I am starting this thread so that anyone who buys my mod can post questions here, certainly email me as well but I though maybe we can leverage this thread as a way to make the product better by providing any tips, tricks or ideas that I did not come up with!

Here is a start

Install Video

Written instructions
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_lo_igRNYWIKZh-Dlr_P1-jZQTJDe6io/view?usp=sharing

Alternate video on LVDS/HDMI Splitter as this is the most difficult task

Known issues -

Sometimes I see a brief black screen on my HDD, it doesn't happen often . I know that making sure all your connections are very tight and solid can help a great deal, but I still see it on occasion on my Mando. It is related to the LVDS board as I will see it when streaming as well, other streamers have seen it but I do not yet know a 100% fix. If someone fixes this 100%, I will give you a free one

Here is an example

Another thing is that this ribbon cable is somewhat fragile, you may want to put electric or some other(looking into this) tap AROUND it...but I do not recommend taping it to your apron it can tear if you are not careful when you remove the mod.

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I am testing this conductive cloth to protect the cable .. they sell it on amazon .
Faraday Cloth Tape High-Shielding Conductive Adhesive Tape Conductive Fabric Sticky Tape for EMI LF EMF Shielding, RFI RFID RF Signal Blocking, Guitar Interference Shielded (1 in x 65 FT) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZH2W3JQ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_WPTPWN05PZJFZZRJV3SX

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Here is a tip , I do this for you but if you are having trouble make sure the jumper is set like in this picture . It should be shorting the two pins closest to the audio connection. The other is a spare and should only be on the third pin .

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necrotimus Let me address a few of your questions/suggestions.

In regards to "rebooting" the screen. One thing you can do is just open the coin door and unplug and replug the USB cord from the extension. This is one reason I went with this instead of one super long cable. Maybe zip tie it where its easy to reach. With that said you shouldn't have to reboot the screen often if ever hopefully.

I understand on the board, the only option is a ribbon cable. We could make yours longer with an extension the can be bought on amazon. I though about having a longer cable but then it's more to get caught on something. What I do when I lift the playfield its just get my fingers under the very front of the board so I dont put pressure on it, it still stays magnetized on the back. Once I have the playfield high enough that I can grab it elsewhere I do, but I get thats where people lift the playfield.

The blanking I am trying to figure out, several people have installed it and have 0 issues. I do see it on my Mando but my Godzilla, TMNT and Elvira are fine. I have been trying some different things with headless EDID adapters , but I think I need way to keep the signal to the screen "virtually" alive to maybe mitigate the issue. There is also a relation to the connection to the main board, because for example I went into my Mando and reseated the cable and it was good for a while then it came back. I am not convinced its only that though.

So a few things I am trying.
1. something in-between the LVDS board and the screen to mitigate the issue.
2. getting a custom cable made that has the stern style connector on one end. (if anyone is good with Molex PM me)
3. Something else I haven't thought of yet :-0

What game are you using it on? I want to see if it's on certain games.

REWARD for anyone that solves this

PM me if you want to get the extension cable, I can talk you though how to do it not hard.

Edit... I see its on your JP which is odd as another customer has no issue on his JP. Must not be game specific. We will figure it out! in the meantime do whatever you can to make sure the cable doesnt move.

The part that would tear is not replaceable, it should be fine but you could just layer it in electric tape , or the tape I posted above . I may start shipping them with the conductive tape as a precaution.

What you don't want to do is tape that part to your apron directly , that was my mistake . Probably would be fine if you were careful but I removed mine without much caution

Lesson learned and passed on .

If the other ribbon cable gets damaged we can get that on Amazon I'll find the link and post .

VSDISPLAY 40Pin to 40Pin ZIF 0.5mm Connector Adapter with Extension Flat Cable FFC Extend(200mm) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RQYRF77/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_GRYSGBJCECK4C401B4MA

This could also be used to make it longer if needed .

Just a little update, so my mando was doing the "blanking" quite a bit. I had been in and out of the backbox troubleshooting , I reseated that cable(the black one with the tape on one end) and I went several games no issue, it did return once or twice in many games but was all the sudden almost totally eliminated. I am convinced that the cable is at least a factor. Now what I did different? Nothing, almost seems luck of the draw to get it in there just right. I am going to work on making a better cable, but these are skills I do not posses or have tools for so might be a bit. If anyone else see's improvement from fiddling with the cable please let me know. StoneyCreek dont touch yours LOL.

There was a guy Chicagoland who had made his own cable but I cannot get ahold of him.

Yeah that's not typical .. you could swap the boards with Zilla see if the problem follows but I hate to touch one that's working perfectly . It's definitely the HDMI converter board not the screen .. but rebooting the screen will likely make it come back because it forces the board to re-synch the EDIDS.

If you haven't I would compeletly remove the cable that's plugged into the stern board and reseat it . This helped a ton on my Mando when it did it .

I'd like to narrow down if it's

A. Just a random thing with some games and not others
B. Bad boards or cables(in which case I'll ask the manufacturer to replace)
C. Just that the connection is that finicky (in which case I will work to make a better cable)

One thing you can do is just unplug the USB from the extender this would likely being the signal back ... But you should not need to do this . A random blank out is one thing , having to reboot is no good .

