48 replies to this topic

[Carny_Priest]

Hi, this is my build diary.

 

I started this project back in March 2013. Originally, I was going to retrofit an empty cabinet. I found a suitable one close by with a BSD that had been stripped to wood, rails, and a coin door. It otherwise still looked pretty nice. But the seller had broken it down and wasn’t sure that he still had the backbox. Even now he is still advertising it. If you are a local to Austin, TX it might work for a project. It’s kind of pricey but he was willing to negotiate.

 

http://www.pinballme..._cab/index.html

 

At that time, I became intrigued with the Pinball 2000 design. I liked that the display was configurable in terms of color and size. And that it was future proofed for the time when there might be games with full color displays available: Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey, WOZ, or even RFM or SW1 if any of these ever see the light of day. There is at least one reproduction built specifically for Pinball 2000 style cabinets, United Chief Shuffle Alley Bowler available at the other forum.

 

I took the plunge with Brad at VPCabs as the builder on a basic Pinball 2000 style cabinet. I’m glad I did. I had a little more money than time. As it turns out, I got real busy. If I had tried to do the build myself, I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere. But instead I got a great cabinet. VP and HP run very well. No problems with stuttering on even demanding tables with v9.1.5. Further details and specs can be found at VPCabs.com and here:

 

http://www.hyperspin...ll=1#post255643

 

What this topic is about is taking the basic machine and pimping it out to be sweet ass and fabulous - Further enhancing user configurability that can allow for closer reproduction of actual machines (at least in sprit) and also for cool sound effects and lightshows. The arrival of DOF inspired a blow-out on toys and other outputs using authentic pinball parts.

 

Some highlights:

 

Best of all worlds approach to DMD: retaining the third display reflecting onto the playfield but adding swappable DMD toppers designed and cut by Greg at XTremePinball.com. The same producer of cabinets for VPCabs. Each topper has an array of five new Cree RGBW LEDs, each color capable of being driven at 1,000 mA.

 

Topper 1 – OEM high voltage Vishay Plasma

 

Topper 2 – new white LED display from XPin which includes from the manufacturer 9 different color vinyl gels (but can use any color gel to project any color)

 

Functionally, either can be used as a top mounted display similar to this:

 

http://www.bostonpin...pany.com/gd.htm

 

Or with the XDMD API it might possibly be used similar to a Beta Brite tournament sign

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=xwm-QexU2oc

 

 

Art-Net/DMX driven fixtures using DOF under cab and behind the back box:

2 800W Xenon strobes

2 RGB panels each with 96 red, 96 blue, 96 green LEDs driven in a 4x2 matrix

 

 

Front panel lighting:

nine individually controllable RGB LED buttons – L MagnoSave, L Flipper, Start, Extra Ball. L coin reject, R coin reject, Launch Ball, R Flipper, R MagnoSave

 

 

Playfield flashers:

new array of five Cree RGBW LEDs, each color capable of being driven at 1,000 mA

 

 

Analog nudging:

VirtuaPin Digital Plunger Kit.

 

 

Tilt:

detected by a used tilt assembly pulled from an early 80’s Williams SS (Black Knight, Jungle Lord) which includes a plumb bob and tilt ball trough. Tilt also detected with OEM coin door slam switches.

 

 

Coin door:

coin door open detected using an OEM memory interlock switch assembly.

coin door includes OEM service button assembly

 

Sound Effects:

tilt assembly mentioned earlier includes a 4 inch bell assembly and a knocker assembly

 

for reproducing 60’s era EMs or earlier – Gottlieb 3” 1 point bell, Gottlieb 3” 10 point bell, and Gottlieb (or Williams) 5” 100 point bell

 

for reproducing 70’s era EMs (or DE Time Machine or prototype Tommy mod) – 2 Gottlieb chime units. I will mod one of the chime units to use custom tone bars that I will cut myself

 

NOS Captain Fantastic “over-the-top” buzzer

 

set of used EM relays and score reel motors

 

 

Force feedback:

Zeb’s shaker/motor combo and 10 Siemens contactors using the washer mod

 

 

I will maintain my build sheet here with my costs and sources:

 

https://dl.dropboxus... Build List.pdf

 

As I am sharing tools and materials with my simultaneous arcade/MAME/HyperSpin build, all of the costs for the entire endeavor are here. The highlighted items are items that I purchased, but I’m not sure that I will use them by the end.

