If you go the leg bolt route you'll need to use a very big washer. The bolt head is nowhere near large enough to do any good.

Hrm... I had way more room in my TZ backbox. I use the wingnuts and its not close.. even with space on the other side. TZ is a widebody, but the heads are the same size. (this is the updated mini LCD version tho..)

FullSizeRender (resized).jpg

Has anyone installed a LED OCD on an Ironman? Which setting do you recommend in the stern settings where you can choose incandescent or LED?

Does it make any difference?

Use the incandescent setting. You'll get more lighting effects, and the LED OCD will smooth them out.

I know Spike is a whole different animal than earlier platforms, but how cool it would be to have individual control over LEDs in a game like Ghostbusters where you practically need a welding mask to avoid being blinded by the lighting.

Question about the fuse on the WPC LED OCD board. Not sure why, but the fuse blew on mine, and I just want to make sure I get the correct replacement.
When I look on the LED OCD site it says it uses "250V 4A"... but when I look at the fuse I just took out, it says "1.5A 250v". Can anyone confirm?

I also sent an email to answer this, but 4A is for the older version of the board. Yours is a LED OCD Mini and uses a 1.6A (or 1.5A like you found installed).

If I buy the Lord of the rings Color dmd, do I have to have an eprom burner to make the rom work? Or can I buy on already programmed?

I think you posted this in the wrong thread.
Try again!

I got a LED OCD for my IMVE so I can enjoy the "incandescent" light show. I initially used the board with the default settings with good results, but soon wanted to experiment with the settings. I ran into something puzzling.
I focused on the blinking MONGE(R) light when the Iron Monger is up and one hit away from multiball. I was using the advanced technique described at http://ledocd.com/usage_led.html where you try a lamp with a ramp that is all zeroes except for a single 100. With this test, the lamp was only blinking with the ramp profile "0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100", but not, for example, with "0 0 0 0 0 0 100 0".
I experimented some more and discovered that the ramp "0 0 0 0 0 0 100 100" resulted in the lamp staying dark, and the ramp "0 0 100 0 0 0 100 0" resulted in the lamp blinking. I find both of these results surprising. What's going on?

OK, I'm making a few assumptions, but here's what I think you're seeing.

The advanced instructions were written a few years ago, and since then a special case was written into the firmware to allow incandescent bulbs to be used while bypassing all of the ramping features. Say you had an bulb above the playfield that you wanted to leave incandescent; that's the reason I added the feature. It is accessed for a single profile when B7 and dim delay are both 0.

One assumption is that you may have delay set to 0. This will make this test not work as expected.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 D:0 - This would be in incandescent mode and bypass all fading. This is not useful for determining which brightness values are used.
0 0 0 0 0 0 100 0 D - Here, B7 is not zero, so fading is used, and since it's not blinking, it says the game is not driving out any B7.
0 0 0 0 0 0 100 100 D - B7 is not zero. Fading is used. It's not blinking, so neither B7 or B8 are being used.
0 0 100 0 0 0 100 0 D - B7 is not zero. Fading is used. It is blinking, so either B3 or B7 are used. The previous test said B7 is not used, so it must be B3.

Thanks for the explanation. I happened to have delay set to 0 while I was experimenting. I finally got around to doing some more testing with delay set to 2, and now everything just works and makes perfect sense.

I just installed the OCD in my Jack Bot and oh man what a difference. I'm leaving it in the default settings, it's perfect.

and I just installed the GI OCD in Jack Bot.....WOW!!!! Perfect, to my eyes anyway on default setting.

Yes, there are csv files in the "data" directory. You should be able to easily create your own, or I could create one assuming the manual lists the insert names, which most do.

I'm about to install an LED OCD in my TZ, but I've noticed that my Start Button and Extra Ball button look like they're using incandescent bulbs. Everything else in the game with the exception of the clock and a flasher underneath the mini-playfield are LEDs.

Am I likely to blow a fuse with these 2 bulbs in situ, or would I be better off replacing those two bulbs first? They look like a huge pain to remove so I'm hesitant.

you won't blow a fuse with just two incandescents, but it's really not hard to replace those either. check the coin door, too.

Thanks for heads up, didn't even think about those. They are almost certainly going to be incandescent too given that the previous owner didn't bother to replace the button lamps.

I would recommend replacing the button lamps. The clock won't matter for LED OCD since it's GI. The flasher won't matter either. The ones on the coin door are GI as well, so you don't have to replace them if you don't want to.

Thanks for the fast reply herg

I have a GI OCD board too that I was planning on installing at the same time. I'm guessing I'm going to run into problems then if the clock is standard (4 non-LED bulbs?) and the coin door bulbs (no idea where these are or how to access them) ?

If those are the only incandescents you have, the GI OCD would be OK, but the incandescent bulbs would be really dim. The coin door bulbs are easily accessible inside the coin door. There is one screw that holds the socket in place.

Thanks again. I need to do the clock really, I've been putting it off because it looks like quite a chore to remove, but I have all the parts ready to go (Ingo board etc) so I've got no excuse. I'll do that and the coin door & buttons first before installing your boards I think. Thanks.

