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What's the best system?


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It depends, the long plasticy strip ones use the 4 lines.

 

Another sort WS2812 use 3 lines 5V, 0V and data. You can get the WS2812 ones mounted on individual heat sink plates which I think would be better suited for pinball playfiled mounting. Pretty cheap, say 30c per led and available from you favourite fine ebay purveyor

 

Edit - as Michi says :)

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Four: R-G-B and Common

 

Three: Power, Ground, and Data.

 

That's what makes the Neopixels so attractive.

 

I have another few strings of lights that came from Radio Shack that use chip on the strip and have 3 LEDs per chip. Those I think will be used for lighting up the plastics over the bumpers and slingshots. :)

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On aliexpress are ws2812b led chains available with 10cm wires soldered between the leds. That saves a lot of soldering when mounting them. See the picture on my blog of one: http://3dwingmaster.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/lights.html

They are also available in what looks like a 10mm led housing. Just ordered a chain of these to test it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I now have most of the boards and parts to have a go at an Open Pinball Project based whitewood :-) I doubt it will be smooth sailing but the boards are great quality and cheap. Is anyone else interested in having a crack with this platform? I can supply quite a few of the fiddly connectors from my parts bin.

 

Cheers,

Scott.

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I now have most of the boards and parts to have a go at an Open Pinball Project based whitewood :-) I doubt it will be smooth sailing but the boards are great quality and cheap. Is anyone else interested in having a crack with this platform? I can supply quite a few of the fiddly connectors from my parts bin.

 

Cheers,

Scott.

It looks interesting albeit a bit limited as to what you can do but does sound good for controlling solenoids and lamps. I'd love to see how you go with it.

 

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Edited by BIG Trev
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  • 7 months later...

Old thread but still interesting. I'm thinking an "old Williams System 6 or 7" myself and just build the machine rules around one of the many games that used these boards.

 

I figure I can take out the sound board and use a new board for sound and maybe incorporate video as well using those MPU sound board triggers.

 

I think I can multiplex the solenoid drives like a System 9 or 11 does or much simpler like Bally does with it's solenoid expander board if I need more solenoid drives .

 

Seeing the advantages of 12volts DC as the LED supply, I may go an extra transformer like a downlight transformer and convert it to 12vDC regulated.

 

I can't see why the driver board would have issues switching the switched illumination if it ran off 12vDC or maybe I can adjust the 18v Williams supply PWM to output 12vDC.

 

If that won't work, nothing stops me using the switched illumination drives to drive external ICs that can switch the 12vDC.

 

All the GI would be 12vDc as well.

 

While using an old Williams board set doesn't allow me to program, I have faith I can use external hardware solutions to "mix it up a bit", plus I really suk at software.

 

I don't have this locked in as I'm also looking at using Bally 35 MPU parts instead of Williams. Some of those Ballys use some amazing effects that can be taken a bit further.

 

Either way, I like the idea of parts that are quite easy to get hold of and modified rather than building something for scratch.

 

The machine alone will be unique enough with it's features not tried before without making the electronics a one off as well.

 

I don't want to re-invent the wheel, just make it do things not seen before.;)

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I had thought of using something like an Arduino Mega to replace an MPU board and use it to drive Hankin solenoid/lamp and sound boards and have switch inputs going directly to the Arduino but my plans are too complex for that as I'm looking at having approximately 3 x Oled, 1 x Led (8×8) and 9 to 15 small LCD displays as well as the DIY DMD (for scoring) and main lcd screen for animations. My main problem is being able to draw the sprites on each display quick enough.

 

So I'm now thinking the Main control will be an Arduino Due for speed and 54 I/O lines to receive scoring info from sub processors and control outputs to sub processors.

 

The sub processors will run different sections of the game, pops, slings, drop targets etc independently as most will have a display of some description associated with them and will need extra grunt to display the graphics.

 

The subprocessors will report back sound info to a sound processor and scoring information to the main control unit which will calculate and display scoring on the dmd.

 

The sub processors will mainly be Arduino Due boards as well especially where lcd and oled dispays are used but I'll also use Arduino Uno boards and a Raspberry pi 3 to diaplay animations on the main lcd screen.

 

Sound will be handled by an Arduino Mega receiving inputs from various subprocessors and converting the data to serial to a Sparkfun Wav trigger board. I want to use serial as I believe I can get the wav trigger to play more sounds that way.

 

Very complicated but because of the modular design I can work on one section at a time.

Cheers Trev

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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Why bother with a lamp matrix? I'd be inclined to use addressable LEDs instead. Less wiring, and you can have way more than 64 LEDs on a single output pin.

 

Michi.

I haven't even thought about lamps on my machine yet. Maybe I should and I do like the idea of addressable Leds.

Cheers Trev

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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Maybe I should and I do like the idea of addressable Leds.

 

It seems the better option to me. I'd consider them for GI too, but you'd have to come up with way to mount individual LEDs with some diffuser. I don't think anyone sells individually socketed addressable LEDs that you could arrange into your own chain by stringing them together with wires. (It's probably only a matter of time before something like that becomes available, though.)

