Wizard of Oz
Jersey Jack, 2013
Wizard of Oz (Yellow Brick Road LE)
Jersey Jack, 2019You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider pinjim.
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Quoted from harryhoudini:Wooo, welcome. Yes, maybe the deepest game I've played, close with JJPOTC.
JJPOTC was a contender for me. There is a JJPOTC CE at Zanzabar in Louisville, close to where I live. I put in a few hours on it and man....what a game! Wish LEs were more plentiful. I have a feeling they’ll go up in price, not down...
My castle playfield flipper is rubbing the castle wall. Anyone else seen this? The flipper is weak too. I’m guessing I’ll need to remove the castle playfield to see what’s going on underneath it. Ugh....
4EEC78CC-F6DC-4356-86D7-92BEA89F4551 (resized).jpeg75C029E5-7577-4F56-86C6-A944FED8BAF3 (resized).jpegQuoted from Pinballomatic:Loosen the screw holding the wall, pull the wall away, retighten the screw. I’ve seen that work often.
That seemed to help some.
I suspect there’s a deep issue with the flipper. The game has around 650 plays on it so in theory the flipper bushing isn’t bad, but the flipper is very weak. I noticed that that the linkage was connected too low on the flipper shaft so there was a lot of slop. You can adjust that without removing the playfield, which I did. Still though, the flipper feels weak. I’ll pull the playfield when I have a few free hours...
Quoted from adol75:Mine comes super close to the wall but doesn't touch it, see picture below. I think you need to dremmel the wall a bit. As to the weakness of the flipper although my case is different, I had the same issue to the point where the bat would stay stuck up. It got sorted out once I levelled the playfield correctly. I was off of 1 degree, at 5.5 instead of 6.5.[quoted image]
So please forgive my ignorance, I’ve never owned a JJP before. But, in poking around tonight, I found that a lot of the coil strengths had been reduced. Such was the case for the castle flipper. I returned it to default and voila, it works fine.
The lower main flippers were reduced. Various VUKs, the sling by the roller over lanes, etc. I assume people leave coils at the default value? Just found it odd that so many had been reduced...
Quoted from LTG:Not everybody has the same power. Previous home for your game may have had higher voltage power and yours may be lower voltage.
Which is why you can adjust coils on WOZ. Even the factory can be different from your house.
LTG : )
Without looking at the schematic, I assume a transformer steps down the AC, which is the rectified and smoothed via caps. And the resulting DC power is used for coils? Just seems like a 5VAC difference at the wall would be negligible by the time it gets to the flippers? Then again, you are LTG.....and I’ve been reading your posts since way back in the rgp days. So no disrespect meant. Back in those days I read damn near every post. So much was learned from reading that newsgroup...
To be fair, I find the lower flippers to be too strong at default power. But the castle playfield flipper was set at 7, and had very little umph.
Quoted from adol75:WOZ (Or JJPs in general, I only have one), is quite sensitive to ac power, I reduced all the flippers and vuks coil power when I first got it, balls were flying everywhere. Then I bought a power rectifier and put them back to their standard settings. This could be why yours were reduced.
What is a power rectifier? I know what a bridge rectifier is, but I’m guessing you are talking about something different?
Quoted from mountaingamer:Here’s a simple, cheap mod of the illuminated winkie target mod - what do you guys think? Going to bed but can post details tomorrow if there’s interest.
I’d love to know more.
Venting here more than anything. I spent over an hour last night trying to fine tune the witch target, and still it is not consistent. I tried bending the arms a bit on the switches, and then took to bending the brackets a bit. I thought I had it right only to realize that using my finger to activate the switch was different than using the ball, which apparently hits higher. So back to adjusting. Still, after an hour, it is very inconsistent. I can nail it dead center and it doesn't register. Sides seem to work a little better.
I feel like it's almost impossible to make it reliable. Please tell me I'm wrong....
Quoted from Pinballomatic:Almost impossible is too strong but it can be tricky for sure. In my experience the weakest spot to get consistent hits is dead center as you say. You did try working the sliders underneath right? I mean loosening the nuts and moving the switch brackets? That can be the answer more than bending switch actuators. Behind the bash plate (I call it that - the thing that gets struck by the Ball) are springs that can resist against its moving and keep it from getting stuck back too far. Behind the front strike plate there are two places where it attaches to the bracket through two parallel holes and the spring keeps it straight and absorbs the impact of the Ball but it still needs to push the switch actuators open - think of it as a more elegant version of the safe on Sopranos where the impact from the front tries to push the metal “flags” into and thereby close the microswitch actuators which are normally open. This is the reverse with normally closed switches having their arms pushed away. So it’s a bit counterintuitive in a way. I’m just glad the same mechanism didn’t end up on the Hobbit production model as it was supposed to most of the way through the design process. Anyway, it’s certainly doable. The last software version but one also changed the de-bounce (if that’s right - need Keefer) timing so if your witch was for lack of a better term dialed in before, and then you updated to 6.60 (I think), it might no longer be perfect.
