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PIN2DMD - Now SOLD OUT

Do you recommend buying a PIN2DMD Display?

  • Yes

    Votes: 32 100.0%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    32
Cookizza said:
Ok well I've got to grips with the editor so far. Main thing seems to be palette management when using colour masking mode. After a few false starts I've now got a decent recording from my machine and have started a clean project to colour all these scenes.

I will start offering the virtual pinball files for testing on the VPU forum next week some time - with the real files I will ask a donation on VPU but anyone from this group buy can for sure have them for free - I'll be sure to keep everyone updated with my progress.

Here's a little gif of the first animation I've done. Still some touch ups to be done but want to get everything presentable before getting too nit-picky.

yEnBd3t.gif
Click to expand...

I'm interested to see the progress on this. If this turns out to be better than the colourdmd version i'd be up for using it. Its about the detail for me though and 'fixing' some places where colourdmd didnt do such a great job. I'd be happy to share ideas and info on where improvements could be made.

See this screenshot for this scene on the colourdmd product. Making the skull section grey stone and adding more detail to the rafters, with hair colour and skin on the arms, red life jackets etc really adds to it. It would be cool to have some weeds and greenery on the mountain sides to close to the water

IMG_5831.PNG
 
Can't wait to get mine now.

Already have one in my STTNG but it's not running the full colour version.

That and DE royal rumble and TOM will all look great with it.

Well done and thanks again Mike
 
myPinballs said:
See this screenshot for this scene on the colourdmd product. Making the skull section grey stone and adding more detail to the rafters, with hair colour and skin on the arms, red life jackets etc really adds to it. It would be cool to have some weeds and greenery on the mountain sides to close to the water
Click to expand...

You could also make the water in the opening frames, before the wave arrives, blue (by that I mean solid blue) - colour index 0 is any colour you want, it doesn't have to be black! :D

jack burton said:
Already have one in my STTNG but it's not running the full colour version.
Click to expand...

Shameless self plug, but please try this out, I don't think you will be disappointed. I can send you the files if you don't want to create an account at VPU:

vpuniverse.com

Star Trek: The Next Generation - REAL PIN

INSTRUCTIONS ============ Copy the files to your SD card as required. Please ensure you are using the latest stable PIN2DMD firmware. An alternative palette file is also included, see below for further details. The project should work on English L7 and L5 roms; multiplayer, freeplay, dot and half...
vpuniverse.com vpuniverse.com
 
slippifishi said:
You could also make the water in the opening frames, before the wave arrives, blue (by that I mean solid blue) - colour index 0 is any colour you want, it doesn't have to be black! :D



Shameless self plug, but please try this out, I don't think you will be disappointed. I can send you the files if you don't want to create an account at VPU:

[/URL]
Click to expand...

Looks amazing man
 
I'm not too sure what you mean? I have more than four on my ball lock animation and it seems to play fine on my machine - but I've only done a couple quick tests
 
The colour limits depend on the type of scene being used in the editor; there are always 16 colours in a palette, which are split into 4 "swatches" of 4 colours each. In colour mask mode, the editor lets to select which "swatch" is used for each dot, so you can - with careful management - switch between any of the 4 swatches (and therefore 4 colours) for any single dot. In some places this can allow for more than 4 colours, if you manage things right, but some dynamic scenes are not always so easy. In Replace mode you are essentially writing a new image direct to the display instead of the original DMD source, so you can use all 16 colours in a single frame with no limits.
 
Yep I've been working in colour mask mode. The palette management I find quite fun to be honest, each scene & its palette is more like a puzzle than a drawing which I'm finding quite nice.

Having a blast in this editor, just wish there was an easy way to test my keyframes past 10pm - I'm on a Mac and I don't have a PC that will run VPX

Would be awesome if playfield.dev let you upload pin2dmd files
 
Yeah I know the dev looked into that, but i'm not sure it was as easy as he hoped; it's on his todo list, but that hasn't really moved much in the last year. There _might_ be a way of playing dump files back from the editor to the pin2dmd using the "live preview" checkbox, if the fsq files were loaded on the sdcard, and you played back the dump from the recordings list? I use the live preview to a display hooked up via USB, but that might not be practical if it's in the machine. I also don't know if it works in the fashion I describe, though it would be great if it did for sure :D The live preview _does_ work in as much as I can playback animations as I colour them and know they look good on my panel, but at this stage the only way to test, I know of, is to load it up and play/try it manually.
 
slippifishi said:
Yeah I know the dev looked into that, but i'm not sure it was as easy as he hoped; it's on his todo list, but that hasn't really moved much in the last year. There _might_ be a way of playing dump files back from the editor to the pin2dmd using the "live preview" checkbox, if the fsq files were loaded on the sdcard, and you played back the dump from the recordings list? I use the live preview to a display hooked up via USB, but that might not be practical if it's in the machine. I also don't know if it works in the fashion I describe, though it would be great if it did for sure :D The live preview _does_ work in as much as I can playback animations as I colour them and know they look good on my panel, but at this stage the only way to test, I know of, is to load it up and play/try it manually.
Click to expand...
Thanks you for the information!
Things have moved on since I last attempted one.
 
