14 replies to this topic

[MikePinball]

In the short time (<3 months) that I have been involved with virtual pinball, I have grown to like MJRs Pinscape controller. It has a lot of functionality and has two major advantages - it is open source and it is being actively maintained and improved. Kudos and full credit to MJR for creating Pinscape.
 
The Pinscape power output board supports up to 32 power outputs. This is great but I wanted to improve on it. Three key functions I wanted to add were output monitoring (via a LED), on-board fuses, and a way to easily unplug the outputs from the board. Naturally to keep within the 100mm x 100mm form-factor something had to give and I reduced the number of outputs to 16.
 
I started with MJRs PCB design and made the following changes:

• Added 20mm x 5mm fuse holders.
• Added yellow LEDs for each channel to indicate when a channel is on.
• Added LEDs to indicate power available for both 5V/3.3V logic (green) and 12V/24V (red) power outputs.
• Added 3.81mm (0.15") pluggable terminal blocks for high current outputs (larger than the headers on the default output board and can be unplugged easily)
• Added and made room for shrouded sockets for the 10 pin IDC cables.
• Added 16-way header to take direct outputs from KL25Z board rather than using TLC5940 serialized I/O.
• Renamed N$68 trace to 3.3V
• Completely re-routed the PCB using 16 mil or larger traces, only 45/90 degree traces, and minimal number of vias

The full Eagle files are here: ps2-MikePinball 20191120.zip. Here is a picture of the bare PCB:



Here is a picture of a fully populated PCB showing the pluggable terminal blocks. The TLC5940 IC has not been inserted because I intend to provide the inputs using the direct input connector which is the female header just above the TLC5940 socket.



A cautionary note about using the direct input connector. The pins are connected directly to the LEDs inside the opto-isolators so it is very important to limit the current flow using a resistor. See my reply below for how to connect to the KL25Z.

Each 5mm x 20mm fuse could have a different current rating depending on the output that is being driven. I have standardized on 1A slow-blow which should be more than sufficient for contractors.

Here is a table of parts with Mouser part numbers for this Pinscape output board:

Mouser part number   Description                                  Quantity Total
859-LTV-847          LTV-847 transistor output quad opto-isolator    4     $3.24
512-FQP13N06L        MOSFET 60V N-Channel QFET Logic Level          16    $13.41
603-CFR-25JR-5247R   Resistors - Through Hole 47ohm 1/4W 5%         16     $0.58
603-CFR-25JR-521K    Resistors - Through Hole 1K ohm 1/4W 5%        16     $0.80
660-MF1/4DCT52R4021F Resistors - Through Hole 4.02Kohms 1% 100PPM    1     $0.23
576-52000001009      Fuse Clips 5mm Clip 6.3A 250V Horizontal       32     $4.29
530-5VT1-R           1A slow blow 5mm x 20mm cartridge fuse         16     $3.12
 
The following items for the 3.3V voltage regulator are only needed if you plan to use the TLC5940:
 
Mouser part number   Description                                  Quantity Total
511-LD1117AV33       LDO Voltage Regulators 3.3V 1.0A Positive       1     $0.54
667-ECA-1AM101I      Panasonic Cap 85C Radial M Series               1     $0.16
810-FG14X5R1H475KRT0 MLCC - Leaded RAD 50V 4.7uF X5R 10%             1     $0.50

I use 40 pin single in line female screw headers for the IC sockets. This has several advantages as I can cut them to length, see in between the socket, and is cheaper than buying 16 pin or 28 pin screw IC sockets.

The 4-way pluggable screw terminals are fairly expensive at Mouser so I sourced them from e-Bay. The DIP version of the TLC5940 16-channel LED driver is no longer being made and can only be sourced from places like e-Bay. I also sourced the shrouded headers, 0.1uF capacitors, and 3mm LEDs from my parts stock and they are readily available and cheaper on e-Bay.

As shown above, the first board has been soldered and fully tested. Note that it does not have native support in the Pinscape software and you will need to configure as a "stand-alone KL25Z (or own custom boards)". Please contact me if you are interested in a bare-PCB and I can send it to you at cost (USA only).

