no.... no schematics available to my knowledge.

Perhaps in the cloud somewhere? Or on some magical island?

go complain to stern. they've said they'd be releasing them for ages, never have

What happened such that it broke? Maybe someone figured out a fix already. Or at the very least you can maybe prevent someone else messing up.

FYI, I've read reports of PWM controllers frying Spike node boards even when hooked up correctly. I'm pretty sure Spike uses PWM to control the shaker as is, putting another one in the loop probably causes things to let out the smoke. So I wouldn't hook it up to a new node board without doing some checking and verification first.

I have people that are holding off on new stern pinball purchases until schematics are provided.

Gomez promised that schematics, documentation etc would be released very soon for Spike at Expo 2017. Judging by his body language and manner of speaking at the time, he was being at best economical with the truth ... and so it's proved.

4 years in January since the first Spike machine hit the market. It's inexcusable.

They don't want you to repair them. They want to gouge you hundreds for node boards that probably cost them less than $5 a pop, and $700-1000 for an MPU board (depending on Spike 1 or 2) that likely costs $40-70.

So for grins and giggles I just decided to add up what it costs just for the node boards and power supply in a Stern game if you were to buy them from Marco. This is for a Deadpool Pro. Node 8b, 8c, 9a and 9b are game specific and only BM66 is currently for sale, so these are just BM66 prices.

Node0 $899 (CPU)
Node1 $195 (cabinet)
Node8 $289 (48V core driver)
Node8a $145 (trough)
Node8b $195
Node8c $195
Node9 $289 (48V core driver)
Node9a $195
Node9b $195
Power S. $189 (power supply)
--------
Total $2,790 or roughly 1/2 of the game cost.

Pretty sure that comfortably exceeds what it costs Stern to build an LE.

There isn't an intensity setting, but on Ghostbusters there definitely are different intensity levels of shaker use. It is pretty noticeable, and it is obvious that it isn't due to just turning the shaker on and off, it rotates at different speeds. (Edit: Yeah, I know PWM is basically turning the shaker on and off, but I mean the shaking is different than past use where it was obvious a transistor was turning the shaker on/off on a longer cycle.)

You can't use a PWM controller on spike. Kills node boards dead, even if wired as they're supposed to be.

Pinball life shaker motors are the only ones people should be buying. The red tremor/cointaker ones are extremely unpleasant.

probably dont want people selling aftermarket versions as it sounds like they make quite a bit of profit from selling them there self.

Throw away technology. Thank you American capitalism and society.

I bought a 24 with a cointaker shaker and I thought maybe it was just the game, I had a feeling it was the shaker itself. That thing is at least X2 output of a regular shaker. Almost shakes the damn house, every time it goes off. PBL or Stern brand is the way to go, think stern's are 100 bucks now as well.

can't you just adjust it? change the counterweight so its not so off set and it wont be so violent?

If it is a Cointaker Red Tremor, it won't help. I had one in an Avatar (SAM) and even after adjusting the weights it was ridiculous. I had to get a PWM controller and dial it way down so that it was even remotely reasonable.

NEVER put a PWM on Spike.... You will fry the node board!!!

I've said that above (post #9) and we've been discussing this. Should have clarified for people that haven't read the entire thread, this was in an Avatar. I just edited the post.

Cointaker has shaker for spike games that is not a red tremor. I use it in all my spike games without issue.

Nope. You CAN adjust the offsets, but it's still an unpleasant shaking. If you have one of the Cointaker/Red Tremors, get a Pinball Life or Stern shaker, you'll be much happier.

Yes, it's unfortunate, but it's like that: we can only manufacture disposable! Excessive consumption and programmed obsolescence are on the menu. Pinball machines do not escape : boards are not intended to be serviced, but to be replaced (as long as they exist and are produced...), so it is not surprising that the schematics are not published.
This is not specific to Stern, everyone does the same. Try to find the schematics for Heighway Pinball ... it's simply not repairable!

Not every manufacturer has this idea.

Our electronics are almost all made with through hole parts and we supply a printed service manual with each machine that includes schematics and PCB layouts.

manual (resized).png

JJP stuff is all exhaustively documented too.

Literally the BEST manuals in pinball. No one even comes close.