(Topic ID: 285505)

Spike 2 Node 9 OVERCURRENT PROTECTION / G.I. Failure (Stern JPLE)

By timlah79

3 years ago


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#1 3 years ago

Hi all,

I posted this issue in a general forum earlier but was recommended to post here for help.

My TOP GI-LEFT lights aren't working properly on my Stern Jurassic Park LE and I'm getting OVERCURRENT alerts for Node 9. I have the Mezel Tower Mod and the T-Rex Gate Mod (that has LEDs in this area) - lights on both are out. These mods have been in the game for well over a year without issue. The only thing that has changed recently is that the helicopter opto board has crapped out so I was in the machine making physical adjustments to it. This part area has nothing to do with the opposite side of the playfield in question AFAIK.

Powering up results in:
- CHECKING NODE BOARDS 9 OVERCURRENT DETECTED
- Game restarts
- Same message presented again
- OPERATOR ALERT! TROUGH DEVICE MALFUNCTION
- Game starts and all but 2 of the TOP LEFT G.I. lights blink/work
- Going into Service I get 2 Alerts:
1 - CHECK NODE BOARD 9 OVERCURRENT PROTECTION
2 - DEVICE MALFUNCTION TROUGH
- I go into NODE BOARD TEST and navigate to NODE 9. Display reads:
- OVERCURRENT PROTECTION
- UPPER PLAYFIELD
- DRIVE: NONE (From what I've read the DRIVE value in diagnostics tells you where the problem is (LED socket, coil, w/e) but in my case it's DRIVE: NONE)
- LIGHT: TOP GI-LEFT
- I Select Node board test, navigate to 9 and when I hit the test button all TOP LEFT G.I. lights blink except for the two in question
- During gameplay all but the two LEDs in question function just fine.
- During LAMP > TOP-LEFT GI Test, NONE of the LEDs function/flash.
- General Node Board tests reveal no errors/issues with Node 9.

I have followed the flowchart in this manual for troubleshooting: https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SPIKE-System-Manual.pdf
I am now on page 46 as directed at the multimeter step:
"At the node board, measure the source wire of the G.I. to ground. Use the manual to determine wire color."

I have no idea what it means by "source wire of the G.I." nor what exactly to test with my multimeter. The JP manual doesn't note a "source wire" for the G.I.

I've checked all connections and nothing looks wrong. I replaced the Tower Mod LED that wires into the Tower Lights. For about 5 min everything lit back up and there were no alerts. But within my first gameplay ball everything went out again, rinse and repeat with that Node 9 GI overcurrent alert and Trough malfunction messages. I then disconnected the two LEDs in question entirely. No change. Now the issues I mentioned above are 100% consistent each time I power up.
The mods have been in the machine forever without issue. I have no other mods that leverage the machines power and again eliminating them didn't change anything. The only things that have changed are me pulling in/out/up the playfield over and over while trying to diagnose the issues.

I have a hard time believing that the board has gone out as these issues only arose after some slight adjustments to unrelated parts/places in the machine, with the machine powered off each time.

I've attached a number of screenshots of the alerts and aforementioned steps. Can anyone help? I'm only a couple months out of warranty but given that that has expired I'm at a loss of what to do. I'm hoping I can get help from this community to troubleshoot before going the route of buying and taking the time to install a new Node 9 board that may/may not fix this issue or hiring a technician. Much appreciated.
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#3 3 years ago
Quoted from TomGWI:

I had this before. My lower GI went out on Batman66 and got the same message. You probably have a shorted GI bulb. Take out the GI bulbs and start putting them back in. Replace faulty one with new LED bulb.
Make sure you don’t have a short on the mods.

Thank you so much! Are you saying to take out all bulbs in this G.I. area, power the machine back up and the errors "should" go away? Then if so, start going through one by one with the bulbs?

#7 3 years ago

I'm confused sorry. Like I mentioned in my post if I had already removed all the connections to the 2 mods (literally the only GI lights that don't light up right now, they just wire into existing light sockets, I've put them all back to their original LED bulbs). All other GI lights work still but I get all of those errors. I have now removed bulbs from 3 different sockets, replaced bulbs one by one, rinse and repeat. Once and only once during this process all of a sudden ALL GI lights were working. I then powered down/up again and that resulted in back to square one. I cannot pinpoint which socket/LED could be causing this. I feel like it's something else. Any additional steps I can take to figure this out?

