Hey man, pretty bad-ass!
I just ordered the PIG and can't wait to play around with my EL wire... but this is potentially so much better.
Are you gearing up to offer a ready made kit if you're successful, or at least post what you did so those of us less "skilled" can figure it out?

Wow!
Should I even bother installing the EL wire I just got for my tron?

This is crazy exciting. My Tron is gong to feel so empty until i get one of these

One of the things I really like about the EL wire is the ability to have that orange and blue combination that is so much a part of the theme. I would actually prefer it if there was a way to have the wire like this most of the time and possibly switch it up to white or other colors for a few different modes as suggested.
I've seen color changing fiber optic lighting before and the color is usually random. Will you be able to actually program what colors to have at a particular point or is it random? I'm also curious how many switch/flasher inputs can be linked to really make it as interactive as possible?

That's my two cents.

I actually like Kim's mod too, but when I went to buy some other stuff off his site, it wasn't there any longer. Did he stop offering it?

If these color changing LED lights are software or input driven and this is possible, I think these are great suggestions!

LOL!
I love that this mod will be somewhat intelligent. Sounds complicated.... and expensive

Can't wait!!!

And I'm sure you can get more than just two colors.... without going pink
Someone had mentioned before that, in addition to a more dedicated orange left and blue right configuration, it would be super cool to have everything go red during disc mutli-ball, just as an example.
If that "option" was added in, I really wonder what this whole mod would cost?

So.... when you taking pre-orders?

That color scheme would make it even cooler than the LE IMO!

I HATE waiting for parts.
I made the mistake of sending a bunch of recent orders to a buddy in Rochester to save on shipping/taxes. Now he's had to postpone his drive up to Toronto twice and all my projects are in limbo

Glad you got stuff coming in. I'm super excited to see how this turns out.

Much respect dude. I'm still amazed I know how to turn on a computer

Does anyone else feel really dumb???

I was just kidding... well, sort of
But, thanks for the deeper explanation anyway.

Why is changing the code dangerous if you're doing it on a chip that is not tied into the game's existing boards... or is it?

I just got me a set of LE ramps to swap out so I'm super excited to try this out.
I guess I'll hold tight with EL wire for now.

Nice work Eli!
Can't wait.

Thanks for posting Mark!
I hope it's not too much work to make it somewhat game interactive down the road because this looks fantastic!

I had two different EL wire setups ready to test out and, although they'll look great, they're not even coming out of the box! One is even sound activated and works with the game's audio... but this is just too good to pass up.

Looks like I'm the next guy
Just waiting for Eli's other beta unit to arrive but, being in Canada, I probably won't see it until this coming week.

If you have any tips on any tricky bits, feel free to shoot me a PM

Thanks for posting!

I think TZ still holds that title. There's got to be sometting like a dozen major mods for that pin plus another couple of dozen more minor ones.
Still, nothing as cool as what we're seeing in Tron for sure.

For now the beta units just cycle through each mode in sequence and are not linked to the game yet.
I believe Eli is working on this part next.

For now, we are able to go into the code and customize the colors for each mode and even add a completely different mode. Not sure how that last part works exactly? maybe you can program a custom color combo when you hit a 3 way combo or collect a super jackpot?

When will my Beta unit arrive???
Damn international mail

Sweet!
Thanks for the tracking update. Might be here today!

My PIG is flying in as we speak. I had originally purchased it to play around with the other mods and maybe some EL wire before this mod showed up.
One quick question though. I have a 4-way splitter to my 12v supply and eventualy wont be plugging your unit into the PIG once it's "smart". Are there any issues with your device sharing the 12v power output via a splitter with the PIG and other mods?

I know the PIG is also supposed to offer Arduino support, but I have no clue how this works to be honest or if it applies to these boards?

Thanks Mike,
I'm sure it's impossible for you to answer definitively, but if I was using the 12v source to power the PIG as well as Eli's mod, what's the worst that could happen?

I'll post some results as soon as I get mine, but I just want to make sure I'm not going to be blowing anything up.

