Leon Borre Universal Driver Board Test Box

Universal driver boards test box.

Many years i use this type of test box , on my website it was announced in the artikel " Latest updates and changes" that i would publish this one day, at last i did make a nice version of this box. The box is not that easy to make certainly you need some soldering skills as there are several cables to make for the different boards , but is you do many repairs or like to be prepared for any driver board it is worth wile.

The driver boards you can fully test are:

Bally driver board , Bally lamp driver board, Zaccaria driver board, WPC driver board , Bally auxciliairy lamp driver board.

How does it work?

The box issues the following signals all coming at one single 11 pins standard connector. 4 Address lines,a powerfull pulsing signal, and one signal that comes from a simple push-button. On the box is a test LED to check output signals of the boards under test. Exta are two plugs to activate a row of test LED's if you want to check a whole connector and monitor all signals of that connector at once. Not only a real output is tested but the difference is made between a "'real" output and an output caused by a schort in an output transistor or thyristor, the main reason why coils burn an re-burn afther replacement!!!

To make building a lot more easy i made a print for the box that can be ordered. But anyway you find complete schematics if you want do it your self , and designs how to put parts on the print is you use the printed cirquit.

The printed cirquit very simple only a few parts are needed.

All parts on the print 2 IC , 2 transistors , 7 resistors and 3 small capacitors.

I made a small housing.

As the print is inside the box and the connector comes on top i did make a second simple print for that connector.

The print mounted in his box with the connections. The 11 pins connector, the on/off switch and his indicator LED. The red LED with his connection point is to test the outputs, with a switch to choose between "continue" and "blink" what this is for is explained in the users pages . Below left the push button, and at last two extra connection points to connect a test-LED strip that way it will be possible to monitor all outputs at the same connector at the same time on a board under test, we see and explain all that in the users manual part of this article.

Some connection cables made from recuperated connectors of old video games.

Positionning schematic of the parts on the print. ( under the 100uF capacitor, right top) is marqued LED, here the on/off LED is connected.

Schematic.

It is important to respect the connection of the address pins. Pin 5 of the IC 4040 to pin 1 of the ouput connector, pin 6/4040 to pin 2 out conn. , pin 7/4040 to pin 3 out conn., and at last pin 9/4040 to pin 5 of the output connector.

The connections at the front of the box.

On the right the 11 pins connector ( pin 4 is not used and removed ) two red dots indicate pin 1. LED tester is the connection point where we put a test-lead to test the outputs. Blink and continue are the connection points to connect a LED strip, continue is simply 5 volts , blink is a 5volt pulse to test thyristor outputs on lampdriver boards. Again the exact use is explained in the users pages. The switch beneat the test LED is to connect the test LED at "continue or "blink" .Left under the push button.Left upper side the on/off switch and his indicator LED, as this LED is connected on the pulse output , it indicates that power is ON and at the same time as it is blinking that the pulse generatot works ok, a dubble funtion.

Use.

With a output cable suited for each different board , the address signals are fet to the board under test to select ALL inputs one afther another and generate the outputs. The push button has different functions depending of the board under test . On a WPC driver board the push button simulates the RESET signal normally coming from the CPU board at power up. On the Bally driver board it is used to steer 4 inputs that are not adressed by the general address signals, again this becomes clear in the users pages.

Lamp driver baors have someting special, the outoputs are thyristors instead of transistors and the big difference is when the( brief) input signal disappears the output stay-on and this as long as the 5volt is applied. What does that means for us during test?

When we check the output of a thyristor the test LED will light up and stays "on" all the time , where when a transistor is the output the test LED will blink every time this input/output is selected. In case a thysistor is bad and shorted again we will have an output that is "on" all the time , how to make the difference? Well by connecting the output LED strip at " blink" here the output of the thyristor has to blink in a irregular manner, only every time he is selected , if it blink continously the thysistor is shorted. In the users pages we will discover that it is best to connect first on the continue output and check if all outputs are on and stay on. Then we switch to the "blink" output and here we can see the irrigular blinking of the outputs , all this is visible on the users video's i made for testing each board.,

Connection cables.

For every type board under test we need a connection cable to the 11 pins connector , here you find where to connect the other side of that cable , the board under test side.

For the connector J113 you can use a PC cable, the older connectors as on the disquette drive are exactly what you need.

The red design is the power connector for the driver board first generation wich is different of the one on the second generation boards , luckely CN15 is the same. Make one cable and have the two different connectors soldered at 5 and 0 volts.

