Signals look decent on the scope. So onto some beta testing..

BETA TESTING INFO
I'm interested in getting some boards sent out to 6-8x people -- one board per person. The discounted price will be $20.00ea and I'll include shipping for that price (within the continental US). So you save a pretty good amount over what I'm expecting to offer these at after beta testing ($30-35ea + shipping) in exchange for providing some immediate feedback, then testing for a week or two and letting me know everything's still working well.

Who I'm Looking For
You must have an MPU/game that is accessible & ready to test.. not folded up, in storage, etc (happens often enough). I'm also mainly looking for people who are pretty sure their issues are daughter-board related (ie. pressing on the daughter-board causes lockups/resets or allows the machine to boot) so this can be more of a targeted beta test. I've also made a few exceptions to people that want to game-play test this a bit, but keeping that list somewhat limited. Not looking for people with unknown non-working or corroded boards that may have other issues or that are unable to test soon after getting the board. Would really like to get some immediate feedback on these, so if you can't for whatever reason test soon after getting the board then please hold off.

Installation
Boards will be ready-to-go.. except you'll need to pop your 2764 EPROM from the original daughter-board and install it in the PIGGYDEUX. Then you'll remove the board from the TC1 socket (if it's currently installed) and plug in the PIGGYDEUX. Then it's ready to test.

Reset Board Functionality
For anyone that has a working RESET board, please let me know if you're interested in testing out a wire harness to the reset board.. I'll pick a few people randomly to send a wire harness to for testing that will have an in-line plug to disconnect the IRQ signal and cause a situation where the reset board kicks in. So there will some additional testing steps, but nothing that will take more than a few minutes of time.

List Of Beta Testers
Here's who had expressed interest in beta testing. I'd like to add a few more people, so please read the above info and if it sounds like you're a fit.. let me know. I'll be contacting the individuals below [unless they contact me first] early next week when I have some boards ready to ship.

For resolving daughter-board issues:
-PinDescabarian
-davkonw
-dothedoo
-Barry (via email)
-ChrisHibler

For game-play testing:
-blownfuse
-shimoda
-cfh
-ChrisHibler

Full Refund If It Doesn't Work Out
I don't expect issues, but if for some reason something doesn't work out with this first small round of boards going out, I'll offer a full refund if you ship the board back to me. That way there's not a lot of risk here and most likely you get a nice discount on a board that is good-to-go.

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
Kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

Hey Steve, I'll make an exception if you want one since I know you're a huge 80B fan!

Just was trying not to get too many people that were interested in the discount but where I wasn't actually getting the kind of feedback needed on these. But it still would be helpful to send one out to you if you can put some game-play time on it.

Sounds good! I added you to the list as well.

Cool, got you added.

Yeah actually any of the people that are on the lists, LMK if you'd want to test a reset board harness. I'll get 3x or so out there. You can be one of them

If your reset board caused issues when connected, this board wouldn't solve that as it's not a complete replacement for the actual reset board -- which looks like this: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/MA-1143

There's also an MPU-to-Reset DIP board that plugs into the TC1 socket and makes the connections between the actual reset board and the MPU. These often get abused a bit over the years -- or go missing if someone decided to disconnect the reset board entirely: http://www.docentelectronics.com/httpdocs/AmusementGames/Pinball/Gottlieb/CAGS7-TC1-C.jpg

This PIGGYDEUX board could take the place of the 2nd board / harness (that plugs into the TC1 socket) but would not be the replacement for the physical reset board (1st link) if yours is missing/bad. I may at some point create a small board with the reset board's circuits that would piggy-back into the PIGGYDEUX, but the functionality for a complete replacement is not currently on the board so it's not a replacement itself.

If you're still interested in testing, I don't mind getting this tested with the Swemmer board though. You may just still have issues with the reset board connected if capacitors on that have failed from old age.

Another note..

I'm pretty sure this PIGGYDEUX board could be used with Marco's 2764 test EPROM [as a diagnostic tool] with a couple of small mods. Solder a 2.2k ohm resistor on A6 (pin #4 of the 2764 footprint) connected to the cathode of an led.. then connect the anode of the led to +5v which you can pick up at pin #1 on the 2764 footprint. Really any resistor over about 1.2k should work, but probably better off a bit higher since it's an address line sinking the current. Heatshrink tubing over the connections.. can wrap the 3mm led around to the front of the board. Should be able to use a small 1/8 watt resistor and 3mm led have it fit it in there pretty nicely. Another option is a 28-pin machine-pin socket modified with the resistor/led & Marco's EPROM installed.. then it's removable. Haven't tested this yet myself, but I'll attempt it at some point

Anyone interested in the beta test that I had on the list, you should now have received a PM from me with the link to order a PIGGYDEUX.

Herd of pigs!

Thought I might get clever and put a pig pen around them, but ran out of steam

piggydeux_herd_(resized).jpg

Awesome, looking forward to finally getting these out in the wild. I hope it solves some people's problems quick!

Got 5x of these shipped out today (any without the wire harnesses). I have shimoda & davkonw down for a wire harness, should be getting those shipped out tomorrow.

That's great to hear! Thanks for trying it out so quick & reporting your results!

