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Author Topic: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help  (Read 32404 times)

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galaga.nz

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #40 on: December 18, 2012, 12:53:53 am »
so you have connected it to a PC.. and talk to it??

do you have the part no. or can you read the eprom??


MosenAround

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #41 on: February 02, 2013, 05:28:29 pm »
COOOOOOL!

Ok so you buy this eeprom 27c512. And then you replace the one on the board??

Sorry im new to this but I learn fast.

Also have you used the phone jack style plug to connect to youre PC or something else?

Please reply :)

GreggB

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #42 on: February 06, 2013, 10:44:52 pm »
There is also this BetaBrite API: http://code.google.com/p/betabrite-api-dotnet/

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #43 on: February 07, 2013, 01:46:20 am »
Once again, these devices off of Golden Tee are not "Betabrite" brand devices.  They have nothing to do with it aside from being the same general type of device.

You can definitely run your own program on them by replacing those two EPROMs, yes.  There's also a jumper strap option to boot it off the onboard flash memory, though you'd need some way to program it.  The hardware part is easy.  The software part is more complicated.  I'm not sure that anybody ever reverse engineered Golden Tee's comm protocol, and I've been so sidetracked at this point on it that figure it'll probably never happen from me (though doing something with these is still on my list).

MosenAround

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #44 on: February 12, 2013, 03:04:20 am »
When I plug mine into power it says a whole bunch of stuff.

Like:

GOLDEN TEE FORE
WELCOME TO: This Location
Now 29 courses
Play The Cycle!
(It goes on to list all 29 courses)
And a whole lot more.

So!

If I replace the two eeproms I can then go on to run a Beta bright program or similar?

Thanks for the reply

MosenAround

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #45 on: February 12, 2013, 03:30:36 am »
Ok this might be a solution.

http://www.ultimarc.com/pacled64.html

I have emailed them to see if it will work.

I will kep you posted

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #46 on: February 12, 2013, 09:15:37 am »
If I replace the two eeproms I can then go on to run a Beta bright program or similar?

Sure, you could write a program that runs on the 68k (on the LED sign board) that emulates the Betabrite serial port protocol and is therefore compatible with the PC-side software.  You'd put this program on the two EPROMs and replace the ones that are on there now.  Writing this program is left as an exercise to the reader.

Ok this might be a solution.

http://www.ultimarc.com/pacled64.html
I have emailed them to see if it will work.

The LED sign is electrically somewhat weird.  It's two parallel matrices that are the entire sign wide and one "character" high (if you look, the sign is made up of a bunch of individual LED array modules, and there's two of them stacked high).  The rows are scanned high-side on the "backpack" board (the one with the micro), and the columns are scanned in on basically a 2x parallel SPI bus.  The micro has to actively scan each row.  I don't think there's any particularly good way to rig up a PACLED64 to do this, but Andy knows more about it than I do.

In particular, note that you can't just hook each dot up to the controller.  You wouldn't want to, anyway: you'd need like 25 controllers to address the whole display.  You also can't really hook up the columns and rows to the controller and scan it in software since the columns are a couple of giant shift registers, not discrete IOs.

MosenAround

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #47 on: February 13, 2013, 12:47:38 am »
Not sure hoe to quote you mon mother but you had my head turned sideways trying to understand most of what you said about the PacLed64.

Also I dont know how to write programes to the eeproms....

Its looking like I sell the LED light board on and get a PC compadibe one....

Thanks for youre input





DogP

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #48 on: February 13, 2013, 06:41:44 am »
This seems to be the place for the discussion on these toppers, so I figured I'd join in.  A friend asked me to look into interfacing one of these... I looked at pictures online, and it looked pretty simple.  Well... when I pulled his apart, I found that he had the single board surface mount version, which isn't nearly as nice to connect to.  I figured I'd play around with it anyway, and after figuring out exactly how it all worked, I made a plan for interfacing to it.

So, after lifting pins and soldering wires to a microcontroller (Parallax Propeller USB Proto board), I wrote some simple code to toggle the bits manually, to verify that I knew how everything worked.  That worked, so I made a framebuffer, tossed a test pattern in it, and wrote some code to output the framebuffer to the LEDs.  From the picture, you can see it works (that's not just random garbage, that's my test pattern). :)  Now I just need to add some smarts, like a font, so it can be programmed to display messages.  I'll also be adding a raw mode, to give full control of the display over the USB port.

I also dumped the TSOP flash chip and disassembled it, but didn't really spend much time trying to figure out how the protocol.  I figured the cooler thing would be to have full control of the display, rather than just being able to change location name and stuff like that.  I don't have a Golden Tee, so I'm not able to just sniff the RS232 lines... that's probably the easiest way to figure out the protocol if anyone's looking to just change names and stuff.

