Thanks for posting this. Would it work to replace the 555 with an LED so it lasts longer and you have less to worry about?

Needs to be a 555 bulb. Not enough load from an led.

I used an LED in my SEB on EBD and it worked fine. I guess it all depends on the LED and the tolerance of the SCR. Couldn't hurt to try.

Thanks for the answers. I keep waiting for that bulb to go out, have strange things start happening to the pin, and have me not knowing what the heck is going on.

you must have used a "NON FLICKER" or premium type bulb with the built in resistor is my guess. It is nice that it works with the LED and you will never have to worry about a blown lamp causing you an issue.

So, how would I test this board to determine if its working?

Does the lamp signal flick the relay back and forth?

I want to try to see if I can get a new one of these expander boards. I noticed there are two part numbers listed on the board, the one you mention AS-2518-66 and a different one A084-91618-A000. And, in the manual, it lists it as B084-91618-A000.

Any idea why the discrepancy? I was thinking about checking Pinball Resource and want to make sure I get the part number correct.

Got it. Thanks!

Guys, I need your help. My old solenoid expander board had intermittent misfires but still worked most of the time. I bought a new one from Great Lakes Modular. When I plug it in to the game, it doesn't seem to work at all. When I try to start a game, the knocker fires instead of kicking a ball into the shooter lane. When I put the game in lamp test mode, I don't hear any clicks of the relay. I removed it and put the old relay back in. That one still works, again with the occasional miss. I emailed the vendor, got an initial response asking for more information, I emailed back and then radio silence. It has been a while.

So, is there any way to test the relay itself out of the game? Like applying a battery to it to see if the relay clicks. If so, what type of battery and how? I would like to know if the relay is bad or if there is something wrong with the connection to this particular relay.

Thanks!

Is the bulb good that connects too it? Did you test the wires/plug that attach to the board? Check those first.

There is next to nothing to go wrong on this board anyway. Have you tried reflowing the solder on the original one?

Hi all. Thanks for the replies.

The bulb works fine, and I recently replaced it to make sure. As I said, the old board works 97% of the time.

I didn't reflow the solder joints on the old board. One of the reasons I bought the new board is that I just don't have the skills to feel comfortable working on a board. I don't want to mess up and ruin my old board. So, I was willing to spend $25 rather than trying to reflow solder on a board. Soldering wires to lugs I'm ok with; working on a board makes me nervous.

Here is a clue. This is the new board attached to the connector:

IMG_1092 (resized).JPG

Notice that the connector does not go all the way down onto the new board; there is a slight gap. On the old board, the connector goes all the way down. I looked at the pins on both boards. On the old board, the pins look slightly longer and have a more pointy, tapered end. On the new board, the pins are more blunt at the end. Could I not be making decent contact, or is this slight difference not enough to matter? If it is the pins, is there a conversion kit that I can get to put more pointy pins on the new board. I've never redone a connector before, and I would hate to go through the trouble if that isn't really the problem.

Let me know your thoughts. I appreciate all the help.

Bump for some feedback on my last post. Thanks!

Does anyone know a source for these boards? All of the linked sources are out of stock. I got one some time ago from Great Lakes but it was DOA, and they haven’t been responsive. I want to find another board so I can hopefully get my pin fully functioning again. Thanks.

Contact Ksarcade or Marco and ask them if they know when they will be back in stock. It will give you a time frame of when to expect them again.

Good idea. I'll try it and report back, though I believe they have been out of stock for some time.

Hi all. Marco now has these back in stock. I just got one, and I’m happy to say that my Special Force is back up and running. It’s been too long. This proves that the one I got way back when from Great Lakes Modular was in fact DOA for whatever reason.

Now that I have a working one, I am going to take an my old one and see if I can fix it. I really haven’t tried any type of board repair, but I feel I can try now that I have a replacement. It will be a good learning experience.

Anyway, if anyone needs this part, I just wanted to mention that you should grab one from Marco before they are gone.

I started making the -66 solenoid expander board. They are now available in the pinside store and my website.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1055-nvramweeblycom/02014-new-as-2518-66-solenoid-expander-midway-a084-91618-a000

Having a new board gave me the confidence to try to fix my old board. It was cold solder joints. Reflowing the solder at all the pins did the trick. I know this will seem basic to most of you, and I should have just done this a long time ago, but I've never done any board repair work before. This was my first time reflowing solder. I just bought a new Hakko so I could try my hand at things like this. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty proud.

What’s the general purpose of this board? My light doesn’t flash and I’ve got some solenoid issues on 11, 9, 8 that aren’t working.

It routes the solenoid bus to separate banks of solenoids so one transistor can drive two coils depending on if the relay is turned on or off. Its also sometimes used to turn on/off a motor. Like the moving target in black pyramid. A lamp driver turns on the relay.

If the light does not flash treat it like a non working lamp circuit. The lamp SCR could be bad or there is a connector / wiring problem.

Okay thanks, my light is working on it.

if the light blinks then i would pull out the board and inspect it for cracked solder joints.

In special force when you fire rockets it should click the relay as it drops the targets.