Jordan, MN
Anyone know the reason the Rottendog website/account is suspended ?
(Topic ID: 276843)
Parts I need for my machine are suddenly becoming scarce. This might be a genius marketing trick - but if you need boards, now might be a good time to invest in them.
Rottondog is closing down, this information was given to me by PPS.
More info to follow soon on a new source for williams/bally boards.
It is awfully odd to shut down with your website 'suspended'. Usually, a website is left there until the pre-paid hosting and URL registration runs out. Maybe a nice note from the owner / operator saying goodbye.
Suspension is an action from the host, not the owner. It looks like lack of payment. Or legal action (like I took against someone who plagiarized my website).
There maybe more going on than, 'I just decided to retire.'
[I do not have any inside knowledge and maybe way off base, so don't start any rumors based on what I posted here.]
A friend of mine who does arcade machine repair for a living told me that last week that he tried to order Rottendog boards from his supplier and they were not available. The supplier told him that the owner is retiring, the company is for sale and stock is currently not available.
Quoted from jake35:Good riddance to a junk product. Hopefully someone better steps up.
Nothing wrong with any of their products. Rottondog have helped us get many machines going that otherwise would have been parted out.
Quoted from jake35:Good riddance to a junk product. Hopefully someone better steps up.
Sorry, but I hafta agree. I've had the same wpc mpu fail twice in two different ways, and a gottlieb sys3 driver board and sys80b mpu too.
I was able to get the wpc (they fixed the first fail, I hadda farm out the second) and the gottlieb driver board fixed, but the 80b mpu is still a mystery.
Quoted from pinballaddicted:Nothing wrong with any of their products. Rottondog have helped us get many machines going that otherwise would have been parted out.
Better than nothing, but...
Like his stuff or not, he provided A LOT of different products to keep these things running. Let's hope someone picks up where he left off.
Via the Facebook post... There's a gentleman that was able to obtain the original board drawings and etc from PPS and he will be releasing boards to original WPC specs.
I for one with a wpc89/95 games, will be in on that as my four month old rottondog needed to be repaired already.
Quoted from Nysbadmk8:Via the Facebook post... There's a gentleman that was able to obtain the original board drawings and etc from PPS and he will be releasing boards to original WPC specs.
Original specifications is not always better.
A good example of this is the System 9 / System 11 lamp column drives. Another example is the use of linear voltage regulators that generate a lot of heat.
Also ... not all WPC boards are 100% compatible / interchangeable. For example ... during the course of production Williams changed the resistor and capacitor values of some board components rendering boards with identical layout and components not 100% interchangeable due to the value changes. This was specifically done in the sound mixing sections between the System 11A and System 11B CPU boards as well as the pre-fliptronic WPC sound and fliptronic WPC sound boards.
Quoted from KenLayton:Now how will we be able to get schematics of Rottendog boards?
Waybackmachine has them cached, it's worth grabbing them while you can.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181230032923/http://rottendog.us/schematics.html
Quoted from DumbAss:Original specifications is not always better.
A good example of this is the System 9 / System 11 lamp column drives. Another example is the use of linear voltage regulators that generate a lot of heat.
Also ... not all WPC boards are 100% compatible / interchangeable. For example ... during the course of production Williams changed the resistor and capacitor values of some board components rendering boards with identical layout and components not 100% interchangeable due to the value changes. This was specifically done in the sound mixing sections between the System 11A and System 11B CPU boards as well as the pre-fliptronic WPC sound and fliptronic WPC sound boards.
I'm just the messager. I'm would assume some upgrades would be made along the way... But I'll take a new original PCB over no PCB.
the gulf power supply boards are recommended for ni wumpf cpu, good power board. Sane price as rd. Got mine from pinball resource
Quoted from lhammer610:It is awfully odd to shut down with your website 'suspended'. Usually, a website is left there until the pre-paid hosting and URL registration runs out. Maybe a nice note from the owner / operator saying goodbye.
The suspended page is what usually shows when the hosting bill is overdue.
Looks like Kohout is working on a new System 11 board and currently has a new system 3-7 board, maybe he will venture in to some other boards that he hasn’t as of yet?
Quoted from atrainn:Waybackmachine has them cached, it's worth grabbing them while you can.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181230032923/http://rottendog.us/schematics.html
Cuts off after WDB089 page 2 - do you have another link?
Guess this is why I haven't heard back on a support question in over a week...
Anybody know where to get the custom ROM images needed to run sys9 games on the MPU9211? If memory serves, it wasnt as easy as combining the two files into one.
