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Dmd Clock

DrPinball

DrPinball

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Aug 2, 2011
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383
I really like the Run DMD clock but I always look at stuff like that and wonder if I can do the same thing myself.

So I started a prototype which can be seen here:

I wanted people to be able to add their own animations and fonts, so all data will be editable on a PC and just placed on an SD Card. The processor that does all of the work is a Teensy 3.6:
https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy36.html

This is a great device as it will need a very simple interface board with minimal external components - the only parts on a board would be:
Battery backup for the clock (clock (RTC) already built into Teensy)
Switches for menu control
16 way connector for connection to LED screen
5v power supply

I've hacked together a screen grab process to get animations from Pinball Browser - a similar thing will be possible for WPC Edit, so getting the animations will be easy for Stern and Bally/Williams. I still need to add a mask edit facility so that the clock face can appear as part of the animations.

I'm happy for this to be a community effort, so anyone interested in being involved I can upload stuff to GitHub once I get a stable release with the basics, and people can have a play. The Teensy is compatible with the Arduino environment, so anyone with C/C++ skills can do this. The screen grabbing is written in C#.

Hopefully the cost will be much less than other clocks out there (~£150), and will be more community friendly as adding animations will be easy for anyone to achieve.

Any comments gratefully received. David.
 
Just one word of warning here. I tried the German 'Dmd-clock' which was similar to this. I applaud the work of Dr Pinball here, however the process of grabbing decent images from machines is a right royal PITA, and never looks as clean as those from run-dmd.
Not got a problem at all with this, however just fair to let people know what lies ahead :)
 
Quick update, video showing the progress made:

I created an extraction app to get frames from WPCEdit and PinballBrowser. The captured frames can then be edited to allow the clock to show through (masking) - this allows the clock to be seen behind parts of the animation. The clock can also be shown above the animation. The capture process is very simple - I'll upload a video of it in action in the next few days.

First prototype should be complete by next week. I'm also looking to get an interface board made in a couple of weeks. This will accept the Teensy 3.6 micro processor and connect directly to the screen and power supply.
 
Demo of the extraction process...
Capturing and processing frames from WPCEdit and Pinball Browser...

Results of the capturing...

The app is written in C#.
For capturing frames from WPC Edit I use the clipboard (copy paste) feature in WPC Edit to capture the frame data as you page through the animations.
For capturing frames from Pinball Browser I use screen grabbing - the dot matrix window is first identified by clicking on it, then every time the 'next frame' button is pressed the frame is extracted.

After you've captured the frames, you can delete any not needed, then add masking as required - this allows the clock to show through the animation. In the example here the clock is seen through the mouth of the zombie.

Different processing can be applied to the first and last frames to include an intro blank or still frame with the clock visible or not.

The complete 'scene' is then saved to file - this can be opened again for further editing.

The scene files (.scn) are copied to an SD Card and inserted into the Teensy micro processor - it reads the files in turn and follows the scene instructions to display the animation as required.
 
@DrPinball - a suggestion, and something unique - How about optional frame colorization, using RGB panels...?? :)

Interesting about the capture technique - Not using the dump file to capture all the animations?? If not, would be VERY interested as it would be very useful to capture all the animations from a Williams Rom without having to play the game (useful for pinball sp's Colour LED board)....
 
@Paul - For the time being this will be the red screens only - I've run out of time for this phase of the work.

Not sure I understand your query about the dump files - Using WPCEdit or Pinball Browser you can pick out whatever animations you like. You don't need to play the game.
 
DrPinball said:
@Paul - For the time being this will be the red screens only - I've run out of time for this phase of the work.

Not sure I understand your query about the dump files - Using WPCEdit or Pinball Browser you can pick out whatever animations you like. You don't need to play the game.
Click to expand...

Ok - maybe i misunderstood something. myself - let me take a look later in the week when back at home and see if i can refresh my memory... will get back to you :)
 
If you fancy selling an interface PCB on it's own (populated), would love to evaluate it vs the others out there :D

What displays will this support?? HUB80??
 
I'm using HUB08 - I connected all of the pins on the 16 way connector to the Teensy so just needs a software change to support other screens.

For info, the software is on GitHub...
https://github.com/sigmafx/

There are 2 repos - DotClk and DotClk-Support
DotClk has the Arduino code for the Teensy mcu
DotClk-Support has the C# code for the font and scene editors. Exe files can be found in each project under bin/release directories.
When I get a bit of time I'll update the ReadMe files.
 
How much we talking for one of these shiny things? Populated or Un-Populated?
 
I'll do some sums and come up with a price. The price will be for the board, populated with Teensy MCU and SD Card.
 
DrPinball said:
I'm using HUB08 - I connected all of the pins on the 16 way connector to the Teensy so just needs a software change to support other screens.
Click to expand...

Sorry - My bad - The panels i have are HUB08 :) Happy days! :D
 
I'd be interested in a populated board please


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just to update people on this.

I have received one of @DrPinball 's clock boards, and Liaising with David am playing with what this can do. I have to say i'm very impressed. David is great as ever and updating any issues i find. Board seems rock solid. I am hoping to have a play with the animations on there now as there are a number of animations which only take up part of the screen, and will need tweaking/removing to make things 100%.

Will review this alongside GOdmd and RunDMD shortly, however we have here the chance to get a good clock at a smaller price, which is always good!

Paul
 
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