(Topic ID: 193291)

DIY LED Displays for Classic Bally/Stern **Closeout Sale** on 1st Gen Sets

By acebathound

6 years ago


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#6 6 years ago

Is there any way to use the Uno to upgrade a 6-digit Stern game like Meteor to 7-digits?

#14 6 years ago
Quoted from Cheddar:

I printed off a small run of Oliver's 7 digit conversion boards if anyone is interested.

Cool. PM sent.

#17 6 years ago

I'm pretty stoked about putting 7-digits of blue into my Meteor without breaking the bank. Thanks to Acebathound and Cheddar!

1 week later
#33 6 years ago

Tracking says my package will be here Monday!

3 weeks later
#55 6 years ago

I finally found time to build the rest of the kits for Meteor. It takes me about an hour for each one taking my time to get them right. Now I just need to do the wiring mods and burn some ROMs to adapt the 7 digit displays into the 6 digit game! Hopefully I will be done in a few more days.

Notes:
1) Yes, the connectors need to be installed so the locking feature is on the bottom instead of on the top. This fixes the cap clearance, but more importantly the connector in the machine will not even connect to the machine with it facing up.
2) I had a little trouble on the first one getting the displays to all sit flush while soldering. To fix this I cut the protective tape flush to the sides before inserting the displays to help them fit together better. Also, the big can capacitor is a little taller than the displays so I left it off the board until after installing the displays. This let me tape the whole board down flat to the bench while soldering the displays. This holds them snug and flush to the board while soldering.
3) The instructions listed C1 twice. C1 is obviously the can and C4 is the little one by VR1
4) I use masking tape to hold the components in while soldering so they stay in place. This is important on the long connector to help the two connectors line up to easily connect to the machine.

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#57 6 years ago
Quoted from acebathound:

Cool! Thanks for the notes John!

I will hold off until it is all working for my final review, but thus far I am loving this product and it is a great value. The board is very nice and the solder flows like magic when you get into a rhythm. I have a Paragon project out in the garage that is about to get put together. I will probably update it also although I will most likely stick to the 6 digits on that one. Paragon is not so easily rolled!

#62 6 years ago

Ok finally got it all done. The boards went together fairly easy. Modifying Meteor was not super easy. Had to run the extra wires to handle the 7th digit. Fortunately this didn't require the little board that some games need to go to 7 digits. All I had to do was wire a single wire from CPU board to each of the player displays. Then the software has to be replaced with special 7 digit software and the MPU solder jumpers had to be modified to take 2732 EPROMs instead of the factory ROMs.

The other thing that I have to note is that for some reason the displays were a little low in the Meteor. I drilled new screw holes slightly higher than the original holes in the back panel to raise the displays a little less than 1/8 inch. With a little side to side adjustment, they now sit just right in the backglass windows.

Basically everything needed for the game mods is here:
http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

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#64 6 years ago

I moved it as far as it could go. I didn't take note of the old displays when I removed them so not sure they weren't low too. Plus I think they are a little smaller to begin with and I am not so sure my swing out isn't riding a little low too. It scrapes bottom pretty hard when I open it up.

Anyway it does look great and the displays are awesome!

One more note for anyone working on a game with the NVRAM. When I reconfigured the MPU board and put in the new EPROMs it must have reset the NVRAM and scrambled it. The game was acting REALLY strange until I remembered to go through and clear all of the audits in the menu. That made things work better! Never again will I forget that!

5 months later
#140 6 years ago
Quoted from acebathound:

John_I wins a free set of displays!!

Woo hoo! Just in time for me to start putting my Paragon back together!

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