Interested to hear opinions on SM .vs. TH technology when it comes to a "traditional" driver board in a new pinball machine.

SM boards are less expensive because the boards can be made smaller, the costs of components are less and automation allows for cheaper assembly costs.

TH boards are more expensive because of the opposite of these same reasons, but they are repairable by most owners that own a soldering pencil.

The question: If the cost of a TH driver board added $40 to the cost of a new pinball machine, would it be worth the extra cost?

I am actually in the process of quoting a driver board for new machines. I am about at the $30 difference point because of the less expensive components, labor costs of inserting 36 TO220 FETs, and several square inches of board. I am not constrained to the original board size, so I can make it as small as I want = pro for SM; However I am always providing support to people with our boards that blow out a transistor.

You are right, much fewer Whitestar Driver Boards

Maybe I'll price out a through hole for connectors and drive transistors and do SM for all the logic and passive components. Added cost for that though would be the board would need to go through two soldering processes. First SM then wave solder for the TH parts. As far as board size, I think a TO220 TH transistor takes up less space than a D-square SM part....... Hummm. Best of both worlds.