Not a costly mistake, I hope, but so far the worst pinball mistake I've made...
Fitted a ColorDMD to my recently acquired Tron LE this evening. Took my time, patiently followed the instructions to the letter. Everything was going smoothly...
When it came to running the power cable down through the backbox and threading it to the front of the machine I needed to pull the playfield out. Now, unbeknownst to me with this being my first Stern pin, the PF simply rests on the two metal channels, it's not held onto it like a drawer on runners.
You can probably guess where this is going.
I pulled it all the way out, expecting it to lock into position like TZ does. Instead when I felt resistance (the point at which TZ needs an extra pull to lock into position) I proceeded to pull the entire playfield off the guides, whereupon it dropped down into the cabinet. For about a minute I think I froze, wondering how this could happen.
By some complete fluke it didn't damage anything, but for about 2 minutes I was supporting the weight of the PF with one hand, unable to let go because it had nothing to safely rest on.
Eventually I managed to summon up some sheer force of will and lift the whole thing at arm's length back onto the guides.
To make me feel like less of an idiot I'd like to know what bad or costly (or both) mistakes people have made...
Fitted a ColorDMD to my recently acquired Tron LE this evening. Took my time, patiently followed the instructions to the letter. Everything was going smoothly...
When it came to running the power cable down through the backbox and threading it to the front of the machine I needed to pull the playfield out. Now, unbeknownst to me with this being my first Stern pin, the PF simply rests on the two metal channels, it's not held onto it like a drawer on runners.
You can probably guess where this is going.
I pulled it all the way out, expecting it to lock into position like TZ does. Instead when I felt resistance (the point at which TZ needs an extra pull to lock into position) I proceeded to pull the entire playfield off the guides, whereupon it dropped down into the cabinet. For about a minute I think I froze, wondering how this could happen.
By some complete fluke it didn't damage anything, but for about 2 minutes I was supporting the weight of the PF with one hand, unable to let go because it had nothing to safely rest on.
Eventually I managed to summon up some sheer force of will and lift the whole thing at arm's length back onto the guides.
To make me feel like less of an idiot I'd like to know what bad or costly (or both) mistakes people have made...