 

Michi.

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I played around with some of the 2812 addressable leds - just to learn wrote an Arduino controlled binary clock. The leds came mounted on mini pcb and I placed them on the underside of a piece of wood about 4mm thick. On top of the wood I put a flat bottomed glass marble which diffused really well. The effect was very similar to a playfield insert.

 

They don't photograph well because the leds wash out digital pics but they look good - really good at night :)

 

front.thumb.jpg.8065949f5cdeeacabc24c57e99beebec.jpg

 

rear.thumb.jpg.02bf4396505b8ebdfc2fc4fcc617091f.jpg

 

front_nm.thumb.jpg.0d5669b9dd2b207fdbe595a6558b67e1.jpg

 

 

In a pinball I reckon you could mount them under the playfied and the height to the plastics that you view will help to diffuse. Maybe some diffuser plastic - I've used milk bottle material in leds in bumber bodies will help too.

 

B Trev I reckon the modular idea is great for ease of design and to make the project manageble - just devote one output line to a controlled led string.

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I don't think anyone sells individually socketed addressable LEDs that you could arrange into your own chain by stringing them together with wires.

 

I found these:

 

https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/COM-12877/1568-1202-ND/5673788

https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/sparkfun-electronics/COM-12999/1568-1214-ND/5673800

 

About a dollar each. You'd still have to come up with some way to mount and diffuse them, so it's not a totally simple exercise. But it might be more flexible than cutting up an LED strip.

 

You can also get them on tiny breakout boards, which would probably make the job a lot easier. In fact, I suspect you could take the diffusor cap from a normal pinball LED and glue it over the LED on the board and, presto, Bob's your uncle…

 

https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Sparkfun%20PDFs/WE2812-Breakout-HookupGuide.pdf

 

Michi.

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These were the ones I used, I think.

 

ebay item number 162286563351

 

They come on a little pcb which is the heat sink, but you have to do a fair bit of soldering, six solders per led, but you get good flexibility in how you arrange them. The control you have over them is great and the software is easy with good libraries about. I use the adafruit neopixel library but there are others.

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These were the ones I used, I think.

 

ebay item number 162286563351

 

They come on a little pcb which is the heat sink, but you have to do a fair bit of soldering, six solders per led, but you get good flexibility in how you arrange them. The control you have over them is great and the software is easy with good libraries about. I use the adafruit neopixel library but there are others.

I've just bought some.

Cheers Trev

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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These were the ones I used, I think.

 

ebay item number 162286563351

 

They come on a little pcb which is the heat sink, but you have to do a fair bit of soldering, six solders per led, but you get good flexibility in how you arrange them.

 

That's a great price!

 

The control you have over them is great and the software is easy with good libraries about. I use the adafruit neopixel library but there are others.

 

Another one worth looking at is FastLED:

 

http://fastled.io/blog/

 

It provides a bunch of useful utility functions, such as fading and timers, and the sketch overall tends to be smaller than with the Adafruit library. The frame rate is better with FastLED, too.

 

Michi.

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I haven't even thought about lamps on my machine yet. Maybe I should and I do like the idea of addressable Leds.

Cheers Trev

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

Hi Trev

 

Have a look at these, Im thinking of buying some to play with, they even might fit under a clear post on the playfield....purdy. Im currently looking at the fastled library to see how it works. have a look at Fleabay item 262793423326. Have fun

12433018_ws82121.jpg.c0145378d84dda47e9b0f4bca1f07622.jpg1375712248_ws82122.jpg.5a94aac6609e7638e9ba201799f340b4.jpg

ws2812.jpg.ba128cd86dfc5e187373d05e969e04c1.jpg

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Have a look at these, Im thinking of buying some to play with, they even might fit under a clear post on the playfield....purdy. Im currently looking at the fastled library to see how it works. have a look at Fleabay item 262793423326. Have fun

 

Sadly, no measurements in the ad. Looking at the photo with the board on someone's finger tip, I'm guessing that they might be fractionally too large to fit under a star post. But, regardless, that's a great find, thanks!

 

These will be seriously bright, with three LEDs in such a tiny area. Also mind the current draw. About 60 mA per disc when turned on full white. (I'm using a 144 LEDs per metre strip. With all LEDs on full white, that's almost 9 A.)

 

Michi.

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Sadly, no measurements in the ad. Looking at the photo with the board on someone's finger tip, I'm guessing that they might be fractionally too large to fit under a star post. But, regardless, that's a great find, thanks!

 

These will be seriously bright, with three LEDs in such a tiny area. Also mind the current draw. About 60 mA per disc when turned on full white. (I'm using a 144 LEDs per metre strip. With all LEDs on full white, that's almost 9 A.)

 

Michi.

