TerryRed

Haha... of course it does!

Well here it finally is.... addressable LEDS! After seeing randr showing off addressable leds in action in his cabinet, I knew I would eventually want it! Well here we go! The idea is that addressable leds can be controlled individually throughout a strip instead having the entire strip turn on / off / change colour, etc. As a result you can create cool animation and effects that can be used on the sides and back of your playfield in a pinball cabinet. They are 3 pin strips that run on 5V with a 5V, DATA, and GND line. The controller I'm using is a Teensy, and the software that controls it is DOF (Direct Output Framework) For my cabinet, my playfield TV lays down on rails, so I couldn't just stick the led strips on the inside of the cabinet, as they may get in the way if I ever need to remove the TV. So I needed to have them mounted on something. You can buy proper aluminum channels, but to order them online was quite costly with crappy CDN dollar and shipping. So I decided to use these shelf rail things I found. They are normally mounted on a wall with the opening facing the wall so you can install shelf supports in the slots. They were cheap and they were black so they matched my cabinet inside perfectly. I just had to put in some long strips of backboard for the leds to stick on, or they would be in too deep and it would be hard to see them while playing. The led strips I purchased are 144 per meter. I have over 700 leds installed. Thats alot of leds! As a result I had to use a dedicated 5V power supply rated at 60A! No matter what length of 144 / meter strip you buy, they all come with 0.5 meter strips soldered together. So if you want a seamless looking strip, you'll need to cut off an led or two and solder it back together. Since my work's soldering station just died, I was stuck with my crappy 21 year soldering iron. For the side led strips I wasn't worried about cutting them to make them look seamless. Here is the matrix I made for the back of the playfield. This will look like a low-res led screen. It can be made up of how ever many led strips you want as the DOF software will just scale to whatever you have. I used my 2 meter strips and their middle 0.5 meter sections for the back matrix, as they were the perfect size without me having to cut any strips and resolder them to size. I did however have to solder the 5V, data and gnd pins to and from each strip. http://i.imgur.com/X8Y8Pw8.jpg[/img] ...and here it is in the back of the cabinet. The connections start at the Teensy controller which is plugged into the computer via usb. Then the Teensy has a cat5 cable output that uses 2 of its wires for the GND and DATA line going to the first strip...which is the right playfield strip. The DATA line then gets connected to and from each strip / matrix, for a continuos connection. 5V and GND also needs to be tapped in at the begginning of each strip and the matrix, as there are alot of leds that need power. These LEDS are REALLY bright on max brightness. To cut down on that and also to make it so you can't even see the led strips when they are off.... I had a custom piece of tinted plex-glass (5mm) made for the back matrix. That alone wasn't enough, so I needed to add window tint to the front of the plex-glass. I put on 20% tint. This combined with the plex-glass tint was perfect and hid the leds completely until they light up. Now I want to do the same for the sides, but I don't know if I can get plexi-glass cut that small and long. Success! After setting up the DOF software, the leds strips look amazing! It's hard to describe all the effects they do while playing, but here is a picture showing the back matrix displaying animations while browsing in Pinball X. ....and here is a video describing what the setup is, and showing what is looks like in Pinball X! I'll make another video that will show some gameplay that shows off the cool effects while playing!

Here's the info you may need: http://pinball.weilenmann.net/docu/DirectOutputWIP/pbx.html

I actually LOVE this idea! The shape is much more ideal for a 3 inch circular hose, it would match the coin door's look, and the direction and flow can be adjusted as needed. The only tricky part is getting a circular opening in the coin door to match. (Maybe the aircraft structure guys at work could help) If I could get that to work, then I would definitely go with this! You got me thinking!

I was previously posted to an Armored Regiment, so I can relate to that video!

Many times, but I don't have one, and don't know anyone with one right now. It's an extra cost I can't get into now sadly....

Well, it was intended to blow air UP at your face....not your crotch. If I'm sitting on a stool while playing (which i do most of the time), then its perfect. I specifically want to improve the coin door scoop....a way to have the air better directed at my face while looking less hack-job'ish.