Here my Zaccaria cable with the two different cable ends for the 5 volts power.( at the right) one is 4 pins ( second generation) the other two pins( first generation board).

The Bally aux driverboard excists in two models , numbers AS-2518-43 and AS-2518-52. The smaller with only 3 IC's ( -43) has only outputs at J2, pins 1,2,3,5,6,7,11,12,17,18,19 and 20

The large model ( -52) outputs at pins, J2 pin 4 to pin 18 included, and J3 pin 3,4 and from pin 7 to pin 18 included.

Users manuals.

Basic rule

During test of any transistor ouput the test LED must blink , mostly rather slow and at irregular intervals, no blinking or continous "on" means the output is bad ( mostly the driver transistor). Of course in none of all outputs works there is another fault it is VERY rare all output transistors are bad.... On lamp driver boards using thyristor outputs the rules are different. Best is to take a look at the video for the Bally lampdriver board , there i used a board with several faults and explain what you can expect to see and what to do. In all other video's of boards under test i used good working reserve board.

Bally driver board

With the cable connected and power on, you can test immediatly each output. Q1 to Q19 , testing on the metal tap of the transistors is the most easy way , there will be 4 transistors that will not give any output for these 4 Q15, Q17, Q18 and Q19 you need to push the push button , every time you push output will appear and the test LED will light up.

Here the demo video ...................

Bally lampdriver board.

Video including when something is wrong.....

Bally aux lampdriver board.

This works the same as the lamp driver board .

Zaccaria driver board.

Video explains it all .........

WPC driver board

Demo video .......

Alle the output connectors and what signals you got to find on them are listed here below

The board is still in the pinball machine. Before we start..

To verify that the rectifiers and bridges and so on are ok, connect the unknown board to the pinball only by two connectors that is J101 and J103. For WPC-95 connect J127,128 and 129, This way all control LED's on the board have to go "on" and you can measure the voltages at the different test points , use the original schematic to do so. This way no voltages "leave" the driver as no lamps or coils are yet connected. This is specially needed when you have to repair a board coming from another pinball machine..."

You have to measure 6 different voltages at test points ; TP1=12 volts = LED7, TP2 = 5 volts =LED4,TP 3 = 12 volts = LED1, TP6 = 50 volts = NO LED, TP7 = 20 volts = LED5 and TP8 = 18 volts = LED6. If one or more are missing use the schematics and measure at different points to find out where things go wrong. This is common electrical stuff , so I cannot give more instructions on how to do that, if you are not able to repair this circuitry do not continue further interventions on any board..you have to aquire some basic insight, and skills.....

WPC-95, TP103 =12 volts = LED 103, TP101 = 5 volts = LED 101, TP100 = 12 volts = LED 100, TP105 = 50 volts = LED 105, TP104 = 20 volts = LED 104 and TP102 = 18 volts = LED 102.

That's all we have to do on a " unknown" board , before we test all the command circuitry by our method. The power drive board commands all the lamps , solenoids and some other circuitry, so after the control is finished it will be completely safe to put it in a pinball machine...

The control leds.

As already used in several repair method for driver boards ( Williams, Bally Atari Zaccaria etc..) we use ,to control the outputs again a row of control leds .. Find here how these are made as already published on this site at several places..

Schematic.

Handling

There are three different types of power driver boards , type numbers are, A12697-1, A12697-3, A12697-4 and a driver board for the WPC 95 games, 20028.. The greatest difference between the three boards is that some WPC driver boards have no " flipper enable relay" . This relay situated at the left top of the board will be missing if you have a machine with a" fliptronic" board that commands the flippers.

The test is valuable for all three WPC driver boards. The WPC-95 driver board technology almost the same, has as stated before other connector numbering and smaller fuses. If you want to know which pinball machine has which driver board, look at marvin3m.com under "Williams WPC repair guide" where all the WPC/ WPC-95 pinball machines and there different boards configurations are listed..

We are going to control all outputs of the driver board these are at connectors; J 130, J 127, J 126,J 122, J 121,J 120,J 138and J 135. ( J126,J123,J120,J116,J113,J112,J110,J109 and J106 ) At power up ...Output LED on the control box has to blink all the time.Sometimes the control LED's at any connector will not start to blink. For that, there is the push button on the control box, push him once or twice if needed so that the blinking starts.( I have no reset coming from the cpu thats why we sometimes ( not often) have to start up with the push button..