Friday Sept 18th I'm launching my site officially. Launching up to 30 products on that date. New products are added as I finish batches up. Everything from coin door interface boards to WPC 95 driver boards.
My main goal with these boards is that they are original williams designs that are well documented. You will have 30 years of knowledge online that will never go away for trouble shooting eventual problems. There will be no scenario where you can't find information about these boards like you're currently seeing with the rottondog site going down.
https://pinballbasement.com/products/wpc-95-power-driver-board
Quoted from pb456:Cuts off after WDB089 page 2 - do you have another link?
atrainn
If you go back a bit further (2017ish) more of them load, but I went ahead and threw them all in a Google Drive folder - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kZfokPm_-LolQg-FHmldEgXbONNFCwF1?usp=sharing
Quoted from Pinball_Basement:Friday Sept 18th I'm launching my site officially. Launching up to 30 products on that date. New products are added as I finish batches up. Everything from coin door interface boards to WPC 95 driver boards.
My main goal with these boards is that they are original williams designs that are well documented. You will have 30 years of knowledge online that will never go away for trouble shooting eventual problems. There will be no scenario where you can't find information about these boards like you're currently seeing with the rottondog site going down.
https://pinballbasement.com/products/wpc-95-power-driver-board
[quoted image]
Damn,I may buy one of these just to support you! That is awesome.
Edmonton, AB
Congratulations to Pinball Basement for stepping up!
Nice to see original looking boards with updated components
Looking forward to where you will take this venture.
Quoted from Pinball_Basement:Friday Sept 18th I'm launching my site officially. Launching up to 30 products on that date. New products are added as I finish batches up. Everything from coin door interface boards to WPC 95 driver boards.
My main goal with these boards is that they are original williams designs that are well documented. You will have 30 years of knowledge online that will never go away for trouble shooting eventual problems. There will be no scenario where you can't find information about these boards like you're currently seeing with the rottondog site going down.
https://pinballbasement.com/products/wpc-95-power-driver-board
[quoted image]
Congrats on new venture!
I reccomend starting your own thread here on pinside the 18th.
Nice to have someone picking up and running with the ball, can we learn more about you @pinball_basement?
Your moniker has you joining 1 day ago, is it safe to assume you are someone we all know and love already from the Toronto area?
If this info has already been covered, my apologies for the dupe.
Quoted from Ericpinballfan:Congrats on new venture!
I reccomend starting your own thread here on pinside the 18th.
Word. And people will start asking about reviews, so be prepared 
Quoted from Atari_Daze:Nice to have someone picking up and running with the ball, can we learn more about you pinball_basement?
Your moniker has you joining 1 day ago, is it safe to assume you are someone we all know and love already from the Toronto area?
If this info has already been covered, my apologies for the dupe.
Posts as lordloss here.
Quoted from Atari_Daze:Nice to have someone picking up and running with the ball, can we learn more about you pinball_basement?
Your moniker has you joining 1 day ago, is it safe to assume you are someone we all know and love already from the Toronto area?
If this info has already been covered, my apologies for the dupe.
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:Posts as lordloss here.
Correct.
I've been in the hobby since 2012 and I have a background in engineering and manufacturing.
I take on a lot of extreme projects, its all about the hunt and the extreme depth of learning to know these games inside and out. I want original parts for my projects and there are way too many parts that are hard to find. So it made sense to step up and get these parts made again. I know if I need a part, there has got to be X other pinheads looking for that part too.
Guys guys, lots of rumors here but there is some truth. First off I talked to Jim this morning and as of right now the site is back up. It has been no secret that Jim has been wanting to retire for years, and many people, myself (Big Daddy Enterprises) included, have looked at his books and considered buying. I decided to pass. Right now he is not closed, he is not gone. He is in the process of liquidating, but he's still alive, he's still supporting albeit not much better than before being very hard to get ahold of. There are only 3 vendors (Big Daddy included) that were offered the finished goods about a month ago, I was the only one that purchased items that I saw XPIN or Big Daddy would not be able to replace short term. You will see less and less of Rottendog as he does close down, but we're talking months still here. He has thousands of boards in stock, both tested and untested.
I am sending this out to Pinball Basement...
Been out here for a while but this is my first post. I have picked up a couple project games this last year (Torch, Flash, Nitro, Grand Lizard) and every one of them has had hacked original boards, from MPUs, to displays, driverboards, sound boards, and a lot of bad coils. Got all of the games cheap (4pk for $1100). So my question is, why would anyone put in a new copy of an original board knowing that the originals had problems to begin with? Are you putting new parts but the same part numbers? Where are you getting your new 6821's or 6802's? Are you going to use TIP102s and TIP36s? At least Rottendog, XPin, Gulf, Alltek, and others have been trying to improve on the original boards. What are you going to do to make yours better than the originals?
