(Topic ID: 251400)

***SOLVED*** GBLE Node Board 9 issue (hint: reseat Ethernet cables!)

By VolunteerPin

4 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 47 posts
  • 13 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by dutchi
  • Topic is favorited by 3 Pinsiders

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

Screen Shot 2020-02-28 at 12.28.29 PM (resized).png

#1 4 years ago

EDIT: Fix on post #14

I put my GBLE on location about 6 weeks ago. I think I have a Node Board 9 issue but not sure where to go from here. I went to the location at lunch today and took a corresponding working board out of IMDN but the board failed the update process. I know it is a working board as I put it back in IMDN and all is well. (yes, I checked the DIP switches and they were actually the same on both pins which was a nice little surprise).

I can take a video tomorrow if needed of all the technician alerts I'm getting. Basically it looks like the upper playfield is dead and node 9 is not initialized.

After this, I am second guessing a bad node board and maybe some other connection type issue or possibly a fuse? As it was lunchtime, I did not have the time to investigate further. I am second guessing myself on one thing: are the cat5 cables interchangeable? If not, maybe I transposed the cables (both black) when I put the IMDN board in?

Oddly, the manual is pretty silent on fuses and their locations. There is NOT a fuse on this node board. The board has the red power indicator light on so it is at least getting power.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I don't really want to pull the game from the lineup and move it home so I am hoping for a relatively easy fix. Where should I start looking next?

(also, I did NOT put the GBLE node board into IMDN to see if it worked. That would have been ideal but time just didn't allow. My assumption is now that the board is good since the pin acts exactly the same with its original node 9 board and the IMDN board)

#2 4 years ago

Are we sure those are the same Node boards? Those games came out way part from each other so I'm skeptic. (?)
I know for example GOT and GB used diff'rent node boards.

And they are different Spike versions

#3 4 years ago

The IMDN board 520-7017-72 is used as a replacement for the GBLE board according to pinballlife.com

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-spike-2-node-board-520-5017-72.html

#4 4 years ago
Quoted from VolunteerPin:

took a corresponding working board out of IMDN

Node 9 in Ghostbusters (Premium)-le is part number 520-6985-72. Try swapping it with node 8. It's the same board but the dip switches are different.

#iron-maiden-legacy-of-the-beast-premium-le uses part number 520-7017-72 at nodes 8 & 9. Marco says this is the replacement for the GB part number so it should have worked. Suspect something wrong with the signal pathway. Either the upstream board isn't sending it or it's not getting to the board for some other reason.

#5 4 years ago

Yeah, might need to switch out 8 and 9 to see what happens. What about the Ethernet cables. Does their order matter? As I recall it doesn’t matter but it’s been a couple years since I had to deal with a node issue.

#6 4 years ago

Bump for clarification on the Ethernet cords. Does it matter if the cords are switched? I do not think that is my problem. Just curious and need to bump.

#7 4 years ago

Why do you think your board is malfunctioning. I have a gb Prem and I’m having a few issues and wanted to see if it’s the same as your problem?

#8 4 years ago

Entire upper playfield out of whack. I’ll take a video of my technician alerts and make a list.

#9 4 years ago
Quoted from VolunteerPin:

Entire upper playfield out of whack. I’ll take a video of my technician alerts and make a list.

Thanks, when I turn my game on the dmd has the stern logo and nothing else happens. The logo is just stagnant and not moving...weird.

#10 4 years ago

Here is a current list of my technician alerts. I'm guessing a lot of these are node 9 issues but I need to research and do more testing. Next thing I'll do is swap 9 and 8 and see what happens. Hopefully I'll get to this later this week. I pulled this pin from the location so at least I can troubleshoot in the comfort of my own home.

Node board 9 not initialized
switch 7 left sling
switch 8 right sling
switch 9 up post opto
switch 27 light lock "L"
switch 28 light lock "R"
switch 35 spinner
switch 36 captive ball
switch 40 drop target "L"
switch 41 drop target "R"
switch 42 ghost target
switch 49 left bumper
switch 54 left orbit
switch 55 right orbit
switch 56 (P)KE
switch 57 P(K)E
switch 58 PK(E)
switch 61 subway lock 1 (BOT)
switch 62 subway lock 2
switch 63 subway lock 3
switch 77 pop bumper lane
switch 91 left ramp 1
switch 95 gozer target

whew. Hopefully i can get this baby up and running not too long after new code drops (hopefully)

#11 4 years ago

I don't know what's going on man...the "switch" errors you're getting do not match the switch numbers from the manuals (LE or Pro). But from looking up their names they seem to be coming from multiple node boards...8, 9, 10 at least

#12 4 years ago

Yeah, its a mess for sure.

