(Topic ID: 83912)

Announcing new product to help resolve resets in WPC era games

By rkahr

10 years ago


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  • 182 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by Rdoyle1978
  • Topic is favorited by 153 Pinsiders

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#410 7 years ago

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!

#412 7 years ago
Quoted from NPO:

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...

#414 7 years ago

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.

#416 7 years ago
Quoted from NPO:

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.

#417 7 years ago

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.

#421 7 years ago

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

#425 7 years ago
Quoted from rkahr:

Your luck isn't that bad - bring it to one of the pinball shows I attend and have it upgraded. Anybody with one of the 493 Pros I shipped in 2016 can get the upgrade for $10 at a show. If your board has a (C) 2016 on it I can upgrade it. First show I'm attending this year is TPF in March! I'll also be at Allentown and York; maybe at Northwest and/or Expo.
-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for my Pinball 2000 H+V video sync adapter kit

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.

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