Great idea, these old DE and Sega games really need it. I play a GoldenEye locally that has what I like to refer to as "seizure multiball", as the flashing is just awful on it.

I don't own any games that this would be used in, but I would highly recommend it for people who own those games.

Great idea. Minimum setting means no more seizures! I want one for Star Wars.

How about one for Whitestar. My Star Wars Trilogy really needs this.

I was gonna get all uppity and offended.

Then actually read the post. I'm too tired for posting today.

Very cool! Great work!

This looks sweet, LAH is a game that really needs it too.

PM sent.

Nice Job!

Doesn't the OCD thing do this already? Or does that not work on DE machines?

GI OCD is only designed to work with the 5 GI TRIAC circuits on Williams WPC games and 2 TRIACS on WPC95 games.

The LED OCD works for these games, but there is currently no solution for the GI for non WPC games.

I would buy one of these for GnR.

I would also buy a board that would smooth controlled and gi LEDs in Revenge From Mars if someone wanted to make one.

I can help test should you decide to move forward with this. Looks great so far! I think this will be very popular. Even with incandescents the constant on and off flashing is off-putting.

I like this too. We have lots of de games if you need a tester.

great idea!!! I hate all of the flashing on my lah. I'm in for one. joe

I'm listening, my Baywatch could use it.

Even if someone copies herg's board no need to get uppity and offended. He can never keep them in stock cause he doesn't order enough and has had offers for people to buy a ton to help with his costs Just a shame an awesome product can't get more out there.

This is great!

Awesome. I no longer have a de pin, but my lah was unplayable due to gi led flash. I started a thread or two on it myself before giving up and moving on. Ive bought many ocd boards though and love the concept. Your video looks great, hope you make these in the case I get another.

Cool idea. Maybe it already does this, but can some GI be made not to flash at all? - Barry

Love it. I'm in for one.

Very cool, I am interested. - Barry

I'd like to try it out on a GNR ... Been hesitant to do much LED to it without. I also have a BF with full LEDs ready to try.

Wish someone would make ocd for Capcom stuff.

Nice work! BTW, caker137 contacted me before he started work on this. There's no need for anyone to be upset. ...and even if he hadn't asked me, there's really no problem unless he copied my board or code.

I have a prototype version of a passive smoother being made for Stern games right now. It's not nearly as sophisticated as GI OCD or caker's board, and is really just a rectifier and some caps. It should be much cheaper, though.
Fullscreen capture 1272014 121346 AM.jpg

It also looks like caker's design would work for Stern games with very minimal changes.

True, as long as it's just the idea. Please don't copy the board itself.

They're all in stock right now. Costs are not the issue. Time is. I can barely package, test, and support the ones I sell now.

I get asked about these boards a few times a week when folks get our kits. I offered to help you out and sell them in our store and buy a good chunk, but part of the answer was there wouldn't be enough boards and I think you made an exclusive deal. The goal should always be to sell a ton at once and not have to ship individually 100% no worries either way of course, just saying we get asked about them constantly and offered to carry them so everyone could get their hands on them and save you loads of time, but so far no dice. So, time and shipping can't be it.

My main point earlier was that your product is super awesome, but while in stock now, it is frequently out of stock. I know you agree with that. This would be so fun to add to our kits as an upsell, since we get asked about it frequently and never mention it.

Anyways, don't mean to pester you on this and am not trying to get you to carry them as we had to get our own created, since we couldn't get them elsewhere. Shall be on the market shortly

The cheap way to "fix" the gi flashing problem is just to remove the 2 pin connector from the right side of the power supply board. that's the connectors which energizes the GI relay. with it removed, the GI will always be "on" and won't flash. kind of anti-dramatic, but it does work.

Great tip. Thanks! On my DE Time Machine I never liked the GI flashing (LED or incandescent) but I didn't look into how to change it. I tried your tip and it works great. I don't think much is lost by disabling the GI flashing on this machine. Starwarp is a little less dramatic but at least I can always see the playfield now.

I know what I'll be doing tonight. Thank you cfh.

Thanks Clay,

Is there a way to do the same thing on Whitestar? That drives me bonkers.

one quick note on the function or design on your board and wanted to point out something you may have missed

I am not sure how many games do this, but I do know for sure it is on Guns and Roses, possibly WWF.

The 5 pin connector has the 2 pins that control the GI relay, but on Guns and Roses the 2 leftover pins are used to power a 5th GI circuit. This circuit it actually powered by 2 diodes making rough DC voltage from the logic fuses. This powers the lamps inside the slingshots. Because it's a different source they do not go through the GI relay and are constantly lit even when the relay goes out.

I found out about this variation in GI because of the stupid place they decided to pull the power for it. If a ball gets under the slingshot and blows out a bulb (or if the sockets short, which is very likely with the way the leads almost overlap how they were stapled) then it takes out one of the paired 7A logic fuses and now the game no longer boots up.

So what I am getting to is if you did not run any lamp voltage to these 2 pins on the 5 pin connector on your board then the slingshots lamps on GNR won't work.

I will take one also.

Clay beat me to it. If all you want to do is eliminate the flashing, there are much easier and cheaper solutions. This board, however, seems awesome, and I would definitely be interested in one for my Tommy.

Awesome, that should take care of it. If you do any revisions on this board I would recommend just routing some AC lamp power straight to those pins and avoid pulling from logic voltage.

If you disable flashing of the GI with either pulling the plug that controls the relay or the GI smoother, then I assume the lights won't go out during the startup sequence or game over correct? It would be nice to have the lights go out those 2 times but not flash the rest of the time if that's even possible.

I want one for my Tommy.

OK, I watched and I like it. Sign me up! - Barry

I would be in for two, possibly three.

I would buy two for data east. Whitestar would also be great for VND.

A less elegant solution I've done on my Star Wars Trilogy (Whitestar) is to use a 5ohm 10W ceramic resistor across the relay to keep it from fully turning the GI off. It drops the LEDs to about half brightness when activated and works really well to reduce the seizure effect. Add the resistor across the relay pins 1-2 and pins 3-4.

20141207_163309-176.jpg

GI_relay_whitestar-905.jpg

Great product.

Simple and Brilliant!! This will work in any and all games that use a relay for GI dimming (which is pretty much all except WPC and Capcom)

I'd take one for my LAH.

You are correct. It should work on most, if not all relay games. Keep in mind that many board designs don't have pins 3-4 connected on the PCB at the relay and you will need to jumper them to fully utilize the relay circuitry. I know Whitestar and S.A.M are fine and DE and I think all B/W needs the the jumper.

Great solution for only 75 cents.

Does anyone else think the programmable aspect of this just ads unnecessarily to the cost? Have the same problem with the OCD stuff too. Great product, but at 100+ a board and needing 2 boards per game for something I just want to smooth out the flashing.

If it were half the cost and had one setting I'd be much more inclined.

That aside, very neat piece of work.

If it were possible to simplify the board to a maximum extent and only have a single fade option (the one that closest resembles incandescent fade) that could then lower the cost and make it more affordable for route operators.

The "programmable aspect" of these boards is not a driving factor in their cost. On the OCD boards, there's a $4 USB chip and a $1 USB connector that I could remove if it was not programmable. On caker's board shown in this thread, the only thing I see that he could remove would be the buttons and LEDs.

The cost of designing a PCB, having them built, including cables, etc. is not cheap when you're talking hundreds of units. This is not a stock Arduino. It is a custom built product for a niche market. If you choose not to pay the price, that's your decision.