4471940E-28C1-4C2E-B59D-D667C16C730C (resized).jpegAnother misstep.
I started fresh with new strips and made a new frame.
I used my multimeter to check continuity across power, ground, and data at all my soldering, back to the connector, and it is sound.
Is the left side not getting data or power?

A8E8F94F-0378-4C75-96B4-6A6F4BE2DA8C (resized).jpeg

When leds end like that, it tends to mean you have a bad/damaged strip. To be honest, your soldering doesn’t look great. That’s a pretty big blob in the middle on the yellow wire. The fact that the lights stop where you soldered is a sign you didn’t do something correctly or damaged the strip, maybe with too much heat. Check your work again. It’s useful to have a separate 12v source at your bench so you can properly test and make diagnosing faster.

They aren't 12v light strips.

While working with these light strips....I've really not messed around with them much to see how they act when improperly connected in different ways. I'm expecting if any of the 3 wires are not getting a connection...the strip does nothing. Though.....I believe if the data line IS getting a signal to start with BUT THEN loses its connection....the lights will stay lit just as they were when the signal was lost. Basically "locking up" the light pattern.

Another weird thing about these strips is you can test the continuity though the whole strip on either of the power lines....but not on the data line. It's as if there is a break in the line at each bulb. To me...this can make diagnosing it a bit tricky.

If that strip on the left in your picture isn't lighting at all....I would think any of the 3 wires could be the culprit.

I hadn't noticed that one bulb on the left side working. As for your edit comment....I'm not sure what you are describing, but might it be this solder connection? It looks like the solder might have run into one of the legs of that SMD.

strip closeup (resized).jpg

I think you get my point of having a power supply at the bench to test.

fun with led strips!
if someone has some level of programming skills( which is not me) , by tweaking the code you could do this effect with one led strip and not need the splice, make say led 1-45 the " left" and led 45-90 the " right" side and run the same routine on each side essentially simultaneously , maybe put a little delay on one side to make the flame less symmetrical. the options for programming the addressable led strips are endless.

regarding bench testing i am sure we all have a gazillion chargers of different voltages we have collected over the years . i cut the rca type plug off of a 5 v and a 12 v one and soldered in comet connectors , i use them all the time for checking led strips and bulbs

...be a bridge between the jumper and the data out leg of the LED on that connection (green arrow points to the DOUT pin of the LED)...
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Wow, Eagle Eyes!
You're right!
Another blunder bridge thanks to my clumsy soldering!
Don't have de-solder equipment, so it's on to attempt #4!

66D01874-EA77-4CE0-B428-D6C92CD7EDCE (resized).jpeg

Finish line reached!
Thanks, all of you, for your patience and assistance!
We did it!
I adjusted the code parameters as follows:
Number or LED's - 35
Brightness - 125
FPS - 50

Really cool !

Well done Jason !

LTG : )

Looks great!

success!! satisfying to start a project with a learning curve and have it come out looking great

I also treated my prem to the flaming mod.

To avoid the hacky soldering, I changed the arduino code slightly so that the LED strip is addressed from the end.

This way it's possible to run a single strip per side in a U shape, and all the cabling from the speaker light kit can be reused.

Hope it's useful to someone

https://pastebin.com/raw/DrNMKZeX

That's great! You avoided the challenging soldering! Doug was right! It can be done with smarter code!
Any chance you can share a clip of your machine running this code, or is there no perceptible difference?

He actually went back and changed the code so the left and right side of each light frame was running different code. It looked more natural. I believe he also mentioned adding the code so he could even run a 2nd data line. I'm expecting to jump directly from the controller to ONE of the light strips so it would be running 2 different flame patterns on the other frame. So 4 different flame patterns would be running at all times (left frame left, left frame right, right frame left and right frame right).

There is a video attached to this post: https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/trying-to-understand-speaker-light-kits.49555/post-406261

The code I posted outputs one effect to pin D5, and a separate one to pin D4. The video above wires both speakers to pin D5, so the effect is symmetrical.

By wiring the data line of one of the speakers to D4 instead, the effects would be independent (so 4 loops total: one for each half of each speaker). But I couldn't be bothered and I think it looks nice like this too.

Here's a photo of the installation and wiring:

IMG_20210603_105240 (resized).jpg

Flames now change colour for each monster

https://vimeo.com/565235614

Shut the front door!!! Ok to bad it looks like the base kit I need to start this build is out of stock...

The type 12 kits are back in stock! ordered that and all the rest of the parts tonight. Can't wait!

Flames now change colour for each monster
https://vimeo.com/565235614</blockquo

What did you have to do to get it to change with the modes???? Great work BTW that is amazing!!!!

Thanks, I've been playing with the palettes since - pretty happy with the result now. Maybe I'll do an updated video.

In the video description there is a github link which explains how it's done. It requires manually modifying the SD card contents and installing a serial link to the MPU. Proceed at your own risk!

Is anyone making and selling these yet?

I'm working on a plug'n'play solution but it's not quite ready yet.

I have a Flamin' Frames SPIKE 2 Speaker Light Kit that is available to order now and shipping out to buyers as ready. What I have available is an easy to install flaming SPIKE 2 light kit with the 4 separate flaming patterns as described in this thread. It is not game specific or interactive with the game. It is described in great detail on my website and all install instructions are there so you can see what you are getting into before ordering.

http://www.speakerlightkits.com/Type-14.html

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

This looks incredible!! I would love to add this to my BKSOR one day. Looks great!

Curious how your plug and play system is coming along? Great stuff here in this thread and got inspired to design an open source schematic (or kit). Dont know if this moved elsewhere outside of a complete solution, but if anyone needs one, I'll be seeing about offering kits. Capacitor to clean up power noise and resistors for the data lines. All you'll need is the LED strips, mounting hardware for the speaker panel and power brick.

This is what the complete kit might look like. Has 4 channels to use, but will only need 2 for Fubar's code. Either header plug or screw terminals for the strips. Want to make it as budget friendly as possible. Loose parts kit ~$8 (12 pieces to solder), or assembled for ~$15. This would be w/o the Nano, but with the pin headers it'll plug in easily. The loose parts price is just the cost for the materials, and soldering charge to cover some of the time.

I'll have a prototype next week at least for my games, and if others want one of these, I'll place an order for the parts.

Screenshot 2023-04-26 at 3.09.23 PM (resized).png

Yeah I kind of got distracted by other projects then sold the machine and then Stern broke the feature in subsequent code updates (anything with IC) which was a bit of a pain. Might still be possible to be mode-aware but just much more involved...

That looks like a neat little board, thanks for sharing! You might consider adding a provision to power from the 12V header on the game's PDB which would make things quite neat (but would require a voltage regulator instead of the power brick).

Yeah, good point on the 12v. If its included on board, should be a good savings chunk from having to buy a 10a brick and should only cost a buck or two to add the extra pieces to step down to 5v. Least for now wanted to build something that people feel comfortable doing that requires the least amount of splicing,tapping into other stuff, etc. Should have a full flaming setup for IMDN and GZ for about 50 bucks all in. Only thing thats pricey are the strips, unless ordering from Ali or something. Which I dont have the patience in waiting for that order.

Also guess what I need to verify, since I'm still kinda green on what the game's parts provide, is a good 10A source without putting a huge load on the system.

The 12V supply on the power distribution board is rated for 3A. It's fine to run speaker lights as they should be way less than 36W.

How did the prototype turn out? Obviously the board only executes the code, so the specific code and the board become a set. But the different code could be created for other mod needs. Having the board to experiment new code with would be a start.