Everything on the board is now routed. Need to add an AD7991YRJZ-0500RL7 (4-channel 12bit ADC), power connector for the solenoids, and servo external power connector. Then I need to go back and fix all the silkscreen problems and add labels to the connectors.
Tommy Pinball Platform Update Again!
Tommy Pinball Platform Update
San Mateo Maker Faire Recap for 2013
This years San Mateo Maker Faire was even more awesome then usual. The amount of new and interesting makers and stuff to see was virtually overwhelming. Even after two long days I still was unable to see everything. I was able to upload all my images to my twitter account which you can check out on the right sidebar.
In other news I will be finishing up the Tommy Pinball system in the next week or so. Project first board should be ready for testing in a month. I will be looking for beta testers and programmers in a month so either send my an email or comment on this post if you are interested.
Pinball Tommy System Update!
Shop Open!
So the shop for the site opened a couple days ago. Please report any problems you may find.
128×32 RGB DMD Started
Just started my new DMD. This will be a 128×32 RGB DMD with a 4mm pitch. Total display size will be around 5″x20″ so it is almost twice as large as a normal DMD but it will be in color. I ordered a single 32×32 matrix (seen above) and took some sample code from adafruit’s website to get it working.
Since the proof of concept is working I will expand it to the 128×32 by adding 3 more modules and running the display off of a Ti Stellaris LaunchPad. The Stellaris LaunchPad runs at 80Mhz so it will be plenty fast enough to do the matrixing. It will have an onboard SD Card so it can pull the images off of it. The main controller of the pinball machine will use an I2C bus to tell the LaunchPad which image to display.
Demo Platform for the Low Voltage Motor Driver Video!
Here is the video demoing the motor controller. I used a Mr.Basic robot platform and included a little review about that platform. Code is found after the break.
Demo Platform for the Low Voltage Motor Driver
This is the robot I quickly built to demo the Low Voltage Motor Driver. If is based off the Mr. Basic platform and MSP-430 Launchpad. It has a 6.4V lithium battery as the main power source which feeds into the voltage regulators on the Launchpad.
For direction control a top mounted servo spins a Sharp gp2y0d810z0f IR sensor. The sensor has a single data line which is pulled low when a object comes within 10cm of the sensor.
Most of the code for the hardware is already written. Just need to finish the controls and it will be ready for a video.
ISR PWM Code for Motor Driver Booster Pack
Here is a link to the code’s page.
I will be uploading a video demoing the code. Have to build a tiny robot first.







