P3-ROC

The P3-ROC is the next evolution of the Multimorphic line of pinball controllers. Designed for use in their P3 modular system, it is well suited to custom game construction thanks to that very same modularity.

Hardware

The P3-ROC hardware consists of five main boards:

P3-ROC is the main controller device which plugs into a PC via USB and allows the PC to communicate with the various input/output boards.
PD-16 allows control of up to 16 solenoids or other high voltage devices.
SW-16 supports up to 16 switch inputs.
PD-LED allows control of up to 84 single LEDs or up to 2048 serial LEDs.
Power Entry provides a simple and safe way to connect power between multiple power supplies and game devices.

Additionally, they provide a number of support devices such as long range optos, RGB LED boards and audio amps.

From top left moving clockwise: SW-16, 8x8 (deprecated matrix controller for lamps), PD-16, Power Entry, P3-ROC and RPi3 as controller PC

P3-ROC Controller Board

At the heart of the system is the P3-ROC controller board. All other boards communicate through it and it handles all the signalling needed, relieving the PC to handle game rules instead of switch matrix scanning, pulse-width modulation of coils, and other low-level device support.

Although it appears complicated due to the number of connectors on the board, the majority of the .100" headers are to support the P3 long-range optos and are not relevant to most custom game makers.

The theory of operation, dip switches and what the LED mean is explained in the documentation but the key connections are:

J1: Power input (5V) using a standard PC power supply connector
J2: Power input (5V) using standard pinball .156" Molex connector
J11: Serial connector 0 using .100" Molex for SW-16 boards
J12: Serial connector 0 using .100" Molex for PD-16 boards
J13: USB connector to computer
J14: Serial connector 1 using .100" Molex for SW-16 boards
J15: Serial connector 1 using .100" Molex for PD-16 boards

Serial Interface

The P3-ROC uses the RS-485 serial protocol to communicate to the attached boards. Designed for high EM environments, it has excellent error correction and robust signalling and is well suited for the noisy world under a pinball playfield.

Note that the Switch and Driver serial connectors have different pinouts, to help avoid mixing up connectors when assembling wiring.