(Topic ID: 235445)

Stern Spike Node Board Schematics Troubleshooting and Discussion

By JodyG

5 years ago


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  • 478 posts
  • 109 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 30 days ago by HDBrian
  • Topic is favorited by 70 Pinsiders
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    520-5318-00C Schematics.pdf (PDF preview)
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    520-5321-00 Rev C Damage (resized).jpg
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    There are 478 posts in this topic. You are on page 10 of 10.
    #451 10 months ago
    Quoted from schudel5:

    Yes. Unless they can be easily diagnosed and repaired or someone reverse engineers every single node board. It's already tough to get some node boards right now.

    #452 10 months ago
    Quoted from Spyderturbo007:

    So what happens when these things start failing and either components or replacements are no longer available? Are we all going to be left with a bunch of bricked machines?

    I currently have a bricked Spike 1 game that is only 8 years old that has a board issue with no replacement available.
    Stern indicated they were not prioritizing "older games" any longer
    would not tell me if one would ever be reproduced either

    #453 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    I currently have a bricked Spike 1 game that is only 8 years old that has a board issue with no replacement available.

    What game?

    #454 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    I currently have a bricked Spike 1 game that is only 8 years old that has a board issue with no replacement available.
    Stern indicated they were not prioritizing "older games" any longer
    would not tell me if one would ever be reproduced either

    Which board?

    #456 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    Wrestlemania
    520-6935-10

    I repaired one of those recently, the issue was C16 failed short-circuit thus bringing down the 5V rail. Not saying yours will necessarily have the same problem though.

    #457 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    Wrestlemania
    520-6935-10

    Have you contacted Borygard ? He may be able to fix.

    #458 10 months ago

    Now I feel like I need to go out and buy replacement node boards for every one of my games.

    #459 10 months ago
    Quoted from kermit24:

    Have you contacted Borygard ? He may be able to fix.

    I have been in touch with Chris Hibler
    I sent my board to him this week

    Fingers crossed

    #460 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    I currently have a bricked Spike 1 game that is only 8 years old that has a board issue with no replacement available.
    Stern indicated they were not prioritizing "older games" any longer
    would not tell me if one would ever be reproduced either

    It's a rather insane statement from Stern, knowing that the board are "locked" because of the specific bootloader (at least on Spike 2). Either they release information to allow third party vendors to step in and build board, either they support it themselves. Maybe once many owners with defective machines are starting to complain and collaborate to issue a class action, they will move in the right direction.

    In France we have a law that enforces that spare parts availability is legally mandatory for at least 5y after the LAST unit has been sold on the territory. Unfortunately, this means that their legal obligation ended in 2022 (since it's safe to assume they sold GB up to 2017). Unless some of the other "The Pin" (Spider Man The Pin for ex) pinball have been sold afterward

    #461 10 months ago
    Quoted from Ashram56:

    It's a rather insane statement from Stern, knowing that the board are "locked" because of the specific bootloader (at least on Spike 2). Either they release information to allow third party vendors to step in and build board, either they support it themselves. Maybe once many owners with defective machines are starting to complain and collaborate to issue a class action, they will move in the right direction.
    In France we have a law that enforces that spare parts availability is legally mandatory for at least 5y after the LAST unit has been sold on the territory. Unfortunately, this means that their legal obligation ended in 2022 (since it's safe to assume they sold GB up to 2017). Unless some of the other "The Pin" (Spider Man The Pin for ex) pinball have been sold afterward

    I'm sure many disagree, but this is the reason I shy away from newer games. I can service my old W/B machines when thing fail, for now anyhow. I know some parts will eventually be NLA, but I am hopefully that someone will always be able to re-create them. Maybe the same will hold true for newer, proprietary boards. I would infuriate me to buy a newer stern machine, have a board failure and not be able to fix it or source a replacement. My $8k machine is now a paperweight....

    #462 10 months ago
    Quoted from Ashram56:

    It's a rather insane statement from Stern, knowing that the board are "locked" because of the specific bootloader (at least on Spike 2). Either they release information to allow third party vendors to step in and build board, either they support it themselves. Maybe once many owners with defective machines are starting to complain and collaborate to issue a class action, they will move in the right direction.
    In France we have a law that enforces that spare parts availability is legally mandatory for at least 5y after the LAST unit has been sold on the territory. Unfortunately, this means that their legal obligation ended in 2022 (since it's safe to assume they sold GB up to 2017). Unless some of the other "The Pin" (Spider Man The Pin for ex) pinball have been sold afterward

    exactly why im trying to get exposure on this and find others that have suffered this problem

    #463 10 months ago
    Quoted from fuzz:

    exactly why im trying to get exposure on this and find others that have suffered this problem

    Maybe you did already, but if not : did you start a thread on Pinside, specifically requesting owner with defective Spike board and non available replacement to register ? And maybe start a public document listing the owner and their issue, with the date of the issue, and what was Stern response ?

