pixelmagic

Thanks for that, i just now noticed that you are also a Kaaskop The pwm with 595 is possible, but very cpu loading, so best not done, specialy for our purpose. The 5940's work fine with that, but compared to the 595 they are indeed expensive. On the other hand, to quote the Go of pinball: Go Big Or Go Home Thanks for the offer, add me on msn or skype, so we can talk about it ;0

At the moment we decided not to use the TLC's, mainly because the most toys do not need pwm. We have virtualy unlimited digital (on/off) ports that seems to be good enough for most toys. Also speedwise it's best. At the moment i am working on the design of my table setup, and only use a couple of pwm ports (shaker, rgb led strip). Besides, when in need for more pwm, just add a extra Arduino board and you have 12 new pwm's ports available (yes, VP-Fx can handle more then one Arduino out-of-the-box) And about the experts, most of us are no experts, just hobbyist with a big imagination Keep following this thread, more thing will come, just don't ask when exactly, lots of work to be done, not only on the core programming (shifters) but also for configuration making. We also gonna need some thoughts from some of you at the time.

No problem, otherwise just add my MSN or Skype Burman :-)

Ok, today got my flasher connected to a 595 multiplexer board and added some ULN's to give it some more juice needed for it. Here is the real pro looking test setup: After that run the the small testing program on Arduino to see if it all works: XX8B7fNfKmM Then is was time for the real thing, letting VP-Fx driving the flashers with some events. I have setup a small script to run the events in 4 second intervals with a total of 36 events on it, some of them being a 'off' event. Here is the result of that: SUmGk29LW5A To give you some idea about the code needed for all the effets, here is the list: E29G51 E34G51 E39G51 E24G51 E48G51 E53G51 E59G51 E63G51 E68G51 E70G51 E74G51 E79G51 E84G51 E89G51 E94G51 E99G51 E104G51 E104G51 0 E108G51 E108G51 0 E113G51 E113G51 0 E123G51 E123G51 0 E128G51 E128G51 0 E133G51 E133G51 0 E138G51 E138G51 0 E145G51 E145G51 0 E168G51 E168G51 0 E173G51 E173G51 0

Dude !!! We are playing on machine's from the 70's and 80's, even try to remake them and you complain about the music from that period ! (the fact that you know it tells your an old man, like me ) But serious, had the radio on, there is a Hot 880 list from the 80's, can't help it

Hi Guys, Shifters did loads of coding the last weeks and we have the 595 multiplex code running smoothly. This means for at the moment we have the possibility to run 4-8 of my 595 boards. Each board has max 32 digital outputs, you do the math on how many outputs we can use at the moment The system can run a a single Arduino 1280/2560 board but there is also the option on connecting more Arduino's together (master/slave). Each 595 board takes away 3 digital outputs but gives you a whopping 32 back for it. Small price to pay. At the moment there are 200+ light effects that can be run on separate groups of outputs. Each output can be in more then one group so possible combinations are almost limited. Oh yes, and have i told it also drives flashers, contactors, buttoms, shakers and other boring stuff ?? Here is a video driving my Mudokan leds (20ma) direcly from the 595 board without any extra hardware. The 595 is not really designed for that, but it works fine without getting warm. tCsyUYPuBoA Oh yes, and we have something else up our sleeves edit: Second video with more leds (red/green) 2f8RWRVf02I

Don't dismiss this so quickly, with things like this some of the best ideas get born. Just not this time

Hard to say, things look amazing at the moment, but it sure has to prove itself in the real-life situation. At the moment I am pretty sure it does minimal the same as ledwiz. If we can get it to work then the options that we will get for sure outruns the LEDwiz. Yes it can, i have some events running on switches (mainly LED effects). LEDwiz can also if i am not mistake ? -> Lets hope so ! I am working on some PCB's at the moment to make the whole system "dummy" proof. At the same time making it maybe possible to just exchange the LEDwiz with one of the boards in 90% of the cases. The problem i run into is that some things are heavy under construction at the moment and new options appear (how about an extra 32 PWM outputs besides the 128 digital outputs) that we have to consider. Besides that all kinds of input is wanted from you all, the possible future users. Please read the other topics that i have made and comment on them. All input is appriciated ! I will post some other progress later. Erwin

I would say: NO ! You need +12 and -12 together to make 24. Two times +12v is just 12v. But to be sure, measure it !

That is not in the plans at the moment, i am a simple hobbyist and at the moment i want to keep it that way Making money is also not at the list. At the time when things are released i will make it easy and give exact resources of what to get and maybe even where to get it. There are at the moment also plans for a third board that has lots of outputs as max 500mA, maybe even with multiplexer and/or pwm on it. So best is to sit and wait at the moment, unless you want to jump into the testing adventure like us

You are being to modest Shifters :-) I agree with bèta, but i think that we have a large wish-list. At the moment i think it could easy do the same thing as ledwiz without any problem, but having more outputs. @maxxsinner: those are big words for a simple guy from Holland :-)

Just wanted to say i have just played my first game with 9 contactors and 28 leds connected to the Arduino running the VP-Fx software. Have 37 VP ROM events configured, all solenoids, all flashers, some lamps and a number of switches running events with the leds. Does it beat the LEDwiz in this pre-beta phase ?? Hell YES !!

