The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Technical Matters => Circuit Board Repair Guides => Topic started by: beaky on April 11, 2011, 10:29:25 AM
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This board is going to be a challenge to get back to a neat, tidy & working state.
It has a low 5V dc issue plus plenty of hacks.
It has most of the caps & Bridge rectifiers replaced before.
The board has come out of a different machine to the one i took it out of and by the looks of it all the heat damage was caused by the previous machine and not the one I took it out of.
I know i won't be able to make this board 100% hack free but I will get rid of as many as i can.
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What a mess! @.@
You sure do like a challenge Beaky.
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I love the bit of veroboard stuck in there - hahaha
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I love the bit of veroboard stuck in there - hahaha
they used hot melt glue to stick it in place. not the wisest of choices !@)
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Well this my driver board that's out of my CFTBL, its a hacked up mess to say the least !!!
I have been having issues with this machine ever since I collected it from a so called mate who borrowed this for a party at his place. It appears now that the driver board was swapped out, as all the other boards are original just like the machine. I'm still spewin over this and as a result will never lend any of my pins out ever!. !*!
I must say a HUGE thanks to beaky - andrew & cavey for calling over yesterday and helping me sort out some of my pinball problems, I know beaky has a challenge with this board, and as cavey says if beaky can't fix it now one can!!!!! thanks again.
This is what makes AP the best site on the planet $#$
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Well this my driver board that's out of my CFTBL, its a hacked up mess to say the least !!!
I have been having issues with this machine ever since I collected it from a so called mate who borrowed this for a party at his place. It appears now that the driver board was swapped out, as all the other boards are original just like the machine. I'm still spewin over this and as a result will never lend any of my pins out ever!. !*!
I must say a HUGE thanks to beaky - andrew & cavey for calling over yesterday and helping me sort out some of my pinball problems, I know beaky has a challenge with this board, and as cavey says if beaky can't fix it now one can!!!!! thanks again.
This is what makes AP the best site on the planet $#$
That's a horror story if ever I heard one (swapping a board out) - but thanks to Andrew and Brett, I hope this butchered board is repaired PROPERLY by a skilled repairer (Beaky).
Keep us up to date with the reair log, Andrew !
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Leon (V8racefan) has one of the best CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON pinball machines i have ever seen. The cabinet is still like new and the playfield and everything else is immaculate. Its a really nice example.
Andrew will make the board alot better. Its not the end of the world. If a board is too badly damaged, its good to know new or 2nd hand replacements are available.
Its hard to know whether the machine came with the hacked board the way it is, or if it was swapped out later on. The only thing we do know, is that it certainly isnt the original board.
*FOOD FOR THOUGHT*
I THINK IT PAYS for everyone to take the boards out of your pinball machines/headboxes when u buy a machine and take a close look behind the boards. From the front, everything looks great, but its not til u look at the rear of the boards do u get the real picture. When i buy any machine, i always make sure all serial numbers on all boards and the playfield matchs. This is a great way to see how original a machine really is etc.
As i service each of my machines from now on, i am going to take a look behind all boards. After seeing some really bad hacks of late, espescially on power supply boards, i have become paranoid about a machine catching on fire. !*!
check ya boards guys. It will be worth the while in the long run. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
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I started on the low +5vdc problem first. Caps (C5 & C4) and bridge (BR2) have been changed on this board for the +5v circuit. But c4 was a 1000uf where the schematic says 100uf and they have added a .01 monolithic capacitor across the GND and +5v out so I am assuming they have had a low 5v problem before and tried to bring the voltage up. I changed c4 back to a 100uf and checked the other cap and bridge So the only thing that is left is the LM323 (Q1) 5 volt regulator. It has a perfect 5v with no load but with a 250ma load it drops to 4.8V and of course with a bigger load it drops even more. I will keep you informed of the out come.
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I have started on the G.I. section with all the hacks. It is pretty bad. One of the heat-sinks was held to the board by silicon & most of the solder pads are stuffed or missing. some of the components were held in by there legs being bent back up through the board and soldered to the next component or to pieces of wire. they were nearly just floating there.
