E.4 The Potc Lighting System Theory Of Operation - Jersey Jack Pinball Pirates of the Caribbean Operation Manual

E.4 The POTC Lighting System
Theory of Operation
The POTC lighting system can be divided into three major subcomponents: communications/control, general
illumination (GI) and feature lighting. One of the primary attributes of the system is parallel control of all lighting
in the game; issues with individual (or a small group of) LEDs will not affect large areas of the playfield. Modularity
and flexibility are also important system characteristics.
The communications/control hub is the Bus, Accelerometer and GI (BAG) board; it is mounted, vertically, under the
upper left area of the playfield (circled in blue in figure E9). An on-board microcontroller receives data/commands
over a USB connection to the CPU board (J101). Controls are then sent out, over an inter-integrated circuit (I2C)
bus, to the game's light boards - and more, if needed. Communicating over an I2C bus, between printed circuit
boards (J102, J103), adds a great deal of flexibility to the system. Simultaneous control of a wide variety of device
types is now possible.
GI and feature lighting are independent circuits in POTC. However, all circuits are GI functions (lighting under
playfield plastics, primarily) are accomplished with either single color (cool white) LED boards (in Std games) or
RGB LED boards (in LE & CE games), whereas RGB LED boards are always used for feature lighting (lighting behind
playfield inserts, primarily). All GI and feature lighting power is 5VDC, run through the nine main RGB LED boards,
under the playfields. This 5VDC is supplied by the ATX Power Supply, located inside the backbox PCBs EMI shield
(item 6, pg C-48 of this manual).
BAG Bd
Communication/control signals are distributed, through CAT5 ethernet cables, between the BAG board (J103), the
nine main RGB LED PCBs (J101, J201, J301, J501, J601, J801, J901-J908, J109 & J110) and the Back Panel Starfield
PCB (J101, LE & CE games only). Signals from the BAG board are supplied to the ninth main RGB LED PCB, then out
(in parallel) to all of the remaining main RGB LED PCBs (and the Back Panel Starfield PCB). Several of the main RGB
LED PCBs, in turn, control groups of individual, "satellite" RGB or white LEDs around the playfield. An unplugged
or damaged ethernet cable will interrupt control to any main RGB LED PCBs, RGB LEDs and/or white LEDs down-
stream.
Figure E9. POTC lighting system controller boards.
Game Service & Troubleshooting E-7