How to make Interactive Pinball Speaker lights

Stumblor Pinball·video·10m 31s·analyzed·May 24, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Stumblor demonstrates mode-aware speaker lights using PIN2DMD scene data.

Summary

Davey from Stumblor Pinball demonstrates how to create interactive speaker lights that respond to pinball game events in real-time. The technique uses PIN2DMD display data via serial communication to trigger mode-aware lighting patterns, with configuration managed through a custom Lollipops board accessible via Wi-Fi. The solution is available as a firmware update for existing HD PIN2DMD units with Lollipops boards, or as an aftermarket upgrade path for users with older PIN2DMD displays.

Key Claims

PIN2DMD can output scene information via RS-232 TX pin when DebugHash setting is enabled
high confidence · Davey demonstrated this technical implementation directly on his Creature from the Black Lagoon machine
Each DMD scene has a unique 8-byte hexadecimal code that can be used to trigger speaker light patterns
high confidence · Davey showed the event codes in the Lollipops configuration interface during the demo
Existing HD PIN2DMD units with Lollipops boards only require firmware updates and a serial cable to enable this functionality
high confidence · Davey stated this directly as the implementation path for current users
Lollipops board configurations for specific games can be exported and imported between machines
high confidence · Davey explained this feature as enabling community sharing of speaker light setups
This is a new feature in recent PIN2DMD firmware versions
medium confidence · Davey described DebugHash as 'a feature, I think, of the very latest or one of the latest PintDMD firmwares'

Notable Quotes

“For me this is something in mod making, in pinball mod making, that I really try and strive for to make the mod responsive to in-game events and what's going on in the actual game. I feel like being able to do that integrates the mod a lot more into what's going on in the game and just creates a better experience for the player as a result.”
Davey (Stumblor Pinball)@ 0:41 — Articulates the design philosophy behind mode-aware mods — integrating modifications with game state to enhance player experience
“That's it. That's the only communication between these two things. And that single cable will carry all the information that we need.”
Davey (Stumblor Pinball)@ 3:15 — Emphasizes the simplicity of the technical implementation — single serial cable connection is sufficient
“The possibilities of it really are endless. So if the multi-ball scene came up, we might want to do sort of a very quick flashing pattern to sort of increase the tension of the game at that particular time.”
Davey (Stumblor Pinball)@ 8:34 — Illustrates the creative potential of mode-aware lighting to enhance gameplay atmosphere

Entities

DaveypersonStumblor PinballcompanyPIN2DMDproductLollipops boardproductCreature from the Black LagoongamePinpointproductHD PIN2DMDproduct

Signals

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community_signal: Export/import configuration feature enabling community sharing of game-specific speaker light setups
high · Davey described how users can export/import configurations and community members can release setups for specific games
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product_strategy: Stumblor announcing mode-aware speaker light functionality as firmware update for existing HD PIN2DMD + Lollipops installations
high · Davey explicitly stated existing users only need firmware updates and a cable; new functionality available for free to current users
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technology_signal: PIN2DMD firmware update enabling DebugHash serial data output represents new technical capability for real-time game-state integration in aftermarket mods
high · Davey demonstrated DebugHash setting in PIN2DMD menu and explained how it enables hexadecimal scene codes to be output via RS-232

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.032

0:00

Good day, Davey from Stumble Pinball here to talk about speaker lights, pinball speaker lights, which you can see just in the background, just here on my creature from the black lagoon. Now today we're going to talk about speak lights and how to make them more interactive with the game by making them mode aware. Now what do I mean by mode aware? For me this is something in mod making, in pinball mod making, that I really try and strive for to make the mod responsive to in-game events and what's going on in the actual game. I feel like being able to do that integrates the mod a lot more into what's going on in the game and just creates a better experience for the player as a result. So there's various ways of making a mod motorware to understand what's going on in the pinball machine. A few of you might have seen a video that I posted around a about a mod that I've been developing called the Pinpoint. That particular mod sits within the boards of the back box and listens to the sounds that are going on in the game and then does certain things based on what sounds are playing. Today we're going to be taking a different approach. We're going to be using the PIN2DMD, which is the screen here that you can see playing the graphics. We're going to be using the data coming out of the PIN2DMD DMD in order to drive events to the speak lights. Okay, so let's get stuck right in. First of all I'm going to open up the back box and show you how I've connected things back here. Just give me two seconds while I take off the back glass.

