Addressable Rgb's

[swisslizard]

The Teensy does not need to be powered. Its is powered from the computer. Dont connect power to the power pins of the Octows2811 either.

Power has to be applied to the ledstrips. The power terminals are marked on the strips. Be sure to connect power ar least every 150-200 leds, better even more often.

Make sure the power supply lines are not just some thin wires. There are a lot of Amperes going that way and you dont want cables that get hot.

I dont have any fuses. If you want to use fuses put them in the power line. Dont put fuses in the data line to the Teensy.

As a general recommendation: Make sure all PSUs share a common ground! This can spare you a lot of trouble. My groundline which connects all PSUs is 4mm.

Diameter of the data line is not relevant. I typically use 0.25mm.

[swisslizard]

For wiring: Check the page on the OctoWS2811 over at pjrc.com

[swisslizard]

Update on the Ledstrip Controller board:

http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/1208-ledstrip-controller-board-poll/?p=23799

 

For those who have been following this thread there will not be a lot of news in that post, but you might want to read it anyway.

[Westworld]

some experiences about installing ledstrips to share.

 

I have a '79 Bally cabinet, 40" screen to be installed/removed from top.

To get the strips in, I needed to do some routing. The strips a 12 mm, I used a half inch router tool (12.7) mm, 3 mm deep, fitted perfectly.

When you order the strips, make sure the color fits to your cabinet (black/white)

144/meter strips, I used 128 for left/right, the front is build with 4 x 72, (4 x 0.5 meter).

Using 5mm wood I build a kind of holder.

Enclosed 3 picts to give an idea.

 

The plastic in front is 1 mm transparent plexi, as used in green houses, very cheap at local garden center (10 Euro for 1 x 1 Meter).

After cutting the correct size using sand paper on one side it became a diffusor.

Some white tape and I got my matrix.  (White because inside of cabinet is white. That's also why I ordered white led strips, they are available with black or white background)

 

I was lucky, I ordered 4x1 Meter strip and got two different kinds, 2 meter in one piece waterproof, and 2 x 1 meter none waterproof. The none waterproof was in fact 50 cm, soldered together. I just needed to heat that part to get 4 strips, which I could use directly for the matrix and it was easy to solder again.

The waterproof one was more difficult to reconnect...

 

For power I used a 20 A supply. All 500 leds would need 30A, but I thought they are never fully ON at the same time.

 

Surprise, some tables have nearly all led's in the center in bright white or yellow, so needing full power.

Next surprise, they are so bright, difficult to see the ball, like looking in car head light.

 

To compensate you might need a shaded (grey/black) diffusor to reduce light...

 

I modified the firmware of the Teensy and divided the value by two, so using only 50% of available light.

Much better (for my eyes and power need).

 

BTW, as I did not wanted to wait for DOF R3, I used Artnet to connect all lights with DOF R2. Finally the last surprise, it works great. I thought that could be too much load, but all works fine.

 

Rebuilding the cabinet was more than a full day of work. Total expense for strips + power supply + teensy (etc), about 220 Euro ($250).

Was it worth?

Same effect as after installing the real DMD.

Now playing a table without ledstrip support is like watching a movie in black and white, 4:3, mono, after a Bluray with 7.1 sound. Something is missing.

 

 

 

[Westworld]

Another tip for cabinet building: 

When you solder the OctoWS2811 board, don't do too much work :-)

There are several header pin areas. Two to plugin the Teensy, you need only these two.

There are two more, only needed to get access to other pins (not needed for ledstrip, so don't waste time).

There are 3 more pins for VCC, Gnd, Sync, to solder a terminal block. You don't need these either, as the board get's power through USB. In no case connect external power here!

 

I learned from Swisslizard that there is no need to modify the firmware to reduce light power. Just modify the cabinet configuration,

replace <FadingCurveName>Linear</FadingCurveName>  

with <FadingCurveName>Linear0To128</FadingCurveName> 

(or even Linear0To64)

 

Note that this reduces the amount of colors from millions to thousands. Instead you might want to use a tinted front glass.

