San Clemente, CA
New From ColorDMD!
See it at the Elevation Games booth at Texas Pinball Festival!
Information at the ColorDMD Seminar: Friday, March 28, 6:00pm!
(Topic ID: 85278)
Interesting intermediate step.... hope it works with current revisions...couldn't see laying out new money for this, but it might convince me that I want/need one for Jackbot or Metallica before they get color-ized. Not that I expect Jackbot EVER will unless someone hands me a coloring tool.
Quoted from fattrain:Drooling at the idea of changing display on TRON LE to match ramp colors....
homer-drooling.png 36 KB
Doesnt look like it does. Not sure of the logistics of it, but having both sync up would be awesome
Quoted from iwantansi:Doesnt look like it does. Not sure of the logistics of it, but having both sync up would be awesome
I don't know about the LE, but my understanding from Randy is that it could be slaved to Eli's kit. I guess you'd have to pick which ramp was the 'master' control since they can be different colors. Be pretty sweet to have the DMD colors indicate which mode you were in. 
Quoted from Frax:but it might convince me that I want/need one for Jackbot or Metallica before they get color-ized. Not that I expect Jackbot EVER will unless someone hands me a coloring tool.
Jackbot totally needs to be colorized.
Quoted from Max_Badazz:Jackbot totally needs to be colorized.
Hey, I'm with you on this one, and it's one of the very few projects I'd have any interest on trying myself. I've done pixel editing before...honestly, if someone could just hand me a dump of all of the animation frames, I'd do the work in paint and then the CDMD guys could translate it to their tool or whatever if they like it. =p
Quoted from Frax:Interesting intermediate step.... hope it works with current revisions...couldn't see laying out new money for this
Agree completely. Looks neat, but I would hope it works with the existing displays. I'm up to 9 ColorDMDs, and with each order I get nervous about how long the current hardware will be the standard. In the end I keep telling myself that even if these are low-end LCD displays, they are almost infinitely higher tech than the DMD graphics they are rendering, so what would be the point of better displays?
Here's hoping the platform stays the same and just keeps supporting new functionality.
Quoted from Aurich:I don't know about the LE, but my understanding from Randy is that it could be slaved to Eli's kit. I guess you'd have to pick which ramp was the 'master' control since they can be different colors. Be pretty sweet to have the DMD colors indicate which mode you were in.
Great minds think alike. This was the first application I thought of as well.
Quoted from Cheeks:Agree completely. Looks neat, but I would hope it works with the existing displays.
It's just an upgrade to Sigma software, like the recent higher contrast gamma mode, you'll be fine.
Quoted from Aurich:I don't know about the LE, but my understanding from Randy is that it could be slaved to Eli's kit. I guess you'd have to pick which ramp was the 'master' control since they can be different colors. Be pretty sweet to have the DMD colors indicate which mode you were in.
I thought the same thing. Games like Star Trek and AC/DC would be cool to have the DMD match the mode color.
Quoted from wolfe39:I thought the same thing. Games like Star Trek and AC/DC would be cool to have the DMD match the mode color.
Hmm. I love that idea for Star Trek, since the game's modes are already color coded. You'd probably need some kind of board to track the modes that the ColorDMD could slave to though, I can't think of a reliable way to be able to tell from the game itself.
My only Goal this year was not to spend any money on Mod's looks like I just lost. Well Played Color DMD. Looks like the game I am brining back to life for my customer just ran into a power modulator frequency issue and the cost just went up a tad.
Quoted from Pinstym:Just let me know when you colorize Metallica. The idea of fading from one single color to another isn't all that interesting.
Agreed. My Clarion car stereo deck has the slow color fading feature as well as single color selection and I always have it set to a single color.
I think the feature would be cool for Tron if it is tied to the ramps, or for a colorful game such as CV or WOZ, but CV and WOZ don't have this type of display. Are there any other games that have not been colorized by ColorDMD that have a wide variety of playfield colors and a high enough value to justify $400 for the display?
