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randr…
Love your videos showing addressable LED strips on a matrix using DOF. I have some questions as I will be starting to go the controlled lighting and feedback route for my cabinet.
I’ve read through the Teensy site about setting about the addressable leds here:
https://www.pjrc.com/store/octo28_adaptor.html
…and I’ve read all sorts of bits from Swisslizard and you.
Tell me if I have this right…Â Â to have the led matrix around the playfield, all you need for hardware is?:
-WS2812 led strips (whatever # of leds per meter I can afford)
-Teensy 3.2
-OctoWS2811 Adapter board, and connector pins
-5V power supply to power the Teensy and LED strips (I have a spare ATX power supply 350W)
-cat 6 network cable (from adapter board to LED strips)
-anything else? no octo’s or resistors or anything else needed? and is this because of the Teensy itself, or more because of the leds?
Is this how its all connected?:
-the led strips are connected by two wires (via Cat 6) from the teensy adapter board to the DATA and GND of the right-playfield strip….which then connects to the back-playfield matrix, which then connects to the left-playfield strip… all seen as one “led strip” by the Teensy. Then you connect 5VDC from your power supply to the 5V “ends” of your strips to make sure they are getting enough power throughout.
-all of this is controlled by DOF R3
My other question is:
-is there any way to make use of these addressable leds in Future Pinball?
– ….or is using another set of leds (5 rgb led bar, normal RGB LED strips, etc) connected to an LED-Wiz the ONLY option for controlled lighting for Future Pinball…Â I just don’t want to buy more led lighting if I don’t need to.
Having feedback and lighting for Future Pinball is important for me, so I’m guessing that I would have the addressable leds for VP, and some other normal leds for FP elsewhere on the cabinet?
Also, be honest… is the back LED matrix TOO bright even at the lowest brightness? The effect is really cool, but I want to actually see the playfield screen and not bee blinded…
I was thinking of having an LED-Wiz for: 5 normal RGB LEDs or strips (for FP), and all of my solenoids, fan, beacon, strobes,etc for FP and VP. Zebs optp flipper board for flippers for everything (FP,VP,PFX2,TPA). Addressable LEDS for VP.
What do you think? I don’t want to make a big purchase without knowing as much as I can.
Thank you very much.
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just teensy is needed nothing else like resistors or anything. I suppose you could use cat cable for the one data line but i would use like 24gauge wire for power/ground and make sure you inject that power ever 80-160 leds they need good solid power!
What swisslizard did was on back of playfield he built the matrix like i did but the mounted his 5 bar on semi clear/white plexi infront so he has both! Future pinball will not work with matrix so i would suggest you do what swiss did and add the 5 infront i may actually do that so my jukebox still has the 5 flashers but for Visual Pinball you cannot beat the addressable rgb’s the side rails are so cool! and i love the back matrix for extra animation and effects.
The more toys the better i think! OH! and no its not to bright with it turned down or smoked plexi/tinting. the 5 rgb flashers are very bright too! just like real pinball its supposed to be bright :)
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What did you use for power supply for your LEDS? …. and how many amps / watts?
What about these?
I was originally thinking of just using 5V from a molex connector my spare ATX supply, but if I can get a dedicated one for cheap enough… just trying to figure out how much I would actually need. Also, is this where you got your leds? (I know you got 144/meter)
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For leds i use switching supply 65amp(like your first link) leds can draw a lot! depends on how many leds you plan on adding but get a good dedicated switching supply i would say 40amp would be fine no matter how many leds you add as they are not all on at once but “could” be so always think about that
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RandR, about your 144 / meter strips….
Did they have any spaces with solder joints after a certain number of leds? I’ve read that some strips can have a soldered joint / space after as little as 50cm. I don’t know if that’s only for 2m strips, or also for 1m strips…
If that’s the case, then that could be a problem for making a matrix that could be up to almost 2 feet wide. I’m sure this isn’t an issue for 60 / meter strips, but if I want to buy 144 / m, I want to know for sure if possible.
Do you have a link to the strips that you bought?
Also, some of the strips are waterproofed by silicon, some by a plastic tube, and some has NO insulation at all. Which is preferable? I was thinking the plastic tube strips could be good for the sides of the playfield.
Also is there an ideal number or rows for the matrix to be? I know DOF can scale to any number that you have, but I’m wondering if there has been an established ideal “standard”.
I also wonder if anyone has attempted to make a larger dmd out of these addressable leds yet, and has figured out a way to make it work with with VP, etc? Maybe something like this that is the perfect ratio for dmd:
If you have the room, this could make for a nice back matrix possibly?
Thanks for any info. Want to know as much as I can before possibly making the plunge.
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yes they are pieced together. what i did on 144/m is sacrificed one led because they are very close together and cut close to that led on each side to provide proper spacing so then everything lines up. you will have same issue on any xxx/meter strip just make sure you solder with spacing correct. They come connected not even close to right where they are connected thats for sure.
