Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, The
Data East, 1993
Back to the Future: The Pinball
Data East, 1990
Batman
Data East, 1991
Batman Forever
Sega, 1995
Baywatch
Sega, 1995
Checkpoint
Data East, 1991
Guns N' Roses
Data East, 1994
Hook
Data East, 1992Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:Seems like there no fade effect at all anymore, is that what you're going for?
I think if you look closely you can see he has the board set up to be somewhat bright for "MIN" and pretty slow on the rates up/down. This coupled with the difficulty to film LEDs and it's a little hard to see the difference between max and min. If you look closely when he does speeder mode you can see the LEDs dim.
Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:Yeah, very slow on the up/down rates. To each their own right, for me I like the flashing GI effect, just not so abrupt, and keeping the back box lit longer before fading out really helps with the seizure effect more than the GI itself.
That's what's good about the board, you can do what you want.
Yeah this was my first settings that I put on it out of the box. I hated the flashing GI so much that I probably over compensated with the really slow fade times and relatively high minimum settings. I still notice the dimming while playing, but I probably need to take the minimum down a bit more at the very least.
BTW: an iPad smartcase magnetically locks onto your lockdown bar, and a fisheye camera lens attachment makes the field of view just big enough to allow for hands free video of gameplay.
Quoted from caker137:I think if you look closely you can see he has the board set up to be somewhat bright for "MIN" and pretty slow on the rates up/down. This coupled with the difficulty to film LEDs and it's a little hard to see the difference between max and min. If you look closely when he does speeder mode you can see the LEDs dim.
I think you can tell during the Darkside shots too pretty well. Way more apparent in person.
Quoted from GaryMcT:Anyone installed one into a System 11 game yet?
Well, this is for DE games...
With some creative cabling, I think this would probably work for System 11 as well. If not, I think the GIzmo that I'm working on for Stern games should work.
Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:Well, this is for DE games...
It *probably* works as-is in system 11a with no modifications; with other system 11 generations, some change of connector in the patch cabling could make it work.
Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:Sweet, if someone does the mod for 11c I'd be interested!
You could be that guy! And you could get a $20 bounty for describing how to do it! Grab a schematic and take a look at your connectors. If you have any specific questions, post here and I and others can help.
Quoted from caker137:You could be that guy! And you could get a $20 bounty for describing how to do it! Grab a schematic and take a look at your connectors. If you have any specific questions, post here and I and others can help.
Here's how you do it.
The AC GI signal coming in is just a nine pin connector with a key in the middle on the far right side of the interconnect board in the head. Unplug this connector. So change the input from the 4 pin Molex connector on the Energie Maestro to a 9 pin .156" connector and use a Z-connector to hook up the Energie Maestro to the unplugged AC connector.
Now take the 9 pin output from Energie Maestro and plug it into the spot on the interconnect board where you removed the AC input. Next find the Relays on the backbox and under the playfield and remove the 2 pin connectors from each of these to disable the relays. Then choose 1 (or even both if you want) and run a Z-connector from the 2 pin connector(s) to the relay input control on the Energie Maestro.
Quoted from caker137:It *probably* works as-is in system 11a with no modifications; with other system 11 generations, some change of connector in the patch cabling could make it work.
Will work as is in system 9, 11, 11a and possibly the first three system 11B games as long as the games only use the one relay on the power supply board. Some of these games used additional relays on the backbox or under the playfield (Cyclone, Fire, and others come to mind.) and on those you would have to determine which relay of the 2 or 3 you want to control the Energie Maestro board. You could also combine the signals or leave some going through those relays.
should work in system 7 as well if you change out the original GI AC connector that goes to the power supply.
Quoted from pinballnut3:If we get this working easily in my Big Guns. I would be buying another.
Big Guns has 3 GI relays. one for the backbox, and 2 for the playfield (1 left and 1 right). You would need to determine which of the relays you want to control the board. Play the game and pay attention to the light show effects. If you install this board you would possibly lose some of the effects (does the playfield alternate left to right? Does the backbox alternate with the playfield.)
