A bunch of the DMD’s on my pins started going bad, and replacements are $300. I bought a ColorDMD my Theatre of Magic but at $400 each, wow. I wasn’t excited about spending $2,000 on DMDs.
So I started looking for alternatives. There are several options, but I chose PIN2DMD. PIN2DMD requires some assembly, but total parts cost is less than $200, and if you buy several and/or have some parts already around you can get the price down to $130 or so.
I didn’t find list for absolutely everything you need in one place, so I decided to post one here.
Here then is a complete list of every single part you need if you replace the DMD on your pinball machine with a color DMD using the PIN2DMD system:
1) Two 64×32 DMDs – the only place in the world you can get these that I know of are from Aliexpress.com. Search for P2.5 64×32 pixel 1/16 scan 180x60mm. 2.5 refers to the pixel size in mm. Cost should be around $60 shipped to the USA.
I’m thinking about organizing a bulk buy of these sometime soon.
You can also buy one 64×64 180x180mm (they are just stacked two high) but you’ll have to cut the plastic bracket using a dremel, which isn’t very fun.
2) A bracket to hold the DMD that lines up with the mountings in your backbox. I got mine from Fastpinball for $20 each including shipping.
3) A shield and controller, I got mine from UncleSascha on VPUniverse.com. There are several sellers of these. I bought mine fully soldered for $72.50 including shipping. You can save a little money if you are good at soldering.
4) A 5v power supply, I used a Mean Well RS-35-5, $16.10 shipped from eBay.
5) A microSD card, between 1 and 16gb in size. The cheapest one I found was on Amazon for $8.99
6) A 3 prong power supply cord, you probably have one of these lying around but in case you don’t this one is $2.33 on Amazon.
7) M3-0.5 thread 6mm pan head screws, cheapest for 100 I found was on Amazon for $6.76.
8) A Male Micro B USB to Male A USB cable, if you have an Android phone chances are you already have one. If not, $5.29 on Amazon.
9) Some 22 gauge wire, preferably in two colors, green and black. Here’s 100 feet of Black on Amazon for $3.84 and Green on Amazon for $4.88
That’s the entire list. I’ll be putting together an assembly guide next.