I bought one as you described. It's very nice, but I'm like you, I was surprised to see the grid lines so predominate.

I don't know of any other company at this time.

I'm not surprised you saw grid lines on Tron.

And mine were on Avatar.

HAHA!!

There is one other company, if you don't mind spending $600. Personally, I'd wait for X-Pin's next iteration of the LED DMD.

There was one at Pinball Decals, but I think it was like $600!

Im thrilled with the blue version I bought at pinball life. He only had a couple and was nice enough to sell me one. If you guys email Terry maybe he will start stocking them. To me, it look just like the Stern AC DC red but blue. I am thrilled with it.

I would like to get one for my WH20

I want one for my new Avengers LE

The other company is pinled and they look identical. The grid comes because the only affordable LEDs for this application come in an 8x8 matrix. You could get a color Dmd and set it to one color blue mode.

I have several of the blue led displays, 4 xpin and one pinled. And everyone that sees them rave about how great they look. I have them on white water, avatar, tron, sttng, Tz, and I have a spare that I plan to put on my blue powder coated batman dark knight.

I would love to get a blue dmd for my Lost in Space, does any one know why blue costs more then the other colors?

Does anyone know what replacement DMD will connect to this, since it only has two pins (5V, I assume) for power?

Markmon am I missing something here at $325.00 versus $400.00 would it make more sense to contact color DMD and see if they may give you a bulk discount instead as you could put the color DMD in any game and select different colors.

I may buy one because I want yellow in my TSPP

The Blue LED 8x8 Blocks are more expensive than the other colors.....

Stu

Which one does he carry? Is it the X-Pin?

I'm very happy with my blue X-Pin display. Sure, you can see the grid lines, and the blocks aren't all aligned perfectly, but it's still a great display. I certainly wouldn't pay $300 more just to get rid of the grid lines, even if it was an option. I think some people are a little too anal about this stuff.

Since TSPP is orange can you just put a yellow filter on there since that is still made from the same two primary constituents?

The blue one in my Tron has isn't that bad on gridlelines after adding the blue filter from Pinbits

^^^ No, as far as I know, they are only compatible with Bally/Williams WPC games.

Never get sick of this pic, since it might be the only time I beat Portal

Anyway, Xpin blue dmd w/ Pinbits blue filter. It looks great, but my biggest gripe is the picture is not quite as crisp from a distance. Kinda like the light disperses with the filter and the detail is somewhat blurry from a distance. Other than that, it's beautiful

tron.JPG

It will be blurry. The human eye cannot focus properly on the blue light wavelength. I too have the xpin, polarised filter and blue plexiglass. It does reduce the blockiness and looks lovely in Tron.

You beat Portal?!!!

Or did you mean to say that you reached Portal?

Marcus

Isn’t Marco Specialties working on selling its own DMDs? I'd be nice if they go into different colored ones.

Hey you learn something new every day!

On a side note isn’t it funny that we call the HD technology for home video Blu(blue)Ray?

XPin here...

I thought I might want to weigh in here on this thread and answer a few questions...

1st-The color blue is significantly more expensive in any LED. In the case of the LED blocks I use, they are 3x the cost of the Orange or Green blocks that I use. The reason is the chemistry of the material to create a blue color. Another important point about Blue LED's is that because of the chemistry, they are more susceptable to ESD damage, which also increases the risk of manufacturing and handling.

2nd-LED technology is different than the original HV Plasma that we grew up with. The initial post addressed color variance between some blocks. It is important to note that in most LED data sheets, the color is referenced as peak wavelength. For instance my vendor for my blocks specifies that the color blue is 465 nm (nanometers) whereas another vendor calls it out as 450 nm. The industry typically allows a tolerance of +/- 3 to 5 nm. My vendor does have a binning process that is automated, but as was noted, even in the same bin, with this type of tolerance, we do see some variance.

3rd-Grid pattern...got to love the challenges there. I actually posted on a separate thread the challenges with removing the grid with the off the shelf components. Everyone faces this. After receiving a lot of feedback, good and bad, I made the decision to go custom and invest more in tooling to minimize the grid look. I am very pleased with the results in the proto runs. Those who have seen these protos say they are significantly improved. When I actually have production units, I will make an annoucement and post some comparison pictures.

