Honestly, it's the color editor and *SOMETHING* in the repository that's holding me up from a mass purchase at this point. Until we have an editor, frame-to-frame copy, and a collaborative effort toward a community repository of full-color games, I'm just chomping at the bit to swap out all of my orange/red DMDs.

Yes an editor, some (or at least one) colorized game and a firmware able to display such a colored game on a real machine would be nice.

It's not magic; you're just pushing high voltage into hardware that doesn't want or need it. Just so you don't have to use a separate cable. Worth it? Nah.

Most people want something that works out of the box with no setup, assembly, or custom cables. This fits that description.

Luis this requires the high voltage on the power supply board to be working just as with an original DMD right?

Wow, I didn't realize that. Thanks for clarifying. So it uses the +12v on the connector instead to drive the panels? You don't even need a power supply with working high voltage.

In this case, I think this IS the better approach. It replaces an existing DMD, and it is able to run from the power that was originally feeding that DMD. The alternative where it puts additional strain on a power source (such as 12V unregulated) that was never designed to power a DMD leads to issues. A couple of times, I have had to install an additional power supply to get the DMD off the 12V.

High voltage is still present regardless, and in this case the connector is somewhat restrained by being connected to the replacement DMD. With the other approach, you have a connector that is now unused, floating around in the backbox unless you go the extra step of tying it down.

Where is the power coming from then?

Don't worry we won't, its not exactly hard to figure out

You don´t understand @russdx. Only Luis can do magic

I don't have a horse in this race... we're happy with our cable solution and have used a 12V switcher since product introduction in 2012.

However, unless I'm missing something, there are some obvious problems with this design for WPC games, and is the main reason we moved away from the DMD connector.

(1) You can't use 12V from the WPC DMD controller to drive anything. There's a current limiting 56 ohm, 1/4 amp resistor in the path. If you pull too much current through this resistor, you're going to burn the resistor on the DMD controller board like a fuse.

(2) Running the display off the 5V logic supply runs the risk of watchdog resets, especially on older games where the 5V bridge/cap is already stressed. This is the reason there are a bajillion caps on Luis' new DMD board but still don't see how you can predict/guarantee that the 5V won't dip as it's a function of video content, display brightness, power driver board components, and anything else hanging off the 5V supply.

Combining the two supplies with diodes doesn't resolve either problem.

The "best" solution would be one that uses the actual high voltage supplies that were intended to power the display. But this requires a more complex design to safely switch the high voltage to something that can be used by the display, and protect the display in the event of a failure at the switcher.

Maybe it help to provide some numbers: these displays use 2 led panels each with 64*32 pixels. Power consumption of the LEDs is controlled by switching them on and off at a high frequency so basically the duty cycle. For single rows there is normally no limiting of current which makes the panel rows LEDs burn easily if the driver fails.
Max duty cycle of all RGB LED (white) leads to an average of 4 mA per led at 5v. In a 4096 pixel display this is 16A!! And you can drive them higher I've tested this.

But never the less this is only theory. These panels are so bright that in pinball machines or those pinball clocks the power consumption is around 4-5 Amps depending on brightness settings, what is actually shown and pallettes used.

Obviously all white pixels requires most, but this is only rarely shown on a pinball.

Maybe one thing to add: I use these panels in four of my machines and I always add an extra switching power supply with 5v and 7A just to be safe.

You can see from the pcb photos he is just using the 5v logic as the trace basically runs to the dmd 5v pin.

I too was wondering how much stress is this putting on the pinball machine drawing so much current, can it damage it? That 5v was just used to drive extreamly low current logic circuits on the original dmds not have upto 5amps sucked from it

As DMOD said the best solution is actually to just use the high voltage and drop it to 5v although part of your board is now live with high voltage but nothing a nice little perspex cover could protect.

Why is 50% of the posts in this thread from the competition and/or people who has no interest in buying the product?

If some one goes around saying every one else product is shit i think you will find the competition will stand up for there self's and correct these false accusations.

