Damn...sorry. I figured it was a long shot these days. It's definitely worth at least checking with your distributor and Stern though. At least as of a few years ago they would send "freebie" bags of stuff to tournament directors to give out at events, and there were almost always random plastics, target decals, stuff like that mixed in. So hopefully they do have spares available. I wouldn't hold my breath, but it's worth asking before dropping the money on a full set.

Thankfully I'm not the person with the broken plastics, I just got excited about a goodie bag lol.

Mine was doing this right out of the box. STILL waiting on my replacement glider assembly after 1.5 months. You can still play your game, just unplug the glider assembly from under the playfield and center the glider.

What does everyone use to clean and polish the metal on their machines. I'm still learning. Did my first [simple, did not remove anything from playfield] clean and wax last night (Novus 1 followed by Mill wax Playfield cleaner/polish). But, I'd like to have that metal shine like new.

IMG_20201001_140929 (resized).jpg

If you want the lane guides to shine, you have to remove them and buff them out with red then white rouge. I just took a cheap Harbor Freight grinding wheel and replaced the grinding wheels with buffing wheels. Red rouge on the left, white on the right. You can make lane guides mirror finish, and if you do that and get rid of the grain, ball trails take a LOT longer to reappear.

Here's a ToM I did a long time ago. It really does make the lane guides shine like chrome with a mirror-like finish.

ToM_Lane_Guide (resized).jpg

These days ball trails don't bother me that much, but if I restore another machine, the ball guides get this kind of treatment.

Thanks, and that does look great.

So shiny can’t even tell it is there.

Mezel mods has an awesome glider. I installed it on my Pro. Must have as are the mutagen jars!

My glider is messed up. Trying to calibrate it and it will only let me adjust the center position. When moving it to any of the left or right positions and then selecting enter to calibrate it, the diverter just moves back to the center. Saw someone else post this earlier but didnt see if this was normal or messed up. Seems broken to me, cant find any other way to try and set any of the other left or right positions. I can hear a ticking/grinding noise from the glider in attract mode as if the glider is trying to move but cant. The action button also only seems to move it after the game plays for a little bit - can anyone confirm that the glider is supposed to move left or right immediately upon ball launch when you hit the button? I.e. you dont have to hit a shot or anything specific to move the glider with the action button?

Wtf, why is it taking stern so long? My glider is still working, it just does this flickering thing with the lights. Should I be expecting the glider to fail completely?

This is crazy that you would have to rebuild it yourself. Is this a problem with all Prem and LE machines?

Is it kind of a matter of time situation or just a fluke? I guess if we’re talking about the prior I wouldn’t mind talking to an RC expert and understanding what kind of servo would be the longest lasting.

I'd just center the glider then unplug it. Should solve your lighting issue until you get a replacement.

Pretty sure it's a matter of time issue because Stern likely bought the cheapest, crappiest servos known to China and now it's biting them in the ass. Small chance it was @xaqery's software that ran the servo out of spec, but I think that's unlikely knowing how meticulous he is.

I would not say it is straight forward. For example, is the stock servo digital or analog (I didn't look).

Rob

Shame they did not use a small solenoid instead.

That isn’t what I wanted to hear, but it is exactly what I expected to hear.

My glider was working perfectly but when moving, it would make my back half of the playfield lights reset. I can only hope that it's taking Stern so long because they are actively looking for a servo replacement VS sending out the same servos that will keep causing problems.

Is this the first game Stern has used these types of servos? As soon as I saw they were using these back at launch I knew they’d be trouble. I used to own an AMH which used one for the ghost - mine literally burnt out (Like smoke from under the pf) after 50 plays.

Usually they would use a coil or a proper motor for a diverter like this. Never seen them use these cheap Rc car servos. And with the amount of issues let’s hope they don’t use them again.

I owned an ACNC and I thought the same thing. Nothing but trouble and I don't want to ever buy a pin that has servos again.

Houdini used a servo to open/close the curtain at the stage. After a few initial hiccups that had to do with the programming for the servo, it seemed pretty reliable, but it was WAY more heavy duty than what Stern is using in TMNT. That glider lane change should have been a coil assembly.

Wow, signed up for stern insider and was hoping for a shirt.....got a hat, lanyard, pin and a sweet access card.............

What does it give you access to?

Not a T-shirt haha. You can check it out on their site. Supposed to be things like game releases, inside info etc.

Howdy! Recently joined the Pro club and really enjoying it. One question to see if anyone else has dealt with this...my shooter rod doesn't reach the ball when it's resting in the trough. The tip doesn't extend past the auto plunger. If you full plunge it barely launches the ball onto the playfield. Any ideas on how to fix this? I can't imagine the shooter rod is the wrong length. Is the auto plunger too far forward? It's not a huge deal, as you can hit the button to launch, but still.

Thanks!

Not much! Email notification of code updates.

The diverter is multi positional, so it can't just be a coil. It doesn't just divert, but it also stops the ball.

Rob

Up-down for stopping like on the pro. The L/R coil for the diverting. It would have been more reliable. Ask The Shadow.

Right now John Borg is facepalming after reading this. You just can't spew stuff and claim it's more reliable without a shred of evidence. The Shadow diverters were not without their own problems, like breaking the ramps for example. I know all about Shadow because I have owned one in the past. You're using up 3 drivers, 3 coils and their brackets to run your design instead of a single auxiliary board controlling a simple servo. Yes, it would appear a few people have had issues, but it's not everyone. I've had bad servos in Horizon Hobby products like cars and airplanes. Brand name JR stuff. It happens there can be defects, but generally they are reliable.