    2 months later
    #464 7 months ago

    So I've now had my first node board (nodefailure on my Aerosmith. 520-7017-72 node board. I have the the 48V LED on the board but not the 6V and the board does not boot. Removed all connectors but the bus cable and power (CN6) and result is the same. I've been poking around here and it seems a reasonably common failure mode but I haven't seen much troubleshooting guidance.

    Looks like Stern has now replaced this with the 520-1057-40 board. Should I just go with the new board? Am reluctant to swap without understanding the problem. And I'm used to doing my own board repairs (at least on classic pre-spike stuff).

    Any thoughts on specific troubleshoot steps for the 6V on the board? Or is anyone here repairing them? And am I going to need to invest in a hot air station to work on these boards? Just feeling a bit lost at the moment.

    Randy

    #465 7 months ago
    Quoted from herg:

    Is this the best thread to share node board troubleshooting experiences?
    I recently tried to play my IMDN Pro, and found that Node 9 was not found.
    The 6V LED was not lit, so I took the board out of the game and measured a short from the 6V rail to GND.
    Since this could be any component that sits between the 6V and GND rails, I started removing components one at a time, trying to hit the most likely ones first.
    The D9 diode was shorted after I removed it, but there was still low impedance on the board. It did have the zip tie installed per SB189, and the legs were still intact.
    I removed a few capacitors, but mostly because they were easy. I thought maybe C28, the electrolytic, could have failed (it hadn't), but also removed a couple of ceramic caps before resolving to remove U9. Since it has a thermal ground pad, it's more work to remove.
    After removing U9, the short on the board was gone, so both D9 and U9 were confirmed dead. Neither showed physical evidence of damage like I've seen in other pictures here.
    I connected a bench supply to inject 6V, and the board sprang to life with the 6V lit and status LED blinking.
    Replacement parts for all the stuff I removed are on order.
    [quoted image]

    I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but it seemed easier to just quote this post, rather than typing a PM response. Both D9 and U9 had died on mine. D9 is probably through hole in Aerosmith. As mentioned above check the power rail and replace D9 if necessary. If it still has a short, start suspecting U9, but you almost certainly need a hot air station.

    #466 7 months ago

    Bogard may be able to help.heard he has success in repairing those.

    #467 7 months ago
    Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:

    It's near the back, right before the licensing agreement that says you can't modify the software on your own machine and if you do they can brick it if they feel like it.

    This is interesting and should be somewhat worrying for thoose getting movie clips for games like jurassic park, whilst having newer games with insider connected.

    #468 7 months ago
    Quoted from rwredmon:

    So I've now had my first node board (nodefailure on my Aerosmith. 520-7017-72 node board. I have the the 48V LED on the board but not the 6V and the board does not boot. Removed all connectors but the bus cable and power (CN6) and result is the same. I've been poking around here and it seems a reasonably common failure mode but I haven't seen much troubleshooting guidance.
    Looks like Stern has now replaced this with the 520-1057-40 board. Should I just go with the new board? Am reluctant to swap without understanding the problem. And I'm used to doing my own board repairs (at least on classic pre-spike stuff).
    Any thoughts on specific troubleshoot steps for the 6V on the board? Or is anyone here repairing them? And am I going to need to invest in a hot air station to work on these boards? Just feeling a bit lost at the moment.
    Randy

    Use a bench supply to put voltage directly on to the 6v rail. Start with a low over current cutoff of like 50 or 100mA. If you see the communication LED blinking, then it's likely repairable with a couple components. If not, bump the current up another 100mA. If there is still no activity and/or the over current is tripping then probably complicated with multiple dead parts to track down.

    #469 7 months ago
    Quoted from herg:

    I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but it seemed easier to just quote this post, rather than typing a PM response. Both D9 and U9 had died on mine. D9 is probably through hole in Aerosmith. As mentioned above check the power rail and replace D9 if necessary. If it still has a short, start suspecting U9, but you almost certainly need a hot air station.

    Yep that is the common failure and if you are lucky you are only in for the voltage regulator and Schottky diode replacement. I spent some time studying things and am pretty sure D9 is the failure point. Depending on how D9 dies will determine if it just kills U9 or if it ripples the other way and kills a lot of other components on the 6v rail. I have had both types of failures and could only revive the easy one. The hard one had too many dead parts to track down.

