Yeah, that's what I'm thinking is some kind of conversion board that just plugs into the existing harness.
There are way too many different harnesses out there to make that practical (IMO). Unless you want to limit the games that can use the product which I think would be a bad choice. You would be better of to make it generic and let the buyer decide how to install it (possibly with instructions). Another option would be to make adapter harnesses for different machines. Use a generic board design with headers for the input and output then build harnesses for each game. Designing the board itself to have pinouts for different harnesses doesn't seem like a good idea (again IMO).
Though I was also thinking of adding in some kind of option for pwm controlled dimmer.
That's a cool idea though it definitely complicates things and adds cost. Personally I would try to build it so it can pass enough current to have mixed LEDs and incandescent lamps in the circuit. It would be nice to have that option but you have to build it a lot beefier, again adding cost. The thing should really be overbuilt anyway. It's not going to add THAT much cost and one customer with a melted board could ruin the whole thing.
I could probably do a bare board for under $5 if there was a market for 100 of them.
That's not an unrealistic estimate but if you're going to build it to drive mixed lamps you'll want some nice heavy traces. Most of the cost will be in the other parts like the bridge and filter cap. If you're doing PWM you'll need some kind of variable timer and drive circuitry for that. I've done a few of these kinds of projects myself. The cost can add up quickly.
Actually... if you're going to do mixed lamps the "dimming" is not going to be consistent. I would experiment with it and see how it looks.
Populated for about $15 or so.
This seems a little low to me but maybe I'm envisioning something more extravagant than what you have in mind.
MAYBE I can get enough traces on there to make it work on system 3-6's as well as 7's with one design, which I think would be the deal breaker. I think I'll either be able to make it work on both types OR do the dimmer.
Like I mentioned above I would go with a more generic board design and build the harnesses for each game. You're really limiting yourself unnecessarily by designing a game specific board.
Then throw in another option cap to give a smooth on and smooth off..... that's going to take some experimenting.
I would personally do that through PWM though you're going to need a more complicated timer circuit. Doing that with caps is not going to work out too well. Your best bet here is going to be a microcontroller. Then you could even add USB and make it really cool
I've used PIC18F14K50 microcontrollers in the past for this kind of thing. They're dirt cheap for what you get.
I've seen the GI LED's, the "NoFlick" stuff. I think that's just a dual diode, with one polarized each way.
Could be. That's kind of lame though. They're still going to flicker.
I'm not worried about getting rich, just about not losing money on the deal. I think there is a small market, just not sure how big. There are a lot of guys who aren't that technically skilled, or would want something that doesn't modify the game at all and can be removed to return it to "original".
-Hans
It's an interesting idea. The only way to determine a market is to build some and see how many people produce the cash. If you have the time and inclination I say go for it. I've developed several boards that have an extremely limited market. Ultimately it should be something you make because you want one yourself and if others buy it then so much the better.
No one is making a killing on designing boards for pinball machines. Losing money is one thing but making money on your time is unlikely to happen. Keep that in mind. It's really easy to dump a bunch of time and money into this kind of project and not see a return on it.
That's my $.02CDN
