(Topic ID: 266605)

Replacing the M6800 in a Stern MPU100 with an Arduino

By DickHamill

3 years ago


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  • 282 posts
  • 51 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 80 days ago by DickHamill
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#140 2 years ago

DickHamill, I posed a question in Solid State Tech, re: replacing MPU-200 with -17 Bally, received a NO answer, based upon processor speed and address mapping. That post didn't address my purpose, as I didn't state it, outright.

Since I received a "not so good" reply on using the weebly.nvram.com replacement board with the Arduino, and having a -17 board on hand, I wondered if I could place the Arduino onto a -17 and have the combo work in a Stern Meteor, considering that the Arduino has its own clock.

So.. will Arduino (on RoyGBe board, with wav trigger), on Bally -17 MPU board work for Stern Meteor, in place of MPU-200?

1 week later
#154 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

connect your desktop computer to the wav trigger using a usb cable and the adapter to the 6-pin header you installed above

The FTDI Basic (and other FTDI adapters) have 6-pinout: DTR, RX, TX, VCC, CTS, GND, and a 5v/3.3v selector switch.
Meanwhile, the WAV Trigger 6-pinout: GRN=(unmarked), TX, RX, 5VIN, (nothing) GND=BLK

Are the RX/TX lines actually to be reversed in the cable, or only in usage (TX to RX, RX to TX) ?

Is the FTDI voltage switch to be set to 5v, or 3.3 ?

Once powered up in the LOAD switch position, I flashed the new WAV trigger code.

Then, disconnect the FTDI, disconnect the power barrel plug, connect a speaker to the audio output barrel connector (this speaker works with a PC, and sounds to play through the speaker).

I press the test button and hear nothing. The flash drive contains the entire list of Meteor sound files, as provided on github, first sound file is 001_Spinner.wav, and there is also this file made with the configuration program:

#VOLM -21
#SPKR 1
******************************************************************
This file was generated by the Robertsonics Configurator v2.00
for use with the WAV Trigger firmware. It is only required if
you wish to over-ride default settings. You may add your own

The above file "wavtrigr.ini" is located on root folder of the flash card.

I have tried the test button with #VOLM all the way up to 10, no sound.

What else needs to be done for the WAV trigger board, powered, by itself, with a speaker, to produce the test sound?

Next, I see the WAV trigger is being connected, apparently, from the RoyGBev board from the pads marked J7 WAV TRIG 1..6 to the WAV trigger board 8-pads (some of them), just above the FTDI serial pads, and not to the "trigger" inputs.

So, what is the correct wire correspondence from RoyGBev to the WAV trigger board??

Thanks in advance.

Anyone have any idea why no sound? The file
comments below this line -->

#157 2 years ago

I simply have a DC center positive 12v wall wart plugged to the wave trigger, a tested, working, speaker plugged into the speaker 3.5mm barrel jack, and the microSD is installed, with the provided 98 .wav files on the microSD.

When power is applied to the wav trigger, the led flashes 7 times, then begins to periodically flash. If I press the onboard push button, no sound, and my expectation is for the wav board to play the lowest numbered wav file. If I jump the trigger 1-6 pad to their corresponding ground pad, no sounds, either.

There are three onboard pad pairs, left of the speaker barrel plug, for which I have no clue the purpose, as there is apparently no actual documentation, not on Sparkfun, nor on robertsonic website.

Picture has ovals, labeled by me, 1, 2, 3, on the pad pairs mentioned above.

This board produces no sound, either with, or without, these pads connected (to their cross-gap pad)

The "documentation" for this board indicates that the LED will flash 3 times, and this is not the case with the newly-flashed version 1.3 program.

Lacking any kind of contact email address on robertsonics website, I am asking if there is something I have missed in getting this board to work, alone, prior to connecting to the Nano...

Possibly the additional flashes indicates some kind of misformat on the midroSD card, I don't know, as there is a paucity of documentation on this thing.

Thanks again.

