The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Archived Threads => Homepin => Topic started by: Homepin on January 10, 2013, 07:02:41 PM
-
We will eventually re-create all of the WMS boards if we can. Starting with the most popular one the WPC.
It will probably be at least six months before these are ready - the process from start to finish is very long and involved.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wpc1.jpg)
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wpc2.jpg)
-
Great news!
Any idea on price? Just a rough estimate would do.
-
Goo stuff mike just be sure to not run the 5v rail around the mounting holes like precious attempts by others lol
-
Far out
-
Great news!
Any idea on price? Just a rough estimate would do.
Not really - these things are pretty hard to work out in advance - I just make up a list of parts and start buying.................
Naturally I will have to "meet the market" on the price BUT mine will be available IN AUSTRALIA having been made in Australia and, naturally, will be of far superior quality to other aftermarket offerings %.%
At a very minimum there will be a saving of time and postage.
-
Excellent news Mike.
For any future repairs (ie switch matrix) - as you always have sockets this is fantastic for collectors.
-
Excellent news Mike.
For any future repairs (ie switch matrix) - as you always have sockets this is fantastic for collectors.
Naturally all chips that are likely to give problems will be socketed - starting at U20
-
At least ASIC chips are cheap now! Hopefully the prices won't suddenly double overnight
-
At least ASIC chips are cheap now! Hopefully the prices won't suddenly double overnight
Yes they are - It is my intention (at this stage) to offer the board complete, ready to use and also complete BUT without the micro/RAM/ASIC/EPROM
I figure some will be able to re-use those chips from their board and save $50
-
looking good.
it will be nice to be able to offer my customers a proper replacement if their board is to far gone
-
Great news mike $#$
-
Awesome stuff Mike ^^^ ^^^
looking good.
it will be nice to be able to offer my customers a proper replacement if their board is to far gone
+1, will be great to be able to source a replacement locally. I bought an aftermarket WPC MPU (a Rotten Dog one, from MAD Amusements) about 6 months ago for a clients game.. after nearly having a heart attack at seeing the prices some of the local pin part suppliers were selling them for *!@ hence why i started looking overseas.
-
Awesome stuff Mike ^^^ ^^^
looking good.
it will be nice to be able to offer my customers a proper replacement if their board is to far gone
+1, will be great to be able to source a replacement locally. I bought an aftermarket WPC MPU (a Rotten Dog one, from MAD Amusements) about 6 months ago for a clients game.. after nearly having a heart attack at seeing the prices some of the local pin part suppliers were selling them for *!@ hence why i started looking overseas.
Please note for T2 owners these boards don't work. For some reason the left flipper is recognized as the right and so on. So the dot matrix mini game works in reverse.
-
Great News Mike ^^^
-
Please note for T2 owners these boards don't work. For some reason the left flipper is recognized as the right and so on. So the dot matrix mini game works in reverse.
Can you elaborate a little more please - does T2 use a different version of WPC or what makes it different?
-
I thought the T2 was WPC89. I suspect more of a bug on the RD board for that game
-
I thought the T2 was WPC89. I suspect more of a bug on the RD board for that game
OK - thanks, I'm not surprised.......
-
the t2 problem happened to me, i purchased a replacement driver board and the buttons in video mode work in reverse... nothing that can be done im told..
-
&^& sorry I didnt read mpu. Yes the driver board is the problem.
Talking about the CPU will your board still have a resistor setup for choosing countries or possibly a dip switch setup. I hope I'm not mixing up the boards again as I just woke up ^&^
Also will the new wpc allow for rechargeable batteries or to be mounted away from the board?
-
i can see the pads for the country jumpers on the layout.
i assume u will be making provisions for a lithium cell button battery?
-
Talking about the CPU will your board still have a resistor setup for choosing countries or possibly a dip switch setup.
Also will the new wpc allow for rechargeable batteries or to be mounted away from the board?
We intend to have only the holes that will take either jumpers or the buyer can fit a DIP sw if they like as leaving all jumpers OUT defaults to English
We will be including all battery options, remote batt pack, onboard CR2032 and probably Supercap
-
Talking about the CPU will your board still have a resistor setup for choosing countries or possibly a dip switch setup.