Just for grins if you have a shaker , turn it off see if it helps after reseating . Not that this is a fix injust wonder if all those vibrations cause it tomjave issues.

That's weird does one side have more than the other ? It should not , that's a mistake I'd so. What you can likely do is put the side with the electric tape on them main board just remove the tape . They should be identical the only reason for the tape is for it to fit more snug so you would want to replace it.

Does that make sense sorry at a wedding.

Cool let me know , something else to check now before I box them up.!

Hahaha .. look everyone my mando was good for like 30 minutes or game play this morning.. I ended up removing the tape .. so I really don't know for sure it's almost like trial and error sometimes and sometimes you get the perfect connection on the first try . Thanks for being patient and just see if you can get that perfect connection to the board , to be clear this is the cable that goes into the main stern board .

I'll continue to look for a way to improve that .

In other news works perfect on UltraMan so I am going to make it available for that . Uses a different baked to split the HDMI much easier .. and you don't even really need to remove the apron .

If anyone wants to use one on their spooky instead of stern contact me .

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Quite possible LVDS is pretty sensitive apparently.

Ok everyone, so here is where I am at with this. First off all if you want it for Spooky and very soon JJP I think they work flawlessly !

I have been getting reports of some stern boards seeing the blanking issue and eventually requiring a reboot to bring them back up. This is clearly not idea! I have as well seen some of these issues and believe I have them mostly worked out, but the one game that gives me the most trouble is Mando and its still not perfect.

The first and most important thing is that cable must really be in there good(the short black one I supply) I went from having a screen that was blanking every 20 seconds to almost never just but reseating it a couple times and making sure it was secured and not going to shake loose. But on Mando its still not 100% here are some other things I have done to get it more reliable.

I added an EMF filter to one end of the cable, may be snake oil may have helped
I added some shielding to the board, I do not think this helped
I have added a EDID emulator which forces it to output in the native resolution of the mini monitor(480p) vs sterns of 1366X768 in hopes that this would one reduce any negotiation issues and two maybe lower the horsepower required by the board. This seemed to help , but then I eventually saw the issue again hopes dashed a bit.

So here are my next steps.

I have ordered some heat sink , I did notice that board gets a little hot so maybe thats part of the problem.
I have a HDMI signal booster maybe the board is being taxed by pushing power through the long HDMI cable but I doubt it

Finally I do want to make a better cable, but this is tricky as I do not have the correct supplies I found someone who made one and am trying to see if he can make me a sample or at least send me links to everything he needs to make it and try it myself. If this does help my end goal would be to get these made somewhere as it will be very time consuming.

Id anyone is good with Molex and has the tools let me know happy to compensate you!

Thanks for your patience and as well any ideas to help make this mod 100% reliable, people who have it love it and I think most of it is great but these LVDS converter board continues to be its Achilles heel.

Yeah since they work fine on the spooky games I doubt the cable length is the issue but trying everything. Probably want they LVDS Cable as short as possible .

Little update, the manufacture suggested swapping the cables on the LVDS board so the black cable would be on top, the one going to the stern monitor on bottom. I highly doubt this will help but worth a go if anyone wants to try it that has/had an issue. While you are in there re-seat the cable that goes to the stern board why not.
The other next step is they have a different version of the board, it does not split the signal however so I would need a separate LVDS splitter so it shows on both screens. I will get a few of these and test.

I have played a good hour and a half on my Mando with the new board and splitter and seen not one black screen. I am not even close to calling this a win yet, but maybe we can make this work 100% or at least 98.5%

I have one extra setup I would like to send to a willing tester. My as is this, you have not only blanking but also the reported screen thats totally dead and requires you to restart the machine and this this on a regular basis, also that you feel you are somewhat tech savvy and willing to really put this through the paces. If this fixes it for the tester than I can order a few more for additional testing , or I can point people how to acquire them. Long term I would make a bulk order but I have made that mistake once already and currently sit on a bunch of the boards thats aren't working perfect.

To be clear by setup I mean new board not entire HDD with screen

necrotimus its related to the converter board and I believe some compatibility issues with how its process a variable refresh rate that the stern games have. From what I could find out there are 3 different potential motherboards in a stern game that have a slight variance causing this issue to be more prevelant in some games vs others.

The fix is a new converter board and splitter so moving the signal splitting off the converter board, its still in testing to see if its truly a fix or it just happens to be working well right now.

I am going to be returning all stock of the current board to the manufacture. If someone sends me the old board I can make it part of that return process but its going to be a bit of time before I can supply a new board as I need to fully vet this and see if it really works well.

Here is a look at the new setup.

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I have sent this off to a customer to test, if he validates it then I can look to get more and do some wider testing.

Good news a Second tester is having good luck with the new setup !

jonnyqtrek

I believe a new set of boards fixes the issues! I have a small batch and if it proves to work I’ll order more .

Trying to figure out how to deal with the bad ones . They can likely be sold to be used for other purposes , I already returned my existing stock for some credit . Basically I am out the $$$ I spent on them but PM me and I can send a set of the news oked for my cost or free whatever everyone thinks is fair .

It‘a a new setup now requires two boards .. raised the overall cost to make a bit … but I think it works 100% now !