Also following this thread for my Dr Who WPC89 boards. Thanks for making these available .

Looking for a WPC89 DOT Matrix DMD Controller Board. Is there an ETA available for it?

UPDATE: Planetary Pinball just refunded my money and said DMD board is "out of stock" for a couple months and to check back regularly. WTF? Why did their website say "In Stock", when I purchased it? Website not updated till it is a problem? At least I did get a refund 3 days later. Whew.

I now have a WPC Driver board being delivered tomorrow and a DMD board later. Will update once installed to see if any of my issues go away, or will have spares for the future. \

I have held off pilling on and kept hoping that I would get a response, but did not. I bought and paid for a WPC 89 Power Board 5 months ago. It took several months to be shipped, even though I had a shipping notification, but the tracking number said that only a label had been printed. I was elated when it showed up. It looked great. Even posted a picture of it on top of my Bally Dr. Who machine. I wanted a spare board, as the working board was from Germany. PINLED. I had recently the month before performed a restoration, paint job and re-decal of the entire pinball.

I unplugged the working board, taking note of each plug # I unplugged. I installed the Pinball Basement Board, checking off each plug as I progressed. I turned the machine on and the game booted up, the lights flashed like usual in attract mode. I started a game, a ball launched but the flippers did not flip. I turned the machine off and back on. Same result. I opened the back box up and started measuring all the Test Point voltages. They were all in range.

I took the Pinball basement board out and put the 2005 German board in (3 times). Checking off each plug on my master list, on the way off and back on.

Long story short....The original board made the game work, the Pinball Basement did not work the Fliptronics 2 flippers. I emailed, I sent pictures of his board installed, I Pm'd and several weeks later, I got a message that he stood behind his product and would exchange the board and send me mailing label. That never happened.

A month later, I noticed he was attending PINFEST as a vendor in Allentown PA. I sent him a message that I would return the board in person and he said he would have an exchange board for me. Guess what. He did not have an exchange board available. I left him the non-working board, with his promise of sending me a new board. Well, that was a month ago. All I got was another shipping notification a week after PINFEST. But that is only that a label was created.

I sent an email earlier this week asking when I would be expecting my board. And no response. I have read that he is having health problems. I also see that he is still advertising here on Pinside for those same boards. So unsuspecting buyers are still probably sending money and getting a shipping notification. That sure is a different business practice. I am still holding on to hope that this situation will turn itself around. Good thing my machine is still working with the old boards.

Hopefully, My replacement Driver is coming soon. Good News.

I guess my replacement board is not one of the two open orders that have gone out now. As I did not get an email update about shipping, since the initial shipping label was created after Pinfest.

I guess I fall into the random time when boards don't function properly and has been set aside to build new boards. At this point, can I just get a refund?

I will understand if you continue to ignore the issue.

Chris

I finally got my replacement Bally WPC power board, that he just announced he has 200 of. I opened the box and a transistor and heat sink literally fell off the board. He claimed it was shipping problem! I sent him a picture of a lack of solder on the 3 prongs of the transistor. His come back was that cold solder joints happen sometimes. WTF? He claimed the board was tested (this time), as last board did not operate the flippers. I am done with him and his products. He sent me return label. I don't think so! No more waiting months to get another broken board. My loss and lesson learned. Pictures to follow.

Pictures of WPC89 Power Board, showing transistor and cooling fins that fell off in shipment. Several of the others are loose too, but have not fallen off. I am so angry I could spit.

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Interestingly, a couple days ago on his Facebook page, he posted pictures of his hundreds of boards available for sale.

I have chosen to send my new broken board off to a tech that will try to repair (resolder the transistors and cooling fins that are loose and falling off). Then test it to see if it will actually work.

Interested to hear from anybody that got similar issues or got a working board.

Happy to hear that your board worked. My powerboard has been repaired of the loose cooling fins and transistors by a tech. He then tested it and found the 5volts was running high and adjusted it down to spec. I guess I got a rush job. But never again.

Update to previous post. I received my repaired WPC89 Powerboard, that was resoldered on the transistors and cooling fins from my tech. Only took a couple weeks, including shipping time. The good news is that it is functioning correctly in my game finally, like it should have the first time or the second time.

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Sounds familiar to my story but with 2 WPC89 Power Boards. I had enough and took the board to another shop tech, who fixed the multiple problems on the board. Very glad I did not order an MPU and took a chance that it would work or not.

I heard he deactivated his account here, but is advertising on Facebook account.

He posted a picture of several dozen Mpu boards on his Facebook account a few days ago. As you have probably already read, I gave up on his products and had a tech fix my board after months of issues.

Support? What support? Sending out shoddy workmanship, then tries to claim you did not hook the connectors up right (they only go on one way). Then promises to replace your non-working board after months of messages being ignored. Then sending out a board with components not soldered on properly. Then blames the shipping, when there is clearly a problem with the soldering. Then claims it is his process of soldering that he will do better in the future. Then more time elapses of no communications. Meanwhile, you see that on Facebook he is promoting he has multitudes of boards but has not sent you one. Then you see in the above pictures of what those boards will look like if you do eventually get one. Yes, I am still angry about how I and others were treated. I pity those that are still waiting for delivery months after sending money or have not installed there boards yet only to find failure.

The tech that repaired my new board and resoldered it, found that the +5 volts needed to be adjusted as well. I don't believe that a valid test was done.

I sent email message to PPS last year and got no response. Nothing. he explained the lack of solder on his process and machinery in his garage. Also that the top side does not require solder because of Vias. I had to learn what that meant. Those explanations had nothing to do with a lack of solder on parts on my board or the fact that both boards did not work. a third board (DMD) works with glitches on the screen, that the original board does not do, nor does the Pinsound DMD board. Would not waste another dollar on anything he sells. Would not send anything back to him with expectations of anything better coming back, if at all. But hey, he is building different boards for other pinballs to not work.

I would look that product over carefully before installing. AND install it right away. I had nothing but problems with the 3 boards that I got.

Just saw a youtube video of him sitting in his booth at the Texas Pinball in Dallas. A couple large boards and a small wire harness on his folding white table.

I think the string them along, is to get outside the window of a charge back. He is selling the concept of a working board to those who are desperate for one to get their pinball working.

For those interested, he now has every color of wire that Bally made posted on FB. Get your promise of wire and a free shipping label, before its too late. Maybe it is for personal consumption, and he is also rebuilding pinball in his basement too. This is like a bad soap opera on daytime TV. Will Butch get his boards? Will he get his money back from the credit card company? Will Charlie ever communicate to complaining consumers? Will some evil doer visit Charlie and demand satisfaction? Will Charlie dare to show up to a pinball show and face harsh criticism? How about reinventing himself with a new company name, but not changing his customer service? Inquiring minds want to see the next episode of this drama.

Does it look like 810 color striping variations?>?

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