68 replies to this topic

[Nemo]

Hello there,

I thought sharing my dedicated pinball cabinet with you guys. I'dd made mine out of a Williams F14 Tomcat, i bought
it as a stripped down cabinet from a colleague who has a small business in arcade related parts & jukeboxes.
It was a real find, it only needed a bit work and a selective re-spray. As a system 11 cabinet it is perfect for a 37"
playfield LCD, backbox holds a 27" for the backglass image & B2S, and a 12" for the DMD. The whole thing is
powered by a C2D 6750 and a GT640 2Gb, it uses a SSD for snappy loading.

So from this:



To this: (this is after the touch-up, thorough cleaning and drilling of most of the holes for buttons/fan's etc....)



The playfiled is a LG 37" HD ready (so only 1360x768) which is a perfect fit for this cabinet, i've made this cabinet easy
for servicing, the whole playfield is hinged ! It also gives me the perfect depth, i like those LCD's sitting a bit low, for me
it gives a more convincing look.



The innards of the beast, i'm using an IPAC2 and a PACdrive combined with my home made resistor and fuse board.
All electronic switches have diodes and where necessary they also have fuses, you don't want to blow up an USB port.
You can also see a crude version of a tilt mechanism made out of an old tilt-bob. i have limited the contact points on the
ring with some insulation tape and it works surprisingly well !



Three monitor setup, @ first power on !



So, we are a few months further now and almost everything i set out to do is finished, the PC runs just fine.
I've got HW rendering enabled, almost no stutter on all the tables, including Monopoly.
Hyperpin is nicely decked out with some 50 tables with preview videos and all art. (still missing some
wheel images though) it is an amazing machine to play with, i love it !



I also would like to thank all developers, art guys, programmers, webmasters, & all you pinheads who made VP such a great
platform, a BIG THANK YOU is more than deserved, not in the least for this amazing forum and resourse !

Cheers, Rob, aka Nemo

Edited by Nemo, 15 April 2017 - 07:38 AM.

[cottonm4]

Nice looking machine. Nice, neat wiring job. Looks professional.

[hmueck]

Congratulations on this great looking cab! Are those giant flashers on top still working?

[jpop]

Cool....

[kruge99]

Cool....

Yet another Williams F14 Tomcat cabinet repurposed for another pinball project!

[Nemo]

Thanks guys !

@ hmueck, yep they work, got 2 LED's in each dome, sure give's a lightshow !

But still those LED's give me a headache, that PACdrive just is not great for VP,
should have gone for the Ledwizz, maybe next year i'll install one.
I also have some contactors ordered for a realistic "knock" i will be putting those
baby's in somewhere around the holidays.....

[Shadowsclassic]

Wow, nice job! No doubt about it I got to get busy, my project is still in pieces. I need to stop playing and finish building... right after this next game.

[Nemo]

UPDATE


Well sometimes you start building on a project and once it's nearly finished somethings keep on bothering you.....
for me it was the dim LCD dmd display, it was just not vivid enough. The other thing was hyperpin's slow response,
booting took way too long, and on exiting a table it would loose focus, that among other bugs....

Mind you this is under Win 7 x64

So i reverted back to XP, with it's own set of problems, most irritating: the lack of Nvidia's Surround Display support, so
three displays on one Kepler is NOT going to work under XP. It is a real pain getting an internal IGP working together
with a dedicated graphics card, it involved a BIOS flash (since out of the box there was no IGP+PEG/PCI option available)
and a intel HD graphics driver hack. It worked but the IGP had some serious latency issues and the DMD was approx, 2
seconds behind, that's no good !

So I've decided to scrap the third LCD, and go for a 2 display setup for now. Starting to save up some cash for a Vishay
and russ's Pindmd2. Those LED DMD's are sharp ! and running of USB, install is a breeze !

