CoinOp Cauldron now recommends that you replace the ICD connectors at J101, J115, J120, and J121 with Molex-style Trifurcon connectors to prevent this type of thing. The heat in those areas not only takes out the headers but it also tarnishes the connectors and reduces their efficiency. So CoinOp replaces the headers with ones that have a higher heat tolerance and recommends doing the same for the connectors to prevent the oxidation your talking about.

Thanks Rob. Stuck the part in today and fixed my TAF!

... Ok but your not done yet

Just wanted to come give Kahr another thumbs up from me. My TAF started getting all sorts of silly. I have a variable voltage regulator on my power driver board, and no matter how many times I adjusted it, after 2-3 games - reset city.

I installed one of his daughter boards on a whim - BAM - no problems for almost half an hour. So good to finally just be able to play and enjoy my TAF.

I am doing my homework on PinWiki for 5V problems, and poor WeirPinball will have to put up with me begging to come use his desolder gun for replacing all my male and female pins, capacitors, BRs, thermistors, transformer pins, and other such goodies, but for now, I'm going to play and enjoy my TAF. Been dealing with this for 2-3 months, and now I can just play and enjoy my game - at last.

Thanks, Kahr!!! I ordered a couple more for AFM and my new DM - just in case!

Congratulations, Rob! I wanted to chime in that your board has *also* fixed my TAF, going on several months now. My CFTBL is now exhibiting the reset issue and I'll be ordering a daughterboard for that as well as my TZ as a precaution... Do you deliver?

OK. Silly question. (More of a verification than anything else.)

I am thinking that this board may solve my current issue with my Theatre of Magic resetting.

I have a number of mods on my TOM. LEDs everywhere (which should be a benefit power wise), but also some "always on" LED strip lights in a couple of spots (connected to J118), ColorDMD, animated Tiger saw and marquee), and everything runs PERFECTLY fine. no resets what-so-ever... Until.....

I added a Pinduino kit. The game will run for varying lengths of time and then BAM.... Reset. Only with the Pinduino connected. Sometimes I can go 5-10 minutes without a reset, other times only a minute or two. Everything seems to be working fine right up until the reset.

I have been working on a restore (plus brass plating) of my TOM and it was out of commission for 4 months. I finally got the last pieces of brass back and installed just 2 days ago and we had a Christmas party last night. People complained about it a lot, but not until towards the end of the night. Then I read elsewhere that holding down both flippers can cause this for some people. Thinking back, with those playing last night being new (or newer) to pinballs, they tend to hit both flippers at the same time, thus the reason it took me a lot longer to replicate it. I didn't read that "both flippers" thing until this morning when I got to work, so I couldn't test it. I was focusing on things like the trunk moving and magnets turning on, but I wonder if those are driven by the 12V and not the 5V as they seemed to have no impact on when things reset.

I played 6 games last night after everyone left. 2 games with everything connected, and I got resets both times. 2 games with the Pinduino disconnected, and got NO resets. 1 more game with the Pinduino back in the mix and sure enough, reset after about 3 balls. Then 1 final game with the Pinduino disconnected and no problems.

So to me, it just seems like I am over-taxing the 5V supply to the extra lights and such? I was tipped off my lyonsden to check out this "power fix" as a possible solution, but I just wanted to run it past those of you here that have one or maybe knows more about it just to confirm before I just drop money at the problem (even though it isn't much).

I don't think that the Pinduino is at fault, just that I am tapping too much off of that 5V under certain situations in gameplay.

Thoughts on if people think that this little gem of a "power fix" will actually fix my particular power situation? Thanks!

I remember dealing with a relatively same issue as you are describing with my TAF. Mine is modded pretty heavily, and I added a ColorDMD. Once I did that, I started getting completely random resets. I had gauges on my voltage test points, and I was constantly dipping below 5v. I had a variable voltage regulator that I could adjust my voltage back to 5v, but inevitably, it would dip back below and resets would occur.

I wiped the slate clean and ordered a new Rottendog power supply board. Been fine ever since.

Yeah, but what does that cost? Like $300 I think.... Eek...

Depends on the angle you see it from.

To me, $300 is well worth the peace of mind. Knowing my game has a nice brand new upgraded board instead of a 22 year old piece of hardware is very re-assuring. I mean, 22 years, that's older than some members here on Pinside. It's not money wasted, that's for sure.

As well, when you replace your board, you can sell your old one here. Depending on how you fare, you can get $100-$125 for it, so now that brand new board costs about $175.

I have a brand new Rottendog power driver board for my AFM that just came in today. When I put up my old board, watch me sell it and recoup some of my money...

Finally, based on the mods you have described to your game, is $175 - after your old board sells - really THAT much given that a ColorDMD is $400?

Just some food for thought...!

Yeah but with the mods that just went in this year alone, plus Christmas, my "financial advisor" (wife) is not going to let me drop $300 (or even $175 if I resell the original board) any time soon on something that *might* be fixable for $40. I do appreciate your perspective on it though. I would really be looking this route if I was having issues with just a stock game or one with a basic mod or two that was having troubles, but what this tells me is that my 22 year old board is still in good shape (for now anyway) and it is the 5V watchdog circuitry is just kicking in from the amount of stuff it is being asked to power. I agree with you 100% that replacing the whole board for $300 minus original board resale would solve the issue. It just seems like there may be another option since the board seems healthy at this point.

