We are running Linux like some other companies, and we worked with Jimmy who has created a very trimmed down Linux OS. I also gave hime a few other things to do for us, since we are thinly staffed and it was areas where he has expertise. To some degree we have partnered with both him and spooky around things like code updating since there is no reason for things like that for us all to re-invent the wheel. In fact we are testing out a few enhancements to that, and owners of Houdini, TNA, and ACNC will all benefit.

Yes, so lets be clear. As far as everything at AP that is awesome about the game, Josh is the man. As far as the boring OS level crap, that's me.

What's the deal with the screen tearing on Houdini? Can't you lock the video updates to vblank to eliminate it? It's most noticeable when the curtains open and close, and it's relatively minor, but it drives me crazy because it should be easy to fix.

Hmm, I'll look into it! Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Slightly off subject, but this is the type of info I like to see about technology families. A "Good Until" date.

Nice processor, think that P3ROC suggests this one.

SBC (resized).PNG

We don't really suggest any particular processing element over any other. Every pinball manufacturer has different requirements, and the P3-ROC works with any processing element that can master the USB bus. Machines with our boards use processing elements ranging from R-Pis (custom machines with low processing needs) to new Intel motherboards with separate NVidia video cards (P3) and everything in between (Up boards, Intel NUCs, etc). CPU/GPU power, memory size, and cost can scale with the needs of a particular machine.

- Gerry
https://www.multimorphic.com

and with Intel you have AMD to use as well.

I don't think the processor is the issue per se, it is the chipset

unless you really cut the kernel down then switching from intel to amd is easy. On linux most USB chipsets are in the basic OS. On windows you may need chipset drives.

Moving Linux vm's from amd / intel or intel / amd is not that big of an issue. On Real hardware nicknames may change / may need to clear out some U-dev stuff. on the server side with fixed ip's. I have Linux on a USB HDD that boots on lot's of differnt systems with it finding wifi nics / enet nicks with no really change to config files needed.

Since your abstraction layer is USB - of course. Port a USB driver to VAX/VMS and use that.

My point is for the other things that comprise a pinball machine the user community needs products with legs. Ones that can be around for as long as these things live which appears to be Methuselah's age ( - :

Did find this picture today which talks about a logical division of tasks. I'm talking about the Media Controller (right/red) part:

Pinball Controller Task Split (resized).PNG

While you're at it, I *think* this is more Rosh's department, but the scroll rate on the credits in attract mode has a similar problem, but I think it's less about not using vblank and more about using a scroll speed that doesn't take into account the refresh rate of the monitor. When it's scrolling, you can see it stutter quickly about every 1/3 of the screen it moves up. Adjusting the scroll speed will fix this.

When running Mission Pinball, you will get two windows when you launch "mpf both". The game engine runs the code and at least used to display the log file in real time. The media controller window is your "display" and shows the scores and whatever you have set up on the screen. The media controller also plays sounds, but I haven't got that far in my game yet.

Have any of the other current manufacturers posted schematics of their hardware?

JJP does, I don’t know about the others. It sounds like P3-ROC is a fairly commonly utilized 3rd party platform by others.

Trick answer, but CGC does for MMr & RFMr

I noticed this with my Star Wars about a month ago and thought it was a problem with the CPU board. The sound from the cabinet speaker on the bottom of the game was slightly distorted compared to the audio coming from the backbox speakers. We ran the audio to a different speaker to verify that it wasn't just a case of crappy stock speaker, but the distortion was still there. When we routed the backbox sound to the cabinet speaker it was crisp and clear, so no issues with the speakers. I was sent a replacement CPU board on warranty and swapped it out, but the distorted sound problem still persisted. I ended up going back to a really early version of the code (0.91) and the distortion was gone!! I then upgraded back to 1.03 and as I expected the sound problem returned.

We verified with another collector who tested his Star Wars and he also had the distortion from the bottom cabinet speaker. It's not really noticeable standing up playing normally, but if you crouch down to the bottom of the game and listen to the music and callouts, you can tell its fuzzy. I had another person check their Batman 66, Star Wars, and Aerosmith and they all had similar distortion coming from the bottom cabinet speaker. I think when Stern redid the plumbing on the Spike II sound system earlier this year with the ability to adjust speaker bass/treble independently, they may have inadvertently messed something up here.

I think they are mixing the Stereo sound to mono for the cabinet speaker, but they are not applying Pan Law when they do this (reduce each channel gain by -3dB before mixing to mono) so the audio is ending up distorted or clipping.