DogP

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #49 on: February 13, 2013, 10:24:26 am »
Interesting...you have a different rev. than all of mine.  Mine both have a "backpack" board separate from the display board itself.  The display board has all the little shift registers, while the "backpack" has the controller (m68k SoC) and high-side drivers (PNP darlingtons).  The program is also on a couple of UV erase EPROMs.  The surface mount flash appears to only be used for storing data.  There's also a place for an RTC, but it's not populated (there's an empty socket, though).

Like you, I figured an easier thing to do would be to just replace the controller entirely.  However, that was made even easier by the fact that the controller was completely separate from the display and connected by a cable.  I just never got around to doing it.

MosenAround

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #50 on: February 14, 2013, 04:18:20 am »
MonMother im the same as you in having the "backpack" style, where one board is the display and the other is the controll board.

It would be really cool if you made a tutorial on how to wire this up ect. I know you said you are very busy and have alot of other projects but maybe if I donated some $$
towards the cause.
Even if oter people donated also that were wanting the same thing to help motivate you.
But I dont expect people to do so.

Thanks again for this thread to be revived :)

DogP

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #51 on: February 14, 2013, 04:37:37 am »
Interesting...you have a different rev. than all of mine.  Mine both have a "backpack" board separate from the display board itself.
Yep... all the ones I had seen had the seperate board, so I figured it'd be really easy to interface.  Oh well. :-P

Like you, I figured an easier thing to do would be to just replace the controller entirely.
Yeah, I'm not sure about "easier", but the results would be what I was actually trying to achieve.  If I just left something sniffing the RS232 lines while the topper was connected to the cab, I could have probably figured out the basic commands pretty easily... but reprogramming the high score names and location name isn't particularly interesting.  Actually, when I dumped the flash chip, I did see the text that it displayed, so if you wanted to change the text of the existing animation, it probably wouldn't have been too tough.

It would be really cool if you made a tutorial on how to wire this up ect. I know you said you are very busy and have alot of other projects but maybe if I donated some $$ towards the cause.
No need to donate anything... I plan to post the microcontroller code once I get around to making it do something useful, in case anyone would like to build their own.  Of course I don't have any of the other versions, so I can't say that it'll work without modification, or exactly how to hook it up.

I doubt anyone else would be too interested in exactly how to hook it up on this version, but I could look back at my notes if anyone's really wondering.  If someone figured out the pinout of the piggyback version and posted it, I could probably tell you how to hook the microcontroller to it though.

DogP
« Last Edit: February 14, 2013, 06:36:12 am by DogP »

galaga.nz

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #52 on: March 10, 2013, 04:45:09 am »
I have the pinout
Just the display pcb
1 led drive + 2 row
2 led drive + 1 top row
3 led drive + 3 row
4 led drive + 6 row
5 led drive + 4 row
6 led drive + 7 bottom row
7 led drive + 5 row

Please look at data sheet pic6b595

8 g_ all  outout on
9 rck all (load new line)
10 serial data  4 low 1/2
11 serial data 4 upper 1/2
12 serial clock 4 low 1/2
13 LED GND
14 serial clock 4 high 1/2
15 12v for 5v for all the pic6b595's
16 gnd for reg


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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #53 on: March 30, 2013, 04:06:00 am »
Cool! I have emailed Incredible Technologies to ask if they can provide me with editing software for the bank on my Golden Tee Fore! 2005 MAME project but as it's Easter weekend I am not expecting a reply for a few days... I don't care that the hungry fox has a gumbo grab (is currently displaying) but only when I supply 12v and connect via network port on PC.... there must be a way of working this....

galaga.nz

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lilshawn

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #55 on: March 30, 2013, 10:02:57 pm »
to use the game plug on the pcb you will need a USB-To-RS232-TTL-Converter-Adapter-Module
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-USB-To-RS232-TTL-Converter-Adapter-Module-PL2303-good-/230937056687?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c4ebd5af


wow that's cheap :o I don't think i could make one out of a MAX232 for a buck.

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #56 on: March 30, 2013, 11:49:40 pm »
The guys in China can make and ship something to me in the US cheaper than I can have a box of feathers sent across town.  I have no idea how that works out, but apparently it does.

lilshawn

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #57 on: March 31, 2013, 12:57:33 am »
The guys in China can make and ship something to me in the US cheaper than I can have a box of feathers sent across town.  I have no idea how that works out, but apparently it does.

yeah i can order 20 vertical deflection IC's from china for $10 shipped... I have to pay $10 for one in town here.

not sure if being ripped off or being ripped off.

dingo69869

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Hey guys,

Any new updates / developments on this thread?

-Steve

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #59 on: April 19, 2015, 01:26:13 am »
Good evening guys, sorry to dig up an old forum, which is 7 years old, but I just got my own Golden Tee 2005 mame project and I was wondering if the led marque was ever solved? I would buy the eproms and replace the chips, but I have no idea how to program them.

Cool! I have emailed Incredible Technologies to ask if they can provide me with editing software for the bank on my Golden Tee Fore! 2005 MAME project but as it's Easter weekend I am not expecting a reply for a few days...

