Updated! Thanks for the heads up! Missed removing that extra step.

How's everyone making out with the kits?

Thanks to those that gave feedback so far, including pointing out some small issues in the instructions!

I have a small batch of revised boards for the UNO & TRADITIONAL displays coming in next weeks so should have an additional 6-8x sets per model available again if they check out. I actually had to reroute traces quite a bit on all the boards with the resistor through-hole spacing changing, so wanted to just do another smaller batch of boards before placing a larger order. The only difference is a physical jumper for the dot/comma added along with the smd solder blob pads. Functionally the same as REV1 boards, but with changes made that were noted earlier in this thread. If things check out I'll immediately be placing a larger order of boards so I can finally get them available on the shopping cart for easier ordering.

Still have a few remaining sets of REV1 boards available at a 5% discount as DIY Kits or Fully Assembled. I'll start assembling remaining REV1 sets and offering them on eBay if they're still here when the larger order of revised boards come in.

Display Tester! I mentioned this in the RETROFIT thread, but in case anyone interested in these new kits missed it -- these are boards you can plug in to make initial testing of the display kits much easier. Great for anyone planning to build out more than one or two display kits. These should be available sometime in the next 1-2 months via the website.

display_tester (resized).jpg

This is just a prototype -- I've sent a few of them out already. Plugs into the display's 0.156 header. Connect +5v and GND & you're in-business. I've been using it in-house and it's certainly made testing a lot easier. I set the digit to light up (ie. "8") on one 4-bit DIP switch bank, then just lightly push each of the switches on the 8-bit bank to light each digit up quickly (instead of flipping them fully).

I'll probably add the option of an on-board fuse in the next revision. Right now I recommend using a 1/8 amp fuse in-line with the +5v. I still have a handful of prototype boards left, so PM if you're interested.

Cool! They look great! Thanks for the notes John!

I think I cleared up the C1/C4 reference in the updated document, you may have an earlier version. I just searched the latest document and am only finding one reference to each of those.

You're right it may be best to install the electrolytic cap after the led digits. I was trying to do the ground-up approach but didn't want the led digits to be in the way of soldering the J1 pads on the front of the board. Probably better for the order of the last few components to be J1 headers, then LED digits, then electrolytic cap.

I just assembled a few sets of the TRADITIONAL style displays this past week. Averaged about 30min per display moving quick as I could efficiently, which was about as expected.

Good News! New boards arrived today. I only had a chance to assemble one 6-digit and one 7-digit UNO design, but the new resistor hole spacing is much better! Should make assembly a lot easier.

There's a footprint for 2.54mm jumper for the dot/comma on both designs, along with the solder pad jumpers. I haven't decided yet if I'll be including parts for the 2.54mm jumper in the DIY kits. I'd think half the people or more would probably just use the solder pad method.. but I could be wrong. Mainly I wanted it there when selling fully assembled sets so the dot/comma could be enabled without someone needing soldering tools.

Haven't had a chance to assemble one of the TRADITIONAL displays yet. Lots more tweaks were done to that design, so here's hoping

Assembled a TRADITIONAL display & all the changes in the newest board revision look great!

Both displays can now be ordered via shopping cart as DIY Kits. Latest version boards are shipping.

Pinitech UNO LED Displays
http://www.pinitech.com/products/ballystern_display_uno.php

PINITECH TRADITIONAL LED Displays
http://www.pinitech.com/products/ballystern_display_traditional.php

For Fully Assembled versions you'll have to contact me via PM or email for right now.

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
NVRAM, kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

John, was that after loosening the screws and pushing the UNO board up slightly? The slots in the UNO design should allow some movement upward.. maybe 1/8 inch. But you'd have to push the display up as you tighten one screw on each side. You may have done that and still found they needed to be raised a bit higher, but just wanted to point that out.

I tried having it so the displays could sit on the screw & be about where they needed to be for most games. A little low is better than too high since the slots are a bit larger than the screws so the display can be adjusted upward slightly.

METEOR looks great by the way! Thanks for the info on the 7-digit mod & the pictures!

