It will bend ok, and if it is going in place permanently it won't be a problem. They are very thin and very flexible, I just didn't want to be bending them back and forth repeatedly during testing.

That Elvira looks sick. And of course you could have one of these strips in that position and program it up.

Today, added diffuser film to the two side ramps. The warp ramp is still naked for comparison. There isn't a light on the planet that doesn't look better with a bit of diffusing. Note..patterns are still test patterns. And upper left ramp strip still missing.

Aurich's amazing translite is also on display (arrived today, truly awesome, man). The Promium approacheth..

I'll have you know, the technical name for that stuff is, indeed, "sparkle film" according to the Stern manual. And the problem with THAT is that you can't google it successfully because Whitney Houston's last film was called Sparkle.

The issue of mounting is very, very tricky. The natural colour of most FPCs is orange, so the early test models looks an absolute treat, lol. Deep down, everyone who wants lights, also wants the light fitting to be invisible. And in this case, with a diffuser layer, you then have to deal with the visibility of that installation as well. The warp ramp, being almost a feature or toy-like piece is not such a big issue, as it can sit up the back there and be all sparkly and great, but returns are different. People flame polish these FFS. Crystal clear ramps, I think most people want to retain, so the idea of a diffuser layer down the side of the machine is probably out anyway. Fortunately, in reality, anything down the outside of the ramps is pretty much invisible from the player angle anyway. Ramps across the playfield, like Tron, a different story though.

Got some more strips made and test machine now has full length left ramp strip. A few bugs ironed out. There are still a few floating around you will see.
Note the KMB jackpots. There is a pattern that reflects the jackpot which stops being activated once the jackpots are no longer paid. And that's not simply being triggered by reading lamps. There is switch counting logic in there that means I can keep track of heaps of stuff. Almost anything is possible.

You're right, Zitt. I haven't targeted the CPU bus for data. I am taking the LE (models other than STLE, which is different again) lamp data from the output that goes to the PF. So there is no RGB decoding going on, only lamp on/off/flashing, same as what I am taking from lamp matrix pins. And the reason I went for the matrix pins instead of the bus is so that when I head to other machines..DE for example, where there IS no similar bus, I have somewhere to go for to get a signal. I'll always be able to find lamp matrix headers on any machine. Can't always guarantee a data output from somewhere else.

Production quote requests going out this week. I'm not happy with the red in the LEDs I've been testing either. 255 red just ain't red. It's orange. Anyhoo, once I get that sorted should have a batch done within the next 3-4 weeks, fingers crossed.

Yes, that is the plan.

As I get Tron ready, I just thought I would demo the use of the strips somewhere other than the ramps. The first video is taken during gameplay and shows the area behind the TRON targets being lit and tied into the reward inserts, and the Arcade Scoop lit from inside tied to the mode inserts. The second video is shot just in lamp test mode, and I have dropped out another GI bulb (The GI bulbs wash out the LEDs) from the third flipper area, extending the effect farther up the left side.

Again, just a test, so ignore anything that might annoy you, all this is changeable.

There is no logic in this demo, just a simple tie to the chosen inserts. I am using two of my three channels to do this, but theoretically you could use one channel, daisy chain some strips together and have them doing separate things in their own location. If you want to do the ramps AND both these areas, you would have to daisy chain them, so that you could have a channel for each ramp.

Cheers,
Mike

It can do anything. For this demo I didn't code anything complicated, but you can tell it to do whatever you imagine. With two inserts flashing you could have it cycle through the colours, you could have one colour solid and then the second periodically blink over the top of it. Three inserts flashing, no problem, the same applies. I did set the Flynn green to flash at a different rate to the quorra green, to differentiate between the two inserts, since they are both green inserts you might want to see the difference in the scoop somehow. You can, of course, tell it to use any colour at all and not necessarily match the insert.

The point with this kit is that it is not permanently tied to any one insert, or switch. It is reading the whole matrix of both and then using rules to tell it what to do. In this demo I have simply told it that "if insert 'a' is flashing, then do 'x' ", but it is a very simple change to tell it , "if insert 'a' is flashing, then do 'x', but if insert 'a' AND insert 'b' are flashing, then do 'y' ".

Yep. It will work alongside Eli ramps. I started the idea on ramps, but I think other applications could be even more useful. Anything at all that you want to light up in concert with the game code can be done.

Here is a test run of some ramp code for Tron Pro. I have let it run in conjunction with the Eli ramps. I will put up another with the fibre ramps turned off for comparison. In this demo it recognises LC, Quorra and Disc MBs, super pops and spinners, and CLU and attract mode. Plenty more to go in.

Me.

lol. although, technically I can't be in the $800 club, as I WISH it had only cost me $800 thus far. Curse you, R&D!!