Maybe you should also mention that this product has the last row display uncorrectly which is really a simple problem and has´t been fixed for weeks now. Not to mention that it does not provide even the simplest way of colorization like scene based palette switching.

That is really strange. It seems to be missing a signal line. Try to play with the ribbon cable and the connectors when the game is on to see if it comes to live then. We first need to find out wether it is a display or a sega controller issue. Do you have the chance to put it into another sega machine for testing ? We could also test with another dmd. It does´t need to be a large display. 128x32 also works. I used a stern LED DMD for testing when I repaired my Sega dmd controller. Trying another ribbon cable or turning it 180 degrees on both sides could also help.

I´m sure Rappelbox will take care about your problems.

I had a defective DMD board in my Batman Forever and it took me weeks to find the corroded via beneath a IC.
Before we start to search for a problem with pin2dmd we should make sure that the Sega DMD controller is properly working.

You could also use a cheap logic analyzer like this to verify the signals coming from the controller

ebay.com link: USB Logic Analyzer 24MHz 8 Channel UART IIC SPI Debug for MCU FPGA ARM

Although I think it doesn´t take any longer to mount the current pin2dmd solution, we will see what the future will bring for pin2dmd
With the deepest respect for the hardware pinballsp designs and manufactures he seems to have underestimated
the software part. To give you an idea, Steve and I have been working for more than 2 years now on pin2dmd spending a couple of hours almost every day to get where we are now. In comparison 10 months after announcing the DMDMK66 the functionality of Luis´s DMDMK66 128x32 firmware is still exactly the same as ecrutz´s public code of rgb.dmd, which he uses as a base for his development.
I´m sure he will fix the problem of the last row displayed incorrectly on his Sega display in the future, but this little problem alone taking several weeks to be fixed should give you an idea about his progress in software development.

You are right. If you need it plug and play now and don´t care wether full colorization will be possible some day or not you are served well with pinballsp´s current products.

But if you want your display fully functional and with working colorization possibilities but with a little more installation effort the current pin2dmd solution may be an option for you.

If you want both a plug and play display and pin2dmd functionality you may wait and see what the future will bring.

You should be honest too. A single static palette is not full color and Luis has not written the Magic Color program, he has started to write. Thats a big difference. We should talk about this as a feature when it is available.

Sure ! PIN2DMD is a DIY project, based on a widely available dev board. It is as much plug and play as the hardware suppliers/manufacturers make it. But you seem to prefer plug and play hardware more than fully functional available software.
That is your choice.

I´m not only talking about software. Luis is a good example to see how fast a good hardware can be designed and he is definitely not the only one who can do it.

This could also lead to problems with the Sega DMD controller. t is very sensitive to voltage falling below 5V.
There is a circuit testing for 5V and if it falls below 4.8 or so it keeps the dmd controller constantly resetting.
Any unnatural load to the power supply could cause a voltage drop to all power voltages.

By swapping GND and +5V it could now also be that you killed the capacitors on the power input of your display controller.

I had exactly the same problem with my Batman FE display controller. It worked for a few days and then suddenly stopped.
The root of the problem in the end was a bad corroded soldering joint (via) between the upper and lower layer of the pcb hidden underneath a IC. Took me two weeks to find that.

Instead of the obscure trick crash is describing I prefer a more profound and scientific approach.
Do you have a oscilloscope ? You could check wether the cpu keeps resetting the display controller.
The signal is on J3-20. Also check wether pin 8 on the TL7705 is low.

A logic analyzer hooked to the dmd connector would also help.

You could also compare the input and output of the 74HCT240 and see if a signal is missing.

I think the problem is not the electronic repair of the servo controller board, it is the pic firmware controlling the servo.
If the pic16c56 is defective you need to program a new one and without the code it is impossible to get a working controller.
But if nobody has extracted the code so far, it should not be to hard to reengineer the functionality of the firmware and
write the code from scratch.

This ApplicationNote could help as a starting point.
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/cn/AppNotes/cn_00696a.pdf

Logic analyzers are cheap on ebay

ebay.com link: USB Logic Analyzer 24MHz 8 Channel UART IIC SPI Debug for MCU FPGA ARM

Logic analyzer should do it for now !

With little programming skills and the information in the manual page 93 it should be easy to write it.
You could also replace the complete servo controller with a Tiny85 Arduino which is supported by the
Arduino IDE and has code samples for servo control built in.
Unfortunatelly I don´t have a Franknstein and my Batman FE does not have that controller.

Install the salea logic software from here
https://www.saleae.com/downloads

Connect the channels to pin 1-3-5-7-9-11 and GND to any of the even pins of the dmd output

Start a recording.

If all is working you should see something like this

logic (resized).png

That way you attached all channels to GND. You should connect Ch1 to Pin 1, Ch2 to Pin 3, Ch3 to Pin 5, Ch4 to Pin 7, Ch5 to Pin 9, Ch6 to Pin 11 and GND to Pin 2.

Now you can check if the signals are there at the input of the transceiver 74HCT240.
Check pins 4,6,8,11,13,15 with your oscilloscope or solder testpins and connect your logic analyzer.
At pin 11 and 13 you should see the same as the signals above on channel 3 and 4.

On the logic analyzer the pins are numbered ch1 to ch8 but in the software it is ch0 to ch7.

And no signal at the other input pins of U30 ? Please test with the oscilloscope if you see anything. If yes replace U30. If no the problem is deeper and hard to find remote controlled.

