New Life Games Tech Forums

Ok,
Well, it's time for another What Have I Got Here thread.

I've picked up a couple of 2-board/panel LED Matrix displays, and a single larger one, made up of 9 of the panels/boards, all daisy-chained together.
Each of the controller boards are the same. I've attached some pics which show some serial numbers/barcodes.

The sticker has:
341-012-90C GRAPH DRVR2(FCC) 00221380 on each of the smaller boards, and silk-screens is:
Graphics Driver 2 Rev C
Part #321-011-20

I guess the questions are, what have I got so I can search further about them, and what typically drives these boards? What protocol/method could I use to make my own driver for them?
I'd love to have an arduino/R.Pi type of system able to drive these panels.
A quick google on the UCN5832A chips that are on boards show they are an older 32-bit serial driver chip, which can be used for LED matrixes, so the question is, how do I use it? The connectors seem to be a 10-pin cable, which allows driving of the whole board, so I'm guessing some form of addressing at play?

Thanks if anyone can shed some light here

I'd have to look at one of the Supreme displays I have at home to be sure, but I think they're Supreme displays, which can be controlled with a Supreme controller.

That's what they are, Surpreme displays.

Thanks heaps for the input guys.
As a side note, how "available" are these Supreme controllers? I didn't see much looking on eBay just now..
Alternatively, do you know any details about the protocol between the Controller and the boards themselves? Some basic research on the UCN chips show they are serial 32-bit latch chips, so I guess it's a matter of clocking out the bits one by one to the chain of chips, but I'm wondering if it's more complicated than that?

It looks like the inside of a progressive display like jackpot carnival or cash express which is run fro a paltronics controller. Only guessing as have some thing similar in workshop

Those are Mikohn boards, I have a supreme display with same part #.
Mine just sits on a shelf, haven't used it yet.
Pretty sure you need a Supreme controller board and power supply to drive the graphics and a Con box (There are different Con's, not sure which one needed)if you connect slots to it. Also believe you need the proper Supreme controller that matches the size of you display, looks like 3 by ??.

Jay is the resident expert here on the Supreme.

I've got a 3x3 panel of these, and a couple of 1x2 made up of the same display boards.

Looks like a Con2 needed to interface to slots, a Supreme controller for graphics. You use Mikohn PSP software connected to the Supreme with an RS232 cable with pins 1 & 5 grounded at the Supreme end.

I've done StandAlone controllers but never messed with the Supreme.

Here is a link that may help; http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=4971.0

So I need a Supreme controller board, or to make my own controller, to make this panel do something useful. I'm not worried about progressive, I'm more thinking text if anything. I can't seem to find anywhere to buy a 2nd hand Supreme Controller locally (Australia). I'm fluent enough in programming Arduino and similar devices, I'm more interested in if anyone knows the pinout of the cable between the Supreme controller and the displays (10 pin wire). The main chips on the displays are UCN5832A, which are serial matrix drivers, and some searching shows that of the 10 pins, there is a good chance that the wires are made up of only a few data lines, and the other 50% are ground lines. Does this sound right to anyone in the know?

The matrix the online document talks about uses a second controller sub-system to switch colours by switching power planes, however it seems that's not the case in this one. It looks like there is a chance that each colour is a 'pixel/pin' on the matrix, so each LED is effectively represented as 3 bits. Anyone know any more about the technical side of these things?

Thanks,

Check with rudysdeals (John Haas) I got a supreme controller from him not too long ago.
They are fun to play with lots of info here if you look.

Rich

When you get a supreme controller you will need a few things.
1) PSP cable (easy to make) to be able to program from a laptop with a serial port.
2) Mikhon download for windows software program to load supreme.

See attached may help you get started.
PM me with your email address, I can send you more information.

