One thing to mention, the Node Board is showing a red light but not the green light like the rest.

Sounds like the diode from the service bulletin is your issue, then. If you have soldering skills you can likely fix it yourself.

haha, that is the challenge in itself for me. Im not very good but I guess at this point it couldnt hurt!

Thanks again for the help.. very appreciated.

Borygard here on pinside repairs node boards. Might want to see if he can do it for you, or if he has a swap service.

Its all good. I ordered another one.

I assume I will need to reinstall the code to program that new node?

It should automatically program the new node board when you power on. Just make sure the dip switch settings are right first.

Sounds good, thanks again!

This may have already been answered so my apologies for reposting. I’ve recently noticed that in the Triple Newton Ball feature, the ball is getting caught up at the gate (see photo with orange circle where ball is getting caught). Is there an easy fix for this? Thanks!

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Does the gate move freely with your hand? It looks like the lower wire for the gate might be close enough to the plastic that it binds. If that's it, bend it just a little to create some clearance.

Are you perfectly level side to side? What's your playfield pitch?

Have another issue with my machine. All of a sudden my left Scoleri Brother target will not stay up. Comes up and shoots right back down. Its not machine gunning... I took a quick look and I didnt see the drop ledge broken or anything out of the norm. When I do it manually to raise the target with my finger, it stays up.

Seems strange. Any ideas?

Try loosening the lock nuts on top of the plastic. I had a similar issue which was solved by loosening just one of those.

Thanks so much for the advice! That took care of the issue!

I have a NIB GB pro. #1 slimer does not appear to register at all, either by hand or ball. I've read some suggestions and I'll try those tomorrow.
#2 where does slimer come down for people cause mine appears off angle to every picture or video I've seen. Mine comes down directly over 3x where all others I've seen come down over the gozer/pop bumpers lane. Thoughts/suggestions? Even my air ball protector has a butt cut out over the gozer lane.

Pro slimer only goes up and down not left and right

Yes, I know. But if you had pro you wouldn't expect your slimer to block the left ramp as if some if the assembly parts were bent or out of wack. But before I go about tweaking, just thought I'd get a perspective where other pros were coming down on the playfield.

Sorry I didn't realise it was blocking the ramp. Sounds like you need to adjust the rod alignment.

Has anyone had issues with their plunger not performing very well out of the box (if you recall). The auto plunger seems to send the ball around most times relatively easily. A full manual plunge often gets caught somewhere preventing the ball going around smoothly.

Initially upon inspection the plunger appeared to hit the ball right of center. I tried adjusting the plunger (moved basically all the way left, and a little up) to get it what I thought was center but the ball seems to still struggle. I also don't like the fact that the plunger assembly is now covering a small portion of the artwork rather then staying inside the black box of the vinyl print.

Any suggestions?

What tests can I do to rule out certain things?

Is it better to hit the ball slightly higher?

I was under the impression that was just a bad design from the factory. It could be hitting the gate around that bend or other parts around there by Stay Puft.

Are they still putting a piece of mylar near the first gate orbit. Many have removed this as it would slightly airball and hit the gate

But then i would expect both manual plunge and auto plunge to have the same effect?

As in near stay puft? Wouldn't the ball from the shooter lane just land on the mylar. If I shot the right orbit from the flipper then that's a different situation.

Yes mine has this mylar here

Actually you might be right. The Mylar did cause orbit shot issues when I come to think of it. If you don't have a problem with orbits I'd leave it. My first le playfield was fine with it but the replacement one needed it removed.

I had a really tough time with my shooter lane.. right orbit ball guide was too high (or shooter lane ramp too low), either way I ended up filing down the right orbit ball guide
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnaU11PFIde/

I still had inconsistent ball launch issues, but after shimming up the left fork on the shooter lane ramp a bit it only happens occasionally.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnaVVvsF9PF/ (Watch the videos)

Interesting, I like that shim idea.

I'll take a close look. But I definitely get the sense there's some rattling going on. Mine could be doing the exact same thing.

Also see protector for right orbit.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sale-ghostbusters-airball-ampamp-right-orbit-protectors

Did stern change the design of node boards 8 and 9? I realize they are the same part number. Reason for asking. Error message: “node board 9 not found” on start up. Using diagnostics node 9 not initialized (Only led on is red=constant). So I look at the pdf file on sterns website to add a foam or whatever piece to lessen vibration on a diode so it wont break. Well neither of my node boards have the d9 shown on the photos on their pdf.

Marco doesn’t have these in stock. I imagine no one does and they all just order as needed from stern?

Only had this 3rd hand machine a few months, looked at the manual, looked in the back box, cabinet also.... so where do they hide the damn fuses? Are they inside the power supply... main board has all power leds as well as Rx Tx, etc all looking like they should.

Any thoughts or pointers regarding this appreciated.