#13 4 years ago

Maybe the bad node board messes up communication with other nodes, causing errors to show up on those also.

I am quite happy to own only WPC games...

#14 4 years ago

****SOLVED****

Had some time this morning to do more troubleshooting and I now have a fully functioning pin!

So, I switched out node boards 8 and 9 (same board, just different pins) and I had the same effect: node board 9 still not initializing but node 8 was fine. This was critical information to know that my actual board was fine. Thus it had to be a communication error.

So, I simply reseated all the ethernet cords I could find, including the backbox. Lo and behold, simply reseating the ethernet cables solved the node board 9 issue and it initialized without a hitch.

So, for posterity's sake I would recommend the following steps when troubleshooting widespread errors on a spike system:

1. In the menu under diagnostics, make sure all node boards are working properly.
2. If you have a board/boards not initialized, then FIRST reseat all ethernet cables! (Had I done that step first, it would have saved me a few hours of headache and I would not have had to pull a game from location.
3. If that doesn't work, switch out node boards if possible with another board on your pin (I'm guessing that like my GBLE, spike games use the same board at a couple of different node locations). If the actual board is bad game behavior will change and diagnostics will show a difference in what node location is not initialized.

Anyhow, take home message is first reseat all ethernet cables when starting to diagnose possible node board issue!

#15 4 years ago

It's a double edged sword on this one. Great it's such an easy fix but you hate that it took this long for such an easy fix!
But anything involving not replacing node boards is great.

#16 4 years ago

Agreed. This is why I posted a some what lengthy explanation. I learned something. Check the Ethernet cables first!

#17 4 years ago
Quoted from VolunteerPin:

****SOLVED****
Had some time this morning to do more troubleshooting and I now have a fully functioning pin!
So, I switched out node boards 8 and 9 (same board, just different pins) and I had the same effect: node board 9 still not initializing but node 8 was fine. This was critical information to know that my actual board was fine. Thus it had to be a communication error.
So, I simply reseated all the ethernet cords I could find, including the backbox. Lo and behold, simply reseating the ethernet cables solved the node board 9 issue and it initialized without a hitch.
So, for posterity's sake I would recommend the following steps when troubleshooting widespread errors on a spike system:
1. In the menu under diagnostics, make sure all node boards are working properly.
2. If you have a board/boards not initialized, then FIRST reseat all ethernet cables! (Had I done that step first, it would have saved me a few hours of headache and I would not have had to pull a game from location.
3. If that doesn't work, switch out node boards if possible with another board on your pin (I'm guessing that like my GBLE, spike games use the same board at a couple of different node locations). If the actual board is bad game behavior will change and diagnostics will show a difference in what node location is not initialized.
Anyhow, take home message is first reseat all ethernet cables when starting to diagnose possible node board issue!

Quoted from VolunteerPin:

****SOLVED****
Had some time this morning to do more troubleshooting and I now have a fully functioning pin!
So, I switched out node boards 8 and 9 (same board, just different pins) and I had the same effect: node board 9 still not initializing but node 8 was fine. This was critical information to know that my actual board was fine. Thus it had to be a communication error.
So, I simply reseated all the ethernet cords I could find, including the backbox. Lo and behold, simply reseating the ethernet cables solved the node board 9 issue and it initialized without a hitch.
So, for posterity's sake I would recommend the following steps when troubleshooting widespread errors on a spike system:
1. In the menu under diagnostics, make sure all node boards are working properly.
2. If you have a board/boards not initialized, then FIRST reseat all ethernet cables! (Had I done that step first, it would have saved me a few hours of headache and I would not have had to pull a game from location.
3. If that doesn't work, switch out node boards if possible with another board on your pin (I'm guessing that like my GBLE, spike games use the same board at a couple of different node locations). If the actual board is bad game behavior will change and diagnostics will show a difference in what node location is not initialized.
Anyhow, take home message is first reseat all ethernet cables when starting to diagnose possible node board issue!

Thanks for posting the fix.

4 months later
#18 4 years ago

Unearthing this post because as the new owner of this same pin I've run into the exact same issue. However I've reseated all ethernet cables and even one by one tested swapping a different ethernet cable in and I still consistently get a Node 9 board failure. Doesn't seem to be board if swapping 8 and 9 (which I did again just to be sure) still throws an issue with Node 9. Anyone have any ideas on where I might look?

