Hey Pinside,

I wanted to bring your attention to a new product (pinball testing tool) that I've created. It's a 64 Switch Matrix Tester that can be utilized when diagnosing the switch matrix on just about any solid state pinball machine. It's being offered fully assembled -OR- as a bare board / kit for DIY'ers. Machine-specific wire harnesses or wiring kits are available separately or you can provide your own wire & Molex parts.

For those that aren't too familiar with where a tool like this would be useful, the easiest explanation is that it can help you troubleshoot non-working or locked-on playfield switches by isolating the playfield switches from the MPU board. This is done by unplugging the playfield switch harnesses from the MPU & then plugging in the Switch Matrix Tester harness. You can then activate switches via the Switch Matrix Tester & verify the MPU board is detecting the switches correctly -- if not, it's an MPU problem. If switches are working properly, then the issue is in the playfield wiring or at the switch itself. Isolating issues in this manner helps speed repair time for anyone fixing up a lot of older games in various states of disrepair or doing their own board work. For more technical info about how a switch matrix works, described in layman's terms, check out this write-up by DKPinball http://www.dkpinball.com/DKWP/?p=59

64switch_angle_500.jpg
64switch2.jpg

Lots of versatility with this tester. The 64 individual momentary buttons & 64 diodes mimic an actual pinball machine's switch matrix setup & allow for greater control when testing tough switch matrix issues. 64 DIP switches allow you to lock any switch fully ON, useful when simulating games at the bench or troubleshooting without having to hold multiple buttons down. There's also silkscreen cross on the PCB that can be used with printable switch matrix "cheat sheets" to help identify switches on non-Williams pinball machines easily.

Now available for sale directly from Pinitech!
For more details & purchasing options, visit http://www.pinitech.com/products/64switch_tester.php

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

Thanks Hans! I'm sure you can appreciate the time involved in laying out a board like this. Drove myself nuts getting all of the buttons lined up and packing everything in there while still allowing a compact size to hold in your hand. Worth it in the end though I think

Thanks! Glad to hear it! I know the fully assembled stuff isn't "cheap" but it's priced at what I am comfortable selling it for given the time involved in assembly. Would much rather save people some money by having them build the board themselves if they're capable with a soldering iron. It really isn't too bad for the DIY'ers to take 1-2hrs to build out the board & then build some wire harnesses up over time to fit their needs. Build it once and you're done and have something incredibly useful and versatile to use when diagnosing pinball machines.

John, thanks for the kind words, positive feedback on the switch tester and helping to get the word out! Very much appreciated! Most of all, thanks for the final "kick-in-the-butt" to get this created! I'd been asked a few times before, but never gave it a lot of serious thought. I finally had a break in some house projects around the time you had contacted me and thought what the heck, I could really use a tester like this myself to work through some switch issues on my Jurassic Park. I also *really* needed a generic switch matrix tester that could be used across all the manufacturer's machines and as a bonus would be useful when simulating games at the bench (which I've found useful when bench testing MPU boards or when developing new products). It turned into much more than I had initially envisioned after I got into designing it and figured "ok, if I'm going to build a 64 switch tester, I'm going to do it right -- and pack it with everything I can think of that would be useful in a switch matrix tester."

It definitely took a while to convince myself to want to build it.. seriously. Could very well have been the 14th or 15th thought about it, I lost track I'm glad in the end to have created it though, even just for my own use. I have a large number of project machines to work through this Fall spanning all of the manufacturers and I'm probably as excited as anyone else that buys one of these testers to use it to help speed through repairs!

Thanks to everyone that ordered a kit or assembled 64 Switch Matrix Tester!

I'm going to call this product launch a success as it has nearly met my [hopeful] expectation of the first week of sales and it hasn't even been a full week yet. I was hoping to sell around 10x PCBs in the first week and have sold 6x PCB kits and 2x assembled boards. As far as product launches go, that's pretty good for something as niche as this. Lots of familiar names of people that have been in the hobby a while too, which is great to see! Special THANKS once again to John Wart for helping to spread the word!

I've been working hard on putting finishing touches on documentation. I'm trying to make the wiring harness assembly and PCB assembly as easy as possible -- lots of tips from my own experience with board & wire harness assembly thrown in there.

Orders will start shipping this Saturday due to the July 4th postal holiday. I wanted to get a few out today but after putting finishing touches on documentation and bundling about 12x kits it was too late to hit the post office. I expect to get about half the orders out Saturday and the rest will ship on Monday. Thanks again to everyone! Please let me know how you like the tester once you receive everything and have a chance to use it!

