Can some post pictures of front and back of one of the failed node boards?

My node 8 board failed last night mid game. GoT LE less than 100 plays. Now no flipper, slings or lower GI. Replacement board is ordered.

This is another reason I bought the last sam pin(twd) bc I didn't wanna deal with the new system until the kinks are workec out

When node 8 failed on my game, there were a few times it started working again, but then would ultimately fail once more. 3 coils were out on my pro and all of the coil connectors were on the same side of the board beside each other. Coils running from the other side of the board still worked. I was probably the first to post about node 8 failing here on pinside, but I've had my game longer than most too.

How do you know it's happening more frequently on the LE?

It seems the majority of failures are node 8 and that's mounted right beside the left flipper. That's the reason I am suspecting vibration. But, I could be wrong... I'm just guessing after all

Rob

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They did test SAM games on the SPIKE system. Lot's of software bugs. Also SPIKE seems to store what used to be in NVRAM on the sd card.

The flipper coils are often the most exercised coil on a game and are hard on the MOSFET drivers.

Other than the auto ball launch shooter coils, it was always the most common failure when we were operating pins. However, the most common reason for the failure were broken or failed doides. I always felt that if the moved the diodes off the coils onto adjoining terminal strips, they would have virtually eliminated electronic related failures completely.

I had to do that to prevent repeat failures of the shooter lane kicker on our T3's. Never had another failure.

Yeah it's weird the Kiss at 82 has been rock solid. Only thing different on GoT is they went back to the single winding coil (Not sure if they're using PWM or Deger) which was infamous for blowing out transistors in the early SAM days.

Are you not getting any awards at all? Mine was like this a few weeks ago and Stern's fix was to factory reset the machine. It worked for me. "Backstage Pass" was never lighting up for me before the factory reset. Now it lights up a good amount during play. I only get awards when I shoot the ball into the scoop and "Backstage Pass", "Extra Ball", "New Track" etc. are lit up, but I am assuming that is the correct way for it to work. Shooting the ball into the scoop with nothing lit up just shoots the ball back out.

Now I just have to figure out what exactly gets the "Backstage Pass" to light up.

I have had 2 spike games on route reset the lifetime play count that shouldn't reset. Nothing else reset so it wasn't a factory reset, just that. Yesterday WWE reported 16:20 avg ball time and 61:52 avg game time so there is some kinda memory leak or corrupt programming causing the play reset and these ball time figures.

I really hate the fan noise in the backbox but it doesn't seem to bother other people.

That is exactly what the problem is. It's easy to remove the scoop assembly to diagnose the switch closure and then adjust as needed.

Rob

I think it stores stuff that used to be in NVRAM on the SD cards file system so that part may have issues / file corruption.

Just to be clear a factory reset erases total number of plays?

It's too small.

I like my boardsets BIG. HUUUUUUGE.

It does reset the total plays, but underneath that it says Lifetime Plays with a separate counter that should never reset and that is what has reset on 2 of my spike games so far.

On my KISS Pro, regarding the "K", "I", "S","S" targets on the lower left, I noticed recently that the first three letters, "K","I","S", always seemed to be on during game play. The final “S” letter just needed a strike and the bonus was rewarded, but the first three letters remained lit throughout the game.

When I turned off the machine and restarted it, the “KISS” target LEDs behave normally in attract mode, all off, all on, light in sequence, etc. The targets are not lit after pressing start, but as soon as the ball is launched and activates the first roll-over switch out of the shooter lane, the first three letters light and remain lit throughout the game.

I reloaded factory code… wasn’t it. Still acting the same. Any thoughts as to what it might be? Is this a failed node board people reference?

Will they ever have a format SD and reload code mode? For a true factory reset?

I have the same issue with one of my Kiss machines... would love to know what it is and im feeling its a node fault

Has anybody experienced a volume spike in GOT? I swear I'm playing a game at a certain volume and every once in a while the volume will get louder for a second and then go back to normal. Weird.

So Stern heard your cries and did this with the S.A.M. System. May have neen too late for you though.

Just did a "Factory Reset"... Whew! Everything works. back to normal.

volume effects for some time stern games have had so that some modes can boost the volume for them it's a setting.

So is there a setting in the menu that can be adjusted? If so where do I find it? Thanks.

Check under stern settings or game settings. At least that is where it was on the older games.

This is not the issue as it is completely random when it happens. It almost always happens when no mode is running.

Well, they do expect Ghostbusters to cause a big Spike in sales...

I think that is one problem Stern will welcome with open arms!

