Let´s throw the code together. ecrutz has the real pinball dmd interface running , i have
the pinmame usb interface running.

Currently have a 12bit palette (4096colors) to chose the 16colors from I use to map
to the 16 shades of a Stern ROM or the 4 colors for the 4 shades of a WPC ROM.
I have a code sample here with 33bit palette which may be adapted to my code
but I think 4096 is enough by now. Sometimes it is already hard to seperate the 16 shades
of one color.

A video of my first colormapping implementation and more info can be found in the vpuniverse forum
(I´m not allowed to post links here due to the fact that I´m new to the forum)

I´m plannig to design a pcb with a connector for a classic DMDs like Stern, Vishay etc. driven by USB and Pinmame (like PINDMD2),
a connector for the china 2.5pitch RGB panels driven by USB and a classic pinball interface to drive the china panel. All with
color mapping to either a fixed palette or dynamic palettes with in-frame coding like SmartDMD.

I will use two RGX panels side by side
Search for "RGX-p3mm-Indoor-SMD2121-rgb-led-display-module-192mm-x-96mm-64-32-pixle-HD-Video" with the brackets on google.
They cost 21.50$ each plus shipping.

Regards

Lucky1

The STM32F407 I use should have enough power to handle this.
Search for HUB75 STM32F4 in google for a 33bit example with 9 panels

Even if the words in the search string tell something else, it leads to the RGX board with 2.5mm pitch. Click on the link to the RGX panels Crash posted. If you want to use it single color with PinMAME my code is already working just fine. Color Code for PinMame is on its way.
So why not be one of the first who tests it as a pindmd / pinball DMD alternative.

Yes I ordered there but haven´t received them so far.

Since there is a pindmd2 version which can drive these panels and my board uses the same cpu, I still think it should work.

Here is a video of the color mapping test of my PIN2DMD Interface using inframe palette switching

My setup uses the STM32F407 discovery board for around 20$. It has more pins and is more powerful compared to the Teensy. Right now I use jumper cables to connect to the DMD but I will design a pcb shield which adds a classic pinball interface to the USB input and a Pinball DMD interface as well as a china RGB panel interface. In classic pinball mode it will get the data from the wpc / stern board and output it on the china dmd. You can use static color mapping (4 or 16 colors for the whole pinball) or use modified ROMs with inframe coding like SmartDMD for different colors for each animation. In Virtual Pinball Mode it registers as PINDMD interface and gets the data from PinMame. Output will be either on a pinball DMD
or china RGB DMD. All the coloring stuff will happen there too. Modified palettes will be uploaded before table starts.

Code currently will only be shared with contributers.
Here is the code having "only" PINDMD features.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-cN1Dpc3Crcb1ZOZFJaWjlJdlU&usp=sharing

Currently implemented is
- PinMAME Interface
- fixed palette color output
- pinball DMD output

I´m currently working on palette switching.

Next will be
- design new pcb
- palette uploading code
- add classic pinball interface (with the help of ecrutz code)

Lucky1

Here is a picture of my first PCB using a Pinball DMD for PinMAME

http://postimg.org/image/3oecoetr9/

For the current usage our code is fast enough,but we plan to implement more colors with the help of DMA later.
Pinout is already prepared for this. Currently we send out 1 byte and feed 2 rows with 6 bits (2xRGB) simultaneously
It is only 64bits more per row and we can feed 4 rows (12bits+clock) at one time by putting them on the same
GPIO Pingroup.

Lucky1

Production of P2.5 panels has changed to 160x160mm. The 160x80mm panels are still available, but
you should ask if they have it on stock before you order. It happened to me 3 times last week that I
ordered on Aliexpress and got an e-mail that they want to send me one 160x160 instead .

Regards

lucky1

Interesting aspect. The 32x64 boards are still available but you have to ask for them.
I don´t know if you can disassemble the 160x160.
I think you should ask them or just try. If it works, someone can make a new frame using e.g. a 3D Printer.

Lucky1

My code on the MCU will stay open source. I will upload the needed signature for SmartDMD from a little PC program or put it on a sd card.

I just bought a license for pinball browser for further testing of the SmartDMD implementation.
Here is a video of the upload mechanism using smartDMD.txt palette information copied
into pin2dmd.txt textfile. Commandline parameter is section in the textfile ([red] [potc]) which
contains the palette information for the different games.