Quoted from twitami:So, this works in Sega machines? All of them, or just the early ones?
If so, I have like 10 I will need to buy
Just the early ones. If you check the first post in this thread you can see the compatibility list. Basically anything that uses the data east v3 CPU system, so 3 or 4 Sega machines. I'm not saying I'd would be impossible to adapt it to a later game, but much more diy wiring to get that to work.
Quoted from twitami:So, this works in Sega machines? All of them, or just the early ones?
If so, I have like 10 I will need to buy
I hope Craig doesn't mind me posting this in his thread, but the newer Sega machines will work with my GIzmo. It has been confirmed to work with Goldeneye, and should work with the others:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/led-gi-smoothing-for-stern-wip
Quoted from jfesler:Anyone manage to rig this up to a Stern SAM system? My IJ4 (all strands always-on) needs the GI dialed down some.
Bump
Quoted from jfesler:Anyone manage to rig this up to a Stern SAM system? My IJ4 (all strands always-on) needs the GI dialed down some.
I just noticed you said "always-on", so you just want a constant duty cycle, correct? I think you should be able to do that without needing to monitor the state of the relay. Maybe you'd have to pull an input high/low to make it stay in the on state, but I would think that would be the only modification you'd need. Of course, you'd need to route power to it. Craig, what do you think?
Quoted from herg:I just noticed you said "always-on", so you just want a constant duty cycle, correct? I think you should be able to do that without needing to monitor the state of the relay. Maybe you'd have to pull an input high/low to make it stay in the on state, but I would think that would be the only modification you'd need. Of course, you'd need to route power to it. Craig, what do you think?
Hmm, if the strands never flash anyway, it should be a pretty easy task to wire that up. You wouldn't have to hook up the control signal, it would default to " on." You would have to hook up the input power with a custom cable since the gi power in connector changed. Then you could set the brightness of each string to whatever your eyes want.
Can you share what the pinouts of the Maestro board are?
I'm trying to figure out what is going on from the install documentation - but having no DE machines, I'm having a hard time understanding the intended hookup. It seems like you plug in the Maestro inline between cables going into CN7,CN8,CN9 of the power supply board. I don't see where the GI lighting is hooked up and controlled; i.e. where is the output of the Maestro?
What does the Maestro use for powering itself?
What is CN7 providing? Is that a signal? It seems way too high to provide power.
--
As a comparison, Stern's GI output comes from the driver board and lead straight to the lights. 5.7vac in and out.
I *think* I want the Maestro to sit in-line, say pins J15 1-4; with pins J15 6-9 being passthrough direct to the GI strands. With "something" powering the Maestro; and with "something" to tell the Maestro that all 4 strands are lit.
Power input - this will require a new adapter cable
CN9 on DE games
J14 on Stern
P1 on the Maestro
Output - same pinout, just use the Maestro cable or even direct connect if the cable reaches
CN8 on DE
J15 on Stern
P4 on the Maestro
Control signal - no connection. According to Craig, you can leave if floating and the Maestro will default to ON.
CN7 on DE game
Stern games don't bring this to a connector
P3 on the Maestro
The GI section of the Stern board will be completely out of the loop. Just power into the Maestro, controlled power out of the Maestro.
Quoted from herg:Power input - this will require a new adapter cable
CN9 on DE games
J14 on Stern
P1 on the Maestro
Output - same pinout, just use the Maestro cable or even direct connect if the cable reaches
CN8 on DE
J15 on Stern
P4 on the Maestro
Control signal - no connection. According to Craig, you can leave if floating and the Maestro will default to ON.
CN7 on DE game
Stern games don't bring this to a connector
P3 on the Maestro
The GI section of the Stern board will be completely out of the loop. Just power into the Maestro, controlled power out of the Maestro.
