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Pin2Dmd Real Pinball Support


lucky1

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22 hours ago, tjc02002 said:

Has anyone done any work to colorize an older style pinball machine(WPC95 or older)? Im talking about replacing frames/scenes and doing some serious color palette changes. Id really like to see something like this. Im going to attempt it but its just weird I don't see many examples of it. Id really like to see someone elses project to help me figure out how the editor works. thanks for any info.

-Tom

Just realized that theres a better topic on the next page where people are discussing the color projects with 4-color pinballs. I will follow that and ask there when I get stuck.

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Hello
Excuse me for translation, i am french and i use google translator.
I would like to connect my stm32 to a real pinball machine, could tell me how to connect my stm32 to a real pinball machine, or or I can buy a connection interface.
thank you

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So I have been trying to get my pin2dmd connected to my tspp pinball. It seems after reading everything here I have no blue light on the stm. I have sascha's interface board v3.2b. I am positive I have the original cable connected properly to pin 1 I even revered it just for giggles. Blue light not there. What are the causes ans where should I look? Everything else seems to be working including file on the sd card and communicating via usb card. 

Thanks

IBJ

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11 hours ago, ibjeepin said:

So I have been trying to get my pin2dmd connected to my tspp pinball. It seems after reading everything here I have no blue light on the stm. I have sascha's interface board v3.2b. I am positive I have the original cable connected properly to pin 1 I even revered it just for giggles. Blue light not there. What are the causes ans where should I look? Everything else seems to be working including file on the sd card and communicating via usb card. 

Thanks

IBJ

An update, I scoped out all the dmd signals at the stm board and all signals from dmd cpu are there on PA0,1,2,3,4,5,7 but still no blue led on stm. I jumpered the board for non enhanced (i had it on enhanced before) but still nothing. Display just sits on the pin2dmdm screen Stern-Whitestar.

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9 hours ago, lucky1 said:

If you are using a newer shield like yours, you also need to enable the enhancer for whitestar to work.

:) funny after I added a missing 1k resistor to the enhanced section I failed to try that again. I tried it non enhanced in above post. Will try it again in enhanced. So what are the rules for enhance which pins need it an which dont? 

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27 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

It is a software setting in pin2dmd.exe.

OK so I am completely confused. What is the menu for on the pin2dmd if not to change and store the settings? Enhanced on and off is an independent setting from what pin its connected to in the menu on the board and in the app. With what pins should enhanced be on or off then?  

What does the blue light signify? What is it telling me being on or off? I am now hours in without getting any further to figuring out what is up? Does the blue light have something to do with the sd card and the files on it? I see the stm / menu wrote a pin2dmd.dat file on the card after I saved it on the board. 

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Onscreen menu can also be used for the enhancer setting. The pin is something specific to the shield from UncleSash, so you have to ask him about that.
If enhancer is on in the firmware it should work with whitestar and the signal running through the LS123. If you bypass it, enhancer needs to be turned off in the software also.

If you get a red light there is an error. Blue light is for data either coming from USB or real pinball. orange and green is for colorization status.
You should get a flickering blue light if everything is working correctly..

I can assure you that 1.38 is working fine with Whitest, so it is most likely a hardware or wiring problem.

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20 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

Onscreen menu can also be used for the enhancer setting. The pin is something specific to the shield from UncleSash, so you have to ask him about that.
If enhancer is on in the firmware it should work with whitestar and the signal running through the LS123. If you bypass it, enhancer needs to be turned off in the software also.

If you get a red light there is an error. Blue light is for data either coming from USB or real pinball. orange and green is for colorization status.
You should get a flickering blue light if everything is working correctly..

I can assure you that 1.38 is working fine with Whitest, so it is most likely a hardware or wiring problem.

When I mean pins I meant Real Pins, like in panball machine. How do I know what Pinball requires enhanced or not. Without seeing UncleSash's scematice I think it follows yours pretty well with a few exceptions. The scope does not lie. I am getting the signals to all input ports on the stm. See pictures and you can see the status of things

Here is the board powered up with the pin on

IMG_20170406_0042121.jpg

Here is PIN_DMD_DCLK_ on the stm board with enhanced jumper set to enabled

IMG_20170406_1401049.jpgIMG_20170406_1402321.jpg

Here is PIN_DMD_DCLK right off the jumper

IMG_20170406_1401562.jpgIMG_20170406_1402104.jpg

 

I have checked all signals and they are all there. Picture two shows led status on stm.

There are many leds on the board and without knowledge I dont know what leds you use and what ones you do not.

 

IMG_20170406_1402321.jpg

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If LS123 is present on the shield enhancer setting need to be set to on. on older shields without LS123 it needs to be off.

That is valid for all pinball machines.

