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Wanted LED OCD

R

robertlucas1970

Just thought I would ask if anybody has one before I order direct, want to try one in Sopranos.
Is there anywhere in Europe that stocks this ?
Many Thanks
 
Comet sell both versions now, and that’s about as competitive as it’s going to get. Cheaper than the Euro supplier was at any rate.

The maker of it doesn’t sell directly outside of the US.
 
Durzel said:
Comet sell both versions now, and that’s about as competitive as it’s going to get. Cheaper than the Euro supplier was at any rate.

The maker of it doesn’t sell directly outside of the US.
Click to expand...
100% - your only valid option (save a trip to the US, or using a friend in the US) is to use Comet.

I've just sold my only spare Stern OCD board too, sorry.
 
@insx and myself are talking to Christoph who put together the Afterglow board to get a new version out that works with sam and whitestar games, so there's the option of waiting for that too.
 
Thanks for all the info, I will wait a bit longer and see what comes up.
I'm sure we could design and produce something like this.....
 
It's a bit low level for me @AlanJ - I can't get my head around shift operators :confused: I suppose it depends on what you're used to.

No denying though he's one clever fella and a great asset.
 
I like the Afterglow boards, got a few of them. Also had to buy some ocd boards and they are no better and cost a lot more.
If he did another batch of Afterglow boards I’m sure he would sell a lot more now. Most led converted pins need them.
 
stumblor said:
It's a bit low level for me @AlanJ - I can't get my head around shift operators :confused: I suppose it depends on what you're used to.

No denying though he's one clever fella and a greta asset.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough I was the same - never understood the bit wise stuff and shift registers, but a couple of weeks ago I realized I needed to bite the bullet so bought some SN74HC595 – 8 bit output shift registers. They are really useful Had a play, it's really very easy, and then I got to grips with how to do bit wise operations. Got some sample code if you need it.
 
M4carp said:
I like the Afterglow boards, got a few of them. Also had to buy some ocd boards and they are no better and cost a lot more.
If he did another batch of Afterglow boards I’m sure he would sell a lot more now. Most led converted pins need them.
Click to expand...
How much were they, just out of interest?
 
M4carp said:
Think they were about £30 ish each but you had to make you own leads up which Paul did for a few of us. I bought 6 and regret not buying more.
Click to expand...

I'm currently building them myself, which isn't that hard once you get to grips with SMD soldering (I'm a lot better now than when I started). The cost doing this way is still about 30 quid but there's about an hour of soldering on top.

A can post links to the PCB fab place I used and BOM if anyone is interested.
 
AlanJ said:
Funnily enough I was the same - never understood the bit wise stuff and shift registers, but a couple of weeks ago I realized I needed to bite the bullet so bought some SN74HC595 – 8 bit output shift registers. They are really useful Had a play, it's really very easy, and then I got to grips with how to do bit wise operations. Got some sample code if you need it.
Click to expand...

Oh great glad you tried out the SN74HC595 - i guess for your clock project? I found them really easy to use too (I have two on the Chase echo to read 16 DIP switches). It's the code bit operators I struggle with - all the <<, >> and &= stuff.
 
stumblor said:
Oh great glad you tried out the SN74HC595 - i guess for your clock project? I found them really easy to use too (I have two on the Chase echo to read 16 DIP switches). It's the code bit operators I struggle with - all the <<, >> and &= stuff.
Click to expand...
I didnt use them on the EM Score reel clock, but rather on trying to get that old petrol pump display board working - it has 16 7 segment Electromechnical displays.
 
AlanJ said:
I didnt use them on the EM Score reel clock, but rather on trying to get that old petrol pump display board working - it has 16 7 segment Electromechnical displays.
Click to expand...

Amazing, looking forward to seeing that in action!
 
I have no idea what you guys are talking about but this is obviously great discussion. Afterglow deserves it's own thread really.
 
£30 is nothing compared to LED OCD prices!

