rpvrpv Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Hi All, since a while I have a virtual pinball cabinet and wanted to upgrade my existing pindmd3 to a real full colorised dmd with pin2dmd. I contacted Dominik from German Gaming Supplies who answered really quick that this is possible with keeping my existing panels. I only need to replace my existing controller with a PIN2DMD connection Board V4 and a Nucleo - STM32F429 development board. He also mentioned that with his provided instructions I should be able to swap all in 20 to 30 min incl all mechanical work. Reasonably fast I received my order, but after opening the package I did not find any instructions. Now almost a week later and after several send emails I still did not received any reply back so I am stuck with two boards and I even do not see how I need to connect the pin2dmd connection board and nucleo board together? Am I missing parts or am I just stupid (could be)? Which ever angle I look at the board they simply seem not to fit without using additional parts, which parts? Also looking into this forum I wonder once i am past this stage how to supply the power? I have added some pictures of the boards and my existing controller. So lots of questions for which I hope one of you is able to assist and guide me a little bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted January 28, 2019 Content Provider Share Posted January 28, 2019 Have you seen this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 Hi lucky1, yes I did and it actually triggered me to buy the boards from German Gaming Supplies. Everywhere and also in this post I see only pictures of the two boards connected somehow, but nowhere how they are connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latenite04 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 It looks like the Nucleo board still needs the stock headers clipped and the outside ones soldered on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 Aha! Thank you latenite04. It starts to become more clear now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 Regarding power; i understand that on my existing board the power is supplied via the molex connector, which has 12v (yellow), ground (black 2x) and 5v (red). The power towards the dmd panels is supplied via the blue connector with 5v (red) and ground, but how does this work on my new boards? Is power supplied to the board via a mini usb connector and to the dmd’s via the similar blue connector on your pic (black on my board)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted January 29, 2019 Content Provider Share Posted January 29, 2019 You only need the 5V to power the panels and the shield (blue/black screw terminal) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 Thx lucky1! So lets assume below is the new board than i need to move the 5v to the blue connector together with the 5v/gnd from the panels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latenite04 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 That should work. Here's a picture of the back of one of mine. The red is +5v and black is ground going to the shield and the led panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 ok great. Thanks latenite04! I ordered some missing parts. So need to wait now before making the changes ? I let you know how it went in case you interested? In the meantime I try to figure out the steps needed on the software side.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstillman Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 dumb question. but you do know pindmd3 does color too you know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted January 30, 2019 Author Share Posted January 30, 2019 Yes, but only 4 colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 It does 24 bit colors just like pin2dmd. The difference is. Pin2dmd is better supported by developers in this forum than the pindmd3 is. There is a slight slow down in pindmd3 compared to pin2dmd at least for the moment. There might be a firmware upgrade to pindmd3 to address this problem when using Freezy' dmddevice. You will not see colors any different than for pindmd3. You have to install dmddevice.dll that supports colored roms, and install the corresponding vpm that supports these. You have to patch roms and apply altcolor files. There is only a selected few of these. Mostly Stern tables at the moment. But guys like Malenko, cb3, NetzZwerg, Slippifishi and some "Pinsiders", are slowly.increasing the numbers. Pindmd3 is a VPin only solution, commercially sold only. Pin2dmd is a DIY, but there are guys that sell them pre-made too. Pin2dmd can be used on real Pinball machines, it is a mix of hardware and opensource software. Not really a product like Pindmd3 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted January 30, 2019 Content Provider Share Posted January 30, 2019 50 minutes ago, Thalamus said: It does 24 bit colors just like pin2dmd. The difference is. Pin2dmd is better supported by developers in this forum than the pindmd3 is. There is a slight slow down in pindmd3 compared to pin2dmd at least for the moment. There might be a firmware upgrade to pindmd3 to address this problem when using Freezy' dmddevice. Pindmd3 is basically a slightly modified version of https://github.com/pixelmatix/SmartMatrix using a dll to communicate with it, which makes it also a mix of hardware and opensource software. The difference to pin2dmd is that with pin2dmd you have the choice between building it yourself or buy it ready to run from various guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Thanks for that clarification @lucky1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 On 1/30/2019 at 7:20 AM, Thalamus said: It does 24 bit colors just like pin2dmd. The difference is. Pin2dmd is better supported by developers in this forum than the pindmd3 is. There is a slight slow down in pindmd3 compared to pin2dmd at least for the moment. There might be a firmware upgrade to pindmd3 to address this problem when using Freezy' dmddevice. You will not see colors any different than for pindmd3. You have to install dmddevice.dll that supports colored roms, and install the corresponding vpm that supports these. You have to patch roms and apply altcolor files. There is only a selected few of these. Mostly Stern tables at the moment. But guys like Malenko, cb3, NetzZwerg, Slippifishi and some "Pinsiders", are slowly.increasing the numbers. Pindmd3 is a VPin only solution, commercially sold only. Pin2dmd is a DIY, but there are guys that sell them pre-made too. Pin2dmd can be used on real Pinball machines, it is a mix of hardware and opensource software. Not really a product like Pindmd3 is. I know it supports 24 bit colors, but when it comes to the roms i am not able to display more than 4 colors, or am i completely wrong? My assumption is that with pin2dmd i am able, with open source software, to color the roms myself with more than 4 colors? I finally received the pin headers i ordered and solderd the nucleo board. Is my assumption correct and Is it worthwhile to continue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 If you read my response again. I say there is no difference. So, if you go buy or make a pin2dmd you still will get 4 colors if you don't do it correctly. And, yes, you can color roms that support more than 4 colors in more than 4 colors. You could say. SS is 4 colors. DMD and later has potential for colors. For colors in you dmd you need to install dmddevice - you pick lucky1 implementation if you have the pin2dmd. You pick freezy's for anything else including visual. Then you need to create altcolor file in vpinmame folder and a sub folder with the name of the rom under that again. In this folder you pup pin2dmd.pal and pin2dmd.vni you press F1 and tick - use external dmd. If done correctly you will get more than 4 colors now. vpinmame\altcolor\fh_444\ <- non existing rom, but, example of path. In some cases youu need to download a patch for the rom from these forums. In other cases or I could maybe say - "modern implementations". You only need those two files. And yes. I believe you need a pin2dmd to be able to create these color mods yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinballuser Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 8 hours ago, rpvrpv said: I know it supports 24 bit colors, but when it comes to the roms i am not able to display more than 4 colors, or am i completely wrong? My assumption is that with pin2dmd i am able, with open source software, to color the roms myself with more than 4 colors? I finally received the pin headers i ordered and solderd the nucleo board. Is my assumption correct and Is it worthwhile to continue? you are right default or stock software for pindmd3 has no support for more then 4 colors all the colored projects you see are done with PinballBrowser (sam tables) or the PIN2DMD editor. what Thalamus is telling you that all the colored projects can be displayed in the pindmd3 but you need to use 3rd party software. As their is no "official" pindmd3 software available to display vni+pal files on your pindmd3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 Hi guys, thank you again for your advise, sorry i did not get it right away. I am a real newbie here and for me this all is not that straight forward as it might be for you. I find it all a big puzzle, but i think i begin to understand ? So with some searching i should be able to use existing coloured roms on my pindmd3, but if i want to color roms myself i need pin2dmd using pin2dmd editor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalamus Posted February 24, 2019 Share Posted February 24, 2019 Correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpvrpv Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Thalamus said: Correct. Great?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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