I see that you have signal, but getting a red led status with the pinball machine connected, means that the signal is not valid / usable.

Please double-check the capacitor values around the LS123 against my schematic.

 

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28 minutes ago, lucky1 said:

If LS123 is present on the shield enhancer setting need to be set to on. on older shields without LS123 it needs to be off.

That is valid for all pinball machines.

I see that you have signal, but getting a red led status with the pinball machine connected, means that the signal is not valid / usable.

Please double-check the capacitor values around the LS123 against my schematic.

 

Yes top right is the ls123, and the red jumper is set to enhance enabled (on)  and the first scope pic is that signal from the ls123 to PA5 on the stm as shown in the picture beside it. I dont like that wave form as it only about 3.2 volts high and has a negative undershoot. Everything traces out to your schematic with one exception he is missing decoupling cap on the 5volt  line at ls123 ic. The 47pf cap has printing of 47k on and resistor check out at 1K

Is the blue light coming on independent of the sd card files? or are they part of it?

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2 hours ago, ibjeepin said:

Yes top right is the ls123, and the red jumper is set to enhance enabled (on)  and the first scope pic is that signal from the ls123 to PA5 on the stm as shown in the picture beside it. I dont like that wave form as it only about 3.2 volts high and has a negative undershoot. Everything traces out to your schematic with one exception he is missing decoupling cap on the 5volt  line at ls123 ic. The 47pf cap has printing of 47k on and resistor check out at 1K

Is the blue light coming on independent of the sd card files? or are they part of it?

I found my differnce to Lucky1 Schematic.

But it makes no Sense to me for now, but maybe he can explain that to us.

On my Schematic is HIS C14-100n missing.

But what I don't get is:

Why are there 2x 100nF (HIS C13 and C14) parallel?

Cap Problem rev 3.2b.jpg

 

 

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@lucky1
Which real Pinball machine req. a LS123?
I have no real machine here, so please give us a little bit more information,.

And please explain to me what C13 and C14 are for in your schematic?

I tried to find more information in the Web but there is nothing.

May be a few more information about your big Pi2nDMD knowledge would be nice.
Also some updated manuals....

The old ones are created by myself and totally outdated, please update the manuals.

thank you..

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1 hour ago, UncleSash said:

@lucky1
Which real Pinball machine req. a LS123?
I have no real machine here, so please give us a little bit more information,.

And please explain to me what C13 and C14 are for in your schematic?

I tried to find more information in the Web but there is nothing.

May be a few more information about your big Pi2nDMD knowledge would be nice.
Also some updated manuals....

The old ones are created by myself and totally outdated, please update the manuals.

thank you..

Both c13 and C14 are whats call bypass caps or decoupling caps. They are used to keep down noise on the power line that with enough can cause problems, Generally in cmos stuff every chip gets one! In this case c14 is used for R2

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_capacitor

I still dont like the signal I see on the enhanced line and will look into the original design when I get more time. Blew another 5+ hours today trying to get my first pin2dmd going aaaaaannnnnnnd

 

ITS NOW RUNNING!:D

And when I get time and more info I am going to create a wiki or faq or how to because there is soooo much information not known. like the blue and green light and how they behave and what is actually going on when they flash. Only the coder and developer can answer that!

Basically it being my first is what made it very painful, second I chose a Stern Whitestar machine that thinks its a Sega Machine! (Which it basically is!)  Without spending half an hour writing all the steps done to eliminate the variables i dont have any time right now.. 

I

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6 hours ago, UncleSash said:

Which real Pinball machine req. a LS123?
I have no real machine here, so please give us a little bit more information,.

 

9 hours ago, lucky1 said:

If LS123 is present on the shield enhancer setting need to be set to on. on older shields without LS123 it needs to be off.
That is valid for all pinball machines.

 

6 hours ago, UncleSash said:

And please explain to me what C13 and C14 are for in your schematic?

 

4 hours ago, ibjeepin said:

Both c13 and C14 are whats call bypass caps or decoupling caps. They are used to keep down noise on the power line that with enough can cause problems, Generally in cmos stuff every chip gets one! In this case c14 is used for R2

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_capacitor

 

4 hours ago, ibjeepin said:

there is soooo much information not known. like the blue and green light and how they behave and what is actually going on when they flash.

 

10 hours ago, lucky1 said:

If you get a red light there is an error. Blue light is for data either coming from USB or real pinball. orange and green is for colorization status.
You should get a flickering blue light if everything is working correctly..

 

There is no change in the LED usage since 2 years 

Red mean error. either SD or incoming data.
Blue means Data. Toggles with new packets being processed.
Either green or orange LED means colorization is active.  Green is for pin2dmd colorization, orange for pinball browser colorization. 

 

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