Now this had me thinking, boy i hope it's not a complete circuit
board under the playfield!
this would be a real pain in the (_*_) to repair etc.
So hopefully the wire will still be there. :)
Rumour has it that the large wiring harnesses are being replaced with
a CAN-Bus system. (Controller Area Network).
I would think that it would cost twice as much to manufacture a
pinball machine as a complete circuit.
Twice as expensive to repair as well....
I think you guys worry WAY TOO MUCH
Give me wire all day any day as opposed to dealing with a bunch of
microcontrollers running on multiple ICs.
Being in networking for 20+ years, I can go ahead and tell you that
CAN-bus problems always have to be replaced…..not repaired!
Collectors are going to have a cash cow when (not if) they have to
replace one of the microprocessors that handle those controllers.
This is why you always end up paying out the ass when the CAN-bus in
your car fails.
Then again, I guess if you can afford to drop $7K on a pinball
machine, you don’t worry about stuff like this.
It's not confirmed but something I heard from a friend that was at one
of his presentations. On the plus side CAN bus is VERY reliable. I've
been working with gyro stabilized camera systems that use them for
years (10+) and have never seen or heard of a failure.
That is one of the reasons why the auto industry adopted it !!