Williams WPC Driver / power supply board repair

[Homepin]

no problems at at all for a one of - any shape you like...

[Strangeways]

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 !

[Caveoftreasures]

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 ! 

[beaky]

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. 
  

[Homepin]

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.

[beaky]

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  

[beaky]

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.

[Homepin]

I'm ready for it....if I think the tracks look a bit close I can tweak it.....

[beaky]

I'm ready for it....if I think the tracks look a bit close I can tweak it.....

I have just sent it.

[Homepin]

OK - on the job now. The file opens OK.

[MartyJ]

I have had Mike do some custom PCB's for me a little while back and the quality & service were A1.

[beaky]

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%

[beaky]

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.

[Homepin]

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.

[beaky]

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.