Yeah, I should have noted that I loosened the nuts and slid the switches back and forth a good bit last night. I'm going to try it all again tonight.
I bought the game last weekend and noted that the witch target rarely if ever worked. Then diagnostics reported the switches as bad. So I dug into it last night and found them to be poorly adjusted, I assume from the factory.
I'm running 6.60 (I think, definitely not 7.x). I guess I just need to keep tinkering tonight. I'll be honest in saying it's a little disappointing that they witch switch isn't more consistent, as it seems to be an integral part of gameplay.
Other than that, I'm starting to get my game dialed in (ha). My state fair pop still seems to lack umph, so maybe I'll bump it up a bit in settings. But otherwise, things seem to be working. And man, what a game. I'm a die hard TZ fan, but I'm really enjoying WOZ. Seems like it'll keep me entertained for a few years...
Quoted from harryhoudini:I've replaced some parts on the witch but not touched the switches. Wondering if there is a simple fix that can help relocate those switches in a way that will allow for easier setup/triggering. I can take a look if no one else does.
I'm going to dig into mine more tonight, but it sure seems like a bad design. I'd be game if someone came up with a better target / switch setup.
I dedicated another 30 minutes to the witch switches tonight. Here’s what I did.
First, I bent the brackets back into their original condition. Then I loosened the switch plate nuts and played in switch test mode a bit. More or less, the switches did not default to closed all of the time, even with the switch plates as close to the target plate as possible. It’s as though the target plate doesn’t rest in a consistent position.
Next, I bent the switch arms a bit. Back into switch test mode. Even after bending the arms, I can’t get it dialed in. I observed the target plate actuator arms when using a ball to push on the playfield side of the target plate, and they actually push on the target switches, as opposed to opening them. And then sometimes they would open but never close the switches. Frustrating. So in short, the whole system seems inconsistent.
I suppose the situation is better, but not right. I played a few games, sipped some burbon, and the switch target registered about half of the hits. That’s about 50% below my expectations. Ha.
Has anyone made theirs more reliable? I’m an engineer at heart so I want it to be 100%. I’m losing faith. I don’t want it t be a deal killer with me and the game, but it factors into things. Short of that switch, the game is bad ass. But it bothers me...
Anyone else got theirs working better than 50%?
Quoted from SDpinballer:I’ve been following your witch switch problem. Saying to myself, “yeah, That was the same with mine” the whole time. My witch switch didn’t work well for a while, 6 months or so, and I didn’t look into it. Just put up with it and added it to the list of pinball “things to do”. Then a more important audio problem occurred and was traced to output from the motherboard that I subsequently had to replace. After replacement and full game reset, I haven’t had the issue with the witch switch. It plays 100% now. I know it doesn’t specifically help and it’s weird, but that’s what happened to me, FWIW.
Odd. Did you change software versions at the same time?
Quoted from harryhoudini:How are the springs? Have you tried stretching them out or getting new one? Maybe they are too collapsed.
I know the mechanism is different but the spring is the crux of the situation with the castle doors. Even if I take the springs that JJP supplied me new, the switches they supplied me new and using new motors they supplied me the doors were FAR from even working. I had to tweak and tweak to get them to work properly. There isn't even an adjustment for the switch position there like there is on the witch. There has to be enough tension in the spring to close the door fully and overcome the switch pressure but slack enough that the motor can overcome the spring tension to open the door. Oddly, the motors aren't that strong and so there is a very narrow margin in which they will actually open.
I'm sure there are springs somewhere on the mech, as is somewhat snaps back into place. But I did not see them last night. Then again, the bourbon took effect so maybe I missed them. I'll look again today. That switch will not win!
Another question. The lights circled below are off in color from the rest of the lights - at least during game play. You can somewhat see it in the picture, but it's more pronounced in person. What's odd is that they are fine if I illuminate them in diagnostics. It's just during game play. Like they aren't rendering the mixing of colors like the rest of the lights.
Is this normal, or (I'm guessing) something's wrong with my machine?
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Tuscaloosa, AL