All, sorry for the late update, just recovering from Expo and doing all the other things I have to do ...
Not Too much new but will also give some notes about Expo as well:
- CGC (Chicago Gaming) had 3 MMR's there at the show - one of each trim color for people to see them next to each other and help them decide (yes, you can still 'adjust' your trim selection. These games were built from ALL new parts at Stern/CGC (I think two came from the Stern Line), and the other was built at CGC. These are games which are pre-production games, to help understand the build sequences, get familiar with parts, process, etc. So, these were 'true' MMR's!
- All three games played just great during the entire weekend. There are ZERO electronics system issues - in fact the dead man circuit (which is used as a timer to detect a hung board, or hung communications between boards) was disabled, and there were no system issues, no hung systems, no needs for resets, etc. These games were played for a couple of days before the show and had no issues. So, another good performance for the MMR electronics platform.
- One of the extension cords supplied to us that was plugged in was later found to have a broken ground plug (which was replaced later by the show people), but interesting to note that there were no ground issues or any other system issues, which again reinforce that the ground and the electronics look pretty solid!
- There were a few things pointed out as this is a great test situation as well for CGC: a) One of the LED's was behaving the same with the incandescent emulation - that was identified by someone (which it's very hard to see), and has been subsequently fixed (it's a software thing). b) There was another issue which was more for diagnostics that again was a quick software change and that has been fixed as well. c) LED's behind the translites can be adjusted up or down from the control panel which helps in different lighting situations, the translites we had there were a little dark when off and this is being adjusted with the translite supplier which has a short turnaround time to get the 'day/night' to be improved. d) The front of the cabinet on the first sample games were made and have a slight off center to them ( you can see the Start button relative to the shield) - this will be that way on the first pre-production games and will be addressed for production games), as it's just a slight repositioning of the front cabinet. The overall cabinet artwork is great! e) it was noticed that some of the display frame transitions were not totally the same as original and a couple of people used the word 'tearing', CGC is looking into this to see what they see, how much of an issue it is, and if so, what they can do to smooth it out.
- Leveler-gate: there was a conspiracy theory on the settings of the leg levelers at Expo, as the fronts were set pretty high. I communicated asking that to CGC and they stated that the guy setting them up 'liked them that way' and so they were setup that way. Joe Kace and I got down before the show started on Saturday to lower the fronts and get the slope more standard. So, that is about that, there was no conspiracy to hide the game as it played just fine on Saturday as well as before. The flipper strength (which is adjustable) did not need to be adjusted either, and all the ramp shots, etc seemed to be fine.
- As for the udpate on the game, All things continue, UL still finishing up. Appears that the high voltage lab testing part is done and then they need to short out everything they can short out and not sure if there is anything else. When done we get a letter allowing to go into production with the UL Approval notation, and then the final items are released, etc. Seems like the transformer is fine (short of having any issue in the short testing, which you would expect not as fuses are meant to protect the power supply). So, we continue to sit and wait for that.
- At least one game was scheduled to go on test somewhere in Chicago, so have not had a chance to check in with CGC on whether that happened or not, but expect that it has or will.
- Final prep for the game on the line at stern, we did tours with Stern of the MMR line. Parts are being received almost daily there, etc.
- Will update next week.