Aurora GI — the General Illumination (GI) section of the Aurora platform — has been sent out for fabrication and assembly.
It's a genuinely satisfying moment. This board has been through a real design cycle — not just laid out and sent — and it's worth talking about what changed along the way.
Why a second board?
Aurora started life as one board doing two jobs: dimming a WPC-era machine's general illumination and smoothing its 8×8 playfield lamp matrix so LED replacement bulbs don't flicker the way they do with the original drivers. That combined design proved the concept and is still running well in the field — but splitting GI and lamp-matrix duties onto two focused boards makes each one simpler to install and gives customers the option to upgrade their lamp matrix, GI circuits, or both.
Aurora GI is the first of that pair to reach production. Its sibling — handling the insert lamp matrix — is next.
What changed under the hood?
Splitting the board off wasn't just a copy-paste job. We made some improvements along the way:
- Reducing the size of the board to a manageable 100×100mm footprint.
- All power taken from the machine's AC supply – no extra power cables.
- No extra cable looms or Z-connectors. Uses the original, unmodified game wiring.
- A bigger and better smoothing capacitor bank improves the DC power supply used for the GI string LEDs.
- A soft start circuit to reduce inrush current and prevent possible Aurora GI reset issues when the machine is turned on.
- Better power consumption monitoring of the GI strings. Improved load-shedding to protect Aurora GI and your machine.
What's next?
Aurora GI boards are in production now. Once they arrive, it's onto the bench for final testing: power sequencing, current-budget verification, and confirming the redesigned board delivers.
Firmware has been ported over from the prototypes, so there should be relatively little lead time between "board arrives" and "board does something useful on a real machine."
More to come once these are in hand — including news on Aurora GI's sibling board - Aurora Matrix.