NODE BOARD FAILURE- How common?

I have an Aerosmith Pro, and after 14 months of light home use only, node boards 1,8,9 all failed to initialize. I got a checksum error at one point. Now they just don't initialize. Out of warranty, no help from my retailer. Any suggestions for how to get Stern to replace these without me shelling out hundreds? Thanks,

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A couple more pictures of my node board failures

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eesh…, wasn't aware that multiple ones could fail at the same time.
More then likely a common link btwn them, like a connection not registering maybe from the cpu board?
Could always check the basics like voltages coming off the cpu and into the different affected nodes.
Looks like the light is lit for the 48V.

That sucks man, that's almost 600 bucks if you actually have to replace them all.

It also sucks that your distributor isn’t stepping up. There are tons of reports of people getting out of warranty service on node boards.

Best of Fortune, Ted, you will need to go directly to Stern Customer Service for resolution. I don't know how someone gets "free node boards" unless a game is found to have manufacturer defects outside of warranty.

That sucks. I am curious. How many plays ago since you did the last code update?

Also, when you press 'select' what information does it provide after it runs the node bus test?

Multiple node boards out almost sounds like a cable issue. Make sure all the ethernet cables are plugged in properly. Give them a small jiggle and make sure they are snug and making contact. Mainly the ethernet cable between the cabinet board and the first node board.

Checksum error sounds like an error in the rs485 communication. MPF doesn't detail out the exact register format Stern is using in their communication protocol, but CRC is very common for rs485. And if the cable is disconnected completely, then it would absolutely get a bad crc (probably nothing lol)

Also one last thing to check is to make sure the DIP switches is set correctly as noted in the user manual. One of the DIP switches enables/disables a termination resistor for the rs485 communication. If the termination resistor is improperly set, it can mess with the rs485 signal and cause communication issues.

They use a very simple code. Just add up all the bytes of you message. Discard everything except the last eight bits. Check if they are 00. To ensure that this holds true for all messages they calculate the last byte of the message based on all the previous bytes. Not a very good code but easy to implement and very CPU efficient. You can look up the messages here: https://github.com/missionpinball/mpf/blob/dev/mpf/platforms/spike/spike.py and https://github.com/missionpinball/mpf/blob/dev/mpf/platforms/spike/spike_defines.py.

Received my node board for avengers the pin today. Took a while to get it, but I got it.

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Any way to know witch transistor on the node 8 is responsable for the right flipper?

You should be able to trace it fairly easy with an ohm meter. Turn the game off, clip one lead to the coil for the flipper and then start hitting the tab of each transistor on the node board. If you use diode test or other audible alert for 0 ohms it will make it a little easier.

Nice, are they easy to replace, my right flipper had a problem when i start the machine, got stuck on up and starting to get very hot, ive remove the connection of right flipper(ORG GRN) and ive use to the same wire of the upper right flipper (YEL BRN) to connect to the flipper and it works just nice, but of course i lose the ability to make Stage Flipping because i use the same transistor for both.

I wouldn't leave it like that, you're pulling double the current through a single transistor that way and it likely won't last long. I've never worked on a Node board so I can't answer how difficult it is to change the transistors but I suspect it's pretty doable.

Yeap i dont pretend to leave it like that, just a temporary "fix" that i pretend to solve as fast as i can

Ive seen on the manual and looks like that nodeboard 9 is the same as the node 8, can i swap them just to have sure that problem is on the node 8 board?
Thanks in advance

Check the part numbers. If they are the same it should work. Just change the ID on your DIP switches. I also tried that with different part numbers but would not universally recommend it unless you know exactly what you are doing.