And with that said, an early HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO PINSIDE! Time to start celebrating -- between getting more orders ready of course

-Wayne

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

It's been an exhausting few days to say the least, but half of the orders went out today! Some of you should have received shipment notices. The rest of the orders will be going out on Monday. So expect your packages soon!

Included with your order will be a link to the PDF documentation -- Assembly Instructions, Wire Harness Assembly Guide, Usage Instructions & Printable "Cheat Sheet" Switch Matrix Charts. Too much to print out and stuff in a box I think I've made the assembly of both the PCB & Wire Harnesses as straight-forward as possible, but welcome everyone's comments/feedback.

-Wayne

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

One of the recent developments -- fully labeled connectors for any connector kits or wire harness kits being sold with this tester. And keying pins will already be inserted.

"Cause wiring up harnesses shouldn't be THAT hard" (TM)

Seriously. I've built a lot of wire harnesses before and I've still gotten screwed up following other people's wire harness pictures/instructions or wiring according to schematics. It's just screwy looking at unlabeled Molex connectors and having no reference points. I've *thought* I had it right many times when wiring up a harness, only to find I had the connector upside down and have to re-pin the entire thing. I don't want ANYONE to have to redo their harness once it's built because I didn't go totally out of my way trying to make sure it was as simple as possible to wire

labeled_connectors.jpg

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

WPC switch 24 is identified on the PCB silkscreen. Column 2, Row 4 corresponds to switch #12 on a Williams 3-11 switch numbering. Identified with an asterisk by the DIP switch number as well as marked "WPC SW24"

wpc_24.jpg

Alternate switch numbering between the machines would normally make it difficult to use a generic switch tester. That's why I put the silkscreen "cross-hair" on the board. I knew I wanted to visually break up 64 buttons that all blended together and it would somehow be useful in locating switches that don't follow the Williams Sys3-11 numbering scheme. Didn't know exactly how useful it would be until I got the PCBs in and drew up some charts.

Below is a WPC chart. WPC Switch #24 (col2, row4) in the larger black font corresponds to Switch #12 on the tester board (smaller gray font). For WPC machines though it's nice having a quick way to flip the ALWAYS CLOSED switch on so I additionally marked that DIP switch on the board as seen above.

64switch_wpc_chart-136.jpg

All of this really does make this much easier to use between different manufacturer's machines, taking the guesswork out of what switch you're pressing.

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

Yep, you bet. And I meant to add this picture sooner, but on WPC machines you can actually print out the switch matrix chart from the manual, draw a cross-hair through it (with a yellow highlighter, etc) and use it to easily reference switches on the tester.

See below..
64switch_wpcmanualmatrix.jpg

Should be able to do this on Williams Sys3-11 as well. It may also work with a few other manufacturer's switch matrix charts in the manuals -- I haven't checked what other manufacturers charts would work like that fully yet. I thought that was pretty cool even if it just worked for Williams charts.

-Wayne

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

Glad to hear it! I like offering kits when I can. Not always feasible, but for this tester it made a lot of sense. I'd rather save people some money so they can build a very useful tool out for themselves -- since you only have to build it once. Me on the other hand, I'd have to build it over and over.. and it doesn't get any faster A perfect reason to make it a kit!

-Wayne

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

Just an update on orders..

All the Switch Matrix Testers ordered 7/5 or prior have been shipped today. A few orders that came in after that will be shipping tomorrow, then I'll be all caught up -- woohoo! I took a look at tracking info for a few of the orders that had shipped Saturday and it even looked like some orders had been delivered already! Now that was fast!

Thanks again to everyone that ordered one! Let me know what you think of the tester once you have a chance to try it out!

-Wayne

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

Yeah, I was actually thinking about this today -- a video would help anyone new to diagnosing switch matrix issues to see where a tool like this is useful and could also show some of the benefits of this particular tester when diagnosing at the bench or in a machine (ie. DIP switches, having instant access to up to 64 switches, ability to register multiple switch presses, ease of moving between different manufacturer's machines). The problem I'm having right now is time -- between keeping up with orders, working on a bunch of house projects and fitting the occasional new product development in, it's gonna be a while. Especially considering I'd need to learn some video editing software on top of it all. Maybe over the winter months though, I think it's a good idea for sure.

With that said, what I was thinking today is if anyone that purchases a tester wants to make a video and demo it, I could provide some type of discount on a future order for anything at Pinitech.com. Just let me know if you're interested or post a video.