I was repairing surface mount boards in the consumer electronics industry back in 1993, and at that time, most things were being made that way, at least by the better companies. I'm actually surprised it took Stern this long to do the same. It is not that hard to work on once you get a little experience, and although you can use stuff like the Hakko heat blowers to remove a complex IC, a fine-tipped soldering iron, good wick, some very fine single strand wire, and liquid solder flux is all you really need.

Anyone have high res pictures of the spike board? I saw someone asking about IDing chips, but I only found one photo not fully in focus on the goog image search showing the ARM Cortex M7 cpu in focus. Might as well start building up BOMs to see what will be irreplaceable.

That's great... I might try that... so a factory reset is that reloading the software via usb or just a factory reset in the menu without reloading usb again?

I reloaded the Factory Code first, thinking that would do it. It didn't. The next day, per suggestion, I found the Factory Reset in the menu and did it. It took a whole of 2 secs and it was back to normal. I wish I had I done that first... The Code reset takes about 30 minutes...

My KISS Pro failed last night. Won't boot up. Could be Node 8 (Flippers) causing problem with Node 0. Could be a problem on main (Node 0) causing problem at flippers. Could be SD card... I'll call Chas in the morning...
Anyone have something similar? Any thoughts?

I have a GOT LE that is not booting up. It has backbox LEDs out for 9V and 24V. Anyone seen this exactly? Emailed Stern but no idea how responsive their customer service is.

What happens if you disconnect the connectors from node 8?

Rob

Genius! Was emailing Stern tech support and thought I better check Pinside. Unplugged the Cat 5 cable... same issues. Unplugged all connectors to Node 8... Game boots up. Scores and settings are there. Looks like I need an new Node 8. Thank you again.

Just received my first spike, GOT premium, zero issues so far after ~40+games~

Game had newest code upon receive.

I assume you will play the crap out of it. That's what my family did... well they did because it was new and exciting. I did it to see if something was gonna fail before the official warranty was up (picked up in Mid-Feb 2016). Just checked my audits... says 143 total plays. Don't know if that included games before I loaded new code with Pinball Browser, then reloaded original code when a couple issues started. Good luck! I want the Spike system to succeed. Otherwise GB might have to wait!

The best part, if you have something fail, hash it out with your distributor before contacting Stern. I can normally fix most normal issues that F up gameplay, but if you have switch/opto errors that cant be resolved with simple troubleshooting, your Distrib should have your back!

Agreed! Should have clarified. Contacted my distributor first... he put me in touch with Stern Tech and asked them to help and get me what I needed. Everyone has been very helpful, polite and easy to deal with... contrary to some others unusual horror stories.

Got a new Node 8 board today from Stern. Installed it and game booted right back up. Played it hard... banged on the flippers. First noticed the lower GI bulbs had a slight flicker with each pulse. This increased as play continued until one of my original problems...

Right flipper-dead, left flipper in spasm-then drops dead, lower GI (2 bulbs under each sling, 2 on each side in front of the apron) all go out for a second. Then game returns to normal. Power loss became more frequent with continued game play and flipper use. Finally, game cut out and won't boot past the Stern logo. Similar to previous video I posted.

For those with Node 8 failures, was is just a Node 8 failure or did you find a different cause forcing Node 8 to fail?

Same thing happened to me a few days ago. My lower gi was flickering, then going out for some period of time after each flipper hit. I assumed it was a loose connector, reseated all connectors no change and a game or so later, all flippers dead. This will be the fourth node 8 board my game gets.

Stern tech thinking its a coil issue causing a Node 8 failure. Proper coil resistance measured on all coils connected to Node 8. Coils test OK in Diagnostics menu. Same thing started happening during game play. After flips, lower GI would flicker then finally turn off and flippers dead. A second later it would everything returns. Unplugged left flipper (CN 5).

Played many games with just right flip and glass off to keep activating auto plunge. Wanted to see if problem would return (rule out trough, auto plunge and right flip... nothing... looked like it isolated to left flipper. Plugged left flip back in and left flipped during game play. Got the lower GI and flips to go out. After this though, the right flipper was now able to cause the issue... maybe the left coil stressed the board?

I think I'll change left flipper coil for sure. Hard to belive with such a new game. Anyone have a flipper coil fail on a new spike game? How did you isolate it to determine that coil?

Is stern taking in the failed components and doing any sort of post mortem analysis on them?

Yeah, you are required to send in your dead node boards to get replacements for them. They actually had me send back my entire GOT LE machine for analysis after it blew three node 8s in the span of two weeks, too, and replaced it with another NIB. The new one has been fine (on location no less) with no issues for the last couple of months.