Was the service kit done on your node boards before you got it? If not, the diode leg likely just broke off the board.

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stern-SB189.pdf
https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stern-SB190revB.pdf
https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stern-SB188.pdf

You can swap node 8 and 9 and just change the dip switches so 8 becomes a 9.

Also, if you don't have experience to try to fix the board, borygard here on pinside repairs these.

Can you take a clear picture of your node 9 board so I can see what you're talking about with D9 being missing?

Pic of node 9 and node 8. As you can see D9 does not look anything like what is pictured in sterns pdf file for securing the diode.

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C7EC193A-FD74-4DE0-9F4D-C3126E05D879 (resized).jpeg

I just had this problem and I needed a replacement board. I bought it from Pinball Life. https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-spike-2-node-board-520-5017-72.html

I dont think thats the right node board. It looks different as you have said..

EDIT - Actually, I think it is but looks like the diode broke off? It seems to be missing compared to this image.

Node 8 (resized).png

Perhaps you didn't realize that I posted pics of both node 8 board and node 9 board. Node 8 board has all leds functioning. I asked the question because node 8 board while looking identical is not having any issues or errors. If I am reading the printing on the boards correctly in the 2 two photos I posted, there is actually a component in the place marked as d9 on both boards as you can see. My photo is more closeup than others posted. Mine do not show anything to lead me to believe anything has broken off, which is why I asked.

Sorry, I did not realize they were pics of two different boards. That is strange that they look different.

Found in another post, Some boards had the D9 diode installed as surface mount... Either way still waiting for a new board to arrive. I bought 3 so I have spares from 3 different vendors. From what i have been reading it will be piece of mind. Lots of info in the thread "holy node board batman"

Definitely contact Borygard to see if he can fix your broken node board. He likely can...

Anyone know what Borygard charges to diagnose/repair a node board??

Probably depends on which node board. Send him a PM.

Ok something is driving me a little crazy on this machine. Almost every time when the ball comes out from the PKE ramp wireform, it has spin on it, hits the playfield and spins right into the outlane.

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

This design helped my right orbit shots. Thank you!

Does anyone know if there is a specific reason (whether it be game scenario/code) for a smooth right orbit shot to hit the gate at the left side because it is still closed thus wanting to go to pop bumpers?

I'm wondering if the switch by the right orbit gate is being missed at random times? But if other people experience this regularly I'll leave this be.

When I look top down behind stay puft it looks like switch hugs closer to the inside versus middle or outside of curve but doesn't look too bad... As my previous post suggests I also have the mod that tries to keep the ball from jumping when going into right orbit curve

IMG_20200127_105230 (resized).jpg

I've read in this forum people getting air balls cause of cliffys on scoleri drop target. But what if you don't have any cliffys? I really don't like having field goals and stay puft catching it in the belly.

Edit: I raised the right scoleri like 1/8th turn. Looks like two screws at the bottom dictate the height when he's at rest below playfield. Will see if that helps long term.

I couldn't figure out how to adjust the target left or right when looking top down as that appears to be the biggest problem at the moment but I can't be so sure. He's definitely off centered to the left. The gap on the right is double the gap on the left.

Ive never had that problem on my machine with the cliffys there but I do hear people say that..

Can you show a small video of it happening?

Funny enough, last night I gave it a wax and decided to check the level.. was far off. I guess when I moved and put them in after storage, I forgot to level. I am guessing maybe that was my issue.

If it keeps happening, I will put up a video..

I was researching my right orbit problem and came across this post (post number 2546) that may help you if you still have this problem.

Thanks. I just took a look. I will look into tweaking that if needed still..

Okay, I hope everyone understands my dilemma. Was playing a game and this comes on to the playfield and slides down to the bottom. I wish I could go back and watch carefully where it came from but all I know is it landed on right side about where right orbit starts and then slid down playfield.

I looked and search through entire manual looking for key words "black" and "spacer" and nothing matched what this is.

Someone please help me figure out where this goes or where the heck it came from...aaaaaa

IMG_20200225_234132 (resized).jpg

Is that a Pro or PREM/LE? I see it is an early playfield since you have the spelling error. Unfortunately this part is not described in the manual. It is a rubber sleeve part 545-5260-00. the Figure on page 31 of LE/PREM manual will give an overview of these posts but they are a bit hard to find since tehy are not indicated. I would start with that figure and see if all are still there. They are small black rounds on the drawing. When it came from the right it could be the ones below the ecto gogle.

I had a similar one do the same thing and it came from a mounting point under the ramp to stop the ball getting caught on the plastic. Still haven't fixed it as the whole ramp needs to come out.

Sorry,

PRO. Build date of July 2018.

Something I should have done from the beginning was describe it better... 1 1/4" long. Appears to be nylon vs rubber.

Can you elaborate? I get lost when you say to stop the ball getting caught on the plastic. Which plastic?