Hey, at least it wasn't pink tissue paper, then I'd really be in for it!

Thanks for the comments on the PCB It was many painstaking hours of X and Y coordinates getting everything lined up. Drives me nuts when you get a board where components aren't lined up or there's no symmetry where there could have been. Yes it takes extra time, but the artistic side of me needs it to look as good as it functions.

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

Awesome! Looks great! Nice job on the build

If you or anyone else has any suggestions on anything with the PCB assembly instructions or wiring harness instructions, just let me know. I have a few little items on my list I'll be getting to over the next day or two, nothing major but a few additional pictures and a couple of tweaks.

Let me know how it works out with the PinHeck board, that's pretty cool!

I was just looking through what else this tester will work with -- obviously most games that have 64 switches or less. Bally 6803 shouldn't be a problem, I think I already have parts to make a Molex kit for that and can add those soon. I'll need some different Molex connectors for Stern Whitestar, but will throw those parts into the next Molex order (happening very soon). I'm not sure I'll be offering Molex kits for anything else beyond that at the moment since I'm not sure the demand is there for much else (ie. Gameplan, Zaccaria, Capcom, Atari, Alvin G., Allied Leisure). Haven't looked at switch matrix charts on those to see if they're all compatible.. but anyway, this should work with most games with 64 switches or less since they all use similar setups.

Gottlieb System 3 & Stern S.A.M. allow for more than 64 switches. Gottlieb's 3 additional strobe lines on the System 3 machines allow for up to 108 switches, but most of the upper strobe lines are for optical switches. Stern S.A.M. allows for 128 switches. Anyway you could get around the 64-switch limit on this tester with those games by splitting up the rows and columns into two separate Molex connectors at the tester board so you can swap-in the additional lines. You wouldn't be able to have access to the full set of switches that way if you're just using 1 Switch Matrix Tester, but if you had 2 Switch Matrix Tester boards, you'd theoretically have access for up to 128 switches by having a single wire harness from the MPU split the signals out to two Switch Matrix Tester boards. Just some thoughts.. I'll probably make some wiring charts up for these setups when I get some time.

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

Looking good litz! Glad to be hearing these are going together easy!

I'm working on the some wiring diagrams / cheat sheets for Bally 6803. I won't have a machine to test in for a bit (only have one 6803 game right now and it's non-working). If anyone wants to test once I'm done let me know

I'll also be working on Sega/Stern Whitestar diagrams today or tomorrow. Then onto Gottlieb System 3 & Stern S.A.M. which will have a few methods (either using 2x switch testers or keeping rows/column connectors separate at the Switch Tester to allow you to swap-in the additional switches).

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

Anyone get a wire harness built for this yet? Hoping the wiring diagrams & labels on the connectors made it much easier!

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

Here's something new I've been toying around with -- a database of switches per game that would allow you to print out a nice switch matrix chart for use with this Switch Matrix Tester.

http://www.pinitech.com/switch_database.php

Select a game & it loads the switches into a cheat sheet that looks like the ones I've referenced before, only this time with switch names listed under the switch numbers. Only a few games entered right now obviously I think it'd be great to be able to pull up the switch matrix for any game via your phone or tablet -- or print it out. Let me know what you think. I could probably make it so anyone can add a new game & its switches -- otherwise it'd probably take me years to get every solid state game entered.

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

Got some more machines entered into the switch database over the weekend. I'll probably add a handful each week over the course of 6 months and eventually get a few hundred games entered in there.

Bueller? *BUMP*

Anyone actually get a chance to try this out with a wire harness? I've been wondering how the wiring diagrams worked out for people.

Great to hear! Hope the harness works for you the first try!

Currently I have 5x more of these I can sell as kits or assembled. It will then be 2-3 weeks before I have more ready to ship. I may have a few of those spoken for with international orders.

Thanks everyone for the feedback & any other feedback you provide here, via PM or email. I hope those that have built the tester are finding it useful & easy to use! So far I've heard great things -- compliments on the board quality, instructions being easy to understand, assembly going quicker than expected. It's all very nice to hear & it's great seeing everyone's finished product after they built the kit -- they all look great & I sure hope they become one of the most used tools in your pinball toolbox!

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

Thanks mof! Time has been limited but lots of other ideas in the works! Now if I could just find some time to execute them I'd be in good shape

Update: Down to 3x kits / testers ready to ship. Really need a few orders of materials to come in so I can keep these available!