#9 3 years ago
Quoted from Markharris2000:

Feels like an “intermittent” short in one of the sockets. Something that is flaky and cleared itself for a moment, and then re-shorted during that gameplay. If you have removed the bulbs and mods which use the sockets, and you still have the problem, then I am thinking you have a short IN a socket or the connections to it underneath.

I think and hope you're right. Removal of all bulbs themselves doesn't change anything though. Isn't a removal of the bulb essentially eliminating the given socket as being the problem or can a socket without a bulb still be causing this?

As far as finding a short, do I just test for continuity between the pins of each light socket that is out? Will I need to un-solder each socket wire and do the same for the wires themselves if I find continuity in all sockets? What about the Node 9 board connections, where would I start with that if needed? Forgive my ignorance on the pinball electrical aspect but why isn't the OVERCURRENT "feature" alert nor GI/mode board 9 tests telling me which of the many GI sockets/coils/whatever is the problem?

#12 3 years ago
Quoted from Markharris2000:

Underneath you will see every socket has two wires. With or without a bulb installed, those two wires can become shorted if they are bent or twisted or rotated. It’s a mechanical thing. With power off, I believe a multimeter with ohms, set for a low setting, will show 000 ohms if you have a short between the two wires on the damaged socket. I suspect you will see something is wrong if you just look underneath at each GI socket.

I have stared at everything for many hours. Visually looking for something that is bent or rotated is a lost cause. Many prongs or w/e are intentionally bent as far as I can tell. Nothing is disconnected. Again why doesn't the test point me to the specific GI component assuming that it is simply a component/socket in this GI area that's causing the issues? Why does it only pinpoint node 9, top left GI, Drive = None??

I've verified continuity with the 2 sockets in question as well as 4 other ones that do turn on. All show an Ohms value and all don't look bent more than any other prong on any other socket in the machine. I'm giving up for tonight. I don't think this is something that forum messages back and forth can resolve. I also don't understand why I'm the only JP owner describing these issues and asking for help. Someone else has to have come across this particular GI issue before with JP and figured out root cause.

#13 3 years ago
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

My Overcurrent errors have come from Bad Bulb, Socket, Connection cables, Mods, and finally board.

And you diagnosed and resolved them how?

#18 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

It's not specific to JP, but Spike2. MANY people have had this issue on Spike 2, and in every one I can think of it's was a short in a bulb or socket.
NODE 9:
[quoted image]
I'd start by powering off and removing the CN15 light connector from the Node 9 board and see if that clears the problem because this connector powers the area the error message says is the problem. Node 9 is at the MIDDLE of the playfield, NOT the identical-looking one near the flippers (which is Node 8). Reboot and check if it cleared the error. If it DID clear the error, follow the wires coming from pins 2 and 6 on that CN15 connector. One of the lights or light sockets connected to those wires has your short, and your search area is dramatically smaller.
Or, you can just cheat and check the bulbs I've highlighted in this image. They're all on CN15 and the area the error message is pointing to. ONLY check these if disconnecting CN15 cleared the error.
[quoted image]
If taking off CN15 DOES NOT clear the message when disconnected, power off again and take off CN2 and CN14, too and then reboot and check that to see if the error is clear.

Thank you so much PinMonk ! Getting somewhere. Good news = Removing only CN15 has made all errors go away. So I'm now going through all the 154 labeled bulb sockets. However, I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I am physically inspecting the spring inside and the solder points on the arms to look for anything suspicious. I've inspected 5 of the 9 sockets so far and nothing stands out. I have used my multimeter to check continuity between each sockets' arms. I'm getting readings on all of them so far.

How do I now perform a process of elimination? For example let's say (theoretically) I got incredibly lucky and removed the bulb from the socket causing the issue, leaving all other sockets with bulbs. If I then power up the machine and get no errors/alerts, have I proven that one is the bad socket? Or will the errors still occur even when the problem socket has no bulb in it? Again none of this has happened, just an example.

The two sockets that I suspected were the problem (b/c these were the ones that remained off during the overcurrent test + were wired into the two mezel mods) do not currently have bulbs in them but I still get the errors/alerts. I also get the same errors/alerts if I put normal LEDs in them. So are these two not part of the problem or is there something else I need to check with them?

At this point, I'm trying to understand what I'm supposed to do in "checking" to eliminate the good sockets from the bad and narrow this down to the problem one.

