looks great, count me in as well. what all does your kit include? (I'm guessing at the very least, pre-fabricated pc boards w/ the leds and a new pre-cut mdf speaker board to mount everything to)

I'm tired of waiting on pinbits.com version as well (I can't tell you how many times I've spoken with them and asked for a date/price and never got a response)

as far as triggers go, in addition to flashing the taillights a few times for the start of "move your car" (if that's possible), maybe turning off all the taillights at the end of the game (for a set period of time, seeing as all of the patrons would be driving away and leaving the drive-in) might be a cool idea.

donjagra:
I'm not sure if I like that. it's too busy and distracting for my liking, I'd rather have them all on or off and then get triggered (again either all of them, or maybe one set) for a specific event like "move your car"

otherwise, I'm more than happy with what jeff has done so far and is offering

jeff:
should you choose to provide a v2.0 option, how easy would it be for those of us that purchased the current version to upgrade if we wanted to (eg. would it be a code change with either a chip swap/flash update, or something more complex like a wiring change which really wouldn't be feasible?

hey jeff,
what is the small 3 2-block header for on the back side of the panel? (right side, near the double wire connection)

does shorting out any of those connections change the functionality of the the lights? (it's not documented)

CPR needs to do a re-run of the deluxe speaker panels given that jeff has delivered on what pinbits did not (no offence)

alveolus:
I was in the same boat. I emailed and emailed pinbits for updates but never got anything back that gave a timeline (and given that 2 years later it's still not done, it's no wonder)

good luck to the rest of you. mr. thompson's mod is definitely worth the wait!

as much as I'd love to see pinbits' version, I don't have high hopes given that it's been well over 1.5 years since the last update. I can understand that they have other priorities, but it doesn't take that much time to update the webpage stating that the project has been "canceled", "put on hold" or otherwise.

pam was pretty good at replying to my questions back in may 2012, but then all contact ceased.

jeff's mod is exactly what I hoped pinbits would have turned out to be and reasonably priced. I emailed him a short list of changes that he should look into to make it more compatible with a colorDMD and I know for a fact that he's looking into them

my understanding is that mr. thompson *was* (is) going to produce another run. hopefully, he'll post here to shed a little light for those of you looking for one of his fantastic mods

the one from pinballdecals.com is not the same as mr. thompson's. similar in nature but produced by a different company (which I don't believe exists anymore)

found them:

standard speaker panel: $69.00
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PP&Product_Code=PPS-31-1420-20018&Category_Code=GS-588

enhanced speaker panel: $79.00
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PP&Product_Code=PPS-31-1420-20018-ENH&Category_Code=GS-588

deluxe (mirrored) speaker panel: $89.00 (available through this direct link, but doesn't show on the site)
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PP&Product_Code=PPS-31-1420-20018-DLX&Category_Code=GS-588

I can't speak for mr. thompson, but I rather doubt it. the original set up had individual sections routed into the custom made speaker panel to accommodate several, separate pc boards.

if jeff has managed to connect all of the boards together, then you would need a new speaker panel which is routed accordingly. and even if the new continuous pc board could be tacked to the older speaker panel, the lighting probably wouldn't look correct since the amount of space between the plastic silk screened speaker panel plastic and the pc boards would now be almost 1/2". this would cause the lights to "bleed" over several of the light masked areas.

now that you say that, I can't confirm either (I'm at work too!) but I could have sworn that the original pc boards were inset, hence the "pin-hole" lighting issue that jeff claimed would be fixed with this iteration by moving the surface mounted LEDs back a bit

edit:
a-ha! found an image of the v1 speaker panel mod. the original pc boards are inset. (he routed and installed them [via screws] from the front side)

CftBL speaker panel mod.jpg

definitely the color dmd (although I may have to set mine to sigma b&w just to see how it looks

I just wish that they had kept all of the movie stuff in black and white (finding the creature; when the image pans up of the creature holding the girl and the multi-ball restart timeout; the guy holding the girl starts out in color and then switches back to b/w before starting the film breaking/melting animation)

(I also wish that randy didn't have the restrictions that he has to contend with, otherwise we'd have animations where the 3D glasses on the guy and girl were actually blue and red instead of blue and black)

personally, I thought it was worth the asking price. a new mono-colored plasma or LED dmd will set you back $300+

the extra $100 that colorDMD charges for their product definitely breathes new life into any of the 11 (to date) machines that they've put out colorized roms for

check your fuses. a weak fuse will cause issues as you've communicated. I had the same issue with my colorDMD. once I replaced a fuse on the power driver board (116?), my issues went away.

if you have access to some scotch poster tape (the thin, double sided stuff), you can use that to secure the piece into place prior to attaching the plastic speaker panel in front of it

hi brian,
it depends on which version of the speaker panel mod that you managed to obtain. on v1 of jeff's speaker panel the molex connectors [could] potentially interfere with the installation of a colorDMD mod. there were two alternatives to correct the issue.
1) remove and install a right angled male pin header to the center molex connector (providing the necessary clearance between the molex connector and the front of the colorDMD display)
or
2) insert four 1/8" tall spacers (on each the screws [in between the backside of the speaker panel and the front of] the colorDMD) so that there is enough clearance between the display and the center molex connector from the speaker panel.

option 2 will move the colorDMD display back just a bit, but not enough to distract of be noticeable.

I hope this answer helps answer your question

I believe there were 2 "released to the public" versions. I helped jeff with the some of the changes that were introduced with the last run for the colorDMD owners.

ps
the first run speaker panels will work with a colorDMD installed. you can either de-solder the center molex connector and replace it with a right-angle one or add 2 small, stand-off spacers (on the bottom posts) so that the connector isn't touching the face of the colorDMD display.