It's Heeeeeeeeeeeere!

The beta unit has arrived and I just got my hardware from Home Depot and I'll be installing it this week!

My XM LE just showed up as well! What to do first????

Awesome dude!

I just installed the tubing on my LE ramps last night and I'm swapping them in this afternoon.
Can't wait to see this live!
I'll be picking your brain soon for sure on working with the colors.

Cool!

EDIT:
My PIG just arrived this morning as well. Eli was thinking ahead and the 12v plug on this fiber optic mod's harness has it's own splitter built in. I'll run the PIG from that and hope for the best. So many mods and so little time

Better late than never.
Finally got the 3rd beta unit installed today. Looks great Eli!

IMG_0987.JPG IMG_1012.JPG IMG_1020.JPG IMG_1027.JPG

I was just copying the first installation that Mark did. It does not come with the mod but it's $5 from Home Depot and 15 minutes of your time.
The only thing that would be a major improvement (if using this mount) would be to have the heatsink on the right board rotated 90 degrees so the installation would be identical for both units.
I like this mount as well because it uses exisitng hardware to attach and it gives great clearance and a lot of freedom to work.

You mean I'll have to throw away my beautiful aluminium bar?
Can't wait to test it out. I'm still very curious how this new board interfaces with the game. Should be cool!

Hey Chris,
This is slightly off topic, but I'm curious. I had Kim's kit as well and never installed it. I sold it to a friend and he is now experiencing tons of interference with his disc optos when the kit is running.
Anything like that happen to you?

Can't wait Eli!

So, how dangerous is it to drill the ramps for zip ties? I don't really want to spend another 200 plus on LE ramps.

I went this route and did buy the LE ramps. You can definitely drill or melt the holes easily enough... but for me, once I determine a game is a keeper, I like to have some backup parts for the long term. And, if I do sell it one day, the ramps will be sold as well.

Here's a pic of Eli's kit installed on the LE ramps I got from Terry at PBL. The zip-ties should give you a good sense of where the holes are. Note that one ramp is upside down.

And another shot of the final product.

IMG_0969.JPG IMG_1012.JPG

No new board here yet. But Mark will likely be the first to see it.

Come by my shop if you want to see the 1st generation. It's super-cool!
Hopefully I'll have the updated one from Eli soon and we can play-test it

Power right from the service outlet is the usual method.

Eli's kit is fully programmable and customizable by the user.

Currently we have programming that allows each mode to have it's own color scheme. I also love the orange/blue combo during the lightcycle multi-ball mode, but it is so cool to have the ramps go all white during ZUSE or all yellow during CLU. Frank has even tried to create an attract mode that mimics the LE.

Once this is done and functioning properly, I think it will work better and likely be more integrated with gameplay than the ramps on the LE.

It's been posted before, but here is a pic of the 1st generation kit.
The 2nd generation will have a 2nd board that mounts in the backbox and connects to this kit.
This is most definitley not at all comparable to EL wire

Check out the last pic with the individual colors on each ramp. I know the colors are flipped, that was corrected in the code, but there's no way that even the LE, with only one color possible at each time, can do this.

IMG_0987.JPG IMG_1019.JPG

The latest boards are being tested as we speak. There is a lot of programming that needs to be figured out, but it is looking very promising.
Frank and Eli are more technical and can probably elaborate.

Not a bad strategy. I have one of the beta units installed and my wife, who is not really into pinball at all, stepped up to the game last night and got sucked into playing maybe 20 games straight.
I had to kick her off.
This might make the next pin purchase go a little easier!

Thanks Eli

If it can support separate ramps, I think it would be better to show it off, rather than emulating the "lesser" LE style .

It can most definitley do seperate colours which is the major strength of this mod. And I also agree that we don't need to emulate the LE truthfully when we have the ability to go beyond it. Ultimately, you will be able to program the board to do whatever you like once you get it.

Frank and Eli have done a fantastic job with programming the test sketches and the previous version where we were primarily testing solenoids showed off the two-ramp colour very well.
I know this picture has been posted before, but I never get sick of it. I know the ramp colurs are reversed (I had the wires crossed).