[arngrim]

or you can decrease the intensity from the configtool, with that option in my status tab

RGB Color Brightness for Flashers (and ledstrips)

FF is 100%

[karlson18]

when i have all parts soldered if there an application to do a test or must i wait for DOF V.3 ??

[swisslizard]

Hi guys

 

I'm just about to leave for vacation. Last thing before I leave, here is a preview of DOF R3: http://pinball.weilenmann.net/DirectOutput_V0.9_Build_5750.13397.zip

Keep in mind, that this realease is stil work in progress and has not been properly tested yet, which means that bugs might be present.

 

The preliminary docu on the DOF R3 can be found here: http://pinball.weilenmann.net/docu/DirectOutputWIP/index.html(Docu still mentiones R2, but the new output controller classes and more new things are in there).

 

All the best

Tom

[neohusky]

Your awesome! Have a great trip!

[Blashyrk]

Your awesome! Have a great trip!

+1

[Rappelbox]

Great work!

Have a nice holiday!!! [emoji106]

[Blashyrk]

When I program the teensy with the Hex file i get a error when checking the verbose information log  Error can't load ***********.elf .. there is no *.elf file included in the firmware download

[Westworld]

> Error can't load ***********.elf .. there is no *.elf file included in the firmware download

 

you don't need one.

The zip contains a .hex and that's all you need. What application are you using to flash the firmware? Mac, Win or Linux?

I flashed mine on Mac + Win, both worked fine. Also did it by using Arduino IDE + source.

 

Did not got an error here - but DOF reports that the controller does not answer, so I still have another issue, which I did not found so far (as I have a working configuration using Ethernet/Art-Net I did not spent more than 60 minutes, needing all free time for playing and enjoying the strips).

 

At least I should be able to help you with flashing the firmware.

Please give more info, maybe some screenshots?

[Blashyrk]

I used Arduino Ide, I get no errors during the programming so maybe it's ok.

[swisslizard]

@Westworld:

Can you post the part of the log where DOF reports that the controller has not been found?

I had that problem once or twice as well, but it only happend after I had updated the firmware or after experiments with hterm.exe (i am using this to test the controller outside of DOF). Powercycling the controller has always solved these problems for me.

All the best from France

Gesendet von meinem iPad mit Tapatalk

[Westworld]

Hi Swisslizard,

 

you are supposed to enjoy France. Too cold for beach? Visit the vineyards...

 

I was expecting to wait till you are back from vacation, but if the weather is that bad, I'm happy for every help.

 

The log shows:

2015.10.01 19:33:07.357 Framework initialized.

2015.10.01 19:33:07.357 Have fun!

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: TeensyStripController LedStripController updater thread  could not connect to the controller. Thread will quit.

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: Thread: TeensyStripController LedStripController updater thread 

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: Message: The TeensyStripController did not send the expected 3 bytes containing the data on the max number of leds per channel. Will not send data to the controller

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: Stacktrace:    bei DirectOutput.Cab.Out.AdressableLedStrip.TeensyStripController.ConnectToController()

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: Stacktrace:    bei DirectOutput.Cab.Out.OutputControllerCompleteBase.UpdaterThreadDoIt()

2015.10.01 19:33:07.389 EXCEPTION: Targetsite: Void ConnectToController()

2015.10.01 19:33:13.849 Finishing framework

2015.10.01 19:33:13.849 Finishing cabinet

 

 

When I change the Com port number  (or set the Teensy to Raw-Hid and not Serial) I get a message that the controller does not answer, so it survives the first check...

Looking in your source I think it sends "M" and waits for 3 bytes.

 

So I used Arduino Serial Monitor and pressed M

I got <EOT>LA

 

Next test was to change the Teensy Source to return as max led strip length 257.

Now I got 0x01 0x01 A

That's how it is supposed to answer, isn't it?