Assembled options for these displays have been added to the website shopping cart. At this time, expect an additional delay of 1-2 business days for any assembled sets. These take several hours to build out and I'll be building them on-demand as orders come in for right now. DIY Kits should ship same-day or next-day in most cases.

TRADITIONAL
http://www.pinitech.com/products/ballystern_display_traditional.php

UNO
http://www.pinitech.com/products/ballystern_display_uno.php

Last day for a chance to win a free set of these displays in PINITECH's Labor Day Giveaway!
No purchase necessary to enter.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinitech-labor-day-sale-pimp-your-bally-led-display-giveaway

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
NVRAM, kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

Is there interest in having a single display kit option available via the shopping cart on the website?

Just wanted to get some feedback here. I'm thinking it'll be something to try out, since I'm sure some people would like to just replace a single display or want to try these displays out before committing to a full set. Would probably be about $4 more for a single display kit when compared to it being part of a set (ie. a 6-digit UNO in AMBER would be $27.95 + shipping). Shipping would be cheaper since a single display can go First Class Mail within the US.

Unfortunately have other commitments that weekend. There was a chance I'd be going Friday but at this point it's looking less likely. I'll update if that changes.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've added single display options for DIY Kits and Assembled displays to the PINITECH Pinside Shop @ https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1030-pinitech

I'll try to get those options added to the website shopping cart soon as well.

gallerygiveaway.png

I'm going to do what I did with the RETROFIT displays and offer a giveaway for anyone that posts a photo of a full set of either the Pinitech UNO or Pinitech Traditional displays installed in their machine.

Buy a set as a DIY Kit or Fully Assembled displays, take a clear picture of the complete set in the machine with the lights dimmed/off & post it to this thread. That's it, you're entered to win!

Better yet? I'll be doing 3x separate drawings between now and the end of 2017! All with the same prizes being offered. So if you purchase a single set in September & then post a picture on this thread of the completed displays -- you'll be entered into all 3x drawings.

Photos Used For Gallery
Photos will be used for the photo gallery I'll be creating for these displays. I'd really like to build a large gallery of machines with these displays installed showing all the different color options and how different games look. Your photo(s) posted to this thread will be used in the gallery unless you indicate you would not like them used.

Prizes
Prizes are going to be amped up this time around to make it really worthwhile. As mentioned, I have some REV1 sets left over and I'm going to use these as the prizes for this contest. I'll be fully assembling these boards. The only catch is if you want the dot/decimal enabled you'll need to tell me before I send the displays out or enable it yourself via smd jumper pads.

• MAIN PRIZE - Fully Assembled UNO or Traditional Display Set.
  Your choice of 6-digit or 7-digit on the Traditional sets. UNO displays will be 6-digit variety.
• SECONDARY PRIZES (2 per drawing) - Your choice of a single 6-digit display or 2x NVRAM Modules

Eligibility
Anyone that purchases a full display set can be entered into the drawing by posting a picture of a complete set of these displays in their machine. Please try to post as clear of a picture (or pictures) as possible with lights dimmed or off, that shows the backglass & displays installed.. and also indicate the type of display (Traditional/UNO) and color of digits / filters being used.

• For the main prize, entries will be once-per-individual and your entry will roll over into the next drawing. Purchase a single display set in September you'll have 3x chances to win a main prize (fully assembled display set). Only one entry per individual regardless of number of display sets purchased.
• Secondary Prizes will be based on a separate set of entries. For these prizes, you'll gain an entry for every photo variation you post. So buy a set of displays, take a picture of them in multiple games -- or take pictures with different filters installed on a white digit set, and you'll gain multiple entries. No limit on number of entries.

Once someone wins a main prize, they'll be excluded from future drawings for the main prize (but still eligible to win a secondary prize). Once someone wins a secondary prize, they'll be excluded from future drawings for the secondary prize (but still eligible to win the main prize). Again, entries will roll-over into the next drawing so if you don't win the first drawing you'll still have a chance in 2x more drawings between now and the end of 2017 without doing anything else.

Drawing Frequency
I was going to do drawings at the end of the month, but since September and October will be partial months for me, I'm just going to space these evenly through the year & base it on "entries received".

