So, having said that, I'm wondering IF there is a system out there that can be minimized so that all it does is control lamps. (i.e. To save cost and space, and avoid unnecessary additional boards) Plus, which would have the best API for writing lamp effects.

Right now, I'm leaning towards doing my own from scratch using an Arduino and some specialized chips (MAX7219), but I thought I'd see if anyone had some pointers.

Now, unnecessary info - I made myself a "light box" to hold a playfield. There's space behind the framed playfield to mount LEDs, to light up inserts, etc. I'd like to be able to plug in the light box/frame, and had a small light show go on, lighting up said inserts. Ignoring wiring for now, the Arduino setup would be smallest, but would need the most programming work. (Arrays of LEDs stored, combined with common effects - sweeps, waves, pans, etc - and the ability to set timers and custom effects is a lot of work that I don't *mind* doing, but don't wanna replicate if I can help it.)

Thoughts are welcome..!

#2 6 years ago

FPG

luvthatapex2

Pinside member

North Wales, PA

11y 129K 5,768 7 100

There are a few things you need and some reading to do, but its not difficult. Here is a parts list. You didn't specify RGB or WHITE lighting so I am quoting RGB.
This will guide you through controlling 50-100 lamps in a playfield with all sorts of fading, sweep effects.

These are just examples of where to purchase the parts, feel free to get them wherever you like.

Power
https://www.adafruit.com/product/276

Power adapter (this is fine for 50 lamps, you may need 3A for 100 lamps)
https://www.adafruit.com/product/368

(2) of these for 100 lamps
ebay.com link: 50pcs Ws2811 RGB Full Color 12mm Pixels Digital Addressable LED String Dc 5v Fa

CPU
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1501

Connecting them up, also read the
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/basic-connections

and the software
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/software

#3 6 years ago

F X

Coyote

Pinside member

9y 107K 8,986

Yeah, I was going to go the Arduino route if there wasn't something more pinball related.
The neopixel works, but while I haven't completely looked into it, you couldn't do anything other than fading and such done. I while fading sweeps are good, it would be more difficult to do something like TAF or RS has in attract mode, with specific lights doing one sequence and other lights doing another sequence.

What would be the *best* would be the ability to run PinMAME on a small SBC (Arduino, RPi), and have it connected to a PacLED64. SBC boots up, runs the associated ROM (which all it does is boot to attract mode), and voila!

However, I'm still looking into that at the moment. A fallback idea is the Arduino path then!

And, for clarification, I wasn't thinking of RGB - single color LEDs.

#4 6 years ago

JAB

jabdoa

Inactive member

7y 46,050 448

The Mission Pinball Framework can interface will all kinds of controllers. Either P-Roc/FAST/SPIKE/OPP/Lisy or others such as fadecandy, arduino or RPi. If you want to go with serial LEDs I would recommend the Fadecandy. Very inexpensive, reliable and scalable. Also supports temporal dithering and fades in hardware. In the MPF ecosystem there are currently at least two different tools to create light shows. One is rendering shows live and the other offline. Alternatively you can create shows by hand editing show files.

#5 6 years ago

F X

Coyote

Pinside member

9y 107K 8,986

Quoted from jabdoa:
The Mission Pinball Framework can interface will all kinds of controllers. Either P-Roc/FAST/SPIKE/OPP/Lisy or others such as fadecandy, arduino or RPi. If you want to go with serial LEDs I would recommend the Fadecandy. Very inexpensive, reliable and scalable. Also supports temporal dithering and fades in hardware. In the MPF ecosystem there are currently at least two different tools to create light shows. One is rendering shows live and the other offline. Alternatively you can create shows by hand editing show files.

Is there somewhere this MPF 'tools' for lightshows are described or documented? Would like to look into that..! Thanks!

#6 6 years ago

JAB

jabdoa

Inactive member

7y 46,050 448

General show documentation: http://docs.missionpinball.org/en/latest/shows/content.html. Offline show creator is here: https://github.com/missionpinball/showcreator. Online show creator just uses the playfield as a virtual display which means that you can use all widgets: http://docs.missionpinball.org/en/latest/displays/widgets/index.html and then use display_light_player to map the display to your lights. It's rendered using OpenGL.

Jan

#7 6 years ago

F X

Coyote

Pinside member

9y 107K 8,986

Thanks! I'll take a peek!

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