Also will the new wpc allow for rechargeable batteries or to be mounted away from the board?
We intend to have only the holes that will take either jumpers or the buyer can fit a DIP sw if they like as leaving all jumpers OUT defaults to English
We will be including all battery options, remote batt pack, onboard CR2032 and probably Supercap
Thanks for that
-
Awesome stuff Mike ^^^ ^^^
looking good.
it will be nice to be able to offer my customers a proper replacement if their board is to far gone
+1, will be great to be able to source a replacement locally. I bought an aftermarket WPC MPU (a Rotten Dog one, from MAD Amusements) about 6 months ago for a clients game.. after nearly having a heart attack at seeing the prices some of the local pin part suppliers were selling them for *!@ hence why i started looking overseas.
Please note for T2 owners these boards don't work. For some reason the left flipper is recognized as the right and so on. So the dot matrix mini game works in reverse.
I believe that's a side effect of the Rottendog WPC *driver* board, not the CPU? I think there are a couple pins swapped on the RD driver board that are only used on pre-fliptronics games.. so maybe the inputs to the 4n25s are reversed or something.
Having another aftermarket CPU board isn't a bad thing. I look forward to seeing your board!
-
Some major progress with this board - closing in on the smaller things now like back up battery options and part legends.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/progressing.jpg)
-
awesome work again mate
-
We now have the artwork practically finished for this board. A few final things needed attention. One is the backup battery. This board has a real time clock that runs all the time and so it places much higher demands on the backup battery. We have opted to use a much larger CR type battery than is usually used for Bally MPUs for example.
This also meant I had to source a holder for the new battery and then design up the footprint to add to the PCB artwork.
This is now all done so a bit of final checking and the art can go off to the PCB factory. I am also investigating FRAM to eliminate the need for the battery completely. It will all come down to the cost. It is my intention (at this stage) to offer the board complete BUT less the *micro, ROM, RAM & PLCC* as these can all come from the original board and are rarely damaged by corrosion. This will keep the cost of this board as low as possible.
This pic shows the larger batteries and holder along with the only SIP (Single Inline Pin) resistor network used on this board:
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/batts_sips.jpg)
-
Please note for T2 owners these boards don't work. For some reason the left flipper is recognized as the right and so on. So the dot matrix mini game works in reverse.
Can you elaborate a little more please - does T2 use a different version of WPC or what makes it different?
I believe Rottendog flipped a couple pins on a connector erroneously. I believe it's the one that feeds the 4n25 optocouplers on the driver board - in such a way that the right flipper button triggers the left optocoupler and vice versa
-
I believe Rottendog flipped a couple pins on a connector erroneously. I believe it's the one that feeds the 4n25 optocouplers on the driver board - in such a way that the right flipper button triggers the left optocoupler and vice versa
That should be pretty easy to sort out with a couple of cuts and jumpers surely?
-
Mike, what about using NVRAM instead of batteries?
Might add to the cost but it would be a great thing to not need a battery at all and it would be the only replacement board on the market like it, which you would think would make it a big selling point.
OK - I give in....I found a rail of FRAM today - now I just have to find the breakout boards to convert them to DIP as this chip is not made in a DIP package. I don't want to have a board made up if I can avoid it..........
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/fram.jpg)
OK - so I couldn't find breakout boards anywhere......designed some up and ordered them a couple of days ago - they should nearly be ready.
A breakout board basically converts a surface mount part to its DIP equivalent:
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/28pbob.jpg)
-
I negotiated with the board house to be able to get 10 boards made if I pay the setup fee AND, as long as there are no changes (in other words no cockups on my part that require fixing) they will not charge a setup fee if I order more within 30 days.
That should give enought time to assemble up a few test boards and trial them to ensure there are no problems.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wpc.jpg)
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wpc2.jpg)
-
Your a powerhouse Mike !
Keep up the fantastic work . ^^^
-
Thanks great news Mike. Getting rid of the batteries altogether is fantastic. Your boards will be the best available. All just depends on what the final price will be.
-
Thanks great news Mike. Getting rid of the batteries altogether is fantastic. Your boards will be the best available. All just depends on what the final price will be.
