Lesson Learned on Alltek Ultimate LED Driver Board
Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:27 am
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
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