Same...I wonder if hitting the dimmer switch on the Pico repeatedly but over time corrupted the sd card? Starts showing an image then having it taken away 100+ times over a year seems like it would mess something up.

Does anyone, this side of the pond have the 'Run-DMD Pinball' version available?

I have a RED Stern DMD from my MET LE that I pulled out long ago, just waiting for this it seems

Hey all! Got a Run-DMD "White" from my wife for Christmas, and I'm trying to get it going with a couple HUB75 DMD's. I tried to download the B134 image file from https://rundmdimage.wordpress.com/ and write it to the SD card using HDD Raw Copy Tool as directed, but I keep getting the rapidly flashing LED when I put the SD card back into the Run-DMD and power it on..

Is there a separate image file for the White/Edge models? Thanks!

B134 is the correct image file from the wordpress site. try re-inserting the SD card a few times to make that its making contact. I'm not too keen on the new SD card slots in this batch. they don't seem to be as smooth for inserting/removing as in the past and I think that might have something to do with your issues

Thanks! After my post last night I tried another SD card that fit a little differently mechanically in the slot. About one out of three tries reseating the card would get the thing to boot with the slow blinking status light.

Now it looks like I’m having a problem getting the test image to display on the DMDs I picked up on amazon. They’re not the ones from the FAQ page but I assumed they might work since they were described as hub75 displays.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079JSKF21/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NEmjCbDP00KB8

When I hold down button 3 during boot, it does cycle through several test display modes but they don’t quite seem to display anything interesting. The first 2 modes show horizontal lines across every other row or so of LEDs, then the rest are solidly lit (every LED on) until it appears to loop back to the horizontal lines again. I never see anything that looks like a test image. Interestingly, the dip switches for color selection work exactly as expected.

I’ve got some of the hub75 dmds in the FAQ ordered from aliexpress, but they won’t arrive for a few weeks at least. Just scratching my head as to why these hub75 panels from amazon appear to only kind of work.

Note: it’s half purple and half green in my photo because I’ve got the dip switches set weird from playing with them. Picture is just to show how the test mode fills the whole display.

022FCC1E-1483-4287-B773-4BADD532E223 (resized).jpeg

Yep! I came back to this thread to share that info, but you beat me to it-- thanks for the excellent support!

Note: email below.

"Great. Torbjörn ordered a few of those [ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079JSKF21/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NEmjCbDP00KB8 ] from Amazon. So when they arrive to Sweden he'll do some testing/firmware fixing, and hopefully that will work out just fine!

Best regards, Linus"

Got a PICkit3 for Christmas and was able to get my RUN-DMD's updated to use the animation name feature. Really awesome feature, as some of these animations were stumping me! Only thing I wish you could remove is the animation number in the parenthesis, but not that big of a deal.

Couple things to note:
- RUN-DMD Pinball users you will need to solder some header pins for the ICSP connection.
- MPLAB-X software moved to this location:
https://www.microchip.com/mplab/mplab-x-ide MPLAB-X software v5.10 (installed IPE portion only)

More pics and vids here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/44ziKgCvNG4aWvsS6
screenshot.268 (resized).jpg

My custom frame I designed works beautifully. If there is enough interest I can put together a shopping list for people. All together I spent $340. I bought a stern led display for I think $30 from a friend but everything else was new.

IMG_20190119_114135 (resized).jpg

linus
a couple of people have been experiencing corrupt SD cards with their clocks. I've been re-flashing the SD cards for those that don't own pc's

my thought is that this has something to do with the fact that something is being written to the SD card when the clocks are being unplugged (instead of powered off first using the 4th button)

have you guys considered adding a capacitor to the run-dmd that would hold enough power to complete any writes to the SD in the event of loss of power to prevent memory card corruption?

I

FYI, I was having problems that required me to reflash the SD card. After it happened 5 to 6 times in a month, I bought a new SD card, flashed it and haven't had a problem in 4 months.

Hoping someone can help me solve this problem.

I purchased a complete clock kit from j_m_ just before Christmas which worked fine for a few weeks, now it randomly shuts down at least once a day. I have the sleep timer set for midnight and the wake for 5am. The clock keeps the right time. At least once a day, during the day the screen goes blank, sometimes the red LED stays lit on the rundmd board, other times it's not. The powersupply LED remains lit at all times and its output is always 5.4V DC.