#26 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

I would next power off and remove ALL (as in every single one, no shortcuts) of the 154 highlighted bulbs at once, then reconnect CN15 and reboot. Is the error still gone? If it's gone, then one of those bulbs is bad and you'll need to power off, insert a bulb, power on, check, repeat until you find which bulb (or bulbs, it can be two or more, don't get complacent and not test them all) is the bad one. If it's down to testing bulbs, I would just make the easiest socket of the nine 154 sockets to get to your "test" socket and run all 9 bulbs through it one at a time (power off, bulb in, power on, check, power off, remove bulb, repeat).
If taking all the bulbs out and plugging in CN15 you have the error still, then it's one of the nine 154 sockets that has a physical short. They'll all need to be inspected top and bottom. Probably a broken spring, but since you were in there messing with mods before this happened, you may have moved something and made a short outside the socket, so hard to say.
But let's not worry about the socket short scenario until you confirm that it's none of the bulbs by removing all the 154 bulbs and testing.

Steps I've taken next:

1. Detached the Node 9 board from the playfield and checked under it just to make sure no washer/screw/metal anything was causing the issue. Nothing stands out, seems fine.
2. Removed all bulbs from all 9 "154" sockets.
3. Reconnected CN15
4. Booted up

Result: Same errors/alerts

7. With everything still in this state, remove CN15 again;

Result: NO errors/alerts

So it looks like I'm here now?:

If taking all the bulbs out and plugging in CN15 you have the error still, then it's one of the nine 154 sockets that has a physical short. They'll all need to be inspected top and bottom. Probably a broken spring, but since you were in there messing with mods before this happened, you may have moved something and made a short outside the socket, so hard to say.

I have physically inspected all of them and for the life of me they all look fine.

NOTE: Both with some bulbs removed and others still in and with all bulbs removed, I tested continuity between each of the 9 sockets' arms with and without CN15 connected. Every single socket reports continuity (BEEP!) which is NOT expected, correct? Other GI sockets (not in this UPPER LEFT GI) DO NOT report continuity (NO BEEP!).

Just to clarify, I wasn't messing with the mods that leverage the GI sockets in this area prior to this issue occurring. The issue showed up seemingly out of nowhere. I hadn't (at least intentionally) changed anything in this area prior to the start of the issues. Since the issue I have disconnected the mods to troubleshoot. The only other change is that a few days prior to this issue, I was messing with the helicopter. This is on the opposite side of the playfield and its opto is now out (I think I scraped the opto board). I am still waiting for a new opto board for that. But again when that went out it wasn't like this issue started immediately. Multiple days later.

ADDITIONAL INFO 1/10/21 5pm PST: With the CN15 plug disconnected, I tested DC voltage on the CN15 pins on Node Board 9 -- pins 2 & 6 and 1 & 5. I get 5.5-6V across both. So that at least tells me my node board itself is not the issue, correct?

With CN15 plug connected I did the same and I get NO voltage reading. However, I guess that's expected b/c the machine is disabling voltage due to OVERCURRENT PROTECTION, right? I don't know how to force the machine to try to pass DC to any of the sockets when CN15 is connected since I assume it's disabling that to protect itself. If it did, I could at least test the voltage at each socket as well.

#28 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

That is what meters are for. Which one is shorted.
LTG : )

Right but like I said all 9 report continuity between all of their respective "arms" with no bulbs in any of them. Can you please elaborate on exactly how I should test each socket if what I mentioned is me simply doing it wrong?

#31 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

It sounds like you have a short along one of the wires. Have you followed both wires from the CN15 connector to the end, looking (and FEELING) for physical damage, a nick, a screw barely touching one of the wires, a pinched wire, etc?

I haven't yet clipped all the zip-ties and such, no. That feels like its going to be a huge mess but also difficult to follow all the wires without doing so. Outside of the already zip tied bundles, yes I have multiple times followed every wire I can to every connector and reseated even though none appear to be disconnected. It's highly possible I'm missing an obvious disconnect or "pinch" but there's tons of stock wiring and connectors from this upper playfield/node board around to the back of it. Again physically I have yet to see anything wrong. But the irony of that statement is that I think at this point it is physical since that's the only thing that's changed = me lifting the playfield and putting it back down over and over again while troubleshooting the seemingly unrelated helicopter opto issue in the first place before all this happened (as I described earlier). As I also mentioned in my just now edited reply above I did confirm at least proper DC voltage is coming through the CN15 pins on the node board.