Great summary herg! I concurr with your descriptions/pinouts. As far as the 1 custom cable you'll have to make for P1, there are only 2 signals (on 6 wires on Stern, 4 wires on DE) and they are AC so polarity doesn't matter. If you do happen to take on this as a customized installation jfesler, please post details in this thread for others to see! The $20 bounty is still in play as your reward!
Thanks Herg. Once I can figure out what the heck connector to get for the power I'll get stuff ordered and see what kind of magic smoke I can let out. I'll have to get back to the machine next week to get a closer look at j14.
Got the EnergGI Maestro (and fast!), thanks Caker. Once my Mouser order comes in (probably next week) I'll let some smoke out. Assuming I figured out the right molex connectors to order.. 
I have successfully used Caker137's EnerGI Maestro on my Stern Indiana Jones, aka IJ4. For my purposes my GI is always-on, never controlled by the game; so this integration was relatively easy (and for others reading this, hopefully easier for you!). I did not attempt to patch the GI relay over, since this game simply doesn't use it. My main motivation for this board was to have always-on GI, but at adjusted power levels.
The biggest headache for me was, of all things, finding the right frelling Molex connector. This one connector appears to be minimally documented. Had to dig through several manuals to find confirmation that my measurements were right; and lots of digging on Mouser, Digikey, and the search engines. Had to work with this connector:
Ultimately ordered these from Mouser, which picked and shipped within 1 business day. My first time ordering via them.
2015-05-30 10.59.26.jpg
2015-05-30 10.59.12.jpg
If you're perfect, you will need:
1: 50-84-2060 Molex 6 pin 2.13mm MLX Crimp Housing
4: 02-08-2006 Molex 0.084" (2.13mm) Terminal Pins
Adjust for your own imperfections.
Caker137's board comes with a 4 pin connector. With a meter, I found that the top two pins had continuity on the board. And the lower two pins, had continuity. So, we have our two "sides".
Caker137 says only one pin of each side is actually needed. Since I was reusing the cable, and didn't want to have loose cables, I just went ahead and hooked up all 4 wires instead of two. Terminal pins are cheap; the wire is already there; let's have something a bit more substantial.
The power connector from Stern has 2 rows of 3 wires each. Using a volt meter I found each row was one "side", providing ~6.3vac.
I snipped off the unused side of Caker's connector; then connected it to the new 6 pin connector as such:
2015-05-30 11.16.00.jpg
2015-05-30 11.17.26.jpg
2015-05-30 11.28.24.jpg
I did a quick hanging smoke test, and no smoke was let out. Yay! Also did this in preparation to see where I wanted to mount the board; and if I was to use the extension cables for the GI lighting or not. I decided to mount the board on the side of the head, close to where the Stern J14 and J15 are.
After mounting the board, it looks more like this now:
Stern GI power (usually in J14) -> 6 pin Molex -> EnerGI Power Cable -> EnerGI port P1
Stern GI lamps (usually in J15) ->EnerGI port P4
How does it look?
At full (unwanted!) brightness:
And at 6 notches down with EnerGI Maestro:
Overall, I'm quite happy with the results. The play field is now 100% LED, with Herg's LED OCD plus Caker137's EnerGI Maestro. Everything is tunable and allows me to preserve as much as possible the ambience of the original game; while dialing in the amount of light. Power draw is less (good for the machine; good for my 120v circuit).
Thanks to Caker137 and Herg for their boards and their help.
Quoted from jfesler:I have successfully used Caker137's EnerGI Maestro on my Stern Indiana Jones, aka IJ4. For my purposes my GI is always-on, never controlled by the game; so this integration was relatively easy (and for others reading this, hopefully easier for you!). I did not attempt to patch the GI relay over, since this game simply doesn't use it. My main motivation for this board was to have always-on GI, but at adjusted power levels.
The biggest headache for me was, of all things, finding the right frelling Molex connector. This one connector appears to be minimally documented. Had to dig through several manuals to find confirmation that my measurements were right; and lots of digging on Mouser, Digikey, and the search engines. Had to work with this connector:
2015-05-30 10.58.38.jpg
Ultimately ordered these from Mouser, which picked and shipped within 1 business day. My first time ordering via them.
