where the solenoid plate is held to the back box. Even if you get it set up like it shows in the PDF it often doesn't stay there long. You need to have the ramp further forward (towards the player) than the magnet cover like the Stern document shows. Your ball is probably loosing some energy hitting the magnet cover. If you are tightening the snug plate screw that is probably the problem. In my opinion this screw isn't needed at all, and making it too tight will cause issues.

2. Make sure the mech moves freely. I've seen some put some tension in the form of a rubber band that pulls the joint at the back of the mech up which seems to help. Some have put WD-40 on here, but I don't think that is needed and will probably just collect dirt over time.

3. The rod needs to be as close to the back of the ramp as possible so the mech so the ball will be more on top of the rod than getting pinched by the rod if that makes sense. They don't provide any appropriate adjustment for this but many of us have put something between the ramp and the backboard (such as a washer covered in electrical tape). Obviously this needs to be done so the rod still moves freely. There is not a lot of play here but a little can go a long way.

4. The ball needs to enter the curve on the lateral part of the ramp to keep it from losing too much energy to the back wall of the ramp. You can lower the outside of the ramp slightly (it requires a different standoff to be used) but this is limited by hitting the mech if you go too low. You can also raise the medial side of the ramp with a washer. You can also loosen the screen on the right side at the bottom of the ramp by the flap. There is not a lot of potential for movement here but a little can go a long way. I've also heard of placing a thin triangular piece of rubber or other material under the reflective decal (it peels right off and is just as easily replaced) so that the wide part is at the top as to push the ball more lateral as it goes up the ramp.

I agree with you, Erik...but I also think there are a few factors in play. Ultimately, I think people are chasing a problem that's not really a design problem (or it is, depending on how you want to look at it). With JPLE, you have to hit a solid shot at the T-Rex to get the ball to stick. Any trajectory that is weak or not precisely on center will cause the ball to reject.

With STh, the flipper issue plays into what I think the real problem is. Where the ball enters the ramp is important (like twenty84 mentioned above). If the ball is hit solidly, and is able to follow the curve of the back of the ramp, it'll retain enough energy to get up the diverter smoothly. If you hit the ramp in the middle or to the right, there will be a bit of an impact on the side of the ramp which not only takes a little energy off the ball, but also knocks the angle of entry onto the diverter out of kilter slightly. I also think the playfield pitch has a lot to do with it, and that's simple physics: The higher the angle, the more energy the ball will need to get up an already-steep diverter mech. If your pitch is too steep (even 7 degrees might be too much for this mech), the ball will run out of steam before it gets to the diverter.

If I'm feeling ambitious this weekend, I'll test my theory and flatten the pitch of the game to see if it helps with the lock. It would be great if it does...but then the rest of the game will play like shit.

Stern flipper fade is a well known phenomenon. WMS flippers would fade a little but Sterns have always been more pronounced.

Thanks. You just saved me some time this weekend, then. Has anybody filmed it in slow mo to see what's going on? This and the JP ball plunge (and T-Rex) issues are like two problems taking a huge dump on two otherwise awesome games. Really frustrating.

Might be worth trying an iphone app that calculates the speed of an object from video. Measure at the start of play and then again 30 minutes later to see if the flipper power has faded.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/speedclock-video-radar/id400876654

It does feel sometimes like the flippers should go higher than 250.

If flipper power gets weaker as you play games than maybe you need to install an under playfield fan to keep the flipper coils cool, or what ever is powering the flippers. Same concept as keeping a computer processor cool as it will loose performance as it gets hot. Just a stupid guess.

I joined the club this week with a Premium. I’m quite happy so far. No major issues. A few air balls at drops and some off of the demo. I’m not the best player, but my son regularly hits the TK lock and centers the demo mouth.

I installed the UV kit today. It’s really nice!

Does anyone know if the side panel art has been done with UV inks on it? That would be nice.
81320248-CF1B-4C61-BA48-BADACBE80880 (resized).jpeg5FA617C1-0DBB-44E4-BC22-E723FAA39E3A (resized).jpegDF07D195-1BA8-45EC-9A40-899885793C41 (resized).jpeg47CC1466-1440-452D-A2BC-B06817147544 (resized).jpeg

I installed the official Stern side art. No UV ink. However, they do look great IMO.
I'm SURE tilt or pingraffix will make some with UV ink

I thought this for a while also. I put an oscilloscope on it ( while streaming even) and couldn’t demonstrate it. The coil in any game will heat up with time and gain more resistance and thus get weaker, but I couldn’t demonstrate ant time difference between when the coil was energized and the limit switch triggered.

If it was taking longer for the flipper to hit the limit switch the scope would detect that. It would also detect if the power supply voltage was dropping. I'm confident that neither of these is the problem. The coil does heat up with time and the resistance increases - I was able to measure both of these but this is true of any game. You could put an accelerometer on the flipper, I haven't done that. Its possible that to make the TK lock work it will only occur at the very limits of the flipper power, but I'm no longer convinced this is the case and a friend of mine actually had to turn the right flipper down. At one point I thought about putting a fan on the flipper coil to see how much it prevented them from heating and see if this made a difference. I never did this because eventually I got my TK lock to work better, or at least I feel like I did. There are always weak shots that don't make it.

I'm curious what Brian Eddy thinks about this since you have been in contact with him? It is very curious that the flipper coils are different on the right and left sides in this game.

We are in agreement that it is very difficult to get this mech to work properly. I'm open to the possibility that it may be a combination of things that cause this.

Thank you very much for all of this info. Much appreciated

Just saw the no points awarded "where's barb" 40 mil glitch tonight. My son wasn't very happy to say the least.

I bet we'll be seeing a .91 update to fix this sooner than later.