Congrats Johnny! Really happy you got one, and it sounds like it was shipped out fast. You might end up getting it before I pick up my 1.0 in a few weeks.

Sorry for posting in multiple forums...

CE #1 here...just arrived today...BROKE!

-Every coil controlled by the PD-16 board running to connector "A5-xxx" are dead. Going into the coil test, and during game play. Backbox GI, Beacon, Shaker Motor, upper flipper, etc.
(Checked all fuses and reseated connectors on the PD-16 boards in the backbox)

- All LED score displays are dead. 5v is present at the display board. Tried reseating the USB cable. Tried swapping to a different USB port. Totally dead.

Anyone have any ideas? Just a wee bit frustrated after waiting for months...

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Have you tried checking the connections at the power distribution board? It's at the back right of the lower cabinet. Maybe a connector came loose during its journey to you. I would check that the wires are punched completely into the connectors as well.

FYI... The two P3 boards in the backbox can be swapped for troubleshooting purposes. Just make sure the dip-switch positions are swapped as well, so be sure to take pictures.

Thanks! I swapped the boards and the problem moved. Looks like a bad P-3 board. I've emailed Spooky

Anyone recommend an adjustment for this scenario: left or right orbit shot -> gate stops ball, but bounces it directly back around the orbit and down to the flippers. I'd say, 9 out of 10 orbit shots that should be stopped and diverted into the reactor core end up bouncing all the way back around. Playfield is level, set at 6.5. All settings are default.

Shifted butter production to Scooby would be my guess

Awesome! Still a bummer your TNA isn’t working but at least you know how to fix the issue and it won’t cost you anything. My OG TNA 189 is still going strong with minimal issues.

You are awesome sir for taking the time to map this out. Its spaghetti soup underneath. You effort is appreciated!

I'm printing these as you make them and have bound myself together an actual paper manual. Thanks for your effort and kindness to offer it to the rest of us!

Spooky is still doing the Hot Glue on connectors? lol

Gheeez. That didn't work for the first run of TNA.

I had to constantly lift my playfield and reseat ribbon cables almost weekly.

For the drop targets, and little numeric displays. @@#@$%%!

My Cactus Canyon SE used hot glue on some of the connectors. Not as much as Spooky but I figured it was normal. Does Stern use any hot glue on their new pins? I've only owned a MET and I don't recall seeing any.

My buddy has a TNA 2.0 CE and just texted me that the upper flipper died. I'm going to go over this evening and try and help him out.

Any ideas where to start? I've never worked on a TNA before, but have experience with spike 2 sterns. Thanks!

If it's just the flipper that stopped working, I imagine it will be something obvious once the PF is lifted (spring snapped off, bad solder connection on a wire).

Probably a solder connection on the coil, have had it happen on my original run TNA a few times.

Turn the game off and whip a ball around both orbits and see if it does the same thing. When the game is off, both gates should be at the resting position and will capture the ball and not let it escape down the orbits. If it does get by, then you just need to make a small adjustment to it to make sure it is fully at rest. The spring is probably twisted or stuck.
--Scott

Occam’s razor troubleshooting - start with the left flipper button leaf switches. The left flipper button has the extra leaf that controls the upper flipper.

Mine also “stopped working” when I added lighted flipper buttons. Subtle difference in length to the plastic buttons. Just needed a leaf adjustment.

Anyone have a full Cliffy set for sale? Ordered one from Cliff, but he informed me he is way behind. Didn't give an ETA but I suspect it to be a few months.

Mine just shipped yesterday from Cliff. I ordered them in September. Your estimate is right on.

He actually told me he was still working on September orders. An honest man! Hopefully wear doesn’t get too bad because I’ll probably put 500 plays on it before I get them.

I'm actually not going to use most of them now that I have mine dialed in. Two small squares of mylar near the scoop will prevent wear and tear, so I really just wanted them for the shooter lane.

Would you place them on the left/right side aligned next to the scoop edge?

No reason to place one in the front side? Just wondering what folks done.

If you search Cliffy on this thread, there’s a lot of discussion. Doing exactly what you said is what I believe many did on their OG’s. Or they did Cliffy with Mylar transition to help smooth it.