When the display goes out the only way I can get it going again is to switch off at the wall and wait until the powersupply voltage drops to zero before it will reboot. Simply switching off then straight back on again does not bring it back to life.

Any ideas as to what's wrong? It is driving me nuts.

Don’t use the sleep timer. I’ve had a long discussion with the board guys. I’ve got mine on a lamp timer. Also, try reseating your sd card.

It's just done it again just a few minutes ago. You think the sleep timer causes this issue?

I was told it is buggy and to not use it. They were hoping to further developed it in the future. Mine would turn off but not back on unless I unplugged it. On timer now and working fine. Try it and report back.

Ok done. I set my sleep and wake time both to 00:00. Will report back on how it performs.

You say on timer now and working fine. What did you do to make it work correctly?

Strange, I've had my sleep timer set since I got it last July, and have never had a problem. Shuts off from 1:30a to 7:30a.

Just got one a few months ago, Really like it.

is a reference to an external timer that turns the power on and off.
It may look something like this.

pasted_image (resized).png

Not the internal sleep timer that is giving ajita.

Use a WEMO!

Unfortunately, no luck with doing that, still shuts down. Anything else to try?

I set the sleep and wake timers for the same interval of 00:00, display shut down with a sold red LED lit on the run-dmd board.

I'd try a new power supply, voltage may be right but I wonder if the amperage is...

Hmmm, could be. However, it's the same power supply j_m_ ships with his kits.

It ran longer this time before the run-dmd board locked up with the red LED on steady and nothing on the display.

20190126_185953 (resized).jpg

3 times today so far, rapidly becoming very annoying. No red led at all this time on tye run-dmd board. Power supply measured a constant 5.4V DC each time. Starting to think the run-dmd board is faulty. Any further ideas?

I send linus a pm here with a link to this thread. I'm hoping that he and/or torbjorn will chime in since it's their product and they should be able to provide support for their customers (and I don't even have an extra board to send out

You can always disable the animations via the menu and see if the clock stays on the whole time.

I have to agree with j.m. that the real issue is with this bit here...

Even if you just use the sleep mode and re-fresh the card it occasionally happens to mine and just gets worse/shuts down quicker with every freeze up.
Don’t know if it’s just THIS batch of boards j.m. got, the funky loss of place writing of the card error, or there’s some other bug hiding in the 3.54 revision that is causing it to crash?
The first time my screen had trouble was during a Popeye animation where Bluto gets giant up past the trees. It stuttered the growing portion of the image and skipped to a shot of his head before crashing.

Sadly, I’ve given up re-flashing the card (trying different cards, etc...) and am just leaving it on the static clock.

So far no crashes since going this route.

Sucks since we bought this to watch the sweet pinball animations but, I’m patient enough to wait it out to hear of a possible future fix to this problem.

Thanks for the reply Limpan . Please point me in the right location of the file/info to flash the SD card and I'll get right onto it and report back. Thanks again.

I have a similar issue. It runs for 4 - 8 hours and locks up. Usually some fragments of the last animation remain on the screen. Just guessing, it seems like might be a stack or memory leak (coding) problem.

Nate

Ok I've download the following and need some help as to where to from here...

RunDMD_fw_v3.54.zip
RunDMD_B134.imgc
HDDRawCopy1.10Setup

...and I have a 32GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD card. The original card that was supplied by j_m_ must be written in a language foreign to Windows10 as all my PC wants to do is format it when inserted. I plugged it in, in an attempt to to see the arrangement of the existing files, as I wasn't able to access that information I removed the card.

When Limpan states "have you tried flashing the image file to another SD card", I assume he means to copy the RunDMD_B134.imgc image to another card? So I used HDDRawCopy1.10 to do just that. Selected the SOURCE file of RunDMD_B134i.imgc, selected the TARGET as the USB SD Card and away it went copying the files to the SD card. Once completed I removed the SD card and inserted it into the run-dmd pcb and switched it on. Came up displaying horizontal dashes across the screen and went no further. Powered down and reinserted the original card and the clock booted up fine.

What am I doing wrong? Was my assumption correct and doing what I described above correct? If not, please help me by providing some instruction as to what is required to flash the image as limpan tells me to do.

Damit, you jinxed me. Mine is now shutting off randomly now too

Thanks I wasn't aware the instructions at the link you provided j_m_ existed. I just attempted to follow them using HDDRawCopy and the firmware file RunDMD_B134_DMD-C.imgc and received the following error when attempting to write to the card...

