Fixed YouTube link.

That would be great.I have a Raspberry Pi lying around here waiting to be connected to my STLE!
I'll be following this thread closely...

Does it work with the large 192x64 Sega DMD and DMD extender solution? Where is the download link

So help me understand this a bit...
It looks like the image is pulled from the DMD..into the Raspbian...SmartDMD does it's thing...then outputted to an LCD type display in color.

I guess I'm trying to figure out how to put a LCD in the game..to get the color images. Would I need to leave the original DMD in the game somewhere or could the original DMD be bypassed\removed?

I don't have a Pin in front of me..maybe it'll be obvious when I do

So the image can be pulled into the Raspbian without the DMD installed in the machine...awesome.

I probably shouldn't be asking so many questions without trying it..I just ordered a Raspbian 5 minutes ago but...

If I wanted to use the 'stock' coloring providing with the SmartDMD..do I just dump the SmartDMD executable, smartDMD.txt and License.txt on the Raspbian and go? Or do I need to do a custom config for the game via the Pinball Browser\SmartDMD?

Looking forward to messing with this stuff...awesome work!

Anyone have any Williams pins running Smart DMD. I want to run my Addams and my TZ with this but I'm not sure how it works fully.

I have just finished fitting a lcd to my frankenstien, Just ordered a rasberry pi, i now need to build the cable. I am glad i held off purchasing a new dmd. Approx $500 here in Oz.
The pi has a 26pin connector so i gather you dont need to use the larger cable that is in your pics.
So really i could go from 14 to 26. I am luck enough to have a 3d printer so i would like to make a cover that fits over the resistors. Do you have a wiring diagram with the pin numbers. I could work it out off the pics if i had to thanks in advance.
One other thing, can this cable be used on sam, sega and williams or are they wired differently.

I'mi in the process of assembling my Black Rose. I should be able to test out a Bally next week (4.14~4.16)

I made the resistor adapter from the picture Oga posted. I'll probably make a simple printed circuit when I final install the stuff in my machine You only need an 16P (2x8) cable to go from the Pi to the resistor adapter. But there's enough room if you have a bigger (40pin IDE) cable laying around. If you consider that almost all DMD are interchangeable...the pinouts should be the same across all manufactures

A couple of things you should know. HDMI -> VGA adapter won't work (Edit: it will with a true HD -> VGA adapter). You either have to go HDMI -> HDMI or HDMI -DVI-I (DVI-D).

The Pi is kinda picky with power. Make sure you buy a good PS for it and not a shitty cell phone charger. A 2A PS with 10' cable was like $5 from MonoPrice

Avoid using a micro-SD card (with mini-adapter). While I didn't try this...I was emailing back and forth with Oga and he said he had some issues with this setup.

With My setup I had a problem with Samba starting...it would only Start about once every 10-15 boots. If it didn't start..it would sit at 'Starting Samba Daemons' and just hang there. I ended up complete removing the Samba app and it works fine now. I'm gonna revisit that issue when I have a chance. Removing Samba will mean you can't access the Pi VIA network from a windows box.

You can completely configure the PI on the bench. When you get SmartDMD to boot it'll show the serial number and count down to from 10..then you should get a 'no single' error on the bench.

If you follow Oga's tutorial and use his ready made Wheezy image its pretty straight forward. Don't forget to throw the guy a couple buck for his work. I can only imagine how much time he has invested it this project. Oh yeah..you need to email him the Pi Serial number (it'll display when SmartDMD boots) to get a license..else it'll only run for like 10 seconds

Good luck

20140409_084355.jpg

I'm interested in a Bally/williams version. Do I need to buy an extender or will DIY instructions be provided for that as well?

Oh, and this is incredibly awesome!

I am waiting to do both of my games, TAF and TZ, but I'm still not 100% sure how it works. My main sticking point is attaching the pi so that it grabs the rom images from the Williams board set. Looking forward to your Williams test. Keep us updated and thanks Oga for all of your hard work.

Thanks for the info i have made some stern plug and play adaptors for adding extra leds to flashers.
I was going to use the same concept for the cable adaptor.2014-04-10 23.12.32 (Medium).jpg
I also have a pic of the mounting brackets i have printed for the lcd.2014-04-10 23.06.18 (Medium) (2).jpg
I have read people have been able to use hdmi to vga on the dmd extenders. (If this does not work it could be a problem)

Interesting..
I had 3 different HDMI -> VGA adapters at the office and none worked.

