Bad enough that node boards are stupid expensive, but never was a fan at how hard they are to fix

Stern states that using a non Stern shaker will void the warranty if it damages any boards, etc. Not sure how they could know you were using a non Stern shaker, though.

Except the shaker from his pic looks like an official stern shaker...not coin taker. Even if a stern shaker he will find it impossible to get a replacement from anywhere but stern and they preferred to put them in new games not ones sold or under warranty . sad but true. Good luck

I agree that they are expensive, but as for the hard to fix part - SMD parts are reality now, and we can't continuously rely on our old through hole technology repair skills.

Yes, I also prefer repairing WPC and other old school boards but after all, they are 30 years old, so it is time to learn something new. It might look scary, but with a fine tip soldering iron, thin solder and some flux, removing and re-soldering SMD parts is manageable (even though I am 59 years old with poor near-eyesight and shaky hands. A good magnifying glass, or even better, a cheap 3d microscope helps a lot).

Get some scrap boards for practice so your first SMD job will not be a unique node board!

My only fear is the node board MCU chip. Even though it could be replaced, there might be a bootloader in internal flash, and an empty chip just won't work. I don't know if the Spike CPU is able to program a blank node MCU, but I suspect a JTAG connection would be needed, and Stern has not published the node software even as a binary image.

The warranty covers almost nothing, for a very short amount of time. So voiding it should not be a concern.
This is from Rush Pro:

"Stern Pinball Inc (‘SELLER’) warrants only to the initial purchaser of its
products that the items listed below are free from defects in material
and workmanship under normal use and service for the warranty period
specified:
• Printed circuit boards (game logic): 2 months
• Dot Matrix / LCD Display: 9 months
No other parts of seller’s product are warranted.
Warranty periods are effective from the initial date of shipment from
seller to its authorized distributors."

I totally understand that Stern would like to void their warranty if non-Stern additional hardware has been used. After all, Stern has only tested their system to work with their own hardware.

Do they know if you have used some third party HW? Of course not. But after enough warranty claims, they might extend the node concept to authenticate all add-on devices. Plug in a generic solenoid coil or motor, it won't work unless it handshakes with the node board as a genuine Stern part.

Shaker motors blowing node boards was pretty much all the aftermarket ones, but it was only for about a month until the issue with early Spike machines was located and fixed. There are ZERO problems now with the pinball life shaker motors in spike 2 machines. Every single one we put on route had one from Aerosmith forward. All node boards intact.

I actually find through hole boards more difficult to fix because it’s tough getting parts with many pins off the board without damaging vias.

SMD is easy to de-solder with a hot air station (cheap). You can remove a 100 pin/ball chip in a few seconds without any damage.

If you have a 3D microscope and some sticky flux, you can easily solder BGA or WCSP with the hot air setup. TSSOP and QFN are super easy to solder with a fine tip iron. Or some solder paste and hot air.

On these spike node boards, the only real showstopper is the uC. If that is toast, you need a programmed one from Stern.

Agree, have all pinball life shakers no issues

Hey STERN are you listening? THIS is a good idea. Get yo street cred back.

AND he’s also the best golden tee guy on the planet.

That's great to know, I have a rocking bowlarama that's very similar to Golden tee parts wise.

Put me on the I need a Node board and I need it now list!!!

Get the Hakko 301 Desoldering Iron. You will never imagine how you did board repair without it.

As a home pinball tech for 40 years I defer repairs on node based games now.It's just my preference. On all other previous non node titles I have redundancy and I can do board level repairs and have multiple sources for parts. I dont want to have a 15k game that has a broken flipper link have a unrelated node failure 2 weeks later. I will be expected to fix and be blamed because I was the last to work on it.
This happens often on older games but I have the resources/knowledge to get the client up and running rapidly and cheap.
The fact that replacement node boards are not attainable currently is of concern.
If they become available and reasonable I may revisit my stance on node based game repairs.
I wouldnt want to be selling a let's say GB premium and offering a customer a warranty under the current node board availability status.
When we had pinball retail stores in the past every pinball sold had electronic redundancy as far as parts go. A failure was dealt with very easily for the client for games that were 30 years old even.

he right. Favorite tool of mine!

Pretty sure that's a pinball life shaker.

I've had about 8-9 nodes go bad for one reason or another, luckily half were replaced under warranty.
Fixed a few of em, haven't needed a hot air station yet. except for this last one... bad audio codec I think.... haven't attempted the repair yet, because I don't need the board just yet.
It's pretty rare for anything to happen to them though. I'm cool with spike, as long as they have documentation and part numbers for the SMD's. lot of good you tube tutorials on smd repair, or yeah just send it to someone.