Oh, and PS...what the hell do they mean by "More Goats" in the adjustments menu?

This is what it says on the Stern Website:

SD Card – it is recommended you use the same SD Card brand, size, and part number that was provided with your pinball machine. Spike pinball machines require a “Class 10” rated SD Card of appropriate size for proper operation.

We have purchased 16GB SD cards, latest tech and have been putting them in as we need them. Please see below link to Stern site for how to flash a card.

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/How-to-Create-a-SD-Card-for-a-SPIKE-System-Pinball-Machine.pdf

Good Luck!

All good. That is why I love Pinside, people helping each other.

We have also started doing full updates and verify "yes" when updating through the USB.

Glad to hear your game is working great!

I was really hoping for some kind of video mode before or once they hit the 1.xx mark. I assume this means there will never be one? Assuming so b/c as I'm told most of the time once a game hits 1.xx that means it's not much more than bug fixes and improvements to current modes/video/audio stuff. Aka no "brand new" gameplay features will be added moving forward. What about the auto-launch button? Is its only implementation going to be the one-time tranquilizer? Curious if anyone has some insight on this notion. I could be misinformed.

I wouldn't be surprised if we never see a video mode in any gamed designed by Keith. I just played SWLE and had to suffer through the video mode. Yawn. Never met a video mode I liked...

I have a vague recollection of KME stating he’s not a fan of video modes.

That's accurate. On the LoserKid podcast today Keith said that all the modes are now in the game. I'm glad we'll likely never see a video mode from him.

Have you tried the tape fix? If not I would try that until you get the new guide for the ramp. I’m using the tape fix until I get mine and my trex works really well. I’ve also read here that removing the shims for the plastic over the ramp can help. I still have the shims on mine so I can’t speak to that.

Sooooo...any ideas what this does? Default to no

20200220_122736 (resized).jpg

...adds more goats?

This is funny. I just saw the "more goats" option and took a picture of it. I was going to post it here but you guys beat me to it!
Still don't know what it does in the game though

More goat sounds? Are the dinos eating goats?

You are the goat?? Or are you rescuing goats??

The Escape Nublar sometimes changes the callouts to 'You need to rescue all the goats', instead of 'all of the workers', the graphics change as well.

Maybe it increases the likelihood of that happening - in a similar way that you can increase the likelihood of Keith being chased on the screen in FotD in IMdn?

Very good to hear. Betting we have the same distributor ...

Thanks to a little birdy who pointed me into the right direction to where to start looking.
ended up being a globe from the outlane far left Gi.
Twisted the globe cover and has fixed the short from the flippers activating!!!

If your mech is that mucked up, I'd call 1-800-kickers and work with Stern on it.

In terms of the T-Rex ramp opto issue, I think a lot of people forget there is a test for that. Go into the menu and do the left ramp test. You will manually launch a ball into the shooter lane, this game puts the ball on the right flipper. Shoot the left ramp. It will count the number of entry and exit opto switch closures. If your game has more exit closures than entry I'd stark fiddling around with the opto etc. If not, I would suspect something else.

Also, removing the two black spacers from the clear plastic at the front of the ramp isn't an ideal solution. They are there because the ball hits the plastic too easy. While it does keep the ball from jumping over the opto, it also slows the shot down and can lead to certain weaker shots not making it up the ramp that might have otherwise. At this point, there are so many suggestions on how to fix the opto that I would leave the spacers in.

Good point. I've noticed that occasional strong shots will reject, and I suspected they grazed the roof. Might try reinstalling the spacers now that I have the factory opto fix.

My machine arrived with the updated opto bracket installed and I still had the issues. I applied the tape fix per the suggestions to the left opto and it didn't help too much. I recently removed the spacers as well and that seems to have helped significantly. I didn't want to remove the spacers out of concern that the lower plastic roof would contact the ball and prevent certain shots from clearing the ramp. That said, I'll stick with this combined solution for now as it has made a big difference in preventing TREX rejects.

Joined today

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I don't think it's the 'O' shot because I hit that after the tower and it didn't do anything. Am i wrong?

Yes

Question, just setting up my JP and noticed when i hit the right flipper i get rewarded with a t-rex shot. I thibk the opto's to that shot need adjustment. What can I do? Any solution already to this?

Machine on order, waiting for production. I want to be the Dino. Roooaaaaar.

The upper flipper on my JP premium works fine after the first few games, then all of a sudden when I release the flipper it just falls back to resting position very slowly. After lifting the playfield I noticed that the flipper coil was very hot. I cleaned the coil sleeve thinking it was just dust build up and checked the coil stop which looked fine. After thinking I got it fixed by cleaning it, I let the coil cool back down. Same as before now, it works fine the first few games then when I go to release the flipper slowly falls back to resting position. I think the coil is getting so hot that it might be melting the coil sleeve causing it to rub which is slowing it. Any ideas on how to fix this?

I added a "jungle" of trees to my LE. They cost $10 on amazon and just used a little double sticky tape. A little cheesy but I love it. Anyone else have trouble with their raptor gate? Doesnt go down all the way? Has this been covered?

JP trees (resized).jpg

See other thread for my response. If you need help, PM me.