#35 3 years ago

EDIT 1/10/21 10:30pm PST: UNRESOLVED

Unfortunately it looks like I spoke too soon. After 5 plays the issue has resurfaced out of nowhere. Sorry for jumping the gun.

It's become intermittent again. I'll have the issues/errors/alerts, power down, pull up the playfield, wiggle some areas/sockets/wires around node board 9. Lower the playfield to a holding position, power on. No errors and all lights work. I'll then completely position the playfield, no errors. Power down and back up, no errors. Load the balls back in. Then play for a single ballplay and bam all lights in the GI go out. I'll then rinse and repeat. Upon power up if no errors/alerts and all GI bulbs are working I go into settings I get a brand new alert: CHECK SWITCH #9 LEFT FLIPPER BUTTON. I go into that test and don't see anything wrong. I power down and back up and again square one with all of the initial errors/alerts, no GI lights no new alerts, just the same as before. I'll do all of this again, GI lights working, no errors/alerts, play for a short amount of time and back to square one yet again.

I'll dig in again tomorrow.

THANK YOU to a) everyone who posted here and most importantly, b) PinMonk who got me a huge step forward with his incredibly detailed advice and bent98 who spent probably 4-5 hours on the phone with me today going step by step through testing.

I'll get this sorted / unshorted soon but only b/c of the incredible help by others provided thus far.

Previous, thought to be resolution description below:
RESOLUTION! 1/10/21 8pm PST: Houston, we have a resolution!!!

It turns out that this was a "wires crimped together" issue after all. In the attached photo (which is horrible sorry) see the two sets of wires going to 5 different sockets which are all tightly zip-tied together (by the factory, not me). Clipping off those ties all of a sudden brought all 9 lamps of the TOP LEFT G.I. back to fully functioning, without errors/alerts. I then went one by one, putting a bulb in, powering on/off to make sure the errors/alerts still didn't show up. Once all bulbs were in and I verified all was working, I then went one by one, screwing each socket back into it's intended place, powering on/off each time like before. Now all sockets are back in their original places and all bulbs are in.

Before putting everything back together I meticulously looked at each wire in these clusters to see if I could find a cut/pin hole/anything that could have made contact unexpectedly anywhere else. I have yet to find such a thing aka I still don't know which exact wire(s) are the root cause. I will say that the stock zip ties in both areas were incredibly tightly pulled. I had to be very careful when clipping them to make sure I didn't grace any given wire. They were so tightly zipped to the point to where I can see the indentation in the wires' sheaths after removal. I still don't see any exposure of frays or anything sticking out. So I still don't know the root cause.

I still don't know exactly what happened here (which wire(s) exactly) since again nothing was "intentionally" adjusted in this area of the playfield in days prior to the issue and those zip ties have been there as is since I got the machine > a year ago. I'm going to let things be for now and play over the next couple of days. I'll keep both the tower and cage mods disconnected for now and report back if the issues resurface without touching anything.

I know time is valuable and many of you have spent a ton of time helping me in the background. I can't thank ALL of you enough for digging in and providing so much advice. I learned a lot through this and I hope this thread helps others too. I will surely post detailed info if I do figure out exactly which wire caused the shorting.
crimped wire bundles (resized).jpgcrimped wire bundles (resized).jpg

#38 3 years ago
Quoted from Markharris2000:

Glad you found the short!!!
Also, did I see some kind of miniature computer screen mounted in the upper right near the wire ramp?

Yes and it's powered outside of the machine via a single USB cable. Doesn't even come close to touching any of the wiring in question if that's why you're asking.

#42 3 years ago

NEVERMIND, STILL UNRESOLVED 1/10/21 10:30pm PST: I should have waited and played more before declaring resolution. After 5 plays I'm back to the same issue again. I've updated my last post about it: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spike-2-node-9-overcurrent-protection-gi-failure-stern-jple#post-6066265

I haven't taken the glass off, picked the playfield back up, moved the machine, nothing since I posted the resolution, just played some games.

I have spent my entire weekend as well as wasting others' weekends trying to figure this out. I'm extremely deflated that it's now happening again seemingly out of nowhere. I have to walk away from this for tonight. Thanks again for everyone's continued support and expertise.

#45 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

You're FAR ahead of where you were at the beginning of the weekend, so consider that your headstart when you dig back into it.