Your teensy like my STM32 discovery board do both have USB ports, why don't you use that
port to upload a SmartDMD license together with the palettes needed for the ROM.
That way you can hide the information in a closed source PC software.
I discussed this with oga and he is okay with it. That will be the way we do it.

Without the uploaded signature the code will not trigger the smartDMD frames because of a missing header information.
This is nothing you can change by removing a line out of the code.

Here is a video testing palette switching of STERN Logo and POTC Logo

Prototype of PIN2DMD is also on it´s way. PCB design is done. I will solder the components tomorrow and test if everything is working as expected. I added a HUB08 Interface for other chinese displays and a sdcard reader for configuration storage and easy palette editing from
a pc with a card reader.

http://s24.postimg.org/7fcu1tfxx/IMG_5655.jpg

Some of the manufacturers on Aliexpress accept paypal if you ask them. Just write them a mail.

Assembled the first prototype today. With a little plastic angle it fits perfectly as a replacement for
standard DMDs. The controller can be mounted on the back.
See more pictures and videos in my google album.

https://goo.gl/photos/71JdG2SgaQZPuxFF9

IMG_5669.jpg

Picture from the side angle is added to my album on google.
Difference is about 0,4inches , so there should be another 0,4 left to
the window. You can use spacers to adjust this.

The displays just arrived today. The dimly lit green pixels are timing related on the software side.
I tested on bigger panels and wanted to wait how it looks on the smaller ones.
The animation is, how it is sent from the software. There are no framedrops or anything on my
side. We should ask someone who has a Stern Pinball how it looks on a real machine.
I have no idea.

The STM32 discovery board I use costs about 15$.
The connector board should be around the same price
if you sum up the price for the needed components.
Our software will be open source and free for non-commercial
DIY use. If somebody want´s to sell a plug and play package with
our software, I´m open to offers Currently I haven´t planed to
do this by myself.

Software is free unless you try to make money in any kind with it.

Done ! https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD

Here is a part list for the connector board. Layout can be found on here
https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD/tree/master/pcb

STM32F4 discovery board
China shop
ebay.com link: Stm32f4discovery Stm32f407 Cortex m4 Development Board st link V2

50 Pin Header (2x25 female, 2.54mm pitch):
China Shop:
ebay.com link: 2 54mm 100 Female pin header 50pin 2x25pin dual row pcb receptacle 4pcs
ebay.com link: 10 pcs Pitch 2 54mm 2x25 Pin 50 Pin Female Double Row Straight Header Connector
Thailand Shop:
ebay.com link: 3 pcs PCB Socket 2x25 Pins Double Row 50 Pins Female Header 2 54mm

16 Pin IDC Header: (10pcs)
China Shop:
ebay.com link: 10pcs DC3 16P Straight JTAG Socket Connector For Flat Ribbon Cable 2 Row 16 Pin

US Shop:
ebay.com link: Shrouded Header Connector AMP 16 Position Pin Straight Copper Tin 2 5mmX 8mm

14 Pin IDC Header:
Thailand Shop:
ebay.com link: 3 Pcs 2x7 14 Pin Box Header Connector 2 54 mm IDC Male Sockets Straight

China Shop:
ebay.com link: 10pcs 2 54mm IDC Box header DC3 DC3 14P 2 7 14 pins Pitch

US Shop:
ebay.com link: 4pk 2 x 7 Header Pins Straight 24653

10 Pin (or more) breakaway Header:
China Shop:
ebay.com link: 10pc black 40pin 2 54mm Single Row Breakaway Male Pin Header for Arduino uno R3

US Shop:
ebay.com link: 5pcs 1x40 Male Breakaway Pin Header Color Red Green White Yellow Black

Jumper:
China Shop:
ebay.com link: 100pcs 2pin mini micro jumper for 2 54 mm Pin Header Black Standard PCB shunts
ebay.com link: 10pcs gold plated 2 pin jumper 2 54mmHard Drive IDE CD0 1 ShuntsComputer black

US Shop:
ebay.com link: 25 2 Pin Jumpers 2 54mm 1 CD pc Scsi Ide HD net
ebay.com link: 10pcs 2 54mm 0 1 Jumper Shunts 2 pin 2 position USA Seller Free Shipping

