Functional MVS LED Marquee Backlight Project

EvilEmuOfDoom said:

I could definitely make two 3-panel boards for the 6-slots but it would probably be very expensive since there are so few 6-slot owners on the pre-order list (and in general). I ended up going in multiples of 2 so that the 2-slot, 4-slot, and 6-slot versions of this would all use the same parts.

As for wiring up three 2-panel MV-EL boards it wouldn't be hard to make a custom wiring harness that just passes the last two signals to the 3rd panel. In fact, if you got a hold of two "MV-ELD 1/2" pcbs and one "MV-ELD 2/2" pcb, you could do it by just adjusting the pinout of the two small "in-between" jumper cables. I can make a diagram of the pinouts tonight if you want.

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I understand that demand for a dedicated 6-Slot cab wouldn't be worth it; I have no problem frankensteining together (3) 2 panel boards. Yes, after quick examination, I saw that a few pins were being unused, so I planned on wiring up the third panel to these contacts. Thanks for the offer on the diagram, but I should be good to go. I just signed up to your pre-order list as well!

Kpj said:

I understand that demand for a dedicated 6-Slot cab wouldn't be worth it; I have no problem frankensteining together (3) 2 panel boards. Yes, after quick examination, I saw that a few pins were being unused, so I planned on wiring up the third panel to these contacts. Thanks for the offer on the diagram, but I should be good to go. I just signed up to your pre-order list as well!

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Well, it really depends on if it's worth it to the person buying it. I'd do a one off if someone REALLY wanted me to and just covered the cost difference. Although, after testing last night it might become simply 2 to 6 individual panels due to the limited space between the plexi and the wood backing.

Let me know how it works out if you end up hooking up the 3 panels, I'd love to see it! My MV-ELD panels are available if you have trouble finding some although the actual EL sheets are likely dead (I never bothered to figure out if was the EL panels or my MV-ELA board that didn't work).

Thanks for signing up . It's good to see another 6-slot on the list even if I am hideously jealous of you and all the other 6-slot owners... .

So how many of us 6-slutters have signed up? Me, Kenny Boy... any more?

Teddy KGB said:

So how many of us 6-slutters have signed up? Me, Kenny Boy... any more?

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I took a quick peek at the form entry results and there are 4 definite 6-slot entries. Granted, that doesn't include the first 14 people who filled out the form before I had that question on there. Most of them emailed me individually but I'd have to go through the emails to find out if any of them are 6-slot owners.

EvilEmuOfDoom said:

I'm going to play around with combinations a little more just in case but I think this is pretty much the one to go with barring any odd breakthroughs or setbacks. I won't know for sure until I get the quantity sorted out but I THINK I can get the materials cost of each LED panel to around $10 each (this is just the LGP, LED strips, diffusion film, and shipping from manufacturer). If this is the case, along with dropping the 12V circuit, the price point is looking better and better .

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That's the kind of price level I like to see. I'd be interested in seeing if it'd be feasible to fit a 4 slot kit to my Neo 19.

cools said:

That's the kind of price level I like to see. I'd be interested in seeing if it'd be feasible to fit a 4 slot kit to my Neo 19.

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Me too! Keep in ming that's purely parts cost...

Hook me up with some pics and measurements and I'll see what I can do .

Weekly Update:
I have some good news and bad news...

The Good News:
I'll hopefully have the prototype 5V LED strips either end of this week or early next week. After which, I will do some final testing in order to make a decision on which LGP panels to go with. The next controller revision should be done around the same time.

The Bad News:
My mother-in-law is going through a tough legal battle with her mortgage company (for a few years now) and things took a turn for the worse this week. Best case, I'll be spending time pretty much every weekend for the next 4 to 6 months working on the house trying to get it fixed up enough to sell. Worst case, my wife and I will be scrambling to find and purchase a duplex or house with a detached in-law and moving both households into it.

On the bright side, my wife was just offered and accepted a position as CTO of the digital marketing company she was doing a ton of contract work for . So, although the situation with her mother is horrible, the timing is really good in that we should be able to afford it. Also, she agreed that since her mother will essentially be living with us that I WILL get a basement or garage that can be finished into an arcade with separate workshop in order to keep my sanity .

So, if you don't see me being quite as active on the forum, don't panic! Even if I don't post as often I WILL respond to post notifications and PMs, etc. Also, some of you have my email address and even my phone number and can feel free to contact me any time to say "hey, you're still working on that right?" . My wife has totally accepted the fact that working on this project and other arcade stuff is a HUGE stress outlet for me and will still be important during this chaotic time!

Although I haven't made much progress this week due to work being crazy and school picking up a bit in pace, I do have some updates to share :

1) The prototype 5V LED strips shipped yesterday and should be here in a few days. The pictures from the manufacturer look very promising (I'll try to post them later).

2) I have an interesting small update for those of you wanting a 100% "through hole component" DIY solution. I found some white 3mm LEDs that are round but with flat heads so I whipped up a 4mm LED strip design for them and had some made. Sadly, I had forgotten to order the smaller 1/8th Watt resistors I needed for them until late last week but they should be here today. If I can get time to solder a few together I'll post pics of those tonight as well.

3) I can't remember if I posted this or not but I found a 3rd Chinese LGP manufacturer that sounds promising and have worked out the details with them. I'm sending payment for samples today and should have them in 10-14 days if all goes well.

I didn't have time to do any soldering last night but I did get two of the the through-hole ones at least assembled so I could take a picture.

Here are the 5V LED Strip prototypes that I had made and am excited to test when they arrive:



Here are the flat-top 3mm through-hole LED strips I made myself as a potential DIY option:

The custom 5V LED strips and new LGP panel samples both got here today and...