I'm not sure I'm even at a headstart at this point. I've now conjured a new alert and even more confusing behavior. See my edited post. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spike-2-node-9-overcurrent-protection-gi-failure-stern-jple#post-6066265

This machine has been a lemon since I first got it. I have spent more time during the entire year of purchase troubleshooting physical issues, contacting Stern, awaiting then installing parts, testing, recording and sending videos, following troubleshooting steps, scheduling technician visits, etc. vs. just playing/enjoying the machine. Now I'm out of warranty and this most confusing of all issues has arisen. I honestly at this point feel like I should just sell the machine with the known issues for whatever I can get for it and buy a new Prem. I'm literally the only one having this latest issue on an LE/Prem. This is driving me insane. It feels like there's been a much larger issue at hand with this thing since day one that is going to continue no matter what I do.

#47 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Fix the short on CN15 with the 154 GI bulb chain. Ignore everything else until you have that. It may be artifacts of whatever's going on with your CN15 string.

How do I fix a short when I can't even figure out where the short is?? Everything about this issue is now intermittent. Everything you and others have recommended, I've already done except for unsoldering then resoldering all 9 sockets one by one. Which I think is a lost cause. I've already proven it's not a bad socket, just a wiring issue that is apparently nearly impossible to pinpoint, right?

#57 3 years ago

Again thank you ALL for all of this help! I know I'm not quoting/replying to everyone but I am reading every piece of advice.

QQ Before I outline where I'm at: Is it safe for me to play the machine while it's having these issues or should I only be powering it up when I'm in the middle of diagnosing the issues for now? I do understand playing it is not a good idea while in this troubleshooting mode I'm in, just curious if doing so risks damage. I have not been playing so far unless I'm troubleshooting.

Quoted from Eagle14:

Have you tried switching the node boards around? I had this exact same issue on a brand new TMNT and I switched the nodes boards around (they will reprogram themselves on boot). Fixed my issue. Seems not all nodes boards can handle the same currents etc.

I have not. I am aware of this troubleshooting step though. A technician early on while working through my T-Rex opto issues did this. While it was incredibly time consuming, it did narrow down which board needed to be replaced at the time. For my issue in particular though, I though that I have already ruled out that the board itself is bad since I'm getting the expected 5-6V DC across pins 2 & 6 and 1 & 5? BTW I also unmounted the board temporarily to make sure no washers/screws/wires had fallen on top of or were touching the solder side contacts.

Quoted from mbwalker:

To the OP, I think you need to revisit LTG's comment and take an ohm meter and look for shorts again.
Someone mentioned a wire possibly rubbing up against some metal. Given then intermittent nature of the problem, I'd definitely grab a good set of magnifying glasses an look for some worn insulation on a wire, especially around metal that has a sharp edge (i.e. a corner, etc.).
Minding sending a screen shot of the other area that vireland highlighted (see below)?[quoted image]

mbwalker Underside screenshot attached. Let me know if you need a link to view it in higher res.

I feel like I have taken all measures to make sure no wiring is getting contacted by some metal. What I still have yet to do is un-ziptie all wires in the area and thoroughly inspect casings of ALL wires from Node 9 CN15. When I did a few, all of a sudden things were fine but of course then it all went to hell again out of nowhere. I have physically inspected all 9 GI sockets as well as run continuity tests across all. When the issue is there, all sockets have continuity = BAD. When the issue stops, all sockets do not = GOOD.

I have all the sockets and bulbs back in at this point (since I thought that last night I had resolved the issue) but I will remove them all again and do more shorts testing. I will also take hi-res pictures of every socket this time and post them.

Latest occurrence I wanted to point out in case it sparks any ideas: Today, instead of going back to the GI area in question, I decided to at least get any other wiring more "in order." I have the Stern amber rod mod. Its connection to the CN15 on the Node board 1 that is in the front of the cabinet has been disconnected this entire troubleshooting time (as I started by removing all mods). When I installed that a few months ago I didn't do the greatest job of making sure the wiring was secure so I went ahead and secured it a bit. I then thought, what the hell let's plug it back in and see what happens. Upon power up the errors/alerts were gone. They were still there prior to doing this. I resettled the playfield and did a power on/off a few times. Errors/alerts were still gone. I left the machine on for a while, did power on/off a few more times and all was well. I thought I was onto something. I disconnected that Node 1 CN15 connector for the amber rod and powered on and still no issues. Plugged it back in and powered on again, no issues.