2015-05-30 10.59.26.jpg
2015-05-30 10.59.12.jpg
If you're perfect, you will need:
1: 50-84-2060 Molex 6 pin 2.13mm MLX Crimp Housing
4: 02-08-2006 Molex 0.084" (2.13mm) Terminal Pins
Adjust for your own imperfections.
Caker137's board comes with a 4 pin connector. With a meter, I found that the top two pins had continuity on the board. And the lower two pins, had continuity. So, we have our two "sides".
2015-05-30 11.02.34.jpg
Caker137 says only one pin of each side is actually needed. Since I was reusing the cable, and didn't want to have lose cables, I just went ahead and hooked up all 4 wires instead of two. Terminal pins are cheap; the wire is already there; let's have something a bit more substantial.
The power connector from Stern has 2 rows of 3 wires each. Using a volt meter I found each row was one "side", providing ~6.3vac.
I snipped off the unused side of Caker's connector; then connected it to the new 6 pin connector as such:
2015-05-30 11.16.00.jpg
2015-05-30 11.17.26.jpg
2015-05-30 11.28.24.jpg
I did a quick hanging smoke test, and no smoke was let out. Yay! Also did this in preparation to see where I wanted to mount the board; and if I was to use the extension cables for the GI lighting or not. I decided to mount the board on the side of the head, close to where the Stern J14 and J15 are.
After mounting the board, it looks more like this now:
2015-05-30 11.44.52.jpg
Stern GI power (usually in J14) -> 6 pin Molex -> EnerGI Power Cable -> EnerGI port P1
Stern GI lamps (usually in J15) ->EnerGI port P4
How does it look?
At full (unwanted!) brightness:
2015-05-30 12.07.08.jpg
And at 6 notches down with EnerGI Maestro:
2015-05-30 12.07.57.jpg
Overall, I'm quite happy with the results. The play field is now 100% LED, with Herg's LED OCD plus Caker137's EnerGI Maestro. Everything is tunable and allows me to preserve as much as possible the ambience of the original game; while dialing in the amount of light. Power draw is less (good for the machine; good for my 120v circuit).
Thanks to Caker137 and Herg for their boards and their help.
Very nice! Great products!
Quoted from jfesler:I have successfully used Caker137's EnerGI Maestro on my Stern Indiana Jones, aka IJ4. For my purposes my GI is always-on, never controlled by the game; so this integration was relatively easy (and for others reading this, hopefully easier for you!). I did not attempt to patch the GI relay over, since this game simply doesn't use it. My main motivation for this board was to have always-on GI, but at adjusted power levels.
The biggest headache for me was, of all things, finding the right frelling Molex connector. This one connector appears to be minimally documented. Had to dig through several manuals to find confirmation that my measurements were right; and lots of digging on Mouser, Digikey, and the search engines. Had to work with this connector:
2015-05-30 10.58.38.jpg
Ultimately ordered these from Mouser, which picked and shipped within 1 business day. My first time ordering via them.
2015-05-30 10.59.26.jpg
2015-05-30 10.59.12.jpg
If you're perfect, you will need:
1: 50-84-2060 Molex 6 pin 2.13mm MLX Crimp Housing
4: 02-08-2006 Molex 0.084" (2.13mm) Terminal Pins
Adjust for your own imperfections.
Caker137's board comes with a 4 pin connector. With a meter, I found that the top two pins had continuity on the board. And the lower two pins, had continuity. So, we have our two "sides".
2015-05-30 11.02.34.jpg
Caker137 says only one pin of each side is actually needed. Since I was reusing the cable, and didn't want to have loose cables, I just went ahead and hooked up all 4 wires instead of two. Terminal pins are cheap; the wire is already there; let's have something a bit more substantial.
The power connector from Stern has 2 rows of 3 wires each. Using a volt meter I found each row was one "side", providing ~6.3vac.
