I just spent sometime removing the ramp motor connector and removing the crushed drum wires. Everything felt snug but it looks like all of the pins were the wrong size. I just bypassed the connector altogether.. put everything back together and going to roll the bones and see if the node 10 board I bought holds up..

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Wow! All of those crimps are bad. The insulation is crimped under where the bare wire is supposed to be.

Interesting that Stern didn't tin those wires first like I've seen on the other Rush machines.

The extraction tool you recommended made the pin removal a breeze. It’s on Amazon as well and a bit cheaper

Why are Rush Owners chiming in that dont have any issues????? Be thankful and go play pinball, as a 25 plays NIB Owner with a broken game for the past 5-months it gets old, clogging up the thread. Do you stay home because you think the sky might fall ?

Because those are also useful data points, to get a sense of how prevalent the problem is in general (10% of machines? 90% of machines?) and the average time scale before it does.

This is a fairly common and known issue. Us other Rush owners are trying to be proactive since Stern is not being proactive. Apologies for clogging up the thread. My understanding was that this was a place to help fellow pinsiders and Rush owners with a known serious game issue(and help others avoid this ticking time bomb issue)…Also, I do stay home sometimes…to play pinball as you suggested, not bc the sky is falling. If there is a new thread titled “The Sky Is Falling”, then I will take that under advisement as well. In all seriousness though, I’m sorry to hear that your game has been down for that long. That definitely sucks. It’s thread’s like this that help people avoid bad fortune and hopefully get others back up and running. I’m extremely thankful for this thread and the work that Peak-Pin and others are putting in.

Stern has officially stopped sending out replacement node 10 boards....at least that is what Stern support told me.

Was there any other qualifier along with their statement? Something like - "we won't be sending replacement node 10 boards until we have a formal solution?"

Seems like an irresponsible statement given the circumstances!

I couldn't agree more, but simply reporting my latest communication with them from a week ago. They apparently grew tired of sending out replacement boards. They said the engineers were working on the issue and to remain patient. Maybe when they arrive at a fix, then they will send out boards with the fix, but as of right now, if your board decides to go bye-bye, then you will have to buy a new board on your own dime from somebody like Pinball Life (if they have any).

For right now and if your game still functions normally, it is important to prop up the ramp and then disconnect the ramp and clock from the node 10 board.....or roll the bones and take your chances.

Yes, you basically summed it up in your quote.

I guess the "cup half full" is that the fix must be in final stages, if they are holding back on sending out replacement boards (that would again simply malfunction after a few plays.) My guess is that when the fix is "official" then a new node board would be part of the total package, because as we all know....without a board, the other "fix" components are useless.

Stern won't keep sending boards, makes no sense until they figure out the problem. Even then, I doubt they will universally send boards to every owner, you'll have to provide a reason for needing one.

Stern counts the number of copper threads that make up an 1/8” wire, they saw away to save $1 on every game and probably removed 1 to many threads. Yes I was sent a new Node-10 board, but I already know it will blow again,,because I already been there done that. But what is still perplexing is Zach Meny said he had (2) Customers that received new Node-10 boards and that fixed the issue. I believe those people probably sold their games, or maybe the new board Stern has sent is made different? I don’t want to blow another $200 board.

Because it was asked in the first post by the OP. Maybe the games that had failures or didn't have failures were all within a certain period of manufacture.

At this point, it is absolutely ridiculous that Stern has not released a new code version that would at least allow the game to play with a bad Node 10 board! I cannot imagine it would be at all difficult to do. (Not a separate version for bad Node 10s, one that could handle a good Node 10 or a bad one.)

Along those lines, if one's Node 10 is still good, would disabling the motor in the settings prevent a failure for now, rather than disconnecting the motor? If so, why on earth haven't they released a service bulletin advising this action?

I do agree it's silly to keep sending out new boards when they are just going to eventually blow up again, if the board isn't the source of the problem. No amount of filtering could have prevented the voltage spikes from an intermittent motor power connection.

... or fix your ramp motor connector or remove the connector entirely and solder the wires directly together. In fact it would be most illuminating if enough people did this and subsequently none of their Node 10s blow... or especially if one did! Then we would be back to square one.

True...I should have added that bit in my post.

I have done this (removed the connector completely) and I am going with the assumption that it has remedied the problem. If my second node 10 board that I purchased from PBL, goes up in smoke, you can bet the first thing I am going to do is post about it here.

Sterns lack of communication/support really has me considering if I will buy any more Sterns in the future. I have been wanting to get some CGC pins in my collection anyway.

I have been keeping an eye on this and kept my number of plays low while hoping for a resolution. I have not had any issue with my machine and today took the advice to remove the harness connector to the ramp motor. I soldered and insulated the wires instead of dealing with changing the parts and keeping some type of connector.

Previously I had inspected the various areas that others had found overtightened zip ties and found none that were questionable.

Rush Premium
Date game manufactured: 4-25-2022
Date game received NIB: 4-30-2022
Date node 10 board died: Has not failed yet (1-30-2023)
Date wire harness to ramp motor was soldered: 1-30-2023

50 power ons
390 plays
1044 balls played
15 hours total powered on

Agreed, if I were them I wouldn't be sending more Node boards out just to have them short out as well.

If the connector is fully determined to be the culprit it will be interesting to see how Stern plans on fixing & replacing that to all the Premiums & LEs already in homes and locations. Removing and soldering the wires (which I did yesterday) requires some technical abilities above many owners, and any plug and play type solution (replacing the servo motor with a new correctly wired connection) will be both complicated and expensive.

Could a firmware update of the Node board be implemented that allows for more protection to that part of the board?? I'm an electrical engineer but not an electronics guy, but depending on the protection circuitry in place on the board it may be possible.