This is the kicker: I then was like, no errors/alerts now, so I'll play a few games and see if the issues resurface. With the machine on I started loading the balls back in, just normally letting them roll down from near the flippers into the machine. Literally once the 2nd ball made its way into the trough, BAM upper left GI lights went out. I then went into Service and saw the Node 9 overcurrent protection alert. Powering off then back on, back at square one, Node 9 overcurrent protection alert, followed by TROUGH MALFUNCTION yet again (the original set of alerts/errors).

Now I know that my gameplay triggering the issue previously due to what we think is vibration reviving the short somewhere makes sense. However, this doesn't. A ball slowly dropping into the trough causes very little vibration. Is it possible that somewhere in the switches/wiring/anything of the seemingly unrelated area of the machine could be in play here? Or is what I witnessed likely a red herring and I should return to examining the GI area we think is the issue? I did inspect this new area and didn't see anything physically awry. But with all that said, the second alert after the Node 9 upper left GI has all along been TROUGH MALFUNCTION... Hmmm.

Anyway, I won't be able to return to this until tomorrow night and I will return back to the suspected Node 9 / 154 area at hand, do more DMM testing, and other bulbs/sockets exercises as before. I just wanted to mention this as it seems very suspicious.
PXL_20210112_021204744 (resized).jpgPXL_20210112_021204744 (resized).jpg

#68 3 years ago

EDIT/POSSIBLY GOOD NEWS 1/12 10pm PST: Before you guys go reading through the below (that I wrote a couple hours ago), hang tight. I think I may have just figured out the root cause. Please give me until tomorrow 1/13 to report back. I don't want to jump the gun just yet. I will share my detailed findings in a new post if I determine that I actually found root cause and ultimate resolution.

PREVIOUS POST (keeping for good troubleshooting measure):

Quoted from mbwalker:

timlah 79, is this a plastic piece or metal? Might be a good idea to take off the plastic up top and look for shorts around the light sockets if you can't find it anywhere else.
[quoted image]

That appears to be metal. However the lights / w/e those lead to are not part of this GI AFAIK. For good measure I made sure nothing was touching that metal and I unplugged all 3 connectors one by one powering on/off in between. No change, same errors.

Quoted from Markharris2000:

Tim-
I hope I am not losing track, but with all the bulbs removed, and the cn15 connector disconnected, try to use a meter between the points I circled on GREEN on each of the sockets. You should see NO connectivity, regardless how how much wiggling you do with the wires.
[quoted image]

Yes with or without the bulb in, socket attached or reattached, CN15 attached or not, *when the errors are happening* EVERY socket in this GI has continuity. My understanding is that's because they are all in parallel. Which makes this so difficult to find a culprit. When the GI decides to be fine for a few min, all continuity is gone.

Quoted from PinMonk:

Where the arrow is pointing, is that solder? It shouldn't be there, and if it's running down, it could be making a short.
Also, the area highlighted in red is the metal plate for the playfield rail to slide and rest on. Is the GI wiring over that area in the picture pulled away from that and tied back before the playfield is lowered so it's not pinched? That would DEFINITELY cause a short, and if it was pinched at some point in the past, may have created the short you have.
Also, have you tried power on with the playfield up and CN15 plugged in? Does that work? If it DOES, try wiggling each segment to see if one segment causes the GI to go out.
For the record, the yellow wire is the voltage lead. White is the return.[quoted image]

That may have been solder. I was able to easily scratch it off with one swipe of my fingernail. No change. Also that was the first socket I unsoldered tonight, no change. Also, the reason why you see those wires near the metal guide is because I had started clipping the zip ties. To 1000% clarify, the issues occur when the playfield is up sometimes, when the playfield is down sometimes, no rhyme or reason. Every time I do test I make 100000% sure no wiring, no metal, anything is touching other metal.

Are we 100000000000% sure that this isn't just a Node board 9 issue itself or something completely not a part of this GI? In other words, do we really trust the DIAG's assessment of overcurrent protection continually pointing to Node 9 and shutting down this upper left GI? I understand you guys are saying, well the issue NEVER happens if you have CN15 disconnected but what is that really telling me?

Again like I've stated before I feel like there is a greater electrical problem in my machine that either has to do with a slowly failing Node 9 or something completely different.