4th-Brightness is a function of current in an LED. The more current, the brighter the LED until it reaches a saturation point, at that point shoving anymore current or increasing the forward voltage does nothing but damage the LED. If you go out to any LED datasheets, there are two parameters If and Vf which Forward Current and Forward Voltage. Something to keep in mind is that depending on the color the Vf will typically vary between between 1.8V and 2.2V, and the If, to acheive maximum brightness, is typically ~20mA. LEDs in the blue spectrum are different with a Vf typically between 3-4V and peak If at 25mA. Why do I bring this up? If you look at the DMD, it operates as a scanning device. Only 1 given ROW of leds is on at any given point in time. If you do the math, that means for a typical color (not blue) it is possible to have a peak draw, even though it is only for a moment, of 2.56A when all 128 LEDs are on in a row. It is even more with a blue, at 3.2A. Now this isn't always the case, but it is worth noting that if an LED display is designed with these maximum brightness use cases, your 5V supplies will see these momentary peak currents. Companies sacrifice the brightness by reducing the current in the devices. It is for this reason that I choose to use the 65V and reduce it to 5v because the 5v supplies in all pinball machines do not have the power overhead to reliably support and bright LED display.

XPin

Yep, that's exactly why the blue ones look so blurry. The red X-Pin displays look nice and crisp in comparison.

Sweet. I'll take a green at 1/3 the cost of a blue, please.

Will those of us who bought the old griddy ones be able to exchange them for the better ones?

FANTASTIC Question! +100 to that (says this pre-order blue display owner right here <-----)

Did the early buyers of AC/DC get to trade theirs into Stern for one with a clear window

Sorry, couldn't resist

Sell the Blue DMD now while they are unobtainable and you will likely break even. Then by the new ones

Not saying I expect it...but it would an extremely nice gesture which would probably lead me to buying more for other games.

I have blue w/polarized filter and it looks great on WCS94

Bob C

The cost of the blocks does not equal the cost of the entire assembled Dmd.

I think you will or will not buy more for other games regardless of what happens here based on your need for them in other games. I doubt there's much profit here and it seems kind of rude to ask for such a thing. He is supposed to what? Replace everyone's year old dmds just because technique improved. Do you own a tv? Every year the manufacturer makes a newer / better model. Are you asking publicly if they exchange your old model each year? Sorry but this one rubbed me wrong. Attitudes like this could keep vendors from trying to improve their products to avoid these kinds of headaches.

Interesting, 5 days later Xpin hasn't responded to a warranty question. If the answer is no, just say so, at least address the question.

I did not read it as a warranty question, but rather somebody asking for him to buy back something he sold because he responded he is developing something new. If people were unhappy with the product, and it is not working as advertised, then that would be a warranty issue.

I agree. There will always be new and improved stuff.

Did you completely miss the part where I said "I don't expect it"...chew me out if I was acting like an entitled whiner, but I clearly wasn't....just voicing a thought that I'm sure many people had. Just conversation...no biggie.

YOU rub me wrong, you f'ing schoolmarm. Please tell us again how unfinished code is finished!!! We're all wrong! MAKE SURE WE KNOW IT!!!!!

This definitely seems on topic lol. I guess when you get thrashed on topic you have to go off topic in order to save some face. Bummer. Would be better if we could just stick to the facts but when you have none on your side I could see how that's tough for you lol.

schoolmarm? Things just got serious in here. ibtl

Will Xpin displays work with the newer games that only have 5V available? I ask, because Stern is now producing games with LED displays, and these do not have the 65V power supply.

So for $400 why not get a color DMD and run it in one color mode? What all would that entail? How hard is that to do? Only works on Williams tables?

Short answer not yet - long answer they will have to the replacement costs are like $600 and are failing faster then they should.

Yes. Contact your distributor for the 5V version. Blue will need an addition kit because they draw significantly more current than the other colors and the stock 5V supply won't handle it.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
314-766-4587

It would be nice if they had a jumper select-able version, in case you needed to move it between, a 65 volt game, to a 5v game, and back, etc.