#19 4 years ago

make sure the ethernet cables actually click in. also, check to see if yours has had the service bulletin update installed.

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stern-SB189.pdf

#20 4 years ago

I took a board from a different pin with the same part number and put it in (make sure you use the right dip switch positions) to help me realize that it was NOT my board going bad which I have had happen before. As I recall, you do need to make sure you update the correct dip switches which, if not done could throw you off.

I have since sold my GBLE so that is about as much help as I'll be able to be.

#23 4 years ago

LOL, just realized I sold it to you. As I recall I did all the ethernet cables I could find and it fixed my issue. I do think it is more of a communication issue than a board issue.

#24 4 years ago

Yeah, all the cables click in for sure. Service bulletin has not been installed, but I feel like if it was any hardware issue on the board swapping 8 and 9 and changing dip switch should have shown 8 out, no? Maybe a particular mod is drawing too much power? I think I read someone else had an issue randomly with a particular LED not playing nice and causing a node to fail. VolunteerPin Do you remember what if any mods tap into boards on the underside of the PF?

#25 4 years ago

I don't think I had any electric mods on there...

As per out texts, I'd try taking a fresh ethernet cable and one-by-one bypass existing ethernet cables in the pin and see if you can isolate a bad cable somewhere.

#26 4 years ago
Quoted from timmmmyboy:

Yeah, all the cables click in for sure. Service bulletin has not been installed, but I feel like if it was any hardware issue on the board swapping 8 and 9 and changing dip switch should have shown 8 out, no? Maybe a particular mod is drawing too much power? I think I read someone else had an issue randomly with a particular LED not playing nice and causing a node to fail. volunteerpin Do you remember what if any mods tap into boards on the underside of the PF?

The fix is for both boards 8&9, so I wouldn’t rule it out.

#27 4 years ago

My plan is to replace all ethernet cables to rule that out (I have a handful here that might be enough). Given I swapped 8 and 9 and with all switches/lights/etc disconnected from the node boards 8 boots and 9 doesn't still I have to believe it is not the board but a communication issue. Just odd it wouldn't be a single ethernet connection (since I've already gone one by one with a spare cable through every connection). This is definitely a curious one.

1 week later
#28 4 years ago

Well I went one further and bought a replacement node board from Cointaker and pulled all my spare ethernet cables I had and ran everything with them. Neither fixes the issue. Unless anyone has any ideas my next step is going to be top to bottom reseating every cable I can see. If it's not the Cat5 or the board itself I can't think of what the issue might be.

#29 4 years ago

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, just seems the right place to keep working through my thoughts on this since it's the same machine. I wondered about power draw as one explanation of the board not booting and why switching boards wouldn't fix it so broke out the multimeter and checked power on the node board. When the power connector is plugged in I'm only reading 5v there where it should be 48 right? Node 8 has a full 48v when plugged in. If I unplug the power connector and read it I get 43v coming out of the connector. So it sounds like something is drawing too much power. Am I on the right path with that line of thinking?

#30 4 years ago

If you are reading the led flasher output, stern spike leds are 5v

#31 4 years ago
Quoted from titanpenguin:

If you are reading the led flasher output, stern spike leds are 5v

I was reading CN6 which I think is power to the board itself.

Screen Shot 2020-02-28 at 12.28.29 PM (resized).pngScreen Shot 2020-02-28 at 12.28.29 PM (resized).png
#32 4 years ago

Ah but Node 9 is all LED control so it makes sense that it's lowering it to 5v when connected. Well there goes that idea.

#33 4 years ago

So now some node boards actually work on different games? Good to know. Also, this is where shaker motors are really going to start screwing with games.

#34 4 years ago

Ugh, I swear I took I swapped out every ethernet cable and had no change, but just now I decided to hook nothing but Node 9 to the CPU and it booted it, so then I worked backwards from there and sure enough the cable between 8 and 9 was the culprit. Maybe the new Node board was necessary as well, who knows. Whole thing boots now so it definitely was a communication issue but no idea where in the process of troubleshooting by replacing all ethernet cables I screwed up unless one of my cables was unreliable and I didn't catch it. Crazy, but glad to see that playfield light back up!

