Maintenance New product to address resets in WPC pinball

[rkahr]

All,

Posting here in case you haven't seen my announcement on other pinball forums - I wanted to call your attention to a daughterboard I developed to reduce or eliminate system resets related to the 5 Volt power supply in WPC era machines. I designed this new solution out of frustration with recurring resets in my Party Zone machine. In designing the daughterboard I took a holistic view of the WPC power supply designs, the loading of the supplies, the many possible weaknesses that become triggers of resets, and my knowledge of modern semiconductor products. From this analysis and through experimentation with several prototypes I determined I could safely move the power load of the MPU from the 5 volt supply to the 12 volt supply via a daughterboard that genterates and delivers a separate, stable, 5 volt supply to the MPU.

I like my daughterboard design because:
(1) It is a plug-and-play installation and the installation is completely reversible. No soldering and no wire or trace cutting is required to install the daughterboard so it can be removed from your machine as quickly as it can be installed.
(2) The watchdog circuit remains fully functional monitoring the power on the MPU board where the most sensitive chips (processor, ASIC, game roms) are located. But off-MPU hiccups no longer cascade into the MPU to trigger watchdog resets.
(3) The resultant redistribution of power loads is an improved balance across the available supplies compared to the factory design.
(4) It is only $25 including shipping in the USA.

You can find detailed technical descriptions of my daughterboard on my KAHR.US Circuits website at http://www.kahr.us . You can buy one through my website or through eBay (search for WPC daughterboard). It is more expensive on eBay because they charge a 10% per-item charge.

This new solution is not intended to substitute for maintaining the power supply circuitry in WPC systems, but it does eliminate the need to fret over every hundredth of a volt.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look.

 

[pinballdaveh]

congrats on what looks to be a good answer for the 5volt load problem at a good price. i hope to see your display at pinfest. any discount if bought at pinfest?

 

[rkahr]

Thanks, PinballDaveH. Have you seen the writeup at creditdotpinball ( http://creditdotpinball.com/2014/04/26/tech-wpc-resets-and-the-wpc-mpu-daughterboard/ )?

I'm still chewing on whether I can do a price break in Allentown. True, I don't have to pay postage on what sells, but the vendor booth was $165 plus I'm renting a small Uhaul trailer and driving 4 hours each way. Probably I'll do a multi-board discount (maybe $5 off five).

I will have at lest 160 daughterboards at Pinfest but only 35 of the 12 volt regulators for those who want to do that extra step. I've taken a few reservations on those. See you there!

 

[Coil_Smoke]

I have been using a Variac to raise line voltage on my Williams games. Never a reset @123Vac. Using the low voltage tap on the transformer never helped... I will give this modification a try and report back to PN soon...C_S

I just placed an order...Looks like a slick simple $25 fix. PayPal y'all...The new board plugs in line with the connector on power board. I'll let ya know...C_S

 

[Coil_Smoke]

PLUG & PLAY PINBALL NIRVANA

This little gem works! It is hard to believe that the tiny little components on the sub board in this thing can regulate or source more than a micro-watt or two. Ordered Sunday. Shipped and received Wednesday. Installed at connector J210 on Williams 'Star Trek The Next Gen.' The game boots up. The soul satisfying "Broinggg" says all is right with the world. The first thing I notice is, for the first time ever, all Led's in the back box are uniformly bright and cheery. Most notable the +5V Led which was always sad looking even with the game plugged into a Variac. Before taking the game off life support I lowered the line to 110Vac and all stayed well thanks to "rkahr" and his fine little widget.

UPDATE: This fine little gadget has worked for 2 months now with zero resets even during the five ball multi-ball that used to triger the most protection circuit resets...C_S

 

[pinballdaveh]

hi rob i had a great time talking to you at pinfest. your board is a excellent fix to a problem that will happen to a lot of WPC games now or down the road. a experienced tech could spend hours finding and repairing the voltage drop problem or somebody with little or no experience could plug in this in-line board(no soldering) and be back playing in minutes. thank you rob for thinking outside the box to come up with this solution.

 

[pinballdaveh]

bump to top. check out coil smokes update on this item.

 

[rkahr]

All,

Today I want to call your attention to an upgraded version of my daughterboard combining the functionality of my original daughterboard and new functionality that monitors the health of the Power Driver Board's 5 volt circuit. The new version (which I call the "Pro" daughterboard) has the additional capability of monitoring the original PDB 5 volt line for under-voltage conditions that "would have" triggered an MPU reset had the daughterboard not been installed. A green LED will illuminate at power-up and remain lit until an under-voltage is detected. Upon sensing an under-voltage the daughterboard switches off the green LED and illuminates a red LED. The daughterboard latches on the under-voltage detection meaning it will continue to light the red LED indefinitely until cleared by a three-second power off.

When I released the original daughterboard in February, some concerns were raised about the reset being an early indicator for needed power supply maintenance and that by preventing resets the indication is lost. As I hinted in the CreditDotPinball article, I took that concern seriously. Now the Pro version reveals this “lost” data point.

The Pro Daughterboard is only $10 more expensive than the Classic and of course the Classic Daughterboard will continue to be available for those not wanting the additional capability.

You can find detailed technical descriptions of my daughterboard on my KAHR.US Circuits website at http://www.kahr.us . You can buy one through my website or through eBay.

As always, my dautherboard solution is not intended to substitute for maintaining the power supply circuitry in WPC systems, but it does eliminate the need to fret over every hundredth of a volt.

Thanks for taking the time to take a look.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

 

[pinballdaveh]

thank you for updating an already amazing device that also monitors the 5 volt line. well , who's gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors?