Also these is nothing wrong with reviewing a product especially when it could potentially be damaging peoples machines!

Luis,
I like the new plug and play version, thats wat i was waiting for.
Do you have some colored SW screens to look at.

The constant negative remarks are making you guys look bad. You've made your point countless times in this thread, and the negativity is starting to get old.

I suggest taking the high road and just let it go. If your products are superior, people will buy them over this one.

Ok, show us a video of someone installing one and it causing issues.

....I had to spend $500 on a solution for my Frankenstein (2 plasma's down by this point)....I wanted it to be LED for colorization potential -potential lifespan increase - simple to install - let alone work. Luis' product did exactly that....I can't see what could be negative about any of this....clearly PIN2DMD has some issues that have been noted on these threads ad nauseam, ColorDMD ain't got a big DMD pot to piss in....I just don't get why anyone has got anything bad to say here?

I have to complement you on the filter. It makes each dot seem more "filled" like the old plasmas. The new LED dmds look good and are a great replacement for the old plasmas, but without the filter it looks a little off.

Luis is a good hardware designer and you can see that from the fact that he presented more hardware versions of dmdmk66 than software updates. I admit that PIN2DMD has some hardware issues (plug and play) but those will be addressed by the PIN2DMD hardware suppliers. From our side it still is a non-commercial (we forward every cent of the donations to charity) DIY hobby project based on generally available components.

I think the bad talk is just a reaction to the fact that Luis advertises his product in such a aggressive way with a "nobody is better than me" attitude while on the other hand for example he is still selling his DMDST32 hardware with PIN2DMD preinstalled.

You know yourself that the product you bought is not 100% working, most of the features are only announced and not even Luis knows when they will come. I really hope you end up with what you paid for some day.

I'd be interested to see a photo and video comparison of amber, gray and white (if you can do the masking).

I guess you'd need to charge more for the latter, but sounds like it could potentially be the best solution.

1) The white ghosting to the right of the lit pixels still looks bad.
2) The 4 color pallet stuff looks horrible.
3) You have a credit dot on your Road Show undermining you technical capabilities.

But you get an "A" effort on other people's ideas (waiting for thumbs down, I'm drinking)

Polarised would be interesting. Not sure how durable the film would be though.

You can also buy acrylic with excellent anti-reflective properties; not the terrible stuff people sell for $30/€30 as backbox glass replacement with only ~80% light transmission (that costs $1-2). Only issue is that it's a little pricey, and I'm not sure if you can get it in colours.

You posted all of this before, all of which was also responded to at the time, last time the video was posted.

1) https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dmdmk64-new-dmd-multicolor-by-pinballsp-is-on-the-way/page/10#post-3956260 - is a reflection
2) How is that relevant to a discussion about filters?
3) https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dmdmk64-new-dmd-multicolor-by-pinballsp-is-on-the-way/page/10#post-3956299 - it's not his machine.

The trolling is getting old.

I actually posted some photos of Comet's DMD Glare Eliminator polarized filter Rappelbox's PIN2DMD LED display. The contrast improvement is enormous but it doesn't diffuse or soften the LEDs. Color separation is still clear.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/comet-dmd-glare-eliminator-vids-review/page/2#post-3923568

Is Comet’s filter a polarized filter? I thought it was the “microlouver” privacy film like 3M has for computer screens

I thought it was that too.

Does not get old. It is a staple around here. Besides, "not his machine" is a lame excuse when you use it for advertising a DIY product. It show they don't care about getting what you pay for. Half colored and half running games are great for the "Frugal".

Like some of those "half colored" games we have seen recently. Even the demo GIFs posted are advertisements for ColorDMD.

You made you point many times. Can't you just move on? Maybe drain this thread? I hope this was you last post here.

While it most certainly is a staple around here, the only ones it doesn't get old for are the toxic drunks who give Pinside the infamous reputation it has.

PM sent.

Very nice!

That is fabulous and an alternate product to pin2dmd.
Congratulation ?

What is the Price for it?