 

Next test was to send twice ACK()

 

I got 

0x01 0x01 A A

 

The log still said

The TeensyStripController did not send the expected 3 bytes containing the data on the max number of leds per channel. 

 

I rebootet (unplugged) teensy, rebooted Computer.

Waited 24 hours.

 

Running out of ideas. Teensy seems to answer correct.

Any suggestion? Connect a 2nd computer as terminal to see what DOF sends?

thanks

[gech]

The same here.. 

[randr]

I would help but yet to try the teensy. I'll order one

[Westworld]

The same here.. 

 

While it is nice to see that I'm not alone - I think it is a timing issue. I have connected a LCD display to the Teensy to check what Teensy receives and what he answers and for me all looks fine. But maybe not fast enough.

So let's wait till Swisslizzard is back from vacation, hopefully it is a simple thing.

[neohusky]

Why is it that most sellers are only selling 1m and 2m lengths of the 144/m. For those that have bought the 144/m are you just buying them in these short lengths or have you found 5m rolls.?

I must admit I haven't spent a great deal of time looking, but, everytime I have looked I haven't found 5m. I asked a few of the Chinese sellers if I can buy 5m worth uncut,but, none are yet to respond.

[Westworld]

It is not so bad to get smaller strips - if the price is right.

 

The 144/Meter are really tiny. Not so easy to cut them and resolder them, the distance between each LED is really small. Easy to do a bad cutting and loosing a LED.

 

They have sent me 2 x 1 Meter and 1 x 2 Meter.

The 1 x 2 Meter was a 4 x 50 cm, soldered together. By heating that parts I got 4 x 50 cm - perfectly fitting for my cabinet. The 1 Meter at each side, the 4x50 build a matrix.

 

BTW, if you plan to have a matrix with 8 strips, there are 8x8 matrix on sale at ebay, directly from China, quite cheap. Same price for 9 pieces as 8 strips each 50 cm. Easier to solder, as they have 3 pins on each side (below, so they fit directly together). I only have place for a matrix of 4.

 

For strips: Look more for the price as for the length. And if possible not waterproof, that's often cheaper - and easier to solder.

[neohusky]

Thanks for tips. I'll check out the 8x8 matrixs.

My pf sides measure ~105cm and pf rear 59cm. I want to try and avoid soldering and wastage that's why I was keen on a single long length that I could cut.

How difficult are they to solder? I'm sure I'd make a mess of it.

[Westworld]

> How difficult are they to solder?

the 144/m? For me, very. But I do such jobs less than 5 minutes/year.

Just look on the pictures, they are so close to each other, the connection pin is about 2-3 mm, and if you cut it in twice, it's just a fraction, how to solder a thick cable on half of it?

 

Take a look on 96/m. They have 5 mm between each, that's easy, even for me. They are similar to 60/m, wide, space, allowing mistakes.

Easy: if they are waterproof, I still needed several minutes per side just to get that stupid stuff away and get good contact.

 

That was the reason why I was so happy that I got 4 x 50cm, which was perfect for the rear (normal body, not wide). Had about 1.5cm on each side for cable and so.

 

The 8x8 matrix looks very simple. I do not have that, I saw them on ebay after I was finished. On the pictures you can see (below the matrix) on each side 3 pins, big and wide enough to look easy to solder.

Honestly, even if I would have seen them before, waiting 8 weeks for China - I could not have stand that. After seeing the movies I wanted to have that strips in my cabinet NOW. 

[gech]

My strips come from china and I didn't waited that long 1 to 3 weeks max. I received a damaged one and the seller send me another one.

[Sindbad]

While it is nice to see that I'm not alone - I think it is a timing issue. I have connected a LCD display to the Teensy to check what Teensy receives and what he answers and for me all looks fine. But maybe not fast enough.

So let's wait till Swisslizzard is back from vacation, hopefully it is a simple thing.

Same also here, it seems we all have the same problem.