(Topic ID: 224870)

WPC Driver Boards New Improved Design

By Ballypinball

5 years ago


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  • 46 posts
  • 24 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by harig
  • Topic is favorited by 19 Pinsiders

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    #4 5 years ago

    Yeah, but how much?

    #10 5 years ago
    Quoted from chad:

    I understand. Kit version would be nice.

    Id be willing to make kits, not sure on a price without more research

    1 year later
    #22 4 years ago

    Bump

    #24 4 years ago
    Quoted from pinballinreno:

    I would like to see rare sound cards available as a board.

    I was actually thinking about that too. I wonder if Rick has those board files still

    #31 4 years ago
    Quoted from underlord:

    Bump. Anyone sourcing these board parts? A complete kit would be awesome.

    I can't find the board for sale. He had them in ebay for a bit, but took them all down.

    #34 4 years ago
    Quoted from whthrs166:

    Hmmmmm makes me wonder about licensing here. Hope not. We really need this kind of product support. I have spares for this reason.

    I was going to buy a bunch when he had them, but $90 a board is hard to justify that.

    #36 4 years ago
    Quoted from ForceFlow:

    There's no licensing or copyright issues for reproducing a PCB. There's no IP or artwork on it.

    Yeah, it's a bit spendy just for a blank PCB. But manufacturing a PCB of that size tends to be somewhat expensive, especially when it's not in bulk. I've been curious about what it actually cost back then to manufacturer them compared to now. A lot of the boards from the 70s through the 90s were huge compared to the PCBs of today.

    I was considering having a run of soundboard made. Might be a good time to have a run.

    #40 4 years ago
    Quoted from HHaase:

    Labor on a WPC driver board would have been the biggest cost factor, there's just a huge amount of parts to hand-stuff. The ironic part is that manufacturing that board today, to the same design and layout, would probably be much more expensive. There's very little automated thru-hole equipment out there anymore in the field, so there would be a lot more hand labor, and lower volume production would mean per-unit component cost would be much higher.
    As to the sound boards..... the board itself is easy. Rick has told me in the past that ALL the board data is available, and bare boards can be made without any issue. It's the impossible to source components that are really holding things up, and as time goes on that's only going to become more pronounced as more thru-hole parts go obsolete.
    I know there is a strong preference toward making functionally identical to the originals but an increasing number of designs can only be reproduced via redesign and modernization.

    For this run it wouldn't be a big run, so the would be hand populated.

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