EnerGI Maestro - GI LED Smoother for Data East pinball machines
EnerGI Maestro - GI LED Smoother for Data East pinball machines
The EnerGI Maestro is a custom circuit board that takes the 4 General Illumination (GI) strings that are normally controlled by a single relay (you all know the clicking in the backbox right?) and controls them individually via a microcontroller with solid state electronics and high speed PWM. This is important if you are running LEDs in your GI sockets.
What does this mean? Well for one, you have a lot of control over the brightness and ramp rate:
Each GI String is individually programmable
Set the maximum brightness for each GI string of LEDs
Set the minimum brightness for each GI string of LEDs (you can elect for dim instead of fully off)
Set the rise speed and fall speed for each GI string of LEDs (full range, from fast to a very slow, several seconds of rise/fall)
Push-button control for easy programming on the fly
Plug and play
No more seizure multiball! Slow those LEDs down. Kep them from extinguishing all the way to provide a more pleasant flash that saves your eyes and improves your gameplay. Make your LEDs act just like incandescent bulbs. Stop that backbox from flashing, and bring its brightness down. You can do any or all of these things and more!
Visit this Pinside Thread to read all the details, and see some boards installed in users' machines.
Still not sure what exactly it does? Take a look at the Video page for some before and after action shots.
COMPATIBILITY LIST
TESTED / CONFIRMED TO BE COMPATIBLE
Back to the Future
Hook
Lethal Weapon 3
Jurassic Park
Last Action Hero
Tales from the Crypt
Baywatch
Guns N Roses
Star Wars
The Who's Tommy
Batman Forever
Checkpoint
WWF Royal Rumble
Robocop
Torpedo Alley
Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
EXPECTED TO BE COMPATIBLE
Laser War
Secret Service
Time Machine
Playboy 35th Anniversary
Phantom of the Opera
Simpsons
TMNT
Batman
Star Trek 25th
Maverick
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
POSSIBLY COMPATIBLE
High Speed
Grand Lizard
Road Kings
Pinbot
F-14 Tomcat
Fire
*NOTES:
Guns N Roses has uncontrolled bulbs in the slings and lane guides; these are not controlled by the EnerGI Maestro as they are designed to be steady on
The board is designed with LEDs in mind, but you can run some incandescent bulbs. Just don't run more than 50% incandescent or the board might get a bit too warm (conservative estimate).
Any incandescent bulbs left installed will light slightly dimmer than before.
The 455 incandescent blinker bulbs used in some back boxes (JP, TFTC, BTTF, any others?) can cause the other LEDs in that GI string to flicker a bit when they flash; it always did this a little, but is a bit more pronounced now. If the flicker is noticeable with the back glass installed, I recommend you go with non-blinking LEDs there.
455 blinker LEDs do not light up unless they receive full power. This means that with the board installed they basically do not work. I only tested with cointakers 455's; perhaps another brand might work?LED
Some games have been found to have a few of the GI bulbs wired reverse polarity. Since the GI was originally AC this was no big deal. With the EnerGI Maestro installed the LEDs get DC so the very old style non "fully rectified" type won't work in these backwards sockets. To solve this issue, just use a newer style LED that IS fully rectified, which is basically any LED manufactured after 2010. You don't need ghostbusters or anything fancy; the nice cheap LEDs work great as long as they are fully rectified.