 

[rkahr]

who's gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors?

The Government, I suspect...

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

 

[pinballdaveh]

hi rob will you show your board at the york show this year?

 

[rkahr]

Yes, I'm here.

-Rob
-Visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

 

[pinballdaveh]

hi rob did the york show go well for you ? how does it compare to the allentown pinfest ? i hear the york show is full of cheap amish type people.

 

[rkahr]

hi rob did the york show go well for you ? how does it compare to the allentown pinfest ? i hear the york show is full of cheap amish type people.

Thanks for asking, Dave. I had a very good time at York and my daughterboards were popular at the show. I was right across from the America's Most Haunted machine which was fun to check out. The Motel 6 was very basic but having a clean room for under $60 was satisfying (perhaps cheap?). Being a PA native with a degree from Penn State, crossing the Mason Dixon line into PA always feels a little like a familiar homecoming to me. There are always plenty of PSU-clad pinball players at York - I fit right in!

-Rob
-Visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

 

[pinballdaveh]

i have just found out that rob makes other boards that solve other problems that were not talked about in his first post. check out his website for all the info. thanks rob.

 

[rkahr]

Dave,

Thanks for noticing the new stuff I'm making. Through the Fall I'd been goofing with Williams sound boards in system 3 to 7 machines because I was getting a lot of static from my Firepower machine when I adjusted the volume or speech/sound mix.... here's what I've come up with:

1. A replacement volume control for type 2 sound boards. This is a no-solder solution that connects directly to the pins where the remote volume control is plugged in.
2. A replacement sound/speech mixer. This requires simple soldering skills to remove the old mixer and install my replacement.
3. A replacement volume control for type 1 sound boards. This also requires simple soldering skills to remove the factory potentiometer and install my replacement. I've only added these to my web site this week and haven't talked about them anywhere because I have very limited stock.
4. I don't make it, but I've ordered a stock of ezSBC's 5 volt switching regulator replacement with custom legs installed that fit in the footprint of the LM7805 on the sound boards. These also require simple soldering skills to remove the original LM7805 install the replacement. Because these are not linear devices burning off excess power, they do not need a heat sink.

In other news, last week I signed up to attend the Texas Pinball Festival. It's my first "fly-to" pinball show and I am really looking forward to it! And, for those keeping track, I've shipped over 1200 of my WPC reset boards... that far exceeded even my most optimistic expectations! Thanks to all who have them in their machines.

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

 

[pinballdaveh]

hi rob i hope to see you at pinfest this weekend.

 

[rkahr]

hi rob i hope to see you at pinfest this weekend.

Dave,

Great to chat this weekend - thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing my complete collection of inexpensive products... both versions of the WPC daughterboard and all the variations of potentiometers for Williams Sys 3 thru 7 sound boards. I talked to so many people about my products that I'm not sure if you got to check out the new Horiz + Vert Sync combiner I had for Pinball 2000 games. Did you get to play a game on my SWE1?

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for Williams 3-7 sound board solutions

 

[pinballdaveh]

hi rob great to chat with you at pinfest this year. yes you did show me your new sync combiner. if im right this device allows people to watch the video part of a pinball 2000 game on a PC. is the sync combiner availible for sale yet , or is it in the production stages yet. i did play your star wars pin , lots of fun , i did get a high score , but forgot about the initial entering buttons so DAV didnt come out right. thank you again for coming out with another innovative pinball item. i hope sales went well for you and hope to see you at next years pinfest.

 

[rkahr]

2016 Edition WPC Power Fix Daughterboards

Hi all,
I just started shipping my new 2016 Edition Daughterboards. In summary, the new boards have new monitoring capabilities and improved regulators. Rather than start a new thread, I figured it was best to tack on to my original announcement from 2014...

The most exciting change is in the Pro’s monitoring capabilities. The 2016 Edition Pro Daughterboard simultaneously monitors both the 12 volt and the 5 volt PDB power supplies. Here’s how: (note, for ease of reading I took out LED and instead used all caps for the color of the LED)
- GREEN means both supplies are stable.
- RED still means the PDB 5 volt dropped low (i.e., would have caused a reset without the daughterboard) at some point since game power-on. GREEN turns off when the RED turns on.
- BLUE means the PDB 12 volt digital dropped low (below 9 volts). This is an indication of weakness or instability in the PDB 12 volt derivation. GREEN turns off when BLUE turns on.
- BLUE and RED together means both supplies have exhibited their respective trigger conditions.

Both the red and blue LEDs latch when triggered meaning once lit they will remain illuminated until machine power-down.

Additionally, when powering on your machine you will see a short BLUE blink because the new Pro also monitors the 12 volt power supply startup. The 2016 Edition starts with the BLUE burning until the 12 volt line rises above 10 volt at startup. GREEN will not illuminate until the 12 volt startup condition is met. A long BLUE illumination at startup is an indication of weakness in the PDB 12 volt circuitry.

The new 2016 Edition Pro is a great new way to monitor the relative health of the two power supplies and I hope you find it helpful in monitoring for issues and diagnosing problems.

All of the 2016 Edition Daughterboards have an improved regulator onboard (yes, it is still an ezSBC design – the best in the business), so they can work where the previous version occasionally wouldn’t. Both the Classic and the Pro have the redesigned regulator.

One final note – the prices did not change with the update- $29 for the Classic and $39 for the Pro.... so maybe the most exciting part is what did NOT change!

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or for Williams system 3-7 sound board potentiometer solutions