    I did some component research when I repaired mine and I found a better spec'd part for D9. I haven't had a chance to test, but I am fairly confident it is a more robust part.

    Original D9 = MBR760
    - https://www.vishay.com/docs/88680/mbr7xx.pdf
    Better part = MBR10100
    - https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/849/mbr1020-2577342.pdf

    3 weeks later
    #470 6 months ago

    To get Aerosmith back up and running while I try to repair the old node board (D9 was definitely shorted but replacing it alone did not resolve), I went ahead and purchased a new node board. I got the newer 520-1057-00 (Green) node board as replacement for the old 520-7017-72 (blue) board.

    Supposed to be plug compatible but I I was surprised to find that the CN6 header is not keyed...all 5 pins are in place. Pin 2 is supposed to be the key pin. Maybe just overlooked in the manufacturing process? I can just cut the pin off of course, but was curious if anyone else had seen this? Just seemed odd to me.

    Randy

    #471 6 months ago
    Quoted from zaza:

    It is different because I made a combination of the 520-5343-xx and 520-8096-xx schematic myself
    As soon as the schematic is verified from (5 ?) different versions, I will place a non-blurry version on my website
    Need verification of the following versions with and without 'doorswitch' and 12V present:
    [quoted image]

    Did you post a complete version if the PDB schematic yet?

    #472 6 months ago
    Quoted from PinMonk:

    Did you post a complete version if the PDB schematic yet?

    No, not yet.

    Quoted from zaza:

    As soon as the schematic is verified from (5 ?) different versions,

    Also don't have info of all different versions

    #473 6 months ago
    Quoted from Fubar:

    That's been done already, simple board sells for 150 ! It's cleaner (and cheaper) to just reprogram the CPU's configuration though.

    Quoted from russdx:

    https://www.mypinballs.com/electronics/store.jsp
    Is pricy but your paying for someone to design and manufacture a plug and play off the shelf board.
    Plus a doubt there is much demand for them so that will affect the price.

    Quoted from PinMonk:

    Haha, I had a similar thought. Maybe even put a dip switch on the mod to choose your country/frequency.

    The board from my pinballs only converts USA to uk, but I’m having an issue with a USA game failing the detection on boot. So either the cpu was flashed for uk or the detection circuit is bad. Would be great if there was a board with a dip switch to choose as ive now found this issue is decently common from stern :/

    2 months later
    #474 3 months ago

    Here is the schematics for 520-5321-00C, the node 8 board on the 2012 Transformers The Pin and Avengers The Pin ELG home pinball machines. This is REV C. REV F is an entirely different board. These games are listed as Spike 1 games, but it's more like Spike 0. None of the boards are compatible with Spike 1.

    520-5321-00C-Schematic-ELG-Node-Board.pdf520-5321-00C-Schematic-ELG-Node-Board.pdf
    #475 3 months ago

    MY TRANSFORMERS THE PIN ELG HOME PINBALL LIVES!!!

    Stern has had 20 new 520-5321-00C node boards made and I received my order yesterday. I installed it and connected everything to it one at a time (powering off each time) out of fear that something else in the game may have been defective and caused the damage to the node board, but eventually I had everything connected and it still booted up fine.
    You should be able to buy one from Marco's, Pinball Life, or any other Stern distributor, but have them make sure it's REV C! REV F is an entirely different board and does not work.

    They only made 20 and will not be making any more.

    https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-5321-00C

    20231219_014212 (resized).jpg20231219_014212 (resized).jpg
    #476 3 months ago

    It’s been a while @hdbrian
    Remind me, what failed in the board being replaced?

    Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
    Http://chrishiblerpinball.com/contact
    Thank you for checking out the PinWiki - http://www.PinWiki.com/

    #477 3 months ago
    Quoted from ChrisHibler:

    It’s been a while HDBrian
    Remind me, what failed in the board being replaced?

    Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
    Http://chrishiblerpinball.com/contact
    Thank you for checking out the PinWiki - http://www.PinWiki.com/

    It feels like everything on that board failed, but it's everything marked in this diagram. Right after we chatted about you taking a shot at repairing it, Stern let me know that they were working on making new ones with newer components.

    520-5321-00C Damage (resized).jpg520-5321-00C Damage (resized).jpg
    2 months later
    #478 30 days ago

    Here are the schematics for 520-5318-00C and 520-5318-01C node board 0 for the Transformers and Avengers "The Pin" ELG home pinball machines.

    520-5318-00C Schematics.pdf520-5318-00C Schematics.pdf
    There are 478 posts in this topic. You are on page 10 of 10.

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