Then I looked at the PI specs and they say nothing about HDMI -> VGA..but reference HDMI -> HDMI and HDMI -> DVI-I. It's kinda just easier to buy a LCD controller with HDMI in. But for bench testing VGA would have come in handy

No extender if you make the resistor adapter.

What I know so far (i'm not really finished yet) that you'll need

-LCD screen (test)...or if you're installing it in a 128x32 DMD machine
-15.6 screen (ebay..about $55 shipped),
-Matching controller (about $35 shipped)
-Power supply.. ($8).

-Raspberry PI (about $40 shipped)
-Good micro USB power supply 1+ amp ($5)
-4 GB Mini-SD card($ ?)

Cabling
-HDMI to whatever your LCD screen supports (HDMI DVII or VGA..although I couldn't get VGA to work)
-16p or greater 'IDE' cable (floppy drive or standard 40p IDE cable will work)
-7 330Ohm resisters ($1) http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MFP-25BRD52-330R/330ADCT-ND/2059131
-2x8 unshrouded through hole header...bought this and cut to size
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&site=us&keywords=609-3247-nd&x=0&y=0&formaction=on
-14P IDC socket (not needed on DE games..not sure about the rest)http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&site=us&keywords=hkc14s-nd&x=0&y=0&formaction=on

You'll need a PC (laptop?) with a mini-SD card slot for applying the boot image on the SD card

That's what I have so far...not sure if i'm missing anything

I'm pretty sure it was 'clicked'...in fact i remember seeing the reference to it (XXX=1) in the SmartDMD.txt file. I wonder if it might be the version of PI I bought (which I don't know which one it was). We had a server go down at work today so I didn't have time to mess with it.

If the VGA adapter works..that would be great news as complete VGA 15.6 LCD monitors are about $70

Sweet. I have all this stuff lying around (except the pass throughs, but I'd be replacing my DMD with this, so I may not need it), so I'll build the cable up ASAP. Of course only having Williams machines I guess there's not a huge rush, but I'd love to drop this into my Roadshow.

I don't suppose you want to work on P-ROC DMD timing

I'm curious why this would be desirable. Can't you just drive your display directly from the computer? Aren't you the Mocean from the pinbalcontrollers forum working on a T2 where you're doing just that?

Yeah the same, and I'm coding the Buffy (SoF retheme) pin which is also full VGA color /but/ I have P-ROCs in a bunch of machines and not all are getting the development time they deserve and they wind up frequently running original roms on pinmame. I was just curious to try and I admit it seems pointless, though weirdly recently at least two folks are using the official ColorDMD in their P-ROC'ed machines.

Okay... You talked me out of that one

Just an update..
The 4th HDMI to VGA adapter I have here works. The other 3 do not work. It looks like the the non working adapters are just pass through. The one that works is more like the one Oga posted a link to...and actually as 'HD to VGA converter' tagged on the cable.

Hopefully this time next week I'll have it installed in my Black Rose

Yes.. the 3 that don't work expect there to be analog VGA signals on the connector, but the Pi doesn't do that. You need the active dongle that includes a DAC.

I'm hoping that at some point someone will take all of this, dumb it down for me, and help me get one installed in Jack-Bot so that I can colorize that son of a ....

I'll probably do a step by step in the next couple of weeks. All I did was follow Oga's tutorial...it's pretty straight forward. I'd like to wait until I have my screens in..the controllers are coming from China though.

You can buy the Pi, power supply for the Pi, a 4 GB mini-SD card (about $50 in parts) and test\configure everything on the bench with minimal invested (about $50). The most expensive piece is the LCD components. If you have a standard Micro USB phone charger you could probably use that for a testing power supply.

If you wanna use VGA you 'should' be able to pick up any 15.6 monitor and gut it.,,there were a few available last night when I looked Those are $70ish shipped new on ebay.

On the DMD to Pi cable:

Do you connect all pins from the DMD board to the Pi?

Does pin 1 on the Pi get connected to pin 1 on the DMD board?