I used both silicone and raw strips in many different leds/meter in testing i used the raw for my cab. Silicone looks great for side rails and is very nice! I would not use the silicone “sleeved” strips as i think they look awful.
You could do a dmd with the strips but to be honest im actually thinking just the opposite using the  RGB panels like for pin2dmd for the matrix would be great resolution!
I will look up some info on strips i got as i purchased every kind/size for testing and report back
You can use any size matrix you want dof will work just fine but more per meter is better if you ask me.
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Awesome info, thank-you.
I never had the tube type of led strips, so thanks for the feedback on that! I have the black 60/m silicone rgb on my speakers and they look real nice.
I was considering possibly getting some kind of plastic or aluminum railing with diffused or clear lenses (nice looking ones) for the sides, but didn’t know if the silicone strips would fit in there. You could always use some tinting on the lenses for that as well.
I’m pretty much set on 144 / m black strips. Just gotta narrow down which ones to get…. 1 meter, or 2 meter strips, bare, etc….  I figured on getting all 1 meter strips as they should come with connectors on each end. If I needed extra connectors for something then that would be a bonus.
I’m gonna go for it, just gotta get these last little details before buying…. any other things you recommend getting for the LED Matrix lighting other than the Teensy stuff, LED addressable strips, psu (60A).
My back is messed up right now, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading about lighting and feedback, so getting this all ordered now is good so I can heal while I wait for the stuff to come from overseas…
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Got the Teensy, Adapter, and pins shipped today. Just need to figure out what LED strips and PSUÂ I’ll buy.
I’m also wondering… has anyone else has tried using any aluminum profile / railing for leds at all? There are so many different shapes or railing (flat, angled, curved, etc) and types of lenses (clear, diffused, milky, frosted, opaque, etc).
See, for me, my TV isn’t inserted into a routed channel in my cabinet. It literally lays on top of the inside rails with almost no room to move.  This lighting will have to be installed AFTER my TV is placed into the cabinet. If I need to remove the TV afterward, then I need to be able to remove the LED strips fairly easily. So I can’t just have them stuck on the sides. So I was either going to mount the side strips on thin backboard with vinyl wrap on it (like my DMD bezels), and mount them with screws, or use some kind of aluminum or plastic railing.
I don’t have the different types to compare, but would a diffused lens be a good option, or would it cut down too much on the vibrant colour? Also would a flat rail cut out too much of the side light for beside the playfield… would an angled one shine too much in your face, etc…
Any suggestions, or links, etc, would be sooo helpful as I want to order the leds and psu so I can concentrate on solenoids, relays, or other stuff for the feedback portion.
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“You could do a dmd with the strips but to be honest im actually thinking just the opposite using the  RGB panels like for pin2dmd for the matrix would be great resolution!”
Randr, I’ve been working on that idea too. Feel free to contact me, if you want to share and develop some ideas and maybe pave the way to realistic backboards for virtual pinball cabinets.
– We have the high resolution LED panels
– We have a variety of controller hardware that can address these panels
– We allready have the backboard graphics in every table that has a backboard
– We have DOF (thansk Swisslizard :bye:) allready supporting at least some of those controllers
– We have very skillfull firmware programmers in this community
What do we need more besides vision passion and time?
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Yeah I always thought it would be perfect to make matrix out of rgb panels!
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MMMmmmm….fadecandy….
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I have a couple fade candy boards laying around… Hmmm
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Do any of you have experience with the SmartMatrix shield for Teensy 3?
http://docs.pixelmatix.com/SmartMatrix/shieldref.html
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That looks like it would be what’s needed! I’ll email Swiss lizard and see what he thinks
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I will order the shield and get this working with swisslizard. It may just “work” already or swisslizard said if not should be simple driver update to dof
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ok i ordered up the shield will try this out. should have by weekend.
Depends on if this shield supports the 8 outputs supported by octows2812.lib swisslizard says would be easy. if not he would need to make changes to firmware and could be complicated but we will see
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Would the Teensy / Octo be able to handle that many LEDs? I think the maximum is 8800?
For two Pin2DMD 128×32 equivalent setups side by side that equals 8192! Hmmmmm….
I would love to see this work out! It would be sweet!
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we will find out
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Terry
I know this is a old post but what strips did you end up going with?
Can you share a link?
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Terry
I know this is a old post but what strips did you end up going with?
Can you share a link?
I asked Terry once as well – he went with 144/m led strips, and there are plenty of brands on Amazon. I had success making a matrix using two of these panels:Â https://www.amazon.com/BTF-LIGHTING-0-24ft0-96ft-Flexible-Individually-addressable/dp/B01DC0IPVU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533748736&sr=8-1&keywords=BTF-LIGHTING+0.24ft0.96ft+Pixel+256+Pixels+WS2812B+Digital+Flexible+LED+Panel+Individually+addressable+Full+Dream+color+lighting+DC5V
-You’ll also want to get a teensy & octo to make life simple; it’s going to be awhile before I make a real how-to tutorial but in the meantime there’s a thread right above this one (“addressable led for dummies”) that ought to help
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