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Stern GI flicker (affecting ACDC Premium and also Metallica)

Spadge

Spadge

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Nov 8, 2016
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1,814
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Wakefield
Hi all, am having GI flicker problems with my AC/DC premium. The flicker is so bad it's hard to play to be honest.

I've tried wobbling the lugs on the BR and this doesn't seem to have any affect.
I've tried unplugging and plugging back in all connectors and on the GI controller board.

What I've done for now is disable the under playfield GI and this has the effect of (a) stopping any flicker and (b) losing the hell section red GI underneath.

There are connectors for RGB extensions on the board (2 pin connectors) for the Red, Blue, White GI and the under table which are Red. They can be tested in the DIAG/ACDC/RGB Ext.

Note that if I disconnect any of the above, the flickering stops but obviously you lose the associated GI circuit. Of all these the under table GI is the least seen so I disconnected that (unplugged it).

All the GI circuits above work, and the flickering disappears if one of them is disconnected.

I've added a trough light to the game, this has no effect in the flicker whether connected or not.

So I believe I'm looking at either a board fault or more likely a power/voltage problem as it seems to fail when all GI is connected.

Could it be possible that the large capacitor on the GI controller board has failed (10000uf 16v) ?



(Put on Pinside and also mailed Stern support)
 
Two separate machines have the same issue?? Personally i'd be looking at either the location (are they next to each other), or fed from the same supply (Shove an external Mains filter on one and see it makes a difference...)...
 
I think AC/DC and Metallica share the same extended RGB GI controller. I just have AC/DC but have read about very similar flicker problems on both.
 
Can you run an extension cord from a different mains spur and try that ?
 
have you checked all the bulbs are in place? I've read where bulbs come out a little bit and it causes the rest to flicker.
 
Thanks Bob, GI works, so assume the fuse hasn't failed. I'll double check though. I have a replacement BR to try that Phil @PH kindly sent me, I tried that and as far as I could see, no difference. The GI always worked OK until earlier in the year. I use one of the GI ciruits for a led strip on the trough, but if disabled, this has no effect (ie. still flickers). Cables seem fine, still operating with lower playfield GI disabled for best of a bad job! To my untrained eyes, it seems related to too much power drawn, in that if I disconnect a GI circuit (from the 4) then it doesn't flicker.
 
Spadge said:
Thanks Bob, GI works, so assume the fuse hasn't failed. I'll double check though. I have a replacement BR to try that Phil @PH kindly sent me, I tried that and as far as I could see, no difference. The GI always worked OK until earlier in the year. I use one of the GI ciruits for a led strip on the trough, but if disabled, this has no effect (ie. still flickers). Cables seem fine, still operating with lower playfield GI disabled for best of a bad job! To my untrained eyes, it seems related to too much power drawn, in that if I disconnect a GI circuit (from the 4) then it doesn't flicker.
Click to expand...
There's also a voltage regulator on the board creating 5V to power the chips. Worth checking that's stable. Pin 20 wrt pin 10 on U3

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 
Just had another delve in. The BR & contacts seem fine (same as with newer one - just tried it again), fuse is OK, they won't light at all if failed. Thanks, I will look at above when I have opportunity.

GI lights work independently (Blue, Red, White and underplayfield). Any 3 out of the 4 connected and fine, but not all 4. I've nothing that I'm aware of that's drawing more power (other than the Led strip for the trough and its the same if disabled). No lamp flickering without taking the thing to bits. It'll have to wait.
 
I've got this on my MET Premium. Not turned it on for a while, and this crops up... up along with a Fish Tales Audio issue - not having much luck with games this week!
 
Old thread resurrection!
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Actually I think I have the conclusion to this old thread ( at least for the ACDC problem ). I bought Spadges ACDC from him and it came with the crazy GI flicker. I replaced a capacitor on a board on the underside of the playfield near the back and it fixed it.
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Even pinball machines get the January blues 😁
Click to expand...
kevlar said:
Old thread resurrection!
View attachment 191568

Actually I think I have the conclusion to this old thread ( at least for the ACDC problem ). I bought Spadges ACDC from him and it came with the crazy GI flicker. I replaced a capacitor on a board on the underside of the playfield near the back and it fixed it.
Click to expand...
cheers - I'll have a looksee.

Curiously enough I also bought Spadge's ACDC off him - maybe it was a different ACDC (it was a Luci) machine, or a parallel dimension...
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
cheers - I'll have a looksee.

Curiously enough I also bought Spadge's ACDC off him - maybe it was a different ACDC (it was a Luci) machine, or a parallel dimension...
Click to expand...
Yeah he definitely bought another, I remember him contacting me asking me to sell mine back to him.
 
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