Seem to have created a problem with my GB LE. When i turn the game on it gives an error that it can't locate pinballs (with 6 balls loaded). Removing and re-adding the balls makes no difference to the switch tests - trough 1 through 6 are active whether the balls are in or note. Have checked all connections on the trough board and other boards (can't find any lose connections anywhere). Power cycled the game at one point and got an error that said something about a node board update but haven't been able to get that error again. Suspect I may have a dead node board (/) but not sure how to troubleshoot further from here. Any advice gratefully received,

Thanks

Thanks northvibe - board swapping could be the go - not sure how to tell which are interchangeable?
Can’t see/find any broken wires or contact points....

thanks mate - the distributor offered to send some replacement ball trough balls as a first troubleshooting test. So i'll try that and move onto nodes from there if i have to (based on a couple of things i did while i was on the phone he thought the trough boards the more likely culprit). But more than that I'm not convinced i won't create new problems moving the boards around. I'll update back in case the info ends up being useful to anyone in the future....
thanks for the photos - will be very useful if/when i have to go to the next step....

the plot thickens (or i'm too thick to work it out?)

replaced the trough boards and that problem went away. Game recognises balls and puts them into play as normal. Most everything seems to be working normally, except
- the VUK on the subway (on the right) doesn't fire. This holds true in test mode and in game play. error comes up on screen during game play saying "operator alert! subway eject device malfunction"
- a bunch of the lights are always on (never turn off) lower and mid-left side of the playfield (as per the attached pic)
(can't find any lose connections anywhere)

any ideas? in the meantime i'm gonna report back to the distributor as well....

IMG-6236 (resized).JPG

didn't think it was possible but i'm more confused

replacement node board arrived today. Before i installed it was looking through the menu, found the node board test function and noticed that there was an error on the node board i was about to replace (number 8). Seemed encouraging.

Replaced the node board and at first the lights that were previously stuck on weren't on anymore. Tested the subway eject thinking it might be all fixed but no luck - subway eject still not working. Power cycled and now the problem lights are flickering a bit. This time get a node updating message and then an error saying node update failed. Tried power cycling 5 or 6 more times with the same result (node update failed).

Leave it off for a couple of hours. Turn it back on and no more node board update error. First time though i get the original locating pinballs error. Power cycle again. This time no locating pinballs error but back to the same lights being stuck on and the subway eject not working. So basically back to where i started.... (with new node board and new trough boards installed...)

so very confused....

(also yep, checked all connections with particular focus on the ethernet - seems all good)

i'm runnining 1.13. Trying to reinstall 1.13 leads to update failed. So far no luck finding earlier versions of the code...

OK got a clean install of 1.13 loaded but no change...

tried putting a blank sd card in (with a view to installed code onto a new sd card) but the machine hangs on the stern logo with the blank sd card inserted. Not sure if that is related... might by trying a 3rd SD card just in case...

so if i understand correctly, if i want to try a new SD card i have to clone the old SD card onto it? (if the SD card is the problem this might just replicate the issue i'm thinking?)

I was hoping if i had a blank SD card inserted and a usb stick with the code on it ready for install it would just install the code from the usb onto the sd card (sounds like there is no base operating system to allow this with a blank SD card?)

Tried replacing the Ethernet that runs to node 8 with a new cable. Back to the node update failed problem. NFI what’s going on...

Bit more info, just in case... with old cable it sometimes boots up (lights stuck on / subway vuk doesn’t work) and sometimes goes to node update and fails. With new cable it always goes to node update and fails. Make me think maybe 2 problems? The old cable has an intermittent fault but also the board won’t take an update for some reason....

I haven’t - maybe I should - even from Australia...

believe it or not this issue is ongoing. Been working with the distributor and a local tech but no luck yet. Figure i'll post here in case anyone can see something we are missing.

Have solved some associated problems with lights not working and coil that had burnt out. Remaining issue us the ball search / trough problem. Distributor has (kindly) provided 2 additional trough node boards and replacement trough boards.

No matter which node board i install at node 8 (of the 3 i have) the same thing happens:
- with one set of trough boards, in the ball trough test, it sees all balls as present and can't tell when a ball is not in the trough
- with the other set of trough boards, it sees all balls as absent and can't tell when a ball is present.

any ideas.....

i realise i never posted the final solution to this issue (which is now troubling another pinsider). In case it helps anyone else in the future, the solution ended up being a new set of trough boards in combination with a new node board. I'm not sure if some of the replacement parts i was sent along the way were coincidentally also faulty, but i ended up with multiple trough boards and multiple node boards and after trying different combinations of the replacement parts it eventually started working again....

Just an additional piece of info, before getting everything working, there was an sequence of events that seemed like a clue (not sure if it was actually that helpful in the end), but i'll post it in case it helps someone else work out whats happening
- i put a new node board in and it solved the lighting problem i was having
- then i went through and tested all the coils (via the menu)
- at the end of that the lighting problem was back
- power cycling didn't fix it, but putting in another node board in did
This made me think that one of the coils was shorting the node board. In the end, as per the above, i just seemed to get lucky with the right combination of node boards and trough boards for everything to work, but i still wonder if part of the reason it took so long to solve (and that in the end the working solution seemed like something i had already tried was that some cable was lose or not connected to the node board properly so that a coil firing would short each new node board that i tried.