I'm curious if anyone else here has noticed this. I did mention this on the Star Wars thread, but it got missed in the sea of posts about hyper loops and escape gates not working, or was written off as a speaker issue by folks who didn't fully read my posts on the issue.

As far as I am aware, this could potentially be an issue on all Spike II games that have the underlying system updates for the audio adjustments from around the Feb-April 2018 time frame.

Edit: Also, I have emailed Stern about this observation a week ago, but hadn't gotten any sort of confirmation or response they have read and understood it.

Did you send it to their "bugs" email address? I've read quite a few posts saying that they go through those and take pretty good notes.

I sent to the "software" address and it didn't bounce back, but it appears that the proper one to send to is "bug.report", so I have just resent it and we'll see what happens.

The bug report folks responded right away and they are aware of the issue and currently investigating.

What is the exact email address for software bugs?

[email protected]

I had the exact same thing with my Iron Maiden premium. The sound was horrible. I too got a replacement node zero board. No change. Sound clipped horribly and was awful turned up.

I worked on a Total Nuclear annihilation and a Houdini. I was very impressed with their sound. I ordered the same amp.

ONEU Audio Amplifier, Separated Subwoofer Volume Controlled Stereo Amplifier 2 x 45-Watt and 1x68W Sub Output, Super Bass 2.1 Channel Audio Power Amplifier with Power Supply .

I made cables from the line out into the amp, and cables to plug from the outputs to the stern speakers. I added flipper fidelity speakers as an upgrade.

It's a night and day difference! Sound is clear and balanced between the backbox and cabinet. Gets too loud even for a 50 something Metal Head. Highly recommended!

Agreed that the TNA has excellent sound compared to Stern pins. Love the bass at ball launch. Good to know that the amp setup helps.

Where is it available? The amp appears to be model #ZYDZ060 but Amazon doesn't have a new one.

FWIW, the new code (1.05) on Star Wars has audio fixes.

Moved to System 2.06:
- Update to nodeboard firmware v0.23.0
- Enhanced center channel clarity.
- Added bass frequency filter selection options: 125Hz, 250Hz, and disabled.
- Added treble frequency filter selection options: 4kHz, 8kHz, and disabled.

Just an update, but Stern has started releasing code updates that fix the sound issue on a few Spike II games in the last week. Star Wars sounds good again on my end with 1.05 code.

Because it's a knock-off / counterfeit of Lepai, the famous Japanese audio brand. Amazon have been purging stuff like that recently.

The Lepai LP-168AH tends to be what they're copying / emulating. That's widely available, and of guaranteed quality. Buy that.

Edit: Maybe they're not Japanese. Forget what they are.

OK, just disconnect the factory subwoofer leads and hook everything to this?

I see that the Lepai amp is for use with 8 ohm speakers. I just bought some Kicker 4 ohm cabinet speakers...

I made a couple of custom cables. I made a splitter to get switched 110 off of the Bill Accepter harness for the amps power supply. Then I made a line out harness for the audio. Molex .100 to RCA. Also made harnesses to plug directly into cabinet and backbox speaker harness.

I fix pinballs for a living, so I had all the parts just laying around.

While I had the backglass off doing an update to SWP, I noticed the the cpu heat sink to be rather warm to the touch. While I am sure the the operating temps are well within limits, my computer building geek experience took over and I installed a fan on the heat sink. MUCH cooler to the touch. This can't be bad. I ran the wires from the accessory plug and mounted the fan from the backbox cable tie bolts so the whole thing doesn't touch the cooler at all. PS- The fan is very quiet and inaudible with the glass on.

2018-08-03 08-51-03.JPG

Cool mount!

My Lepai LP-168HA (used in Houdini) is rated for 2-8 ohms, per the Lepai manual.

Thanks, I just was going what little info I could find.

So, yeah, you are correct, I don't know why I didn't see that before.

When connecting this unit to the machine, what do you do with the stock subwoofer out leads?

Funny you should ask, that's the very reason I just happened to have the paperwork on my desk. I was thinking about installing a sub on Houdini. But the manual really isn't clear whether it's a line out or if it's the 1x68W. I asked on the Houdini thread if a powered sub is needed (the answer was 'yes')...but I'm still not sure about that - but an active sub would work tho.

Regarding hooking up...I think I will just google it or look at the questions on Amazon.

This Stern topic remains valid, openly discussed by owners, operators, and technicians, and situation mostly unchanged.
SPIKE I / II systems remain suspect and will not improve in reliability, serviceability, or durability unless there are changes due to the sales market.
This is the followup Mark Schneider video, three years later.

