The Village BBS

Florida Arcade and Pinball Collectors => Technical Questions and Help => Topic started by: BigMatt on June 07, 2020, 04:28:00 PM

Title: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on June 07, 2020, 04:28:00 PM
concerning spike games only....i see they have factory authorized ones for 100 bucks and "theirs" for 80bucks. anyone use the 80 dollars ones? I know there was an issue with an inline capacitor causing excess current to destroy the cab node board with 3rd party ones but heard that was resolved. im assuming they are pretty much exactly the same now. im going to order 3 or 4 so saving upto 80 bucks would be cool
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: DEXTER on June 07, 2020, 08:00:01 PM
concerning spike games only....i see they have factory authorized ones for 100 bucks and "theirs" for 80bucks. anyone use the 80 dollars ones? I know there was an issue with an inline capacitor causing excess current to destroy the cab node board with 3rd party ones but heard that was resolved. im assuming they are pretty much exactly the same now. im going to order 3 or 4 so saving upto 80 bucks would be cool

I've had no issues with Spike Shaker motors from Pinball Life. Good as original.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: hawknole on June 08, 2020, 03:23:22 PM
Call Pinball Life and ask them directly about the capacitor issue.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: Centaur Brother on June 09, 2020, 07:28:38 AM
Installed one on my Stranger Things premium, Set to maximum use but does very little. I did not see any strength adjustment, could it be lack of code? Anyone else experience the same problem? 
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on June 10, 2020, 12:09:03 PM
Call Pinball Life and ask them directly about the capacitor issue.

The inline cap isn't pictures on their site, I know it's not a problem anymore, but was really just curious as to the power differences, I have a GOT that shakes like a bitch but not sure which one it has.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: k7 on June 10, 2020, 04:08:07 PM
even the stern kit doesn't have the capacitor on the listing. i'd call and ask. we've had customers blow up the cabinet node board by installing a shaker and skipping the inline capacitor part of the kit.

from pinballlife:

Factory authorized Stern shaker motor kit.
Designed to work with Stern SPIKE and SPIKE 2 operating systems.
Kit Includes: shaker motor with mounting bracket, wiring harness, plastic cover, mounting hardware, cable ties, & installation instructions.


the screws they send with the shaker motor kit might also not fit the t-nuts on the bottom of the cabinet. stern used a thicker bottom plywood, i think with jurassic park, and could be a title or 2 before that game when they swapped suppliers.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: Marshall on June 10, 2020, 04:23:46 PM
the screws they send with the shaker motor kit might also not fit the t-nuts on the bottom of the cabinet. stern used a thicker bottom plywood, i think with jurassic park, and could be a title or 2 before that game when they swapped suppliers.


Started with Iron Maiden. The supplied screws wouldn't make it through to the T-Nuts. Had to use #8-32 x 1" to reach them.
Or just leave those 4 off and get some REAL action!  (joke)
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: k7 on June 10, 2020, 04:34:07 PM

Started with Iron Maiden. The supplied screws wouldn't make it through to the T-Nuts. Had to use #8-32 x 1" to reach them.
Or just leave those 4 off and get some REAL action!  (joke)

thank you marshall :)

i forgot the screw numbers i had purchased at home depot when we went thru this.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: hawknole on June 10, 2020, 07:40:18 PM

The inline cap isn't pictures on their site, I know it's not a problem anymore, but was really just curious as to the power differences, I have a GOT that shakes like a bitch but not sure which one it has.

You can adjust the weights on the shaker to create a less violent shake.  I did that for LotR.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on June 11, 2020, 07:28:27 AM
even the stern kit doesn't have the capacitor on the listing. i'd call and ask. we've had customers blow up the cabinet node board by installing a shaker and skipping the inline capacitor part of the kit.

from pinballlife:

Factory authorized Stern shaker motor kit.
Designed to work with Stern SPIKE and SPIKE 2 operating systems.
Kit Includes: shaker motor with mounting bracket, wiring harness, plastic cover, mounting hardware, cable ties, & installation instructions.


the screws they send with the shaker motor kit might also not fit the t-nuts on the bottom of the cabinet. stern used a thicker bottom plywood, i think with jurassic park, and could be a title or 2 before that game when they swapped suppliers.
Interesting, sterns bulletin says the cap IS the issue.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on June 11, 2020, 07:29:47 AM
You can adjust the weights on the shaker to create a less violent shake.  I did that for LotR.
Yeh I'm about to do that but figured I had to cut them down, are they individual wafer weights on the end?
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: hawknole on June 11, 2020, 10:01:41 AM
For my shaker, which may be after market, it was just a matter of unscrewing the small (I think allen) screws and moving the weight on either side so they were more balanced.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: k7 on June 11, 2020, 10:25:05 AM
i had to check that service bulletin. stern is blaming the capacitors that some aftermarket vendors have/had attached to their shakers.

stern ships their shakers with their own in-line capacitor. if you don't use it...stuff can go boom. :) on pinballlife's stern picture, they don't show the capacitor, which attaches to the node board:

(https://images.pinside.com/8/a6/8a6a1191e02efcfd21ce8a8cb3430f88f91152d6/resized/large/8a6a1191e02efcfd21ce8a8cb3430f88f91152d6.jpg)
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: tktlwyr on June 11, 2020, 12:54:51 PM
Interesting, sterns bulletin says the cap IS the issue.

Two different capacitors.  Two different issues.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on June 13, 2020, 03:32:15 PM
I'm going to buy both versions of Spike Shaker motors from pinball life and get to the bottom of this with a meter, the community needs to know LOL.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on July 12, 2020, 10:53:45 AM
Okay I got both versions of Spike Shaker motors from pinball life, basically they are almost exactly the same the pinball life motor has a slightly higher ohm value than the stern motor but once these turn and build up some cemf it really doesn't matter as far as raw shake power go, but just off the bat to protect your cabinet node board I would recommend the pinball Life one as you will have a bit less inrush amps from the node board, the factory authorized version from Stern comes with in inline splice kit that puts a capacitor in parallel with line and return for the node board according to a service bulletin I found this stops mysterious slam switch tilts- this cap doesn't come with pinball life kit and should not be confused with the aforementioned cap that is parallel to line and ground causing excess current to flow- that service bulletin I'm assuming was from coin taker red tremor.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on July 12, 2020, 10:55:37 AM
Also you can buy that inline cap kit from marco it's around 11 bucks
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: hawknole on July 12, 2020, 03:57:25 PM
Thanks for checking this out.  Even though the Stern OEM one has the extra capacitor you are recommending the Pinball Life one?
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: BigMatt on July 12, 2020, 04:34:41 PM
Thanks for checking this out.  Even though the Stern OEM one has the extra capacitor you are recommending the Pinball Life one?

Yes, the spare cap can be purchased from marco, saving you ten bucks net. The stern had one ohm, pinball life had 2ohms after motor settle. Spinner ng the motor you can see the ohm value skyrocket from cemf, essentially impedance, based on these values the inrush current  SHOULD be larger on the factory motor. The filter cap is just for electrical noise it won't hurt or damage anything to not have it.
Title: Re: shaker motors from pinball life
Post by: hawknole on July 12, 2020, 04:39:51 PM
Nice pinball life it is, prepping for an order anyway, thanks again