Yeesh, yeah those leds pack a punch! =] I think I'll try out some higher resistor values and see what I can bump them up to. I've noticed that green, for whatever reason.. isn't very bright and gets drowned out by other colors. I thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad with orange, but it looks like it just isn't very bright PERIOD.

I'll probably go red for power (since I'd think most people would associate red/green with power)... and then blue for reset. Getting green out of there will let me go with a higher resistance value on both leds & I can get it not-so retina burning. Maybe just a slow singe instead

Yep you have the PIGGYDEUX board upside down (180 degrees). Per instructions, with the MPU facing you and TC1 socket at the top, the pig drawing on the PIGGYDEUX should be on the left & silkscreen text readable (not upside down). There should be plenty of clearance that way. Note to everyone, there should be instructions included. If I forgot them for anyone, please contact me and I'll send you a PDF.

Pin #1 is marked on the 2764 eprom socket since its orientation is different than the TC1 socket (I wanted to make sure no one accidentally plugged in their eprom wrong so have mentioned this in the instructions & also marked the pin on the board). Pin #1 is also marked on the TC1 footprint (with just a "1") if you look at the bottom left of the PIGGYDEUX board when the board is oriented so the silkscreen text is readable.

I can get some better pictures in the instructions (ie. board horizontal and show the positioning of the PIGGYDEUX when inserted into the TC1 socket) to make that a bit more clear. It's actually a good thing the board won't fit in there the wrong way though. Then the only concern for incorrect orientation is the eprom.

Mainly a clearance thing due to using a DIP socket. The first prototype(s) were like that -- pin1 on the eprom was near pin1 on the TC1 footprint. But I wanted to use a regular DIP-28 socket on these (more forgiving when installing eproms) and the frame of it only has openings for male pins to pass under on one side of it. Moving it over top the bottom 20-pin male header would have caused clearance issues with the PIGGYDEUX & the original daughterboard (as you saw when the board was flipped 180 degrees). So the socket had to be oriented the opposite direction. Otherwise pin 1's would have lined up.

Good to get feedback though, I'll get a better diagram in the instructions that shows the MPU with TC1 at the top & an illustration of the PIGGYDEUX installed.

I figured the picture below (along with mentioning how to orient the board during installation) was adequate. That along with marking pin 1, pin 40 of the TC1 footprint on the silkscreen, having a silkscreen representation of a notch on there by the TC1 footprint.. and then marking "Pin 1 (2764 EPROM)" as well.

piggydeux_overview_(resized).jpg

I could be wrong though -- and again, feedback from you and others on that kind of thing is good so I can make changes to diagrams, add additional warning papers, etc if necessary.

I had the option of having the socket on the board as it is (oriented the opposite direction) and keeping EPROM pin #1 down by the TC1 pin #1. That would have meant you install the eprom notch opposite the socket notch (ie. non-conventional way of using a socket). I thought that'd be a much worse idea considering most people are used to being able to match the socket notch with the IC notch. Probably a lot more chance for eproms to get destroyed that way than having flipped the socket / connections entirely.

Anyway, if anything with install is unclear, I don't mind doing what I can to fix it. There will always be a chance someone out there will not read anything, tear off warning papers that were attached, etc.. and still "get it wrong" -- but you do your best in preventing that from happening to take care of 99.9% of the issue. The rest is up to the installer.

Probably the best thing I can do is have a better diagram similar to the one above and TAPE IT to the board/socket. So that people *have* to remove it in order to install. That way for anyone that just tosses the instructions, there's a better chance they'll read it.

Thanks for the feedback!

I think people will find this board serves a few functions -- you gain the power/reset leds and a nicer way to connect/disconnect the RESET board from the circuit. It can be used as a quick diagnostic tool if you *think* you're having daughterboard issues, or of course it could be used for its intended purpose of a no-solder plug-and-play fix to an MPU with daughterboard issues. There's also the possibility of using it along with Marco's Sys80 test eprom, with a few small modifications or resistor/led "probe" connected to the right places on the MPU.. you would know that the connections for the ROM are good (since the PIGGYDEUX is plugging directly into the TC1 socket). So even if your issue wasn't daughterboard related you'd still have somewhere to take things.

Have any of the other beta testers had a chance to try the board? Kind of interested in hearing if it immediately fixed things for anyone else that was having issues.

Nice to see that it works fine with the Swemmer Board. More leds!

Seemed like he must have had an issue with the harness or small dip board that normally plugs into the TC1 socket & is just using the PIGGYDEUX / new harness for the connections instead. If the machine was resetting with the old board then the IRQ signal must have had a flaky connection.

Great to hear!

Cool! Thanks for taking the videos, great idea to show the issue & how the add-on board fixes it!

Awesome!

Really glad to hear that it's seemed to have helped a few people that had actual daughter board issues!

I've ordered a reel of 680ohm resistors for the leds to tone them down a bit. 5000x resistors should last quite a while

So far from what I've heard/seen, things are looking pretty good on these. As long as it stays that way over the next few weeks, I'll start making these boards officially available via my website.

Thanks to all the beta testers for the reports of things so far!

These still going strong?

Haven't had time to get any more made up with preparing for Pinfest, but should be back on my radar soon.