I already have made some minor fixes to the board silkscreen and improved the layout a little. I am still investigating how to make more room for some of the resistors and find a way to eliminate the daughter board for the opto-isolator resistors.
 
Please also see the thread describing my build of the "Mikrocontroller" pinball cabinet which features this Pinscape output board (wait for day 7).

 

Edit on 1/5/19 (in red): Removed resistor only solution for connection between KL25Z and power board. See reply below for better solution.

Edited by MikePinball, 23 May 2020 - 06:02 PM.

[MikePinball]

As a side note, I got my PCBs from https://www.elecrow.com. The cost is $5 for 5 PCBs (they actually sent 6), plus $7 for the cheapest shipping option. However I did have 2 problems:

1. The PCBs took a very long time to arrive (>3 weeks). Next time I will choose a more expensive shipping option to try to get them in a week.
2. They used the wrong drill size for 2 of my hole sizes. I complained to Elecrow and to their credit they remade the PCBs and express mailed them to me in a week. However it does make me wonder about they automated processes and quality control. The other PCB I sent to them was fine. Next time I might try https://www.pcbway.com instead.

[Rappelbox]

Nice idea!

I'll try it at report back

[MikePinball]

Initially I thought it was sufficient to have a resistor between the KL25Z and the opto-isolator. It course meant driving the outputs as active low instead of active high. It turns out that this didn't really work so I used ULN2803A Darlington transistor arrays instead. This is documented in MJRs Pinscape V1 how-to guide on page 25. I used 470R resistors to limit the current to 8 mA for each opto-isolator LED.

 

Here is a picture of the schematic of the header board with two ULN2803A arrays for sixteen output channels.

 

 

Below is a picture of the header board that is plugged into the KL25Z input socket on the Pinscape Output Board with fuses. I made this header board using Veroboard and used some tricks to make it as small as possible (17 tracks by 12 columns). Notice how pin10 of the ULN2803A chips (red circle) does not have a socket and is not connected. The input header has 17 pins, 16 from KL25Z and the 17th pin is for the ground .

 

[HansAHansB]

Hi Mike,

i'm new to VPinball and in the process of building my first cab (ordered most of the parts). I discovered your posts about the 2 modified Pinscape boards and liked them from the start because of the nicely integrated things like fuses, screw terminals, etc. I have to say that i'm a hobbyist with a basic understanding of electronics, do some soldering here and there and even have designed 2 pcbs myself. Nevertheless, my understanding of the topic ends very quickly at some point .

 

I was collecting all needed electronic parts in the baskets of some suppliers and wanted to order the pcbs at PCBWay, but came across a few questions.

1. I'm confused because of your latest post above with the usage of the 2 ULN2803A chips. Does that mean that you have to connect the powerboard to the mainboard with 17 cables and ignore the 10 pin ribbon cable completely? Also not using the TLC5940NT chips?

2. Wouldn't it make sense to add the above breakout board into the main design of the powerboard (or mainboard)? Do you plan that? Or any other upcoming change? Should i wait until ordering the pcbs?

 

Btw. i intend to use a Wemos D1 mini instead of the Teensy to control RGB LEDs. So i see this Teensy 'hookup' on the mainboard a bit on the personal side. Alternatively, you could use that space to add the above schematic with the 2 ULN2803A chips to the mainboard. This would be of general usefulness in conjunction with your powerboard.

 

3. I just found your notice about your powerboard not being 'natively supported' in the Pinscape software. Can you briefly explain what that means?

[MikePinball]

All good questions. Let me answer them one by one.