2:04

And pull down the pin to DMD. I'll just change the camera here for a second. Okay, here we go. Right, now here you can see the back of the Pinter DMD. We've got the speaker lights themselves sitting behind, sorry, in front of the speakers here. That two LED strips sitting within a diffuser bracket and they then connected up to a Lolli GI which is a variant of my Lollipops board which is managing the colors and patterns and things. Now the interesting part of all this is the connection point to the pin to DMD. Now you can see a single cable here running from the TX pin of the RS-232 2-3-2 communication output. That's just like a general serial output. It's just a single cable running from the TX pin of the Pinter DMD into the RX pin of the device that I'm using to drive the speaker lights. That's it. That's the only communication between these two things. And that single cable will carry all the information that we need. Now, just one moment while I... I'll just put this back up here. Hello Godzilla. That's right, I'm not wearing shoes. Like all good developers. Okay, now, the other thing worth mentioning, and I'll just show you this setting as well. The other thing worth mentioning is for the PIN to DMD... Oh, the creature's now talking to me. The other thing to mention is before the PIN to DMD will send any information out that TX PIN, we have to configure a certain setting in the menus. This particular setting is called DebugHash, means to be turned on. This is a feature, I think, of the very latest or one of the latest PintDMD firmwares. And with that setting turned on, then all of the scene information that's coming out of the PintDMD will then be sent out that pin. And by scene, I mean these particular animations that are playing on the screen. Each one of those has an individual code that the colorists of these screens use to then do their colorizations. We're going to be using that code to then trigger patterns on the speaker lights. All right, so let's get into it over here. Now the Lollipops board is Wi-Fi capable. So the first thing I'm going to do is hook into the Wi-Fi of the device so I can figure it.

5:03

I'll just let that load and I'll just pull up the config screen. Okay Now for anybody not familiar with the lollipops this this configuration screen that you see here is what we can use to modify the colours and the patterns of the speak lights. I'll just give you an example. If we want to just change the basic colour of the speak lights, we can do it just by selecting the colour wheel here. We'll change it to green, change them to yellow, change them to red, change them to blue, etc. There's various other things we can do like set up the sensors and things. I won't get too deep into that because that's not what I want to cover in this demo. The interesting part is what we're listening to from the Pinter DMD. Now you can see in the background when the scene changes, a new event gets raised in this event section here. Every one of these scenes will have one of these event codes. You can see it's a hexadecimal 8 byte code and each one of these will be unique according to the scene that's currently playing on the Pinted-DMD any one particular time. Now what I'll do is I'll try and pull up a particular scene that we can easily remember so that I can set up a trigger for it. Now for anybody who did watch the pinpoint demo the other day, you'll recognize this particular section here because it's a direct representation of what the pinpoint was doing. The pinpoint was listening to sounds. So here we go. Let's we'll take the universal one here and we'll change it to red and play. say pattern two, um, we'll play that dot motion one. We'll play a particular pattern there in a different color. Um, and we'll just take a bunch of these, uh, we'll take a bunch of these, um, scenes and we'll set up triggers for them just so that on the next time it iterates through those scenes, you'll be able to see exactly what's happening. Okay. So We'll take that slippy fishy one, change that as well to pattern six, take the game over one, change that to a nice red.

7:40

Now we should start seeing patterns coming up every time those scenes play. And you can also see in the events section it tell us it give us some kind of indication when a particular scene has triggered one of these watches over here So once this this is a really long scene which is why you can see it so we take him as well, change and you can see here that the event triggered a certain number of events over on the speaker lights. Now I'm just showing you just a very basic implementation and I'm not paying too much attention to the colorization or the patterns that I'm using, but these patterns and the colors can be whatever you like. And the idea would be that you'd modify these patterns and these colors to suit the particular mode that the game was in at any time. So if the multi-ball scene came up, we might want to do sort of a very quick flashing pattern to sort of increase the tension of the game at that particular time. But you know, the possibilities of it really are endless. So yeah, this is a really exciting development for lollipops. And the fantastic thing is it's going to require for people who already have one of my, this is the HD Pinter DMD that you see here. For anybody who has one of my HD Pinter, not mine, that I build, the HCD Pinter DMDs that I build, with the Lollipops board inside of it, all you'll need to do in order to implement this functionality is to update the firmware on both devices and to create that connection cable between those two things. Once you've done that, then all of this configuration that you see here will then become available to you for free. Likewise, if you want to get this set up on your existing Pinter DMD, even if it's not an HD one, but it's one that you have already, and you want to pick up one of my Lollipops boards so that you can create the patterns in these events and watches so that you can set up your own configurations, then you can do that as well. All of these watches and configurations for a particular game can be exported and imported. So if a person creates a really interesting one for Twilight Zone or Monster Bash or a particular game, they can release that configuration to anybody else with that game who can then import and have that exact same speaker light set up.