Thanks jyeakley! It is great to know that you are enjoying the ToM kit and it is one of the big attractors when people come by to play. I think it really came out well.

I just installed my IM lights on the ramps, and it looks amazing. It takes the game to the next level of insanity. Thx for a great mod.

Just got around to installing mine on my CFTBL. The bowl lights work great and great chaser effects. Unfortunately, the creature ramp isn't working at all.

Hi Keith. My apologies on this. You PMed me some diagnostics and I'll work with you to either fix the problem or make this right through a refund.

Great customer service . We'll get it fixed, I'm not worried.

Are these kits still available??

Yes -- I have them for sale in my pinside shop: https://pinside.com/pinball/biz/directory/1227-professor-pinball

Also, PM me if you are looking for something that is not in my pinside shop. I have written a lot of code and designed a lot of kits, only some of which people have asked for and are in my shop.

Loving the Pinduino in my Lord of the Rings!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinduino-interactive-stadium-lights

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Excellent work! Great to see what you came up with using the pinduino! Is there a link where people can download the code you write to make this happen?

Here's a link to the current Pinduino code in the game. This uses LED-1 for the side cabinet LEDs and LED-2 for the back panel and trough LEDs.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Q9ac0K3N3MPqrVliRvDWzTr-X9rSXsred2PhAXEBXw/edit?usp=drivesdk

That's KILLER !

Here's another video of my LOTR with Pinduino

That looks awful...

Good thing it's not your game!

I am still getting used to to the lighting in LOTR. It is quite dark and this does a good job lighting at appropriate times

Nice work! I think the colors work really well to enhance to mood of the game. One thing that I have done when using full playfield color washes like that is to add spot lights that are always on (white). For my eyes, having those spots help helps me not lose track of the ball when the color changes across the playfield.

Finally had some time to make the harnesses for my Pinduino last night and installed it in my The Getaway: High Speed II. I put a strip inside the Supercharger ramp- my idea is to have a chase effect when the ball is whipping around.

With only a couple of modifications to the WPC template for initial testing it's working great! I really enjoyed building it. I'm now starting to play with various effects to see what works best for the supercharger chase. I also added a couple of small "explosions" for other flashers.

lyonsden - One thing I noticed is that when I plug my computer into the Nano's USB port to upload a sketch it is backflowing 5 volts into J118 and then into the boards- I'm thinking adding in a diode in-between the pinduino power lead and J118-4 would eliminate this.

Once I finishing tweaking the light show I'll upload some video.

-Mike

Nice work! Can't wait to see the video. Also, nice idea on adding a blocking diode.

I had a chance to build a pinduino with a buddy for his Party Zone. Love the ramps on this game!

Code is available (open source): https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/PartyZone

Here's a rough video of my Pinduino controlled lights on my The Getaway: High Speed II supercharger ramp:

The primary effect I was going for is to have a red chase effect when the ball is whipping around the supercharger ramp.

Nice work, Mike! There are some other effects that you could use for things when not in the super charger. The sparkle effect may look good as a background sequence, and spreadInFromPoint2Color or bulletFromPoint2Color could be neat (with their start point at the center-front of the supercharger). I'll be in the DC area starting in Jan., and happy to help out with some programming.

Looks Sweet , good job!

I've picked up one of these in kit for my Metallica Pro. I'd like to be able to add stadium lighting to my MET and tie them into the pinduino so that the both the lighting color/shade and brightness can be controlled, and also preserve the existing "Fade to Black" GI fading capabilities in the game so the stadium lights would also dim/go out along with the existing build-in GI.

Is there anyway to accomplish this with pinduino? I can cut code if need be, etc. but it looks like only the flashers and a few coils are addressable. Is there a way to tie in to the GI voltage as well?

That is a neat idea. I think you could, but it would require building a custom add-on circuit to measure the output of the GI. I think a bridge rectifier for the AC->DC conversion, and then find a free analog channel on the pinduino's arduino to measure the voltage drop (you may need to do something different as I'm not sure if dimming is due to pulsing the current). Once that is measured, then there can be an added function that modulates the brightness of all the pinduino effects. Given the extra needs of this project, something like the previous version of the pinduino would be best (uses an Arduino Mega and has a built-in breakout board for making such circuits.) The board files for that version of the pinduino are open source: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_boards/tree/master/Pinduino_v0.2 , including the gerber files to get them manufactured by SeeedStudio (https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion.html). Just upload the .rar file and you should be good to go.

I have included the above mentioned circuitry on my PinLightShield (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/always-wanted-to-build-your-own-pinball-lightmod) and can confirm that it works just fine for detecting GI - at least in older games that use 6.3VAC for the GI. I don´t know what voltage they use in the newer games and whether it´s AC or DC.

Excellent news! For those that haven't seen the PinLightShield (and the SwitchShield) by BigLebowski, I highly recommend checking them out.

Excellent. I'll check this out.

