Thank you for the very kind words.

Took me all afternoon and into the evening yesterday to build the cables. Got the display tested tonight (along with a bunch of other boards).

boards_249.jpg

In honor of a local collecting giant (Chris) who passed over a year ago my buddy declared that Sunday is "Pinball Machine Work Day". This was something Chris would do most weekends. Of course, now this means one less day for me to do board stuff but like everything in life it's about prioritizing what's important to you and your friends. While not directly related to this thread he is putting together a Medieval Madness from parts and this afternoon we spent working on figuring out problems with boards he put together - a blank re-print of the CPU and power board I bought a few years ago (before I started my own board stuff) and the AV that I reproduced. The AV board is definitely not for the faint hearted but rewarding when it works. He had problems with the ASIC daughter board but they were fixed with some simple continuity diagnostics and touch up soldering.

The other week he also tested the reproduction Dot Matrix Controller (DMC) board that was made about 2.5 years ago. When I first built it I got "RAM ADDRESS ERROR" and didn't spend too much time trying to figure out. I swapped SRAM ICs and all the ICs on the board but to no avail. He swapped an SRAM in and it worked. Go figure. This confirmed that there is nothing wrong with the electrical connections on the board. I still don't know exactly the actual cause but I decided to build another board and this one works fine. Again ... go figure. So I made progress on this and can declare it functioning.

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I also run a side hustle of doing board repairs for local people and the occasional NVRAM install by request. I just finished one and went to pull the nozzle out to clean it and the heating element broke on the FR-300 I have. This is the second heating element so now I am on my third heating element. I need to buy another spare before Hakko considers discontinuing it and thereby rendering my FR-300 permanently obsolete and broken if it breaks again. I just noticed the manufacturing date on my unit is 2014 so it's had many years of use and is actually still going strong!

• Broken heating element and nozzle.00_fr300_heating_element.jpg
• Heating element stuck in nozzle.01_fr300_heating_element.jpg
• Out with the old and in with the new.02_fr300_heating_element.jpg

I have a pack list a mile long (ok not a mile but it is long) and I will be working through that list this coming week. Once I clear all those out I will have some time to finish other smaller tasks (people who have been waiting patiently). If I get all those finished I can spend some time looking at the System 3-7 unified board and maybe get that going seeing as I appear to be on a roll for getting boards working.

I have these working but there are some minor adjustments for fitment in DCS machines that I want to work on. It's tight and there's not a lot of space with this board set.

I don't know about the draw on the transformer secondary. The switching regulator is more efficient and dissipates a lot less heat (the wasted electric potential is not burned off as heat). Unfortunately I'm not schooled in electronics so I really cannot answer your question. Someone like Ed (GPE) would probably be a better person to ask.

I think the overheating of the connector comes from poor conductivity from the connector pin to the header pin on the board. This happens from repeated insertion and removal that grinds off the plating. The header and connector are only rated for a certain number of insertion and removal cycles.

Remember I am not an authority on anything electronic. I learned by reading and reading and reading not by any form of tertiary education on electronics. I only did high school physics (basic V=IR stuff).

I use a small drill bit to clean them out while the tip is hot/warm. The most important thing with a desoldering tool is to KEEP IT CLEAN. Clean out the tip and heating element after every use. Clean out the vacuum (diaphragm) area periodically.

Update. I am leaving for time off. Total time off is one month (the month of September). I have been feverishly working to get my load clear prior to departure and allocating quota to the month of October and beyond. I am repeating this again in December into early January. I probably mentioned this before but I made a resolution before COVID hit to make more frequent trips to visit family. This is keeping my promise to my resolution (after the two year hiatus from travel due to COVID). I apologize if this means I deliver things more slowly (longer time frames) but everyone has to prioritize what's important to them.

A couple of small things I have images for. Most of the other things are just building, building and building then verifying, packing and shipping. Not really that interesting.

These two sets of boards are being transported for local delivery.

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This board is for my buddy who is building a Medieval Madness from parts - aka "machine in a tote".

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These boards are opportunistic small boards. My buddy is rebuilding his Demolition Man so I took these boards for reproduction while the assemblies are out being cleaned and rebuilt. The elevator board needs revision (hole placement is slightly wrong). The cryoclaw board fits correctly with good clearance.

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This board is a re-worked DCS signal board for the speaker pop elimination board set. I changed the position of the headers to allow for better clearance of the connectors.

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I have a few more things to pack up and ship out for domestic US before shutting everything down for a month. I will still be connected so if communication is required I will still be online and able to answer questions or post support. It may be a little slower than what most people in the US would expect (due to a time zone difference from the US) so apologies in advance.

You are the first person to report this. It never crossed my mind to think about compatibility with the Rottendog System 11 CPU boards (MPU9211 or MPU004). I don't have these boards.

