OP

Quoted from pincoder:

First off, I'm glad to hear the adapter is found to be useful! Thanks for the feedback!

OP

Quoted from pincoder:

It sounds exactly like you have issues with IC15, 16, 17, 18, and possibly IC11 (though I'm betting its somewhere in those first four). With 06-switches running, 2J2 and 2J3 disconnected you should get 00 in the match display and nothing anywhere else. Take a look at the numbers on the displays and map them to the switch matrix chart in your manual. See if any one entire row or column is shown. Chances are you'll see more than one row or column that will turn up. These rows and columns refer to the pins on 2J2 and 2J3.
The last section in 06-switches.txt ("ABOUT THE MATRIX SWITCHES (and PIA2)" will walk you through tracing signals so you can verify which ones actually need to be replaced, but in my experience IC15 and IC16 fail before IC16 and IC17 ever do. For the price, it's worth replacing all four anyway. Don't forget to install sockets first, it makes life easier.
Sometimes, when IC15 and IC16 fail they cause damage to the pins on IC11. If you replace IC15 through IC18 and the test still fails, you should replace IC11.
As for the lockup issue, that's a bit odd at this stage in the tests.. It may indicate a bad IC11 (or some other chip on the address/data bus), but the tests should continue to run even with a totally dead IC11. If you can properly remove IC11 without damaging it, you could try running the test with IC11 removed. In this case you should get "64" in the match display and numbers from 01 to 12 in all of the player displays - and it should still run forever.

OP

Quoted from pincoder:

Sometimes, when IC15 and IC16 fail they cause damage to the pins on IC11. If you replace IC15 through IC18 and the test still fails, you should replace IC11.
As for the lockup issue, that's a bit odd at this stage in the tests.. It may indicate a bad IC11 (or some other chip on the address/data bus), but the tests should continue to run even with a totally dead IC11. If you can properly remove IC11 without damaging it, you could try running the test with IC11 removed. In this case you should get "64" in the match display and numbers from 01 to 12 in all of the player displays - and it should still run forever.
Do any of the other tests crash if left to run for extended periods? You could try 01a-leds and see if the blink-rate ever "stutters".

OP

Quoted from pincoder:

Can I quote you on that? That's an excellent statement, thank you.

OP

Quoted from pincoder:

The IC numbers I'm referring to are on the driver board. IC17 on the driver board is a 7406.
You don't need a working driver board for these tests.. that's what the tests are designed for.. However, some people have had driver boards that lock up the MPU board. When that happens you can still run MPU board tests with the driver board disconnected, and then reconnect as you go down the list of tests.
Yes, please post some pics of the numbers. At first glance they look seemingly random, but are in fact sequences of two digit numbers starting from the left side of P1 working to the right.. to the right side of P4. if you look at them you will see they are actually sorted from lowest to highest. Each two digit number corresponds to the switch number in the switch matrix. Numbers higher than 64 refer to switches outside the matrix. Those numbers are assigned by me and relate to other switches, like the DIP switches on the MPU board for example.
When the Pincoder Controller comes out, you won't have to run back and forth to your PC to look at the documentation, so hang in there
As for system hangs, disconnect the driver board and run the displays test again to see if it hangs. If so, perhaps you also have a power problem. Check rectifiers and caps etc with respect to the power supply. It's worth mentionting here too that cold solder joints can also be a culprit here, as can the 40 pin connector so if you haven't already, check for both.
If it doesn't hang with the driver board removed then you likely have issues with either the 40-pin connector, and/or the circuits related to the PIAs on the driver board.

OP

Quoted from pincoder:

Down the road I'll be sending out a call for beta testers at a discounted rate - to everyone via email who has purchased the adapter, as well as creating an announcement here. No ETA on that yet either but it is a huge priority of mine - I just need to get some quality time to work on it.
Thank you to all who have encouraged me to get the controller done, and to all who have shown your support with your adapter purchases and your donations!
jt-pinball Thanks also for following up with your results. It helps others too!