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How To Install a Color DMD into Stern Star Trek SAM System Pinball Machine!

Wild Dog Arcade·video·12m 32s·analyzed·Sep 5, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Tutorial: Installing Color DMD into Stern Star Trek SAM pinball machine.

Summary

Gary from Wild Dog Arcade provides a detailed tutorial on installing a Color DMD (dot matrix display) upgrade into a Stern Star Trek SAM-system pinball machine from the early 2010s. The installation covers physical removal of the original monochrome DMD, replacement with a Color DMD LCD panel, custom 3D-printed spacers to prevent light bleed, wiring connections, and firmware flashing via USB. Gary emphasizes that the upgrade is accessible to home users with basic tools and highlights it as one of the best upgrades for DMD-era games.

Key Claims

  • Color DMD installation is one of the top upgrades for DMD-era pinball games

    medium confidence · Gary's subjective assessment: 'I think this is like one of my number one upgrades to DMD era games. Kind of wakes it up, makes it look a, you know, a little cooler, a little nicer, a little more modern.'

  • Star Trek pinball machine uses a red tinted Lexan filter over the original DMD to achieve the red color appearance

    high confidence · Gary explains: 'This is how the Star Trek screen looks red. It's actually done by a piece of tinted Lexan.'

  • The Color DMD requires custom spacer hardware (hex spacers with 6-32 thread) available from Color DMD or Amazon equivalents

    high confidence · Demonstrated and explained during installation: 'So, you've got need to extend the mounts so that the Color DMD can screw onto it... You can get this hardware right from Color DMD yourself.'

  • 3D-printed spacer plates can be used to prevent light bleeding underneath the DMD screen and maintain proper spacing

    high confidence · Gary demonstrates custom 3D-printed solution: 'I found online a 3D printable file and I actually 3D printed a spacer plate for this. This does a couple of things. It keeps light from bleeding underneath across the screen.'

  • The installation requires connecting the DMD ribbon cable to the original computer connector and a separate power cable to an accessory port on the cabinet front

    high confidence · Wiring explanation: 'One is the ribbon cable that comes from the original computer in the game... The second one is you do not use the original power connection. You actually use a cable provided by Color DMD that actually connects to an accessory port on the front of the cabinet.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I think this is like one of my number one upgrades to DMD era games. Kind of wakes it up, makes it look a, you know, a little cooler, a little nicer, a little more modern.”

    Gary (Wild Dog Arcade) @ ~55:00 — Endorsement of Color DMD as a high-value upgrade for older pinball machines

  • “This is how the Star Trek screen looks red. It's actually done by a piece of tinted Lexan.”

    Gary @ ~12:00 — Explanation of original DMD color filtering mechanism

  • “This does a couple of things. It keeps light from bleeding underneath across the screen.”

    Gary @ ~20:00 — Justification for using custom 3D-printed spacers in the installation

  • “You don't want any stray power running in there. So, you don't want to fry anything.”

    Gary @ ~2:00 — Safety reminder for electrical work on pinball machines

  • “This is an easy install with very basic tools. You can do this at home.”

    Gary @ ~59:00 — Accessibility claim about the Color DMD installation process

Entities

Wild Dog ArcadeorganizationGarypersonStern Star TrekgameColor DMDproductSAM (Spike 1) electronicstechnologyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Aftermarket community developing 3D-printed solutions to solve Color DMD installation challenges (light bleed prevention, spacing), indicating active optimization of commercial upgrade process

    high · Gary discovers and uses 3D-printed spacer plate from online source to address light bleeding and spacing issues: 'I found online a 3D printable file and I actually 3D printed a spacer plate for this.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Color DMD adoption as a standard aftermarket upgrade for DMD-era pinball machines, improving visual presentation of legacy games

    medium · Gary characterizes Color DMD as 'one of my number one upgrades to DMD era games' and notes it 'wakes it up, makes it look a, you know, a little cooler, a little nicer, a little more modern.'