Hi All,

Just want to let people know that I'll be taking an assignment for my job in Alexandria, VA for 2018. (Starting at the end of Jan.) While Tucson will still be my home and base camp for Professor Pinball mods and all things Pinduino, I am looking forward to checking out the DC area's pinball scene. It is a great opportunity that let's me work from Tucson one week a month. Also, this means that orders to my pinside shop (https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1025-professor-pinball) will still be filled, but there may be a longer delay till I can get kits assembled and mailed.

For Pinsiders in the DC area that I've met through Pinside, I am looking forward to meeting you in person. Also, I have a feeling that I'll still need to get a fix of working on games, developing Pinduino code, and installing pinduinos on games, so if you have a game that can use the pinduino magic, get in touch with me.

Best,
-Eric Lyons (aka Professor Pinball)

Just finished a Pinduino on my Creature From the Black Lagoon. Love it.

Video of my old WCS. Game sold at Pintastic 2018. Did a lot of custom coding on this with a lot of help from Eric.

Great work @eabundy!

Have you posted your code or are willing to share it?

I’ll be bringing a friend’s WCS to TPF this year and want to install a pinduino kit

The code was shared, and it's in the pinduino library. I'm currently working on a Johnny Mnemonic. I'll share that code when I'm done with it as well.

https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/World-Cup-Soccer-Ramp

Thanks. Will check it out.

pinballjj Excellent work on your games! Thanks for posting those videos.

Hello all! I'm working on getting some stadium lighting set up on my Dirty Harry. It has been a fun project, my first time doing a lot of stuff. Figured I'd post here to see if anyone experienced a similar issue.

I have uploaded the test library and the LEDs work great. When I start a game, the game will play for anywhere from 1-30 or so seconds. At that point, the pin resets. There doesn't seem to be an interruption to the LED strips.

Any ideas? I tried to track it to a particular flasher firing but it seems random. Thanks!

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Just messed around some more, and it looks like if I don't use the flippers the game plays without resetting. So the resetting seems to be connected with the flippers in some way. I'm puzzled as to what to check further, though.

Hey there, I assume you're powering the pinduino (and the LEDs themselves) off of the 5V rail of the machine? That's way too many at any sort of full brightness. You need to externally power LED strips that long. You also risk damaging boards by trying to pull that much current through traces that aren't rated for it.

If you externally power the LEDs and still experience reset problems, I did shoot a video on installing a Kahr reset fix board:

Also, I do have a few of these Pinduino boards in my games, and if running any amount of LEDs, I either externally power them, or I pull off of the lesser-taxed 12V line and regulate down to 5V.

Thanks! lyonsden reached out and he makes a 12v>5v that he is shipping out to me. This is the first time I've messed with anything electronic so I'm learning as I go. Glad I didn't destroy anything (yet)!

Destroying things is sooooo much fun. It's the only way I learn.

Yes -- the pinduino drives 5V addressable LEDs and due to the sensitivity of the 5V circuit on the MPU on WPC games, it can trigger the 5V reset problem. Khar's board is a good solution as is bullet proofing the 5V current on the power driver board. I have designed a power board that plugs into J118, which contains a 12V->5V voltage regulator to drive the LEDs. I've tested it an about 6 of my games and have it in the hands of about 3 pinsiders, all of whom say it works well without any problems. I have instructions posted on building and installing the board: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11vrhFzZ3xCn7MdkWuSQDqnwS3o9wdX9hhvImAOdjwqA/edit

and will get this posted in my pinside shop soon.

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Here are a couple more photos of the Pinduino Power Board, including having it installed in a game.

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WPC Pinduino Power Board is now listed in my pinside shop: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1025-professor-pinball/03754-wpc-pinduino-power-board

Good morning,

Highly interesting and flexible mod, but I would have a few questions:

- Do WS2812b ledstrip with integrated silicon diffuser exist somewhere ? I really don't like too much seeing the ledstrip as is on a pinball machine in off mode, or when the lights are off, and these ledstrips are visible when mounted on ramps

Otherwise the effects are really really neat, especially on ramps (like Tron)

- Why the limitation to two outputs only ? I understand you can drive a lot of led through a single output, but that makes programming rather complicated (if you want ramps, backbox, apron, undercab, etc). For example, for my virtual pinball I use a Wemos D1 Pro, it has 6 outputs, which I use to drive independently left and right playfield ledstrip, led backboard and undercab. Unless I'm missing something ?

- Are the ledstrip used 60 led / m ?

Regards

[EDIT] Found answers to all my questions by reading through multiple threads.

Yeah -- sorry for the delay in replying but:
-Diffuser for WS2812B: yes -- they exist
-Two outputs: It is about all you can reasonably do with an Arduino, and the Pinduinos are stackable so you can control 4 sets of LEDs with two Arduinos (or more if you want to daisy chain them). I do this regularly to control the GI/side lighting with ramps and other areas.
-I usually use 60 LEDs/M, but you can use higher or lower density (just make sure to consider the power requirements of the LEDs and how they will be powered.)

I just installed a separate 5V switching power supply for my Pinduino.
I also got some 5V warm white LED strips installed under the RGB LED's for some stadium lighting.
Makes me sleep better knowing I'm not overtaxing or hacking up the original boards.