Cookizza said:
more like a puzzle than a drawing
Click to expand...
I agree 100%, I'm now carefully reviewing scenes to choose where to keep the default colours to minimise work.

The game I'm working on only uses 2 brightness shades and off (black), so using the 4 colour mask swatches I'm using 2 new colours and generally black per swatch, so the scene is then recoloured to 9 total. If the shapes are simple I can remap black and also work in replace mode to utililise the 4 unused colours to get closer to 16 total.

Imho the time and skill here is really in applying the mask and the choice of colours can be easily tweaked thereafter by somebody who's not colour blind.:rofl:

ps. Editor has crashed and just lost a lot of work - must save regularly 😢

Hook Rising.gif
 
Working from home this afternoon, cough, cough.
Thanks Mike for your hard work and amazing effort with the quickest, easiest and most successful group buy ever.IMG_20200117_144338.jpg
 
I was hoping to put one if mine in WCS 94, but it had some glitches and issues with transitions from the score to the animations on the colour files. Has that been fixed?
 
Got mine this morning Mike, great stuff, might be spring time before I get round to fitting it! But good to have. As said epic group buy all down to your hard work, thanks very much

Cheers Ronnie

P.s wich pin to fit it in? Dr who, flinstones, popeye, lethal weapon 3, Xfiles,Jurassic park the lost world? Decisions!!!!!
 
Andypc said:
I was hoping to put one if mine in WCS 94, but it had some glitches and issues with transitions from the score to the animations on the colour files. Has that been fixed?
Click to expand...
Playfield is in bits at the moment for a refurb, so can only tell you what I've seen from attract mode. The globe looked odd but everything else was sweet so far.
The pin2dmd may not end up in this machine but it was the quickest to try it out on. Really pleased so far.
 
ronnie63 said:
Got mine this morning Mike, great stuff, might be spring time before I get round to fitting it! But good to have. As said epic group buy all down to your hard work, thanks very much

Cheers Ronnie

P.s wich pin to fit it in? Dr who, flinstones, popeye, lethal weapon 3, Xfiles,Jurassic park the lost world? Decisions!!!!!
Click to expand...
Dr who, Flintstones or Popeye all look really good with the colour, Popeye especially
 
Project complete today - on schedule and pretty much on budget.

All but a few products shipped yesterday, hopefully in time for a weekend of technicolour discovery!

The few remaining will arrive early next week. 2 members check your emails - waiting for an address/shipping confirmation, please get in touch.

85 additional Pinball DMD’s are now in circulation in the UK and Ireland. Speaking to Lucky (Joerg), the open-source project founder and issuer of activation keys, tells me this was the biggest single group buy for the product so far. I must say his expertise and responsiveness were a real key to this project going smoothly. Thank you Joerg.

Would I do it again? Highly unlikely! It’s very labour intensive. Assembling the units involves (depending on the version) 8 or 12 solder joints, 8 or 12 fixing screws, firmware flashing, and a separate activation step. Basically there is a lot of product handling.

There is also quite a bit of room for unplanned errors. For example not enough RGB LED panel power cables were shipped, and I had to make 40 (4 crimps per cable) units by hand. Plus crimping 75 (4 crimps per set) PIN2DMD power cables for the Bally/Williams machine. I’m now a crimping expert!!

A few heart stopping moments - the XL versions didn’t work on arrival. Working with Joerg we worked out a small board rework (I’m no SMD expert - but managed). Also a couple of damaged parcel reports today. Very stressful indeed.

