I've seen this board controlling strips on the ramps of Iron Man. It's really nice looking.

Continuing to add to the library. Now we can throw multiple bullet fx into the addressable strip.

AMAZING!

really neat stuff! I want I want

Nice work Wes! I need another Mega and pull your updates.

Just finished installing LED strips on the apron and under the backbox. Over 16,000,000 colors to play with (using the Pinduino to control them and tied into game play).

The code is available: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/XMen-Apron-Back

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Too coolio

Directions to assemble a Pinduino: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y68ZkTQ2VHid4RKTt7BpwDiLYukaT8Dqg48kC-UWgqU/edit?usp=sharing

Can I add sound or music with this?

That's are really interesting idea. Short answer, yes: http://highlowtech.org/?p=1963

Just curious, I know that the metallica pro doesn't have the integrated lighting effects that the LE and Premium have. In theory could this be used to emulate those effects or create your own similar effects?

Yes, but it won't be quite the same. I'm pretty sure that the Premium/LE have several GI circuits controlled by different relays that will turn on/off red/blue/white GI to create the different PF lighting effects. However, can you point me to a video of the effect that you want to recreate? In any case, you can definitely get a good spread of light from the addressable LEDs and run them on the back of the playfield and across the apron, and can add them to the sides along the piston shot and behind the mystery scoop.

Just got mine assembled this weekend. This thing is cool as hell.

I haven't put it in my game yet but I wanted to test it to make sure I soldered everything correctly. The instructions were very clear and easy to follow. Lucky for me I was able to score an Arduino Mega a few weeks ago at a closing radio shack for only $13.

pinduino_test.jpg

Once assembled, I loaded up the test library sketch to see all the various patterns. There are a lot of really cool effects currently available. I think I'm going to try and put this in my CFTBL. I'm planning on putting in new ramps so I think that will be the perfect time to also put in the addressable LED's in the ramps. Not sure how I'll put the strips under the whirlpool since that's such a tight circle and the strips can only follow a gentle curve.

Originally, I wasn't sure if I was going to use the green or purple leds or bulbs in the ramps. Now with this mod I can have both colors (and many more) along with lots of cool chase effects. I'll have to see if I can replicate the projector/film like pattern the current chase board does.

Awesome kit. Thanks Prof_Pinball.

Congratulations. Just got mine ordered this weekend and can't wait to play around with it.

I should add that Prof_Pinball was fantastic to deal with.

This is a cool idea, especially for CFTBL. You can pretty easily make a new function that alternates the flashes on every other LED, just like the game does. Keep us updated!

-Wes

Hrm... Good point. Check these out though... They'll set you back a few more dollars, but a pair of these should integrate directly into Pinduino, and would look cool under the whirlpool...(disclaimer: we haven't tested these specifically, but they do use the same library)

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1586 - NeoPixel Large Ring
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1463 - NeoPixel Small Ring

-Wes

PM sent. This looks awesome.

I thought I would have to solder together my own ring of LED's. This might work better. Thanks for the links.

Nice work at a nice price. Thanks for contributing to the community.

One question though: is the custom shield necessary? Is there isolation circuitry on it, or is it only being used to add the plugs and such? It seems to me that if no isolation circuitry is needed and someone wanted to only control a few light strings that one of the mini/micro arduino boards could be used. And those only cost about 2 bucks.

The only reason I ask is that I've done that before except I didn't tie into the J connectors as you've done.

There is isolation circuitry to sense the flashers, coils, motors, etc (Stern's J6 and J7 on SAM systems), convert those signals into a form that the Arduino can process, and then the Arduino runs code based on those inputs. Also, the board provides power to the Arduino, and GND, 5V, and 12V to various devices. If you use a mini arduino board (e.g., Trinket), you'll have some limitations on the size of the program you can store. The pinduino library is too large to fit on a Trinket, but I've put the original IM LED ramp chase sequence (using the NeoPixel library) on them with a bit of squeezing (which doesn't have any interaction with gameplay).

