Well, it's been a long hard one with this project. To be fair we have made about 10 other pinball PCBs and numerous 'outside' jobs whilst we have been nibbling at this job. At least the longer than usual time to prepare this artwork has allowed us to think about a lot of mods and upgrades that we have now incorporated into this board.
The finished art:
We labled as many things as we could like test points etc - I hate looking at a circuit diagram for what "TP6" is - why not write it next to the test point? Well, that's what we have done:
We also incorporated as many memory chip options that we could. The board can be made up with the original two RAMs OR using the lithium memory RAM as shown on David Gersecs site (but without the messy track cutting and jumpers) OR our own mod using a 6116 RAM and one of the battery backup options. You can see the three groups of jumpers to the left of this pic (circled) for RAM change options:
Also included is the option to fit 7 x MOVs to 'help' protect the transistors in IC38 (the row of MOVs shown to the left with very heavy tracks). This is a common problem in some machines if the high voltage switch is accidently shorted to the switch matrix wires on things like pop bumpers. Maybe it will help prevent damage? Time will tell:
I have a trip planned for very early January to visit the PCB factory (yes, pictures to come) so I will take the files with me and get the ball rolling - chances are I will be able to bring a few finished PCBs back with me for assembly and testing. If that all goes well I expect boards and kits to be available late February - maybe March as we have a very big 'paying job' on in February
