Possible new product: System 3-6 7-digit LED display set

I recently picked up a Flash, and after digging around found the Div10 flipper ROMs, but thought it looked stupid to be scoring points one at a time.

I've also seen pretty in-depth projects to make Firepower use a System 7/9 display set, which requires all new ROMs, and the new set of displays.

What I'm currently working on is a replacement Sys 3-6 master display board that'll drive my system 7/9 7 digit displays, but shift the digits left one position and insert a 'fake' zero on unused strobe signals, so that with Div10 romsets will appear to give true 7 digit scoring.

I haven't dug too deeply into the Div10 flipper ROMs to see if the high score tables and match are handled correctly, but it shouldn't take all that much work to fix any other issues that may arise, then port the code mods to earlier flipper ROMs.

(...and of course, I'd also make 6-digit displays for people who just want an LED replacement set without all the code changes...)

I'd expect the prices to work out to be about the same or a little less than the pinscore 3/4/6 displays.

#2 10 years ago

MCS

mspaeth

Woohoo! Looks like this one will be a big seller! =-P

#3 10 years ago

CMX

viperrwk

Inactive member

New Haven, CT

12y 42,650 4,167

Not completely sure what you would provide and what the end user would need to procure. Let me know if I have this correct:

You provide the MDB

User needs to procure
7 digit slave displays
Cabling to the slave displays
Divide by 10 ROM

If that's correct, I don't think this will fly - too much for most people to handle.

If, OTOH, you're thinking of a full plug and play kit including all of the above that's priced the same as a full replacement XPin set, then you have my, and probably many others, attention.

viperrwk

#4 10 years ago

HAN

HHaase

Siegecraft

14y 89,550 3,105 5 12

The crux of it for me is that it's already very easy to use the 7 digit displays on system 3-6 hardware, they just plug right in. (Case in point is Algar and Alien Poker). But I agree that finding some way to use the existing div-10 rom sets, and just padding that extra zero on there, would effectively give you the 7 digit scoring effect you're looking for.

It may be a much easier proposition to make an adapter wiring harness between the master display and the CPU board, to utilize existing 7 digit display sets. Then just add in a small in-line board that drives the padded zero. This way you could sell a much smaller plug and play kit, with the adapter and ROM, and let them source the displays from whomever they want.

-Hans

#5 10 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

I can see it both ways, adapter or full set.

I have not investigated this, but are the windows in the backglass large enough to fit conventional 7 digit displays, or will slightly smaller digits be required to fit them all in?

If you get this all figured out, there will be great interest from the community.

Don't forget about red, green, blue, yellow - all the cool colors everyone will want.

#6 10 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Also, please do this for classic Bally, 9-ing them out and then needing to tilt a drag.

#7 10 years ago

RZX

RazerX

Pinside+ Frequent

La Grange Park, IL

11y 92,175 1,723

need some sort of soltuion for early DE games too like Robocop and POTO. It's not too difficult to roll those games.

#8 10 years ago

HAN

HHaase

Siegecraft

14y 89,550 3,105 5 12

On Williams games, the window are the same size and placement for 6 and 7 digit displays. The digit size is the same, but the space between the digits is reduced.

-Hans

#9 10 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Quoted from HHaase:
On Williams games, the window are the same size and placement for 6 and 7 digit displays. The digit size is the same, but the space between the digits is reduced.
-Hans

Excellent info Hans!

I did not have one at work to check.

I saw a violet LED clock display the other day. Maybe that color is available as individual digits too.

#10 10 years ago

MCS

mspaeth

Quoted from HHaase:
The crux of it for me is that it's already very easy to use the 7 digit displays on system 3-6 hardware, they just plug right in. (Case in point is Algar and Alien Poker). But I agree that finding some way to use the existing div-10 rom sets, and just padding that extra zero on there, would effectively give you the 7 digit scoring effect you're looking for.
It may be a much easier proposition to make an adapter wiring harness between the master display and the CPU board, to utilize existing 7 digit display sets. Then just add in a small in-line board that drives the padded zero. This way you could sell a much smaller plug and play kit, with the adapter and ROM, and let them source the displays from whomever they want.
-Hans

Algar and Alien Poker can drive 7-digit displays because their roms were written to drive 7-digit displays. Due to the way the strobes were utilized on system 3-6, it's not trivial to just "pad the zeros" as you're saying -- there just aren't strobes available to do so.

#11 10 years ago

MCS

mspaeth

http://mspaeth.dyndns.org/~mspaeth/pics/projects/Pin_Display/Comet/Display_On.jpg.JPG
http://cambridgearcade.dyndns.org/?q=catalog/11

Quoted from viperrwk:
Not completely sure what you would provide and what the end user would need to procure. Let me know if I have this correct:
You provide the MDB
User needs to procure
7 digit slave displays
Cabling to the slave displays
Divide by 10 ROM
If that's correct, I don't think this will fly - too much for most people to handle.
If, OTOH, you're thinking of a full plug and play kit including all of the above that's priced the same as a full replacement XPin set, then you have my, and probably many others, attention.
viperrwk

I will be making the Master... I already have stock of the slaves from my Sys7A/9 sets.

Right now, I'm just making sure the Div10 roms actually work, and I think I'm going to need to rewrite them, as they don't appear to correctly handle high scores, bonus levels, and match, but it should be an interesting project -- I haven't played with 680x code in a while.

#12 10 years ago

SunKing

Pinside member

Houston, TX

13y 130K 3,983 5 21

If it were easy and affordable, I'd be all over this. I rolled over my Firepower just the other day.

3 weeks later

#13 10 years ago

MCS

mspaeth

Well, I completed the code mods necessary to the green flipper ROMs to properly handle div10 scoring with working normally working match, replay, and default high scores, but I still need to fix my Flash to test them.

(...or compile a new version of pinmame from scratch, but that seems like a giant pain in the ass...)

#14 10 years ago

DRC

GListOverflow

Inactive member

11y 32,900 906

Quoted from vid1900:
Don't forget about red, green, blue, yellow - all the cool colors everyone will want.

#15 10 years ago

MCS

mspaeth

Looks like the YELLOW flipper ROMs are similar enough to GREEN for the new code to be an easy port -- looking at the WHITE ROMs now...

The LED mfg I use has 3 shades of red, yellow, and green... white / blue / violet are expensive colors, and would require different display boards from what I already made, and the masters are designed for the part number of display I stock, so you'd be stuck with red/yellow/green for credit/match.

#16 10 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member