SPI Micro SD-Card (Pin2DMD pinout match):
China Shop:
ebay.com link: Micro SD Card Module 6 Pin SPI Interface for Arduino
ebay.com link: Arduino Micro SD Card Module TF Card Reader SPI Interface Level Converter Chip D
ebay.com link: Micro SD Card Module 6Pin SPI Interface for Arduino UNO R3 MEGA 2560 DUE

US Shop:
ebay.com link: Micro SD Storage Board Card Reader Memory Shield Module SPI for Arduino
ebay.com link: 1 PC MICRO SD STORAGE CARD MEMORY SHIELD MODULE SPI INTERFACE FOR ARDUINO

Ribbon Cable with connector (16pin):
US Shop:
ebay.com link: HQ 2x8 16 Pin 2 0mm IDC JTAG ISP Cable Multiple Color Ribbon Wire

Ribbon Cable with connector (14pin):
US Shop:
ebay.com link: 2x7 14 pin IDC Ribbon Cable 2 54mm pitch 15cm USA Seller Free Shipping

4 colors per FRAME is already implemented on my STM32. You can switch palettes during gameplay which means more colors.

You forget to mention the STM32 discovery board solution It has SmartDMD frame recognition and PinMame USB interface.
Pinball interface is also starting to work. Will post a video about this later.

Here is the video of STM32 PIN2DMD Project connected to a Dr. Who pinball machine

My project partner Steve has a lot of experience with different chinese panels from his go-dmd project, which is a wall clock using pinball animations as a backgound. There is no panel I´m aware of which didn´t work with 3,3V. Even the old plasma DMDs can be driven
with the STM32 and PinMAME as input.

The blackout at the end was problem in the code yesterday evening, which already got fixed today

WPC interface is working good and we can switch color palettes now.
Here is a short video of paletteswitching implementation on a Dr.Who WPC machine using PIN2DMD STM32 interface.
Bally Logo is blue and "Dots in Motion" has a pink background.

WPC interface is working good and we can switch palettes now to get more colors instead of a fixed palette for the whole game.
Here is a short video of paletteswitching implementation on a Dr.Who WPC machine using PIN2DMD STM32 interface.
Bally Logo is blue and "Dots in Motion" has a pink background.

We already had a talk about this. My first thought was how can somebody get a patent for creating a hash on received data ?
I searched for the patent and read it closely. I had no idea of the existence of colordmd or smartdmd when I started this project.
There really is a part in it talking about detecting frames by creating a hash. But as far as I understand a patent, it is only valid when all claims of it are used. We don´t use a LCD screen in our project, we don´t use a higher resolution or a version with more colors of the frame (4 shades of red are also 4 colors) and many other points are totally different to the patented technology. So I see no reason why our hobby project should endanger the success of colordmd.

Seems to be that the US is the land of the free, but not for hobby engineering. Maybe we have to create a european and US branch in github. The code for frame detection is already there, so anyone is invited to port it to arduino teensy.

Here is a video of PIN2DMD interface installed in my visual pinball cabinet.

Pinout is in the rgb_out.h file on github

Pinout is in the rgb_out.h file on github or in the pcb directory

Boards for PIN2DMD solution are already beeing sold by UncleSash in the vpuniverse forum.
He organized a group buy. There are only a few left.
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2219-pin2dmd-color-pindmd-compatible-interface-with-led-rgb-color-dmd/?p=24193
This works with PinMAME and works with real pinball machines better every day.

This project can´t be compared to ColorDMD because we don´t use a LCD or do upscaling.

For the color adjustment, Steve, co author of pin2dmd, is currently working on a editor tool that is capable to load "pinmame recordings" and then later on colorize the dmd animations for different games. the tool is an extension to goDMD editor (see above).

You can use the editor to scroll through the recording mark scenes and then give them an alternate palette.

The editor will save a file containing for upload via usb before you start playing the table with pinmame or to permanently upload it (or storing it on sd card) for use in a real pinball machine.

