Stern Star Wars Spike 2 LED issue

[andy]

I’ve got a Star Wars Pro and the Death Star LEDs (there are 5 of them) are all stuck on. All other LEDs (and indeed everything else) in the game work fine.

The Death Star LEDs are driven by a 16 LED board (which does no other LEDs in this game) which is node 9C - the serial cable daisy chains from node board 9 through 9A and 9B to 9C.

If I move the serial cable to bypass 9B (so cable to 9C goes directly from 9A) the LEDs are locked on so I take from that 9B isn’t at fault
If I move the serial cable to bypass 9A (so cable to 9B goes directly from node board 9) the LEDs are locked on so I take from that 9A isn’t at fault.
If I unplug the serial cable from 9C, the LEDs go off.

So from all this I think 9A and 9B must be OK and the problem lies with 9C itself? I haven’t plugged 9C directly into node board 9 as the cable doesn’t reach…

Board 9C is fortunately both available and fairly cheap so my intention is to get a new 9C board unless anyone thinks my reasoning is faulty or there’s anything else to test? I’m assuming (and hoping…) that node board 9 itself wouldn’t fail in such a way to lock a subset of LEDs on like that…?

Thanks very much,
Andy

 

[Fubar]

It does sound like an issue with 9c. Check it closely (on both sides) for anything which could be creating a short between traces, like a small bit of metal.

 

[andy]

It does sound like an issue with 9c. Check it closely (on both sides) for anything which could be creating a short between traces, like a small bit of metal.

Thanks for the suggestion but no, nothing obvious unfortunately, the back of the board was quite dusty so I brushed it off to make sure no small bits were shorting, but LEDs still locked on…

 

[Marvello]

Have a read through this to see if any of it could have caused the issue. It was 9A I ended up replacing.

Post in thread 'Stern LED Board 9B 520-7054-00 / 520-7053-00'

May 3, 2025

When you say "swapped cable" what did you change exactly?

I used the cable that was attached to faulty 9B on another LED board and it worked.

Sounds like the issue might be with 9A output?

I think I agree. By moving things around I know the cable is fine, and 9B (which I thought was faulty) is fine. That leaves the output of 9A which doesn't work with 2 different LED boards I've tried.

The issue started (I think) after I replaced faulty Node Board 8.

I guess I'll have to start with buying a 9A LED board (520-7053-00). Seems like only Star Wars uses it, which isn't great.

• Marvello

 

[Fubar]

It could be an issue with the cable, have you tried isolating that?

Otherwise it could be a handful of components on the board... https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/520-6831-00B-16-Output-LED-Board.pdf

 

[Marvello]

Similar issue here.

Star Wars Pro : Death star led issue + other leds issues | Tech: LCD era games | Pinside.com

| Forum Topic by Fredb31

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