Based on the images of the Rottendog boards the solenoid fuse board is incompatible with the Rottendog boards. The line of MOSFETs adjacent to 1J19 will physically interfere with connection of the solenoid fuse board.

Apologies for this. I have a responded to your private message with potential resolutions to the problem.

Still reading stuff.

I use NDIP to represent NARROW (0.3"=7.62mm) DIP and WDIP to represent WIDE (0.6"=15.24mm) DIP. These are for THROUGH HOLE parts.

The DMD uses SURFACE MOUNT. There are MANY more surface mount packages and it's even more confusing.

You want SOIC-XX where XX is the number of pins. You do NOT want SSOP or TSSOP or HTSSOP. Those are different package sizes and pin spread.

The LED driver (TLC5926) is ONLY available as surface mount. I don't see those in stock at the usual suspects so this may be harder to find. There are also compatible LED drivers but those, too, might also be out of stock. For this you want TLC5926IDWR.

Search for:

• CD74HC04M96
• CD74HC595M96
• TLC5926IDWR

This tells me that I haven't provided enough information in the BOM tables. I always strive to improve things and this is one area I should probably adjust. The issue is that I have a master spreadsheet that I need to go through to add all this information and it's a LOT of entries I need to go back and look through. Realistically, it isn't likely to happen any time soon.

If in doubt, please feel free to ask before committing to a purchase if you're concerned.

I, too, have done this. You'd think I make these so I know what I'm doing but I have used a 10mm diameter footprint for a radial capacitor only to find that I need to allow for the potential to use a 12.5mm diameter. The supply chain issues force me to look for alternatives and sometimes (in this specific example) I can only find a 12.5mm diameter replacement but I can't use it because I made the board with a 10mm diameter. Sometimes, there is no physical space for a 12.5mm diameter (such as the fliptronic board) so I am forced to use a 10mm diameter. I recently revised the WPC-89 Power Driver board from using a 10mm to using a 12.5mm for this reason (supply chain shortages).

• 0.100" = 2.54mm
• 0.156" = 3.96mm

The US uses "mils" (an imperial scale). The rest of the world uses "mm" (a metric scale). When I make these I use metric but use multiples of "mils".

You mean this ... https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-reproduction-pcbs/page/9#post-6156405

The board works but I recently discovered a small caveat with it. You need a single ROM configuration. I haven't looked at it yet as there is an easy workaround (write a single ROM from a double image).

Whitestar is definitely lower on the priority list - if at all. The BSMT2000 as well as possibly the amplifiers in the sound section area going to be the blocking issues.

This is a great idea to be able to cover:

• 2.0mm
• 2.5mm
• 3.5mm
• 5mm

Radial snap-in appears to be fixed at 10mm with varying diameter and height.

Lethal Weapon 3 is shipped as a single ROM (27512).

Agree with this. This is what I do. It's also why I didn't discover the issue until I tried a double ROM. I have plenty of 27512s lying around.

The Data East manuals contain configuration for all games prior to the game of the manual. This means that if you look at a later game's manual you can see information for all preceding games.

de_game_software.jpg

ROM 5C is a 27256 and mapped at $8000-$FFFF. ROM 5B is a 27128 and mapped at $4000-$7FFF. You can combine them in a 27512 ignoring $0000-$3FFF and concatenating the two images together at $4000-$FFFF.

I listen to all suggestions. More experience looking at issues is better than my own (limited) experience. I still have a few of these boards left but when I get closer to re-ordering them I will open up the layout and consult you on getting what you want in to the board. I am unsure of when this will be though as it depends purely on demand. On a related note I received a suggestion from ChrisH so I will be looking into that and see if it has some effect on this board.

For others using the Rottendog MPU9211 ... I am unlikely to support its physical layout. The placement of the MOSFETs makes it almost impossible to support it.

Sorry. If you're confused then I didn't explain myself clearly. That's a failing on my part. I have sometimes been known for brevity. Apologies.

The Data East CPU board works. All games are (should be) supported.

Those who are replacing an old board with TWO ROMs (5C and 5B) will need to replace them with a SINGLE ROM (5C). The games above (in yellow/gold) originally shipped with two ROMs. The games in green (and other unlisted later games) all originally shipped with one ROM. This is until I revise the board and figure out why the two ROM configuration does not work. This won't be any time soon because there is a simple workaround (get a single ROM).

Minor stickler for detail. The board works in all games (not just LW3 or the ones marked in green). It's just the ones marked in yellow/gold will potentially require ROM replacement (double to single).

I honestly never thought purple would be a popular choice. I got the impression most people want green boards to look like OEM. This board is only available in red. I have only made a handful of purple boards (System 11 CPU, WPC-89 CPU and Power) and am currently reserving them for auction / raffle donations. I might try a limited (one time) run of blue/yellow/black System 11 CPU boards as the System 11 CPU board is the most popular board I have.