1473 replies to this topic

[bent98]

Had a chance today to try out a few more tables. I even did my first LED score table, "Back to the Future". It worked perfectly.
I know some LED tables are not working perfectly so I'm sure I will come across them soon.
I also went ahead and disabled ddraw in my registry entries and wow what a difference that makes. Now that I don't need to scale my DMD's anymore ddraw is pretty much useless. Certainly gives a good frame rate increase.
Thanks again Russ for this great little device.

what is this ddraw you speak of and do in need to change something? if so where at? thanks for your help!

There is a discussion of this in the Arabian Nights FS thread. But here is what was posted on how to get to the registry entries.

it's in the pinmame registry. start "regedit" and search for "freeware" (thats the pinmame registry folder). then go to the desired rom and change ddraw=1 to ddraw=0

gives a boost of 50-100 fps+ (hit F11 during vp gameplay for fps)

All you have to do is highlight the table then double click on ddraw on the right. A window will pop up to let you change the 1 to a 0.
It makes all your displays a standard size, but if you are using the real DMD there is no need to be able to resize the virtual DMD anyway.
It gives quite a bit of performance boost.
I had a bit of micro stutter on the new TOTAN table but now it is completely gone simply by turning off ddraw.

Is there a way to disable the Ddraw on a global basis rather then for each table?

[chriz]

bent: If I remember correctly there was/is a setting in the nvidia or directx drivers to disable ddraw generally

russ: found a little bug on a 4player funhouse game (don't know if this affects other 4player tables dmd/alphanumeric too... we have to test more). there are some weird dots/pixels on the players bonus screen at the end of the game and the scorebord doesn't update @ player4 during gameplay.

here is a vid with some comments in.

Edited by chriz, 05 April 2012 - 12:07 PM.

[russdx]

ah yes i noticed similar behaviour as well on that game chriz, could never figure it out, maybe snotz could help out with that one

[BarryS]

oh no Barry!! could you take a picture of which hole you enlarged?, from my memory none of the traces are close to the holes. but to completely kill it some thing serious must of happened.

if you could send me a picture this would help me see what's gone wrong.


EDIT
had a quick look at my pcb layout and there are no traces near the mounting holes nothing that would completely kill the board like that. erm im not sure what's gone wrong here Barry. What sort of drill was it? Battery powered or mains?

Here are a couple of pictures. I used a drill on a very slow setting and blew everything with compressed air after. It did work perfectly after the drilling. I have built my own circuits before so I was very careful about which hole I picked.


Send me your address. I have a show in a couple of months where my Pin is one of the highlights and I would like to get this going.

[ebarlow99]

ebarlow99, Is this what you're looking for?



The face is not the best due to the source image but if it is what you want here is the dmdtxt.

holly crap!! that is exactly what i was talking about!!! thanks ALOT!!!!!!

now for the million dollar question
..where do i insert that .txt file?
also i changed all my tables to ddraw 0 it does help..

Edited by ebarlow99, 05 April 2012 - 01:34 PM.

[H4CK3R]

ebarlow99, Is this what you're looking for?



The face is not the best due to the source image but if it is what you want here is the dmdtxt.

holly crap!! that is exactly what i was talking about!!! thanks ALOT!!!!!!

now for the million dollar question
..where do i insert that .txt file?
also i changed all my tables to ddraw 0 it does help..

Place text file in your tables folder

[ebarlow99]

ebarlow99, Is this what you're looking for?



The face is not the best due to the source image but if it is what you want here is the dmdtxt.

holly crap!! that is exactly what i was talking about!!! thanks ALOT!!!!!!

now for the million dollar question
..where do i insert that .txt file?
also i changed all my tables to ddraw 0 it does help..

Place text file in your tables folder

thanks as always !!! I will try it when i get home....

[bodydump]

Hey russdx, please put me on the list for the next batch. Already have a Vishay on order. Psyched. Thanks for all your hard work on this project.

[russdx]

bodydump

pm me your paypal address and ill add you to my preOrder list

[Arcade4]

OK all of you script experts, I need a bit of help please.
I have been going through my table scripts alphabetically and adding or changing them to .hidden=1
So far I have made it to Creature from the Black Lagoon.
However as I knew would happen this did not work for Big Bang Bar. What is the secret to this script in this table to hide the DMD?
I know I am bound to come across more tables like it soon enough.