Hyperpin works 5 times faster under XP and won't loose focus, i am one happy camper ! One bug remains though, i have all
my backglasses set up with B2S command in script just displaying a static picture, but on quitting a table that backglass image
will remain. So back on the wheel in hyperpin the backglasses don't change anymore.
The B2S program will remain active, i'll have to find a way to quit the B2S program automatically on exiting each table.

(EDIT 17-03-2013: Now with directsB2S that's NO longer a problem, no lost focus, no "stuck" backglasses, yay !)

So this is where i'am now with my pin, love playing with it, still hooked !

Edited by Nemo, 15 April 2017 - 07:42 AM.

[Flying Dutchman]

Great job .. Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
FD.

[faralos]

I love that you left the outside original!
That adds to the sweetness of it!
Kewl too that you get to have the top lights actually working!
It was the rare machine I played that had all three working correctly.
I don't know much about the internals I'm more of a body guy
so when I saw that original cab I had to come in for a peek.
I don't own nor do I plan to get/build a cab I am more of a pin maker than
an actual player but I had to pop in to say
your cab looks great

[ClarkKent]

So i reverted back to XP, with it's own set of problems, most irritating: the lack of Nvidia's Surround Display support, so
three displays on one Kepler is NOT going to work under XP. It is a real pain getting an internal IGP working together
with a dedicated graphics card, it involved a BIOS flash (since out of the box there was no IGP+PEG/PCI option available)
and a intel HD graphics driver hack. It worked but the IGP had some serious latency issues and the DMD was approx, 2
seconds behind, that's no good !

You mean that it's not possible to use a third monitor under WinXP 32bit with a e.g. GTX 660? If this is so, it's very very bad! My intention was to use the internal graphics card from the i5 2500k and the mainboard MSI Z68A-G43 for the DMD and the GTX 660 for the backbox and playfield (and if this does not work the way I want to it was my intention to use the GTX 660 for all three displays).

If there are latency issues maybe displaying the backbox with the internal graphics card would be a solution as most backboxes do not need a very fast response time.

I really do not want to buy another graphics card. I hope that there is a solution for this behavior!

What Intel HD graphics driver hack do you mean? Can you post a link? Thanx!

[Nemo]

AFAIK Nvidia's surround Display just isn't supported under XP, so even with your 660 you're limited to two displays.
As for using your IGP in conjunction with a dedicated Video card is a matter of luck, sure your MSI uses uefi on a Z68,
so chances are it WILL work, no need for a driver hack here.

Good luck ! And please post back your results.......

[Nemo]

So, a few months in and I've done some MAJOR changes, hardware wise. As VP just loves high clockrate CPU's i changed out

my aging C2D 6750 with a QX9770 @ 4Ghz (you sure can overclock these puppies). I've assigned every core a single task,

installed the latest drivers and program versions, this thing now rocks !

On the GPU side I've installed a GTX570 and bumped it's core speed to 900 Mhz with some custom cooling the cards runs

just fine (you just got to love MSI's afterburner software).

 

Now i can max-out every setting and all plays well, no stutter, no lag, no headache ! Mind you, i'am still running a HD ready panel,

in the summer though i'll buy a Full HD Sammy (ES 6500 series), curious what framerate drop i'll experience at that resolution.

 

For now i am one happy camper, as the CPU and GPU only cost me a good bottle of Scottish whiskey....... 

 

 

PS I have two different harddrives in a cradle (sort of hotswap) one with XP and on the other one I've installed Win8, now this one

is working surprisingly well, all program's running with admin settings works just great.

[Nemo]

After a few weeks testing i deem this setup stable, there's not one frame more to gain, i am happy with the performance jump !

Temperatures are ok-ish, installed a 1200 Rpm 120mm fan for the GPU's main coolingblock and another for the voltage regulators.

Card  tops @ 75c with NO artifacts or other glitches, the CPU is cooled by that Zalman copper block and copes well with the overclock.

I did however needed to change out the PSU, now it's powered by a nice CoolerMaster 600 watt, no worries there !

