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In Progress CFTBL The Rippler | A replacement ripple effect for the Hologram push motor

stumblor

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Sep 16, 2018
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Davey Price
As we all know (and have been discussing), replacement holograms for creech are pretty hard to come by these days. There's Henrik's, which is amazing, but expensive. And even if you had the dough, it's sold out. There was another one that was released by pinball centre, but no matter what @strongs_uk says, it sucks hard (like most *cough cough* stuff they do).

@replicas contacted me the other day about another possible solution - a clear etched plexiglass, purchasable through etsy. While not being a true hologram, it's cheap as chips (circa 30 quid) and looks pretty decent.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/creature-from-the-black-lagoon-hologram-replacement-

If only there was something we could do to pimp it up a bit....

* To the pimp mobile! *

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"The Rippler" is an Arduino controlled board that replaces the original 'ripple' motor & triac board in creech. You know, the one that bends your hologram to make it look like it's underwater and that everyone ends up removing because why the f would you risk bending your 300 quid irreplaceable hologram.

Instead, The Rippler turns on when your hologram does, and creates a ripple effect using two Adafruit Neopixel 30 RGB strips and some Arduino C++ black magic - which, as everyone knows, is the best kind of magic.

The first strip circles the hologram window, and shows a water like ripple effect. (warning - nerd info ahead) I created the effect using 3 sine waves interacting with each other. Two control the brightness, the intention being that two sine waves moving in opposite directions to each other create an effect similar to water bouncing off the edge of a pond. The third controls the colour mix, of which there are 8 possible interacting colours that are user selectable. That means if you want it blue, you can have it blue. Green, sure, go green. Red and yellow, sure, if McDonalds looking travesties are your thing, go for it sunshine.

The second strip is simpler and designed simply to light up the hologram, which, if you using the original hologram doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you're using something like the plexi solution which requires edge lighting, will come in super handy.

Here's it in action with a blue/purple mix:


And again with a green/blue mix:


Still some work to do around the overall brightness and speed of the effect, but I think it's coming along nicely.
 
Another great project and another great write up. Loving your work.
I an guessing the black cardboard blind stops the inset of the LED strip so it can't be seen?
 
Thanks @Calimori, really appreciate that.

Without altering the blind, the LED strip would have to be stuck to the bezel on this inside of the window (using 3m double sides tape or similar). As you point out, it's still visible - so definitely open to better ideas!
 
Yeah great stuff @stumblor, these innovations are one of my favourite aspects of the hobby. :thumbs: Are you using pcbway to produce your PCBs?

What makes me smile on the Creech Holi front is me and @Solar Sailer used to play his nice one a fair bit and I've never seen the slimey blob once, must play better :tut:
 
All this work mate and you're never going to see it anyway!! 😂

Not using PCBWay for these ones as I don't really expect that I'll get the volumes to warrant it. I generally only defer to assemblers like PCBWay when there's either large volumes, or a ton of multi sided SMD components, which are a right fafferino mcfaffington. These ones only take 20 minutes or so to assemble!
 
My Creech shows up a fair few times as you stack multiball mode up, I wonder if there is a rom revision that shows him more. I am lucky, mine is a tidy hologram example.
 
And what a beaut it is too.

Was having a few thoughts about the next version - having multiple panels with slightly different images, edge lit at different times to create and even better animated fake. Ie


What do you reckon col?
 
And what a beaut it is too.

Was having a few thoughts about the next version - having multiple panels with slightly different images, edge lit at different times to create and even better animated fake. Ie


What do you reckon col?

Samus Aran & Metroid - now there's a theme for a pin!
 
that is awesome Davey, so the is the running guy say 3 engraved panels and timed lighting between each?

looks sweet

Yes exactly right Jady. I imagine each strip would need a baffle to stop light bleed but seems simple enough. The three panels ideally would be very similar but show slightly different angles of the creature reaching out as per the original hologram.
 
Will definately take one of these when you're done dude. The Creech hologram mech is totally missing from my machine so been toying with loads of different ideas.

If anyone has a spare hologram mounting bracket hidden in their stash id really appreciate it as I'd like to go this route I'm thinking 👍
 
Sure dude I'll add you to the list.
There must be brackets out there for all the people that switched to the MikeD mod - unless there are keeping them to rollback if necessary.
Maybe someone could 3D print one for you? @myPinballs might be up for it?
 
Latest tests with a greener creech. Still getting a bit of fading toward the top which is likely a bleed from the window strip. We've got a few ideas about how to combat that. More testing...

 
I got some quick measurements while still fitted to the game so close but not exact, and modelled it up.

If you want the model to extract the dimensions, I can share the solidworks file or you can download eDrawings (which is secure) and hit me up for the model and then you can grab measurements.

Hope it helps
 

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this is how the current holo alternative sits in the bracket with a led bracket on the end to edge light the engraved work.
 

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It is easy to create a STL file from the model but I don't think it would be ideal especially if you wanted to run an original motor to flex the holo - just depends what you want to do.

I finished off the model so people can measure up from to make a steel one, and to model the alternative holo assembly as the instructions are extremely limited.
 
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Latest tests with a greener creech. Still getting a bit of fading toward the top which is likely a bleed from the window strip. We've got a few ideas about how to combat that. More testing...

Gday, wondering where these are available to purchase? Thankyou, great work!
 
Gday, wondering where these are available to purchase? Thankyou, great work!

Hey, and thanks! 😊

Here's the link to purchase from the website

 
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