How much cash would it take to beat a dead horse back to life?

Boatdrinks

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How much cash would it take to beat a dead horse back to life?

Playing a little Golden Tee tonight and started wondering again about the possibility of programming the LED topper.

Every link I've found to discussions around this topic have dead-ended, including other threads here.

I know that the driver board was proprietary, etc... but it seems that with all the talented programmers/hackers here, someone could figure out how to create a new programmable driver that could plug directly into the LED matrix, bypassing the old driver board completely. Maybe something arduino-based?

A few of my buddies and I have these, and I'm sure we could pony up some cash for this project.

Maybe there something inherent in the LED setup that stops someone from writing a new driver on a separate board? Maybe it's just such a difficult project that no one would want to invest the time? I know I'd put up a hundred or two just to see it get done.

What kind of cash would it take?

If I'm missing some obvious reason it can't be done, feel free to school me...
 
I haven't totally finished it, but I posted my hack in this thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,77092.msg1334325.html#msg1334325 .

Pinball Wizard asked me about modifying it, and after seeing pics online, it looked pretty simple. Then I looked at his, and he had a new version with everything on a single board with surface mount parts... doh! But I reverse engineered it and wired it up to a microcontroller.

Right now I just have it generating a test pattern from memory... whenever I get more time, I'm going to make it so you can stream graphics from a computer, or program messages to it. I've just had higher priority projects lately.

So... anyway, this doesn't really help you get it done though, since this board is very much a "one-off". My code and board should work with dual board version (maybe with a couple minor changes), but I don't have one, so I couldn't tell you how to do it.

DogP
 
Thanks for the reply DogP. I had missed that thread. Very interesting stuff. If you ever do get it programmable, would you consider making a kit? Maybe there's too limited a market to spend your development time. As I said, I'd put up at least $200 to have a kit... Seems like there would be others willing to buy. if you could make it work with the standard GT Fore LED setup.
 
I've been messing with these too...just haven't had time to dedicate to it. My intention was to use an Arduino to drive it. Once I get these last few board repairs out thats my next "fun" project.
 
I've been messing with these too...just haven't had time to dedicate to it. My intention was to use an Arduino to drive it. Once I get these last few board repairs out thats my next "fun" project.

Awesome, Orion! It's great to hear that people are still interested in this. Are there others here that would buy this as a kit?
 
It would be cool not only to hack the led display... but think of this...

redoing the audiop bytes. get rid of pat summerall and the other douchebag, sub in aufdio clips from caddyshack or better yet happy gilmore. Tell me that wouldnt be bad ass
 
It would be cool not only to hack the led display... but think of this...

redoing the audiop bytes. get rid of pat summerall and the other douchebag, sub in aufdio clips from caddyshack or better yet happy gilmore. Tell me that wouldnt be bad ass

I actually like Peter's snarky comments.
 
It would be cool not only to hack the led display... but think of this...

redoing the audiop bytes. get rid of pat summerall and the other douchebag, sub in aufdio clips from caddyshack or better yet happy gilmore. Tell me that wouldnt be bad ass

I would rather see my coveted Golden Tee go off TNT's roof than have f'ing Adam Sandler voice clips on it.

Boatdrinks: After watching a few people try to mod the original hardware unsuccessfully, I found a similar sized programmable LED sign that I was going to put it in place of the original. It was like $200, so I just never got around to it.

I think thats still a decent fallback option... There are only a couple of things I don't like on mine, one is that it displays the games serial # every few cycles of the sign, and more annoyingly, it says something like PLAY GOLDEN TEE AT <THIS LOCATION>, where the part in brackets is supposed to be the gameroom name.
 
Pat: "It's going to come up short."

Other guy (as the ball hits the green): "That's why your an announcer Pat."
 
Thanks for the reply DogP. I had missed that thread. Very interesting stuff. If you ever do get it programmable, would you consider making a kit? Maybe there's too limited a market to spend your development time. As I said, I'd put up at least $200 to have a kit... Seems like there would be others willing to buy. if you could make it work with the standard GT Fore LED setup.
I'd consider making a kit, though definitely not for the one board style, since it takes lifting surface mount pins, soldering to the legs, etc. If anyone has a spare 2 board style that they want to send me, maybe we could work something out. I plan to finish the code somewhat soon, but nobody has posted a pinout or anything for the connector on the two board version, so I couldn't tell you how to interface to that.

DogP
 
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