28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM HDD Raw Copy Tool 1.10; http://hddguru.com
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM * * * * * IMPORTANT: DURING THE DUPLICATION PROCESS
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM ALL DATA ON TARGET WILL BE IRREVERSIBLY OVERWRITTEN!
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM Source: [0] IMAGE of Multiple Flash Reader 1.05 [512.75 MB]
28-Jan-19 3:34:25 PM Target: [3] Generic USB SD Reader 1.00 [15.59 GB]
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Locking device...
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Copying...
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Write Error occurred at offset 0 (1117)
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Cannot write to target, aborting...
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Average speed:
28-Jan-19 3:34:30 PM Operation terminated at offset 0 LBA 0

Ok, just done that. Flashed the image to a SanDisk Ultra 32GB MicroSD, installed and the clock booted. I'll leave it running and report back when it faults. Bed time here in Australia, will be 8hrs or so before I can provide an update. For the record the card supplied with my kit was a Kingston 16GB MicroSD card.

My first glance at the clock this morning, 6:40am and still functioning correctly! I'll let it go for few hours more with the default/flashed settings before making any user specific adjustments. Things are looking up.

Clock has been functioning perfectly for 16+hrs since installing the new card. Also seeing a LOT of animations I've never seen before.

Just made some changes to the default settings including sleep and wake times. I'll monitor how it performs from here and report back. If it's still functioning correctly in 24hrs, I'll try to reprogram the old card again and hopefully narrow the issue down to it. Although it seems as though that may well be the problem. Thanks again to those that have provide help, especially jm and limpin.

Let us know. I have my animations disabled and my clock is still on. I have to pick up a new SD card as the only one I have is in my raspberry pi.

Another successful run! Since changing some of the default settings yesterday, the clock is still fully operational. It went to sleep and woke up at the preset times and the DMD animation frames are running smoothly. Seems as though the SD card was the problem. Next step is to try and resurrect the original card to fully working status. Will report back once I've done that.

@pinballer73
I'm glad to hear that it was just a new SD card that solved your issues

I wonder if the micro SD cards and adapters that were sent out with the last batch of run-dmd boards were chinese knock-offs and not official products?

I've been dealing with the same lock up issues as well, probably does it 4-5 times a week. I've been able to just cycle power to the power supply and the issue goes away until next time, looks like i'll be getting a new SD card.

My clock has been running perfectly for days now, sleeping and waking at the set times and the animations are running smoothly.

In an attempt to provide some help to others experiencing the same issue described above, I installed the original card the same problems arised shortly after. I then attempted to reprogram the original card again using the HDD Raw Copy Tool and once again got the same error.

This time I did a full format of the card in the Windows 10 environment, just to completely erase the card. Then ran HDD Raw Copy Tool again and this time it successfully programmed the card. Installed it back into the clock and powered it on, so far so good, keeping the correct time and all animations are running smoothly.

I'll leave it for 24hrs and keep an eye on it when I can. If it functions without fault, I'll change from some of the default settings and set the sleep and wake times.

I need to program my new SD card. Has Anyone written to the SD card on a Mac? The only windows computer I have does not have an SD slot.

Update. My clock had been working flawlessly until this afternoon where it had stopped displaying anything on-screen as per the previous issues. Did it twice before I swapped out the SanDisk card and installed the original Kingston card which I'd reflashed. I guess this rules out the type of card being the culprit. Hopefully the designers if this awesome clock can resolve the issue for us.

Another thing I've noticed is everytime I insert a newly flashed card, I always see some animations I've never seen before. As time passes I could swear I see some animations fairly regularly.

Mounted on the wall with a FrancoB frame:

Pennybridge Pioneers and Four Monkeys. Two great albums right there chief

Ordered a RunDMD a couple of weeks ago when a new batch of the ones for Stern DMD’s came in. Built my own frame for it and sourced a local place for tinted plexi. $8.50 for a piece with the perfect tint! They cut it while I waited and the place was 15 minutes from my home.

Anyway, really pleased with the product, wasn’t cheap, the RunDMD was about $175 CDN after shipping, I had the DMD and a power supply already so I paid less than $200 CDN out of pocket.
CA1265D2-C5EE-40C5-9014-2D76E7012AB9 (resized).jpeg

Did you try a new battery?