All the screw holding the triacs to the heat-sinks were loose so most of the damage has been done because the triacs have been running super hot. The rest of the damage has been done with a big hot soldering iron. ^&^
Then there is the vero board that two of the fuse holders are soldered to. !@#
I am now tossing up on whether I should make a new small pcb to go in were the vero board is, jumper the damaged solder pads & some how keep the floating components in place.
Or make a daughter board with the full G.I. section on it. The design I have in mind will plug into U1 via a wire wrap I.C. socket and i will put U1 on the daughter board & a couple of plugs that plug into the existing board for the G.I circuits. The whole daughter board will be held in by stand-offs that will be attached where the original heat-sinks are soldered so the whole board is removable for repairs.
I know it won't look original but for this board to be reliable I think the daughter board is the way to go.
I will talk to the owner of the board about the options and get his go ahead first.
I have posted some pics to show how bad the board is and the floating parts.
Does any one have other ideas on how to over come this?
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and after all the components and wires have been removed
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the daughter board will be this shape.
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Beaky,
I am watching this with great interest. You certainly have a challenge on your hands and with the huge amount of damage I would have scrapped the board in place of another or aftermarket.
Great idea for the daughter board and should work very well.
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Daughter board sure sound interesting Andrew can't wait to see that. Sure is a challenge man they have cooked that board to death
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I am happy to help here if you like. I can easily make a "one off" PCB for you to your required design Beaky...
Let me know if you would like some help here...
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I am happy to help here if you like. I can easily make a "one off" PCB for you to your required design Beaky...
Let me know if you would like some help here...
Thanks homepin. The only hurdle I have is the shape. I have a couple of ideas in mind how to achieve this.
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no problems at at all for a one of - any shape you like...
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That is one of the worst boards I've seen in any game. One hell of a challenge Andrew - I'll be watching with interest !
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A big thumbs up to Homepin (Mike) for his generous offer.
I would be taking up that great offer, just to see the excellent end result that would come from it. All the recent board design and production work that Mike has done with new boards is a big step forward for the entire pinball industry.
I know Andrew (Beaky) is capable by himself, but to work together with Mike on the soloution would be too good to pass up. You know what they say about two brains being better than one.
Its this sort of generosity that makes our AP forum so great ! ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
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I have spent a bit of time on the board layout and the hardest part is done. I still need to put in the transistors and the resistors but I have done all the work for the triacs and plugs.
Now its a bit of a tight squeeze as I have to fit it all on a single sided pcb where the original is double sided and I have to fit all the parts in a smaller area than the original . There are only 2 links on top of the board that i have to install which isn't to bad. I had to move the positions of the fuses and triacs around a bit so the layout is not the same as the original. fortunately some of the inputs are linked on the plugs so I merged the two tracks into one on the board were this happens. The tracks will need some touching up once i get the other components on. It was also necessary to put all the fuses on the daughter board instead of just 2 so the board can be just plugged in and have no hard wired wires between the boards.J121 on my board will have wires soldered to it and there will be a plug put on the wires so it can be plugged into J120 on the original board because there are some tracks on the original board that go to J119. J121 on the original board will also be used for some of the G.I's.
I ended up using free pcb instead of protell as I am not sure how to export the gerber files from protel.
Here is a picture of the board so far.
P.S. as you can see i am a big fan of fat tracks. &&
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I have spent a bit of time on the board layout and the hardest part is done. I still need to put in the transistors and the resistors but I have done all the work for the triacs and plugs.
I ended up using free pcb instead of protell as I am not sure how to export the gerber files from protel.
Here is a picture of the board so far.
P.S. as you can see i am a big fan of fat tracks. &&
It's looking GREAT! FreePCB suits me fine as it is no where near as 'top heavy' as Protel. Will you be putting any mounting or locating holes in it?
When you're ready email the .fpc file - that will be faster than sending the Gerbers.
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Thanks Mike.
I have 4 mounting holes marked S/O1 to S/O4 (stand off 1 to 4). The stand off's are lined up with 4 of the heat-sink holes on the original board. I don't like having all the over hang past the stand offs where the plugs are but there is not much i can do about that unfortunately.
I used free pcb for that reason, so i could send you the .fpc file. protel will only save it as a .pcb file and you would not be able to open the file with free pcb.
