Introduction

WillFA7 is a board designed to replace the MPU and Driver boards of Williams System 3 to 7.

It improves the reliability of your pinball machines by removing the connection between the driver and CPU boards, while retaining all the original features. Compatible with the entire range of Williams pinball machines from System 3 to System 7, it offers advanced solenoid management to prevent lock-ups.

In addition, this board comes preloaded with the original ROMs, ready to use without any further configuration.

In this article, Sylvie explains how she used the WillFA7 board to repair her Flash pinball machine. The starting situation? The machine would start up, but the targets would not pop back up and some bumpers were inactive.

Step 1: Inspecting the original boards

During the first inspection, you can notice the installation of a lithium battery and a modification of the EPROMs. Nothing catastrophic, but they seem to have put in a few years of service!

Step 2: Removing the original boards

The first step of the replacement is to remove the original boards. Here is how Sylvie went about it:

• Remove all the cables - no need to panic, they all have keying connectors.
• Unscrew all the screws holding the boards and take them out of the machine.
• Install the WillFA7 board, securing it with the screws at the very bottom of the rails, then remove the cables from the cable guides.

Connecting the cables

After installing the new board, Sylvie tackled the cable connections. Depending on the pinball model, the 1J4 connector used for diagnostics may be fitted with a plug that must be removed before connecting it to the WillFA7 board.

Once everything is installed, the result should look like this:

Note: The cables hang around a bit more than on the original Williams, but it's a far cry from the chaos of the Gotlieb standards!

The result

Everything works just like the original! The targets pop back up, the bumpers are responsive, and the machine is once again ready to rack up game after game.

To find out more, feel free to watch Sylvie's presentation video:

Conclusion

If you too would like to bring your Williams pinball machine back to life without tearing your hair out, we recommend taking action right now by ordering your WillFA7 board: Order the WillFA7 board