Maybe if particular colors that the display uses could be selected by the user to match the game it would peak my interest for a game like SM, such as if I could set the display to fade between blue and red.
Quoted from Aurich:Hmm. I love that idea for Star Trek, since the game's modes are already color coded. You'd probably need some kind of board to track the modes that the ColorDMD could slave to though, I can't think of a reliable way to be able to tell from the game itself.
I was all like... meh. I'll never use this feature.
Then you said this. Klingon Multiball red.
I'm still holding out hope that ColorDMD will actually colorize Stern Star Trek.
I can't believe some people are poo-pooing this! It's just another feature folks, part of a software upgrade. Not costing you anymore money. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. Let's continue to give thanks that ColorDMD is in this market and doing great things for our pins.
Part_3... agree completely; wasn't my intent to poop on it. I just personally have issue with blinking RGB inserts in general. Just a personal preference.
I think options are definitely good when it comes to this.
Gov - 
not on my machine. ColorDMD for the win. 
Quoted from Part_3:I can't believe some people are poo-pooing this! It's just another feature folks, part of a software upgrade. Not costing you anymore money. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. Let's continue to give thanks that ColorDMD is in this market and doing great things for our pins.
No poo poo! I've got a color dmd in my Addams and can start working on colorizing Safe Cracker and NBA FB if they want. Just not excited and thought it was ok to say so.
Remember this doesn't have to constantly cycle. It's slaved to the speaker colors. So in theory there are lots of other things it could slave to. Have to see what the interface is. But it could change on command and stay that color until another action changed it.
Quoted from Whysnow:What does it mean by "all under your control"
I would like details.
Sure they'll come to light on Friday.
Quoted from Pinstym:can start working on colorizing Safe Cracker
"For realz?"
I just asked Randy whether he knew if ColorDMD would fit in a Safecracker and he didn't know if it would. I probably wouldn't put a Sigma single color in Safecracker because the orange color actually looks decent next to the rope light. But damn, a fully colorized one would look great! There are a ton of cool animations in SC that would look awesome in full color.
Is there a real chance you might be working on this?
In the video demonstration, the ColorDMD is synchronized to a Pinball Toppers speaker light kit. As others have stated, this is only one method to integrate this new feature in your games. We're excited about the possibilities!
A color-changing Spider-Man will be set up in the Elevation Games booth at TPF.
We'll show how this was accomplished, and provide some additional information at the seminar.
Quoted from Dmod:In the video demonstration, the ColorDMD is synchronized to a Pinball Toppers speaker light kit. As others have stated, this is only one method to integrate this new feature in your games. We're excited about the possibilities!
A color-changing Spider-Man will be set up in the Elevation Games booth at TPF.
We'll show how this was accomplished, and provide some additional information at the seminar.
And now I am officially bummed that I had to work and couldn't be there this weekend.....was so in until 3 weeks ago....this whole " making a living" thing really pisses me off sometimes....please post many cool vids.....mark
Quoted from Cheeks:"For realz?"
I just asked Randy whether he knew if ColorDMD would fit in a Safecracker and he didn't know if it would. I probably wouldn't put a Sigma single color in Safecracker because the orange color actually looks decent next to the rope light. But damn, a fully colorized one would look great! There are a ton of cool animations in SC that would look awesome in full color.
Is there a real chance you might be working on this?
I am NOT working on this. If they seriously accept help and let outside people colorize games, I would spend the time.
I also asked some time ago if the Sigma would fit in SC. I got the same answer.
Quoted from PinJump:If as stated above, this can be slaved to Eli's ramp mod for Tron Pro, I am in.
I woke up at 4am thinking about this. 
Once we find out what the interface is, it might end up being really easy. The question would be "What happens when the ramps go dark?"
Quoted from PinJump:If as stated above, this can be slaved to Eli's ramp mod for Tron Pro, I am in.
I don't want to speak for Randy, but when he showed me this that was one of the first questions I asked him and he said yes. I'm picking up a Tron this weekend with an (uninstalled) Eli kit, so I'm pretty curious myself about how it would actually work.
