Jurassic Park (Limited Edition)
Stern, 2019You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Manny65.
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Well done Tim, so glad you were able to find the culprit and while frustrating at the time, it is so rewarding when you solve the problem. Hope it doesn't take too long in getting the GI back together and you can get back to playing some games!!
Also great work PinMonk not just in helping Tim but being new to Stern machines myself it's helped me understand the Spike2 system better and how to troubleshoot. I feel more confident (to a degree
) in being able to tackle an issue. Thank you.
Quoted from PinMonk:Spike diagnostic messages are maddeningly obtuse and incomplete, especially for the novice. Glad I could shine a little light on this issue and how to narrow down the areas to look for the cause of this problem. That said, know that in Spike knowledge, I'm only a few steps ahead of you, so don't creep up too fast, or you'll be ahead of me and on your own.
LOL you got nothing to be worried about there mate 
This morning I went back to the JP manual and retraced the steps in pinpointing the particular connector and associated lamps, it always makes sense when you are following the "bouncing ball". Whether I can do it myself is another question .... but troubleshooting is an area I do enjoy, it's just that the whole spike system is a bit of black art to me atm. I am quite shocked at the lack of information in the manuals (adjustment settings, LED diag info on some of the boards), no help in the service menus and what seems to be a very rudimentary diag system - I understand that this all costs money but I think that this is an area that definitely needs improvement.
Quoted from RandyV:Maybe it's a patent issue. If WMS has a patent on the Pin2K diagnostic system Stern may not be able to just clone it without getting in trouble.
I think it's more that Stern simply re-used the service menu design (including diagnostics) from the SAM architecture rather than invest in the development to make use of the LCD to show much more detailed information. For example the diag info showed overcurrent on Node 9 TOP GI-LEFT, they could easily display a picture of the PF, highlight the 9 LEDs associated with TOP GI-LEFT, also indicate the location of Node 9 under the PF and even note the associated connector and pin for TOP GI-LEFT. I don't think this would breach any patent because Stern wouldn't be copying the underlying diag system as such but rather simply displaying the information in a similar (but improved) way, which is what JJP also do.
Quoted from Joe_Blasi:at the very least they could of used the old big dmd service menu design (sega games that used the new menu at the time) (including diagnostics) that showed more info then the small dmd games.
Spike started as DMD so that made it be stuck in the past. Did WWE reuse old DMD art from DE WWF?
I guess when the introduced Spike 2 to support the LCD in Batman 66 they had bigger things to get right than introduce enhanced diags and a new GUI for the service menu 
Quoted from Joe_Blasi:or there main os code base needs to work with spike 1 and spike 2 and the error / diags / basic os code can't be easily redone with out game code changed needed?
There maybe stuff in the code base from the SAM hardware.
JJP was able to start new on an FULL PC based hardware with an SSD and not the smaller SD cards and spike 1 started some time ago with then having some what buggy test games running some kind of SAM emulator.
I have played and seen some of them years ago at testing sites.
And some SAM games have early spike node boards.
Yep good point, and very pertinent when Stern first moved to Spike 2, but I guess they've got to bite the bullet at some stage or otherwise have an antiquated UI compared to the competition. Stern's challenge is that the investment of money isn't directly revenue generating.
Quoted from kidAtHeart:I received a new Godzilla yesterday and upon power up, I was greeted with with the Overcurrent node 9. Running diagnostics it was I-Red(x9), or 9 bulb group 163. Removing the bulbs, I still got the error. Disconnecting CN15, I measured a short across the light mount. Also disconnected, as expected on power-up, the error went away. So somewhere in that look, or in at least one connector lies a short.
Not wanting to hack into a day old machine, I put the bulbs in and powered it up. To my surprise, no error, bulbs in group 163 work.
As per PinMonk post and
timlah79 image below this is what you are looking for - taking the LEDs out and putting in bulbs may have simply move the metal shard enough to stop it shorting, however with the vibrations in the machine it'll most likely reoccur
LED socket (resized).pngQuoted from Crash1977:I just took delivery of a brand new JP Premium and after about 20 games got the Node 9 over current detection.
Given the previous posts should I direct the dealer to just check every LED for the short ?
This thread details how to confirm if it is a light string and which particular one that has the short - see the last pic in the first post. So you can try working through it yourself (and ask questions here) while waiting for the dealer's tech - it's good to get comfortable which troubleshooting issues on your machine
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