Thanks for posting, some points are valid and I have my own concerns about the spike system related to ability to diagnose and fix, cost of repair parts and short warranty, but some claims aren’t so valid or are half truths.

For example, he claims the internet is awash with claims of failing spike components, more than other manufacturers. I’d like to see the data on that. The fact is that stern makes multiples of any other manufacturer so of course they will have more reported problems. The true data showing stern has a higher percentage of problems is what’s needed to support that claim. I have owned many games over the years and found spike games to be no less reliable.

He says jjp makes a higher quality game , but I’m not sure that is entirely true. It’s true jjp puts more into their games and some things are better (power supply, for example), but jjp games have many issues too, just look at the potc and woz threads.

Schematics are available, contrary to his claim, though maybe only partially.

Onboard diagnostics do need to be improved. Node board X not found is not helpful.
Warranty is too short, would be great to have something along the lines what CGC has.

Resale value of a new spike game vs a bw game is not relevant. Games still being produced will not climb in value compared to games that are becoming rarer, ridiculous point. Spike games have held their value, but supply is a factor.

Laptop parts cost vs pinball parts cost, not valid. Laptops components are produced by the millions, stern parts by the thousands. economies of scale needs to be considered. That said, it is concerning that node boards are not compatible across games and the cost of the node boards is pretty high, including the CPU.

Personally, I do think stern cares about issues with their games, just like any other manufacturer., and would take steps to correct any that were widespread...how could they not. They have good people working there, but they are running a business and need to do things that makes them money and allows them to grow. Some things do need to be improved.

I may have missed some key posts along the way, but my impression was that JJP failures were pretty much always with individual parts of the game such as the phone screen in DI or the trough switches in Wonka or of course all the talk about playfields. I don‘t recall reading about the central hardware system in a JJP game breaking down. It‘s, of course, just a pc, which could break down, but I‘m guessing a pc is more robust than Spike.

Woz light boards have had plenty of issues, but that’s now been addressed in newer games. But you are generally correct on central hardware electronics, pretty reliable. Stern too, they had some node issues on earlier games, more reliable now.

i do not think my failed GOT premium node or JP pro Cpu board that the Speakers are controlled from will have been reported but think about it , they sell more than any other pin company ,so of course more reported problems .
But Everything he said in that video seemed truthful to me and agree that Stern is Price Gouging and the product we now get is a Costco Homepin with a coin door. Next the Playfields will be plastic or Formica or if they can pull it off pressed cardboard !!
And the Warranty is funny and the cost to replace stuff not so funny.
i do not want these new Versions anymore which suck because When Jaws is released this next year i will have to Holdout and not buy Inferior Cheap game that will be a ticking time bomb on my Funds ' Also disabled my shakers from spike games / Stern Shaker Ads coming soon !

"" and would take steps to correct any that were widespread...how could they not. "" Been years and the Power supply has not been improved on but yet raised prices . Raise prices to fix stuff !!!! no reason My Buddies Stranger Things sounds like a vacuum cleaner every 4 to 5 minutes when the sheety fan comes on .. How much are power supplies really . had just bought a 850 Gold PSU for my new desktop for 80 dollars . Part of the Led Zep pro price increase could have covered that cost

To be perfectly honest, the fan noise does not bother me and I’d suspect it’s the same for many others. I would, however, like to see a beefier power supply.

I’m not convinced a shaker causes board issues. How many components have failed on Roadshow or Earthshaker specifically due to a shaker motor?

I’m not defending stern, hardly as I’m pretty averse to the spike system for reasons mentioned, just trying to understand what’s really an issue and what’s not. Price increases are likely happening because input prices are rising, but demand is also very strong.

Electronics in the backbox on B/W machines, not on the playfield where vibration is amplified like spike is. Also B/W boards use much more robust through-hole tech with little or no surface-mount tech. Spike is almost all SMD, which is not super strong.

I'm really surprised there's no hard disk-style anti-vibration grommets used for board mounting spike node boards. Pretty cheap and it would isolate at least the vibration issue out of contention.

the node board system is horrible for lack of a better word. I recently had a friend have to place multiple orders for a total of 4 node boards to correct an issue with his star wars LE.

the lights indicated one thing about a board being good (which it wasn't), resulting in the purchase of 1 more board than he had to (but only after placing 4 separate orders each for an individual node board). the fact that each of these boards were unique to the game didn't help matters either.

plain and simple, stern really dropped the ball on rolling out the system without having a good diagnostic system in place within spike. as was pointed out, george himself stated that this is the case, yet there is still nothing on the horizon to correct this or help the operators / technicians.

