Very cool

I hav a MM playfield I planned on doing this to, Ill be reaching out soon!

Just discovered this topic. I've been mulling over the same ideas recently but haven't gotten started yet.

I like killerrobots idea of wiring the GI LEDs in parallel. Very clever. Usually all the LEDs are in series which makes them individually addressable. But by wiring them in parallel you get multiples behaving the same way, with fewer LEDs to program. You could in theory create branches of LEDs that behave the same way too.

I found @meesterpieter's printable brackets at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4923502 Thank you for making those available.

The techniques described in this topic are similar to a project I did a while ago for Magic City (an EM game). I started with LED strips but ended up having a board made since I had a smaller area to cover. Details at: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-magic-city-rotating-backglass-lamp-feature#post-4582640

/Mark

Not to bring this back from the dead, but I threw a couple of STLs up on thingiverse for some drop targets to fill the space.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5487586
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Nice idea, might use them in the future, thanks for sharing!

Well finally completed my T2 wall art playfield (took almost a year, lol). HUGE thank you to Lhyrgoif for his knowledge and sharing on this. With his help I was able to dump the authentic T2 attract mode using VPX and tweak that so that it looped fairly seamlessly. Then after that I mixed in my own sequences into the mix fully maximizing the space on the arduino uno (think I'm at like 99%). Some highlights: Emergency shutoff switch, over 100 addressable LEDs (color matched to make those inserts pop), stainless 'blades', and used some of those JJP acrylic GI rods. I also wanted to highlight the UV reactive ink on this playfield as well so added some UV LED strips in the frame. (note a carpenter I am not... that frame was a PITA, and still turned out meh, LOL)

Anyway, Turned out pretty good and thought I would share. Hopefully resurrecting this thread will spark some more interest for some more playfield art builds

Photos of the build process here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LGPyoXRYBW9PREoA9

Love it! I have a Getaway playfield that I've been thinking about doing something like to it. Just need to make the time one of these days to sit down and plan out everything so that it doesn't turn into a year long project.

I may hit you up soon on this - this is something I was looking at doing - but without the customizations. Essentially just let the ROM run and do the offiial lightshows on PFs.

Very nice. I love it.

Looking good! I have all the parts waiting around to do another one of these, just waiting on finding a cheap playfield. I can't see spending $500 for a playfield that is destined to be wall art.

Not aiming high enough! I've bought playfields for $800-900 that were meant to be wall art.

I like ScottyC 's work - but I was planning on a slightly different way of mounting/lamps - since I don't want to unnecessarily drill holes in the PF for LEDs, I thought about mounting mine to a sheet of plywood, painted black - all in line where the inserts are. Then if I wanted to switch out playfields, I'd switch out the PF and the light board behind it. Both would mount in some kind of frame for easy removal, of course. A single Rpi or controller to operate the LEDs, I just tell it which PF to run the lightshow for.

Bringing this back again. Amazing work by all parties here.

I want to do this with a TOTAN playfield as a gift for my wife.

Are the methods described here the simplest method of doing this. I know I can super simple and just do Christmas lights but that won’t have any movement or color to it

I was just thinking of making some of these and here you go and do it for me bro, thanks! I have a Bally Trek playfield I'm going to do some touch up and hang in my game room. I'll just take the 6 bank and remove 2 "tombstones"

Glad I was able to help!

There are of course a lot of ways to tackle it, but I think this is fairly easy and inexpensive, yet gives a lot of flexibility to make it do what you want. It’s also a fun project if you are into tinkering.

I coded mine a little differently that OP to maximize the number of effects I could create. You will have to customize your own code to the layout of your playfield, so it isn’t as easy as plug and play, but only requires basic programming knowledge.

It does look a million times better than Christmas lights though and it worth the effort.

Is the parts list still accurate?

I really wish I had the free time to try this. Definitely a future project

Good to see some new posts in this thread. I've read and re-read parts of it many times over - prepping for a similar project.

Essentially, yes. I was able to piece together what seems like everything needed via links in this thead and a little additional reading / searching.
I don't think anyone ever posted a link to a specific power supply, but it's not hard to find a 5 or 12V one on Amazon. Happy to send a list of what I went with if you want.

Anyway. I went from a handful of xmas gift idea links to my wife to this with little trouble.
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Still putzing around with code to see how to do various things, so not really much to report or show. Don't actually have a playfield to use at the moment, but have asked around a little.

If anyone is interested in getting started - The recs I've seen here and elsewhere mention using a particular resistor on the data line and a capacitor across the power and ground. I now have 99 extra resistors and 9 extra capacitors that I'll likely NEVER have a use for. PM if you'd like a pair for a project.

Would love a parts list that you have put together so I can be sure I am getting the correct things.

I would only need about 100 or so LEDs for the PF I am looking to do (based on counting inserts)

It also appears you went with a continuous string (like christmas lights) vs individual LEDs mounted and then wired - is that correct?

I'll post links to what I went with when I get home from work. Mostly all bought as Xmas gifts, so I assume most links will still work.

The lights that I chose come in strings of 50 - that's two strings connected - they're still individually addressable though. That was just a pic from some testing I was doing to make sure they all light up. There's a little learning curve on the programming side of things, but if you've ever written any scripting or are familiar with for and while loops - it's pretty easy to get the lights doing some interesting things quickly.

