Ah interesting. So it’s not just the caps. It doesn’t sound like it hurts to just upgrade the caps so I’ll do that on my original board, but sounds like the IO board is the complete upgrade

It really is too bad for everyone that it took JJP this long to figure it out. Not just customers but the whole JJP team that has no control over electronics. Nobody is doubting that they have additional changes that you might as well throw in on a new board to get an extra 2% boost in electrical efficiency. At least it will be in the past and move on to better playing machines.

Besides the caps, none of the other things sound compelling enough to me to make a big difference, it just sounds like general improvements that you would do when you make new board revisions. It would be nice to measure though.

That snap-in snug fit is chef's kiss.

So I have added the 6800 uF 100V caps with spacers to my Hobbit.
Curiously, the flippers are now weaker

Before with the original 3300 uF caps I had the Flipper coil power on 22.
Now I have to set the flipper coil power to maximum (32) so that it plays like before with 22

Is that normal? Do the new bigger caps need more power?
Or could I have done something wrong when replacing it?

Pics

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Maybe the solder job wasn't strong enough. You can check continuity between the leads on the underside of the board. Positive to positive on each capacitor, and negative to negative as well.

Even if there's a detected connection, you may have a bad solder joint or maybe the wires you used to connect the capacitors to the board have an issue.

You should definitely expect stronger flippers.

I have used solid copper cables for the wire extension through the 3D printed socket.

Thank you very much for your instructions.
I will check that immediately.

Where did your source your capacitors from? There's many fakes out there, often sold on eBay and Amazon. General advice here is stick to reputable suppliers for electrolytic caps, either Mouser or Digikey.

Thanks for the advice.
That were also my thoughts after checking my work... the caps are from Ebay China ...
I have checked the connections and the soldering, everything seems ok.
To be on the safe side, I will order 2 new caps from a German supplier.

Is there any way to check or measure the capacitance from the China caps?

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IMG_0532 (resized).jpeg

Is that real life? Or a joke?

Problem solved

I have made a bad solder job on two solder points.
Solved the issue with great help from a German pinhead.
My Hobbit has now extra punch on the flippers

Thank You for the update. Now get to playing that great game.

How is everyone doing this upgrade ATM? Cant find the full board or parts anywhere.

What parts are you having trouble finding? The capacitors should be available at mouser, or Digikey, etc.
I put some links in this video description if you need them.

Just did the capacitor update. Used flipmod’s kit which saves a few steps. It was fairly straightforward even for a novice. Love the new feel of the flippers. Well worth it.

Awesome, thanks for the support. Glad to hear it all went well!

Will 14 gauge wire fit through the holes in the board?

It will fit, but it will damage the thru hole plating. I tried that when doing some of the research that led to the flipmods kit. https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1378-flipmods/10256-jjp-soft-flipper-fix-kit-sffk. (which uses 18 Guage wire lol)

Any intel on where to get the IO board these days?

PBL is supposed to get more, I heard. And I will die on the hill that caps are only a partial fix.

I’m getting boards for Wonka and Pirates.

Little Shop of Games has them listed on backorder with a projection of the first week of May.

https://littleshopofgames.com/shop/boards/circuit-boards/jersey-jack-pinball-15-004001-fp-fully-populated-updated-i-o-board/

If anyone thinks the bigger traces make that much of a difference, just add an extra wire from the cap to the fuse, from the fuse to J105, and from J105 to the flipper transistors and see if the resistance changed.

That being said, buying a new replacement board is a perfectly acceptable solution too and will definitely solve the issue. The tests and homebrew solutions in this thread are just to find alternatives to buying the replacement board as it is quite expensive.

Agreed. The change in resistor value some people mention only affects the brightness of the LED it is connected to. Trace width was an improvement made when the board was redesigned and although welcome, makes very little difference. $400 vs $25 makes a big difference to me and to those that can make the mod. Upgraded caps make 98% of the difference in performance.

