Per a discussion in another thread, I'm starting up a new one to talk about some new designs for OPP boards.
I'm a big fan of the OPP boards, but one double edged sword - the small size of the boards means they don't take up as much room and can fit in small spaces under the playfield, but the small size also makes it difficult to work on the boards once set up. Also, the odd shape makes mounting a little more difficult.
openpinballproj posted in that other thread:
Quoted from openpinballproj:I could never figure out what a good standard configuration should be. On Van Halen the boards are 4 incand, 2 incand + 2 inp, 2 sol + 2 inp, and 1 sol + 3 inp. SS3 is 2 hi incand + 1 sol + 1 inp, (2 copies of this config) 1 hi incand + 1 sol + 2 inp, and 2 hi incand + 2 inp. It's a pretty wide swath of different types of boards.
I'm not suggesting replacing the existing boards, just adding another option for some "standard" layouts.
Another option would be maybe making a "breakout" board that allows you to modularize it a bit more. Soldering the wings directly to the controller makes for difficult diagnostics.
Quoted from openpinballproj:The inputs are really nice because they just fit on the processor board and it makes a really small footprint for the card under the playfield.
If you're just doing inputs it's fine to use the existing one I suppose. Another argument is that the connectors are packed so close together, and don't have any provision for keying connectors, so hooking them up wrong or even offset to one way or another is common - ask me how I know!
Quoted from openpinballproj:that would mean the raw board price would be $3ish and then with markups, you would have to sell it for at least $10 or $12 each.
I'm personally not super concerned about a board costing $12 if it has everything in one, spaced out so I can replace a single MOSFET - for example, on the incandescent boards, I can't get my desoldering tool in near the ones close to the controller board because it gets in the way.
Other plusses would be having everything "prewired" so I don't have to run power and ground from the interface board to the controller, it could just be traces on the all-in-one.
Besides, I sent the gerbers for the boards off to SEEEED myself and got them made, if someone doesn't want to pay a middle man that's the best option.