I don't mind free pcb but one of the things i like about protel is you can draw up the schematics and specify what foot print each component on the schematic has, then when you transfer it to the pcb all your foot prints are there on the board with all the net lists done.
And yes you are right, protel is very 'top heavy', thanks for putting me on to free pcb ^^^
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layout is now complete.
It is now ready for routing.
I will email it tonight mike
some of the tracks look a bit close due to the low resolution.
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I'm ready for it....if I think the tracks look a bit close I can tweak it.....
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I'm ready for it....if I think the tracks look a bit close I can tweak it.....
I have just sent it.
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OK - on the job now. The file opens OK.
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I have had Mike do some custom PCB's for me a little while back and the quality & service were A1.
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I have had Mike do some custom PCB's for me a little while back and the quality & service were A1.
From the photos I have seen of Mike's work I agree with the A1 100%
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OK - on the job now. The file opens OK.
Good to hear, I sent it in zip format so if it was corrupted then it would not have opened.
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Well - I 'deem' the artwork is good enough for a 'one-off' project.
Certainly far from perfect but it should do the job and prevent another pinball board from being scrapped.
I'll get one made in the next day or so along with the Dracula Long Opto board.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wms_gi.jpg)
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Well - I 'deem' the artwork is good enough for a 'one-off' project.
Certainly far from perfect but it should do the job and prevent another pinball board from being scrapped.
I'll get one made in the next day or so along with the Dracula Long Opto board.
what would you have done differently? I have just thrown this together as it is a one off. Also it is the first time I have used this software, I find protel a lot more flexible, its lot easier to fine tune and neaten things up. I had to make some of the tracks thick as i could due to the current draw and as i mentioned before I had to fit this all into a smaller area the the original and on a single sided board.
also I have noticed on the above picture that some of the holes are smaller than needed, is it only showing the centres or is that the actual hole size?
Just so everyone knows I wasn't going for perfect. &&
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Well - I 'deem' the artwork is good enough for a 'one-off' project.
Certainly far from perfect but it should do the job and prevent another pinball board from being scrapped.
I'll get one made in the next day or so along with the Dracula Long Opto board.
what would you have done differently? I have just thrown this together as it is a one off. Also it is the first time I have used this software, I find protel a lot more flexible, its lot easier to fine tune and neaten things up. I had to make some of the tracks thick as i could due to the current draw and as i mentioned before I had to fit this all into a smaller area the the original and on a single sided board.
also I have noticed on the above picture that some of the holes are smaller than needed, is it only showing the centres or is that the actual hole size?
Just so everyone knows I wasn't going for perfect. &&
Don't misunderstand - I'm not having a dig at all - not for a second. It is certainly fine the way it is. ^^^
The holes shown are centre holes only for drilling - not the finished hole size. I think the heavy tracks are perfect. I am a little concerned about the thin tracks for a 'homemade board" but I have fattened them as much as I could without creating other issues.
It's all good and I'm sure the finished result will be spot on!! #*#
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Well done Mike and Andrew. Its this sort of help and teamwork that makes Aussie Pinball the greatest forum on the planet. ^^^
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No probs mate, I wasn't familiar with your sense of humour @.@. I can fatten the other tracks up and increase some of the pad sizes if you like (where I can). Its just with protel I can break a track anywhere I like and increase the width for that section only. I haven't figured out if or how i can do this on free pcb. !@# .
Some are a bit thin for my liking also.
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Yes, there are some limitations making 'homemade boards' the way I do it. Board factories (naturally) can make make smaller tracks etc. I actually convert the Gerber to a .png then import that into Corel Draw - that allows me to tidy a few things up a lot faster for a 'one off'. That also makes it dead easy to add images like the Homepin logo etc.
Naturally there are dozens of ways to do a one off board - none of the them are the "right way" but I have found this method to be the fastest way with the best 'bang for buck' result.
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Yes, there are some limitations making 'homemade boards' the way I do it. Board factories (naturally) can make make smaller tracks etc. I actually convert the Gerber to a .png then import that into Corel Draw - that allows me to tidy a few things up a lot faster for a 'one off'. That also makes it dead easy to add images like the Homepin logo etc.
Naturally there are dozens of ways to do a one off board - none of the them are the "right way" but I have found this method to be the fastest way with the best 'bang for buck' result.