The Good News:
They both look AWESOME!!! I didn't have much time but I did tape a panel together and plug it in to see how it looked and I couldn't be happier .

The LED strips are amazingly bright and the color temp is perfect! They're nice and thin at only 4mm wide and using 18 (yes, 18!) 3014 SMD LEDs each which provides an extremely even strip of illumination! They made them using aluminum PCB which was a VERY pleasant surprise as it means the PCB strip itself acts as a mini heat sink for the LEDs.

The LGP panels came out far better than the other two Chinese panels I tried. They even polished the edges to improve the light transmission. Best of all, the per unit cost is WAY lower than the other two as well. However, the shipping cost was very high so I'll have to figure out the most cost effective way to get them. However, at 1/5th the price of the others, if I have to buy 5 times as many to get the shipping down it would be worth it.

The Bad News:
I'm on vacation this week in Maine with my family and I only came back to town for today and tomorrow since I couldn't get that much time off work but am heading back up there Wednesday morning. So sadly, this means that I can't really do any real testing or a video until next week at a minimum . Normally "vacation" doesn't fit in the "bad news" category but my in-laws are all there too so there is a lot of drama which is not exactly relaxing *sigh*. I'd much rather be home all week working in the garage arcade... .

UPDATE 6/13/2013:

I've been pushing real hard to get everything together in time to have a nice demo setup for the NEACF BBQ on the 22nd and it's going to be close but I think I might actually pull it off . I did yet ANOTHER redesign and did it off the MV-ELA-1 circuit after looking into the small changes they made between the MV-ELA and MV-ELA-1. Anyway, I ordered new PCBs last night! Here are some renderings of roughly what they should look like (minus the JST connectors cause I couldn't get the 3D models imported into DipTrace):

EEOD-MVS-LED Controller v1.4:




Dimmer PCB (these are setup to handle 2 panels each and will daisy chain together for up to 6 panels):

Thanks for the updates man. Can't wait to see this thing come to fruition.

Signed for the Led controller PCB for my (6 Slot europe Neo Geo Cab)

Bjt said:

Signed for the Led controller PCB for my (6 Slot europe Neo Geo Cab)

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Well, crap... That design totally screws up my "two backlight per panel plan" . Can you get me measurements of the "Neo Geo" logo (if you want it illuminated). Also, pictures of the area behind the plexiglass would be handy to make sure everything will fit. Worst case, you may have to mount the LED panels individually.

Nice cab BTW!

EvilEmuOfDoom said:

Nice cab BTW!

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That picture I have taken from the Internet. But I got that 6 Slot Neo geo Cab.

Pm sent

Hoping to test new prototype tonight...

Quick question what happens if I take one of those 12v LED spools off eBay and give it 5v? Will it still light up and just be dimmer? Can a 5V modded 2 slot handle a strip of those (approx 2 feet)?

A little off topic but figured you would know.

duo_r said:

Quick question what happens if I take one of those 12v LED spools off eBay and give it 5v? Will it still light up and just be dimmer? Can a 5V modded 2 slot handle a strip of those (approx 2 feet)?

A little off topic but figured you would know.

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I think it still counts as on topic . So, the 12V LED strips on eBay, Amazon, etc. consist of a bunch of parallel sets of 3 LED in series followed by a resistor (see crude drawing below):



So, due to the voltage drop of each LED, theoretically they will not light up with the same intensity and the 2nd and or 3rd LED in each series may not light up at all. However, I'm honestly not 100% sure. However, I do have a bunch of those and could test it out tonight . My first prototype used these LED strips mounted on aluminum flashing and recessed about 3 or 4 inches back from the mini-marquee (one of my videos on YouTube shows this setup in detail). It actually worked really well but required the removal of the wood peice behine the plexi. While this isn't an issue on the v1 cabs since the plexi holds the mini-marquees, it wouldn't work as well for the v3 cabs where the MMs are mounted to the EL boards. My first design utilized a controller with a built in 5VDC to 12VDC boost circuit. If you really want to go that route, I could give you one of those controllers for the cost of the parts.

Just wanted to pop on real quick and say I'm still alive! I finally found a nice optical adhesive that is available in small quantities and works really well so that the diffusion film doesn't bulge or move and require a ton of tape.

I had originally planned to get a video done this past weekend while my wife and kids were away but those plans ended up getting pushed back. My garage is a disaster and I can't even get to my MVS cab at the moment but I'm hoping to have it completely re-organized this weekend (with help from some friends). With some luck, I can get a video together shortly after that .

Those of you on KLOV might have seen that I wrecked my car 2 weeks ago and it's now official, the Lancer was totaled . However, on the bright side, the insurance company paid me pretty much double what I expected. Had I known they would do that, the stupid car would have been put into a tree long before now . Having another car payment will suck, but having a brand new WRX in the garage definitely will NOT suck . I signed papers on one this week that is inbound to the dealership so it'll even be untainted by eager young test drivers, LOL. It's "maybe" coming end of this week or next. The wait is killing me...

PS: For any gearheads out there, it's a 2013 WR Blue Pearl WRX Premium with short throw shifter.

We're still behind you good sir. Just glad to be along for the ride.

Jedah Doma said:

We're still behind you good sir. Just glad to be along for the ride.

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Thanks for the support!

Although you probably would not have wanted to be along for the ride 2 weeks ago!

Just happened upon this today. I'm extremely interested in this and look forward to eventually getting a hold of a "plug and play" kit for my 4-slot rev. 3 when they're ready for primetime.

Keep up the good work!

Just glad to hear that you're still in one piece.

I haven't posted on here in a while but just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't disappeared . New car (2013 WRX) + new job + about to close on a house = very little time to put into the project. However, I will have a game room and workshop area in the new house which will definitely help .