Alpha 2 V22/22, cabinet lights Intermittent issue

[dailey]

I noticed something strange about my Alpha 2 V22/22 side lights, topper & cabinet. I'm running Quick Hit triple blazing sevens. The lights are normally red during the game but change color and put on a light show during the bonus game. Today I noticed it seemed stuck on violet color, both cabinet & topper, and there was no change at all during the bonus game. I re-booted the machine then it went back to normal. Red and color change during the bonus game. Whatever the color, the cabinet and topper side lights are always coordinated.


Should I be looking for a loose connection like a USB cable ?

[coolwavepic]

When you power down your machine for the night, do you just turn the cabinet switch off or the entire machine? I noticed with some games, if you turn the cabinet switch off and keep the CPU running and turn it back on the Lights stick or throw an error. My fix was to just do a hard reset... turn both switches off and back on again to reboot.

[dailey]

I power down by switching off my surge protected power strip.

[rickhunter]

What are the switches set for your default light colors?  When you power up the cabinet, what color are the lights?  If they are violet, then that means that the gadget controller did not communicate with the mpu.  This could mean a faulty usb cable, faulty controller, or flaky usb port on mpu.  Next time it happens, go into the diagnostic menu and run the tests for the side light treatments to see if the colors change.  If you can't even run the test, it's because the controller is not seen by the OS.  I would power off, and switch USB ports on mpu to see if it fixes the issue.

[dailey]

Thanks Rick. Here is some information I just found.

I think I found the answer I was looking for in a Bally installation manual. In this manual is a diagnostics section for the Light Control Unit (LCU) board which controls these lights. My machines light pattern symptoms were incorrect color and lights don't blink.

The diagnostic table states:
1. The LED color or intensity is incorrect / A connector is loose or disconnected.
2. After initial startup and successfully passing the diagnostic mode period, no lights blink / A previously connected and working device has become disconnected or damaged.

My machine is operating normally right now. Also, I discovered there is an LED indicator light on the LCU board. The blinking code indicates the machine communicates with the LCU and no errors exist. I also discovered that there is a USB cable that goes to this board. It's probably the source of the problem. I've had problems before with USB cables. If it happens again I'll examine or replace the cable.

[dailey]

Looks like the light problem is not resolved. I replaced the USB cable from MPU to the light control board (LCU) with no effect and the problem is getting more frequent.


Upon power up the lights successfully complete the diagnostic mode period where they go through the various colors. This confirms all the lights are working. The machine eventually completes the boot up and becomes ready to play. At this time after completing bootup the cabinet and topper side lights are often violet in color when they should be red. The machine has no errors and plays fine. When I hit the free bonus games, the lights remain violet and do not blink. There is no light show. During this condition I opened the main door and checked the light control board. According to the blinking code of the board indicator light, the board is communicating with the MPU and no errors exist.


So far whenever I reboot it clears up the problem. At completion of reboot the lights are red. During play the lights never malfunction. I can leave it on all day and nothing happens. It seems to only happen upon first boot and then only occasionally.
I power up using a surge protected power strip. I tried turning it on at the machine with no change. I also tried changing USB ports with no effect.


I'm thinking since the lights pass the initial diagnostic test at startup and there is communication to the light control board, the problem must be with the light control board itself, but I would like to get some opinions and input here. Has anyone ever heard of this type of problem ? Should I start looking for another LCU board ?

[rickhunter]

Yeah, I would try another LCU board.  Seems like it has to "heat up" or something for it to function right.  You might have cold solder somewhere on the board.

[Thanks A Slot]

Dailey, dude...that is a beautiful stand!

[dailey]

I'm still having intermittent issues with my machine at boot up.  Here is an update.

Occasionally at completion of boot up my cabinet and topper lights are the wrong color and do not respond to the game. Also, sometimes there is no sound. I've learned that when the lights are blue (they should be red) it means that they are not under software control. They are per the dip switch setting. This happens about once in four boot ups. The lack of sound happens about one of ten boot ups. Both problems, until today, always corrected themselves with a second boot up. Today I had to reboot twice.

I did notice during the first boot up this morning that three times a message came up on the screen "Call Attendant   Sound USB Disconnected".  At completion of boot up the lights were malfunctioning but the sound was ok. There were no more error messages during the next two boots and its now running ok. Everything works.

I have never experienced any light or sound malfunctions during play. This seems to be a boot related problem effecting both light and sound. I'm not sure if the two problems are related though. They don't both happen at the same time.  If I had a spare LCU board I would try swapping it, but I haven't found one yet (A08). I replaced the USB cable from MPU to LCU some time ago with no effect. If it were just flakey USB connections, wouldn't it sometimes happen during play ?

Just wondering if anyone has any idea what's happening. In the meantime I'll keep looking for another LCU board. I wouldn't mind having the backup anyway. I might also try swapping the USB cables to different ports.

It sure seems strange that just another boot can clear it up. I can live with the problem so far. It's just annoying but I'm afraid of it getting worse.

[rickhunter]

Sounds like you may be having an issue with your USB ports on the MPU.  There are 2 USB ports on the backplane, try using those for the LCU board and the sound.

[dailey]

The 2 USB ports on the backplane are occupied. I'll trace the cables to see where they go.