WAVTriggerBeautyKDS (resized).jpgWAVTriggerBeautyKDS (resized).jpg
#159 2 years ago

CousinPookie, THANK YOU... 250GB will not work, 64GB does work.

Using smaller microSD gives 3 flashes, and test button plays first wav file.

Here is the -17 board, ready to install as soon as this bad weather passes:

DickHamill, IRQ is clipped to top of the R134, the two compile constants you mentioned above are in place, and that code is flashed onto Nano. The WAV Trigger firmware is updated, as earlier mentioned.

Thank you, RobotWorkshop, et al, for various assistance.

Owe it to the near total lack of documentation on the WAV trigger for much consternation. The schematic, "Maybe", for the WAV trigger is here:, again, POSSIBLY, as https://easyeda.com/oshw/WAV_Trigger_Open_hardware-Neq0AaKjT
Take it with a large grain of salt, it "Looks" like the Wav trigger, but no assurance it really is. And, the 3 pairs of solder pads simply connect ground from power section to ground on audio amp section, +5 from power section to +5 on audio amp section, and VCC (secretly also known as 3.3V) in the power section to 3.3v (oh, secretly called VCC) in the audio amp section.

keith20mm
IMG_0162SB (resized).jpgIMG_0162SB (resized).jpg

#162 2 years ago

The Meteor code is running in the Nano RoyGBev board, on the -17 MPU , WAV trigger functional, 1 to all 4 players, all fine, except for no flippers.

I am looking for the line that enables the flipper replay, Solenoid Driver Board pin J4B-8 Flipper Relay Disable/Enable, and the V+ rail to flippers. I do not know if the same i/o pin is used on -17 (Taken from Mata Hari, and was working in Mata Hari) as compared to the Stern Meteor MPU200.

I see the relay on the Meteor power board, but don't know how it is controlled. I find these in the Meteor schematic from ipdb.org Meteor:

A2J2-9 (O) to both flipper switches (Meteor Schematic page 2, upper right "Flip Sw Ret" A2 Transformer block)
A3J2-2 (BLU) to top of Left Flipper (Meteor Schematic page 4, upper right corner)
A3J2-1 (R) to top of Right Flipper (Meteor Schematic page 4, upper right corner)

A3J1-9 (G) Left Flipper Solenoid Driver Board A3 (Meteor Schematic page 15, upper right corner)
A3J1-8 (O) Right Flipper Solenoid Driver Board A3 (Meteor Schematic page 15, upper right corner)

#168 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

The lower nibble turns off all momentary solenoids, and the upper turns on 0x40 and 0x20, which are flippers and coin lockout.

All perfect. I touched up the solder joints on RoyGBev / Nano headers, and the J5 inline receptacle, put it back, played perfectly. I played about 7 games, (some 1 player, some 4 player), and all fine.

On last game, ball 3 ended, ball into outhole, match ran.

When I coined up next game, program started up, but never served ball into shooter lane. So this is something for me to look into. The game would coin up to 4 players, but never serve. So I turned it off for a couple of hours while we rebuilt the Trailblazer's 4L60E transmission valve boty.

Before we left the shop, I re-seated all connectors on the -17, and RoyGBev, and tried the game again, same condition, so I am guessing bad pin on -17, and I'll take it down and touch all those pin headers, after inspection.

Unless someone chimes in on how-to, I'll look into the sound board to see where I can patch in the Wav Trigger speaker output, probably just parallel with cap/resistor, as the 3 mixer channels currently show, just before the volume control IC.

Thanks DickHamill, this is a super-cool upgrade to the Meteor!

Oh, one question, how to make 5-ball game? The switch on main board is set, but it is 3-ball game.

#171 2 years ago
Quoted from geeteoh:

keith20mm, I'd recommend going off the head phone port on the WAV trigger...

