Lesson Learned on Alltek Ultimate LED Driver Board

Tech Help, Restorations, Refurbishments, "Shop Out" Photos, Notes
Post Reply
CftBL
Posts: 183
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:59 pm
Location: Madison
Contact:

Lesson Learned on Alltek Ultimate LED Driver Board

Post by CftBL »

I learned an important lesson this weekend after frying my second Alltek Ultimade LED driver board; SCR's are sensitive!
Back in March, I tried installing the Alltek board in my EBD, however 2 minutes after installing it, I fried a trace and an SCR. After a little diggin, I thought that I had hooked up the power wire to the wrong side of a GI socket, So after trading emails with Dave at Alltek, I moved the wire to a more appropriate location. This weekend I finally got around to reinstalling the repaired board. I put it in and again within 2 minutes I fried another SCR. After cussing and scratching my head a bit, I figured out that some of my non-working lights under the playfield were not actually due to bad incandescent bulbs; the sockets themselves were shorted out. I talked with Dave again and found out that the SCR's will quickly be fried by any short. So, (and here's the important part) If you are going to upgrade to the Alltek Ultimate LED Driver board make sure that those non-functioning lights are actually due to bad bulbs and not shorted out sockets.

On a similar note, does anyone have a source for #555 lamp sockets with extended mounted tabs? I have some of the #44 that I could use under the playfield, but I would kind of like to have all #555 LED's under there.

Cheers!

Mike
Creature from the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, Star Wars Premium, Hobbit
MikeS
Posts: 521
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:54 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Re: Lesson Learned on Alltek Ultimate LED Driver Board

Post by MikeS »

That's a good lesson to be learned Mike. You definitely don't want to install an Alltek board if you have any lamp issues since the Alltek's aren't as repairable as a standard lamp board. I always try to swap out the bulbs with the power off too as you can short them out way too easily. I've gotten Bally games with dozens of shorted lamps/SCR's.

As far as lamp sockets go my go-to place is PBR:
http://www.pbresource.com/sockets.html
Current Collection: Rick and Morty, JPPrem, TWDLE, SW Pro, Foo Fighters Pro, Godzilla Pro, GNRLE, Alien Star, Space Invaders, Harlem, Stars, Shadow.
Eric_S
Posts: 499
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2014 9:02 am
Location: Oshkosh, WI
Contact:

Re: Lesson Learned on Alltek Ultimate LED Driver Board

Post by Eric_S »

If it were my game, I'd trade out bad 555 wedge sockets with 44/47 bay-o-net sockets. The 555 sockets were a cheap alternative, but for older games, they deteriorate and have lousy performance.
Post Reply