Thar she blows! After seeing blower fans on other pinball cabinets, I knew I was going to have one in my cabinet. Visual Pinball currently supports up to almost 30 tables that utilize a blower fan. It can be long gusts of wind like in Twister and Whirlwind, or a quick burst of air during certain events... other examples are: Attack from Mars - saucer exploding Medieval Madness - catapult launch, castle exploding Dirty Harry - shooting your gun Twilight Zone - Rocket Launch The Getaway - quick burst of air for each loop Grand Prix and Nascar - quick burst of air for each lap Jurassic Park - ? ...and many more. Some people have a simple fan on top of their cabinet. Others use an inline blower fan. Since alot of the events are quick bursts of air, you need something that can push alot of air very quickly to get the right effect. I used an Attwood 3000 inline blower fan. Since I'm just using this with my relay board for simple on/off function, this works nicely. Its very effective but also very loud when not used with a hose. When I tried it on top of my backglass, I found it to be too loud, and the air was being spread to wide and alot of the effect was lost for those quick bursts (an Attwood 4000 would work better on top). So I decided to try randr's unique method.... ....by installing it inside the cabinet and blowing air out through the coin eject hole and up to your face. This worked well for the space that I had. I just mounted it in front of the coin door (I don't use the coin mechanism) and connected with a bathroom vent hose. The only problem is coming up with some sort of upward facing scoop to use at the coin door eject hole. I haven't been able to find anything I can get to hack / work that was effective and could be installed with the mounting options that I had. So I just made my own hack job... I really hope I can find something that will work better.... any suggestions? Here's a quick video demonstration:

Even more progress...let there be light! Now my 5 flasher LED strips, strobes, start, launch, FIRE button lights are all working with both VP and FP. My beacons are wired and ready…just waiting for them to arrive in the mail! Since I'll be installing addressable LEDs all around the playfield screen, there will be no room for a traditional RGB 5 flasher bar at the back of the playfield. I still want that function though because Future Pinball cannot use the addessable LEDS as they will be driven by DOF. (Future Pinball only works through legacy Led-Wiz, so far) So I made use of the LED strips I already installed into my speaker holes. The left speaker has two seperate strips for the left side flashers, and the same goes for the right side. I just had to put a single LED strip at the back of the cabinet to act as the center flasher for now. It works suprisingly well...at least for me: Here’s a quick video demo of my current 5 flasher layout and lights: Now its on to getting my blower fan working. My blower fan (attwood 3000) works, but I gotta figure out where its going to go! Gotta find a way to convert a 3 inch hose to the coin door hole opening (similar to what randr did). Otherwise it will have to go on top of the backbox. Once the fan is done and the beacons arrive…. then I’ll make a topper to finish it off!

So now I finally have the solenoids all working. Unfortunately 1 of them was broken in shipping, so I had to settle for 9 instead of 10. Luckily DOF lets you easily combine cabinet toy functions through software, so I just combined middle center and rear center. I decided to mount them on cross pieces since I was running out of room on the sides of the cabinet. This also allowed me to position them closer to where they would typically be in a real pinball cabinet. I also didn't like the very loud "metal smacking wood" sound the solenoids give when fully engaging (they would also sometimes get stuck open for 2 seconds). So I used some "plexiglass / plastic" L-bracket looking pieces I had lying around for the solenoids to strike. This kept them from getting stuck and it sounded much better. I also used cable clamps for the slingshot solenoids which works really well to replicate that type of sound. Sadly, I ran out of terminal strips, so I settled on using solder and electrical tape for the diodes connected to each solenoid. (to snuff out any EMI that could damage the Sainsmart relay board) That's why my wiring looks so wierd for some of this....and the lack of sleep from cleaning my house for 4 days straight didn't help either. Here's a quick video showing them working:

Yah, I've been using the quick launch plug-in for Pinball X for a while. It does work, but only if you edit the settings.xml directly and set it to "read only". I can't remember why, but I think for some reason it would either not keep my settings when I change them or mess it up, etc... An updated version would be glorious and very much needed!

Thanks...I will one day do more, but right now I'm busy adding feedback and lighting to my cabinet.

I had similar issues with previous versions of the camera mod in 4K. Also, I found that having TPA in a resolution higher than 1080p (especially 4K) made the older menu scroll MUCH slower which would throw off the auto table selection. What about dmdext?