So that being said, does anyone have any thoughts on if this little Kahr board will in fact prevent my resets? I have 1 person elsewhere saying yes, and I have the (greatly appreciated) insight from NPO above. Just wanting to see if I can resolve it for $40 (or $30 with the cheaper board)... Then if my power board goes out down the road, I can tackle that larger expense then and put in a replacement board (granted with little to know resale value on the original), but not have that larger expense until it is truly needed.

My bad, I was under the impression that you already HAD the Kahr Board installed. My particular scenario was with the Kahr board installed, I still was having reset issues. My bad, bud.

That being said, yes, absolutely try the lil' board first. No reason to go $300+ yet.

No worries at all. Sometimes I get a little long winded in my posts and my actual situation/question can get lost.

Just ordered the $39 version. That way I have some monitoring in case things start to turn south down the road.

Thanks.

Got the pro version today and it seems to have resolved my reset issue from having a lot of lights and mods on the 5V.... YAY! Managed to play 4 games without a single reset and with all of the bells and whistles running.

Just a reminder to check/clean/reseat the stupid Z connector between the boards while you are working on reset issues.
Use sandpaper or something else to shine up the pins. Even tarnish on the connectors can cause all kinds of voltage loss even if everything else is working fine.

I guess I should have waited a few days and gotten the 2017 version. LOL

Yeah, me too! My order just shipped a couple of days ago. I sure would have waited so as to get this newer version.
Just my luck!!!

Mike in Kentucky

both my orders are in 2015. d0h!

Thx for continuing to evolve this product Rob. The 12V monitoring and LED setup is so slick.

Thanks for the offer, but 25% (even if it is just $10) for something that I got and installed literally 4 days ago isn't great luck.

It's OK. The board should continue to do what I need it to for a long time and allows my Theatre of Magic to run with all of the mods perfectly.

Hello,

I just received the Pro Daughter board. I tried it on my TS. This machine never had any type of reset problem, ever. Just testing, really. After few seconds from switching the machine on, both the red and blue led lights up. Why is that? I have a led stripe and extra flasher mod installed, maybe it depends from that?

Just ordered 2 of these boards, I look forward to trying them out.

You see, how perfect the RKahr board does its job.

It only shows, that your voltages already are at their limits, nearly at a point, that a reset can happen, but a bit above that point, that there is still no reset.

I never understood, how anybody can connect modifications to the within week voltages of the PDB.

Alright!!! I finally got a discount at least once in my life.

My statement was absolutely not meant sarcastic in any way - why should I be sarcastic?

I wanted to praise your board, that it does not only solve the reset problems, but now also is a perfect diagnostic tool in the newest version. PERFECT done job.

And your documentation is incredible good as always.

I will order a board next month too.

PS.:
Rebalancing the power in WPC-machines could be further improoved, when people would replace Diodes D1 and D2 on the PDB by jumper wires or zero-ohm-resistors.
Diodes D1 and D2 are imho a design fault by Bally/WMS. These 2 diodes are not only superfluous but damaging; so they should be replaced with jumper-wires or zero-ohm-resistors.
I have written something here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tom-unstable-12v-regulated-voltage#post-2749920

I just purchased the daughterboard in hopes that it will keep my CFTBL from resetting. My game room has been sitting under covers for several years (sad, I know) because we needed to consolidate another household of boxes.
My wife was recentlymdiagnosed with cancer and drug costs being what they are, we need to sell everything.
My hope was to dig the machines out, boot them up, (play a few games), and sell them off.

My question is this. Will having this daughterboard on the machine be a welcome addition to a buyer or will it be suspect and potentially lose me cash on a sale? The machine is otherwise in great shape! Clean, all plastics in great shape, etc...

She had one drug added to her chemo last week that cost us $4986. One. Dose.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

~Jo

Personally, I feel the $30 investment is good insurance to remedy most any reset issues. Even lurking ones that might not show up in your home, but maybe the new buyer's home.

It's plug and play and instantly removable if the buyer decides they don't like it for some reason.

I see no need to get the super fancy one. Just the standard unit is all you need.

I think it is highly dependent on the buyer.

Buyer A might say: Game is working perfectly, I'm happy. Here's the money.
Buyer B might say: Yeah, I understand then game is playing perfectly but but it's not working perfectly. There is some driver board issue, or interconnect, that is being masked by the (very cool) rkahr circuit. As such, value is reduced by whatever estimated repair is needed

Just my two cents.

... Altan

Just ordered the pro version for my DW. It has always been a little flaky when all my other games are on, but lately it has started doing "double flip" resets.

I've got a hakko desoldering gun, caps, etc, but this is well worth the time and effort if it solves the problem. I'll report back!

Got the pro version for my RS. No more resets! Lit red, but I'll go with it until I gotta replace caps. Great product, thanks Rob!

I just used my back up board so I'll be ordering more. They have really saved the day and keep my games on route going!

This is cool! Backed!!

Bought a Pro WPC Power Fix board, installed in CFTBL, runs like a top now. Quality product. Thanks Rob!

Thanks again for this great product!
All of my games on location that have them are still working great!