Is there a difference in the Spike 2 node board 520-7017-72 being sold at Pinball Life (in stock) and Marcos (out of stock)? Same part number, but $189 vs $120. Are there different versions currently being sold?

Oh crap, I better dial back my JP LED's right away; no way Stern actually bought quality LED's there

The $120 is not in stock; likely old pricing that will be adjusted when restocked. $179-$189 is the going rate for these boards.

Not sure how hard they drive them either. FUD maybe. but I feel better dialing back the brightness. specially the ones on the CPU board.

They are smd. I’ve never seen one fail unless something foreign physically damages it.

They will fail over time. I have some 5050 beads going bad that have run for 4~5 years 24/7 which is close to the 50k hour rating most 5050 LED beads have. Power supply is still clean and right at 12v.
20210121_104159 (resized).jpg
Also keep in mind when the datasheet says 50k hours. That is number of running hours at max load until it dims below 70% of the original brightness. So if stern drives the LEDs at the maximum expect five years of runtime life before the 5050 beads start to dim out on the CPU board and other places that are always on. Dial back the GI LED in the head at the least. Replace the $1k CPU board because some 5050 led beads burned out would suck.

Didn’t they update prices and CPUs are now $350?

Also not hard to just had a LED strip back there if you really had those lights go out at some point.

That would be about 5000 years in my house with the machines only on when in use.

Has there been any updates on diagnosing a short within a Spike system? It looks like my board did not detect a short and shut down in time before any damage was done. Left manga-sling locked on, emitting smoke and burnt smell. Many GI lights also went dark.

This is from my GB Premium (original NIB owner, October 2016), Node 9 board.
Node9_Board_blown_transistors (resized).jpeg

If anyone can lend some advice (thank you to all that already have!), I have a troubleshooting side thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbusters-premium-9-node-not-found-was-the-beginning#post-6090607

Sounds like a blown transistor (fixable if you can solder) and/or a blown coil (need a new sling coil). Do you have a multimeter?

Don't trust myself with board circuitry soldering until I can get some practice on some already unusable stuff. I have a replacement board on order.

New magnet coil on order too.

I have a Fluke multi--meter, going to start tracing wires for continuity with hopes to find any short, or at least get closer. Then on to checking light sockets and bulbs. I hope I can pinpoint.

Borygard can repair node boards if you can't figure it out yourself.

See if you can detect if the transistor is bad. If the transistor seems good might have a more complex issue. I think they are N channel mosfets.

http://www.utm.edu/staff/leeb/mostest.htm

Anyone here capable of working on these boards. I believe the audio amplifier failed on my BK premium.

Drop a PM to Borygard and see if he can fix that. He does repair node boards, but not sure about the CPU board where the amp is.