I thought it said 17mm diameter. I'll let you know when they arrive.😊

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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These have real potential for creative lighting effects in the back box. Heck, they'd also be really suitable for insert lighting. If the wire connections between the LEDs are too short, just cut them and insert four wires of the length you need. At the price, that's something worth trying out. If it doesn't pan out, the cost is around three cups of coffee or a hamburger with chips and a soft drink…

 

Michi.

 

PS: Come to think of it, machines such as Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit use addressable LEDs. As far as I can remember, these sit on node boards underneath the playfield. What I'm curious about is the physical packaging of these LEDs. Are they individually replaceable? What if a single LED fails? Do I need to replace the whole board, or is it possible to replace a single LED? Any JJP owners out there who can comment?

Edited by Michi
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Good to know there are so many people actually thinking of custom machines on this forum.

 

To me custom is to be encouraged. While everyone would like a NIB machine and be done with it, I actually enjoy the design and build of such a machine and really appreciate the variations such a machine and it's builder comes up with that aren't mainstream.

 

To me it is the mechanisms and the automation that has me most interested but obviously for some here, it is the electronics and I find that equally cool.

 

My first machine I attempted was machine we called "Demi Gods". Looking back, it wasn't anything special as we only had parts we could scavenge mainly from a local pinball parlour tech and a playfield from a Royal Guard we got from a very young LAI company for free and parts we were given and able to carry on the train and bus to get home.

 

I was 15 years old then. That machine become a school project and a mate and I got top marks for that machine and it was shown in front of the whole school. The local paper even did a write up on that machine after the principal notified them.

 

My other customs mainly consisted of variations to working machines after I was in the industry.

 

Now I want to build something that is totally unique unlike any pinball made in the past. Yes I know that has been claimed in the past but to me the only real machines that have really been totally different so far have been things like Orbiter One, Pinball Circus, Varkon and to a lesser degree, Big Guns.

 

None of these machines were successful.

 

I have faith in my concept rather than the lightshows and intense game rules.

 

I also figure while I can't compete on these last points the big boys can, I can turn out something totally unique that will at least be interesting and rewarding for a player that can shot accurately with flippers.

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Good to know there are so many people actually thinking of custom machines on this forum.

 

To me custom is to be encouraged. While everyone would like a NIB machine and be done with it, I actually enjoy the design and build of such a machine and really appreciate the variations such a machine and it's builder comes up with that aren't mainstream.

 

To me it is the mechanisms and the automation that has me most interested but obviously for some here, it is the electronics and I find that equally cool.

 

My first machine I attempted was machine we called "Demi Gods". Looking back, it wasn't anything special as we only had parts we could scavenge mainly from a local pinball parlour tech and a playfield from a Royal Guard we got from a very young LAI company for free and parts we were given and able to carry on the train and bus to get home.

 

I was 15 years old then. That machine become a school project and a mate and I got top marks for that machine and it was shown in front of the whole school. The local paper even did a write up on that machine after the principal notified them.

 

My other customs mainly consisted of variations to working machines after I was in the industry.

 

Now I want to build something that is totally unique unlike any pinball made in the past. Yes I know that has been claimed in the past but to me the only real machines that have really been totally different so far have been things like Orbiter One, Pinball Circus, Varkon and to a lesser degree, Big Guns.

 

None of these machines were successful.

 

I have faith in my concept rather than the lightshows and intense game rules.

 

I also figure while I can't compete on these last points the big boys can, I can turn out something totally unique that will at least be interesting and rewarding for a player that can shot accurately with flippers.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. There must be thousands of ideas yet to be discovered and put to use.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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There must be thousands of ideas yet to be discovered and put to use.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

That is exactly as I see it. While the big boys are somewhat restrained from trying anything really different, a custom builder is not.

 

While I was in "the industry", for a lot of my working life, I was also in the automation industry and that industry does things entirely differently and I intend on using a lot of those mechanisms the pinball industry has never seen before.

 

Actually, about the only things both industries have in common is the use of PLCs.

 

The other is reliability and I would say automation is actually far more reliable with mechanisms needing to work thousands of times a day rather than a hundred a day and another major reason for using such parts used in the automation industry is the variety of different mechanisms that allow totally different ideas that affect the ball and the "playfields".

 

While the pinball industry uses a lot of solenoid operated mechanisms, the automation industry uses a lot of actuators and servos for there movement. Solenoids have distinct sections of travel that are strong and weak, actuators and servos do not. They offer consistent strength through there entire stroke.

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Talking about Fleabay item 262793423326 - the board mounted 3 x 5050 WS8212 leds Michi said

 

.... Also mind the current draw. About 60 mA per disc when turned on full white. ....

 

it's more I think, each of the white square leds is made up of three individual leds inside the package (ie the red, green and blue) and each draws 20 mA, so it's 60 mA for each at full white, so 180 mA for everything on full. For comparison type 47 incandescent globes draw 250 mA and type 44 draw 125 mA.

 

Also for interest in the led area have a look at ebay 331506380665 - not controllable, but ok for GI maybe.

 

I've also bought surface mount led type 1206 leds for small mods - very fiddly and smal but good for things like eyes in small toys, indicator on pcb etc.

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