Another day another update on REV 0 of Tommy. Nearing the end. Just have to route the connections for the DMD port and the I/O connection for add on boards.
Tommy Pinball Platform Update Again!
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Category Archives: Pinball
Tommy Pinball Platform Update
Getting really close to finishing Rev 0 of the Tommy board. Just have a few random things to route. going to try to get it done by this weekend.
Pinball Tommy System Update!
Been working on this for awhile now. Layout of the board is almost done. Currently 5″x7″ on a 4 layer PCB.
Lots of I/O and other goodies. More information soon.
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.
Just Another Tommy Schematic Update #4
To add more functionality to the Propeller an ATMega168 was added to the design. The Propeller communicates via I2C (on the same bus as the EEPROMS) to the ATMega168. The ATMega168′s function is to provide dedicated servo control and analog input for the propeller. Since servos have to constantly PWM controlled the Propeller has to dedicated an entire cog to just maintain servos. Using the ATMega168 to off load this tasks frees up lot of resources for the Propeller which will allow for better animations and smoother kernel cycles.
Tommy System Schematic Update #3
Added the WS2803 Chips. These are 18 Channel PWM Constant Current LED Drivers.
Tommy System Schematic Update #2
I fixed the EEPROM addressing issue. Since the EEPROMs are addressed via I2C protocol you have to set there addresses via the pins A0, A1, A2. Previously I had these all to VSS or GND which would mean all there addresses where 000.
Added the SD Card to the Parallax Propeller to store audio files. Took longer then expected to make the footprint and get the part correct in eagle.
Power will come into the board via 4-Pin Molex connectors much like on a PC power supply.
Currently have TLC5940 16 channel LED drivers on the board but these will be changed to WS2803 Chips as they use 3 less I/O lines (5 vs 2). These will be used exclusively for RGB LED lighting. I am planning on being able to hook up 18 RGB LEDs to the board.
Tommy System PCB in the works.
I finally got started on making the PCB for the Tommy Pinball System. The first step is to make the schematic. So far I have the Propeller microcontroller system drawn.
OPTO Transmitter PCB Done
Finished the Transmitter. It really is just a LED and a resister. Kind of silly to have a PCB for that but protoboard doesn’t look nice.
Tommy Pinball System Update
For those that don’t know, Tommy is the code name for a propeller based pinball platform. It will be an all in one system that is designed to be modular and easy to use.
Ben has been working on the code and is getting the test hardware going.
He has most of the system working now. In the picture, Ben is working on the switch matrix and DMD driver part of the code as there where conflicts earlier.
This weekend I will be starting the PCB design. I should have rough version of the prototype PCB drawn up by Monday.
