<I am sorry for such a frantic post but my son's 6th birthday party is in a few hours and one thing he specifically said is that he wants to play pinball with his friends. >

This morning when I turned it on my Judge Dredd, the ColorDMD screen didn't work and two ball return solenoids started firing (Sniper and Subway). This happened once before when I tried to install some LED strips (which have been removed) but I changed F115 and F114 and it seemed to fix it. However today it did not (I have changed those fuses twice already). The machine had been fine from what I recall when I turned it off last night.

I have been told this issue can be caused by a 12V fuse being blown. Are all fuses on the power board 12V (F101 - F116)? Should I change them all? Is there anything else I that I should look at? Since the cDMD screen is out, going into test just causes things to go black for a moment before sounding right, but since I can't see anything it is not helpful.

This is my first pin so I please be specific if you recommend something - I have a lot to learn.

Thank you for your patience with my questions.
Frantic Father

BOOM! F116 was the fix! THANK YOU!! And a shout out to Randy at ColorDMD who also responded. SHEW!! Now I just have ten 6 year olds to deal with...

Hmm...have never looked at that. It just blew again. I will figure out how to lower brightness next...

My sincerest thanks for your help. I lowered the brightness and contrast and my son had family and friends playing in no time. SHEW! JD lasted all day with 4 players at a time back to back but at sometime once everyone left it had blown again when I went to turn it off for the night. Would a Rottendog power board address this once and for all? Thanks

The LED strips were removed the first time this happened (which was when I first tried to install the strips). It has happened 3 times without any LED strips installed.

The original brightness was the default (5?). I lowered to 2 and didn't blow fuse again till late last night when no one was playing.

I will check TP1 voltage as soon as I can.

I will research adding the 12v power supply for the ColorDMD. Is there a kit available for this? Is this the root of the issue?

I have only had the JD for 2 months now, so I still have a lot to learn. In that time I have gone all LED, added ColorDMD, LEDOCD board, GIOCD board, and Pinnovators Audio out board which feeds a powered sub.

Thank you all for your thorough responses.

I am really not slacking on replying - I just have little time to actually work on my pin.

- Ok, I have to also admit <heavy sigh> I don't know how to check voltage across TP1. I have a multi-meter, a JD manual, and even found TP1, but there are no exposed pins so I assume I have to use a schematic in the manual to find the connector pins to test it? I hate to be that newbie that asks an obvious question but it is taking me time to figure out how to properly check voltage across TP1 (machine on\off?, where to put the multi-meter leads?, even what setting to put the multi-meter on?). As soon as I figure that out I will post the voltage.

- As far as power draw for LEDOCD and GIOCD boards, here is what I found: "The boards themselves do use a little bit of power, but it is minuscule compared to how much power the lamps themselves use. The boards also pull their power from the same source as the lamps, so it's not like you're adding extra load on your already stressed 12V source. On default settings, the lamps are very slightly dimmer and will use a small amount less power, so that also offsets the power used by the board."

So since I changed out any remaining incandescent bulbs to all LED bulbs I would think that compensates for the minuscule amount of draw from these two boards - ?

- The Pinnovators board taps off of the audio connections to allow connector out to a powered sub so I do not see how it is drawing power - ?

Please keep in mind that this issue didn't present itself until I added a connector to 3 LED strips to either J116, J117, or J118 on the power board. I admit that I shorted something out in doing so which blew fuses F115 and F114 initially I think. Since then I removed the LED strips and have had issues with F116 blowing during times of non-play. I am in NO way blaming LED strips or ColorDMD or any other boards for this issue - I hope in my haste to open my original post I didn't imply that. All involved mod's have been great to work with and very supportive. I just want to get to the root cause for longevity's sake and based on what everyone has said I am not convinced adding a 12v power supply is the root cause but just a band-aide. However, feel free to correct me if I am wrong - I will be the first to admit I have a lot to learn.

Thanks again for your replies. This community is great.

Ok, I am not trying to be difficult. Is there a source to learn how to choose a 12v power supply, how to wire in things like the ColorDMD and LED strips to it, and how to add a switch to it so I can turn it on and off gracefully? I will search as well. Thank you

Please clarify where I should connect my red meter lead to? The capacitor is mounted flushly to the board - do I need to access the back of the board?

Ok, I understand. I just want to do the right thing so thank you for reiterating. Is this what I need to get? https://www.amazon.com/Switching-Cabinets-Including-Upright-Cocktail/dp/B00F1YQDBA

Thank you

Thank you for the pics and detail. 13.44v across TP1. So it seems to check out.

I found a posting about adding an external power supply and assume I should follow that next: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/suggestions-on-external-12v-power-supply

I plan to connect just the ColorDMD to the external power supply in hopes that the other mods can benefit from being controlled by the powerboard.

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions or input. Thanks again

To follow up on my experience. I only had the colorDMD connected after removing all LED strips and Spots and was still blowing a fuse at completely random times - usually when it was just sitting but occasionally when someone was playing. I still had/have OCD LED boards connected. So I replaced my main driver board with a new RottenDog and haven't popped a fuse since. When I got Pin Stadiums I put them on an external power supply just to be safe. All has been well and even a few of my trough erros have subsided. Hope this helps.