Quoted from herg:The question would be "What happens when the ramps go dark?"
Personally I'd think white would be pretty cool, only go color as the ramp modes dictate. I haven't actually seen Eli's kit in action personally yet to really ponder it though.
Quoted from Aurich:Personally I'd think white would be pretty cool, only go color as the ramp modes dictate.
Zuse is white on the ramps, though.
I have a Tron with a ColorDMD and Eli's kit already installed, so... 
Quoted from herg:Zuse is white on the ramps, though.
I have a Tron with a ColorDMD and Eli's kit already installed, so...
Ah, well there you go, my ignorance shines. Looking forward to schooling myself shortly! 
I presume Randy is going to talk about the API or hardware interface tomorrow, so I'd just wait and see what comes out of his session.
Thanks to everyone who came to Friday's seminar and stopped by the Elevation Games booth! The new color changing feature was set up in Marc's Spider-Man and synced to a Pinball Toppers speaker kit. Marc also had undercabinet lighting on that game so it was quite a light show!
The ColorDMD was driven from a splitter that split the +GRB signal that normally runs from the RGB controller to the speaker lights. The splitter just plugs into the LAMP_IN connector on the ColorDMD. Add in an upgrade to the SIGMA ROM, and that's all there was to it. The controller supports a wireless remote that allows custom selection of display color and effect, even with the backbox closed.
The new ColorDMD RGB interface contains some novel features that support pulse-width modulated (PWM) inputs for custom colors and color fading. The ColorDMD also performs gamma correction and automatic level control to keep the colors correct and avoid dimming of the display when the LEDs are fading.
We're sampling the code now to game and mod developers, and are aimed at integrating the display with interactive lighting kits. The feature will be freely available for general use in the SIGMA 2.5 release which is targeted for mid April.
We're preparing a FAQ that will provide some photos and additional information for using this new feature. If you are a mod developer interested in early access to the new code, please contact us at [email protected].
http://www.colordmd.com/colorchanging.html is currently returning an error 404 - Page not Found
Quoted from fattrain:http://www.colordmd.com/colorchanging.html is currently returning an error 404 - Page not Found
Sorry!... link fixed above.
Nice work Randy!! That is sweet. Now I gotta to do a prototype harness from one of our backbox kits to try out the integration and see how it looks.
ok. so; now someone needs to reverse engineer Stern's new RGB LED protocol so we can build a "bridge" between the two protocols.
Quoted from Zitt:ok. so; now someone needs to reverse engineer Stern's new RGB LED protocol so we can build a "bridge" between the two protocols.
Now you're just getting crazy.......crazy like a fox!
Quoted from Zitt:ok. so; now someone needs to reverse engineer Stern's new RGB LED protocol so we can build a "bridge" between the two protocols.
If anyone wants to investigate this, we can support any needed changes to our input interface.
Integrated into Nebula mod for Star Trek here
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/star-trek-nebula-mod#post-1568259
I have tested the early code and I am planning on offering an interface cable for people who have a ColorDMD and a Pinball Toppers speaker light kit (STERN machines). This will allow remote controlled RGB color changing integration between the two as shown in the video above.
I will also be offering a stand alone ColorDMD RGB remote control kit for people that have ColorDMD Sigma and would like to take advantage of these color changing features (WPC, WPC95 & STERN machines). This will come with a RGB controller, 44 key IR remote, power cable and everything needed so ColorDMD color changing and various color changing effects can be switched via remote, without removing the translite. This would offer the same features and effects as shown in the above video, minus the speaker light kit.
It's great this is starting to take off so quickly! Here's what I've cobbled together:
The latest code toggles blue/yellow when cycles are active, but that's not in this video.
I did this using parts I had laying around, and it's a bit of a Frankenstein. I have a cleaner design in my head, but I don't really have the time to support another project. If anyone is interested in taking this and turning it into a kit, I'm willing to work with someone to hand over what I've done so far.
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