Shooter lane on mine looked to already have some wear, so definitely want it for that. Has me curious if anyone put a PinDefender in theres that I’ve seen advertised here.

So I wasn't the first owner, originally there was no protection. I cleaned up the affected area nicely and applied two small squares of mylar on the left and right side. Since I have done this, it has looked the same, it has not gotten worse at all. I'm very pleased.

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Why not a piece on the front center?

You can if you want, mine didn't have any evidence of damage in front of the scoop so I left it alone.

Thanks for details as that helped/confirm my interpretation.

Never thought of adding one to the shooter lane. I’ll look into that

Greetings everyone, been playing my TNA CE and had a quick question.

For those that have had a TNA for a while or one with a lot of plays, how has the Bader playfield held up overall?

I’m debating if I should get a spare playfield while I can or if it’s even needed? I’m not concerned about dimpling or the scoop areas, but just in general. I did what a lot of others did and surrounded the main scoop with Mylar, but now thinking I can remove the piece on the front? Just curious what everyone’s experience has been.

Thanks for the help and input.

Now gotta save up for my next Spooky pin.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Quickly diagnosed as a cold solder joint on the coil lug that probably broke off due to vibration. A quick repair and back in business!

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I have had an original TNA for quite a while. Thousands of plays and I have taken it to MGC 3 times, where it gets around 400+ plays for the weekend. No protectors and my playfield looks fine.

A follow-up so far on CE#1's malfunctions and Spooky's customer service. Issue #1: Multiple coils stopped working after 2-3 games. Coils are controlled by one of the two PD-16 boards in the backbox, and all coils being operated by one of these boards are inoperative. Upon close inspection of the PD-16 board, after boot-up the D14 Watchdog LED remains lit (which is abnormal). Nearby, there I found a blown SMD IC on the board at position U2. I'm trying to identify what it is (printed code: QA AM JW). Spooky has agreed to ship a replacement PD-16 board. If I can identify the type of SMD component it is, I may attempt to fix the board. Looks like possibly it's a Linear Voltage Regulator in a SOT-23-5 package.
Issue #2: The score displays are all inoperative. The board is getting 5v (polarity was correct when the game arrived) and the USB connections from the Pi to the Arduino Nano are secure. Spooky is shipping a replacement score display.
Issue #3: The backglass is washed out. Spooky sending a replacement.
Issue #4: The metal tab in the shooter lane is missing: Spooky is sending the part.

Overall, AJ was very helpful yesterday, quick to reply to my messages, and promised a quick shipment of the parts. My buddy Boosterfive also got his CE#66, so I have been able to at least play his game a bit, as well as using for visually comparative troubleshooting.

Photos of the blown (and unblown) SMD component if anyone would be able to help ID it.

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Wow... That is just unfortunate events, but at least Spooky was quickly responsive to your claims. I'm TNA CE #2 and did not experience any of these hardware failures. I wonder during the shipping process could impact your issues, but hard to think so with these kind of hardware failures. Unless a certain connector was loose that provides the board sufficient power to operate? Just wondering...

All I had was cosmetic issues with my art decals. Glad I did not get Butter. Hopefully your Backglass comes in one piece on the first shot. Mine was a broken puzzle, but Spooky's 2nd replacement worked out.

Soon... You will be flipping this sweet game in your own home.

It's hard to know what the root cause of the problems are. Voltages check out fine (5.3v, 12.4v, & 48-ish volts). I verified polarity of the wire harnesses and everything looks fine. My buddy's #66 was shipped here along with mine (2 separate pallets) and had no problems or damage (other than a faded backglass). Another thing I noticed is that the tilt bob brackets were mounted completely misaligned (no biggie). Just took a few minutes to re-mount it properly. Who inspected your machine #2?

Seems like Peters has been the main inspector for most of these TNA games.

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You know.. I never put my tilt bob on. How did you know it was not mounted correctly? Was it because you know your standard placement of the tilt bob and realized it would not let you insert it to that position without the tilt being triggered instantly?