My plans ? Nothing big, only this: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15644

Great, if i can help out just let me know !!

Website is not online from here ? (never mind, working now) Maybe it is an idea to start a blogger site for this. You can get a nice overview of things and optional categorys for fast linking to specific info. Keep up the good work !!

Just got some parts to make some boards, so not much time to test the new version of the software. New features: config in EEprom, more groups and more. Fantastic !! The parts:

Here we are again. Shifter has made some un-be-lie-va-ble progress on the code for the Arduino. There are at the moment a whopping 70 different effects that can be assign to different groups of 'toys/monkeys'. Beside that there is also the 'normal' way of just (de)activating a toy. Beside that you can also say: blink all red or green LED's once ore more. Define different groups with toys to work together, like my backbox. It is now 1 group off all leds, but in that group there are 4 other groups, top, bottom , left and right. All these can be given an effect to display on each own. At the moment it gets the command via a terminal window and i hope to make some progress on some real life VP table soon. Enough talking, lets show some video with a dreadfull guy babling about typing in the wrong window: BeqgU6TkQt4 Anyway, a big hands up and respect to Shifter who has worked the code out up to this point. P.S. At the moment all ready connected 37 individual toys to 1 Arduino board

Latest status: The plans keep getting more detailed and Shifters has came on board of the developing on the Arduino side. I am very happy with that because my knowledge on the Arduino platform is very in the beginning. Shifters has many experience on embedded systems and the limitations of it so i think we can make great progress. At the moment i am rewireing most of my cab and placing the contactors and interface boards for driving with the arduino, basicly phasing out the ledwiz. I the meanwhile i am waiting on parts for around 5 driverboards and 5 595 multiplex boards, so when those arrive i need to do a lot of soldering. Beside that i have ordered some stuff for even more possible future expanding, got some TLC5940's for extending of PWM ports, they even support 4096 levels of PWM and have 16 outputs per IC. Also ordered some UDN2981A for trying out some middle range power driver boards (up to 500ma). Could be nice for flashers ? And ordered a Atmega168 for some experimenting on maybe a low-budget dedicated board for something. So things are evolving slowly

I have a ledwiz at the moment also, so the option is there, it's your to choose. I have no shaker at the moment, but given that the Arduino can do PWM and driver the driver board i think it could just work fine without the Dual bridge,

I have the exact same Ardiuno, so that will work perfectly. Do keep in mind that configuring of the Arduino will not be as simple as the ledwiz !

You guys calling me a demon ?? How many 595's you can use depends on how you want to use them. The board has 4 x 595's and you can drive them separate or in-line. To drive 1 or a line of 595's you need 3 ports on the Arduino. If you have a lot of events connected then you could choose to just handle 1 595 from the 3 ports, if you use them for timed events (like i will be doing on some) you can drive more then 4 in a line, there are people having 20-30 of the 595 in line, or even more. It's all just in the timing. Check this image to see what i have in mind at the moment for my own cab, i will have 72 outputs (9x 595) on just 12 pins of the Arduino. If i wanted i could drive those all with 3 pins, but it would make things more difficult in driving it (software) so i choose to separate functions. BTW, the 595 pcb is designed to give you the option to connect 1,2,3 and 4 of the 595's in a row or separate, and also hase the option to connect a second board and drive 8 or 12 of the 595's if you like. Then something else: The driver board i made is for Arduino at the moment (switch with positive) and can in it's current state not be used for the LEDwiz. With some small additions (inverter) it could be used also for LEDwiz to replace relays and such. If there would be enough demand i could design a new board and have that produced. I personaly have no use for it, but i would do it for you guys. Is there demand for this and would the options that i have chosen (switch between voltage, LED onboard, max power it can handle) be needed or can some me cut from the design ? Are there other things to be done, like larger tracks for high power, optional cooling for the MOSFETs ? Let me know how you think of that. Oh yes, and Happy Holidays to all ! Erwin

Even more: 1aLGzVcvjDE Driving from 3 wires Arduino to the PCB with all 4 595's in a row, having 4x8 = 32 outputs. Connected a few outputs to the driver board to show it is working. Conclusion: the board is functional ! Only small flaw is the printing on the top side has 2 small errors, input connections A and C are switched around on the 3rd and 4th input Thank God it is only the printing, not the circuit !

Thanks for the comments and explanation zebulon, don't think i need to add anything at the moment. That is, besides that the new multiplex 74hc595 pcb's have arrived today ! Here are the pictures: And with some srew connectors loose fitted:

16 amp constant ? no, i think not. 16 amp impuls, yeah, it should do.

Nice work, good to see that it works