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

67 games in the Switch Matrix Database @ http://www.pinitech.com/switch_database.php

Right now just focused on getting data entered, but a few things have been pointed out like the "missing switches" on Gottlieb System 80s [that don't appear in the manual but are common to those games]. I'll be addressing that & also likely add some colorized grouping for games like Haunted House / Black Hole that have multiple level playfields & had switches for each level of the playfield grouped in the manual. Then I'll probably try and have multiple views of the data, a "print view" link without the site headers, etc.

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

Hey Bill, I added BK2K & NGG switches to the database Thanks for the comments! I think anyone that purchases one of these testers will be happy with the quality of the board. It looks professional, all the buttons line up, it functions well, the assembly instructions & wiring diagrams are easy to follow. My philosophy is if you're going to create a product for sale, spend the extra time doing it right. This means doing everything you can for a professional look, having clear documentation and going that extra mile when you can. I want people to be thrilled with the value they're getting and I hope I've achieved that!

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

Greetings Ingo! Thanks for the comments on my board! You have a lot of nice projects you're working on! Looks like we are all trying to solve some of the same problems and make fixing pinball machines a bit easier

I was originally thinking of placing small jumpers next to the switches like you, but wasn't fond of adding another 64 components to solder (or for other people to solder as kits). Plus I thought all those jumpers/shunts would be a bit cumbersome to use & wouldn't have been able to keep the board as compact as it is since more space would be needed around the buttons so that the jumpers didn't get in the way (or possibly accidentally activate a switch if your finger shorts across the jumper header). The DIP switches seemed to make locking on multiple switches the easiest and allowed me to keep the board small enough that you can hold it in one hand.

Your 2nd board is similar to another idea I had for a standalone "playfield switch tester" -- since the 64 Switch Matrix Tester helps you isolate switch issues to either MPU circuitry or playfield wiring, if the playfield wiring is at fault -- why not have a tester that can help you further diagnose there? I didn't get very far into the design, but I thought a microcontroller simulating switch matrix scanning like the MPU circuitry does would be a great way to go. Great job! I'll not put any more time into that idea since you're much further along -- but let me know when your PIC-based board is available! Especially if it's universal & can work with practically any manufacturer's machines/playfields (not just WPC). I'd definitely be interested in picking up one of those if it can work with Bally, Gottlieb, Williams, Stern, etc.

I can ship to Germany -- I'll be in contact with you soon with a shipping quote.

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

Looks great John! Glad to see you got the switch matrix testers all built out and connected to your test rigs!

Update: Got another order of DIP switches in today that had been MIA for a while, so with that -- I now have about a dozen of these switch matrix testers ready to ship out! Good thing too because I was down to my last remaining set of DIP switches yesterday.

In other news.. the switch database just hit 100 games! Starting to feel like I'm actually getting somewhere! If there's any specific games people want me to enter switch information for, let me know -- I'm taking requests Right now I'm working on a bulk of the classic Bally/Stern games since their switch matrix charts don't match up with the tester layout (ie. you can't just print out a chart from the Bally manual like you can on Williams games). Williams games will eventually all get entered but for right now I'll only be entering a few as I need them or get requests since it's easy enough printing out the switch matrix chart from IPDB for those & drawing a cross-hair through it.

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

Just a heads up, the website special on the 64 Switch Matrix Tester Kits ($42.50 introductory price) will be ending 8/15 (next Friday). If you want to save a couple of bucks on a kit, order before 8/15 to get in on the current special!

http://www.pinitech.com/products/64switch_tester.php

Several dozen kits have been sold so far! Happy to get these in as many hands as possible!

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

If anyone that has purchased a tester or is thinking about purchasing one has a SEGA/Stern Whitestar or Bally 6803 -- let me know! The first person(s) to contact me that can help test a Bally 6803 harness or Whitestar harness, I'll discount an assembled wire harness for those systems to $17.50ea (half-price) + shipping. I'd like to be sure wire harnesses work with those before posting them as options on the website. I should have a Bally 6803 to test on myself in 3-4 weeks if I can get a project machine up and running, but I don't have any Whitestar games at the moment. If for some reason the wire harness doesn't work out, send it back and I'll refund you. I'd just need feedback that when entering switch test mode, the wire harness works properly & the switches when activated match up with the Switch Matrix Chart for those games (that I will send along with the harness).

Also if there's any other pinball manufacturers people would be interested in a wire harness for, let me know. I'd like to try Gottlieb System 3, but I'm not sure what the Molex? part numbers are for its switch matrix connectors.

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