So that's your little trick. &&
So would you like me to thicken up the rest of the thin tracks?
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Well my part of this excellent project is done. Time for Beaky to take over again and see it through to the end.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/beakboard.jpg)
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Mike, that looks great. $#$
Thanks again for your help and service.
Can't wait till it gets here.
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Simply amazing ! Well done to all - keep us posted on the progress *%*
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IT DOESNT GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT. Very talented Mike. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
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Speechless,well done Mike and so quick as well.
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Well done Andrew & Mike excellent team work ^^^, I haven't logged onto AP for a week or so.. this board repair is progressing very well, keep up all the good work $#$
As the end user of this board my family & I are looking forward to playing CFTBL again. Aussie pinball is the best pinball place on the planet, thanks again.
Cheers
Leon
aka v8racefan
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your welcome Leon.
I am just waiting for the new triacs and transistors to arrive.
I won't use the existing triacs because as i mentioned before they where not bolted to the heat-sinks properly and have been running way to hot so i can't guarantee the existing triacs will last.
I will test it in one of brett's pins before i bring it around.
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Finally the triacs have arrived. The pcb is all ready for testing. once this is done and all is proven to work correctly i will give the pcb a clean to remove any flux & a good coat of clear pcb lacquer.
I will post more photos tomorrow,
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Simply outstanding !
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+ 1 fantastic effort, keep up the great work ^^^
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Looks OK so far..... ^^^
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It will tested and re-installed over the weekend.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon will come back to life once more ^^^
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I have fitted the new 5 volt reg and I have +4.97 volts with no load and 4.95 with a load.
I added all the jumpers for the Caps & Bridges
I did a bench test on the G.I. board and it works perfectly.
I have added plenty of solder on all the tracks ( on the G.I. board) . Only 1 or 2 tracks needed the thick solder but I thought I would make them all the same.
After cleaning all the clear paint and flux off the driver pcb (instead of using proper pcb clear lacquer on the board some one used normal acrylic clear so when i cleaned it off it took the green off with it) I added a new coat of clear.
All that is left to do is fit the G.I. pcb to the main pcb and fit it to Leon's machine,
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And the finished product. (before & after). It's finally done $#$ $#$ $#$ $#$
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Nice - well done! Maybe glue a paper strip under the fuses to identify them??
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That board was destined for the crap heap. Well done Andrew and Mike ^^^
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Nice - well done! Maybe glue a paper strip under the fuses to identify them??
good idea. i just printed it on some self adhesive paper.
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any pics of it working in a machine yet?? You know the deal - pics or it didn't happen <.>
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yeh, get over here Andy and plug it in. Pick whatever machine you want to test it in.
I will stand back with the fire extinguisher.lol @.@ #(&
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Nice work ^^^
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any pics of it working in a machine yet?? You know the deal - pics or it didn't happen <.>
I am just waiting for Leon to get in contact with me so i can arrange a time to install it.
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yeh, get over here Andy and plug it in. Pick whatever machine you want to test it in.
I will stand back with the fire extinguisher.lol @.@ #(&
one day you will not be asleep when i call and you will return my calls. #@#
Nice work ^^^
thanks for the kind words
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Too much staying up til 3am watching Star Trek. Us old blokes need a arvo nap from time to time.
The board for Leon looks good. ^^^
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I fitted the board to one of cavemans sttng and it worked perfectly. #*#
the correct G.I strings where being switched on and off, also the correct strings where being dimmed.
Also the pin did not reboot during play or in attract mode at any time.
Thanks again to mike from home pin for etching the PCB for me.
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Well done Mike and Andy.
Alot of effort went into bringing this board back to life. It easily could have been written off because as Nino said, it could have easily ended up in the tip, the hacks were very very bad.
She works like new now, and it is definately a unique board now that Beaky and Homepin have weaved their magic.
WELL DONE GUYS. Excellent work, excellent planning and design here all round.
^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
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I've followed this repair closely and credit must be given to all involved - a board saved from the tip - well done guys !
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Thanks Neno
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Glad to see it all worked out OK in the end. 90% of the credit to Beaky for his PCB design and also working out how to actually go about the task - that is often the largest part of the job.
It looks like it will last the life of the machine now at least.