Hello,

I just installed a brand new pin2dmd XL in my Baywatch. I have lots of pixels noise on the display, quite unbearable. Also colors are sometimes right, sometimes wrong, Sonic in attract mode is green instead of blue, etc... Here are 2 videos showing the issues:

Firmware was 3.15, upgraded to 3.17, no change. I have tried 2 different SD cards, no change. "Pixel noise" is already here without sd card anyway.

Did someone already see this?

Thanks.

So, I've fixed the color issue, the default RGB palette of the display has to be changed (and someone had told me this before on vpu.. thanks to him).
But the awful pixel parasites are still there. I've tried with an external 12V supply instead of the 18V connector from the pin, exactly same result.
Plus there's something strange in the config menu, when a button is depressed the menu is clear but as soon as the button is released, the menu becomes shaky/blurry... even with the display disconnected from the pinball so this has nothing to do with the pinball here. See video, I'm starting to wonder if the pin2dmd is not defective?....

Hello,

Thanks for the hint. It's an Evo, isn't it supposed to be plug& play? Plus it has the same behaviour with an external 12V power supply. I just tried with a pinballsp display instead, powered by the original Molex connector of the pinball, and no issue of this kind:

R32 is a cms, changing it will void the warranty for sure because it will be visible. I suppose that lowering the 18V or 12V supply would have no effect?

Errr... I just looked closer and took a picture, obviously R32 already has been changed and it seems to be a 4.7K, labeled "4701".... what's that mess?
So there's another issue here..
Thanks.

20201118_225120 (resized).jpg

Hi Joerg,

Voltage at the panels is 4.14V .

Well, good guess, thanks. I stole a short one from the pinballsp display, used it as 1st connection from the evo board to the 1st led panel and problem is already greatly improved although not completely gone... I'm going to try to shorten all 3 as much as possible and will post the result.

OK, so all 3 ribbons shortened to the max (1st one 5cm instead of 17 and half-turns..), and good news, parasites are gone, display is crystal clear! Design/assembly mistake here..

But... next issue (didn't want to mix them). The display does not boot up when the pinball is switched on I have to press reset on the display once the pin has been switched on and then everything is fine. Which is of course not possible in daily use. Any idea on this?.. might need a change in the firmware I think. When the display is out of the pin, it boots fine as soon as power arrives.

Thanks.

I just tried, and it didn't boot either. I then removed the SD card, and it boots fine when the pinball is switched on. Weird.

So, I tried with a Sandisk SD instead of the Samsung. Now the display boots fine with the pinball, but it ignores the sd card, like if it was not there (no colorization). Again, if I press reset, then everything is fine and colorization is there. Definitely seems a firmware issue (currently 3.17).

Hello, I tried that, no change unfortunately.

I have tried 3.16, with 3 different sd cards, then 3.15 with the same 3 SD cards, always the same behaviour. Either steady black screen , or sd card ignored at boot, depending on the card. Each time, with any firmware or any sd card, pressing reset on the display fixes the issue. The sd cards are working at boot since it takes properly the .upd file when I change the firmware....

Then there would probably be other issues after resetting the display. But I'll download them again tomorrow and do a checksum to be sure.
I'll try cpu rom 4.0 too, I have 4.01 from pinballcode, I doubt this will change anything, but... I have to try everything.

Hello,

I have redownloaded and compared the 2 colorization files. Identical. I have replaced the 4.01 game code by official 4.0 . No change

Thanks, PM sent. Yeah it looks like some kind of timing issue with the boot process/order. Should be possible to fix this via software, well I hope so otherwise I'll have to return it, but the next one could be the same.

So, very good news today, with a new beta firmware adding a small delay in the sd card initialization, the problem is gone and the display now 100% working as expected. Thanks a lot Joerg!