Creature from the Black Lagoon
Bally, 1992You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider rubberducks.
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Quoted from PinballMikeD:Sorry guys, I've run into numerous supplier issues and my work life doesn't appear to be easing up anytime soon. Therefore, I've decide to discontinue this product. I hate leaving people hanging, but I just don't see a realistic time frame for making anymore of these MODs in the foreseeable future.
Would you consider licensing the design to another party then?
Quoted from nwpinball:It would be awesome if you included and upgrade kit/info for those of us that have earlier versions!
+1, though not sure how feasible it is.
I assume the controller / psu will be reused, but an upgraded Pi or other mini computer is likely i would have thought. The latency of the existing kit is presumably due to modest power of the Pi and slow media read / playback.
Also, would probably make sense to use a modern monitor / mini tv with global availability at 1920x1080.
Having now written that, I expect buying a new kit and selling the old one would be preferable.
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:Understood - the software should be the easiest part. I'd be more than happy to jump on that, but we'd need Mike's code to start with (or somebody to copy an SDcard with it on there). I have 5 or 6 Pis ("Pies?") that are up to the challenge. I think I have a Pi Nano somewhere, which might be the most cost effective option, but only if we can source some of the other parts.
Is there a BOM somewhere? I don't have one of these mods so I don't know what is required. Yes, a 19" LCD screen (cheap) and the Pi, but I am not familiar with the switch matrix board. Can somebody post some pictures? There's almost certainly a way to do this, parts are swappable. Did Mike mention which parts are the most difficult to find?
One thing to improve, which I gather Mike intended to do with a mooted updated kit, was improve latency between media playing and modes starting or events being triggered.
I think my kit is from the second run of kits, and in common with all the youtube footage I've seen, the lag is quite considerable. Still a huge improvement on the static hologram, but something that could really make it way more interactive if the latency is significantly lowered.
Not sure whether it's an issue of low storage read speed, low processing power, or both (probably both).
TLDR don't go for the cheapest Pi (they're all cheap) as it may prove rather limiting.
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:Well the Pi3 has the most advanced processor and most RAM, but all of the PIs share the same exact GPU, which is doing most of the work in playing the video (which is, I think, the most resource-intensive thing this mod would do). Reading switch voltages and doing fairly simple logic evaluations should be blazing fast on any of them. The playing of video, unfortunately, takes time on these things. this can be sped up a tiny bit with a super-fast SD card, but the Pi GPU is just not the greatest. I'll have to do a test to see which one uses faster RAM, which can be more important than how *much*
The 3 really has the same GPU as the original? Not even same type but more cores or higher clock?
I'm pretty sure some of the Taiwanese or Chinese Pi alternatives have much stronger GPUs. They may be a better bet in this case, then.
The ASUS Tinker board would perhaps be perfect ... it has a far stronger GPU, and supports H.265 which would keep video file sizes minimal and further reduce loading and response times.
As it's made by ASUS and just came out, support and long term availability should not be issues either.
Slight overkill perhaps, but it's still within the realms of affordability. £55 in the UK and I'd guess around $65 when it hits US shelves.
Quoted from PinballMikeD:Video start/stop delays are programmed to ensure modes aren’t activated/de-activated by false trigger conditions – this was done initially. For example, every lamp in the game blinks when an extra ball is awarded, so we had to program around game play conditions like this that would falsely activate (or deactivate) videos features. In addition, we wanted to give people the ability to load their own videos for every interactive feature, regardless of the file format (.mov, .avi, etc.). Loading videos on the fly does add some processing delay. However, the flexibility of giving users unlimited customizable videos for every game mode is the best part of the MOD – just my opinion.
The GPU on the RPi is fine.
That makes sense. However, in my view it does break immersion quite significantly with some of the delays ... particularly where there's a significant pause at the start of a mode in the game itself, and then the media only begins playing some time after the pause (by which time you're conce trating more on the ball than the pf window).
Others may disagree, but I think it's definitely something worth experimenting with, if this is to be resurrected.
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Matthews, NC