These are the many reasons why I feel this way based on my statements/findings earlier plus what I've done and seen tonight:

  • Last night after giving up as the issues were still occurring, everything attached as is, I put the whole thing back together. Balls removed still. Powered it up once more to make sure the issues were still happening -- they were. Tonight all I did was flip the power on and NO issues. In other words nothing physically changed from issue to no issue within this time period.
  • I removed the glass while all GIs were working and started loading balls in again ever so carefully. This time on the 3rd ball BAM GI's went out. Going to the DIAG shows the overcurrent alert. Power off and back on, here we go again with the errors.
  • QUESTION: Why would that be the case if we think this is an intermittent, mechanical related short somewhere getting aggravated/triggered by vibration?

  • Now with the playfield up yet again, I unsoldered and completely removed 5 of the 9 GI sockets (starting with and including all the ones in question throughout this thread). In between each removal, I made sure sure no now exposed wires were touching anything, powered off and on, issues persisted each time. I tested continuity between each wire too each time and of course all have it.
  • I then returned to unraveling, unclipping probably 10-15 stock zip ties, separating wires, jiggling in between power cycles, etc. No change
  • I powered off, leaving the playfield up as is, no physical changes. Came back and powered on and NO issues/alerts + remaining GI bulbs were on again

I cannot go continuing to clip off zip ties. Each time I do I have to somehow make sure nothing is touching anything b/t power cycles. The more I do, the more I'm going to risk shorting somewhere I can't see or shaving off the shielding of any given wire.

When the overcurrent issue happens it's not like I can shake wires/connections to make the machine go back to normal. Even if I fix the short temporarily in that exercise, the machine doesn't just go back to normal. It's a power cycle over and over again (which is probably not good in general) just to see if xx wire or xx socket I've messed with has made any difference.

I can continue unsoldering the remaining 4 sockets and send pictures of each (which all yet again have no bulbs in them since I took them all out again tonight), testing continuity b/t wires of all at each step, but where is that going to get me? I'm now messing with wiring and sockets that have not been touched at all since day one. The continuity testing at this point is pointless since when the issues are occurring ALL sockets/wires show continuity regardless if CN15 is plugged in or not. Not once have I gotten to a while in the issue step to find xx socket or wire is bad. It's impossible since they are all in parallel, right?

Also please keep in mind that I've also physically inspected each wire/socket/board along the entire way to the point of bloodshot eyes. Again even if I can figure this out, I'm going to have to spend hours putting everything back together without messing something else up in the process.

I'm truly at a loss at this point. I've got to be around 20 hours into all of this. How much would I have to pay a technician especially since diagnosing the issue is such a step by step, hope for the best without any real data situation? Should I just buy a new Node board and go through that careful connector removal and re-plug exercise or are you guys certain that it's not a node board itself issue? The path that I'm on seems like wasted effort riddled with more confusion and going down the wrong rabbit holes, ending up in me having a mess I have to spend more time than I have troubleshooting in order to put it all back together. I really wish someone with a JP specifically who has had this UPPER LEFT GI and TROUGH FAILURE before would please chime in.

#73 3 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Wait. So you're saying WITHOUT CN15 plugged in, you have gotten the overcurrent error?

Quoted from PinMonk:

I'm waiting for confirmation that is really what he meant to say before saying anything else because it's extremely hard to keep him focused, and I don't want to be doing this forever.
It's the first time he's said this. Prior he's always said if CN15 was unplugged, the error never happened. Which points directly to GI short.

So sorry to confuse you @vireland! No I have NOT reproduced the same errors/alerts when CN15 is UN-plugged. That was a mixed sentence of mine, addressing the continuity question when CN15 is unplugged or not. Poor wording on my part in that response, sorry!

The only alert that has come up while CN15 is plugged in and when the GI + TROUGH alerts are NOT happening, is one I mentioned a couple posts back: CHECK SWITCH #9 LEFT FLIPPER BUTTON. That was random and only happened a couple times at troubleshooting points where I was not getting the other errors/alerts in question.

GOOD NEWS: I literally just may have figured out root cause & resolution but I'm giving the machine some time to be sure. I just edited my post from a couple hours ago (that you've read) with an edit at the beginning to let people know there's no need to dig in for now. If what I just figured out is right, it was a socket all along (the GI short you and all have been saying all along).

See what I put at the top just now: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spike-2-node-9-overcurrent-protection-gi-failure-stern-jple/page/2#post-6070285

Again really sorry for wasting your time about the CN15 thing, I'm trying to be accurate in my posts but I'm speaking languages I'm only now just learning. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. Like I said in my edit just now, I'm refraining from adding details until I'm certain that what I found is the ultimate resolution. I will do my best to picture and describe all steps if it is.

