Quoted from Mageek:Thanks for posting. Very similar to what I was looking at, the biggest problem is where to get “trigger from game”. Myself I would only want it to come on @ Self Destruct, Loader battle and all out war. I have a light activated circuit that that can sense when those LEDs are lit in combination with some sort of timer circuit may do the job (I see you have a 555 timer in your circuit). My beacons only draw max 100ma each @12v so plugging into the 12 volts on the power supply box on the bottom is not an issue. I’ll take this to PM.
My beacons take about 200 - 300 mA of power each for a total of 600 mA. If it is determined it is safe, 12V could definitely be taken from the game, but I made it so you could use an external power supply just in case.
As for a trigger for the game, you're right... there is no perfect trigger available. If new firmware is released that supports the beacons, it would be awesome to use that trigger. But I've been thinking about it and I really think that using the ball shooter-lane switch would be a fantastic trigger. In fact, I might be happier with this solution than any other triggers anyone comes up with. In my mind, it sounds pretty good... we'll have to see how it works in reality.
The 555 timer is only used for the purpose of switching my beacons into "rotate" mode on power-up. I do not currently have a good solution for detecting Self Destruct, Loader Battle, or all out war.... I'm hoping for a future firmware update to resolve that one. In the meantime, my focus is on the shooter-lane switch.
Also, added another protection diode for "FROM GAME" ground:
beacon-annunciator (resized).png