You won't see this on an LE

IMG_1014.JPG

The unit is run via an arduino and the sketches have all been compiled in Teensyduino.
I'm sure Frank and Eli can elaborate... I'm definitely the "junior" member here

I would not worry.
When we tried out the very first sketch that Eli compiled (the one that was not reading gameplay and was merely cycling through effects) the effects were mostly one colour and the two-tone was pretty limited to light cycle multi-ball. Also, the transitions that he tried out ranged from soft slow fades to pulsing to quick cuts from colour to colour. I have no doubt that the production units will be full featured. Effects are all software driven anyway.

I plugged in Franks latest code last night and it is reading mode starts and completions very well. He's also worked all night on an update which I'm sure we're all eager to try out.

I imagine the units will ship with a really good and complete sketch that anyone can add onto or alter afterwards.

We all have the ability to modify the code by creating our own sketches... and we are all sharing code to verify findings. That being said, my programming skills are virtually non-existent compared to guys like Eli and Frank so I'm just happy to verify that things work and maybe tinker with a few colors here and there

It's not difficult at all.
We have detailed pictures of how each of us installed the beta units. I won't post them yet until Eli is ready to go, but all we had to do was make a bracket to hold the two emitter boards under the playfield. We used flat aluminum bar from Home Depot and there were existing mounting points under the playfield that made it very easy. Pictures were posted very early in this thread.

With the cradle/bracket bult, it was simply a matter of running the fiber optic cable around the ramps and into the existing holes in the playfield (luckily both pro and LE pfs are the same) and the cabled plug into the two emitters. You will have to probably drill the ramps to zip-tie the cables to them, or use some sort of DS tape, but I was lazy and ordered LE ramps from PBL.

A master board gets inserted into the head cabinet that interupts one of the ribbon cables and reads signals from the game. It is wired down to the two emitter boards under th eplayfield. Power is from the aux supply for the emitters and in the back box for the main board.

I would imagine Eli might package a kit or detailed instructions once the time comes so you won't have to build connectors and brackets like we did

It's a thing of beauty for sure!

I posted pics earlier in the thread but no video yet.
The current attract mode starts with left ramp orange and right ramp blue. I believe that is also an optional effect for light cycle MB, but the default color for that mode is yellow for now. The code seems to be getting updated almost daily now so I would imagine there will be more detailed video very soon.

I went 6 months without seeing one... Then two in the same day!

+1
I cannot imagine my Tron without this mod. It makes a great game that much better.
As Frank points out, the bugs are minor and it is very stable in its current state. I'm really looking forward to the day Eli announces these for sale. It'll be bigger than a new pin relase

Big congratulations to Eli and Frank for getting this where it needed to be.

I'm sorry your enjoyment of the game relies solely on this mod.

This "third party" you refer to are hobbyists, not Stern or any other business. Even if it were never to get delivered, no promises have been made and no money has been taken. It is, as has always been stated, a work in progress with many bugs that had to be sorted and hardware issues to be addressed before it is stable enough to ask people to pay good money for.

Wow nice job. It never occurred to me to install them that way and with the heat shrink tubing to eliminate the light Escape on the inserts. Excellent idea.

Yeah,
I did the heat shrink on my beta kit too.
Sorry, I thought I showed you that

IMG_0995.JPG

I also have a whack of installation photos. If anyone needs help.
I did the bar method just like the other two beta testers.

This may help some of you trying this:

IMG_0970.JPG

Sorry Jeff,
Been a bit occupied these days.

I used a vice for a nice clean bend. Use a mallet for the final few taps. It gives it a nice factory look.

I've had one of the first beta units installed for months, but my game is folded up awaiting a move.
I'll have to play some catch-up and update code (re-assign pins too?) along with the rest of you once I get Tron into the new house.

I'm happy to see most everyone is up and running and enjoying this mod. Eli has done a fantastic job bringing this to life and big respect to Frank for all the additional work put into the code.

Thank you Eli!!!