Just building up the kits, there is quite a few parts.....

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How to build - I did a quick pdf:
construction instructions.pdf

I've adjusted the output of each voltage regulator board to 5v.
I've flashed the latest firmware to each of the EP32s MPU boards, and tested each one. V2.05
I've tested each LCD display and adjusted the brightness.

8 Kits all ready to ship.

Kits - £60 GBP plus £20 International tracked/signed postage. So total £80 GBP.

I also have one fully built tester - GBP £100 + £20 Shipping = £120. (I can possibly find time to build one or two more out of the kits)

I have been through my messages and the replies on this thread, and taken requests in order:

On the list so far:
Big_Bob
RandyW
greenacarina
tilt101
pindel
Bele20097
jeffmvp
Drewscruis
rcotoia

Anyone above, please message me with your email address and I will send a paypal request for payment.
(Would appreciate a friends/family payment to reduce paypal fees, if you are happy to do that please?).

If you no longer require, please let us know and I will offer to the next people:

Waiting list:
Tsskinne
Jaxpins
matthess
Spunky1562
ChrisHibler
Sprout
Kpkube

Many thanks to all who have expressed interest.

Most of the items have now been despatched. I had a question about how to test the tester, if you are building from the kit:

Once you have built the kit, and have checked everything is soldered up and placed correctly:
1. First do a bare test with no Lamp driver board connected. On Powerup the LCD should display the welcome screen and direct you through the tests.
2. Test a known working lamp driver board.
3. Then move on to testing unknown boards.

Check any lamp driver board for any obvious faults before testing, e.g. cracked header solder joints, broken header pins , dirty header pins, broken traces, missing or damaged SCR's, etc. Poor header connections to the testers LED display boards can result in incorrect test results. As you all know, headers should really be re-pinned !!

Be aware that a lamp driver board that has a short on the 5v to earth - will short out the power generated from the tester, so just watch out for that - symptoms are the tester hanging up or rebooting, the voltage regulator board components getting warm! Fix the shorted board before re-testing.

Any questions or issues, I am here to support.

Alan

Hi yes I’ll do another run in January.

coming soon. just awaiting parts

Still awaiting new parts, there is a bit of a delay in getting them.

Talking about Bally / Stern test kit - I am just designing myself this:

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It is an 8 X 6 switch board, so I can test a Bally or Stern MPU switch matrix without having to plug it into the cabinet or playfield. i.e. can test on the bench.

Each switch is a latching switch, so can simulate switches that should be closed most of the time, e.g. the ball trough switches on multi ball games, such as centaur, fathom, Fireball II etc.

I have put a LED under each switch so that the led indicates if the switch is closed or not.

This means the board needs power to drive the LEDs, so it has a 5v power header at the top as well as a header for the rows and columns.

I have a also designed a very handy MPU J4 intercept board:
This allows us to grab 5v power for the leds, and more importantly also allows us to access the "column 5" switch strobe data line which is inconveniently on J4, rather than J2 with all the other switch rows and cols.

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I also stuck a 12v output on the top as I have a use for that in other projects. (e.g. to derive an additional 5V power source without overloading the SDB existing 5v supply).

I'll get some extras produced, if anyone can make use of these.

AT LAST!

I have received all the parts, so now I have stock to begin shipping Lamp Driver kits again.

I have set-up a Pinside shop. This is all new to me. I hope it works. You should be able to place an order. Price includes shipping from UK.

2nd run of kits (or built) nearly sold out, lmk if you want one!

There is a new batch of kits available now in my pinside shop:

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1464-retro-electro-designs/07773-bally-stern-lamp-driver-board-tester-kit-self-build

get em quick as I have run out of boards and parts, so unlikely to make any more available after this.

3 Lamp Driver Testers left in my pinside shop. Slight discount for the New Year. Happy New Year folks.

One final tester kit left in my pinside shop.

I may do another small run, if there is any further demand, but it will be way down the line as I’ve got so many other projects on the go.

After a suggestion from Bob, I have added a new test option to the Lamp Driver Tester. This test runs through all 60 circuits in "Q" number order. Q1, Q2,...Q60.

This is a software change and is compatible with any existing Lamp Driver Tester. Most of you out there are running V2.05 of the software. This option is available in V3.01

It is available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qjjqV6VaeUMseNlsyCNeY84U8y9d9R19?usp=sharing

You will see a file called V3.01.bin

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Download and save this file to your laptop or Smartphone.

The lamp driver tester has a built in web server that allows you to upload new firmware to the tester:

Power up your lamp driver tester.

From your phone or laptop, under wi-fi connections, you should see a device called "RetroElectroLampTester", connect to it, the password is "password"
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Once connected you should be taken automatically to the Tester main web page:

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If you are not taken here, open an browser and enter 192.168.4.1 - that will then show the above screen.

Click on the configure link, and this page is shown:

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Click on the "firmware update" link at the bottom and this page is shown:

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Click "choose file" and then navigate to wherever you saved the V3.01.bin file and select it:

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Click update button and wait for 10-60 seconds as the firmware is uploaded to the tester.

On successful upload, the tester will reboot and you should see the new version number on the initial splash screen:

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The new test comes after the single tests by Connector. (Hint: you can bypass the single connector tests by pressing the "Stop/Back" button on the J1-1 Test.

The new test runs through Q1 to Q60. (Again you can quit by pressing "Stop/Back" on Q1 test).

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I've got the prev version saved, just in case!

Working on a Bally SDB - Solenoid Driver Board tester:

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It will test:
1. The 15 Momentary Solenoid Driver Circuits
2. The 4 Continuous Solenoid Driver Circuits (Including the Coin Lockout and Flipper Enable Relay)
3. The Two Flipper relay Switch circuits
4. The 5v Regulator Circuit
5. The HV circuit (I'm not sure on this yet, as we clearly don't want a tester board carrying 230v DC, so will experiment with some other ways to test the HV circuit.)

There will be an option to still be able to test, even if the SDB 5v regulator circuit has failed. (By providing 5v supply to the SDB from the tester itself, instead of from the SDB).

Aim is to complete the design, build a prototype board and see how it goes..........

Just one left - see here: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1464-retro-electro-designs

If you are struggling to update the tester over Wi-Fi, then there is an alternate option to hook up a usb cable between your windows laptop/pc and the esp32s board in the tester (which has a micro usb connector on the board).

The update script and the firmware and complete instructions are here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qjjqV6VaeUMseNlsyCNeY84U8y9d9R19?usp=sharing

Folder called "utilities" then folder called "uploader V3.01"

Follow the instructions in the readme file - you just need to find what COM port number your laptop assigns to the esp32s when you plug it into the laptop. Then edit the update.bat file and put in the correct COM port number (currently set to COM3).
Run update.bat

Quick update - still waiting for the blank prototype pcb to arrive. Will update as soon as it turns up, should have been here by now, but the UK postal service sent it to the wrong City, so it's delayed a few days!! Doh!