It looks like your goodie bag was mounted a lot better than mine. On mine it was literally laying across the top of the subwoofer. I had to remove it just get it out of the way.

Goodie bag? Mine was an empty bag

My machine has started randomly triggering the hoot ball save throughout games (eyes light up and I can hear solenoid click, then eyes turn off - nothing else happens)

Any idea what could cause this?

Didnt know Cliffy was available yet?/

I think I’m one of the testers

Very nice keep us posted

Anyone know how to adjust the clock? In settings you can adjust the bias to make it the correct time, and when you exit, it says it’s updating. But my arm is off and the adjustments never stick.

You have a switch somewhere triggering, probably in the scoop. Glass off, open coin door, go into switch test mode, close the coin door. Smack around on the playfield with an open palm firmly and see if any switches trigger. If one does, adjust that switch so it doesn't register from vibration.

There can be a ball save triggered when the ball exits the lower scoop. Could that be what you are seeing? If the ball isn’t exiting the scoop when this happens, check the opto on the lower scoop. It might be triggering randomly (would explain the solenoid sound you reported hearing).

The blue rubber on my time machine is in bad shape. I ordered a new one from stern but so far nothing. I tried both electrical and gorilla tape and neither will hold up. Any suggestions please?

Might there be something from Marcos that can work?

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A dab of super glue might keep it playable until reinforcements arrive

I've been thinking if mine breaks, to replace 90% of it with plastic that will fit the area that holds it and just glue a small piece of the original snubber on the end. Can't hurt to try

Check out Little Shop of Games:

https://littleshopofgames.com/product-category/rubber-parts/

I once said that PinMonk must have a deal with Stern because his color mods are so necessary to complete the game .

Thanks. I started removing a few parts. Unless I’m wrong this is a bigger job than I thought. I appears the entire plate has to come off and the screws are very tucked away. Might involve several other parts.

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I love seeing them installed! Also no thanks needed! Everyone here made it possible by buying it! Now we can actually think about all of the other protectors we want to make!

Not that. It's happening all the time now. Probably some switch triggering or a short (hopefully not a short). I'll try what someone above suggested - switch test while banging on the machine to see if I can trigger it again. It's happening now every few seconds throughout the game.

My ramp is also acting funky. Sometimes it will be up, then I'll hear a call out that the time machine is ready. Then the ramp lowers, waits a second, and raises again.

OutpostKodelia actually modeled some of these up in TPU. They seem to work amazing! I wasn’t really thinking about getting into that business, but if a lot of people are having issues maybe we should toss them out there. We might be able to just mail them in an envelope and keep the price down.

Thought about doing one for the drop target area?

I absolutely need a pair. Was able to remove the old ones by just taking off the two forward screws and gently opening up that area. No major issue.

I’d look at that scoop opto.

Another total accident of something I did for myself that turned into a thing, starting with either Metallica fuel gauge or Iron Maiden Lens Tree, I don't remember now. I learned a LOT about the process of how the sheets are made and best practices for the brackets over the years, out of necessity.

I DO try to keep the color brackets to just ones that improve the game aesthetic or functionality, though. Every white or clear PF lens doesn't have to be color. There are some I just left white because they're better. Case in point the line of inserts up the middle of Ghostbusters. I tried green gradients and pink gradients that got more saturated as you moved up the line and in the end, it just looked better white. So I left it. Godzilla has a few white inserts, but they look good as-is since it's such an otherwise colorful game. Left that one alone for the most part, too.

It’s been a frustrating weekend, but I’ve learned a lot about the dual stepper node board (Node 10 on Pre/LE). It has 2 stepper circuits, one for the clock minute hand, and one for the ramp. The ramp stopped working on my friend’s Rush LE, so I brought the Node 10 board from my Premium so his ramp would work for league tonight. His ramp did indeed work all night long, but now the clock stepper controller is dead on my node board 10. His is completely dead - neither the clock or the ramp work. I think we need to check 48V on his game.

I’ll write an email to Stern tomorrow for both boards. The schematic for this board (520-5781-02) isn’t online yet, but it looks like at least some of the parts are through-hole instead of SMD. Anyone else had this board fail (problems with the ramp or clock minute hand)?

As Aniraf mentioned, we've been testing our replacement for this for a few days now. We have to print it in a softer TPU than we're using for the scoop protector and other in-the-works bits and bobs, that stuff was just too rigid here, almost like a semi-hard plastic when printed in that density. But printed with the 85A hardness TPU they feel just about right and have about the right play. They're still a little more firm than the factory blue rubber, but that's probably a very good thing since those blue ones (ours included) only seem to hold up to a few weeks of play. More to come soon... Seriously, though, we're working up several really good things, including a proper (and nearly invisible) fix for the inner loop shot detection problem (testing so far is going amazingly well), a really good VUK protector that also nearly eliminates rejected shots, and a couple other items. For now, our production is still focused on getting these critical scoop protectors out to folks, but we're super excited to get the rest of our ideas out, too.