Rough estimates of when the drawings should take place:
-1st drawing mid-to-late October
-2nd drawing late-November
-3rd drawing end of December.

Already Purchased A Set? Or Posted Pictures
If you already purchased a display set, but have not posted pictures on this thread yet -- all you need to do is a post a photo to get entered. If you've already posted a photo, you're already on the list for the 1st drawing.

Good luck to all & thank you for your patronage!!

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
NVRAM, kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

Youtube videos of a display set in-action can also count as giveaway entries Just figured I'd put that out there.

Sometime I'll get a GoPro clone and try to learn how to do a snazzy video with techno music in the background, since that seems to be what the young kids are all doing.

There's often a plasma versus LED kind of debate going on when talking about new displays -- along with the thought of "why upgrade plasma displays until they go bad?" I thought I'd throw my opinion out there, being objective as possible.

I feel the displays are one of the major focal points in a game, as much as the playfield or backglass. I find non-matching displays to be very distracting. Your brain thinks all the displays are the same -- and should look the same, but they don't because used plasma displays have all aged differently even if they're original to the machine (which isn't likely). People nit-pick LEDs not matching plasma exactly -- and I get it, I was there too. But think about it -- plasma glass doesn't even match other plasma glass! The only time that happened was when it was new from the factory -- everything looked crisp and the glass from the same manufacturer was used. But odds are your machine(s) have different glass in them now, different fonts, different comma styles.. or the displays are looking different because they've aged differently depending on what was lit up on the segments in attract-mode.

It dawned on me that what really looks nice is matching set of displays, that eliminate this visual distraction of displays looking differently. That's a huge reason to upgrade I think. Then there's the other advantages -- LEDs look more vivid, they modernize these classic games. There should be little doubt a Classic Bally or Stern game with more colorful LED bulbs in the playfield, tastefully done to highlight things better.. will get more attention and plays at a pinball show or in an arcade than a machine with incandescent bulbs. That's the same effect the LED displays have on these games. It adds a lot to the visual appeal and "newness" of the game. Plus, you have the ability to control brightness based on the ambient lighting conditions, which was never something you could do with plasma displays. I only see upsides in upgrading... except that after you upgrade one game, you'll probably want to upgrade more

Great to hear everything went well! I didn't feel the surface mount part would be any issue for people with even basic soldering tools and skills, but definitely nice to have confirmation from someone that was initially nervous

Looks great, nice job! First time I've seen a Trident with LED displays I've sold in it. Cool!

Great to hear it! BLUE displays always looks fantastic in XENON!

I'm back after several weeks away, so have these DIY Kits available to ship again.

CONTEST UPDATE
I'm counting about 4x entries in this thread so far for the PHOTO GALLERY CONTEST. Was hoping to see some more entries flowing in, but as mentioned in the contest announcement the drawing dates will also depend on total entries. So what I'm going to do here is wait until at least 10x total new entries are received for each drawing. The drawings will then occur the 1st week of the following month that 10x entries are received.

So for the first drawing, if 10x entries are received by end of October, I'll draw a winner 1st week in November. Anyone that doesn't win will be entered again into the next contest.. three contests total at the moment, so three chances to win with a single entry if you get entered into the 1st drawing.

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
NVRAM, kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

Quick note on a small change to the TRADITIONAL (2-board) style display that will soon start affecting display sets sent out. PIN #1 solder pad is fully removed on "REV B" boards at the J1 header on the displays (as shown below). That's really the only change, but it deserved a "REV B" marking.

PIN #1 is the where the high voltage dead-ends. Most aftermarket displays have kept the full 20-pin header on the display boards, so there's still some high voltage showing up at the board (at the solder pad on PIN #1) if the high voltage fuse is not pulled. The UNO design already had this change and has always been a 19-pin header - -that's because the high voltage point would have otherwise been accessible from the front of the machine. I kept with convention on the TRADITIONAL design, but have ultimately decided it makes no sense there either. Especially after a few "reminders" while hot-swapping LED displays for testing without the high voltage fuse removed.

display_revb (resized).jpg

Have a few more REV A sets to get through before these start shipping, but wanted to give a heads up.