Rob

I've owned multiple Shadows over the years. It's one of my favorite pins. And yeah, SOME shadows broke ramps from the diverter action, but it happened over DECADES, not days. It's the Stern difference.

The $heckel-$aving $ervo is just not a great choice for that mech.

You might be able to get away with 3 drivers and 2 coils for a more reliable mech design if you used a EOS switch and a dual-wound coil. But it doesn't matter because the servo is what we have and time travel is observational so we can't change it anyway, we can just watch the mistake genesis over and over, and that's no fun.

Coils are extremely reliable - it’s what the whole pinball industry has been based in for what....70 years? If you want a fail safe mech, you use a coil. Everything else is less reliable than a coil. Servos are good for consumer hobby’s, but for commercial equipment where you need a failsafe mech, it’s coils.

But it’s more expensive to use a coil, let alone 2 coils. No question that’s why a servo was used here.....bill of materials.

Yes, the design is the way it is and it is working fine on my game. If you don't own one, then I don't know why you are so concerned?

Nothing is ever perfect in the world of pinball.

Rob

i really want to get the center ramp anti airball plastic but it hasnt been available in the states yet....So many of my center ramp shots dont register because ball goes over the opto....

Do you have it hit the up down stopper thing? If mine is going so fast it hits the bottom of that. I put the tape on the optos, that helps a bit. If I find it is still not registering I will try to make one out of the polycarbonate sheeting I have.

I have no clue what you are suggesting(sorry!). Mind showing pics?

The stopper that the pro has instead of the diverter. The ball sometimes hits the bottom of this even when it’s raised because it is not running along the wireform but airborne.

That servo is one of the reasons I went with a Pro rather than a Prem for TMNT. Concerned about the resale since I just bring them in to mod them then send them on their way. And just because yours is fine so far doesn't mean it will be anywhere near as durable and reliable as a coil-based design.

Aren't there servos in tons of other STERN games tho? JP has the raptor gate and whatever controls the trex head, IMDN has the tomb entrance on the ramp and into the mummy lock and how many games have moving 3bank walls (SM, Tron, etc) just to name a few. Maybe their some other electronic motor; point is, you can get reliable electric drives that are not coils, just makes me wonder if on TMNT they really got crappy ones or if there was just a huge batch of bad ones from the supplier.

I hope stern fixes this. Such a great game.

Ours works fine so far. If we think it will become an issue, we will just buy a few spares. No big deal. Game rocks! Looking forward to pinnys and tinny s this arvo!

There are lots of variables. Iron Maiden mummy lock is a motor with a wheel, as is the diverter assembly. No servos. A good motor is much more reliable than a servo in this price range.

I believe Stern just started using servos recently. Dunno about JP.

The point is whatever servo they're using in TMNT is not up to the task. Also servos can be affected by duty cycle and vibration, so add a shaker motor to regular pin vibration and stick a cheap servo near the middle of the machine and you're asking for trouble.

I plan to find out what servo they're using and see how cheap it really is. I'm expecting cheap. Very cheap.

I so rarely hit this ramp at speed. But just had a game where I did and optos even half covered did not register. I will make a shield and post. Also when going fast the ball hits the bottom of this. And I checked whether the modded glider pulls the metal stop down. It doesn’t. So definitely air ball problem.

image (resized).jpg

from what i can tell the ball travels so fast it hugs the side of the ramp and goes over the switch that recognizes the shot. am i right? Airball plastic should help this. On a medium speed shot its always fine. I typically go right ramp to center ramp and its pretty fast....

Template. Attaching to shield/switch leftmost bolt in shredder ramp behind (between ramp and nut) and front opto screws. I will use 0.8mm polycarbonate sheet as I used before. Easy to cut, clear and still looks good (see my earlier posts)
image (resized).jpg

Done

A8A16BCB-C233-46CA-85EE-39CC968655B7 (resized).jpeg

Hmm, I wonder if the right ramp on TMNT is the same between pro and premium? I have not had an issue with that opto not registering, but sometimes I think the ball hits the sign on the right ramp.

Rob

It’s the centre ramp.

My first game to test hit the inner loop followed by the centre ramp at a million miles an hour. Worked! Registered the Krang combo.

Thing is I can never hit this sucker normally. So once in a thousand year event, and I can safely say this is the fix for the opto problem. Because the front of the shield is lifted high it does not cause ball rejects.

No issues on my pro ...everything registers as it sld even at warp speed as this game plays so fast. I went to play some of my other pins and they all feel pretty slow in comparison.

No 2 pins are the same. Others are having this problem as well. Anyway no problem no probs, if optos aren’t registering maybe this will fix it.

My right ramp was bricking and rejecting shots. Fixed with packer underneath and shield at entrance.

My left orbit was rejecting like crazy, fixed by bending the wire ball guide a little. Now smooth.

Right orbit too narrow as well as right ramp, slim post cover fixed it.

Pizza parlour rejects and airballs, level the pizza disc.

So I’ve had heaps of flow problems. Now that they’re fixed really enjoying this game.

I wonder if other people have played problem machines before they have been tweaked. Because I have read many reviews or comments where people have been dissatisfied with difficult shots and lack of flow. Shame because once these shots are fixed this game is awesome. It’s still hard but so much fun.

Just installed a shaker on our TMNT Pro.
I still have to update to the newest code?
Is their much difference in it?

Man I've owned this game since it was available and not 1 issue on my pro. Sorry to hear so many are having problems. Super annoying when paying 7k+.

And yes the game plays fast but it fair imo