Almost finishing shopping out my LOTR and I have two tech questions:

1) When I shoot for the ring, only 10% of my shots are going through the ring. Before I shopped it, it was maybe 50% of the time. Currrently it seems to bounce of the outer ring most of the time. There is much more power in the flippers now, so the shots are harder and most of the shot that currently go through the ring are the softer shots. Is the angle of the ramp in relationship to the ring the determining factor in how often it goes through the ring? Is it normal to behave like this or is there something I am missing here?

2) The DMD shows little to no burn, no gassing out and when lit it seems very nice and bright. But it seems to be dim in some sections and as it warms up, this issue goes away. Does this mean the DMD is bad? Any suggestions?

Quoted from HP5P

Any suggestions?

Buy Williams.






Ok that wasn't the suggestion your probably looking for. Could be voltages. I would check them under load to see what they are at on start against after warm up.

I thought the ball pauses at the ring and then goes through. I am guessing there is an electromagnet or some mechanism that momentarily halts the ball in the ring that isn't working. I could be wrong on this but that is what I seem to see happening during play.

Quoted from HP5P

1) When I shoot for the ring, only 10% of my shots are going through the ring.

This is only a guess, based on something Twilight Zone mentioned to me awhile back.  How is the alignment of the ramp?  Could that possibly have an effect?

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Buy Williams.

Don't they only make slot machines?

Quoted from necro_nemesis

I thought the ball pauses at the ring and then goes through. I am guessing there is an electromagnet or some mechanism that momentarily halts the ball in the ring that isn't working. I could be wrong on this but that is what I seem to see happening during play.

The ball only gets grabbed by the magnet if it enters the tiny hole in the center of the ring's plastic funnel. Sometimes the ball will cross the opto-sensor, starting the mode, but bounce off the plastic funnel, since it's flying at an odd angle.

HP5P, have you tried increasing the slope of the playfield to counteract the new stronger flippers? Does it make a difference? I just installed the PBL flippers, and I hit the ring magnet close to 90% of the time.

Been there..  Ramp alignment (up, down, left, right).  Google it. You should find a procedure for it.  DMD is getting tired (outgassing).  Don't worry about it yet.  Chnage it when it really stays faded all the time.

Mike

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Buy Williams.

Trust me, as much as possible I try to buy Williams.

Quoted from MrMikeman

Been there..  Ramp alignment (up, down, left, right).  Google it. You should find a procedure for it.  

I googled it and it found nothing specific except quite a few people complaining about the same thing especially after installing the coils from Pinball Life. I will try it again tonight.

Thanks for the tips.

I also had an issue with the ramp missing the ring shot quite often. Certainly it was better than you described, but still annoying. Turned out it was misaligned from day one. A few simple adjustments and it plays like a top. Here is a post:

http://groups.google.com/group.....ng+#945ef74033a898b0

Good luck. You won't be disappointed with this game.

Duane

Well I re-aligned the ramp, took a hour to find the sweet spot and adjusted the leg levellers to give the proper slope for the playfield and now it is much better. Time to play!!

Frankly, it totally amazes me how a shop job makes a Stern pin feel like a totally different pin!!

Thanks for the tips guys.  Another pin completed...many more to do.