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Why isn't anyone producing cheaper (non color) lcd alternatives to very old tech gas dmd's (which are now banned in europe anyway)? Demand for B/W machines is obviously there.
You would think that a basic modern lcd display that size could be sold at 50-100$. But all I can find online are 250$ gas DMD's or 400$ color dmd.
Quoted from bigd1979:Probably bc they are obsolete and are rarely used anymore other than pinball and few other things . Odd size and not many made equals expensive product?
Rarely used in new machines yes. But used in every machine produced from -91 to 2010? That's a lot of potential buyers. And currently people are not buying them because of the price. If new ones were around 80$, they would sell like hot cupcakes.
Producing LCD display in modern age costs pennies compared to that old gas DMD.
Quoted from bigd1979:Also there are orange lcds made by a few companies but most people probably want full color now...especially for not much more money
If the price difference is 100$ then yes. Color DMD is 400$. So this brings as back to the original question about that price.
I mean you can get 7" full color touch screen LCD for rasperry PI for 55€:
https://www.dx.com/p/elecrow-raspberry-pi-3-display-7-inch-touch-screen-hdmi-hd-lcd-tft-1024-x-600-monitor-for-raspberry-pi-3-2b-b-pcduino-win7-8-white-495964#.W5dYaV4zbyQ
What is there I don't get?
Quoted from erak:http://www.drpinball.co.uk/
DMD extender. Expensive a bit in the end. But lets you use any size LCD monitor. And cheaper than plasma. Or color DMD.
60 GBP. + A raspberry Pi. And the cost of a monitor.
Not exactly a plug-and-play replacement option is it?
Where do you get a spare LCD display of a size of original Pinball DMD? Or cheap. You end up with a 200$ components and a lot of work.
There are LED OCD boards and 100 other MODs (that cost 100-200$) which are sold in very small numbers. And no one bothers to reproduce something as essential as a replacement DMD screen?
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:And the components needed are expensive! This is why ColorDMD is so costly
Color DMD is expensive because of the complexity. It needs software to produce colors (that are not there to begin with) and is programmable etc.
Singlecolor dots could be converted in a chip. I don't think original plasma DMD has any software on it.
So you need a correct size LCD, converter and a connector. Sure as hell would not cost more than 30$ if produced in quantities of 5000 or 10,000.
Am I sensing a potential market gap here?
Quoted from erak:$60 GBP $35 raspberry Pi and a 15" computer monitor from a thrift store and your good to go. $10 GBP for the LCD mounting hardware.
If you can't build one yourself.
Remember color DMD is just a standard decased monitor. Not a custom thin plasma sized.
Should cost you under $200 U.S total.
I'm not looking for a project to create a frankenstein that would take hours and cost 50$ less than a new DMD.
I'm asking why there isn't a plug-and-play (single color) LCD or LED for 100$ available?
Quoted from erak:Because it takes all the things I listed above to build one. And companies need to make a profit. If you could get monitors custom made from China. And a knock off raspberry Pi. To interpret the DMD signal.
Not really. For single color, you don't need a PC, operating system and complicated software. That's a huge overkill. Original DMD and Stern LED's are not using any software either.
Just a simple onboard decoder would do the job.
That "drPinball DMD extender" is halfway there. If it could drop the need for rasberry PI nonsense and have a video output of it's own, then it would be decent product.
Quoted from TimeBandit:Two words,
Aspect ratio.
I know. Different size screens would be out of the question. That would require one standard size LCD. Or led matrix board (as display), that would not need a video signal. It would simplify things even more.
And if you are going for all-in-one/plug-and-play product then you don't need a support for various display sizes.
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:Why is the product you want not $100?
Because companies that could have them need higher volume beyond what you think,
Companies that would service customers here, would need to make money.
(That $15 Pasta dish at dinner costs around $.86 to make)
After sales and before sales, service, emails, and support in this hobby are very time consuming,
along with employee costs, insurance, overhead, etc.
Your estimate is real, only with large numbers, and no service.....
IMHO.
This must be the reason.
Product itself would not be very complex. A single board of 128x32 smd leds with a decoder chip. All using already available 12V power.
I guess the volumes are just not there. Or we would have Samsung and Sony already involved in this 
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:Yup, when I looked into this...Vishay, China, Taiwan....10,000 units was the amount needed to start.
$50 was a target. All said and done, freight, advertising, storage, close to 1 Million dollars to start
this business! Break even would be by my estimates, 10-12 years, if lucky.
The purpose of the thread was to get comments from people that have better knowledge and have thought this further.
And I got the answer.
It's just hard to understand when you see all those online stores (ebay, Dealextreme, Wish etc) full of pirate and knock-off electronics sold for few dollars. Some are quite a lot more complex. Like mobile phones. Hell I can buy a new legit 32" LED TV (with remote, speakers, user interface, antennae and cable receiver, image processor, USB media recorder support, ok you got the idea) for 150€ from an actual walk in store here in Finland. And that includes 24% tax + seller's cut 30%? = 80€ TV. Which costs 20e to produce.
TL;DR - Conclusion: It's should be made in China and in very large quantities.
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