Connect the test LED strip at the connector indicated in red. If outputs are missing always use a logic probe to follow the missing signals as described further.

J130

Some of the outputs going also to J 132 and J131.But we can monitor all signals of this group at J 130. This group is named " High current solenoids " The control LED strip connected at this output pins has to show 8 blinking LED's.If there are some missing or staying lit, we follow the signals starting at U5 , from there to the pre-drivers, Q71,74,72,73,61,60,62 and 59 From there to the drivers, Q81,79,77,76,63,65,67 and 69, and at last to the power output transistors Q82,80,78,76,64,66,68 and 70,. Follow the missing signal , using the schematic and look where it still enters a transistor and fails to come out , easy enough. Replace the suspected element.

J116

Some of the outputs going also to J 116 and J117.But we can monitor all signals of this group at J 116. This group is named " High current drivers " The control LED strip connected at this output pins has to show 8 blinking LED's. If there are some missing or staying lit, we follow the signals starting at U7 , from there to the pre-drivers, Q49 to Q56. From there to the drivers, Q61,57,62,58,63,59,64 and 60, and at last to the power output transistors Q65,69,66,70,67,71,68 and 72,. Follow the missing signal , using the schematic and look where it still enters a transistor and fales to come out , easy enough. Replace the suspected element.

J127

Again some of the outputs are going to other connectors ( J128, 129) but all 8 signals can be monitored at this J127.This group is named" Low current solenoids" .The start is at U4 and the drivers are Q57,55,53,51,49,47,45 and 43. The power out transistors are Q44,46,48,50,52,54,56,and 58. Here to when a output is missing follow the signals using the schematic, really no problem.

J113

Again some of the outputs are going to other connectors ( J114, 115) but all 8 signals can be monitored at this J113.This group is named" Low current drivers". The start is at U6 and the drivers are Q33 to Q40. The power out transistors are Q45,41,46,42,47,43,48,and 44. Here the same scenario, when an output is missing follow the signal from his start at U6 until it disappears there the fault is situated, this using the schematic, really no problem.

J122

These are the " General purpose drivers" and the same signals are also coming to J123 and J124. We monitor at J122 there are only four LED's that must blink here. At pins 1, 2,3 and 4 . The signals start at U2, to the drivers Q19,21,23 and 25 and then to the power drivers Q20,22,24 and 26 .Again a very straight forward circuitry , easy to follow if there is one missing. Mostly it will be the power outputs ( TIP102) that will go bad..

J110

A group called " Device control" using the LED test strip at J110, we must find 4 blinking LED's . On pins 1,2,3 and 4. The signal starts at U4 and passes twice a "gate" . All gates are in IC U3. Really 'straight forward' signals and if one is missing , the only possible cause can be a faulty U3.

J126

Eight more " General purpose drivers" some of them also going to J123. Here the signals start from U 3 to the 8 drivers, Q31,33,29,27,35,37,39 and 41 the output transistors ,again Tip102 are , Q32,34,30,28,36,38,40 and 42.

J109

A first group of " General purpose drivers" , we find the same signals at J108 and J107, with the test LED strip at J109 we have 4 blinking LED's at pins 1,2,3 and 4. The signals are starting at U4, to the drivers Q9,10,11 and 12, en from there towards the power drivers, Q13, 14,15 and 16. A straight forward design , easy to follow, and if one is missing suspect always the output transistor TIP 102...

J112

More " general purpose drivers" 8 of them. You find these signals also at J111. Here the signals starts at U5 to the 8 drivers , Q17 to Q24 and from there to the output transistors, Q29,25,30,26,31,27,32 and 28.

J121

Here we have the " General illumination" outputs, something special, these outputs are coming true TRIAC's and to control these we put of course the LED strip at J121, but we have to ground also pins 12, 11,10,8 and 7 of connector J115 . The outputs will blink 5 LED's. In many cases some LED's stay "on" all the time , even when you have a board that is "good" in the pinball machine.. How comes ? Well the TRIAC is bad but stay's "on" ( conducting) all the time resulting in the general illumination to be on all the time at max strength, not possible to "dim" but as we not always " dim" the illumination this can be not noticed by the user..So be aware the control LED's have to blink!! In almost all cases it is the TRIAC that is bad.. If not look at the drivers they are Q17,9,13,15 and 11. The TRIAC's are at Q18,10,14,16 and 12.On the 5 big heat sinks.

