Every connector plugged in? I had a couple unplugged on my new in the box. Check your fuses?

How long have you had the game? What does Stern recommend?

Trout power to the inserts is different than gi. Have you put a multimeter up to your cpu/power driver board? Also have you contacted Gio and picked his brain?

Under warranty so I'd just ask that they send a tech at this point. May even be less expensive for them rather than shotgun in parts at it.

Other option would be to ask for them to replace the game. Really suprised the refinery guys let it out of there shop like that as I assumed they tested the games after modding them.

Wish I could be more help but I've got no clue outside what's already been replaced. Could be a short in the cable leading to the board but that's another guess.

Any update Trout? Bump for others to help troubleshoot.

Before I start, I'm going to warn you that I have not owned an LE machine, and I haven't been able to study it much.

With that said, my suggestion would be to narrow the playfield wiring down to a minimum. If I was troubleshooting, I would start by disconnecting J2 from the LED board #4 (under the FUEL standup lamps). Since it's all daisy chained in reverse numerical order, stuff hanging off the lower numbered boards might be causing a problem with the SPI interface that sends data to the boards. It could also be #4, but at least you have a shot at removing the fault.

It sounds like everything you have done so far addresses stuff that feeds the data to the LED boards. I would want to make sure that there isn't something messing up the SPI bus downstream and preventing the CPU board from driving it properly.

OK, mostly since I wanted to know, I did some research. I couldn't find a schematic for the Metallica LED boards, but here's one from Star Trek, which works the same way.

Stern_LE_LED_Board_(resized).jpg

If your CPU board and data cable are good, that should get the signal up to CN1. Because it's fed through the shift registers, a short on the MOSI signal further down the chain would not cause problems with this board, but it would for later ones. RCK and SCK, however, would. They're connected straight through. A short anywhere on those signals would cause all of the RGB inserts to have problems.

If you have a logic probe, you can look for activity on those two pins. You said you had already tested for 5V on VCC, right?

Like shovelhed mentioned previously, the inserts and GI are not controlled by the same board. The one you linked to is for the GI.

I may not have made myself clear. The Star Trek board is not exactly the same one, but it's the same architecture. It's a serially controlled shift register.

Are you talking about only the spider arrow inserts, not all the inserts in general?

My mistake. I misunderstood.

In that case, I don't see much that could go wrong, either. Assuming your GI is working (turning on/off and dimming), that pretty much rules out the CPU board, the data cable, the data input on the GI/RGB board, the microcontroller on the GI/RGB board, and the power to the GI/RGB board.

There IS only one power input to it. I do find it weird that the manual shows a rectifier both in the wiring AND on the board itself. There is a regulator on the board, but it is required for the microcontroller, which also controls the GI.

Can you verify that it is 5V on pin 4 of the 4-pin molex connectors? The RGB connectors are aligned on the output connectors properly, right?

I had two GI RGB LEDs miswired causing one to be out all the time. Drove myself nuts measuring voltages, continuity, etc. checking board etc. if it helps, here are pics from LEFT side of playfield to RIGHT for each spider insert if u wish to check the wiring.

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I was wondering about that. For Troutfarm's case all 6 would have to be miswired such that the 5V is connected to the wrong pad on every LED board. If red and green are swapped, it would just light up the wrong color.

Measuring the 5V input on the LED boards would catch this if it was the case, but you would have to do it when the LED is on or you'll read 5V on all the pads.

Any update Troutfarm?

Beemus:
it looks like this one (of yours) was mis-wired as well. were these pictures taken before you corrected the issue?
red-green mixed up?
got to love how stern chose to use a red colored wire for +5 volts and with +5 being located right next to the 'red' connections. that's just a mishap waiting to happen

Damn that sucks, wish you all the best. Please keep us updated in the future so if somebody runs into the same problem we might have the solution.

Oh good lord!
Good looking out. Never noticed a rogue insert but will look into it. My issue was with GI miswire which is now fixed.
Thanks

Red now reding, green now greening. Thanks j_m.

Great to hear your pin was not fried! Frustrating yes but at least your banging the silverball again.