I snipped off the unused side of Caker's connector; then connected it to the new 6 pin connector as such:
2015-05-30 11.16.00.jpg
2015-05-30 11.17.26.jpg
2015-05-30 11.28.24.jpg
I did a quick hanging smoke test, and no smoke was let out. Yay! Also did this in preparation to see where I wanted to mount the board; and if I was to use the extension cables for the GI lighting or not. I decided to mount the board on the side of the head, close to where the Stern J14 and J15 are.
After mounting the board, it looks more like this now:
2015-05-30 11.44.52.jpg
Stern GI power (usually in J14) -> 6 pin Molex -> EnerGI Power Cable -> EnerGI port P1
Stern GI lamps (usually in J15) ->EnerGI port P4
How does it look?
At full (unwanted!) brightness:
2015-05-30 12.07.08.jpg
And at 6 notches down with EnerGI Maestro:
2015-05-30 12.07.57.jpg
Overall, I'm quite happy with the results. The play field is now 100% LED, with Herg's LED OCD plus Caker137's EnerGI Maestro. Everything is tunable and allows me to preserve as much as possible the ambience of the original game; while dialing in the amount of light. Power draw is less (good for the machine; good for my 120v circuit).
Thanks to Caker137 and Herg for their boards and their help.
Nicely done.
Quoted from jfesler:I have successfully used Caker137's EnerGI Maestro on my Stern Indiana Jones, aka IJ4.
I'm glad it worked out. It makes me wonder how difficult it would be to grab hold of the relay control signal for full functionality.
Quoted from herg:I'm glad it worked out. It makes me wonder how difficult it would be to grab hold of the relay control signal for full functionality.
Nothing socketed. And comparing IJ4 with LOTR the designates for the driver transistor and IC are different. Not sure that generic idiot proof instructions are possible. Digging at the schematics of both SAM systems:
IJ4: board 520-5249-00
U21 (74HCT273) connects to R150 (1k) then to Q44 (MMBT3904), which acts as the relay driver and sinks 20v.
LOTR: board 520-5137-00 revision F
U206, R254, and Q200 (2n3904).
Both cases the relay driver are on the far right of the board.
In case some of you have been watching, the EnerGI Maestro kits sold out last month and the order page was replaced by a wait list. Well it looks like there is enough interest for a *small* batch to be run (utilizing my existing spare PCBs), but this could be the last run for a while. If you are thinking of buying a kit, now is your chance. Head over to the wait list and sign up to make sure you get one. I will be checking parts inventory soon and planning the run for delivery near the end of this month. As before, no money is due to get onto the wait list; a PayPal invoice will be sent when your kit is ready to ship.
https://sites.google.com/site/energimaestro/waitlist
Thanks to all of you who are using the EnerGI Maestro! Your excitement is what makes this endeavor worthwhile!
Got mine today and installed, incredibly easy. Here is a WWF Royal Rumble with the installation!!! Also installed in baywatch too, the fact that I don't hear clicking is worth the price alone! Also please ignore my crazy colors on Royal Rumble it was literally just done with spare LEDS I had laying around.
I went to order one and sadly it says sold out. I would love one for my WWF Royal Rumble, but I also have a Batman that would be awesome to try it in!
Not sure how I missed this thread before, but if there's any chance I can get one please let me know! Such an awesome product! I stumbled across the YouTube videos showing how it worked.
Quoted from TheKreator:I went to order one and sadly it says sold out
The last run was very small, but there might be a few extras. If you put your name onto the waitlist on the website I will contact people in order to distribute the extra kits should ant remain, or if enough interest is shown a future run is not out of the question!
Quoted from caker137:The last run was very small, but there might be a few extras. If you put your name onto the waitlist on the website I will contact people in order to distribute the extra kits should ant remain, or if enough interest is shown a future run is not out of the question!
Done, thank you! I requested two on the Waitlist form, but hopefully I can get at least one eventually.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
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Stillwater, OK
