Skip to content

RGB.DMD Controller

Related Config File Sections:

The RGB.DMD controller was designed as a variant to the SmartMatrix that would be capable of both controlling RGB LED panels and accepting and decoding the DMD signal from an existing commercial pinball machine. As soon as RGB LED panels with spacing matching that of a DMD became available in September of 2015, Eli worked with the MPF developers to modify the SmartMatrix software and make it possible to stream color DMD images from MPF to SmartMatrix and RGB.DMD displays so that MPF machines can have color displays in the traditional 32x128 DMD form factor.

It's likely that no one would be using RGB LED DMDs if it wasn't for the efforts of Eli Curtz. Eli first posted about these types of panels in the P-ROC forum (now defunct) in 2014. At that time we could only find panels with 3mm spacing between pixels which was a bit larger than traditional pinball DMDs, but that's what kicked off the conversation about, "Whoa, maybe we could use these for 'real' color DMDs some day." Then in September 2015, Eli posted again telling us that we could now get panels with 2.5mm spacing which is the perfect size we need. Eli also showed us how to connect them and what software we needed to make everything work. So really everything here is because of Eli. All we did is take everything he showed us and write it down. (Well, that and we also created the interface for MPF, but that was the easy part.) So thanks Eli!

The Eagle files are available along with the code for those who'd like to build their own RGB.DMD board. Connect your panels and you are good to go.

In MPF, RGB.DMD works just like How to configure a "SmartMatrix" RGB LED DMD (go there for details). Can copy the following example (and replace com12 with your com port):

hardware:
  rgb_dmd: smartmatrix
smartmatrix:
  smartmatrix_1:
    port: com12
    baud: 3000000
    old_cookie: false
rgb_dmds:
  smartmatrix_1:
    platform: smartmatrix
    source_display: dmd

What if it did not work?

Have a look at our hardware troubleshooting guide.

Something missing or wrong? You can fix it!

This website is edited by people like you! Is something wrong or missing? Is something out of date, or can you explain it better?

Please help us! You can fix it yourself and be an official "open source" contributor!

It's easy! See our Beginner's guide to editing the docs.

Page navigation via the keyboard: < >

You can navigate this site via the keyboard. There are two modes:

General navigation, when search is not focused:

  • F , S , / : open search dialog
  • P , , : go to previous page
  • N , . : go to next page

While using the search function:

  • Down , Up : select next / previous result
  • Esc , Tab : close search
  • Enter : go to highlighted page in the results