"pinmame recordings" have to be recorded first with another special vpinmame.dll to get a "dmd screen recording" while playing the game. This must be used later to get original frame data in the editor tool.

see screenshot of the actual work ...

post-9256-0-66568800-1446631641.png

Here is a video of PIN2DMD connected to a real WPC Twilight Zone
pinball machine. Palette was quick & dirty black,red,blue,white.

Did you connect your logic analyzer to your teensy. What is the lowest DisplayEnable time you have ?
I´m currently running at 4.5us.

Stern Metallica with PIN2DMD

Stern Shrek with PIN2DMD

I used pinmame to test it and pinmame still has some timing issues with this ROM.

Game detection ! Clever move

For the STM32F4 discovery board project PIN2DMD from me, there is a group buy organized in the vpuniverse forum.
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2250-pin2dmd-prorder-backorder/

For the teensy based project from ecrutz you have to contact him.

Here is a video of PIN2DMD connected to a Stern Avatar pinball machine.

You have the wrong device mode configured in PIN2DMD.exe config tool. I assume you are still in Devicemode0 which is PinMame USB input. You need to set devicemode3 for Stern input. From your video in vpuniverse forum I can see you already fixed that but still have noise.

Random pixels and sync problems are coming from bad input signal quality, which differs from machine to machine. Try to put 220Ohm resistor in line of data and clock signal and also a 33,47 or 100pf capacitor to ground. I hope that kills the noise. Got this from a Stern LED DMD which I removed from my vpin cab. You may also use shorter connections or a shielded cable. We are still in beta with real pinball
input but getting closer to a reliable solution from day to day. However code seems to work fine. Unfortunately I don´t have a Stern machine here to test myself.
Thanks for your support. Great to see the real pinball community also supporting this project.

Here is PIN2DMD working in a STTNG. No Signal quality problems in this machine.

The issues are not game, they are machine related. One WPC board has noise on the DMD line and another has none. It can be seen on the oscilloscope. We are working on a way to get rid of it. Screen tearing is from the camera. Unfortunatelly the machines I have don´t have the problem.The Dr. Who from Steve has the problem but he didn´t have the time to try some things out so far. He is working more on the editor side right now.

PIN2DMD interface with dual Hub75 output pcb from UncleSash to drive 2 panels.

You can join the group buy here
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2250-pin2dmd-prorder-backorder/

http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2253-pin2dmd-eu-preorder/http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2253-pin2dmd-eu-preorder/

That is not totally right. The PIN2DMD project was started by me as a color dmd solution for virtual pinball machines, but was shortly after joined by Steve who wanted to have it for his real pinball machines. It is already tested on Stern and WPC machines and working fine.
I just recently implemented Whitestar, Gottlieb and DataEast for testing. Steve has some Gottlieb and DE machines and will do the test
in the next few weeks. A LOTR is about 70km away and will also be tested soon. So in the end it is supposed to be used in both worlds with all the advantages you get from it, like using colorization profiles from virtual pinmame etc.

It is hard to talk about advantages or disadvantages. PIN2DMD is fully integrated in visual pinmame and is already used by more than 150
users. There are already some real pin users but they are in the minority so far. The idea is to melt the virtual and real pinball world together when it comes to colors und use palettes etc. also for real pins. You can use the virtual pinball to test new settings and install in the real pin when you are done PIN2DMD is not maintained by a single person, it is open source and already more than a hand full of people contribute to the development. Go to the vpuniverse forum and see for yourself.

If you want to put it into TZ, I would advice to order for real pinball since that pcbs have a filter which the virtual pin pcbs don´t have.

Here is a video of pin2dmd in a CV

There is a little sync problem of the first row because the pcb didn´t have the filter and
maybe we have to adjust the timing a bit, but I think that are the little things that come
up the more different machines we connect.

The package F is from UncleSash who organized a group buy for the pcbs. Pin2DMD is a open source community project of which I´m a part of doing mostly the firmware on the discovery board and others taking care of e.g. utilities like the pin2dmd editor from steve (aka go-dmd editor) which uses some additional code of my firmware.