For anyone doing another in the future... beyond having some basic organisation skills:

1. Make sure you have Joerg’s full support before you start.
2.Budget for spare components (I didn’t!)
3. Budget for at most 10 boards per working day to assemble each set of components and complete/ship. (I didn’t!)
4. Have some confidence in your soldering ability (I do now!)
5. Budget for some good shipping materials and use a top notch shipper. Have the member decide what level of insurance to buy on larger orders.
6. Don’t be greedy. It seems other buys have factored in a fat fee for doing the job. Quite a few messages from others who have done this and charged a lot more.
7. Try to get a decent quantity (50+) to make it cost effective
8. Don’t forget to budget for the accessories (crimps, connectors, SD cards, cable, etc) (I didn’t)
9. Make sure you have some decent tools - soldering, cable crimping, power screw driver, cable strippers, etc.
10. Communicate, communicate & communicate!

Thanks to all members who trusted a mostly anonymous individual with your £100’s, without the cash it wouldn’t have been possible.
 
Special delivery to Team Basingstoke today also - thanks to Super Mike:clap:

Here's a few learnings on my installing a narrow 128x16

The boards are mounting hole and connector compatible. The mounts were a bit tight (some holes may need filing out a bit) but mine worked on ok with some persuasion.
20200117_142514.jpg

Must move the display ROM from the old DMD - WARNING it's 180 deg rotated on the new board ie upside down!
20200117_142911.jpg

display ROM installed - notch downwards
20200117_143738.jpg

display installed, must access menu to set DE 128x16 device mode - doh can't see menu through narrow slot!
20200117_144535.jpg

DMD uninstalled again, access menu by holding down Button 1 or 2 while display boots. After 1 button toggles options and 1 button moves between them. Set mode to DE 128x16. Save before Exiting.
20200117_145409.jpg
20200117_144957.jpg

We have Hook animations so back installed
20200117_145319.jpg

DMD has to be removed to access SD, I'll be doing that regularly during colouring
20200117_151028.jpg

20200117_153243.jpg

...and added bonus the new DMD doesn't reset during gameplay like the old one

Super happy here, thanks again Mike :D
 
Has anyone installed a tinted window in front of their DMD. I have a gel sheet infront of my current DMD window to hide the small scratches on the window itself. The Colour PIN2DMD I’m just about to install this weekend, I thought would benefit from a tinted window too. I was going to buy a new acrylic window for my new display and was wondering if anyone else has bought or has intentions of buying a tinted window.
 
Andrew Hannay said:
Has anyone installed a tinted window in front of their DMD. I have a gel sheet infront of my current DMD window to hide the small scratches on the window itself. The Colour PIN2DMD I’m just about to install this weekend, I thought would benefit from a tinted window too. I was going to buy a new acrylic window for my new display and was wondering if anyone else has bought or has intentions of buying a tinted window.
Click to expand...
Tinted? I'm installing full on Cathedral grade stained glass window on mine [emoji3]

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk
 
My parcel arrived this morning well packed and intact.
Thank you Mike for a really easy buying experience, super cheap and easy to install with the supplied leads.
3 DMD’s 5 machines to put them in...... decisions decisions.
 
Let me just point out a few things about this group buy....

1 - I did volunteer to help Mike but he steamed on ahead before I could even get me lazy ass over to his place.
2 - He has made no money on this at all and it has taken him days.
3 - He has saved us all well over £100 per display.
4 - He has provided things that I did not get with my £225 display (wiring loom, connectors and memory card adaptor) which kind of started this group buy.
5 - Mike did not run off with £8Ks worth of funds.

COME ON CHAPS - WE REALLY NEED TO BUNG MIKE A FEW £ VIA PAYPAL. BE A NICE GESTURE TO AT LEAST PUT SOME FUNDS TOWARDS SAY A SET OF DECALS FOR HIS TOTAN?

Mike - publish your PayPal address.
 
Pick Holder said:
Let me just point out a few things about this group buy....

1 - I did volunteer to help Mike but he steamed on ahead before I could even get me lazy ass over to his place.
2 - He has made no money on this at all and it has taken him days.
3 - He has saved us all well over £100 per display.
4 - He has provided things that I did not get with my £225 display (wiring loom, connectors and memory card adaptor) which kind of started this group buy.
5 - Mike did not run off with £8Ks worth of funds.

COME ON CHAPS - WE REALLY NEED TO BUNG MIKE A FEW £ VIA PAYPAL. BE A NICE GESTURE TO AT LEAST PUT SOME FUNDS TOWARDS SAY A SET OF DECALS FOR HIS TOTAN?

Mike - publish your PayPal address.
Click to expand...

That’s very kind Phil - I’m blushing! If any member who participated in this group but would like to buy me a pint or maybe even treat Mrs MadNat to a fish supper then do email me asking for PayPal details. No pressure though - no doubt I’ll tap you all up with a daft pinball question or search for a random item in the future!

Thanks

Mike
 
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