Checking in

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Can we all just agree this shot is impossible and the game is terrible because of it?

I’m kidding, but really. It is impossible right? The only way I can make the shot on my machine is to bank it off of the April target.

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Are we sure they haven’t always looked like this? Not trying to cast doubt, but when I look at my other stern playfields they look really similar with a closeup. I am going to grab pictures of all of them for comparison.

Is there one correct fix for the van diverter digging into the ramp? I’ve read a bunch of different stuff. I can’t tell if I am supposed to disassemble the whole game or put a pad on it…or both.

I am annoyed to find out mine is doing this :/.

I have done a lot of these and use them on a route…I’ve never seen anything like that! Like everyone said, for home use, you don’t really have to worry. Wonder if something happened in transit?

Could someone do me a huge favor and show me where the opto plugs for the van go? I had to take mine apart to fix the diverter and I cannot get that opto working again .

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You know what, never mind. I know I have them plugged into the right plugs, the opto just isn’t working. I did a continuity test from each of the 5 pins to the opto boards and that worked. I manually trigged the opto by grounding the yellow line on the 3 wire. However, I cannot get it to function normally . Is there something I am missing??

Yeah, it worked perfectly until I removed that ramp to fix the diverter. Here is what is tripping me up, I can tell where they must plug in based on the first image. However, when I meter the connections I get 3.4v on the ground line! I am completely confused since that is seems to be nothing more than a loop back to the other half of the opto switch.

If I understand these correctly you have 3 wires coming in. In this case a 4.5v red, 3.4v tan blue and ground black. The red and black are daisy chained from the 3 pin molex to a two pin molex. The three pin connects to the one opto, and the two pin the other. When the light is broken, the 3.4v is grounded and the switch triggers.

On this switch, I am reading 3.4 on the ground line at the three pin connector. So somehow even before getting to the opto switch I am getting some kind of power on the black line.

That seems completely impossible seeing as I did very little in terms of messing with wires. Just simple unplugging according to the Stern manual.

Am I correct on how these work? Also where they plug in (picture).

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Yeah…it took me half the day, but I found it. Honestly I can’t even believe I did, but I did. Basically what it comes down to is this tiny molex pin not being crimped correctly. I ended up running a lead from the ground strap to the pin and magically the switch started working again. I cut it off and put another pin on it and we’re all good. It is pretty impossible to see in there, but I think the primary lead does not have enough bare wire showing to make good contact.

Thank you for trying to help, this was an insane one. Maybe it was cut short to begin with and the simple motion of moving it retracted the wire into the sleeve. Who knows.

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For the record I’ve been using the ninja chrome ball baron balls on my LE with no magnetism. I am actually surprised they have lasted this long and I have tested them weekly.

That was hands down one of the hardest things I have solved in pinball. I appreciate the encouragement as you know how much of a pain something like that can be on a perfectly new game.

I swear PinMonk has a deal with Stern where they only use crappy white LEDs because these games look SO MUCH BETTER with the mod.

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I’m the same. The “LE” connotation is silly to me. I say just make a version called “complete” and throw all the upgrades in there. I think generating the artificial urgency around LE is a dated concept.

Show me the best you’ve got and I’ll consider that over the skews with less stuff. I don’t need the designer signature or Gary Stern autograph. Nice, but useless.

No, I don’t have anything to advertise, I was just sharing my opinion as I’ve used the PinMonk light gels for DeadPool and TMNT.

I find the white lights in the middle of the playfield to be mismatched with the rest of the game. I like them to match the insert outlines.

I created a little 3D printed “cap” for the van diverter. I’ve been testing it and so far it works really well. I could share the files if anyone wants to try one. You don’t have to disassemble anything to install it, I just took it apart to get the measurements.

Also ignore the blowout on the bottom, that was from testing. It will actually hold.
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I’m having an issue where my back left lighting seems to be “rebooting”? It will run foe a couple of seconds then do a bit of a startup cycle and fail over and over. It is happening in attract mode and in game. I also notice the pizza will jerk just a bit at the end of the sequence. Has anyone seen something like this?

Ahh crap…I read stuff a while ago at launch about it and kind of rulled it out because the glider seemed totally unrelated. I’ll contact them tomorrow. Thank you!

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.

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

I understand all of the issues I am reading about with the glider servo, but I am still confused on how mine seems to work correctly but the lights keep recycling. Everyone (even stern) agreed that the video I took is a glider issue but I don’t understand how it is causing the other errors.

This makes sense, ty! I really hope there is a solution soon. I appreciate the people trying other servos.

How is the servo holding up? Any weirdness yet? I may bite the bullet and do the same thing.

First, PinHead50 and @arcadenerd925, that you so much for the info! @pinhead50, if I have this correct we need to order the swapped direction 645 from ServoCity? https://www.servocity.com/hs-645mg-servo/

FYI, I tried to contact ServoCity and have my motor modified...I got this response: "We only offer reprogramming on some servos. All the servos that can be reprogrammed are stated at the link below with the word (reprogrammed) next to its name. When you select one of those on the right hand side of the product page it will list what kind of reprogramming we can offer on that servo, and the cost of that."

It looks like I will either be finding a switcher or trying to switch the wiring on the motor like arcadenerd925 did.

I also found a few videos on reversing servos and it looks super easy. I'm not an RC guy, but I tend to wonder why they don't just build them with a switch that let's you choose the direction.

This game is spectacular. The only thing I don’t care for is the zero support I’ve received on my scratched lock bar and broken servo motor. I would be playing it more than Avengers if it were fixed. Hopefully my aftermarket servo gets here soon…granted I feel dirty fixing the problem Stern should have fixed.

I replaced my servo today with the HS-645mg and it works great! That said, there are a couple of things I learned along the way.

- Don’t use a servo reversing circuit! I bought a few from Amazon in the hopes of sparing some soldering work…it doesn’t work. It reversed it, but also made it jittery and crazy.
- Order the reversed servo if at all possible. The solder job is quite small and the parts are covered in glue. It wasn’t super hard to solder it but I have a decent amount of experience.

Same for me…they are both fantastic games. I might hand it to turtles if I had to pick, but luckily I don’t right now.

I’ve been thinking about this solution as well…unfortunately I am not as good of a 3D modeler . Does it work simply by keeping the PSU cool enough that the stock fan never runs? I was wondering if you could do that for every pinball PSU. In theory you could use 120mm fans that are super quiet and just force so much air that the PSU would always be cool.

Holy shit! So I can keep the game completely stock and just swap out these animations with yours? How much? Too lazy for a “take my money” picture .

This is a valid point.

You need to pull out the interlock switch.

Could someone tell me where the setting to disable the insider connected turtle levels is?

That is horribly annoying. So all home scores are always better than public scores?

Well, thanks for the info. I agree it is dumb. I like the idea, but it isn’t for me. I want the challenge every time.

Haha, I literally just asked this ~15 posts back. Apparently there is not .