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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
NVRAM, kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines

Had someone request a multi-color display for the pac maze display in Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man (blue, yellow magenta colors since the cabinet art has those colors). This is for "Time To Beat", "Mazes Complete" and "Pac-man Moves" readout. I really liked the idea, I'll probably do this to mine, whenever it gets dug out from storage. This is a white display with filters over two digits at a time.

pacmaze.jpg

Nice color choice with the green on the playfield and using green for flipper rubbers and displays! I like finding colors on the playfield that aren't really present in the backglass.. kind of balances things out, yet contrasts with the backglass too.

I'm going to take some better shots of a single white display with each of the color filters I'm offering and post some recommended DSLR settings to get decent pictures. If I can figure out some way to get better color representation with phone cameras too I'll post some recommendations. My phone is a piece of junk though so the answer might be not to use a piece of junk phone

Multi-color display (white digit with blue/yellow/magenta filters) installed in customer's machine. Livens it up a bit down there! Definitely going to have to do that on mine when I get it setup again. Will probably go for blue displays in the player positions -- though red might look cool too.

pacmaze.jpg

pacmaze2.jpg

Gonna try something fun here..

The first 3x people that post a decent quality video showing a set of these full display kits (UNO or TRADITIONAL) in-action in their machine get a FREE NVRAM (any style). If you can get it done before Sunday afternoon, I'll make sure the nvram goes out in Monday's mail. Otherwise it'll ship after 11/27. If you're within the United States I'll send it out for free. Otherwise will split shipping 50/50 with Canada/Australia folks.

Quick video of the displays in attract mode is fine (dim lighting, fairly accurate color representation, non-shaky video is preferred). Bonus points if you can show the brightness control in-action on a single display (from unlit slowly adjusted to full brightness). If you want to go further and play a game, show the display test, or narrate anything.. that's cool too.

If no takers, I'll try and get a video posted myself sometime in December. Been meaning to, but my equipment isn't that great and I've only got Xenon and a shuffle alley to show the displays in at the moment. Figure some customers probably have a better phone camera or decent video equipment and this would be an easy way to score a free nvram

Many thanks to everyone that's posted comments/testimonials and photos so far! Keep 'em coming & don't forget to enter the BIG GIVEAWAY if you haven't already!

Cool! PM me with your nvram choice & address to send to! Will get that right out for you =]

........

2x nvram modules still up for grabs!

Let me be your motivation to get them soldered up! Judging by the lack of response here on the 3x drawings I'm doing to give away $250 in prizes per contest, you might have a bit of time lol.

Forgetting.. did you buy an AMBER set? I'd like to get a video demo of a couple AMBER displays mixed with the plasma displays. Then a video of a full AMBER set installed in a game. I may have some more specific requests that would be nice to show on different game titles, so there could be a few more nvrams given away for assistance in getting video of something =]

I had a local repair tech here buy a set of AMBER UNO displays.. he also requested a "smoke colored" filter. The neutral filter I have fits the bill there. Reminded me that some people don't like the look of the white segments on the digits when the machine is off.

Here's a picture with the first player display replaced with an UNO display with neutral filter. He said it looked very close to stock plasma displays.

amber (resized).jpg

If enough people want to see a smoke grey / neutral filter included with all the sets, I can make that an option. On WHITE sets you'd have to double up on the filters (ie. use a red filter with a grey filter over top of it). I'd imagine on darker colors for WHITE sets you'd probably just want to forgo putting a grey filter on top as it'll probably already be dark enough to hide the segments and likely reduce brightness too much with light passing through two darker filters.

Ugh. I'm really out of touch with video equipment or editing. Something else to learn.

Anyway here's a demo of brightness control... unlit to full brightness =] Pretty smooth I think. Displays are current-limited to being efficient even at full brightness. This is not something I've really seen other displays with brightness control doing. My thoughts are, if you allow the user to pump the brightness up to full.. keep it efficient (in terms of lower current usage), even at full brightness.

Display Test running on Xenon..