Built my first pin2DMD!

[ibjeepin]

Yep I thought I would jump into the murky uncharted intellectual property rights issue named pin2dmd!

And I am glad I did. Once you get it figured out, its quite simple. Isn't that always the case!

And here it is



The beauty is even without "colorizing" the screen you can change the color of your plasma! For the same price a new DMD screen would cost! Give or take and a little work.

Its original design was to provide a screen for virtual pinball but as they are all from real pinball machine they can be used for them too.

The led brightness and "pop" is impressive. Full brightness is just too bright! but I am thinking if you put a polarizing filter over it to keep reflections down it would be perfect.

I tried it on a coulpe of older stern / sega machines and they ran. I am going to put one in my ST Pro to change it to Blue!

Anyone else played with them yet?

 

[luch]

wow that looks nice .

 

[kiwi]

Yep, built mine in December. $200 all in.

 

[mwong168]

You guys have links to where or best place to get all the parts to build one of these?

 

[kiwi]

Pin2DMD.com start there.

There are prebuilt versions out there too.. PinDMD3 etc. on VPForums, PinballSP from Spain. The European ones work out to be $$$$ due to exchange rate. Here's a pic from mine..

And my own custom built speaker panel - better than some factory ones ;-)

 

[kiwi]

Note: One thing is that there can be pixel bleeding on some images. Not noticeable when the DMD has moving images, but sometimes on static images. There is a "fix" for this but this requires surface mounted soldering - yikes.
For what I am using mine for, Its great. There is a lot of information on PinSide (yes, you will have to go there) on how to use these Pin2DMD with real machines. The SEGA widescreen is now recently supported. Also, as mentioned earlier There's different "versions" around.. the original Pin2DMD, the PinDMD3 and others what have done their own boards etc.

btw - here's what Metallica Looks like:

 

[luch]

will it do scan version ?

 

[ibjeepin]

I believe these are the same panels that are being used for colorled, as far as I can tell as I have one of those as well. I have not noticed the bleeding. All the info is here. I bought my parts except for the panels from UncleSash who is the cheapest I have seen and a nice guy. 70 usd all in including laser cut panel to mount it all on. Panels from China. I just bought a bunch after I saw the initial results.

http://vpuniverse.com/forums/forum/132-pin2dmd/

I ordered 20 panels (10 dmd's) from china, may have a few extras. planning on converting a few machines

 

[ibjeepin]

wow that looks nice .

Its even better live and more intense than the colordmd I have. My plan (which I tried today) is to install the polarizing filter from pinball life in front of it and then crank it up. It looks even better with one of those filters!

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2212

So as the led panel is so bright it is clear to see the reflection. Whith the filter it improves the color and contrast and completely eliminates the reflection. And unlike the plasma diplay is plenty bright to compenssate for the loss of the polarizer.

 

[ibjeepin]

Note: One thing is that there can be pixel bleeding on some images. Not noticeable when the DMD has moving images, but sometimes on static images. There is a "fix" for this but this requires surface mounted soldering - yikes.
For what I am using mine for, Its great. There is a lot of information on PinSide (yes, you will have to go there) on how to use these Pin2DMD with real machines. The SEGA widescreen is now recently supported. Also, as mentioned earlier There's different "versions" around.. the original Pin2DMD, the PinDMD3 and others what have done their own boards etc.

btw - here's what Metallica Looks like:

I tried to take videos as well but the panels are so bright it washes out on video. They dont look like that in person. I found full brightness too bright and turned mine down to 50%. Will the polarizer on it i will turn it up to compensate, something one cant do with a plasma.

 

[ibjeepin]

You guys have links to where or best place to get all the parts to build one of these?

kiwi mentioned pin2dmd.com where you will find all the infromation from the developer. vpuniverse.com is where all the support forums are. Its kind of confusing and obfuscated but one you get through it, its not that complcated.

Quick Help:

You need a processor board which is an ST ARM development board: they call it an STM
You need an interface borad that lets you connect the dmd controller, put a micro sd card in with your file, and interface with the 2 led panels: they call it a shield board.
You need 2 led panels: They call them led panels. they are very specific ones and are the exact size on a dmd (on pin2dmd's site).

The whole setup, including leds runs off 5 Volts, too much for the internal power supply. Colorled uses a DC-DC converter built onboard of their unit. You can purchase a 12 to 5 volt inverter off ebay (china for a couple of bucks and the you find 12 volts to hook up to. Or you can get a 5 volt 3 -4 amp wall wart or power supply and hook it up to a switched 110v internally. The options are many.

Most sellers will have the stm programmed and the boards built, but I chose to solder my own Shield Board. plug it all together, and then we get into setup , firmware, config, etc.... for another time.

On the forums you will find more files and lots more info and discussions.

Pinside does have some dicussions on this, but mostly its on vpuniverse

 

[ibjeepin]

Pin2DMD.com start there.


And my own custom built speaker panel - better than some factory ones ;-)

How di you get those pyle speakers not to touch the grille?

 

[ibjeepin]

Here are a couple of pics of me integrating the display into a stern machine.



This is what the LED display looks like without a polarizing filter. I will takes more pictures once installed and running to show the difference.



Here are two power bricks that I installed into the bottom of the cabinet. One is 5 Volts for the DMD and the other is 12 Volts for the Flipper Fidelity Backglass LED lighting kit, which attached to the internal 12 Volts creates a Buzz through the speakers but not through the power brick... problem solved. I used the 110V switched plug that went to the original flourescent lamp plug shown in picture.

 

[ibjeepin]

will it do scan version ?

Luch

Not sure what you mean by scan version. I am not sure the answer? I do know the panels required are specific and spec'ed at 1/16 scan.

 

[luch]

scan looks like cartoon style , you don't see dots its solid color

 

[Monkeybug]

Looks nice.

Is there an open source library of games that have been colourized?

 

[ibjeepin]

Looks nice.

Is there an open source library of games that have been colourized?

only what is on vpuniverse's files forum for pin2dmd. There seem to be more but its nebulous and requires a little "asking" as the boys at stern and such are apparantly intimidating colorizers that this is a no no and the other hardware player is claiming patents too. Its all up there on pinside (meaning the IP disputes) which is why pin2dmd is open source.

scan looks like cartoon style , you don't see dots its solid color

I dont think so as its individual led rgb dot just like the plasma. Exactly the same number and pitch. so nothing to fill in. Its just like colordmd's colorled product which uses the same panels.

 

[Fifty]

Yep, built mine in December. $200 all in.

$CDN?

 

[ibjeepin]

$CDN?

about that
60 usd for 2 led panels china
70 usd for all other parts (unclesash on vpuniverse)
15 cad for small micro SD card
5-20 cad dollars for a 12-5v DC-DC inverter (china) or a 5v 4amp power supply or wall wart
15 cad to developer as donation (lucky1 on vpuniverse)(you get your enable key)
everything else is optional

NOTE there are other who sell completed units at higher prices. They may look far different but use the same processor and software and led panels.

So at this point your have a fully functional RGB led dmd replacement panel that requires nothing else to operate as a monochome (pick from any color monochrome) led panel. All these adjustments are made from the buttons on the circuit boards.

The last thing is a full colorization of the scenes. This can be achieved in several ways. Find someone who has done the machine already or figure out how to use the pin2dmd editor and make one! :0

An example for me is I hate the red display in my ST Pro so I am going to put one of these in and change it to blue.

 

[Fifty]

This sounds like something right up my alley. I like electronic projects like this.