I understand that in the long run soldering the resisters is better, but why bother with headers? Why not just jam the resisters into the female receptacles?

Thank you!

Thank you! Just what I needed. I didn't see it in the OP. I'll build a simple breadboard with headers on either side. I'm very excited for Williams support!

Also, I've changed my mind and having this work on the P-ROC really would be nice. When running stock roms on pinmame, there's DMD output. That means I could change inputs on the LCD panel and use colorized output for pinmame, different than the native color from the desktop of the controller PC when running p-roc code.

Here's the Black Rose pics

20140415_122545.jpg

20140415_122730.jpg

20140415_122813.jpg

Wow! I can't wait until this is released; it looks awesome! My RS would love some color dots.

SmartDMD for dummies writeup please.

It's been released for months...I'm surprised no one has messed with it.

Hopefully Thursday (it's a long shot though) I'll have another little surprise.

I'll tell ya the difference contrast from SmartDMD to the actual ColorDMD is night and day. The actual ColorDMD in my AFM looks washed out..and grey scale compared to this. Unfortunately my AFM is on loan so can't do a side by side

How did I miss that Bally support was already in the code base!???!

On it now!

To the OP.

You are one sick motherf.....

Congrats. Still need to find time with the editor you posted on that other thread but this is awesome.

Really dreaming of customizing one game. Personalise dmd, sound tracks, sounds etc.

Guess one day if I take a sabbatical

Bally, Williams, Data East and Stern.

BTW that is the actual Black Rose game outputting to the monitor.

Seems colorizing individual frames for Williams/Bally isn't supported (yet) by Pinball Browser... bummer. Any chance that I'm wrong? Fixed palette only, right?

we abolutly need a do it yourself Color dmd
not only Change some Basic Colors

Correct..you can change 4 color pallets for DE and Bally (the 2 I messed with so far). There's VERY little shading done on older Bally artwork. I'm not sure if a newer (late 90s) Williams\Bally has more levels.

If you open a modern Stern in the PB..you'll see colorizing individual dots is a HUGE project because they are done in GREAT detail..at least compare to the older Bally\Williams. For example I colorized about 35 frames on Xmen 1.51(surprise hint) and it took about 40 hours. Games that use clips (Acdc, Tron, SM) still look terrible. Any Stern SAM with custom dots can be modified to your hearts content (FGY looks freakin sweet in color). There are also 16 pallets that can be adjusted. This alone is good enough for really good results. But sometime you get something that's way off and you wanna custom color it.

Like Iceman...if I make him and the ice blue via a pallet selection...the 'fire' in hell fire is also blue. So that needed to be 'custom' colored red\orange\yellow.

Also..if you colorize frames..and there's a new update. Well..there goes your work...at least the custom frames but you can use your custom pallet on anything. That's why I'm messing with Xmen and not Metallica right now.

My biggest problem is I don't have an artist bone in my body...but I am getting better with it. Not sure it's possible to get worse

Sneak preview of X-men Wolverines using stock color pallet. Thanks to oga83 for ironing out the bugs..the guy is ridiculously talented!

Quick example of smartDMD with World Cup Soccer...

That's awesome!

I'm waiting for screens and controllers to come in...the controllers are coming in from China so who's knows when they'll get here.

I'm tempted to gut a 15.6 monitor and just use that

Most 15.6" monitors contain garbage panels with respect to viewing angles and contrast. I have one of those generic 15.6" in my T2 (p-roc) and it's pretty awful. I've also got a B156HW01 V.4 in another proc project and the difference is night and day. Those controllers take forever to arrive but it's worth the wait

That's what I was thinking also...I 'almost' bought a monitor yesterday but I can wait. I have a couple of LP156WH4 on the way..I bought a extra controller just in case...they even came with remotes =).

Can I assume you're use HMDI to HDMI?

The LP is supposed to be just as nice with respect to contrast. Supposedly the B has a slightly wider color gamut but I doubt you'd ever notice in this application.

I'm using DVI not HDMI, but it's a PC/P-ROC project, not Pi controlled. The T2 is VGA to garbage 15.4" monitor, making it look even worse. The biggest problem on that monitor is it's totally terrible black levels. Black looks like gray at best.