#35 4 years ago
Quoted from timmmmyboy:

Ugh, I swear I took I swapped out every ethernet cable and had no change, but just now I decided to hook nothing but Node 9 to the CPU and it booted it, so then I worked backwards from there and sure enough the cable between 8 and 9 was the culprit. Maybe the new Node board was necessary as well, who knows. Whole thing boots now so it definitely was a communication issue but no idea where in the process of troubleshooting by replacing all ethernet cables I screwed up unless one of my cables was unreliable and I didn't catch it. Crazy, but glad to see that playfield light back up!

Glad to hear your game is up and running.

#36 4 years ago
Quoted from timmmmyboy:

Ugh, I swear I took I swapped out every ethernet cable and had no change, but just now I decided to hook nothing but Node 9 to the CPU and it booted it, so then I worked backwards from there and sure enough the cable between 8 and 9 was the culprit. Maybe the new Node board was necessary as well, who knows. Whole thing boots now so it definitely was a communication issue but no idea where in the process of troubleshooting by replacing all ethernet cables I screwed up unless one of my cables was unreliable and I didn't catch it. Crazy, but glad to see that playfield light back up!

I though you swapped out all the ethernet cables before?

#37 4 years ago
Quoted from pinballaddicted:

I though you swapped out all the ethernet cables before?

I did! That's what I can't figure out, I disconnected every single cable and ran my own. Maybe one of my own happened to be bad. I also did all that before I got a new node board, but I still think the issue feels very much like a communication one like VolunteerPin said so I must have missed something when testing all the cables. Crazy, but very glad to be playing it again.

#38 4 years ago
Quoted from timmmmyboy:

I did! That's what I can't figure out, I disconnected every single cable and ran my own. Maybe one of my own happened to be bad. I also did all that before I got a new node board, but I still think the issue feels very much like a communication one like volunteerpin said so I must have missed something when testing all the cables. Crazy, but very glad to be playing it again.

It is awesome that you found the issue. Great game, I am sure you will have fun with it.
Great work.

#39 4 years ago

if these cables are that glitchy already, what's it going to be like in 10 years when they start to get a little chime on them? Hope this is not going to be a huge issue down the road.

#40 4 years ago
Quoted from CaptainNeo:

if these cables are that glitchy already, what's it going to be like in 10 years when they start to get a little chime on them? Hope this is not going to be a huge issue down the road.

Do you have a game with a cable issue too?

#41 4 years ago
Quoted from pinballaddicted:

Do you have a game with a cable issue too?

no, not yet. but i always watch tech threads like this, because eventually i'm going to run into it. None of my spike games have shakers in them.

#42 4 years ago

Glad to see you're up and running again. Is everything back to normal?

#43 4 years ago
Quoted from VolunteerPin:

Glad to see you're up and running again. Is everything back to normal?

Yep, perfectly smooth playing now. Can't believe in the end it was just a Cat5 cable, swear I went through every cable originally. But glad to be back at it and put up a high score of 385m just this week.

#44 4 years ago

Yeah, crazy. Frustrating but simple fix. Glad I had figured that out before. Enjoy and hope the opening hours great.

1 year later
#45 2 years ago

I bought a GB LE about a year ago and right out of the box it had issues finding nodes 8/9/24. I spent most of the day before finally finding the culprit was poorly seated cat5 cables.
The shaker motor throws the connections loose periodically, I notice after a few people get multiball the game soon fails.
Last night, fed up I used small zip ties to secure them in. I hope this will correct the issue.

#46 2 years ago

Just be thankful you dont get the “Subway Lock Up Malfunction “ This issue has beeen haunting myself and Spida1 (Chris Bucci) We both have GB-Premiums with the same issue. Tried everything, still get the alert and game start up, and the Subway Lock Up coil fires 3-6 times, it screws up game play if the subway doesn’t divert the ball to the VUK. Stern has been 0 help !!! Game seems to work perfect after the 1-2nd game played (10-ball games) Maybe something needs to be warmed up ? IDK its just weird!!! I also bought a new node board/coil- nothing changed!!! What causes the diverter coil to continuously fire at strart up ? and sometimes during a game?

1 year later
#47 1 year ago

Thanks for posting! Reaseat all the ethernet cables… and done, thanks VolunteerPin saved me a lot of time, thanks so much

Promoted items from the Pinside Marketplace
$ 27.95
Playfield - Protection
SilverBall Designs
Protection
$ 9.00
Cabinet - Other
Mooshue's Market
Other

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gble-node-board-9-issue?hl=archon9000 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.