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
Today at the Wild Dog Arcade, we put some color into our Star Trek pinball machine.
0:27
Welcome to the Wild Dog Arcade. I'm Gary and today I'm going to walk you through the installation of a color DMD LCD screen into a Sturrin Star Trek machine. This game came out in the early 2010s. It is a SAMbased electronics package, but this one also has a metal speaker panel. So, there will be some tricks to installing the color DMD in this package. So, follow along and see how it's done. All right, let's begin the installation. So, the first thing you're going to want to do is you want to shut off the game and unplug it. So, I'm going to do that right now. You don't want any stray power running in there. So, you don't want to fry anything. So, definitely do that step. All right, I've prepped it and I'm ready to go. So, let's begin. So, first thing you want to do is you want to take out the original connectors on the original DMD board. So, unplug that cable, unplug the power. That's all the connections to that. Next step is to remove these six screws. So, [Music] all right. Now, with these screws out, you can remove the speaker wire, put it out of the way, and the DMD should just lift right out. So, that's the original DMD panel. So, it's a big series of LEDs. Next step in removing the old LCD is there's a couple more things you got to remove. There's a bunch of little black spacers. Pull those off, put them to the side. You will want to reuse some of these later. And underneath that, uh, there is a red filter here. This is how the Star Trek screen looks red. It's actually done by a piece of tinted lexan. So, um, take that out. You are going to be replacing it with a clear version. So, you it's important to have this to protect the LCD screen. So, you can buy these in different places. I made this cuz I happen to have the same material sitting around. So, I made one of these to work on it. So, just install it in the original position and that will give you the clear color view of the LCD.
2:35
All right, the next step, if you're following along the instructions from the color DMD site, would be to put these little black spacers on the outer four posts. Now, I've gone and done something different. I found online a 3D printable file and I actually 3D printed a spacer plate for this. This does a couple of things. It keeps a light from bleeding underneath across the screen. So, we have this aftermarket uh LED panel for the back box replacing the fluorescent tube. So, I'm a little concerned that it's going to be too bright and it's going to wash out the DMD. So, I printed these. Um I happen to have blue in the printer, so I printed them blue and just painted the inside black. So, these are actually pretty simple. They drop onto the original post and this will give you the spacing that you're going to want. All right, next step on the install is you're going to want to install these little spacers. So, they're basically a hex spacer with a 632 thread on the inside and a male 632 thread. So, you got need to extend the mounts so that the color DMD can screw onto it. So, what you do is you put these in the outer post. So, you can get this hardware right from Color DMD yourself. So, if you've got a SAM machine and you want to do this, you can order from them. I actually found some equivalents on Amazon cuz I needed them for another project. So, I actually just keep I just ordered a a small batch of these things so that way I always have them sitting around for whatever. So, they will go in and screw on. You'll screw them all the way down and then snug them with the wrench.
4:07
[Music] Okay, now that these are tightened down, note that these don't hold the actual panels in place. These are just screwing onto the studs. There is actually a large hole that they sit in. The idea is the color DMD comes down and sits on these surfaces. Um, the other thing is the middle ones you really don't use for anything, but they're actually just they have to have a hole so they clear. So, when you're doing your install, make sure that that stud does not stick above this panel, the spacers, cuz you don't want it touching the LCD screen. I'm just going to use a couple of these black spacers. Drop them into here. This will just help keep the center aligned because these are due to the 3D print size, I had to print them in halves. So, there you go. So, drop a couple of sets of spacers in there. And that'll just keep them from flopping or warping over time. You're actually now ready to install the color DMV panel. So, there's going to be a variety of different holes in there for different systems. The SAM ones you will drop in starting with the inside right here. And you line them up on both sides and it'll drop right on there. Voila. You've got, you know, a nice flat. Doesn't touch the middle. It's got very little light leakage underneath. So, it's good. So, now grab some of the original screws. So, we're talking the original screws you took off the DMD, the ones with the little star washers, and put them on back on these studs.
5:38
Now, these don't have to be too tight. You just snug them up. You good and snug. You know, use a good feel. So, just don't overtighten them. You don't want to break the stud.
5:53
