Also, the pinout for IM.

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Making one for IM, in progress. Using the plastic board from Home Depot.

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Making progressing wiring up the one for IM. There is a reason the ones you buy commercially don't use that many controlled LEDs. So many wires to solder . . .

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(note that I took the picture upside down)

Have the backbox for IM complete. This one is going to a fellow pinsider. 12 channels for all flasher activity supported by IM. This setup has a dimmer inline with the power to the background white LEDs (which also supports annoying flashing modes.)

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I ordered them from GPE (https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/products.asp?cat=82). They are 24-pin and you can cut them down whatever size you need. If you are building things to tie into J6 and J7, you can get 2x10-pin with a 4-pin left over (which works well for tapping into power on WPC games (I think J116 and J118) ). Let me know if you need some 4-pins, I have some left over from making kits for backboxes and pinduinos.

20V: shouldn't be -- 906 LEDs are rated for 12-13V.

IDC connectors: those are fine and probably would make building this easier if you have an insertion tool

I haven't tried it, but at $1-5 for a meter of LEDs, go for it and see what happens (I have managed to fry LEDs, and the effects aren't spectacular.) [Disclaimer -- I don't foresee anything bad happening, but you never know.]

Unfortunately I don't, but I am borrowing a friends SM at the moment. It is a labor of love to make those (and about 2-4 hours of placing strips, running wire, and soldering). Honestly, I've been having a lot more fun playing with pinduinos and would probably use addressable LEDs for the next interactive backbox I made. There is just so much more flexibility with addressable LEDs. Now that I think about it, I can't believe that I haven't made a backbox using a pinduino (I need more free time!)

Thanks, SpiffyRob. My apologies, but I can't remember what I said I was going to do. However, for this kind of stuff where you are monitoring/leveraging J6 and J7, white star and SAM systems are identical. It is just that J6 and J7 are in the lower right hand side of the backbox which makes space a little tight. Let me know what do you have in mind and I'll see what I can do to help.

That has never happened to me on any of the Stern SAM systems I've done (some have been running for years). You are using 12V RGB LED strips?

To my understanding, the flashers are pulsed at 20V, giving them a lower effective voltage/current. There is nothing special amount 13V LED flashers other than having internal circuitry to make them responsive at that voltage for the number of LEDs the flashers have.

Three questions:
1. Are any of your flashers locked on (most likely due to a shorted transistor)
2. Is there any noticeable sign of the LED strip burning due? Can you post a picture?
3. Are there any parts of your LED flasher mod that aren't working (maybe you have a short and soldered across the 12V+ and one of the color grounds on an LED strip)

Yes, you should be fine. Most LED flashers are 12V or 13V; most LED strips are 12V. I'm not sure about the pulsing, and I have seen LED bulbs melt if the transistor shorts and the bulb is locked on. As long as They get short durations of power, all will be fine.

Key pins are cut on headers and a plug is put in one of the holes on the plug to prevent you from plugging in the a plug to the wrong header.

They have saved my bacon time and time again!

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