I appreciate that you are trying to fill a void and bring more choices out for us to use, but when I got these projects I tried fixing some of the boards and when you hand them off to some of the guys that fix them and they say that the years haven't been kind and I would be better buying something better than an original, you begin to think with regard to the original boards it isn't if they fail but when they will fail.
Quoted from Bugsy_D:What are you going to do to make yours better than the originals?
Good question. And what about the +5v supply? If I recall, those original pieces have been out of production for a long time now.
Quoted from Pinball_Basement:Friday Sept 18th I'm launching my site officially. Launching up to 30 products on that date. New products are added as I finish batches up. Everything from coin door interface boards to WPC 95 driver boards.
My main goal with these boards is that they are original williams designs that are well documented. You will have 30 years of knowledge online that will never go away for trouble shooting eventual problems. There will be no scenario where you can't find information about these boards like you're currently seeing with the rottondog site going down.
https://pinballbasement.com/products/wpc-95-power-driver-board
Hopefully you will be offering paypal and overseas shipping.
Quoted from Bugsy_D:I am sending this out to Pinball Basement...
Been out here for a while but this is my first post. I have picked up a couple project games this last year (Torch, Flash, Nitro, Grand Lizard) and every one of them has had hacked original boards, from MPUs, to displays, driverboards, sound boards, and a lot of bad coils. Got all of the games cheap (4pk for $1100). So my question is, why would anyone put in a new copy of an original board knowing that the originals had problems to begin with? Are you putting new parts but the same part numbers? Where are you getting your new 6821's or 6802's? Are you going to use TIP102s and TIP36s? At least Rottendog, XPin, Gulf, Alltek, and others have been trying to improve on the original boards. What are you going to do to make yours better than the originals?
I appreciate that you are trying to fill a void and bring more choices out for us to use, but when I got these projects I tried fixing some of the boards and when you hand them off to some of the guys that fix them and they say that the years haven't been kind and I would be better buying something better than an original, you begin to think with regard to the original boards it isn't if they fail but when they will fail.
The new original boards will be the same unless a drop in replacement can offer a better solution for the circuit. The main reason these are being made is to put the hacked boards to rest and have a proven circuit be used in the machine as intended. For example the Sys 3-7 Driver board can have a transistor updated and the high wattage resistors are no longer needed with that update. If I get down to that level of games, I will update the part to solve that issue. Another issue such as the special solenoid circuits should have been fused. I would add inline fuses to this design and make that safer.
If Williams issued a service bulletin to update an aspect of the boards, this would be updated as well.
Circuit board fabrication has come a LONG way in 30 years when all these original boards were first made. Better through hole plating and fabrication processes in general. Yes, the old boards haven't aged well, but I'd like to prove that a new board of the old design just flat out works and will age better than the older boards. When repairs need to be made, the pads won't come up with the trace.
Redesigning boards could be on the table as time goes on, but for now authenticity is my main goal and I just want the board to work without any issues. Too many times i've seen people take out a competitors board and put back an original board to get it working like it should.
6821's are back in production actually... really good timing on my part. I'm really happy that I can produce system 11 boards and not have to worry about second hand chips not lasting.
Quoted from Pinball_Basement:I'm really happy that I can produce system 11 boards and not have to worry about second hand chips not lasting.
You sir, are going to be very busy!
Quoted from Pinball_Basement:The new original boards will be the same unless a drop in replacement can offer a better solution for the circuit. The main reason these are being made is to put the hacked boards to rest and have a proven circuit be used in the machine as intended. For example the Sys 3-7 Driver board can have a transistor updated and the high wattage resistors are no longer needed with that update. If I get down to that level of games, I will update the part to solve that issue. Another issue such as the special solenoid circuits should have been fused. I would add inline fuses to this design and make that safer.
If Williams issued a service bulletin to update an aspect of the boards, this would be updated as well.
Circuit board fabrication has come a LONG way in 30 years when all these original boards were first made. Better through hole plating and fabrication processes in general. Yes, the old boards haven't aged well, but I'd like to prove that a new board of the old design just flat out works and will age better than the older boards. When repairs need to be made, the pads won't come up with the trace.