If you want to take a look, all the code is posted: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches The IM code without gameplay interaction that fits on a Trinket is the the folder "old".

neat project, I have some arduinos in my pins already but I made my own opto-isolator boards, would have been nice to have these off-the-shelf

Where do I go/who do I contact to buy one of the kits if you still have them in stock?

Exactly our thinking too!

-Wes

We're still working on getting a web portal setup, but you can send a PM to prof_pinball and he'll get you set up!

-Wes

I just posted these in the Iron Man club thread but here are a few stills of my Iron Man interactive ramp lights. Amazing light show:

image-826.jpg

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image-585.jpg

Bet that looks pretty sick in person!!
Perhaps it would be fun to try and put this kit to use controlling color changing mini saucer lights in AFM...

Done, he replied, and I purchased.

Looking forward to tinkering with it.

It looks even better in person. Try it out bud.

Anyone used one of these off brand Arduinos from amazon?

http://www.amazon.com/Sintron-ATmega2560-Arduinos-Starter-Learner/dp/B00E94CGTQ/ref=sr_1_7

Just trying to save a few bucks.

Not that one specifically, but I have used many. Overall, they have been great and haven't had any problems! The thing that I've run into is finding the appropriate USB drivers (It uses the CH340 or CH340G or CH341 chip)for mac (which appears to not be as much an issue for Windows or not an issue on Linux).

Details for dealing with this: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=261375.0

Question: I am sure someone says "NO" already to this question. So I apologies in advance. I will read up more on this arduino mod, but to speed things up if anyone has any notes. That would be greatly appreciated.

Will I be able to add this mod to DE: ST25th? I currently have sound activated LE-wire on my clear ramps. However, I would like LED-strip animations based on switch matrix.

Fantastic, I look forward to digging into this. Thanks...

Also, check this post out for an Arduino shield that reads switches: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/always-wanted-to-build-your-own-pinball-lightmod#post-2257225

I have one on order and can't wait to try it out.

Awesome, I would really like to hear how it works for you.

Finally got around to putting my Pinduino together (instructions are very well written by the way--not that I read them because that wouldn't be very manly). At this point I want to test it on the bench (I have a 5V/12V power supply) and play around with the code.

I see the pinduino_test_input on github, but I'm not sure if that works with the addressable led strips. I also see the pinduino directory, but not sure what to do with the src files: do I need all of them and the instructions for adding libraries says they should be in a zip file?

Are there directions for this stage of the setup that I'm missing somewhere?

Also, can someone explain the difference between the link in the first column and the link in the second column on github?

Great to hear that you built the Pinduino! I've made some instructions to get you going with download and running the code: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xk9QtnBrs58lnKNAFGCy8bAlQ9cdEmo1Trk4WAJEpYM

There are great online materials for learning the ins and outs of the Arduino SDK and GitHub, but my instructions should give you the barebones to get started. Please let the Prof Pinball Team know if you run into any problems or have any questions. Also, feel free to PM me and we can chat by phone/Skype.

The "pinduino_test_input" sketch is for physically testing the Pinduino shield. It let's us test each channel of the optoisolators on the shield and if they are working, an addressable LED strip flashes red. I added a new sketch, "pinduino_demo" that will run the demo routine for the Pinduino, which goes through a bunch of the lighting effects and creates a nice light show.

https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/pinduino_demo

GitHub is a very nice website for code versioning and sharing in a multi-developer context. You can download individual files, but you need to organize them correctly for the Arduino SDK. Alternatively, you can download the entire Pinduino set of programs by downloading the ZIP file, or using git to clone the repository (repo) form the command line:

git clone https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches.git

In the GitHub website, the first column lets you navigate through directories to files, and the second column is a link to the version changes. As we fix bugs and improve the code, we checkin new version of the software and make comments on what we did (e.g., "updated testAdrLED"). This lets us (or others) figure out what has been done to the code if something breaks or if something new has been added.

Hey Eric, thanks for the response and the info. I do plan on educating myself on the Arduino but just wanted to get a quick test on my board assembly before I dug into the code. The info you provided looks perfect.