All right, that's the physical install of the actual DMD panel itself. Pretty simple. Anybody can do it with literally basic tools. So, um I'm going to move on to the wiring next. So, keep watching. All right, let's move on to the wiring. So, there are two things you're going to have to hook up on this. One is the ribbon cable that comes from the original computer in the game. Basically, just plugs into this connector on here. It's labeled DMD. That's the one you want. The second one is you do not use the original power connection. You actually use a cable provided by color DMD that actually connects to an accessory port on the front of the cabinet down inside. So, that one is going to go onto this connector right here. And you'll notice there is a blockout pin and a blank pin. That's the way it goes in and only go on one way.
6:41
Voila. That is the actual connections you need to do. I'll show you the cabinet stuff in a little bit. Oh, another thing you want to note is the wire here. You actually want to put this down. So, these back two screws. I had forgot to do this originally, but just put the connection of that speaker wire onto these two. That way you get uh the wires kind of skewed and out of the way. So yeah, make sure you do that. Otherwise, the wires kind of hang kind of funny and could get pinched pretty easily.
7:15
I also am going to tuck the wire into this little tray cuz that will actually keep it nice and contained.
7:27
there. That actually completes the physical installation. All right, power down in the cabinet. So, you're going to want to route the wire that came with it to the front right part of the cabinet. Down inside here, you'll find this connector. It says optional power. This game already has this aftermarket mod for the uh LED back glass. So, this wire comes with two different connectors. one you if you have something plugged in, unplug it and then put the main connector. There's two different styles of connectors, so you can only hook up the correct one. I'm going to hook up my accessory on that. And now what I will do is I will just route the cables nice and neatly and zip tie everything down. But power hookup down here is pretty simple. You just got to run it through the holes in the back box out to the front here and connect it to this optional power connector. All right, we're actually now ready to actually put the panel up in. Um, I have already installed the cable. So, this will actually just power up. This will be in the stock firmware configuration. So, so we're going to put it in. We're going to plug our game back in and fire it up and it should be working.
8:38
And there you go. You can see now the color DMD is in place. So, I have done a couple of things here. one. Let me walk you through some of what it is. There's actually some menu buttons on the back side. You got a menu, a select, and then the USB button. So, the very bottom one is your menu. So, if you like watch along, I'll flip through some of the menus and some of the stuff you're going to have to set. So, uh it's going to tell you the serial number, blah blah blah. Uh the mounting, you want to switch this on this machine to a SAM mounting. That will put the DMD aspect ratio and everything, right? Um color, that's a default color. Um we're going to actually install a color ROM on here. So that will be uh moot point. Uh contrast, so you can play with any of that stuff. Uh style, the style, I typically like the dot XL, the extra-l large dot. So it kind of looks like a DMD, but it's a little easier to read. Um vertical adjustment. This is important because you want to set this. You can move it up and down. basically up and down to place it in the DMD panel here and then save and exit. Saving.
9:51
All right. So, that would be kind of the settings you're going to play with.
9:57
All right. The last step is you're going to want to go to the color DMD website and download the color firmware for that. You basically download it. It'll be called chroma.rom ROM and that put it onto a flash drive. Plug in the USB and then go to the the button which for me is on the left. You would saw on the right says USB. You want to push and hold that until it goes into a programming mode.
10:28
[Music] There you push and hold until the two lights on the left that says programming and initializing go. Um, then you're going to wait through uh as it does its thing, it'll come up to done. Once it's done, it'll be in the color mode.
10:48
[Music] All right, it's moved on to initializing.
10:59
And now the status light for done came on. That means it's done. You can remove the USB drive. All right, there we have it. We got the color DMD working. Firmware is up to date and you can see everything is now in color. So, I think this is like one of my number one upgrades to DMD era games. Kind of wakes it up, makes it look a, you know, a little cooler, a little nicer, a little more modern. So, it's definitely worth doing something like this. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
11:42
Okay, that completes the installation of the color DMD and our Stern Star Trek pinball machine. Remember, this is a sandbased system with the metal speaker plate. So, I'm going to put links in the description below of where you can go find the items to buy or the 3D print files where I found them and I printed them myself. So, I hope you enjoyed the video. This is an easy installs with very basic tools. You can do this at home. Also, if you like live pinball play, we stream on both Twitch and on YouTube on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. So, definitely come join us, chat with us, and you get to see this pinball machine in action. All