J106

Here we have the " General illumination" outputs, something special, these outputs are coming true TRIAC's and to control these we put of course the LED strip at J106, but we have to ground also pins 10,8 and 7 of connector J103 . The outputs will blink 3 LED's. In many cases some LED's stay "on" all the time , even when you have a board that is "good" in the pinball machine.. How comes ? Well the TRIAC is bad but stay's "on" ( conducting) all the time resulting in the general illumination to be on all the time at max strenght, not possible to "dim" but as we not always " dim" the illumination this can be not noticed by the user..So be aware the control LED's have to blink!! In almost all cases it is the TRIAC that is bad.. If not look at the drivers they are Q6,7 and 8. The TRIAC's are at Q13,4 and 5.On the 3 big heat sinks. You can test also the "unswitched" outputs , the LED strip stay at J106 now ground pins 11 and 12 of J103, again two other LED's will light and will stay " on" all the time. You are controlling the diodes D25,26,29 and 30.

J 138

The " lamp columns" are a bit more tricky . We have , if ok, 8 outputs but the LED strip cannot be used.. The lamp columns work with 18 volts and we do not have that .. So we make a connection between the 5 volts and the 18 volt test pins on the board. And using a voltmeter, we have to measure each of the 8 pins to see the needle" dance" .Why we cannot use the LED strip instead , well polarity is reversed here and the LED's won't work. But using the voltmeter for just these 8 pins is not to bad.. Again if one missing follow the signals starting at U9 then through U18 driving the chip U19 and then the output transistors Q 91 to Q98..

J123

The " lamp columns" are a bit more tricky . We have , if ok, 8 outputs but the LED strip cannot be used.. The lamp columns work with 18 volts and we do not have that .. So we make a connection between the 5 volts and the 18 volt test pins on the board. And using a voltmeter, we have to measure each of the 8 pins to see the needle" dance" .Why we cannot use the LED strip instead , well polarity is reversed here and the LED's won't work. But using the voltmeter for just these 8 pins is not to bad.. Again if one missing follow the signals starting at U10 then through U11 driving then the output transistors Q93 to Q100..

J135

The lamp "rows" depending of the initial position of the flip-flops U10, 11 and 12 The 8 LED's will be "on" or "off" , push the button on the control box to change the position of the flip flops , if 8 LED's "on" all is ok. If one or more missing , as always follow the way..here starting at U10, 11 or 12 to the drivers ( TIP 102) Q83 to Q90

J126

The lamp "rows" depending of the initial position of the flip-flops U12, 13, U14 and U15, the 8 LED's will be "on" or "off" , push the button on the control box to change the position of the flip flops , if 8 LED's "on" all is ok. If one or more missing , as always follow the way..here starting at the output pins of the flip-flop's Pin 6 and 8 , and from there directly to the ( TIP102) drivers Q101 to Q108.

WPC

If ever you have a "enable flippers" relay that never clicks , replace Q99. Of course other outputs have been tested and ok at that moment.

WPC-95

J120

A group named "Flippers" here we have again 8 working outputs , but all 12 pins of the connector will blink the connected LED's. Some of the outputs are at two pins at the same time. Pin 2=3, pin 5=6, pin 8=9, pin 12=13. The signals are starting at U8 , passing the drivers Q73 to Q80, going to the output transistors, ( TIP102) Q81,83,86,84,89,87,92 nd 91.

This terminates test of all controls of the driver board . If ever you still have lamps , or solenoids that do not work, well good hunting because you will have to dive under the playfield now, or you have bad contacts in your connectors....

Why?

Why a 11pins connector when only 9 are used??

The prototype of the box i made had a 5volts power supply incorporated. This was an extra luxe as any one that does some repairs has certainly a 5volts power supply at hand. If not ,use an old PC power supply excellent for the job!! As there was a transformer in the prototype i had an extra 9 volts AC on that transformator and i did use this 9VAC to steer the thyristors during testing. Now ,as i have no 9VAC , we use the 5 volt pulse to do that , works well to! This extra 9VAC came at pins 10 and 11...

Het bovenste , het prototype, is iets groter omdat er nog een 5 volt voeding bijzit.

The upper one is the prototype, slightly bigger with the extra 5 volt power supply as an extra

Hint..

The 11 pins connector print is sligtly narrow to put the connector on , my advise , cut the connector in two 5 and 6 pins drilll holes of 2mm in the bigger islands on the printed circuit and 1,5mm holes in the smaller islands that way the connector will fit easely into the print.