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Stern node fault

replicas said:
Great work Jim, looks like we might have our very own Node board fixer after all.
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We will need to see what other faults come up but if anyone has node boards where only the red led is on and its reporting node board not found then i may be able to help now. Other issues and led sequences i am still working on whats possible. But it is certainly a better prospect then it was yesterday :)
 
Another update, this fixed node board is now running in my stranger things. Once installed the stranger things game upgraded it automatically from firmware 0.17.2 that i was using on the bench test rig to 0.65.0 and i just played a game using it fine :) So that's 1 spare working node board available for people.

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kevlar said:
Bravo Jim!. What did you do to resurrect it and how much would this particular repair cost?
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I am thinking £125 plus vat and return shipping if repairable, or the normal £50 plus vat test fee if not. The key thing will be to check what the board is doing first in terms of leds before deciding if it is worth sending for repair. Hopefully i will be able to fix more /differing faults as time goes on, but as you can imagine this all takes alot of time and effort and patience of studying data sheets and schematics to work out.
 
Awesome work Jim!!!

Question (not sure is anyone knows!) - Are the node boards for SPIKE2 (example - IMDN) the same as for SPIKE1 (example - Ghostbusters)???
 
Paul said:
Awesome work Jim!!!

Question (not sure is anyone knows!) - Are the node boards for SPIKE2 (example - IMDN) the same as for SPIKE1 (example - Ghostbusters)???
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As far as i can tell right now

520-7017-72 replaces 520-6985-72

My test rig is a spike 1 system and that connected to these later node boards fine (and downgraded the firmware ok to as shown on the above images). This is all experimental though so you try at your own risk.
 
Neil McRae said:
Mike,
Love it! Its ok for you to have a go at someone but not ok when that someone is you? If you are going to dish your drivel out mate, be prepared to take it. I'll make a deal with you, you don't spout your nonsense and I won't hold you to account for it?

you also seem to mis-understand. I'm not in the business of making pinball machines. I'm in the business of +buying+ them.

And I can easily defend Stern - they make more games than all the other manufacturers in the industry put together- and have a handful of board problems. I'd guess they have a MTBF not significantly worse than most electronics today and not significantly worse than the industry as a whole.

I've had one board failure from Stern, Spike 2 CPU (which is a well known CM'ed design used in thousands of applications and NOT designed by Stern). So since 2016 with over 25 games a single failure, and not a single node board failure. 5 of those games get an absolute hammering and they run and run and run. Most folks I talk to about putting games on location only want to put Stern games on site because they are reliable. But for the record, the last electronics design I did the line cards cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and getting it right was pretty important.

Regards,
Neil.
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OKay, I was able to work directly with Stern and they agreed to sell me the NODE 9 / 8 board (they are interchangeable ). Happily my machine is back up and running. My question is does anyone place any value on the non-working board or should I retire it the the electronics recycling pile? Nothing appears fried or burnt on the board so not sure what caused it to go to crap.

Thanks and all the best.
 
joehockey said:
OKay, I was able to work directly with Stern and they agreed to sell me the NODE 9 / 8 board (they are interchangeable ). Happily my machine is back up and running. My question is does anyone place any value on the non-working board or should I retire it the the electronics recycling pile? Nothing appears fried or burnt on the board so not sure what caused it to go to crap.

Thanks and all the best.
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I'd hapilly take it off your hands @joehockey ???
 
Spandangler said:
Out of interest Jim. Has the repair improved on the original design or component?
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I’m using the best quality parts I can from the quality suppliers I always use like Farnell, rs , mouser and sticking to the stern specs. Not sure if sterns manufacturers were using cheaper parts or not. I guess we will find out how well the repairs work or if the design is flawed
 
Just a quick update on this now I am back and into the new year. The fix tally now stands at around 10 or 11 so if you have a broken node 8/9 board I can probably help you out either getting your game going again or enabling you to have a spare in case. Pm me if you need help :)
 
Just fixed another node 8/9 board today and also a spike 1 cpu board. Had a couple of non fixable node boards (cabinet & 1 8/9 board) recently so this is nice to swing the balance back over to fixed!!

On the tally front probably at around 14 for 3 now on fixed/not fixed. So pretty good


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A good trick to find bad smd components is to spray board with freeze spray then power up and see what melts first, usually good sign of what's gone bad and is causing the short, caps and regs usually always the issue.
 
myPinballs said:
Tally Update !!

3 More Node 8/9 boards fixed last week. 1 Spike 1 CPU fixed a month or so back, 1 Spike 2 Cpu not fixed.

so, that is now overall :

18 for 4
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Well done Jim. Is there any evidence to suggest that stern are doing anything about the failures? i.e. do the boards you're getting in tend to be from older spike/spike 2 machines? or are brand new node boards being made now just as prone to failure as older ones?
 
kevlar said:
Well done Jim. Is there any evidence to suggest that stern are doing anything about the failures? i.e. do the boards you're getting in tend to be from older spike/spike 2 machines? or are brand new node boards being made now just as prone to failure as older ones?
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I haven't noticed any changes to anything so far. And the 'service kit' with the little plastic spacer is pointless :) Kind of funny to as i've seen people install those wrongly which bends the part its designed to help more than if you just left it alone! lol

Thats the hardware side, but there have been many improvements in firmware, and we are at v1.00 now so i think yes this has helped some way on newer games to stop them blowing up so easily.
 
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russdx1 said:
A good trick to find bad smd components is to spray board with freeze spray then power up and see what melts first, usually good sign of what's gone bad and is causing the short, caps and regs usually always the issue.
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I wish it was just caps shorting out on these though....
 
myPinballs said:
We will need to see what other faults come up but if anyone has node boards where only the red led is on and its reporting node board not found then i may be able to help now. Other issues and led sequences i am still working on whats possible. But it is certainly a better prospect then it was yesterday :)
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Hi! Got the red led - but no other. Node 8 not found. This is on my GotG. Repairable?! Thanks for now.//Nik
 
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