:evil laugh, as he strokes his Spock goatee:
Muahhhahhaha get in line boys. I got them all.

Priceless

QuatroIMG_0597.JPGIMG_0692.JPG

Damn you

I salute you sir, a true Trek fan. To bad ya can't put them in a line.

Just got mine! Super nice from a great seller thanks John.

20140906_221324.jpg

20140907_102821.jpg

Got my prototype PCBs back from OSH Park... My eyes are still recovering from the brightness outputted by these LED inserts. Here's some pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15229381761/sizes/o/
15229381761_3d541c956b[1].jpg

They plug into the #555 wedge base:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15232093732/sizes/o/
15232093732_5b4276b8cf[1].jpg
in the stern star trek pop bumper body.

And fit within the lip of the Stern PopBumper socket:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15229387731/sizes/o/
15229387731_f2c7406404[1].jpg

This LED cluster is so bright; it's hard to take picture of. This is a picture WITH FLASH:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15229383911/sizes/o/
15229383911_8fd2eaf5e1[2].jpg

Here's my caps posted previously ... with the LED board underneath:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15045903618/sizes/o/
15045903618_2c2e45ca5b[1].jpg

Here's an example of Before and After:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52968060@N00/15232651335/sizes/o/
15232651335_a892a52211[1].jpg
This LED board is on the right.

The PCBs work as desired... they are immune to the brownouts seen with other LED designs. They are bright and fit within the pop bumper body allowing the my caps to work as intended. They are non-polarized; and will function with both DC and AC GI circuits (@6.3V).

These are power hungry tho. With 10 qty 30mA natural white LEDs; they'd draw ~322mA; which is still less than those pop-ring caps seen other places (I'm guessing). The LED vendor used in this design also has Cool and Warm White LEDs; so "in theory" it's as simple as using different leds.

The real test is the red and blue pop bumper caps under the ramps and Vengeance. I'll try to finish the other two prototypes and post some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for posting those pics Z!
Those are very trick!
I am currently trying to figure out why my Vengeance drop target takes 3 hits for every one strike of the ball. Ugh

Maybe try this trick? https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stle-drop-target-problem-help-please#post-1867792

Though that's different than what that's generally addressing, which is the wild up and down phantom drop hits.

I wouldn't spend too much time or stress tweaking it until after the bug fix patch. My 2 cents.

Haven't visited this thread in awhile; first off, grats tiger law!! Welcome to the club! How are you liking it 3 weeks later?

Zitt, amazing pop caps! Well done!

Aurich - Thanks for the link. But yeah, that's not my problem. When the ball hits the drop target I get "BOOM BOOM BOOM" like the target was hit three times in a row.

SKB - This was happening before the code update with the last version. And has just continued to get worse. I went ahead and took a Q-Tip and cleaned the opto's this evening. Then Baseball/Football have been on all day and I've been a bump on a log. I'll find out for sure Monday.
Thanks guys for offering the advice!

Hmm. But the target isn't rapidly going up and down along with it? It just doesn't drop? Because I've had the target spazzing out and giving me multiple hits, but it at least reacted. The washer trick is easy, maybe at least worth trying. My target seems to be behaving now, but I'm gonna do it anyways at some point to be safe, because it's started spazzing out randomly again before.

I've had the same problem. Reseating the optic sensor for that area 'seems' to help. But my understanding is that there's always been issues with the vengeance area and the reports are all over the map and stern is presumptionally working on bug fixes this next patch so I wouldn't sweat that bug til after the next update to see if stern addresses it with a software fix.

So I got to the final frontier tonight with 3 balls no buy ins. I'm sure // Error: Image 287969 not found //// Error: Image 287969 not found //the score isn't big compared to some but I was pretty stoked!

20140915_221902-774.jpg

...it actually hurts my eyes to see a stock STNG display.
ColorDMD... live it- love it. Best mod for this game; hands down.

