Archiv für den Monat: Oktober 2018

New CFTBL mod

Allgemein

Together with a friend of mine we planned for quite some time to recreate a mod for the creature from the black lagoon CFTBL. The hologram always looses in structure so over time, the optical effect is gone.

There couple of mods in the past, most noteworthy the one from PinballMike. As creator of TILT!Audio* and Co-Author of pin2dmd, there was a long lasting wish to control additional hardware based on a serial control signal coming from pin2dmd or RasPiSound, which got its first application now in this CTFBL mod.

The incredients are:

  • TILT!Audio* for CTFBL with latest firmware version 1.16 or newer
  • Serial-Media-Server

TILT!Audio* you may know already is a sound card replacement for data east or wpc machines based on a raspberry pi is introduced here:

Serial-Media-Server is a relatively simple project also based on a pi3 with raspbian stretch lite, omxplayer and a python server. The sound hardware communicated with serial-media-server via a serial line at 57600 baud 8N1.

Combining the two requires two serial wires and some software configuration. The basic steps are always:

  1. Define a serial command for a sound effect, that is send out each time the sound is triggered.
  2. Define a media file, that serial media server should play / show on a specific command.

How is this done?

Serial command are just numbers. To send out a command with a sound effect just create a file „serial.txt“ in the sound effect directory and write a number in the first line.

On the data directory of the serial media server create a file like <number>.mp4 or <number>.jpg and the file gets played / shown.

Sounds easy? It is easy.

For serial-media-server you can get further information on github. There is even a ready to use image for serial-media-server available here.

How will it look like?

A friend of mine did a demo with his CTFBL machine:

Also note that there’s all playback content for CFTBL included, if you choose the full CFTBL-serial-media image. See here.

TILT!Audio* is a DIY project but I sell kits to build one in my shop. Depending on the feedback for the new CFTBL mod, I may also offer kits for the that (display mounting basically). Software is already provided as mentioned above.

Partlist

For RasPiSound:

1* power supply 12V Mean Well RD-65A (or RD-85A) combined one with 12V / 5V
1* RasPiSound Kit -> shop
1* RasPiSound Image -> shop
1* RasPiSound license -> shop
1* Raspberry PI3 B
1* 16GB micro SD Card Sandisk Ultra
1* Mini-USB Soundcard
1* Mounting plate f.TILT!Audio* or new 2.5 version of PCB + Serial Media Server -> shop
4* Screws ca. M2,5*12 + 4 nuts M2,5 + 4 standoffs 5mm
1* power cable 3pol. f. main supply
2* red/black wires to 2nd Pi (see below)
1* short audio cable (usb sound to amplifier) 3.5 mm audio jack
If  you like to upgrade speakers as well:
2* panel speakers
1* cabinet bass speaker
5m speaker cable
For Serial-Media-Server:
1* Serial-Media-Server-Image (incl. media package) -> shop
1* Raspberry PI3 B
1* Raspberry heatsink (optional)
1* 16GB micro SD Card Sandisk Ultra
4* Screws ca. M2,5*12 + 4 nuts M2,5 + 4 standoffs 5mm
1* HDMI cable 3m angulated on one side
2* DuPont cable (female-female) 20cm
1* 13,3″ LCD panel full-hd (e.g. this)
1* mounting plate und vesa brackets matching display mounts
1* adapter 2 pol 12V to power jack matching lcd panel power plug
2* 10m red/black wires for lcd power supply
1* micro usb adapter cable for powering the Pi (like this)

*TILT!Audio is the new name for RasPiSound