This guy here offers professional repair service in the US for your controller for a fair fixed price !
http://webpages.charter.net/coinopcauldron/brepairs.html

You could make one yourself using this method
https://www.rainfall.com/pinball1/machines/Gottlieb-Airport-1969/How-To-Make-Pinball-Plastics-Restoration-Repair.html

You are bit too fast for autosync and only measure pins 1 to 10 but still a few things I can recognize. Pin5 seems to have a signal and pin 6 to 9 are high.
Pin 6 and 8 are input pins and should have a signal, so the problem seems to be earlier.

Please check functionality of the TL7705 wether it resets.

Seems to be constantly high which means it is resetting all the time. Either defective or 5V supply too low !

To be fair you have to mention that you live with a "last row not being displayed correctly" bug, which has not been fixed for months now.

You could also consider PIN2DMD XL as a replacement display solution and if you are not afraid of electronics you can even build it yourself.

Here is a video I made testing the Baywatch colorization in my Batman Forever which somehow makes it a Frankenstein solution putting the Hoff in a Batman suit

If you want to build it yourself you can find the advertising LED panels on aliexpress like this

https://fr.aliexpress.com/store/product/HD-LED-Video-Wall-P2-Indoor-Smd-Full-Color-Led-Display-Module-1-32-Scan-128/709678_32824445518.html

Instructions how to build are on pin2dmd.com and if you need some help a large pin2dmd community is on vpuniverse.com

Ready to use hardware kits are available from various sources like e.g. these

https://www.pinballshop.nl/electronics-parts/dmd/pin2dmd-complete-rgb.pin.dmd-xl-display-192x64-data-east-sega-ready-to-go-520-5075-00/
https://germangamingsupplies.com/RGBPINDMD-XL-192x64-DMD-fuer-Sega

Here is a test in a Frankenstein

You are right PinballSP has some advantages in design which in the end means it is better looking, but does this really make it the better solution ? I think the best solution would be if there was a nice looking plug and play hardware with pin2dmd xl running on it but this is something that is currently unfortunately not 100% available.

I think sonic is just frustrated that he jumped on the train too early and is now waiting for 3 months to have at least the display problem fixed and all he gets as an answer is next week over and over again. If the problem is really fixed why does it need more testing ? Why release a product with half finished software anyway ? I could never release a software which has a bug I know of and call it 100% working. I think the answer is simple. It is because pinballsp designed and released his product in a rush to get a piece of the pie. Do you really believe there will be colorizations for this platform ? You can calculate yourself when this will happen if a simple bug takes more than 3 months to be fixed.

I don´t say this because I want somebody to buy a pin2dmd xl. Why should I do this ? I only get 10 Euro from it, which I fully forward to charity projects anyway. I say it because I want to prevent that others make the same mistake and fall for the promises that most likely will never be kept. I created pin2dmd XL because I was in the same situation like Euro55. I had to replace a defective display in my Batman forever and I like to tinker with electronics. Btw pinballsp is still selling his pin2dmd hardware for 128x32 machines as DMDST32 in large quantities. Why is he doing this when his product is superior ?

AFAIK Mima and Sonic are the only users in this forum of pinballSP's Sega solution and they actively promote it wherever possible for whatever personal reason.

My advice is ask around in the other threads with large display machines (Baywatch, Maverick, Batman forever) and then make your own decision. I personally don´t care which way you go I just like it when people are happy.

Did you really have both solutions in your hand to compare them objectively or is it just because you can plug in the original power plug instead of connecting to some other (better !) power source ? There is a good reason why we don´t use the original power plug. It may be that your display is working but the 12V power source is not really suitable to power those LED panels. Compared to the original plasma panels the new LED panels need far more power. You are right that also has been discussed but I don´t think it is trolling to publish the risk of a design failure again and again. The Sega/DataEast power circuits are well known not to be reliable. Just because it is nice looking and more convenient for you doesn´t mean it is done right. There is a good reason why other display manufacturers don´t do it that way and it is not because they are not smart enough.

What a waste to pay for a color capable DMD and potentially never have the chance to fully make use of it.

Maybe I make a installation video next week that you can see what the real difference between the so called drop in replacement and a pin2dmd XL is. One thing for sure is that using a external power supply does not put your Sega power board at risk.

So here comes my video replacing my defective plasma display with a pin2dmd XL

The only part missing in the video is connecting the power cables to the wires coming from the power switch in the cabinet using two quick splice wire connectors as shown on the attached image

IMG_9545 (resized).JPG

right handed - yes
wear glasses - only for reading
nice hair - could be, but I don´t care
5'9'' - not even close - I'm 6' 6''
right at 40 years - I'm already closer to 50 than to 40
extremely intelligent - thanks for that, but I don´t know.

Stop it Dom. Needless to discuss this with the only two owners of that display. Of course it is not fixed, otherwise it would have already been publicly announced multiple times. Now I understand why Sonic does not care wether it is fully working or not. Commercial pinball operators don´t care about such things.

Sorry that my guess was wrong, but I just could not explain how somebody could live with such a stupid bug in a commercial product and you wrote it yourself that your Frank is commercially used. I´m glad for you, that at least this bug is fixed after more than 3 months now, but the list of unfulfilled promises is still long. If you don´t care wether they become reality some day or not, you will most likely be o.k. with your product choice if it doesn't burn your power board. At least you now have the very basic functionalities.

Good to hear !

First of all it was not a problem with PIN2DMD but a defective Sega controller board in your machine. I helped you to locate that problem and gave you the address where to get it repaired. (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-owners-club-ideas-and-info/page/5#post-4057252)
Now you a talking bad about PIN2DMD and have never asked me for installation help since you received your repaired Sega CPU and DMD controller ??!!

Malenko is working on it. http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/3702-mary-shelleys-frankenstein/

About the power source you should have a look it http://arcarc.xmission.com/Pinball/Stern%20Service%20Bulletins/sb/sb106.pdf