Quoted from Atari_Daze:But were you extending out your left hand to the sky while your right eye was closed and your right big toe crossed...
I keep expecting you to find the gremlin! I'm watching with much anticipation wishing I had input that would help.
I mean, let's look at what's not an exact science: My memory, and foolishness.
My memory: I'm claiming Future Spa didn't flash these lamps before the restoration. I don't REMEMBER them flashing, but maybe all Future Spa lamps have flashed this way and I didn't notice before? Doubt it.
Foolishness: Sometimes it's the stupidest things. If the lamp strobe or address lines are somehow getting impacted by noise, or the decoders impacted by noise, who knows? Just because the wiring is perfect, it doesn't mean there isn't noise. You know, like coming from the solenoid board (oh, first thing I did was unplug that sound board).
What is an exact science? What we actually know.
- We know that once we changed all the lower FUTURE SPA lamps to incandescents, they stopped blinking, why? Maybe because draw is higher?
- We know that when we swapped strobe lines, lamps that blinked in the past stopped blinking. One strobe holds them steady, the other...
- We know with the draw of only ONE SINGLE LAMP on the whole thing, we get blinking. This and the power draw idea are compatible. If there is some threshold related to power draw, people owning Future Spa would only notice it if they went full LEDs and had no older, nasty, power sucking sockets. [Edit: I don't think there are many examples of high end restorations like this of Future Spa.]
- We know the LDB SCR isn't the issue. If it's told to hold, it holds.
- We know the MPU isn't broken.
Things I haven't tried:
- Making a new, dedicated harness just for all the address and strobe lines, and any other necessary J1 pins to light it up. I doubt this makes any difference so I'm hesitating to bother.
- Taking all LEDs of any kind out of this game, putting all 44's, and seeing what happens, until the rectifier board (designed only for 10amps) melts or explodes.
- Building a faraday cage around the MPU and LDB boards.