Did they ever respond to you or did they give you a cold shoulder?

Thanks for any help!!! :notworthy:

MattBW

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #60 on: November 15, 2016, 06:33:26 am »
There is a chap on youtube who managed to change the text on a Golden Tee board but he hasn't posted again in a year about how he did it or if he made any progress.

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #61 on: February 13, 2017, 09:42:47 pm »
The fact that this thread keeps coming up has piqued my interest in making these things do something.

I went ahead and reverse engineered the bootup on the firmware that came on mine and started to look into the actual functionality.  It appears to be somewhat limited.  It has lots of hard-coded strings that are Golden Tee specific, and I don't think it will be easily made to do what a lot of people on here would want.  However, the micro is pretty straightforward (just a 68k with some minimal peripherals), so I decided I'd just write my own firmware for it.

I have the two-board variety.  Can someone who has the single board variety send me some detailed pictures of the digital section (near the micro, RAM, ROMs, etc.)?  I have tentatively assumed it's essentially the same thing, and I'd love to make my efforts compatible with both varieties if I can.

For those curious, it's actually possible to boot the thing off the Flash memory with a small hardware change.  I'm not sure how that would help unless you were able to program the memory somehow.  There appears to be such functionality in the existing program, but I haven't looked into it enough to know for certain how that would go.  My plan is to just replace the program that's on the two EPROMs.

lilshawn

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #62 on: February 14, 2017, 10:08:37 am »
hope this helps.  i have really bad lighting and using a flash doesn't  help



« Last Edit: February 14, 2017, 10:11:22 am by lilshawn »

MonMotha

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #63 on: February 14, 2017, 07:25:55 pm »
Well darn, no nice socketed ROMs on there.  I'll see if I can figure out the protocol for uploading new software using the existing boot code IT has on there.  It does appear to support it.

galaga.nz

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #64 on: April 11, 2017, 05:52:52 am »
is monmotha how are you going to get the firmware for that verison i have scored 2 units but the older one 2x pcb

Tearinitup537

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #65 on: April 12, 2017, 08:15:47 pm »
There is a chap on youtube who managed to change the text on a Golden Tee board but he hasn't posted again in a year about how he did it or if he made any progress.

That is probably me.  Interesting timing that this thread was resurected (yet again).  I am expecting my V2 replacement control boards tomorrow.  For people that have the 2 board toppers, you would be able to replace the control board with this one, purchase a photon from particle.io and connect it to your wifi.


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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #66 on: February 21, 2019, 10:51:18 pm »
NECRO BUMP FROM HELL!!!

Found this thread while looking for info on the LED sign controller. I was given an LED panel but not the controller and I needed to know if the controller switched +12 or +5 to the LEDs. It looks like from the controller picture that it's +12v.

I reverse engineered the pinout on the LED panel, unfortunately it already existed here - would've saved me a bit of time.

I built a circuit using an Arduino Pro Mini, 2 74xx chips, 7 transistors, and a 7805 to control the LED panel. Currently I have it displaying 2 rows of the same text as that was easy to do to get the LED displaying something. Now I get to figure out how to mod the Arduino software even more to do 2 separate lines of text.

From there it will be figuring out how to make text come in from the top and bottom and from the other direction horizontally.

RJ
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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #67 on: February 22, 2019, 01:08:48 am »
Thanks to a member of the Arcade Game Repair Help Group!! checking a board he had, it was confirmed that the transistors switch +12v to the LEDs. I modified my controller to switch +12 instead of +5 to the LEDs and it's looking beautiful.



:)
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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #68 on: February 27, 2019, 09:20:54 am »
Ahh the Necrobump. I actually love that you have been working on an alternative homebrew solution to this. I would really like to see more info on this project of yours if you have more to share. FYI I can't see your Facebook video for some reason. I dont know if it is that way for everyone. Cheers!

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #69 on: March 03, 2019, 04:46:24 pm »
I shared it to the group... I guess the group settings are private.

As soon as I get the software tweaked to where the text on the second line can be defined (currently just mirrors what's on the top line) I'll release the schematic and the software.

Others can then build it and can tweak the software to make it do other things like symbols/graphic elements, text moving in from other directions, and giant text.

RJ
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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #70 on: March 03, 2019, 04:53:39 pm »
When I finish the software a bit more I'll release it and the schematic to everyone.

I'm hoping some Arduino software gurus can add more text effect modes to it and share that with everyone.
Call me a cheap bastard... I learned to fix things to save money... even surface mount soldering...

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #71 on: October 11, 2019, 05:39:48 pm »
When I finish the software a bit more I'll release it and the schematic to everyone.

Did you ever end up releasing? Is there anything the rest of us can do to help?

trac

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Re: Golden Tee Betabrite LED Ticker display. PC Connect Software......Help
« Reply #72 on: October 22, 2020, 05:55:29 am »
Sorry to bump. Great project  :applaud: Did the schematics and software get released? Could assist with sofware if needed.