With most projects like this one it is nearly impossible to do any sort of costing as there are just too many variables. At the end of the day the actual cost to me really isn't relevant as I have to price to "meet the market". In most cases I have to order 1000pcs of a particular part so I need to outlay many hundreds of dollars to be able to buy one part that Jaycar might have for a couple of dollars. I do this to ensure that I have the parts that will fit into the boards that I have made. Homepin is a long term project.
The PCB's for the breakout board were delivered to my office this morning and look very nice:
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/dipexpand.jpg)
-
Even better - the chips actually fit on the board........ @@*
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/fits.jpg)
-
That's always a good start. ^^^
Damn SMD.
Yet I find myself drawn to its simple elegance. %.%
Looking good Mike.
-
The first 10 sample boards arrived today so I can pack them and bring them back with me to assemble a few for testing - if all goes well I will order a larger batch.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/10testwpc.jpg)
-
looks great ^^^
-
looks great ^^^
Looks even better in the fibreglass - %.%
-
I'm finally back after two months in my China office. Had a chance to assemble one of these boards yesterday and today including the RAM board. Apart from a few tiny initial issues the board runs well. A few small changes to the artwork and I can order the final revision of the blank boards.
Here is my first assembled board running (with non-volitile RAM) in my BSD:
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/newwpc.jpg)
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/newwpc1.jpg)
-
I thought the T2 was WPC89. I suspect more of a bug on the RD board for that game
OK - thanks, I'm not surprised.......
Would love a WPC89 replacement board for my T2.
Cheers!
Adam.
-
We will get to it but as you can see form this project - these larger boards require a HUGE amount of time, effort and MONEY to see through to the end.
It takes between 6 months and a year for a board like this one to get to the finished stage and I dare not add up the actual cost as my wife would kill me......
I thought the T2 was WPC89. I suspect more of a bug on the RD board for that game
OK - thanks, I'm not surprised.......
Would love a WPC89 replacement board for my T2.
Cheers!
Adam.
-
oh - this IS an '89 - there are so many variants I lose track sometimes - this will be ready for sale in about 2 months.....
-
oh - this IS an '89 - there are so many variants I lose track sometimes - this will be ready for sale in about 2 months.....
Ahhh excellent. If it fits T2, I might have to save my pennies and have the money by the time they are ready for production.
Yes, understand how much time and money would go into something like this. Really appreciate your big contribution to the pinball hobby!
Thanks,
Adam.
-
here is one all ready to go.
all tested and clear lacquered.
-
The first short run of fully finished boards have been built and tested perfectly. I ran one in my HSII for several hours without a hitch - the others bench tested perfectly.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/8xwpc.jpg)
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/hs2wpc.jpg)
We have socketed the input chips which are really the only ones that can be damaged by problems on the playfield. The rest practically never give any trouble apart from battery damage.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/wpcsockets.jpg)
We also laid the small clock crystal on its side and pinned it to the board to prevent damage and found a low case height 8mhz crystal for the other one.
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/smallxtal.jpg)
(http://www.homepin.com/pics/8mxtal.jpg)
All these boards were sold before we started assembling them but I hope to schedule a short run in the next week or so for those who are interested.
-
Nice work Mike. You have addressed the two issues - Battery and socketed IC's.
Put me down for one !
-
Very nice Mike ^^^
What sort of price are you looking at for these?
-
Very nice Mike ^^^
What sort of price are you looking at for these?
They should be up on my website in about a week when we run a large batch for $165 + $15 for a RAM (if required) plus post
Re-use your original Micro, Game chip and ASIC.
-
Considering the time and effort you put in Mike, that is an extremely reasonable price *%*
-
I dibs one too... ;-)
-
Considering the time and effort you put in Mike, that is an extremely reasonable price
Couldn't agree more!
-
Very nice Mike ^^^
What sort of price are you looking at for these?
They should be up on my website in about a week when we run a large batch for $165 + $15 for a RAM (if required) plus post
Re-use your original Micro, Game chip and ASIC.
Excellent price, Mike.
-
I have 3 of them out there and all of them are running fine
The large batch price drops the price quite a bit from the looks of things
-
Any chance for a US distributor?