Meantime, if you're looking to replace those blue ramp guards, someone was asking about the process to do so... To replace those, the ramp has to come completely out. You have to remove the three screws holding the ramp mech onto the main plate under the playfield (they all have rubber gaskets under them). Then the whole ramp drops out in one piece along with the stepper motor (be careful with the optos on the way out). From there you can unplug the six or so wires connected to it, then take the whole thing to a table where you can remove the front two and one middle screw on each side. Then you just rotate the outer metal plate up a bit and gently flex it out to remove/reinstall the rubber parts. Good luck!

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Or you could put that thing down, flip it and reverse it and print a mold instead to make a reusable form for something like Enduro Flex casting. It's pretty durable, so I *think* it might hold up better than the blue rubber and is an option if these TPU bumpers don't work out. Once you had molds made, you could crank a bunch of these out in parallel with no printing required.

Elliot Eismin (Rush Lead Engineer)
Gives some great insight into game, design and the scoop protectors

The clock mech & stepper motor, very cool!

And the CAD looks into design, loved it!

Seems I’m actually going to connect the IC, set the clock and check that whole thing out. Lol.
I’m doing it for the clock lol

Great interview.

@pinmonk, i have sent you a few messages, not sure if you are receiving them, can you contact me please regarding my order.
cheers
Trevor

Lumberg Approved.

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I don't disagree... I want to start experimenting with this at some point, for sure. I actually have all the stuff on hand to do some experimenting with silicone mold casting, it's just been on the back burner for a while. Circumstances may dictate a change to that priority though.

This is exactly my scoop and I'm not happy that Stern has told me to leave the protector but not provided a fix 2 months later.

You do you.
Unless you plan on not playing it at all.

If you were on the Titanic and there was a guy with space in a lifeboat that wasn't White Star Line approved, would you get in it or wait to go down with the ship hoping that White Star would turn up and save the day ?

Sometimes you have to make an uncomfortable decision to protect yourself.

I will probably buy a Ninja.

As a first time NIB buyer I was counting on Stern taking care of this issue.I have been in touch with Stern and got the "coming soon" promise so I waited. My mistake.

Unfortunately, in their mind, they have.

But the guy said it was a "top priority"

They will eventually take care of you but, you spent a ton of money.A $60 protector for peace of mind is nothing in the grand scheme of things.when stern sends out their’s you can decide what to use

It is, and this is the choice. As far as their lead project engineer is concerned. They'll roll that out along with something better for the side scoop soon.

Gives you an option of three ways to turn ( Cliffy, Ninjacamp or Stern ).

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I ordered a ninja and I don’t even have my Pin yet. That will go on first don’t want to risk it. Since I read all the things going on with the pin and this is my first new pin so I want to make sure it’s protected.. Then install all the mods… hopefully this month or next.

That is Stern and your Distributor CYA with warranty issues. As I've seen what your dealing with, I'd pull the crumpled Stern protector and lay Mylar down until you get the ninja. Pulling the glass every couple of games to fix this issue is no way to play pinball.
I read here someone mylared the hole and cut an X in the middle and pushed the corners down. Interesting .

The Ninja protector is a game changer. Its a great option. Hopefully it will hold up longer term. If it doesn't I am not sure anything will.

This sucks! So f'in ugly and rigjt in the middle of the playfield. Hey Stern!! Just buy some ninjas and do your quality control testing...

I think it will. As long as the flaps that go in the hole are a little shorter than the hole it shouldn't catch to any meaningful degree considering the material resumes it's shape. I agree, I think it is an industry game changer...

Haha I’m watching Raiders right now

Don't forget about Mantis. But, yeah you're still right - there still are 3 options because I don't consider the Stern kluge as an option at all. Those BBQ Forks and Blue Marges are destined for the coinbox in a majority of machines. I'm curious to see Mantis' complete solution (including the upper scoop) in order to declare an outright winner, but I have already ordered the Ninja because it is a total game changer, and it's going to be really tough to beat.

Hope it all gets resolved soon.
These things are taking a beating.
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It's unfortunate but unlike most any other products out there, with pinball you have to go the diy route sometimes and figure out fixes yourself sometimes with 3rd party options, just the way it is alas. Having said that the Ninja fix is really cool and imo much better than Stern's because it keeps the original ball path lines intact. On this game the ball frequently flies past that lower scoop area and the Ninja fix keeps that great fast flow feel whereas Stern's fix blocks it which will result in more ball impacts/slowdowns. I tend to prefer pro models for fast and flowing ball movement, so that the Ninja fix keeps that feel on the pro to me is awesome. Looks like the future Cliffy fix will do the same, I may get that as well just to have.

It's not too bad to install but two strong suggestions. One is to make sure your ratchet set does indeed have that deep socket 3/8", that will really help, and definitely have a magnetic telescoping pickup tool handy, helps keep washers and such from disappearing in the nether regions of these machines. If there is an unreachable place on a pinball machine, a loose washer is basically guaranteed to find it.

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Both physically and verbally.

Awesome thanks