I've been working with Steve on these, and when they're ready I'll be doing the assembly and sales of them as per current plans.

The main remaining issue is the mounting brackets for the switches themselves, once those are ready it won't be long. Just don't have a timeframe yet on those.

-Hans

I'll try to get in touch with Steve for an update on this.

-Hans

Haven't heard from Steven in a while. Will try to ping him again on this. Last time we spoke, the main issue was brackets for the microswitches, other than that he was basically on the final board revision.

No, Gorgar still had the sliders.

I promised not to divulge any details, but have been in recent contact with Steve on this, and updates will be coming in the near future.

-Hans

Can't provide details yet, but Steve and I have been regularly conversing on this project lately again. It is a live project, under active development still, just slower than anticipated. At the moment it's down to finalizing layout, and making sure the design is going to survive attached to drop target banks. Looks like, hopefully, one more major layout change and then just tweaking and on to production.

I really appreciate the patience you guys are showing on this.

-Hans

Yep, been talking with homepin about them already, and glad to see that people will have solid choices. I am actually almost out of my stock in replacement sliders, 25 left out of a run of 500, so I also have to decide on making another run or not of those.

Hot Tip will be fine. The design triggers an input into the driver board so that the signals look like the original targets would appear.

Been working with Steve on this again, long/crazy summers for the both of us, but project is getting back in gear again.

-Hans

Been talking with Steve about this recently, just been a busy time for both of us. Design is maturing and we think the last few hitches are worked out. Electrically, the design works great, it's moving it onto a physical circuit board that has been the trick. Between wide board areas that can't be used, and vibration plus spring tension, there is a surprising amount of nuances to balance.

Sent Steve another PCB revision suggestion about a week ago, he's reviewing it now.

-Hans

Just sent an e-mail to Steve, to see where he's at with it.

-Hans

Later boards from Williams also did the same thing with the small 'spacer' pads in the middle. So not a new concept, I was worried about material shorting between the pads, so didn't include anything similar on mine.

Very slick with the reed switches, solves the issue with the temporary signal for the 'drop' very elegantly.

Well, the consideration is there, I won't lie. I think there is room for two suppliers on these, if the sales numbers on my previous drop targets are any indication. Homepin and I have competed on a few products over time, and we've co-existed cordially, so I don't see why that would change. So yeah, I am looking into it. True that the board cost would go up but I also think that the cost / price increase would be more than offset by the reliability and maintenance improvement. I've been in on this all the way since the start, would be nice to see it through.

I'm not as worried about the reed switch as I am about the magnets, to be honest.

Well, a $3 per board cost may not seem like much, but when it hits customers it'll probably be closer to a $10 MSRP factoring in the magnets. Can be a $100 set of boards in some games, and definitely more work to install due to the magnets.

Anybody actually know what kind of plastic the original drop targets are made of?

I’m more thinking about epoxy choices. I have zero intention of making new targets too.

Ok, I've been doing a LOT of scheming on these, and have a good plan for prototyping that'll allow me to develop fairly easily.
Here's the big question I have, since I TRY to be customer driven.

Would you guys want individual boards for each drop target? Or a single board for the whole target bank?
It'll take me a bit of time to roll through all the variations but I think it'll be a lot cleaner and easier to install.
It'll also be a lot less wiring to sort out, and eliminate problems with misaligned targets.

-Hans

If I had a few grand laying around I could do a short-run injection mold and re-make those mounts.
But I don't unfortunately. Will be a week or two until I can order the first sample boards on the drop targets.
Chinese new year is in a week, so ordering new PCB's right now is kinda pointless.

On a pseudo-related note, I finally have a schematic available for my existing boards in Tri-Zone.
I just need to get it into an instruction sheet. Also did a revised schematic for the 5-bank in Flash. Just need to get that one polished and published too.

-Hans

Should have a layout to show fairly soon, just about done with the schematic.

Dimensions and everything looking pretty good. Tomorrow i'll give another quickie review and get the boards ordered.
Hoping to have them on-hand for MGC next month. It'll be close.

Did multiples of the reed switches for the proto build just in case I need to tweak positioning.
Production boards will remove the excess ones, and have additional jumpering to fit more board games.

-Hans

MB-012-proto (resized).JPG

Boards are ordered, most of the parts are here. Prototype testing soon.
-Hans

Built prototype in my hand, as we speak.

Officially going to be showing them off at MGC, so no photos yet for you guys.
But make sure to stop by my table if you're there.
After the show samples will be getting shipped for testing.
No, I haven't contacted anybody yet...... after the show.

-Hans

For anybody who's at MGC, and doesn't mind a bit of DIY as part of the process, I'll have 4 built boards with me.
These are for 3-targets sets. Gorgar, Firepower, and Blackout each have two of these.
Should also work in the 3-bank sets for Flash, Time Warp, Stellar Wars.

There was a small goof with the board house, and they forgot to drill the mounting holes.
If that's no big deal, I'd rather give these away than to bring them home.

Heck, if you don't mind a bit of soldering, I'll also have another 6 blank boards with me.
Can toss in the diodes, but won't get more switches in time.
The more machines/people that get them for testing, the better.

Once I get back from MGC, I'll post up more photos/details, and even pricing one the 3-target sets.

-Hans

Was looking for some folks to stop by and grab samples at MGC, but nobody ever came by.

Hectic couple days, will get back to you guys shortly. Short answer, sure. Let's give it a whirl. Bob and Impzilla, PM me some address details.

First two sets of targets just went into envelops for Bob and Impzilla. Been a nutty couple of weeks here since MGC.
This is just the first round of testing, so no doors are closed yet in that regard.

A few questions have come up regarding this design, and I'll be honest they do have me a bit concerned. But lets see if we can solve.

1: Sourcing, attaching, and retaining magnets. Had a few people voice their concerns on that. All things considered, this is a minor concern.
2: Can the reed switches react fast enough for the 'momentary' switches. We'll find out about this one once they hit test subjects.
3: The magnets will lose strength over time due to the vibration and shock of being attached to the targets. This is a real problem for sure.

However, for the time being I'll still go forward with some rounds of testing to get things rolling anyway.

Hehehe, another thing, Bob...... I had always figured the reed switches would be on the other side from the actual targets. If you can, shoot me over a photo of where you've moved the switches to, I know from your messages that you had to relocate them a bit all around.

-Hans

I do have a re-drawn board layout ready to go now, taking into account the recommendations.
Will get it ordered with my next run of PCB's. Things have been crazy with some of the other new prototypes I've been dabbling with.

-Hans

I completely flippin forgot to order the damn boards when I placed my last order. This summer has been crazy to the 3rd degree here, hoping to start getting moving on a few projects soon.

-Hans