Any interest in replacement three by three lamp boards for the Big Game playfield bingo cards? The originals are flaky are corroded in mine and I got frustrated messing with them so I whipped this up today.

The replacement use the wedge type twist in PCB sockets. I know no wedge based bulbs used in this game originally, but that was the easiest / cheapest way I could think of to do a lamp board.... no assembly / soldering of lamp sockets. Would need to use nylon stand offs and longer wood screws to mount the new pcb to the PF, but thats easy/cheap. There is a hole for every lamp and common side to solder wires directly. Also a .100" connector could be used.

Could apply the lamp board idea to other games like Nine Ball, Meteor, and even WMS games uses something similar.

TOP SIDEBOTTOM SIDE

I don't think plug and play is an option. I can (and did) put male headers on the pcb, but then a female plug would still need to be made as the original lamp holder board was hard soldered.

If someone else already did this for big game I might skip this project or do it just get minimum pcb order to do my own game.

On the test fixture running big game I noticed that in attract mode when the game advertises the seven digit displays continuous solenoid Q18 turns on. That makes me think they at least had the idea to use that solenoid circuit to advertise the fact this game has 7 digit displays.

Anyone ever see a big game with a topper or anything else to advertise 7 digit displays? Might have been an idea that just never got used or I guess even a software bug that is unnoticed since Q18 is not used.

I can't think of a solid state game that you can score less than 10pts in so I guess everything before that was 5 digit and they where the first 6 digit SS. =D

It was new plasma display hardware and they did computer controlled all seven digits. You can have an audit show in the single digits for things like number of games played even if you cant score below 10pts.

Not sure about sound. I guess if they had something completely external from the normal SB300 sound board Q18 could be used to enable it.

Q18 turns on during the time when the game flashes 7 777 777 in attract mode which lasts maybe 1 second. Since Q18 stays on for longer than a quick pulse I was thinking flash lamp, but hard to say.

I got tired of fighting with the three lamp card boards in my Big Game. Circuit boards and the LEDs are also pretty inexpensive so I decided to have some new LED boards made.

20210915_153102 (resized).jpg20210915_153118 (resized).jpg20210830_173656 (resized).jpg

Set of 3 boards is $25 + $4.5 shipped ins the USA.
LED is a 2835 warm white (~3000K) wide viewing angle.

There are load resistors on the lamp boards. Install the solder jumpers for original, not LED capable lamp driver board. Leave the solder jumpers out for LED capable lamp driver board.

Installation.

On the bench before working on the game add a small puddle to every wire landing pad that is going to be used. You will likely only use 'BUS V OPTION' #3 or #4.

It is going to be a lot easier to install with the playfield out of the game and upside down. I slid the game out. Unplugged a few cables and sat the PF on saw horses.

Unscrew the first lamp card you want to work on. Fold it over out of the way. Screw down the new lamp board in place. (1A to upper left number; IE 1A to top left card #1)

Move wires from old lamp board to the new lamp board one at a time so you don't get mixed up. Cut the wire off the old board. Strip the insulation. Tin the wire with new solder. Heat up the solder pad on the new board and the wire lead. Once melted place on the pad. Repeat

I saw the other ones but honestly with just the cost of my time I could put the LED beads directly on the PCB and save myself $. The cost of a 2835 LED bead is like one cent vs the cost of a pinball 555 led lamp to put into a twisty socket is 30x - 100x more. I even got a few extra sets.

I probably could do other games, but I would want the playfield / lamp card in front of me. Getting the lens spacing right, mounting holes right, is there bare wires in the way, etc, is a bit more tedious then one might imagine. If I don't own the game myself it might not be worth my effort to make them just to sell 10 sets or whatever. Main motivator with big game was I got frustrated with my own game repeatedly fixing the original rusty ones.

I put a 0.100" header on but its not practical to use it.

Board sits flush against the playfield. I put the resistors in tight with the LED bead so it all fits in the cavity drilled out for the lamp lens. I don't see any problems with that. No bare wires or anything to short against going under the lamp cards.

No. I am using fairly large size LED bead at a modest current. I did not check, but I don't expect it get much above room temperature. We don't need to abuse the LED at maximum current/brightness to light up those little inserts. That should also greatly extend the life of the LEDs.

The heat on the playfield from #47 incandescent lamps, even with the extra space of the originals, would be way more. New Stern games mounts the lamp boards flush against the playfield now which gave me the idea. Any kind of spacer might also introduce light bleed to neighbors since using a wide angle lens LED bead.

Change game select dip switch #8 to the on position.