Rich
 

ok,
so I now have a supreme, and I have it powered on.
I've made the cable as directed, and tested connections, all looks good.
I've made up a VM with Windows 98 to run the software since it didn't seem to work too well on 64bit windows 7. Connected the serial port through to the VM, installed Mikohn Download 2.0 and it runs and looks ok.
However, all I get is 'Error receiving directory'. On the Mikohn I have LED4 (red): ON, which according to the manual means Voltage OK, and I've got LED1 (green) flashing, which the manual just lists 'on' as 'all ok'. It doesn't list what flashing means.
In the VM, for some reason I've got 2 serial ports. If I got to 'Set Address', it looks like I can change port from 1 to 2, but that makes no difference, still 'Error receiving directory'. I'm curious, do I need to know 'Group Address' and "Address ID" for this unit? if so, I don't know those values. Is there a way to factory reset the unit?
Thanks,

Update:
Got the downloader app running on my desktop natively (without the VM) and exactly the same situation. I'm guessing either I need to know the ID's, or the flashing green light means something is wrong. Anyone know what flashing on the green light means?

Edit:
Ok, I think it might be the ID stuff.. when I do 'reset' from Downloader, I get a flash on the serial lights on the board, so it seems to be responding which is a good sign.
I get flashes from the VM as well as natively, so looks like both are working.

ok, got a display panel hooked up today, applied 5v and get a red LED on the back of the display, however nothing from the Supreme! Still doesn't display anything, and the green power light is still constantly flashing. To me I wonder if it's a watchdog reset or something similar got it stuck in a boot loop? I've tried the 'hyperterminal' trick to talk to it, and get nothing via serial from it. Really can't get any signs that can confirm this supreme is working, aside from seeing a RECV LED flash when I issue it commands, but that could merely be an electrical response, not a logic response.

Anyone got a Supreme and can confirm for me that the green LED on the board should be solid on? Better yet, anyone know what flashing means? :)

Are you sure you have the ribbon cable properly attached to both the supreme and the input side of the display screen as marked on the board?

With nothing but the supreme and the display hooked up you should be able to apply power to each board of the display panel. (That means for your 3x3 you should have power going to 9 boards in 9 places).  With the switch on the supreme toward the ribbon cable socket, you should be able to now apply power to the supreme. The top panel of the display should almost immediately you should see the boot sequence as it goes through it's self test. If this does not happen something is wrong. Assuming you see nothing on the panel you can try lobotomizing the supreme by placing the switch on the supreme board in the other direction (toward the voltage regulator heat sink) Remove the power from the supreme, then press both buttons on the board at the same time and  while then applying power. If the supreme is working you should see a rather long boot sequence with comment about erasing memory etc. don't worry this puts the unit to all of it's original default settings. Move the switch the other way to the run position and you should see some Mikhon display logo etc. on the top left panel on the screen. If you are getting nothing after this you either have it hooked up wrong or the supreme is not functioning.

When my supreme is operating in a normal mode the first led green light is always on and the fourth led red light is also always on. I believe when programing from my laptop the second led green one flashes.

Jay, feel free to chime in any time here.

Thanks
Rich

ok, then, I believe I have a problem with my Supreme :)
I have the display panel powered on, red LED on the display panel
I then power on the Supreme (and yeah, I've checked and re-checked the ribbon, and even tried a different ribbon cable just to be sure!) and NOTHING happens on the display panel. I've tried 2 display panels, no difference.
The first green LED is flashing, not solid ON, so I think this indicates I have an issue. Not sure where to go with it beyond this tho!
I've already tried the factory reset procedure, still nothign on the screen. I've got no way to tell if it's actually doing it and I'm just not seeing it, or just not working at all. I'm thinking that last one, given the flashing light, and I still can't get downloader to pick up the device, even after doing a reset procedure.
Just checked VCC & Ground pins with a meter, and get 5.01v dead on, so that's working at least.