Thanks, geeteoh, for the lead on "poor man's mixer". I clipped the male stereo plug off a dollar store set of headphones, where they split into left and right leads, stripped that out, commoned the shield (copper), and then applied 1k 1/4w to each signal lead, then conjoined those, and applied a 10uf electrolytic, and then a 2.2k limiter. Then I murdered a microclip, attaching one end to the signal common, and one to the shield.

These I simply clipped across the R23 on the sound board, as one end of R23 is ground, one is signal.

This works great, the 3.5mm end plugs into the WAV Trigger 3.5mm barrel jack.

So it is all easily removable, and I don't know why anyone would ever want to do so.

Thanks again, for assist, and the mixer works just fine.

#172 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

I wonder if any of the solenoids worked (i.e. did the fuse blow).

What year? I have an '05 Envoy ..

This is 2004 Trailblazer. Sister in law has the '03 Envioy, which we removed the dash last November to replace air duct actuators. Otherwise, her Envoy is great.

This Trailblazer is great, only requires repair when some rodent gnaws a wire out, like fuel injector, or EVAP solenoid lead.

You see, we live in the woods, much woods.

So, the Meteor with -17 and RoyGBev, Nano, and your code.

The under-playfield fuse was open, replaced that, and played many, many games, all working GREAT!!

Man, this game is so much more fun, now, and greater challenge.

So I worked on the 4L60E gear train, and input clutch drum, rebuilt the servo, and completed the valve body.

Once I ran out of parts, before I left the shop, played a number more games on Meteor, no more problems, and I did set the 5-ball play as you explained...

So, for now, THANKS!!! Super fun game, really nice change. I am certain other pinheads will be wanting this kind of mod on some of their games... we shall see. And I would not be the slightest bit surprised if one of them tries to beg this game off me.

keith

#175 2 years ago

Here is Meteor with -17, Arduino Nano on RoyGBev, with WAV Trigger, running DickHamill's Stern Meteor code.

2 weeks later
#194 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

... So that audio was coming through the SB300 amp and the built-in speaker?

Yes, WAV trigger barrel jack audio out direct to SB board just before volume control mix IC, AC coupled with 10uf electrolytic, volume knob on bottom boards adjusts loudness.

Next question, and Clay may have already explained this 15 years ago.. As soon as I start a game, and some switches are hit, Tilt happens, "Seismic Disturbance". So I enter test mode, get to switch test.

The top two displays are variously displaying 2-digit results, sometimes only player 1 displaying 2-digit code.

How is this switch test display designed to be interpreted? I don't understand the 2nd player code.

Clay mentioned bad switch caps in this vintage game, and to clip the cap, possibly diode problem, too, as a stuck switch effect.

He even mentioned the tilt cap, specifically, as I recall, on Bally games, and, of course, tilt gets precedence over all normal game switches, so once tilted, it's game over. Meteor schematic also has a serial switch to apparently ignore tilt, but I don't know the location of this other switch.

Once I return to shop, I'll look at this.

#197 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

What version are you running -- what numbers come up in the player displays when you boot?

I am running

From Meteor2021.ino:
#define METEOR2021_MAJOR_VERSION 2021
#define METEOR2021_MINOR_VERSION 1

and in BallySternOS.h:
#define BALLY_STERN_OS_MAJOR_VERSION 1
#define BALLY_STERN_OS_MINOR_VERSION 7

The only changes I have made is two minor loop count declarations to work with the -17 main board (MataHari, unmodified), and these were suggested by you several weeks back, in prior message number on this thread.

As an aside, completed the Traiblazer transmission rebuild/reinstall this last evening, test drive is A-OK. What a job.........

Though I was in shop, I did not break to work on pinball, as we were on a roll to complete the TB and test.

#204 2 years ago
Quoted from DickHamill:

In the switch test, the player displays show the intermittent status of the first four switches reporting closures.

That answered my question, it is 4-rollover switch scan.

Now the real problem.. Of all things.. Tilt switch diode shorted... Clipped out now, will replace with a silicon rectifier, prolly 1N4001.

Game running fine again, and thanks once again...

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