Anyone manage to rig this up to a Stern SAM system? My IJ4 (all strands always-on) needs the GI dialed down some.

Bump

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?

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What does the Maestro use for powering itself?

What is CN7 providing? Is that a signal? It seems way too high to provide power.

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As a comparison, Stern's GI output comes from the driver board and lead straight to the lights. 5.7vac in and out.

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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.

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:

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Ultimately ordered these from Mouser, which picked and shipped within 1 business day. My first time ordering via them.

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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".

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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:

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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:

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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:

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And at 6 notches down with EnerGI Maestro:

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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.

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.

And a got mine working on Stern GI bump too..

I tweaked the heck out of the levels, when I put it in the IJ4.