 

1. I built the power board to used EITHER with a Pinscape main board or directly with a KL25Z. With Pinscape main board, you put a TLC5940 in the socket and use the ribbon cable(s) as expected. At the time I didn't have a main board so I connected to a KL25Z via the 16 pin header next to the TLC5940. In this case the KL25Z does not have sufficient current output on all of the I/O pins so I used some ULN2803A darlington transistors to drive the 16 outputs I needed. Obviously input pins for buttons and the plunger potentiometer are connected directly to the KL25Z. This picture from my Mikrocontroller cabinet shows the completed wiring:

 

 

2. Now I have my own version of the Pinscape main board, I have removed the ULN2803 interface and replaced it with a TLC5940 and ribbon cable. See my take on Pinscape Expansion boards. Hopefully this is all self-evident now. You can order PCBs or I might be able to save you the trouble by sending you 1 main board and 1 or 2 expansion boards. These are my fully-functional prototype boards (doesn't quite reflect what I posted). This is entirely up to you but shipping to Germany can be expensive (I assume you might be in Europe given your name).

 

3. I just found your notice about your powerboard not being 'natively supported' in the Pinscape software. Can you briefly explain what that means?

 

3. In the Pinscape Configurator tool, you can choose either a KL25Z interface or a Pinscape Expansion board interface. Using the Power output board with the KL25Z is fine. Using my Main board with the power board presents a slight different order of TLC5940 chips. All it means it that you should ignore the descriptions of low power LEDs etc. Just know that the first TLC5940 has low power LED outputs, the second TLC5940 is your first power output board, the third TLC5940 is the second power output board and so on. I have thought about adding a custom third choice to the Pinscape Configurator but I didn't really need it. If more people start to find this alternative popular, then I can work on a better solution.

 

Let me know if you need more help.

[HansAHansB]

Hi Mike,

thank you very much for your explanation. It's perfectly clear now!

I read your post about the mainboard before reading the post about the powerboard. I guess that was the reason why i never thought about a use-case besides having both boards at hand. But it's obvious now how the breakout board is an alternative of having the mainboard together with a KL25Z.

Thank you very much for your offer to send some PCBs over to me. I tried to look up shipping cost from US to Germany (you were right with your guess ), but i'm not sure if the numbers i found are valid and match something like 2 or 3 flat pcbs. I'll PM you.

 

Cheers!

[HansAHansB]

Hi Mike,

my Cab is working since roughly 3 weeks. And your Pinscape mainboard is in full use (Button inputs & Punger)! It works perfectly so far! Thank's again for providing the design for it!

 

However, i'm stuck with a technical question where i cannot find an answer for in the Pinscape documentation of mjr. Can you help me out here?

Last weekend, i wanted to add the lighting for 4 LED buttons (Start, Coin, Exit, Launch ball). After wiring them and entering the Pinscape configuration software i realized, i might have made a mistake in my planning.

Initially, i figured the right way of wiring (and driving) these LEDs would be through the 16 low-power LED outputs of the mainboard. The button LEDs are 12V (that's at least what the seller was writing) and i intended to wire GND to the LED outputs of the mainboard and 12V directly from the PSU. TLC5940 documentation says, max voltage is 17V. So i assumed i'm in the safe range.

Would that be the right way of doing it? Or do i have to use the power output board instead in order to drive the LEDs?

 

I also wanted to refer to your third answer above to my questions from the earlier posts: So by using your mainboard and power board (and/or LED outputs), i would simply add 1 (or 2) TLC5940 chips to the Pinscape config and not use the predefined 'Power board' option?

Next (hopefully not too stupid) question is: the Pinscape software tells that some KL25Z ports need to be used for the TLC5940 and are conflicting with button inputs (not sure atm. as i'm not at home). Do i simply have to look them up, see which ones are currently used for the button inputs and wire the cables to a different terminal instead?

 

And please allow one last question: When i started the KL25Z with you Pinscape mainboard first time and went into the Pinscape Config tool, one of the button inputs was - and still is - marked as being constantly ON (pulled to GND). I'm not sure if this is a mistake (i checked the soldering and it looks ok. But maybe there is an issue with the producted PCB?) or is by design and that port is simply in use just like the example above with TLC5940?
If i'm not mistaken it's port PTE22 that i'm talking about.

 

Thanks and cheers!

Edited by HansAHansB, 11 September 2019 - 11:08 AM.

[MikePinball]

my Cab is working since roughly 3 weeks. And your Pinscape mainboard is in full use (Button inputs & Punger)! It works perfectly so far! Thank's again for providing the design for it!