I´m talking about the Rev.2.0 board from here http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2250-pin2dmd-prorder-backorder/?p=26700

It is not a Raspberry Pi based. Pin2DMD uses a STM32F407 discovery board. The software is charityware which means
that you are asked to donate for it and we forward the money to a charity project of our choice. The best place to get
more information is vpuniverse, since most of the questions you have are already answered there.

http://vpuniverse.com/forums/forum/132-pin2dmd/

I didn´t even notice and David could be right about that. I´m pretty much sure that you have the same
when you connect a monochrome LED DMD to it but maybe it is more obvious when you have different
colors for each shade. But who plays pinball in slow-motion or still picture anyways

Your last post remembered me of another still picture analysis from you and
there is a fix from a member of the community for the dim lights problem here
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2385-color-bleeding-of-chinese-rgb-panels/

That´s a good demonstration of the strength of community projects,
I would never have had the idea to investigate that problem deeper.

It is also the source of pin2dmd editor from Steve

I just agreed with Eli on some standards. He will also be able use the data generated by the PIN2DMD Editor from Steve in the near
future for machine detection and default palette assignment. So the user / machine data will be interchangeable or at least convertible.
He is using Arduino IDE with Teensy. I decided to use C++ with a bit more powerful but still cheap hardware. So unfortunatelly
it is not possible to use even parts of his code in my interface und vice versa. But the user shouldn´t matter about that.

The dual hub interface is no longer available because of signal problems. You still have the possibility to add a second display
by cimping a second connector to the ribbon cable and attach a controller to it. We have tested with smartdmd as main display
connected to one end the wpc dmd controller in the middle and pin2dmd at the other end. Worked without a problem.
the controller costs about 60 Euro alltogether. Then you just need a display and a power supply e.g. from fast pinball .

look at the colors of Steves Dr. Who logo

or even

It is all currently beta and I think not even released in the current version of the editor

Yeah these little things are powerful. We get about 30fps when reading from SD Card.
Not sure what the teensy is capable of.
About the selling point. PIN2DMD is "charity ware" which means that you don´t pay for
it for private use but you are kindly asked to donate for the work Steve and I have done.
We forward the donation to a charity project of our choice which is currently a orphans home.

Here is a link to the donation button
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QNNL5UDYRH4MA

You can use the USB interface to send raw picture data or video.
PM me if you need further info how to do this.

Eli told me that is uses the same timing like SAM. But it is not a big issue to add other timings.

We currently have tested PIN2DMD successfully WITH WPC(Fliptronics), WPC95 and SAM.
The timing for DataEast, Whitestar and Gottlieb is already implemented but not tested.
Steve has a Stargate and a Lethal Weapon to test which will be done the next week or so.
A LOTR is a one hour trip away and is on our to do list.

All platforms are supported by the pin2dmd editor.
SAM can additionally be used with pinball browser colored ROMs.

Here is a more or less complete list of current features of PIN2DMD interface:

Hardware specs:
- 168MHZ STM32F407VGT6 microcontroller with ARM Cortex-M4F core, 1 MB Flash, 192 KB RAM
- external SD-card slot for micro SD
- real pinball interface with input signal filter
- micro USB interface
- Hub75 Interface for China RGB DMD

Software supports:
-WPC95 real pinball input
-WPC Fliptronics real pinball input
-Stern SAM real pinball input
-Whitestar real pinball input (beta)
-DataEast real pinball input (beta)
-Gottlieb real pinball input (beta)
-SmartDMD inframe color switching with Pinball Browser modified SAM ROMs
-Frame colorization with PIN2DMD Editor by Steve (beta) (all systems)
-Frame / Animation replacement with PIN2DMD Editor by Steve (beta) (all systems)
-Storage of custom data on SD-Card (animation, frames, palettes, config etc)
-WCID automated USB driver installation (no driver hassle)
-config tool to adjust brightness/default palette/mode

-Visual Pinball / PinMame with recording of DMD output to be used with PIN2DMD Editor
for colorization of virtual and real pinball
-Future Pinball with DMD interceptor DLL
-Unit3d Pinball
-Ultra DMD
-XDMD
-PinballX

Already 5 revisions of pcb layout with improvements (latest Rev 2.0) from UncleSash
Large user community (200+) with shareable custom data and experience.

Currently working on improvement of the PIN2DMD Editor features
(hardware acceleration of frame handling)and dump routine of real pinball
machine DMD output via USB for use with editor.

It is just for convenience since not every pinhead is capable of installing visual pinball on his pc.