On my machine the lower bracket is too low/upper bracket too high to allow the tilt bob to be attached.

On my buddy's machine the lower bracket was mounted too far aft. Because of where they put the screw, no amount of adjustment would allow the tilt bob to sit in the middle of the lower ring. Simple fix in both cases. Just drill a new hole and remount the lower ring.

My tilt Bob bracket was also completely misaligned. Resulted in instant tilt. Easy fix but annoying yet another issue.

TNA 2.0 CE #66 here. As mentioned by Duffysarcade my game is in good working condition despite a washed out backglass and missing shooter rod piece to prevent the ball from falling down into the bottom of the cabinet. (Which has not ever happened after close to 100 games.)

I'm very happy with the game, and very happy I was able to get it. I would echo some disappointment in the QC department as Duffysaracde has already explained. but I am ultimately very happy with the overall product. Some fine choices where made and the game is truly a masterpiece.

Really hoping we can get #1 back up and running soon. Spooky has been pretty good about it all, which we are grateful for.

Overall I'm really happy to be a part of the Future!

I have a partial update to offer for my CE #169.

I called several times on Monday and left messages but never got through or got a call back. On Tuesday, after calling every 5 minutes from 0700 to 0855 CST, I finally got a call back at 0900. At that point in the morning, though, my free time had run out, so I made an appointment to talk to AJ at 0730 sharp Wednesday morning (AJ told me they don't take calls before 0730). Wednesday morning, AJ led me through about 10 minutes of troubleshooting on the phone before he narrowed the problem down to the SW-16 board that controls the switches (in the upper left corner when the pf is in up in the service position). Nothing looks obviously wrong with the board, but that doesn't mean anything. I do wonder if any of the components are static-sensitive, does anyone know? Could just touching a switch without grounding myself cause a component to fail?

At the end of the phone call yesterday, AJ said they would ship a new board and some additional cables and it would be 1-2 day shipping. However, this morning, I still hadn't heard that it had shipped, so I sent an email to him requesting a tracking number. I got an email back from Squirrel about an hour later saying "Your order is being prepared." A few hours later I got a tracking number and the UPS site says it will be delivered Monday by 9pm.

I'll update again after I've replaced the board.

I agree that AJ is very helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable, but I don't understand how this company can have hundreds of machines in the field, with more every day, and yet have only one service tech. AJ told me that Monday morning he fielded 42 trouble calls in 12 hours. This does not serve the customer well, IMHO.

On a side note, my tilt bob bracket was also badly misaligned, even at the proper 6.5 degree tilt. Easy fix, yes -- but is it common, on NIB machines, for this not to be set at the factory? This is my first pin so I don't know if this is normal or not.

Max

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I am also waiting for parts...

Guess I should probably check my tilt bob too eventually. It hasn't worked right and mostly been sitting since I got it so never even looked at it.

I would agree that AJ is overwhelmed with tech support. I also played some phone tag with him.

Here's a random question. I noticed that, above the instruction card and the credits card, there are two stickers that say "Lane Change!" with arrows that point to... nothing? What does lane change mean? What is this about?

Max

The arrows refer to the flipper buttons.

You use the flipper buttons to cycle the lit inserts on the S.A.V.E lanes and also the C.O.R.E lanes at the top.

Ok, thanks. I knew that the flipper buttons cycled those but didn't make the connection with the stickers.

Max

This is an old school nod to machines of yesteryear.
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..So, being all up in the cabinet - I noticed another issue. Screw missing. There is an imprint from the head in the material - so I guess there was one in there at sometime. But I searched HI-and-LOW inside the cabinet = and I cannot find it yet

AJ is working on a few other things for me as well. (I hate that I have to "bother" someone about the issues, let alone experience the issue myself). From all these posts I see here - I don't know how they can keep up. I hope it's not normal for them - really hope they keep things moving smoothly for Scooby

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Thank you again for all the work you are doing with these. I’d happily pay if you ever decided to create a printed manual as the organization and detail you showed in that one pic of One Note, is impressive.

Check the magnet on your speaker carefully. They do a great job of collecting missing hardware.

Got to the hardware store and get another screw.