That’s true, I was referring to things like eddy sensor or motor boards, but point noted. Agree on the grommets.

also the way they macgyvered in the caps on to the power in jacks on the nodes boards seems like we cost cut to much on them. also seeing that as an fix for the shaker motor also seems like they have power draw issues in the system.

Add the grommets. I did early on.

This is such garbage from an old head that is dumbfounded by all this "newfangled technology".... Give me a break. I was born in 1983, I can't tell you how many times throughout my life mechanics (amatures, shade tree & professional) have told me to stay away from those "new" cars. "You can't repair them yourself." "They are designed to fail." etc., etc.... Stuff breaks, things are more complex; adapt or die. This guy is obviously stuck in his glory days. The fact is, people like this are angry they can't bend owners over the barrel for repairs like they have over the last 30-years because they lack the ability, tools, skills to repair the newer machines. Most objective evidence is the part where he references the cost of the power supply, $300, etc.... Fact is, anyone intelligent can find the same exact power supply direct for around $30 and install it themselves. Since he likes subjective "facts", I can guarantee that this guy charges his customers that $300, plus a couple hundred "labor" to throw in one of those factory direct power supplies. Same thing with a node failure, he scoffs at the cost of a node board, but can anyone dispute that the cost to have a technician come and diagnose/repair a board on a system 11 would be 2x+ the cost of replacing a node board that the diagnostic menu tells you is fried?

Used to be concerned about all this. But I got all the right tools needed to make these repairs easier and have done a lot of research into it. That and stern seems like they are making an attempt to put out documentation. The main thing that's difficult with SMD components is figuring out the part numbers (they still have a ways to go with getting their docs sorted).

Had a board break the other day, and found out it was a faulty transistor. I was looking for the document and it wasn't listed. So I couldn't find the part number of the component. Tech support sent me the wrong schematic and hasn't gotten back to me about it (was a couple of months ago). The board was only 20 bucks, but still felt like a waste tossing the board for a 10 cent component.

I have every spike 2 title except for aerosmith and other than working out the NIB bugs they have been reliable. They are all on 13 hours a day, 7 days a week. The game breaking issues I've had were during the warranty periods and those were mainly with spike 1.

This is where all the manufactures are going. As long as they provide resources and your willing to learn, it shouldn't be a big deal. Just keep bothering stern to update their spike supported documentation, maybe even include it in the manual.

Excellent comments. As an EE, his original video was painful to watch. The 2nd video was worse. He doesn't back up comments with hard facts which is the first thing needed in any true engineering analysis of failures. While others might try to state numbers regarding failures, this guy doesn't. He just rambles on, mentioning failures, despite the fact I'm not seeing it in the Pinside threads. Like he says in his 2nd video: 'plenty of talk' despite being guilty himself of no hard data. He compares a cheap laptop that's likely made in the millions to the relatively low numbers of Spike 2 systems. This guy clearly has not been involved in the manufacturing world and the NRE involved in design. For example - where's his plots of MOSFET drivers SOA being exceeded (sorry for the techie comment) if these boards are junk? Is a certain device exceeding it's allowed junction temperature? If so, by how many degrees and for how long?

(Edited some of this text to clarify) His comments about Stern should put in a bigger power supply....he's doesn't realize the switching supply is sometimes the most efficient closest to maximin load (depending on the supply vendor and current needed). Put too big of a supply in a pin with extra current available...it can actually dissipate more power and potentially run hotter since it's oversized and not running at maximum efficiency. Would that cause in issue? Nope. Point being he probably doesn't even realize all the little details involved during the design.

While I'm not trying to defend Stern, their prices, and minimal documentation, like I said, it's just painful to watch this guy.

Sorry, I'd beg to differ. Case in point: When have you heard on Pinside of a SMD resistor or diode coming off a board as opposed to a leaded part?

I've used SMD in designs for 25+ years that are FAR more adverse than a pin. I'll take SMD any day over thru hole. No comparison w/respect to vibe issues. Any leaded part will have far greater resonance issues when compared to the equivalent SMD part. Plus its typically easier to wick the heat out of a part, given it's on a PWB, and if it's designed correctly - can provide for a decent thermal path as as opposed to the equivalent leaded part 'hanging in the air' that essentially has no thermal path other than some leads.