I think I agree with you that you have a problem with the supreme. The high maintenance item on the board is the VR with the heat sink attached. When unit is operating properly that thing gets pretty darn hot. I believe it's a 7805 5v regulator and they are pretty cheap.
You did say voltage was spot on so may not be it. Other than trying reseating any of the socketed chips I'm at a loss of what else to try.
Was the supreme board supposed to be functional when you purchased it?
Provide a pic of the board maybe we can see something wrong on it
 Rich

I was given the board by a friend, he's a technician in the industry. he dug it out of storage, didn't have the capacity to test it. He believes it was working when it went into storage, but he couldn't test now, so who knows :)

I just traced the line of the green LED back to the IC near the battery (the LT691CN), and looked up what this chip does. Its a voltage monitoring and battery charging IC. I'll have to look into what can make that chip go bad, or report the led like that. maybe the battery is dead?

ok, final update, yes, seems board is dead dead. Looking to try to source another now, lol.
My tracing was wrong, the green LED is actually driven by the main CPU. Sounds like a constant reboot/reset cycle. Probably repairable by someone that know's what to look for, or for someone with schematics for this board, but I guess there aren't many bothering to repair these!
I'll see what I can come up with for a replacement board!

Did you try reseating the chips on the board?  I would still replace that 7805 voltage regulator just for grins

Rich

I'll order one, I won't rule out trying to fix this one, it won't hurt to have a spare, but I think i'm resigned to having to find a new one.
From looking at the board, it appears that VREG chip is only used when teh device is running on 12v power. I've got it powered from 5v right now on my desk, and the problem exists regardless of what voltage is powering it, so I don't think the vreg is the cause of the issue, but I'll replace it since they're a cheap component anyway.
Any other common failures on these boards to look out for? And yeah, already done the re-seat and clean for the ICs

Ok, question for anyone with a Supreme, or experience with one.
I pulled the EPROM off the board, and thought I'd give it a power up without the ROM, just to see what difference it makes. I found a thread on here with a guy missing the U3 ROM on his, and his description was just that it "didn't work". Interestingly in my case, with the ROM removed, the green light still flashes, but MUCH slower. It now stays green for much longer, maybe 1-2 seconds, then flashes off, and repeats. Still nothing via RS232, or on the display panel.
When I put the EPROM back in, it returns to it's usual fast flashing/pulsing.

Just want to confirm if this is normal behaviour for these boards with no ROM present? If so, at least it shows this one is doing *something* right. Maybe I need to replace the EPROM perhaps..

My ROM is labelled Cycle Stealer Rev F. ver 3.09 (C/S A263h) - 10/7/2002
Which of the firmware versions on the download section would be the most suitable to program a new chip with, just to test/eliminate that being the problem?

I power my supremes with 5 volts and that  VR  is still used and it gets hot.
My Rom versions are older than yours 2.16 cs F777 from 1998.
Never tried to power up without the rom.

Rich

Do you know if any of the roms in the download section are suitable for a replacement? I've got a friend who can burn the suitable type of chip, so rather than re-flash the one I've got, I figured I'd get a dump from here, and have him burn me another. Then I can swap it in and see.
Yes, I can see it also smooths the 5v line, and yes, mine gets hot too. Still dead on 5.01v on the VCC pins on the board tho, so while I've ordered a new transistor, I don't think that will be the source of the problem.

Can't send copyrighted files on NLG.
Hope you can find a replacement.  :89-
I get 4.98V on the VCC pins
Just for the hell of it post a picture of the board so we can see it.

cheers for your help anyway. I'm sure it's probably not the ROM, just gotta start somewhere :)

Just curious on what type of power supplies you are using to power your Display panel?  It's been many years since I have looked at a supreme panel, but I do remember that they draw a lot of current (Up to 10 amps at 5 volts per panel segment).  The more panels, the more current.
For a panel your size I would think you would have multiple high current supplies?

For now I'm just trying to power on a single panel. I've got 1x2's as well as the 3x3. I've tried powering up both panels in the 1x2, and right now am trying with just one module in the 2x1, to eliminate power supply being a problem. 
All that said, the flashing green LED happens even if ONLY the supreme board is connected, without any displays. Obviously I can't say for sure if it works/doesn't work, but it really looks like its rebooting, or got an error. Others have said the green LED should be solid, and that's what the manual says.
With EEPROM installed:
Fast flashingg, almost pulsing
Without EEPROM installed:
slow flashing, LED stays green for maybe 1-2 seconds then blinks and starts again.

ok, Progress!