So I've been making great progress so far.... got all my parts except for beacons. One of my solenoids is broken, so it's 9 only for now. (I don't know when a shaker or gear motor will happen.) Even got it all working in the cab with a mock-up via DOF which is working great. Most of the wiring is good to go. I even setup a kill switch for the 12v going to the sainsmart relay board and anything mechanical for a "night mode", while still allowing for 12v for anything else light related. Here's the board before it's put into the cabinet. It may not be the prettiest, but it allows me access to everything while having all outputs of the led-wiz fused, and having the led / strobe output closer to where they will be to accommodate the limited rgb wiring I have. The Teensy for addressable leds will be on my PC board. I'll still have plenty of room for future stuff, even if I need to stack boards. Here's my mockup with everything except for solenoids connected (no beacons, and a small test fan in the pic)....but I can still see the relays working to confirm they will work. I have the left and outer-left flashers in my left speaker hole, and the right flashers in the right speaker hole, and the center on the led strip for now. I also have my FIRE button working on the arcade control panel, and I have it combined with the launch button in DOF, since you need to use the launch button to "FIRE" in VP anyways. DOF is pretty damn impressive! Some amazing work done by swisslizard and arngrim! Since I don't have 10 solenoids, I can just combine the rear center and the middle center for now. It also frees up an LED-Wiz port. I also have an atwood 3000 blower fan. Man it works great, but sure is loud! Very cool the way different tables make use of it. The noise is going to be better when used with a hose.... which gets me wondering on where to mount it! I'm definitely considering mounting it inside (like randr did), as it fits perfectly in that spot before my coin door. (I removed my coin door mech as I don't use it and I have only one coin slot) I was going to have it blow out through the coin eject hole with some kind of upward scoop). Or maybe I might still mount it on top of the cabinet....or behind the cabinet blowing up through a hose / vent at the top of the cabinet with a finished topper... I also would like a simple way to adjust the voltage going to the fan...12V is pretty loud...5V is too slow...so maybe just a simple way to get in between with some kind of pot / switch. I don't have an H-bridge or anything else that would allow me to use PWM right now....maybe if I get a shaker down the line. Any suggestions would be great.. Also....we just found out that we have bed bugs in the house.....AAAAAAAH! We think my son brought them back from his grade 8 school graduation trip! So now my progress is slowed down considerably, cause we have to purge the house and live in hell for a month or so (and its going to cost alot) ....and it was going so well too!

Pinball X is NOT the problem...period. The fact that I have been able to get Future Pinball, Visual Pinball, Pinball FX2, MAME, TPA (with previous GUI), Windows Store and PC Games running on it shows how versatile it is. Its a free program that offers a fantastic option for a passionate group of people, and it has a great community. I for one am very thankful for this. The Pinball Arcade has NEVER supported pincabs or ANY front-end....period. Are Farsight obligated to....no. Pinball X is doing what it CAN do to work with what TPA now is. Nothing else than can be done. If Farsight one day decides to give support, then its a bonus. It wasn't that long ago when PFX2 had the same issues. While not the same as cabinet support, you could always use a wireless keyboard with your cabinet in the mean time. Or you could use something like Roccat Power Grid with your phone / tablet to act like the same with your cabinet (or any PC on your network).

While I haven't been able to try this.... (too busy installing feedback, solenoids, lighting on my cabinet), I assume that the new gui still has the "news" pop-up issue when running TPA. Previously, the "news" would show up randomly (when TPA first loads) and mess up the key sequence that Pinball X uses to select your tables. There was a method to disable this that worked perfect for me before. Here's was my response to Ginsonic about it back then... ---------------------------------------------- On ‎2016‎-‎01‎-‎15 at 4:25 PM, Ginsonic said: Actually, it is possible I suggest to create a shortcut to PinballArcade11.exe in the same directory, rename it e.g. to Start_PBA (no extension necessary) and add skipwhatsnew as parameter within the shortcut. In the PbaCamMod settings file change the program call of PinballArcade11.exe to Start_PBA and everything should work like a charm. My response: This, and the CameraMod combined with the built-in Pinball Arcade support in Pinball X works perfect for me! No more news, and its been working every time.... I just gotta update my grid positions! Thanks Gin and Tom! --------------------------------------------- Don't know if this is an issue or if it will help, but there its.... now I'm back to more and more wiring....will it ever end!