You can connect PIN2DMD parallel to you existing installation by crimping an additional connector to your ribbon cable.
There are also plans of using this version of the discovery board, which would display the dmd data on a little screen for verification or modding.

IMG_5908_(resized).jpg

You can start with the tutorials on github here
https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD
and with the threads here
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/forum/132-pin2dmd/

ACDC with PIN2DMD

So far Eli and I have only agreed to using the same detection mechanism that it may be possible in the future to use Steve´s editor with RGBDMD.

In fact it was the other way around. Shortly after I posted info about pin2dmd here
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/smartdmd-dmd-interface-with-colors-upscaling-network-and-more/page/8#post-2726632
Eli presented his board in this thread. From that day we shared infos about each others projects like logic analyzer recordings and source code.

Available ? Our controller kit has been available for months now as a group buy at vpuniverse.com forum organized by UncleSash.
We have already 200 users of pin2dmd. http://vpuniverse.com/forums/forum/132-pin2dmd/
You can order the displays from fast pinball and connect the controller kit, which is in fact plug & play

PIN2DMD is a non commercial community project which will and can not compete to ColorDMD under
professional aspects. It is no turnkey, plug & play solution with preprogrammed colorization for certain machines and professional support.
It is a platform where every motivated programmer can contribute to and give any idea a try
or every user with basic pc knowledge can share his colorization mods with the community. A special advantage for me is that it brings the community from real pinball machines and virtual pinball machines together to share their mods.
Although a lot a requests came from dealers all over the world, there is no intention to commercialize it in any way.
The only thing we do is kindly request a donation for our work, which we forward to a charity project.

Was not a reply to your post. Just to make our point clear. In the case of ColorDMD competition leads to nothing but having to deal with patents they own and maybe lawyers. From my point of view the money we would make out of pin2dmd is not worth the trouble.
It´s just a hobby.

That´s just interpretation. I don´t know what or what not is part of the patent, because I´m not a patent lawyer and even a lawyer is not a judge. So to definitely find out we would have to go to court. In europe, where I live, every private, non commercial development is free of patent infringement of any kind anyways. So no danger for me from that side, but I totally respect the work of ColorDMD and don´t want to endanger his business by competing commercially.

I had a longer conversation with Randy about his patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US8773452).
We came to the agreement, that that US patent issues may not be a concern until Pin2DMD is commercialized for sale in the US, which is totally O.K. for me.

removed on request

That is what I told Randy also. He believes that every color pinball DMD output which is not a static palette mapped to the 4/16 shades is covered by his patent and threatens everybody with his lawyer who thinks different. He believes that even the PIN2DMD Editor is infringing his patent and not allowed in the land of the free. Steve and I had a longer conversation with him the last days. Where I live a idea is not patentable only the technical realization of it. If he thinks he is safe from competition of any kind with his patent and leave colordmd as it is as the only solution for the next years, he maybe should rethink his business strategy. Here is my last E-Mail I sent him about that.

Your patent clearly only covers a piece of hardware and not software.
Software is not even patentable in germany.

I think this leads to nothing. All I can see is that the community has created
something which obviously wasn´t there before and there seems to be a demand
for it. I just started it, but I don´t think you can stop this by trying to convince Steve or me.
There are still a lot of users asking for a turnkey solution with a color LED display and a professional
editor tool to be creative, which we won´t serve. Maybe you should do it before somebody else
does.

I totally understand that Randy tries to protect what is his, and that is ColorDMD how it is and sold for years now.
Ideas are not patentable. Only technical realizations of it are. I only wrote the device software and didn´t use a single line of code from colordmd. We use a widely usable dev board and a adapter pcb, which is also totally different. We use a different display type etc.
As technology moves on new possiblities came up and we used them to realize our own ideas. In my case it was using a color LED display instead of a standard pinball display for my virtual pin project. I think there are two potential customer groups in the community. On one side we have the ones which prefer high res / high color like ColorDMD offers it. And on the other we have the ones who like the brightness and look of a LED Display. Only a few would switch. Problem for Randy might be that he couldn´t serve the second group, because technology was not available and now that it is available he doesn´t have the product to serve it. But that has nothing to do with patent infringement.

That´s exactly what I suggested to Randy.