Thanks to my very generous friend, I have a new Supreme! And with that, I have a display board up and running!
Board is happily talking both via HyperTerminal (configured my 1x2 for the moment) and with Download 2.0
I can run the board through tests, and all works and looks great. It had some very basic progressive data on it when I got it, and I was able to recieve/download those files, and then delete them from the Supreme, this all worked fine. I can see 22 files left that are listed as "ROM" for their location. The sign happily boots this up and runs a generic '0.00' and MIkohn Gaming logos in a loop.
The problem is, when I try and load ANYTHING to it, I get an error. I can't even load the 100 byte 'backgrnd.bat' file. I've tried selecting both RAM Disk and Flash Disk as the data stores on the sign, no change.
When i go to send, it says "Deleting file", "packing Disk 1" .. sits there for a moment, and then ends up coming up with Error sending file.
Current details lists Total Files: 22, Free Bytes: 874,008

Any ideas what I need to do to be able to send files to this unit?

lol, oh ffs! That was a lot of head banging for something stupid!
The file on C: that you're sending (ie, on the PC) needs to not be read only!
wow, that's non obvious! The files I'm working with were copied from a CD, and this is a Win98 virtual machine, so of course, it copies the READ ONLY bit from the CD. Wow. ok, now I've got stuff loading! :)

I was going to mention if you copied from a CD it would be read only and you would have to change it.
Sounds like you are very close. You even got the hyperterminal working, that took me about two weeks of playing with the board!!
Loading files takes forever let us know how it goes.

Rich

She's up and running. Loaded the NJS - Mystery set of animations, took out the progressive since I don't have anything to link it with yet.

http://youtu.be/y6VBDpypPqU (http://youtu.be/y6VBDpypPqU)

Video of it running :) This is only the 1x2, the 3x3 will come when I get some more 5v power supplies. I'm currently using a 5v 3amp supply for the supreme itself (had it on a 5v 1amp to start with, and it would reboot/reset every now and then), and a 5v 3.5amp supply for the 2x1. I can see the occasional 'dim' in the screen for a second if it goes to something that is VERY lit up, lots of light on at once, so I think 3amps for the 2 panels is right on the border of working. Going to need more supplies to run the 3x3 :)

 :244- :244- :244- :wa
Glad you got it working.
Yes they require a lot of power.
On my 3x3 I have 3 130 watt power supplies.
This is what was supplied with the display when I got it. .

Rich

qbert: Did you get my email back the other day? Not that it probably matters much, but just checking you got a copy of that file I sent to you.

Thanks,

Yes I did thank you.
Have not tried it but may when I have some free time.
What version does your new board have?

Rich

The new board is 3.16, so newer again, but I don't feel like spending the money to post away to get this one dumped. One day I'll buy myself a programmer :)
I'm just awaiting on delivery of my old EPROM back and the programmed chip with the other, and then i'll have 3 different versions I can play with on this board. Probably nothing to be gained by doing so really. From the change logs, it looks like most of the changes were related to progressive support and features, which I'm not using anyway, unless I can ever get a progressive output from MAME, but that's not a priority :)

No worries
Just post some vids when you get the 3x3 up and running. I would like to see if you can get scrolling graphics. I have not had much luck going left to right. I can only scroll bottom to top.

Glad you got it working!  :3-
I've played with those before and
have many gray hairs to prove it!  :72-

Hey Bunker,
I thought I saw in a thread a while back that you got the Supreme to do audio. What do I need to do? I too am grey from playing with supreme boards :266-

Rich

From what I read in the manual, it talks about an "audio device" on the serial port, I don't expect it's just an audio out, there must be some kind of module/decoder that goes there..