Sorry guys, I'm not trying to hijack the post with my problem, but now with SKB's reply it seems like this must be happening with a few more people? Aurich you are exactly right. The ball hits the target, I get a double or triple hit, and the target DOES react by going down and back up once, but still getting the double or triple "BOOMS". I cleaned the opto's but that didn't help at all. This doesn't happen all the time, but at least once or twice per game.

I'm going to have to track down this "washer trick" on pinside. I've not seen this yet. What is it fixing?

Murph

So you think it might be a bug instead of a hardware issue? I've had this problem for about the past two months, and before the latest update. I'm going to check my game totals later today and post those. I have to be in the 300's I bet. I bought it in November when Marco took their first delivery.

And not to stir up controversy, but I'm going to start a new post later today with a pic of my playfield and all it's craters. This is my first NIB, and I cannot believe the amount of dimples I've got!

I want to do it but $400 is it really worth it?

It's more than worth it!
See it in COLOR!

YES YES YES !!!!

yup.

Definitely.

Mine should be here this week, with shipping 500 bucks but on what I deem the best of the B/W dmd's sparing no expense to turn it into a masterpiece.

I think you have seen the unanimous answers above w/ regards to ColorDMD.
I rest my case.

They came off an assembly line--does that count? And to you Hazoff--take THIS!Sept.20, 2013 William Shatner.jpgSept.20, 2013 William Shatner.jpg

Shatner actually looks pretty good for an 83-year-old.

Mine too. I've heard this is pretty typical. It doesn't affect play and you can't notice unless you look at an angle, but there are a lot of them.

Just ordered!

You wont be disappointed. I have one in MM, AFM, TZ and IMVE.

If you could only have one mod on a pin, Color DMD would be it.

I have reason to believe it can and may be fixed via software. Don't quote me on that, let's just hope its true and hope we see a bug patch update sooner than later *crossing fingers*

Thanks. Unfortunately; I had to take the boards back to the design phase because of a problem which showed up when I installed the second board for pictures.

In the Modern Sterns (Star trek, [assuming also Mustang, TWD] ); They are running GIs from one of the RGB controllers which takes the 5.7VAC GI and "boosts" it to 9V for the RGB lighting. Apparently on the Stern Star Trek LE; the GI lighting is at the hairy edge of failure. Adding too much of a load on the GI causes the entire lighting system to malfunction. I suspect I know why ... and can design around this; so my Fab B boards are on order for OSHPark.

Should know more in a couple of weeks.

No one should plan on adding any specialized lighting to a modern stern machine - AFAIK; any high current LEDs will cause problems.

High current as in 9-12v? On my Mustang Pro I have all kinds of 5 and 6.3v stuff on it. Cointaker lit flipper buttons, 6, 6.3v Comet 7 led strips, Sparkys MDM and Mezelmods tach and will be adding under apron flashers from the Refinery. Haven't popped a fuse yet.

Not a fuse issue. It's a loading issue. Maybe they fixed the design in Mustang.
I had two of my boards in the pops... each drawing 330mA. IE total of ~700mA.
It caused about 1/4 of my RGB and GIs to do a periodic "flash" instead of a solid on.

ok, finally got up the courage to paint my borg ship. I haven't painted anything since the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts so I was pretty terrified it'd look terrible, but I'm pleased with the results.

painted

acrylic windows installed

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

Looks fantastic!

Thanks. I guess it's hard to screw up spray paint.

RISK!!!!!!!
Oh ya, Borg ship looks cool.....RISK!!!!

EDIT: risk 2210 was always our favorite. Nukes, naval armies, war on the moon. Good times!

I see. Would you consider what I have hooked up a high load?

No. Most of your stuff is the standard 20mA LEDs.
The highest power one is the 7 LED strips; but it really depends how they are laid out.

Thanks Zitt.

Looks great! That's how I did mine 'cept I dry brushed some silver on it too. Good job!

I'm sure I wouldn't have too much trouble screwing that up.

Try Google. Type in "dry brushing" or something. There's got to be a "how to" vid somewhere.

Thanks. I don't actually have that game. I just meant my general aptitude for screwing up household projects.

I see......me too sometimes.