Send me a PM when you have it. I want to make sure that you have the latest version with new USB dump functionality from real pinball machine for the upcoming version of Steves editor. The activation thing was necessary because there were some rumors about unapproved commercial sale of our little community project which we want to prevent.

Here is one of the reasons why we introduced the activation system:

www.pinballsp.com

He recently introduce his own pcb to sell with our software without even asking for permission.
We will make sure that not one of his pcbs will work with PIN2DMD

I think he is pretty aware of what he is doing. I sent him a note on facebook in spanish and english and a PM here to remove our product from his company site. The only thing that happened is that my comment on facebook got deleted shortly after. I´m glad that we introduced the activation key system because it is these guys that pisses me off. He will have to stay forever with the 1.x firmware which is still open source on github. I doubt that he is capable of adding any features like the V2 has.

Thanks for your investigation. Wrote a small letter to the customers of him commenting on his "invention". Also created a topic here.
The community is that small the news will spread anyways and do more harm to him that way.
To be honest, I like his design, but since we really don´t know which hardware features we will add in the future
it is better to stay modular. That way you can keep the core components and just add features by swapping the shield at
low costs. The contributor Team got just joined by two people. One is trying to make it possible to read the animations
directly from the ROM for the editor and the other is thinking about adding WIFI functionalities to the shield.
We will see where this leads to.

To be honest I like the idea of that all-in-one board and would be proud to see pin2dmd like that one day but,
since we are doing it for free I don´t want to mess around with and give support for different hardware even if it claims to be 100% compatible. If I stay with the disco board for now I can easily reproduce any problem and fix it. We are still in the development phase of this project and I want to focus on implementing new features and not on supporting somebody else´s hardware. That is a waste of my personal time. That is the reason why there will be no key for this.

Absolutely right, but where is the difference to any other solution on the market out there except the fact that you get more for less money ?
I think that is worth the risk to trust my word that we will release the source again when all contributors lost interest in the project.

But that is the day I and all other contributors don´t care anymore.
Choice is already made
V1 - opensource
V2 - contributors access to source only.

about the charity "business" - very , very bad payment

...or I could fall into a coma over your arguments and endless discussion about this which never get to a point.

Or you can use the V1 open source code from PIN2DMD from here https://github.com/lucky01/PIN2DMD/tree/master/firmware/deprecated/source
which has a bit more functionality as RGB.DMD and is written in C
instead of Arduino language.

You are right. I mixed this up since I worked on tooling today.

We got a new contributor who joined the team who implemeted PIN2DMD into Mission Pinball Framework.
It can be easily ported to any other python based application like PyProc

Thanks Pouet for your work

Russ, at least you can laugh about it now and btw wouldn´t stop me if I really want to get it working.
Passing the looks over to DJJoke haha.

Bypassing is better then breaking But don´t be afraid not at all interested. Too easy to do from scratch
Every protection can be hacked or bypassed, it is just a matter effort you want to put into it.

Here is a preview of a feature in the PIN2DMD editor of Steve . Max, a new member of our dev team, has added a import filter to read the animations directly from the ROM of WPC machines. It will be integrated in one of the following releases. Together with the USB dump routine for real pinball machines (WPC,STERN, DE, Gottlieb, WHITESTAR) you have the possibility to catch pretty much every situation of the gameplay and colorize it.

first_test_using_frames_directly_from_game-rom_(resized).jpg

We have added a mask option to blank out any score display on detection in the upcoming editor.

The version is very old. We are currently working on 2.03 with a completely new input routine using lossless doublebuffer recording and automatic resync on such an error. 2.03 should be released this week. We have a date with a Stern Startrek to verify SAM input and a Stern Kiss for first Spike implementation this evening.

The whole discussion was started in the smartdmd thread by me, when Eli decided to open this new general thread about RGB LED panels for both pin2dmd and rgb.dmd. I agree we should split now, but we also should lock this thread then, to prevent that the users continue here to post things about both developments.

Test of the editor with STTNG

Palettes.dat generated by pin2dmd editor

If you generate a project for that game in the editor and export it to palettes.dat - yes

New Version 2.05 for PIN2DMD is out. See changelog here
http://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/2436-pin2dmd-colorprism-v20-firmware/