 

 

 

/ The Following is a bit Off Topic !

 

Then it dawned on me that i had loads computerparts just sitting there collecting dust, hmmmmmmmm what to do ?

What better add-on for my game-room than an arcade cabinet ?? Buying a vintage original arcade cabinet can be

pretty pricey, so i chopped up an ikea wardrobe that was destined to throw away.

Bought some nice knobs and a quality arcade joystick and presto, my personal Mame Machine ! Loving it ! 

 

The only thing missing is a spinner, that one is currently under construction (another DIY project that involves a chopped up PS/2 mouse)

 

 

(yeah i know, it's no looker, but for a POC it'll do for now, later on i WILL obtain a real original videocab)

Edited by Nemo, 15 April 2017 - 07:48 AM.

[faralos]

Wow talk about price difference! Here you can get

a Pacman original cabinet for about $200 US.

You mentioned pricey but then too it may smell like cigarettes

beer roach spray mouse droppings...well you get the idea.

Since yours is brand new and it's you who is building it

you know where everything is and what it does and who

screwed it up if something, um...off shall we say, happens.

Just remember to round off those edges somehow you'll understand

the first time you bash a hip into one or rib depending on how

vertically challenged (frikkin' P.C. crap) you are!

Looking great so far...

[Ethermaster]

Nice build Nemo, have you been following my posts lol love the becons btw very F14 Tomcat !

[Nemo]

As i'm getting pm's about the depth of my playfield and about how i installed the lcd i thought to share it with you guys.

I like to go about all things via the kiss concept, just an easy approach to the complexity of building a cab, for the lcd i

re-used the standard hinge-plates that were already in the cab.

My whole panel sits on a wooden frame (the LG shows it's age by not having a vesa mount), at the pivoting point i used

a large bolt with a even larger washer.

 

 

The panel sits flush with the siderail and from bezel to siderail is approx 10 cm (thought it was 12, miscalculated, dûh), this gives me a good

illusion of depth and i have room for flashers and fans.

Now i know there's a discussion of late about those fans, i have a total of 9 in my cab including cpu and dual gpu fans but my pc system is

running on a hefty overclock and to make things worse, my panel is of a ccfl type and runs hot ! three fans give airflow over & under the playfield.

 

PS: Fans are all on a reobus and are set @ 600 rpm max, that's almost inaudible.

 

Here a view whilst standing directly in front of the cabinet, love the recessed playfield, for me it works great ! 

Don't mention the 70's wallpaper, one day it'll go, have a handy windowsill great for putting your beer on, or

coffee in the morning as i like playing this thing soooooo much !

 

Edited by Nemo, 15 April 2017 - 07:57 AM.

[hotdp]

Thank you for the update,

Is the GFX fast enough? 

[Nemo]

An overclocked 570GTX is kinda overkill for the current setup (still on 720p playfield) dunno what framerate loss

i will take moving to 1080p, but for now all is supersmooth !

[Nemo]

Thought i'd share the latest update on my cab.......

 

I was putting off replacing the playfield LCD for a full HD panel mostly due to costs, but recently i obtained

a Nvidia 660 OC 2Gb for a bargain price. (this thing rocks !)

 

So the search for a new panel was on ! 

 

Now 37" Full HD panels are rare these days so i had to find a 39" that would fit a system 11 Williams cab, and i found

a nice panasonic that fits WITHOUT even decasing it ! Sweet !

 

It's a TX-L39E6E and it just slides in .............. i've got 2mm clearance in total so it's snug !

 

 

As this is a LED lit IPS panel it has great viewing angle's and colors just pop, what a transformation, i have all picture enhancements

on the TV disabled, pan and scan is done by GPU. Now with all eyecandy enabled @ 16xFSAA this looks amazing.

 

Now i can see just how outdated my previous LG 720p panel really was...... au revoir, you served me well, but i am going to

take my new toy for a spin around the block !

Edited by Nemo, 15 April 2017 - 07:58 AM.