DMD Extender...

[DrPinball]

Hi



I've been working on a DMD Extender for Bally / Williams pinball machines - the final prototype uses a Raspberry Pi with a bespoke interface board. The software installed on the RasPi intercepts the dot matrix signal and renders the animations on the attached HDMI screen. It's also possible to use a DVI computer monitor or a display with composite connection.



I'm hoping to have a demonstration setup ready for Northern Lights so you can see it in the flesh.



It'd be good to get some feedback and judge interest in this project.



Next steps in producing the finished article include fine tuning of the interface board and how it attaches to the RasPi, and powering the project from the pinball power driver board. The video cable will have to exit the machine via the power lead opening.



YouTube link:

[video=youtube_share;QnJQ71P6CAQ]

Cheers



David.

 

[Pudsey pinball]

I like it it's good for perhaps competitions where ppl can't get near to see the DMD and scores,could you have 2 interfaces from 2. Games to one monitor as in split screen?

 

[DrPinball]

I like it it's good for perhaps competitions where ppl can't get near to see the DMD and scores,could you have 2 interfaces from 2. Games to one monitor as in split screen?

I like the idea, but I'm not sure the Raspberry Pi could cope with any more inputs! I'll have a think about it as it may be quite cool. Keep the comments coming!

 

[Pudsey pinball]

Yeah coz it would be good for our nba comp,so you cld see both scores from each game on one large monitor

 

[DrPinball]

I can't see me getting that sorted for NLP - there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears gone into what I've already done!

 

[Pudsey pinball]

I know dude but good to look into for another time

 

[Wizcat]

Hats off. Really well done. Stole my idea

well.. I was hoping to do something similar, but I was thinking of updating some old 7/16 segment displays to use a DMD. Would need similar approach of intercepting display, but then reformatting to display custom animations etc. Far too much work for my lazy bones, so my R-Pi is still sat in the box :/



Are you planning to open source your work?!

 

[DrPinball]

I thought I'd show what I've done and see what interest there was - I'm quite happy to make up some interface boards and sell as a package with or without a RaspPi. At the moment this is my full time job so I'd like to see where it leads.



I suppose then the answer is no, I won't be making my work open source, although I intend to give a percentage of any profits to the Raspberry Pi foundation because without them I wouldn't have got interested in this type of project.

 

[Pudsey pinball]

I can't wait to see demo at our show

 

[Calimori]

I am impressed by how simple your demonstration makes that look, knowing it is far from easy. Good work Dr, I look forward to seeing it at NLP.

 

[DrPinball]

Cheers. Looking forward to meeting a few people at the show as well.

 

[jonathan]

Looks good. WOZ has some sort of output for the screen as standard so it can be linked to a projector at shows etc