Ok - basically a piecemeal collection of links from this thread and elsewhere.

These parts are by no means the only things available, but here's what I went with:

Lights - 12v ws2811 - two strings of 50.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XN66ZY6/

An Ardiuno Uno.
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Board-ATmega328P-ATMEGA16U2-Compliant/dp/B01EWOE0UU/

Power Supply. To my knowledge, nobody linked to any particular supply in this thread. I just read a bit, and went with a relatively cheap 12V 5A 60W power switcher.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078RY6YY3
This could be complete overkill. It could be perfect for the task. I'm open to ridicule if it's an awful choice. But it's small, easy to deal with and things are working.

I now have 99 extra of this resistor - I ordered 330ohm - looks like maybe that particular one is out, but see prior comment.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDKYJGTN

And 9 of this capacitor:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WGPNM19

I used the project as an excuse to get this and it's great despite how infrequently I'll use it:
https://www.amazon.com/KAIWEETS-Self-Adjusting-Wire-Stripper/dp/B097SZ1F7W/

Otherwise you'd just need wire, heat shrink and figure out how you're going to attached the LEDS to the back of the playfield.
I went with a packet of these guys though I wonder how a side mounted LED will effect the intensity of the light shining through.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GJR01YM

This is basically how I wired things up, but with a 12V supply.
****PHOTO REMOVED*****

When programming, disconnect the power from the supply to the arduino and hook it up to your pc/mac via a USB cable that should have come with it. While you're programming it's powered by your computer. Once you have a program running, you can unhook it from the computer, and insert the wire from the power supply back in.

Edit: I'm back at this a month plus later and I realized that that photo was really wrong. Don't plus the positive lead from a 12V power supply into the 5V pin on the arduino. Use the "VIN" one. I had been running basic programs fine a month ago, revisited things, forgot what I was doing and used the wrong pin.
Here's to accidentally frying an Uno.

I'll post pictures once I'm further along. I've come to find I don't like how bright the inserts are when side mounting the LEDs. Will likely bend some wires along the lines of the OP.

Keeping this thread alive....

A gracious fellow pinsider got my project jump started with not only a Stars playfield but a set of plastics.
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Mounting the LEDs....
In a perfect world, I'd like to mount the LEDs straight at the inserts. There's a 3D printer file linked in this thread that looks to be perfect, but I don't have a printer and I got impatient not wanting to wait for a friend to write back about what he'd want to print off 50 or so brackets.

More power to the OP. I gave it a shot bending some wire to create little holders for the LEDs. It was awful and the results were not great at all.
So nylon cable holders it is! And as it turns out, even when mounted at a 90 degree angle, the LEDs light up the inserts just fine. But if I do this again - I'm making a mental note to find someone with a 3D printer print up a batch of the brackets ahead of time.

Anyway. I wanted to move ahead and I got started.
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I had a gap between this section and the next few inserts/GI sockets so I clipped them off intending to solder in extentions.

LESSON ONE - I'm stringing up approximately 80 inserts and GI sockets and have 100 LEDs. It's WAY WAY WAY easier to just waste an LED to bridge a gap than to bother with what turns into 6 lap joints to solder. It's not as clean, but I'm OK with the trade off. This turned out to be the only cut I made.

One section grew.
(You can see where I soldered in the three extensions toward the bottom.)
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And what the heck no point stopping now.
(The extra LEDs at the end of the 2nd string are just dangling here. Once I'm sure I don't need more I'll clip them off to help with cable management a bit.)
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Minimal cuts meant minimal testing needed, but of course I had to turn it on now and then to watch the lights flashing.
IMG_2254 (resized).JPG

Hot glued LEDs directly into the GI sockets, and at the end of the night had things basically ready to go for more programming.

A very basic "3 lights traveling along the string" test program:

Pretty happy with the success for far.

Looking good. Did you just go with the recommended products above to make it happen or use something else?

Links to the ones I went with are a post above from a few weeks ago. There's basically dozens of viable options for every component though.

Clearly had brain fart while trying to record about the LED PF. I used an UNO for both projects.

The PF I used color matched LEDs and then 3D printed little holders. I think they are in a sequence of 8 at a time and then each leg is a block of colors. So one LED of each color lights at a time. Something like that. It's a super basic sketch I found, but it looks cool.

The PINBALL light I 3D printed and did a bunch of soldering. That sketch has like 9 sequences that you can change with a button, but as stated I might reupload just my favorite one. It has a multicolor rainbow trace thing it does with a cool fade.

I love this with the attract mode. Awesome idea!

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Plastics back in place...

I forgot/failed to run GI lights up to the openings at the top of the playfield I'm afraid. Don't want to just a load of unused lights up there, so I'll be soldering in another extension after all. I think I might just drill a couple extra holes under the arch plastics to light it up more as well. Right now there's just a single opening on each side.

I also need to decide what to do with the pop opening, as well as the two holes where there were previously rollover buttons.

But it's getting there. Then it's programming time.

I guess I should figure out what I actually WANT to do, but still having fun just messing about with things.