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Stern '24' DMD Fault

Martywolfman

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Joined
Jun 2, 2018
Messages
467
Location
Bedford
So today I recieved a Stern 24, with the DMD as shown in the picture. I was well aware of the fault before the sale.

Whilst it does work fine otherwise, I was just wondering if there's anything that is an easy fix that is worth trying, or is the only likely way to fix it, to replace it with a new one?


dmd.jpg
 
You could try reseating the cables that go from the DMD to the board and see if that improves it.
 
I have seen the dmds that Dr Pinball does, I would get one, you can choose which colour too. About £110?
 
It may possible to fix with silver epoxy depending on the cause of the fault. If you already have some then it might be worth a go. It's expensive stuff (£60 a tube?) so not really cost effective buying to attempt a fix on a single DMD as it might not even work anyway.

I'm not sure if there's a ColorDMD for 24 but you should be able to get one on the second-hand market or a new single-colour LED replacement might be around £250.
 
Thanks guys.

I don't own any silver epoxy - I have no idea what I would be needing to do with it anyway, hehe. I have no experience with these things, and no real electronics knowledge or experience, so it would need to be something pretty straightforward.

I had already checked if the colourDMD was available, because they are awesome. Unfortunately not.

So I'll try reseating the cables - I assume that basically just means taking them off, and making sure they are pushed back on preoplerly. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that. :)

Otherwise I guess a replacement is in order, but I suspected as much to be honest.
 
It's a shame there isn't a magic way of taking the LEDs that are stuck ON with your DMD and put them in my DMD that has a column stuck OFF haha
 
I'd just live with it. It's like the patina an antique item acquires with age,. There is beauty in things that still function but not quite as they did originally.
 
It's a shame there isn't a magic way of taking the LEDs that are stuck ON with your DMD and put them in my DMD that has a column stuck OFF haha

Haha, yes! Surely there must be a way we can cut and paste them. :D

I'd just live with it. It's like the patina an antique item acquires with age,. There is beauty in things that still function but not quite as they did originally.

I may very well do that in the end. It's a fair chunk of money to spend on something that still serves its purpose just fine, and it's not like you really spend that much time staring at it whilst you play - my scores would be even more abyssmal than they are now, hehe :D
 
I'm guessing this is not the pinled one with plug in dot modules?
Isn't this an original plasma:hmm:

I'm in a similar boat with my 128x16 DMD on Hook which is failing but I live with it. I hope one day pinballsp releases his multi-colour LED replacement, that is another option for you to consider @Martywolfman he already does those for standard sizes.

Edit. Lot of good info in this thread http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/colour-dmd-shoot-out-options.38617/
 
I'm guessing this is not the pinled one with plug in dot modules?

Unfortunately not, as a quick trip to aliexpress would have sorted that out :(

@Mercifull Whats this silver epoxy method for fixing DMD's i've not heard of that one before?
 
Unfortunately not, as a quick trip to aliexpress would have sorted that out :(

@Mercifull Whats this silver epoxy method for fixing DMD's i've not heard of that one before?
Silver epoxy is conductive and as such you can lay new tracks from busted pins. It's allegedly too fiddly to use solder as well as too much risk to other components. I have a guide on how to repair a DMD using this method but never tried it myself althought I do have a very small amount of silver epoxy enough for maybe one or two DMDs.

When I get home I'll see if i can find it and upload it/link to it. I was planning in attempting to fix mine using this method and filming it for a YouTube video.
 
I have never seen a plasma display with stuck on lines so assumed it was led as seen them stuck on in line with a dead dot
 
Yeah, as far as I'm aware it's just the original display. However, I certainly don't know its full history, and wouldn;t have a clue how to recognise what kind of display it is.

Thanks @astyy, I'll take a look at that thread when I have a few minutes.
 
If it's the original display it should be led not plasma so you might have options but I'm sure the stern displays had the segments hard soldered to the board
 
24 is 2009 so surely must be Led. The early stern led displays have 16x16 segment blocks that you can pop out with a screwdriver and swap around (I did this with POTC although that was from 2006), yours is probably more like Iron Man and Avatar from 2010 that have 8x8 blocks that are soldered in.
One dead led in one block can cause a line out so I’ve been told.
 
To tell whether it’s led or plasma just look at the front, plasma has a glass front, on the front of Led dmd’s you can see the led blocks.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

I had a look yesterday - I'm pretty sure it's LED, as I'm assuming a plasma would just look like a blank screen when it's turned off, wheeras this you can definitely see individual cells on it.

I had a quick look at the connectors, especially for the ribbon cable that connects to the screen. I wasn't sure what I was seeing to being with. As i tried to gently pull the connector, the two plastic 'wings' at the side were moving around. I thought something was broken at first, but then I realised they were meant to clip the connector and hold it in position.

'AHA!' I thought. 'Bingo!' These weren't clipped in position properly when I first looked at it, so I thought that might have been the problem. So I took the connector off, put it back in position, making sure the clips were in the locked position, turned the game back on and...... No change. hehe.

Oh well. It looks like it will have to be a replacement, if it either gets worse or bothers me too much (I don;t know that it will bother me too much)

I don't have the skills or tools to go soldering in a new part of the display.
 
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