Saint Paul, MN
Quoted from kapsreiter:next week you will find a video chroma in GB Prem
No Pro?
(Topic ID: 161012)
Quoted from dmbjunky:Are you speaking from experience?
It's definitely easier than a lot of the newer Stern games that use dots. TWD, ST
Really depends on the title. Heck, some of the older B/W titles are even harder with all the crazy transitions they used, it was like video toaster for DMDs back then!
1 month later
Quoted from nerbflong:For Spike, I used an external power supply that has 5 and 12 volts. Like this: amazon.com link »
In the backbox below the game's (noisy) power supply there's a metal plate. Behind this plate is a connector that has 110volts that powers on/off with the game. This is separate from the service outlet which is on all the time the game is plugged in.2 nuts hold the plate on and beneath it is the connector.
Unplug the game, cut 110 end off your power supply and install connector. Plug in and put plate on. Easy to do and no additional drain on the games power supply.
For the colorDMD end, see the top post for the pinouts of the PCB.
This is neat, but I have a question. The first post in this thread specifies that an external power supply can be used PROVIDED IT SHARES A COMMON GROUND WITH THE GAME. It looks like you're connecting an uncommon ground from an external power source to ground on the ColorDMD controller. Is it OK and safe to do that?
Quoted from Paul_from_Gilroy:This is neat, but I have a question. The first post in this thread specifies that an external power supply can be used PROVIDED IT SHARES A COMMON GROUND WITH THE GAME. It looks like you're connecting an uncommon ground from an external power source to ground on the ColorDMD controller. Is it OK and safe to do that?
With the new Chroma boards on ColorDMD, all you need is +12 volts so that simplifies things. There are other options available for supplying power and those are recommended. This separate power supply has been working for me with no issues however. I choose this option as I already had the supply and means to connect it. 
Oromocto, NB
Not sure if this is the correct thread to report this problem....but hope someone can help out.
I purchased the board from Pinball Life to provide power to the ColorDMD on my GoT Premium. I've sold the GoT to a buddy and forgot to take the board out of it. He's just attempted to remove the board and now he's getting a node error. Any suggestions?? Here is a pic of the board I'm talking about and the error he's getting.
Not really an issue with the ColorDMD and I don't have direct experience with the Pinball Life board but I'll try to help...
I couldn't find installation instructions for the board online, but it looks like when it was installed the 48V cable for the node boards was probably unplugged from the cpu board and reconnected to the pass-through on the pinball life board.
Check to make sure that when the board was removed, the 48V cable was correctly reconnected to the CPU board.
You should also be able to go directly to the node board reporting the error and check to make sure that it is receiving power (48V and/or 9V) and that the local fuses on the node board are not blown.
Quoted from Bigbossfan:Not sure if this is the correct thread to report this problem....but hope someone can help out.
I purchased the board from Pinball Life to provide power to the ColorDMD on my GoT Premium. I've sold the GoT to a buddy and forgot to take the board out of it. He's just attempted to remove the board and now he's getting a node error. Any suggestions?? Here is a pic of the board I'm talking about and the error he's getting.
Looks like he accidentally unplugged on of the node boards or the node board power connector. Unless he also switched a node board at the same time in which case he did not set the Dip switches on the node board.
So to revisit this issue, I told my buddy to just keep that board....he's over 5 hours away and not comfortable messing around with his machine. So, I ordered a new board from PBL, a different one though (it was cheaper). (Pic to follow).
So, just got around to trying to install it. Not getting anything to appear on the DMD itself?? To make sure it wasnt a DMD issue, I tried hooking up my ColorDMD from SMVE, and same result, nothing shows up on the DMD. Tried plugging in a USB, doesn't recognize it, and the only LED that comes on is "init" LED. "Prog" led flashes on then turns off.
Any help, suggestions and ideas would be much appreciated everyone!
Quoted from Bigbossfan:Instructions for the board........very straight-forward, so I know I didn't f**k that up!
That board only splits out 12V. The previous board you had included regulators that took 48V down to 5V and 12V and output both voltages on a single connector.
The original ColorDMD controller requires both 5V and 12V. That splitter board won't work with older displays.
New displays are shipping now with the (just introduced) Chroma controller board. The Chroma board only requires 12V and would be compatible with the splitter.
Fantastic! Thanks for the response Randy.
Unbelievable. Would be nice if PBL had of advertised that on their website. Let alone the currency exchange............shipping to Canada is outrageous too!
E-Mail sent to PBL, hopefully they'll make this right. After exchange and shipping, cost me over 100.00.
2 months later
Quoted from Shapeshifter:So, any more news re Spike and the LED color display being compatible?
Firmware support exists for both LED and LCD in single color mode. Not yet offering a power cable for SPIKE but a number of customers have made their own.
Quoted from Dmod:Firmware support exists for both LED and LCD in single color mode. Not yet offering a power cable for SPIKE but a number of customers have made their own.
Hopefully 'not yet ' translates to 'sometime this year' and that Spike games will get the color treatment this year or next
3 months later
Nowra
Thanks to great support from Randy even on the weekend and all the way over here in Australia.
Dmod got me sorted. Nice as I had a spare colordmd laying around and thought a nice gold colour would look good. Pix don't do it justice. Used the 12/5v power tap from Mezelmods and once I had updated the correct Sigma 3.1 from the older version colordmd LCD (Sorry Randy my bad) it was very easy. Hi res looks good.
Glad you got it working! Always great support with ColorDMD!
I have my contrast set to 3 it really looks good.
Quoted from Shapeshifter:So, going forward does this mean Spike 1 games like GOT, KISS etc can get the color lcd treatment?
It gives us the possibility of it happening. I cannot image how tough it would be to color these titles compared to older titles.
Quoted from jokerpoker:Thanks to great support from Randy even on the weekend and all the way over here in Australia.
dmod got me sorted. Nice as I had a spare colordmd laying around and thought a nice gold colour would look good. Pix don't do it justice. Used the 12/5v power tap from Mezelmods and once I had updated the correct Sigma 3.1 from the older version colordmd LCD (Sorry Randy my bad) it was very easy. Hi res looks good.
So, with one of these mods, could I put an LCD screen in KISS?
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