Redesigning boards could be on the table as time goes on, but for now authenticity is my main goal and I just want the board to work without any issues. Too many times i've seen people take out a competitors board and put back an original board to get it working like it should.
6821's are back in production actually... really good timing on my part. I'm really happy that I can produce system 11 boards and not have to worry about second hand chips not lasting.
Who is reproducing the 6821 IC Chips?
Quoted from Jaymerkramer:Looks like Kohout is working on a new System 11 board and currently has a new system 3-7 board, maybe he will venture in to some other boards that he hasn’t as of yet?
http://pinballpcb.com/
My husband and I have ordered power supplies from Kahout, a system 11 aux board and a flipper power supply for a system 9. I have to say the quality of Kahout is top notch. As is their customer service. We inquired about the how the LEDs on the Aux board were not even brightness and Jeff said they must have sent me their old stock board which used LEDs from a previous supplier they had for LEDs. He immediately sent us a new board and emailed me a shipping label to send the old one back. We were able to use that Aux board until the new one came in a few days later. No downtime on the game at all!
We are considering ordering one of this MPU and Driver Combos for my System 6, like his power supplies, it has added features that will help when issues arise. It's got LEDs that light when solenoids are fired, a lamp matrix array of LEDs on the board and board status LED lights. We find his products are really thought out and really bring the games into the 2020s. His boards are also thicker so when I'm changing having to unplug stuff wiring it's ridged and will last longer.
We've not ordered it but we think this Voice board sound board combo board is also nice because it gets rid of the ribbon cable.
Some people don't like the fact that Kahout has the 40 pin connector still but it makes sense sometimes you only need to replace part of a system 6... MPU or driver and not both. So this keeps it compatible. Plus if you are going with the combo there is a better connection that is utilized instead.
We also like that everything is through hole and the documentation that comes with the board is top notch on on par with William's original schematics and literature. The PCBs are nicely labled not only with the connection name as in the Williams Lit. but also what it is for example "1J6 Flipper Voltage Supply" as are the Fuse "F4 GI lights"
I'm surprised more people aren't talking about Kahout they have a good thing going: www.pinballpcb.com
These photos from ES are from before they sent us the replacement.
117950940_10101498084878232_5454331454733200518_n (resized).jpg117953671_10101498084419152_1666832419019240694_n (resized).jpg
Quoted from chad:Who is reproducing the 6821 IC Chips?
https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=W65C21N6TPG-14
Quoted from sparkup:Hopefully you will be offering paypal and overseas shipping.
Yes, I will have to do an individual paypal request I think until I can figure out a better way to do that.
In general these boards are just another option. Each company will have their place in the market and their pro's and con's. Its up to each collector to figure out where they stand with each generation of pinball and how they want it to operate.
All I know is that my WPC games are getting a full set of new boards and its going to be wonderful.
Question, for the LM323K regulators are you replacing those with switching variants such as the popular PSU5 from Ezsbc? I see your WPC driver boards are using heatsinks for the 5v regulators. This could improve reliability for WPC logic power in the long term.
Quoted from Crash:Question, for the LM323K regulators are you replacing those with switching variants such as the popular PSU5 from Ezsbc? I see your WPC driver boards are using heatsinks for the 5v regulators. This could improve reliability for WPC logic power in the long term.
You are correct, a modern Ezsbc is replacing the lm 323. I am working with that company on a lm317 replacement as well
20200902_142154 (resized).jpgQuoted from Pinball_Basement:Friday Sept 18th I'm launching my site officially. Launching up to 30 products on that date. New products are added as I finish batches up. Everything from coin door interface boards to WPC 95 driver boards.
My main goal with these boards is that they are original williams designs that are well documented. You will have 30 years of knowledge online that will never go away for trouble shooting eventual problems. There will be no scenario where you can't find information about these boards like you're currently seeing with the rottondog site going down.
https://pinballbasement.com/products/wpc-95-power-driver-board
[quoted image]
Buyer beware. This is/appears to be lordloss now with a dup account.
https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/lordloss
Research whom you support in buying boards.
Their are better alternatives.
Quoted from Whysnow:Buyer beware. This is lordloss now with a dup account.
Research whom you support in buying boards.
Their are better alternatives.
Not sure if serious. He already announced he is lordloss. I've done business with him before and had a good experience. Not sure how producing original Williams PCB drawings with upgraded components and Rick's blessing is a negative thing.
Quoted from Whysnow:Buyer beware. This is lordloss now with a dup account.
Research whom you support in buying boards.
Their are better alternatives.
Charlie is a good man.
Let it go.
LTG : )
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