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Stern's new boardset?

Well to me that looks too good to be true, but it looks very similar in size to the board on the new MM, wasn't that a tiny little thing that sat inside the backbox? It would be more convincing if the game was was turned on...
 
Well, I don't know enough about pinball PCBs to know if that's conceivable, but if they can miniaturise a computer into a match box like the Raspberry Pi... :)
 
Could be game logic quite easily but the power electronics for solenoids etc would have to be in the main cabinet base. I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was on the MMR.
 
JT. said:
Did they say why they chose to design it like that? Is there a cost saving by siting it there?
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That's gotta be the reason, that thing is freaking HUGE! I guess it is a lot cheaper to make 1 massive board rather than lots of little ones. I can only imagine the nightmare when it goes wrong and you need to remove it.
 
JT. said:
Did they say why they chose to design it like that? Is there a cost saving by siting it there?
Click to expand...
I believe there are very few cables going between the playfield and head. Think there's just a power cable going to the playfield, and a data cable going between the playfield and the back box. Something like that anyway.
 
kevlar said:
I believe there are very few cables going between the playfield and head. Think there's just a power cable going to the playfield, and a data cable going between the playfield and the back box. Something like that anyway.
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Yep it's saving money on cable!

So lead-free soldered board, fixed to the back of a playfield, subjected to high vibration, and sprinklings of conductive back dust from the coil plungers. Add to that non-user serviceable surface mount components and a high price tag, and you've got yourself a great deal :rofl:

The most worrying thing is, Stern will have seen the design and though Hell yeah! more money saving, sign us up to back of playfield boards!
 
Totally agree Luke, I don't see anyone concerned about it on pinside but the first thing I thought of when I saw it was how reliable can that be, all that dirt and vibration.
 
Surface mount is much better than through hole in terms of vibration. It'll be interesting to see how it fairs over time.
 
abaxas said:
Surface mount is much better than through hole in terms of vibration. It'll be interesting to see how it fairs over time.
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Surface mount _can_ have better vibration rating, dependant on the specific component and package.

But moving it from the backbox to the playfield is subjecting it to significantly higher levels of shock

Also surface mount + ROHS bollox lead-free solder is way way way less reliable (hence why all automotive, medical, military and aerospace manufacturers get special dispensation to continue to use lead based products)
 
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Looks like Sterns latest pin might be Motley Crüe looking at their latest teaser pic.

If they insist on doing more bands then Maiden would have been a better choice imo
 
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