#78 3 years ago

UPDATE 1/13 9:30AM: Short story (pun intended) - The root cause appears to have been a faulty socket from this UPPER LEFT G.I. area all along.

Long story (How I came to this conclusion):
I messed with a yet to be unsoldered socket (from the location circled below) after all the steps I outlined earlier. Each time I'm moving these wires/sockets BTW I have the machine powered off. Then if I've done a fair amount of movement I stop and power up just to see if the issues are still happening. I was about to unsolder this socket like the other 4 I but all of a sudden the issue had gone a away again. So I grabbed a bulb and popped it in. It lit up. However, I could now trigger the issue by removing the bulb, re-adding it, power cycles in between. So I at least had an intermittent ability to start/stop the issue with this socket! I inspected it yet again and saw nothing but was like this has to be it though. So I unsoldered it.

I have since started at this socket over and over again. Just now I decided to take a ton of pics of it to post here. As I was going through the pics on my computer, I saw the tiniest little copper wire inside the socket housing. I couldn't for the life of me see this with just my eyes and flashlight. The pic I took with a flash shows it clear as day (pic attached). This isn't supposed to be here, correct? Please tell me this isn't normal, I don't see such a thing in any other sockets. What's puzzling though is with the socket (and I hope this isn't a stupid question) is as it is right now, I don't get continuity across its arms. Should I if it is the root cause? If so I suppose it's possible that at this exact testing moment, the wire is not causing a short? EDIT/Clarification: I can get the socket to short intermittently. With the bulb removed, DMM connected via alligator clips to each arm, as I wiggle the arms ever so slightly I get split second BEEPS/continuity. Apparently just the slightest movement/position of the arms, spring or w/e causes enough contact with that tiny little rogue wire fray to short it. I don't think I'm going to even bother removing that little guy. I'll put in a new socket and frame this SOB to put on my wall (of shame? ).

With 5 of the 9 sockets now unsoldered/disconnected, exposed wires electrical taped at the ends, then 4 of the 9 back in place with bulbs, I have played a few games. Issue has yet to resurface!

Irony here: I have never touched this socket/bulb before, it's always had a bulb in it, never disconnected until this issue, and is not one of the two used for those aforementioned mods. So how in the heck did this happen or has that wire been in there all along and I've just been lucky for 1.5 years?

Anyway let me know your guys' thoughts. I have some follow up questions about putting everything back together, but before I do that/ask I wanted to send this along.
Bad Socket_5 (resized).pngBad Socket_5 (resized).pngBad socket location (resized).jpgBad socket location (resized).jpg

#95 3 years ago
Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:

I've marked two key posts, if any of you think others should be marked let me know.

Those two are definitely the key ones I'd want people to read first, thanks for doing that. Do you think it's appropriate/would be helpful for me to change the title of the thread? I feel like it's fine since if someone searches the text of the alerts they should find this pretty quickly.

Quoted from PinMonk:

This is exactly why I was asking for hi-res pictures of the top and bottom of each socket days ago.

I feel terrible for not doing that right after you asked, I'm sorry.

Quoted from PinMonk:

The problem you have is not specific to JP, it's actually too common for Spike, so that's why when you kept wanting someone with JP that had the issue to chime in and tell you the answer, it was a waste of time because the issue had been seen many times before, it was almost always a short in a bulb or socket, and Spike2's very rudimentary diagnostics was telling you 9 specific places to look (which is why the intermittent trough error and other ghost problems were a waste of time to investigate until the GI problem was solved).

Lesson learned and fully understood now!

So now that you've been through this (and documented the outcome well), you can be on the lookout for someone else's sudden Spike overcurrent nightmare and help them. It won't need to be a JP, it can be any Spike game and the process and likely result will be the same.

I will absolutely look out for others screaming about this and help in any way I can. In fact I'm going to post a link to this in the two main JP owner threads for good measure since that's where I first started searching for answers.

Quoted from PinMonk:

Glad you got to the fix in the end and your JP will be back in business "shortly." <-- haha

I commend you for this wordplay, well played sir!

In summary, thank you again PinMonk and EVERYONE for jumping in here, providing the exact advice I needed from the get go (albeit even though I didn't follow it as well as I should have)! Also thanks for reading my short stories of frustration during some of my feeble attempts. I've learned a lot in the past few days from all of you and I couldn't be more grateful.

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