I wonder if there is anyone with any duff LED OCD boards - maybe you could buy one and repair it. Usually just one of the output transistors that blows.
 
stumblor said:
I'm currently building them myself, which isn't that hard once you get to grips with SMD soldering (I'm a lot better now than when I started). The cost doing this way is still about 30 quid but there's about an hour of soldering on top.

A can post links to the PCB fab place I used and BOM if anyone is interested.
Click to expand...

Would like to look at this, please could you post the links.
I was thinking today about trying to make something, is it just not a case of converting these inputs to clean outputs ?
That could be very easy to do but having them fade on and off I expect it's more complex.
Happy to buy some bits and solder them up if you post the links.
This has to be better than paying £200 which is what it will be after shipping and customs.
Many Thanks
 
The current Afterglow Nano design only works with WPC machines, however we're working on getting a version going for SAM (which is your Sopranos) and whitestar board sets. This involves creating another couple of row inputs & outputs (12 vs WPC's 8) and getting the timings of the cycle and pulses right to avoid ghosting.

Not sure what you mean by converting inputs to clean outputs?

The actual LED fade is accomplished using PWM (pulse width modulation) due to LEDs only having two states, on or off. PWM allows you to pulse them at really quick rates which gives the impression of fading. The rest of the magic is accomplished by reading the input signals in the correct timing patterns and then converting that value into PWM.

In any case, once whitestar/sam is supported it really will just be a case of getting the necessary gerber files and getting a pcb fab place to make some boards for you. Have a read of the project first to understand what's involved, more info here:

https://github.com/bitfieldlabs/afterglow/wiki

The WPC version of the board, including kicad design, schematics and gerber files are available here:

https://github.com/bitfieldlabs/afterglow/tree/master/afterglow_nano_smd

I use JLCPCB for fabrication. You can upload the gerber files directly. They also do assembly which bumps the price up, but most places will only do assembly on one side of the board - which doesn't help much for these boards as there is loads of SMD on both sides of the board.

https://jlcpcb.com/

Here's a BOM i put together on mouser for the WPC version - I think this may be missing the headers as I've already got a stockpile of those.

https://www.mouser.com/ProjectManager/ProjectDetail.aspx?AccessID=0b8eeb15f1

Happy to help field any questions you have going forward.

Davey
 
Last edited:
stumblor said:
The current Afterglow Nano design only works with WPC machines, however we're working on getting a version going for SAM (which is your Sopranos) and whitestar board sets. This involves creating another couple of row inputs & outputs (12 vs WPC's 8) and getting the timings of the cycle and pulses right to avoid ghosting.

Not sure what you mean by converting inputs to clean outputs?

The actual LED fade is accomplished using PWM (pulse width modulation) due to LEDs only having two states, on or off. PWM allows you to pulse them at really quick rates which gives the impression of fading. The rest of the magic is accomplished by reading the input signals in the correct timing patterns and then converting that value into PWM.

In any case, once whitestar/sam is supported it really will just be a case of getting the necessary gerber files and getting a pcb fab place to make some boards for you. Have a read of the project first to understand what's involved, more info here:

https://github.com/bitfieldlabs/afterglow/wiki

The WPC version of the board, including kicad design, schematics and gerber files are available here:

https://github.com/bitfieldlabs/afterglow/tree/master/afterglow_nano_smd

I use JLCPCB for fabrication. You can upload the gerber files directly. They also do assembly which bumps the price up, but most places will only do assembly on one side of the board - which doesn't help much for these boards as there is loads of SMD on both sides of the board.

https://jlcpcb.com/

Here's a BOM i put together on mouser for the WPC version - I think this may be missing the headers as I've already got a stockpile of those.

https://www.mouser.com/ProjectManager/ProjectDetail.aspx?AccessID=0b8eeb15f1

Happy to help field any questions you have going forward.

Davey
Click to expand...

Great work, had no idea it was so complicated, just watched a few videos on the lamp matrix !
I hope whitestar/sam is supported in the near future and will order whats needed and get the solder station fired up :)
I will have a good look at the links and try and learn a bit more.

Many Thanks
 
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