If anyone is looking to have the cap mod done to their JJP I/O board and is not comfortable with soldering, I will do the job for you.
$150 covers all parts, Capacitors, Standoffs and the return shipping to you.

I will be at Allentown Pinfest May 4th through the 6th. It you prefer, you can drop off your boards there or pick up your modded boards there if I receive them a week before.

DM me if you have questions.

When they come back in, I'll try them in GnR. I expect the performance to be improved as it was in Toy Story 4 and Godfather, but I'm pretty sure the coils will run very hot - hotter than with the old board because it's essentially powering through the front end of the fade.

I can only confirm your words. The small SMD resistors value were changed because the LED reference was changed, it's only to match the voltage spec of these.
The larger traces are there just because of the increased cap value but you will not feel any difference on the flippers power. They were increased just to avoid over heating on these traces, but it's also fine with the original width.
See that as an extra safety measure because they don't know what their next pinball this board will go in...

Just finding this thread out. As a Wonka owner since day one, I do wonder if the game geometry was even created with stronger power in mind. I have my flippers bumped up and the game is certainly more responsive, but I also get a lot of air balls when the ball has momentum. My poor Oompa Loompa has a severed leg and I’m gonna have to replace him eventually (JJP wants $120 for the updated sculpt).

I am interested in the improvements to slings, which have always felt bad on WW, but again I wonder if this was the point. Kickback strength is also intriguing, but I wonder if dialing up the coil strength would have the same effect.

In other words, I’m interested in more Wonka feedback.

ha!

Well i'll say that the magnets become a real thing. I had a guest who's put lots of time on wonka before who was like "WHOA THOSE MAGNETS ARE ON CRACK!"

I'd say that the flippers become way more predictable. I guess what would happen with ball control as you would expect on a stern/williams was different than what would happen on wonka. Now with the cap upgrade, it feels like i have way more predictability. Like i can dunk that gobstopper hole way easier.

My rec is to do it asap!

I updated the caps on my Hobbit, and it made a huge difference to the game play. I have it set steep to counter the wide body "float", but now with the new caps the game plays and shoots fast as if it was a standard body.

Pinball Life is totally sold out of the boards. Anyone know when they will have them in stock again?

May.

Thanks for the response! They must not have realized how popular the board would be. Hopefully they get enough in stock.

Man I would 100% do the Hercules mod. Same effect. Much easier.

Definitely do the herculEASE for Hobbit. Difficult to remove that board. I scratched mine but luckily not across a trace.

You have flipper coil coolers and upgraded caps in your hobbit, That game must rip!

I must have not have been paying attention appropriately. What is the Hercules mod and is everyone certain it is the same effect?

All your questions will be answered:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/herculease-jjp-flipper-power-consistency-kit

If I have a Willy Wonka and a GnR
Which one would benefit more with the HercuEase?

Both get a benefit, I would go with the game you like best, and then maybe add the other game if you like what happened to the first game.

GnR should get the most benefit as it has much more severe fade and higher temps than Wonka, BUT if you're not actively cooling, I would be concerned about coil temps as GnR can exceed 200F as-is and the new board would likely make that worse. I'll be verifying this with hard temps once the boards are available again.

Hmm, so get the fans 100% if you get the new board or HercuEase then?

Thanks!
Richard

I have both, too. GnR benefits the most in my set up. I also have increased the strength on the Wonka flippers and never noticed a difference. With that said, this system is so easy to move from one machine to another, you can try it on each yourself without it feeling like a pain to install/uninstall.

Thanks for all of the input on HerculEASE.I think I’ll go with GnR first and then move to WW to see if I need two.

I don't have a solid recommendation 100% because I haven't tested the board yet to get the hard data, BUT the board basically just brute forces fade by powering over it, and that means potentially even hotter coil temps, which also means shorter coil life overall, most likely from swelling. So it's what I would call a good idea, but I need the hard temp data before making a 100% recommendation.