The one post I'm hoping not to see is someone who has removed and hardwired the connector to have a Node 10 failure....that would put everyone back to square 1......

I have to think that the problem must be rare enough to date that 1) it's hard to be 100% sure what the root problem is, and 2) it's not high priority.

I mean, if EVERYONE'S Node 10s were blowing a couple weeks in, it would have been a different story.

I'm 98% convinced it's that connector, though. Everything about it makes sense. But I can sort of understand why they aren't in a hurry to send out thousands(?) of $100(?) motors just to fix the dang connectors, at least not until they are 100% sure. It all may hinge on whether it's 5% or 95% that are doomed to fail, it may be cheaper to just send replacement boards and motors if and when they do fail.

I only hope they aren't planning on leaving us out in the cold with that sad, sad warranty they have now.

I would feel a bit better about this if Stern had been able to figure any part of this out, all of the possible causes and solutions have come from the pinside community.

The game plays with a bad Node 10 in place - it just takes a while to boot because it searches for a while and gives a tech alert if you go into settings.

I've been playing mine near daily since December 22nd with the dead node still in place and connected. My ramp is unplugged and wedged up.

Fantastic detective work here. I think we're about 98% confident we've found the problem (bad connector between node 10 and ramp motor). Add me to the list that just cut the connector out and soldered.

The long-term solution is a redesign of the node 10 board to add the (missing) protection circuits to the output of the motor drive chip. Short-term solution is make damn-sure the connection between the node 10 and motors is solid with no interruptions.

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With the near-extinction of Radioshack, is there some other brick-and-mortar store where I may find the appropriate sized male crimp pins (22-28 gauge)? Google is unhelpful, or my Google fu is rusty.

Also rusty are my soldering skills and it sure sounds like you need no more than an absolutely tiny amount of solder. Feeling like I'd rather just replace the crimp terminals at this point, and already have the other tools available (pin extractor, crimper, etc).

Links on post 174

Glad I moved my RUSH LE.

Sorry, to clarify, I understand the parts required. Was curious if anyone has had any luck procuring them from a local chain hardware store in the US so I don't have to wait for digikey shipping or buy them by the hundreds elsewhere online

Sent you a dm.

Just did a routine service call for a customer on a Premium yesterday (guesstimating that it has under 200 plays based on the fact that he's had it just a month or two) and decided to check the zip ties to relevant node connectors, based on the excellent descriptions and photos by Peak-Pin. After cutting the zip ties, indeed, I found that almost all of the wires were kinked and the insulation frayed where the zip ties were connected. Wrapped the affected areas with electrical tape. Hopefully the customer has no Node 10 issues. Thanks again to Peak-Pin, and here's hopin' that Stern resolves this issue soon.

I'm following this thread because I just serviced a T3 for someone who basically inherited the pristine machine in the condo sale. Somehow the music of Rush came up (whos music we both love) and I mentioned to her that there is a Rush pinball machine. She wants one. Reading the node board issues scares me as I will have to be the one dealing with it.
Here are my questions: I assume this problem does not apply to the Pro model? From what I gather the problem is totally correctable via a solid uninterruptible connection between the ramp and node board, or has this not been 100% established. I just want to give her all of the information should she decide to buy one. Thanks!

There is not a node 10 board in the pro, so this is not a problem with the pro.

The belief is that removing the connector will eliminate the issue, I removed mine this past weekend while also removing the crushed wires sections leading to the clock stepper. I am assuming the issue fixed, but time will tell. I am not aware of any node 10 board failures from any games that have tried this fix, but Peak-Pin really only put his fix out there a a week or two ago.

Stern just announced it has hired two new customer service guru's to ensure the highest customer service in the industry.

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I have talked to other RUSH Pro owners and I own a Pro, and I've never heard mention of the issue with a Pro. Despite the coolness of the higher-end features, IMO they are outweighed by the servicability issue and the problem of Node 10. I would advise a fan to buy a Pro--the code is so deep and the music so awesome that the buyer will not be disappointed.

From my armchair quarterback position, I think it's going to be April before Stern resolves this. I think they are going to redesign the node board with the protection circuits, which is a 2-3 month turnaround. Maybe they started that process late last year. But I'd be measuring the time-frame in months instead of days or weeks.

Maybe they build a dongle that connects between the ramp harness and node 10 that contains the protection circuit, like a surge protector. Much cheaper and faster than a whole board redesign.

Removed the ramp motor connector, soldered and insulated the 4 permanent connections based on the excellent investigative work on this thread. Having just installed a warranty replacement Node8 board after a 9 month wait, I was going to take no chances that a node10 board issue might suddenly surface and destroy my now totally functioning RUSH Premium. As of today, a whopping 370 lifetime plays on the 4/25/22 build.

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It is so satisfying to see posts on this thread leading to people solving the node board 10 issue. Hopefully, this is indeed the fix. Time will tell.

None of the pins on CN1 or CN3 have a ground connection and the protection circuit needs a ground. I looked into making a dongle a few weeks ago.

Nice touch putting the clear vinyl tubing under the cable ties.

I'm no electrical engineer but could you do a dongle with a ground wire pig tail coming off it. Then plug/connect into a ground near by?

Wow. You have superb observational powers. Afer removing the original tight cable ties and inspecting insulation I thought the vinyl would prevent any further compression. Thanks for your analysis of the node10 situation.

I went ahead and removed the connector and soldered the wires. Thanks for the advice here. I didn't remove the cable ties....perhaps I will do this next time I have the hood open. My OCD gave me fits that the wires were not exactly the same color on both sides....