Datasheet, Design on Altium Drive

The main functionality of this printed circuit board, driving the kicker and chipper solenoids and charging the big capacitor used therefore.

The main task of the kicker and chipper board is to control the charging of the capacitor of 680 microF to 450V. This is done by a booster circuit consisting of a charger controller and flyback transformer. The topboard is responsible for exciting one of the two solenoids, to kick or chip a ball. It does this by executing a kick or chip command, that goes to the kick or chip module through the back board. This activates one of the two MOSFETs that allow energy stored in a capacitor to discharge across the kick or chip solenoid. Before reaching the MOSFETs, these commands go through an additional gate driver and buffer/line drive. This is a component that most often breaks down resulting in the kicker or chipper not working.

This transformer charges the capacitor. Stores energy in it’s magnetic field (coil) with 18V.

This diode is used to protect against overvoltage (no more than 18V). If the voltage is greater than the breakdown voltage the current can flow in the opposite direction. With the addition of capacitor C309 in parallel it averages out noise from the diode for a more regulated voltage.

This transformer charges from 24V to up to 350V which goes into the big red chunky capacitor.

This controller is used to rapidly charge the red chunky capacitor to an adjustable high target voltage set by transformer T200. In case someone is interested in the pins: DONE means that charging is done. CHARGE is used to initiate a new charge cycle & provides ON/OFF control.

This diode is used for overvoltage protection and it located next to F100 and C100.

This fuse is used for overcurrent protection. Located next to D100 and C100

These are connected with connectors J200 or J201.

This converter operates with 24V and is connected to B300. If anyone is interested in the pins: Pin 1 is used to Enable/Undervoltage Lockout. If it is below 0.2V it shuts down U300. Pin 2 is the GND. Pin 3 is the input pin, and connects to a resistor (R302). This determines the output voltage. Pin 4 is SW and is a drain. Pin 5 is the input supply (V_in). Supplies current to the internal circuitry and serves as a reference voltage. This pin is connected to the ground with a capacitor (C310).

This is a 3 state buffer/line driver. Pins: A1, A2, and A3 are data inputs. The inputs here are Charve 3V3, Kick3V3 and Chip 3V3. These are all connected to an ESD protection diode (D400, D401, D402) and resistors (R400, R401, R402). These diodes are used to absorb overvoltage. B3 is data input (Done 5V). YB1,2,3 are used for data output (Chip 5V, Kick 5V, Charge 5V). YA4 is also used for data output (Done 3V3).

This is a gate driver and regulates the voltage of 5V. It drives power to the IGBT's (IGBT200, IGBT201) for the kick and chip signal. It accepts low-power input from controller IC & produces a high current drive input. Pins: DISABLE, INA (input signal for kick 5V, INB (input signal for 5V), OUTA/OUTB (output connected to gate of the A channel MOSFET/IGBT), VCCI (supply voltage with capacitor (C304, C305) located as close to device as possible.

When the IGBTs for the kick and chip signal are activated they go to J200 and J201 which are the connectors on each side of hte PCB on the bottom. The connector J200 connects to a blue cable which goes to the solenoid. Currently J201 is not connected to anything as we don't use the chipper yet.

Resistors connected to LEDs. These lights indicate whether there is a charge of 250V, 24V, and 18V respectively

Resistor connected to RV_trans pin of U200. This resistor is placed according to the datasheet of U200.

This is connected with a short white ribbon cable to the powerboard (red connectors).

This connector is used for testing

Power resistors

// Testing code