Just ordered a prototype for a new product today, and I have a feeling this one is going to be a great seller if it works out properly. May even lead into a whole series of things. BUT, I'm not telling you what it is until one of two things happen....

1. Prototype arrives here in about 2 weeks.
2. Somebody guesses what it is.

I'll be nice and give a hint every couple of days.

First hint is a picture of the PCB. I have a couple small tweaks to make, but this is essentially it. Just want to beef up a couple overly small traces and add more silkscreened markings.

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Ok.... 1 more hint.

Not specific to any particular manufacturer or generation, should work in most games in the past few decades.

-Hans

No micro-USB connectors at all, but I can see why certain parts look that way.

I've also ordered this one with a 0.8mm thick PCB, and may go with a 0.6mm if necessary.
I also have to use 100% surface mount parts as absolutely nothing can protrude from the other side of the board.

-Hans

Ok Ok Ok. I've had enough evil fun with this one.

Zacaj got it on the very first post. Caught me by surprise for sure when he did that! Going to go under the sling plastics, to illuminate the playfield between the slings. Just a touch of light heading backward too which will hopefully illuminate both the sling plastic and the outlanes.

The LED's I chose for this attempt look to be bright enough and have both warm and cool white options. Going to also put a rectifier and smoothing caps on the PCB too.

Proto is sized for earlier Williams slingshots, but I plan on slotting one of the holes to let it fit under most slings used in solid state machines. Either that or I can just make more than one version as the schematic is simple enough.

I just don't have pricing yet.

-Hans

I'm going to use side illluminating LED's on it to get the same effect but hidden under the sling plastic.

Hopefully

RGB's would be cool, but also need some kind of control to them. Maybe in a future revision if these pan out.

Have a couple different color tones of white LED's on the way to try. Should be able to test it out and give some photos in about 2 weeks.

-Hans

Could potentially work, yeah. Let me see if the concept gets enough light in the right areas and then I can start looking into something like that. Also depends on if I can get right angle RGB's or not.

-Hans

Would have to be surface mount. Any kind of thru-hole stuff is going to cause a sharp spot on the other side of the board, which would scratch the plastics. Looks like there are a good number of side-emitting SMD RGB's out there. Hmmmmmmm

Good News!
I now have tracking numbers on both the parts and the circuit boards. Should have something to show you guys visually in about a week or so.

As a follow up, looks like the circuitry to control RGB LED's would be totally doable using potentiometers.

One version at a time, but if things work out then I'll definitely start looking at an RGB version.

-Hans

Photos coming up later today, or tomorrow, of the functioning prototype.

Initial results are promising but does need a few tweaks.

OK, I get it, I totally forgot to show photos in this thread.

Anyway, had the 'Public Debut' of the prototype this past weekend at MGC, and had some great feedback and interest on these, so time to kick it into high gear and get a new board revision ready. Getting close to moving out of proto and into beta testing. Thin enough that it fits right under the plastic, and doesn't appear to have any interference with the rubber or the slingshot. All the light goes out onto the playfield just like I wanted it to, with some heading back to the outlanes.

Couple issues to work out though. Had the rectifier oriented wrong, blew up the first one when bench testing it.... whoops. Hole distance wasn't quite right. This LED wasn't bright enough. Board was way too wide and casts a big shadow under the plastic.

New revision is about 1/3 the width, brighter LEDs, hole distance fixed, and swapped to discreet diodes to build a rectifier circuit that's narrower (and not wired wrong hopefully). Also added one additional LED facing backward to get a bit more light in that direction, and slotted one of the holes to give more range of slings it'll fit under. Ordering the next test batch in the next couple days, I'm tired and want to review the PCB once more before ordering.

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This version, yeah, too wide. Next version will be much narrower

RGB will be the next step, but will also need a separate driver board due to space constraints. The topic came up a few times at MGC.

So if I need a driver board then I'm going to probably look at controller chips to make color matching and repeatability easier to do. Will be far easier for the end user than potentiometers.

Proto revision 2 has been ordered, be here in about 2-3 weeks, then we see again how it does.