I glad to hear this. I'm sure you are having a great time playing pinball. More properly this append belongs on the "My Take on Pinscape Expansion boards" thread.

 

Now to answer your questions:

1. 12V should be just fine. The TLC5940 will supply a constant current of about 10mA so it should also be bright enough for buttons. You should not have to use the valuable power outputs to drive a LED. I assume this LED does not have a built-in resistor because that might affect things. You may want to try it first with just 5V and see how well that works.

2. As described before you could go with either approach. Perhaps the simplest is to pretend you have the Pinscape Expansion boards and choose that option - then you don't have any conflicts. My main board is configured the same way as the one from MJR so you should get all of the correct Pin assignments. Just remember that you only have two TLC5940s instead of four and you should choose outputs corresponding to TLC5940 #1 and TLC5940 #2. You could use the red x to remove the other 32 ports. Choosing the Pinscape Expansion option (rather than KL25Z) avoids the potential issue of I/O pin usage conflicts.

3. PTE22 is used for plunger support if you are using the Pinscape Expansion boards. I do not recommend using it as an input (even if you can configure it in the KL25Z configuration) because this net is connected to both PTE22 and PTD5. The same is true for PTE21/PTD0 - they are connected and are used for plunger support. This is by design.

 

Edited 9/12/19 to change #0 to #1 and #1 to #2 in the above text.

Edited by MikePinball, 12 September 2019 - 10:55 PM.

[HansAHansB]

Hi Mike,

thank you for replying to quickly!

Yeah, The cab and the tables are great! Although i'm still pretty occupied in configuring everything to my liking (backglasses, preview images, wheel images, POV settings, ...) instead of just playing pinball.

I think i understood now the internal behavior of the Pinscape software (and board), thanks to your answers. So it's just 0 or more TLC5940s, but in case of the Expansion Board option, the usage and the pins/ports are predefined.

I'll have to look into DOF config tool next to see how to configure the 4 LEDs properly...

 

Here is a picture of the partially populated mainboard. I left out things that i don't need in the foreseable future

[MikePinball]

Here is a picture of the partially populated mainboard. I left out things that i don't need in the foreseable future

Bravo sir !!

 

Your board looks well constructed and the black PCB looks nice. I'm glad it is working out for you. I cannot tell if you made a mistake ordering the straight rather than right angle pluggable screw blocks but they still seem to work fine. Did you run out of connetors for the voltage in and knocker out?

Edited by MikePinball, 13 September 2019 - 02:42 AM.

[HansAHansB]

The straight screw blocks were indeed a mistake (it was late at night when i ordered...).   They are working fine however. A bit of filing where the KL25Z sits and you are good.
I have enough connectors lying around, but i don't use a knocker (only SSF), so the top left part of the board is not populated.
For the Voltage in (VIN) on the top left... uuhhh... i feed 5V + GND through the connectors marked in red in the next picture. Is this wrong?    I thought that the VIN on the top left is only needed for the knocker part...  Am I wrong? I'll correct it then... 

Btw. i got the Button LEDs working since yesterday evening. DOF Config was super easy - i shouldn't even have mentioned it.

 

Thanks again a lot for everything!

Edited by HansAHansB, 13 September 2019 - 12:23 PM.

[MikePinball]

Your assumptions are correct Hans. The second PSU is needed for knocker, relay etc. You don't appear to be using those functions and only need keyboard input and 8 constant current LEDs.

 

What misled me a little is that you 3/4 populated some of those areas. For example it looks like you put in everything for the knocker except the fuse (timer circuit, opto, MOSFET, and LED). There is no harm here and if you want to add a knocker later it will be easy.

[HansAHansB]

Well, when ordering the parts i didn't check which of the standard parts (resistors, etc.) belongs to what partial circuitry. Same when mounting those parts to the board. I was simply going top-down through the parts list of Eagle and mounted what i got

[msmango]

It is recommended to use Gerber for a quick quote on this website https://www.aipcba.com/pcb.html. 50pcs small batch production is still very fast.

Last month, there was a coupon event, which saved a lot of money.