[luvthatapex]

Its the same with every table. You add the .Hidden=1 to the init section to hide the DMD.
If the table doesn't have the "with controller", then you have to add Controller.Hidden=1
See below


Sub Table_Init
BBBUWOptions = CInt("0" & LoadValue(cRegistryName, "Options")) : BBBUWSetOptions
If (BBBUWOptions And cOptNoStartM) = 0 Then BBBUWShowDips
With Controller
cGameName = Array(Romset1,Romset2)((BBBUWOptions And (3*cOptRom))\cOptRom)
.GameName = cGameName
.SplashInfoLine = "Big Bang Bar, Capcom 1996"
.HandleMechanics = 0
.HandleKeyboard = 0
.ShowDMDOnly = 1
.ShowFrame = 0
.ShowTitle = 0
.Hidden=1 'add this line
End With

OK all of you script experts, I need a bit of help please.
I have been going through my table scripts alphabetically and adding or changing them to .hidden=1
So far I have made it to Creature from the Black Lagoon.
However as I knew would happen this did not work for Big Bang Bar. What is the secret to this script in this table to hide the DMD?
I know I am bound to come across more tables like it soon enough.

[Zablon]

So..one other thing when editing the script. If when you add the line a "-" gets added at the beginning...delete and try again. Sometimes you must "tab" to the line, other times you must "space" over. Odd...maybe I'm doing something wrong, but that's whats worked for me.

[russdx]

little note, id advise against trying to drill out bigger mounting holes!!! but instead use smaller screws , looks like on Barry's board the usb +5v terminal has come lose after the drilling, maybe from the vibration? not sure. but to be safe i wouldn't do any drilling on the board

All these boards where professionally assembled so all the joints should be cool, hopefully Barry's fault was caused by the drilling and not bad soldering.



Think i might swap the usb connector as well as these little ones there is not much support, plugging / unplugging the usb cable can flex the whole connector / weakening the solder joints. might use a much bigger sturdier connector next time round.

Try not to be constantly plugging in / unplugging the usb cable / putting to much strain on that usb connector

[kruge99]

Think i might swap the usb connector as well as these little ones there is not much support, plugging / unplugging the usb cable can flex the whole connector / weakening the solder joints. might use a much bigger sturdier connector next time round.

Try not to be constantly plugging in / unplugging the usb cable / putting to much strain on that usb connector

So is it safe to keep my Visay display & the USB cable plugged into the pinDMD board all the time, when I power my pin cab off?

I have been unplugging the USB cable after I power the system down, and not plugging the USB cable in until the pincab has booted into windows.


Best Regards,
Todd.

[ebarlow99]

great question....i leave mine plugged in all the time
that would suck if you have to..open up the cab everytime to unplug

Edited by ebarlow99, 05 April 2012 - 07:55 PM.

[Arcade4]

Certainly leave it plugged in all the time.

[BarryS]

I think I know what happened, it I am pretty confident that it was neither the drilling or a bad solder joint.

I enlarged the hole so that i can mount the board on one of the 4 bolts that hold the DMD in place (so that its nice and clean, I will post a picture when its done). Since that post is slightly larger, i enlarged the hole. Everything was working at this point.

I then plugged in the USB and attached it to the speaker panel so that it does not move or get disconnected when I remove the speaker panel. When I did that, I believe I put to much downward pressure on the USB connector which caused the +5v pin to lift from the contact.

I will test it tonight, but applying pressure to the +5v pin wakes the board up and it is detected properly in Windows.

little note, id advise against trying to drill out bigger mounting holes!!! but instead use smaller screws , looks like on Barry's board the usb +5v terminal has come lose after the drilling, maybe from the vibration? not sure. but to be safe i wouldn't do any drilling on the board

All these boards where professionally assembled so all the joints should be cool, hopefully Barry's fault was caused by the drilling and not bad soldering.



Think i might swap the usb connector as well as these little ones there is not much support, plugging / unplugging the usb cable can flex the whole connector / weakening the solder joints. might use a much bigger sturdier connector next time round.

Try not to be constantly plugging in / unplugging the usb cable / putting to much strain on that usb connector

[settingsons]

Hey russ- this is absolutely awesome what you have designed and implemented in such a short space of time! Please can you put me down for one. I will PM you my Paypal.

Cheers

Vic

[BarryS]

Russ,

I've used ones before that have 2 ground pins that go through holes in the board and are soldered on the back side of the board. They are sturdy, but you would need to modify your board.

Think i might swap the usb connector as well as these little ones there is not much support, plugging / unplugging the usb cable can flex the whole connector / weakening the solder joints. might use a much bigger sturdier connector next time round.

[Zablon]

You do need to shut off your motherboards usb standby power though or it never completely shuts off. I was able to do this through the bios. Mine was under a setting called EuP (for Asus boards)

Edited by Zablon, 05 April 2012 - 08:29 PM.