I just finished making a tutorial on how to fix the shooter lane in case anyone is having trouble with plunges not making the u-turn. Hope this helps.

I had the same problem on my Munsters Premium. I just loosened the bat, and raised the flipper bat a very little bit, maybe a 1/32" or so. It was just binding because it was too far down in the hole. I know that's a bit strange for an explanation, but give it a try and see if it helps.

Does anyone else have a little hop on the left flipper when the ball transitions from the return to the flipper? Throws off the timing on shots sometimes.

No - you might just need to adjust the return lane guide so that the return lane and flipper are in a straight line. Loosen the screws holding the guide in place, then gently push the guide in the required direction and retighten while holding in place. It might take a few attempts to get in nicely lined up

Also check that the top of the up-post in the return lane (when in the down position) is level with the PF - this can also cause issues with the ball flow

Post of the Day!

Another newbie question: I've noticed my inlane GI flickers quite a bit (seems to alternate bulbs whenever I flip) and likewise my coin box GI doesn't always seem to be fully illuminated, but I can fix it by pushing the "reject" button.

I've seen this issue with a couple of other machines from youtube streams. I doubt there is a dead bulb, it seems more like a power issue perhaps?

I have installed a pinball life headphone jack, I'm wondering if that is perhaps the culpit?

Thanks as always!

Yes, I had Flipper Hop on both. Thankfully there is a fair bit of play on the fixings of the lane guides. Simply loosen, push up or down (in my case they needed to move up) and tighten again.

You may need to readjust again as they move back down over time from ball impacts.

Anyone else having this issue? Not very frequent but always when I am having a good game. Ball search and shaking won’t dislodge it without setting off the tilt sensor. There is a tiny cradle created by this area and if you hit it just right, it hangs up. Gonna mess with it to see what I can come up with.

F768A389-9C25-4943-A087-751006758D71 (resized).jpeg

I posted my fix a while back and a couple others have as well... All you need to do is lift the fence holding the one way gate very slightly so that the end is just above the the ball guide rail, you can view pics online at Stern for reference... It will allow the ball to unstick itself and roll back under the gate, but only on a very infrequent slow stopping roll to that corner, all other times, the one way well work as it's supposed to 99.9% of the time... It's a flexible metal so during install at the factory, it's probably easy to not correctly position this fence

Screenshot_20200224-213106_Chrome (resized).jpg

Not sure how I managed to get the ball stuck behind the raptor...other than it came off the upper flipper with some wicked spin.

FB04553F-D568-4483-9C53-790DD321FC61 (resized).jpeg

Haha, I got it stick there once as well. It wasn't very easy to get out either.

Telescoping magnet worked great.

For my auto plunger issue - weak after playing a while - I installed a washer under left fork, pulled coil and sleeve and plunger apart and put back together, and re-flowed solder on a joint, and still have the same problem.

Stern tech support told me to switch node boards 8 and 9 to determine if node board before trying new coil.

Nobody else experiencing this?

I had that yesterday, same spot

I’m experiencing this as well. Thanks for posting - I’ll swap my node boards and see if that helps.

The weak launch problem recurred on mine last weekend. I tried the same thing as before (removing the coil sleeve and working the plunger manually a bit) to see if whatever resolved it that time would work again but it didn’t work. So I started pushing a bit on connections. I pushed on the two wires connected directly to the coil and the connectors at the board and reseated the Ethernet cable on the board. All connections looked good but thought I’d try it anyway. Turned the machine back on and the plunge was back to 100% again. So now I’m thinking the only two spots in common that I moved/jostled both the first time it happened and this time are the two wire connections directly on the coil. They look solid but they might be loose somehow. If/when it happens again my plan is to only push on those two spots first to see if it resolves, and if so then that must be the problem spot. If not then it will probably mean one of the connections at the board is the issue.

Thanks for the info. I took everything apart last night thinking it was the tiny gap between the rail guide and the wire guide in the orbit. Turn out it is a little cradle formed between the wire guide and the one way gate. When it is barely moving thru the gate, the gate and ball guide make a cradle. This only happens when the ball barely makes it through the gate. In my picture, that is the gate in the resting position.

FE5A0772-5C6F-4634-B231-981AB5BE6A00 (resized).jpeg

I’ll raise it up and give it a shot. Thanks Fooflighter!

Does anyone know if there’s a relatively easy way to take the wire off the gate and put it back on? I’ve looked at this cradle spot on my machine and it seems like bending the bottom of the wire down so it doesn’t extend out so far while also bending the U-shape that keeps it locked in the gate (to allow it to pivot up more for balls to pass under it) could eliminate the cradle spot for balls sticking there.

But it seems like there isn’t an easy way to get the wire off it to do the bending, and I tried bending it in place but it was a bit dicey doing that.

I removed mine and worked on it. I removed wire form (3 screws). Then I removed the rail that the bracket is attached to. First you have to remove the plastic piece that’s on top of it. The rail has one screw on top of the PF and one nut below the PF. You may also have to remove the roof on the tower to get the wire form back on. It really wasn’t bad. I had few issues with that gate and decided to do what was necessary to work on it.