I'm still getting to know people.... Is it because Dazzle "likes" Windows Store games, or because he hates them and all things "APP" related? I'm also not a big fan of the new mico-transaction, and dlc based pay to win type gaming... but if you only play little bits at a time for free, then they can be real fun. (My wife is at almost level 1000 for Candy Crush...and has never paid a cent for it.)

That IS weird... I've never used the import function. I honestly keep forgetting there is such a function! Hopefully this is a known bug? Anyone?

Ask stigzler, and ye shall receive.... even if it is 3 months later.... PC Vertical / Portrait Games There are some PC games out there that actually do support a vertical / portrait layout. Some are basically arcade ports and some are original. they are either Steam games or normal PC Games such as: -Crimson Clover -Ikaruga -Mushihimesama -Raiden III -Raiden IV Overkill -Ice Cold Beer -Zeke's Peak Ice Cold Beer / Zeke's Peak required me using Pinnacle Game Profiler for my P1 joystick and XPadder for my P2 Joystick... but it works perfect together. the others just worked normally and gave you rotate options for your screen. Then there are the Windows 10 Store Games. These are originally tablet / phone type games that work with keyboard / mouse or gamepad controls. I basically had my P2 joystick and buttons act like a mouse for these games in case it was needed. Since these don't have a normal .EXE file to reference, in order to get these to run with Pinnacle Game Profiler for mapped controls.... I had to run this command: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1} Then create a shorcut for the games from the window that opens. Create a .BAT file that "Starts" the Pinnacle Game Profile (persistent) manually for your game via command line... then it opens the *.lnk shorcut you created for your game. Use this .BAT file with Rocketlauncher via Pinball X (I open all my PC games with Pinball X using RocketLauncher) Have your "Launch After" run another .BAT file that "Stops" your Pinnacle Game Profiler manually. These games look and play great when setup correctly. Games such as: Crossy Road Despicable Me Sonic Dash Like MAME, I added control panel pics in the middle screen where possible. Here's a video showing some of these games in action in Pinball X. Since I have arcade sticks and many buttons, its not a problem for me to get alot of these games to run. I know I can also run Android games through Blue Stacks and other programs (I have done so on my normal PC), but that may come at a later time.

Here's a video showing the new control panel, as well as an update to what parts I have so far for controlled LED lighting and feedback.

Wow... I really am at a loss at this point. I don't know what else could be the issue. Try disabling "File Matching" in Pinball X "General settings". Don't know if this will help, but I have mine disabled and I noticed you had it enabled in your above post. After that, I don't know what else to say....try getting some video clips for your backglass and see if you have the same issue. (make sure you have the LAV codecs installed)

OK, good. You now have the default backglass pic showing in Pinball X, so we know Pinball X is working with your backglass screen. Are there ANY backglass images showing at all? Do you have your backglass images in your "Media / Future Pinball / Backglass Images" folder? Are they in PNG format? Do the backglass image filenames match the Future Pinball TABLE filenames exactly? Do you have playfield and wheel images showing up? If so, then name your backglass images EXACTLY the same as them.

For anything that is PC Games based (Steam, Windows Store, etc), I have Pinball X use RocketLauncher to launch / manage PC Games. Here is another post I made about it. It wasn't the easiest to get setup, and I honestly can't remember exactly how I did it, but it works great, and the video links in that post do help. You could also have Pinball X's EXIT actions load up HyperSpin or whatever it is you want to load. You can also use BAT files to load and or "taskkill" whatever you want.

Sweet pinball / arcade cabinet! Love the central FIRE button panel. If I didn't have two gamepads on my cabinet, I would have gone with a Pinscape setup for sure! For my current cabinet however, the pinscape would be seen as a 3rd gamepad, which would make things a real pain for me. To be honest though, this cabinet is sooo heavy that you need some good force to move it, and I don't really like the idea of it getting bashed around. That's why I currently have stuck with my side nudge buttons, for now. We'll see....

I'm also running Windows 10 for everything, no issues with Pinball X. Confirm that your screen ids are correct in windows (pf=1,bg=2,dmd=3) and that Pinball X is configuring them correctly (pf=0,bg=1,dmd=2). Make sure your backglass resolution is correct and the same in PBX and windows. Make sure that Pinball X is set to rotate=270 Try just plugging in only your playfield and backglass screens and see if you get any change.