I've found that leds won't fit in those. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I always shave down the outer ring of the bulb with a dremel to get it through the hole. Works great and I love seeing the buttons light up brighter (plus they don’t get hot!)

I'll try that. Did you leave the bulb cover on?

Yep, for sure; you can get them shaved down just enough that the cover will hold but still fit

I'm thinking that I just went through my stash and found LEDs skinny enough to fit.

Installed Led OCD on my Avatar LE and wow what a great product. Ghosting is gone and light animations are so much softer.
I use Sterns default Led (bought at Cointaker)

I do have one thing with fast strobing lights (at a high rate). Like the red arrows in Navi hurry up mode.
It is done this way by default by the game's software.

Now it looks like the leds are always on now when the game does that with only slight dimming.

It is a little bit better by setting the delay to 1 instead of 3 but how should I handle this best so they shut off and light up little faster? I do want the brightness to remain at max (I like it bright)

Congrats, I've had it on my LE for a couple years and love it. Sorry but I don't know how to fix your problem, mines on stock setting.

You can use an approach similar to what I did on SM and IM. See the Advanced section of this page:
http://ledocd.com/usage_led.html

Basically, you will be changing the shape of the curve so that it is steeper in the middle where the fast blinking occurs.

Edit: Crap! It has been so long since I wrote that, I had forgotten what it says, and it's not really applicable to your issue. Yours is more like the IM issue I had. You can look at the IM configuration file in the software archive to get an idea of what I did. I don't have much time to describe now, but if you need more help, let me know.

Ok I found this (see picture). Profile 7 is used on all of them

Can I look at this like the curve stays lower (steps B1-B4) for a longer time and then suddenly increases quite fast to stay on the higher side (B6-B8)?
Resulting in a more blinky pattern?

How should I look at the delay 0 = no delay so B8 is the one that is immediately reached? But still respecting the minimum of B1?
How should I look at the delay 1 vs 3? Is this in milliseconds 1 = 10, 2=20, ..?

Thank you Herg!

ironman (resized).png

Yes.

Kinda. Say the game is changing so fast that the OCD only has time to fade from B3 to B6, and it oscillates between those. If you make that section of the curve steeper, you will see more blinking when the game is in that pattern. When the game is blinking slower, it will go all the way from B0 to B8 in the same amount of time, so you won't notice a lot of difference there.

Delay 0 means to make a brightness adjustment on every one of the game's refresh cycles, which happens at 125 Hz.

The true minimum is always B0, which is set to a 0% duty cycle (always off).

I don't even get that precise myself when setting up games. It's more a feeling than science when you get to that point. If it's going from full off to full on too quickly, increase delay or vice versa.

Thank you very much! I understand it more now. Will post back with my test results

Got the result I wanted. Thank you Herg!

First video with the NAVI hurry up strobing

Second video in attract mode to show effects still are good. My goal was to get the look the new Stern games look with leds.

Your game looks perfect now.

Just did my whole Lethal Weapon 3 over in LED. I love the look... but it’s killing my face. Might have to join the club. Seems like an expensive upgrade to cheap ass game... but whatevs.

The first purchase is kind of a leap of faith... after you install, you will never go back

^ This!

Cost seems like an issue for cheap games at first, but if you ever decide to sell the game, you can just take the board back out and pop it in the next one.

#1 it allows you to enjoy the game without being blinded, and #2 the light shows look so much better. Plus it dials down the LEDs by a tiny bit so you’re much less likely to ever have to replace them again!

Shout out to Herg’s incredible customer service - I had a board that wasn’t cooperating, shipped it to him, and he fixed it in what seemed like minutes. I am close to him, so shipping was fast but still! I think I had it back in the game within 2 days.

Got my board yesterday. Might try to get it in my Lethal Weapon today. Hoping it looks good stock so I don’t have to find a computer in my closet haha. How cool would it be if there was an App to configure the lights and you could Bluetooth to it

It looks good stock, dont worry

Yeah, I tweaked the settings on the first few games I put it in years ago, but quickly gave up on that on subsequent purchases. It's great that the option is there, but I have found that leaving it stock does the trick very well.

Any gotchas I should be aware of in installing both the GI and LED OCD boards in the recommended locations (GI OCD vertically on backbox left side, LED OCD horizontally on backbox right bottom) alongside uprated speakers? I bought the 3D printed standoffs for them.

I've got a pair of Flipper Fidelity speakers in my TAF with the terminals at the bottom (looking face on at the panel). From the looks of it these terminals are touching the floor if not very close to the bottom of the backbox.

Was hoping someone might have already found out whether this conflicts with the LED OCD board and how they solved it...

I put both into a STTNG with Flipper Fidelity gear already installed. STTNG is crowded, stock. I had to move the volume knob to the roof of the cab, to make room for the OCD boards. I don't have the game any more, no photos. Wasn't a big deal.

I haven't installed the volume control yet, but I'll most likely be putting it at the front of the cab with the extension kit that you can buy.

I don't know how Stern cabs compare to B/W in terms of speaker spacing though.

Thanks for the feedback

Nope, you will still have clearance - install away!

LED 1st, check, then GI 2nd.

Just make sure you can get the USB cable in easily.

And also there should only be a few, if any, incandescants left in inserts or GI.

Then configure.