 

I’ve sourced nearly all items for the build. I’m just getting started with the installation. It will be a challenge. I don’t really have any experience with woodworking. I haven’t studied a circuit since high school. But it will be a learning experience, and I may even have some new information gleaned from my research to relay in future posts over the next few weeks/months.

 

Special thanks:

Suppliers to the virtual pinball community – mameman (mameman23), Noah, RandyT of GroovyGameGear, russdx, shakenbake, and zebulon

 

All of the VP and VPinMAME developers, table authors, and suppliers of ROMs and graphic resources past and present

 

Swisslizard for DOF

 

Suppliers of OEM and licensed reproduction parts that keep the real machines running and lend some measure of authenticity to our virtual builds – K’s Arcade, Marco Specialties, Pinball Life, and The Pinball Resource

 

And for inspiration – antropus, arngrim, bent98, bill55, Gamester, randr, RoccoC, and dozens of others whose builds I’ve looked at VP Forums and HyperSpin forums over the last few months.    

[Carny_Priest]

One Man Install

 

I suppose it doesn't come up often, but for me I had to take delivery of the machine when I didn't have a buddy around to help. The delivery person only had a forklift style handtruck. The handtruck and the crate were too large to get to my door much less through the door. But I was able to get the job done by myself. 

 

 

 

Fortunately, I don't have to deal with the steps. I have a ramp to my door. I rented a cheap furniture dolly from U-Haul.

 

 

Rolled the machine inside the house. Do check inside the coin door for a goodie bag and remove it. Check for and secure any loose items. Secure the screens and then carefully ease the back of the machine onto the floor preferably on a moving pad to protect the finish. Then install the front legs. 

 

 

Have a stool, bench or side table handy. Go behind the machine and lift the machine from the back onto its front legs. Then scoot the stool underneath the rear. Here, I had to add some books to get the machine high enough to attach the rear legs.

 

 

Rear legs attached. I'm just about done!

 

After leveling the machine, I placed some cheap furniture felt pads under the feet and scooted the machine to its final location.

 

If you have steps or shag carpet, then I guess you would need to make a friend quick.

 

[Carny_Priest]

Leg/cabinet protectors

 

The goodie bag from Brad came with a set of PinGuard-style plastic cabinet protectors to install in between the legs and the cabinet. This was a pleasant surprise, and I'll hold on to them, but to the degree that people on the internet agree about anything there is some consensus that felt is the way to go on cabinet protection. 

 

http://pinside.com/p...-leg-protectors

 

Plus it is cheap to make your own. A cheap $5US package from a local fabric store makes enough for three or four machines.

 

I found the template here

 

http://lotrpinball.b...r-template.html

 

I just cut the felt free-hand. It doesn't have to look great as the form once installed can't really be seen behind the leg anyway.

 

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Player input - white Start, Extra Ball, Launch Ball buttons

 

I want to have front panel push buttons with RGB LEDs controlled by an LED-Wiz not just for blinking effects but for color. To mount the LEDs, the button housings require modification. That will be the topic of another post.

 

For RGB LED lighting the buttons should be clear diffused or translucent white.  Otherwise, my goal for these buttons is to have an authentic look. I used Williams/Bally WPC era tables as my reference. I wound up assembling my own buttons using arcade style push buttons from Parts Express that were white with clear lenses.  The button legends, the labels that are located behind the lenses, come as blank.

 

On the small buttons I replaced the blank legends with white Start and Extra Ball legends that I sourced from The Pinball Resource and Marco Specialties.

 

The small 1” Parts Express buttons look ok. They do not cost very much, but they are not OEM as far as I can tell. The size of the face and the width of the bezel appear to be virtually the same as the buttons that came with the cabinet. Because these buttons are countersunk into the cabinet, no one can tell that they are not factory spec. These buttons come with cheap and loud Liguang microswitches that I wound up swapping for the Cherry microswitches that came with my old buttons.

 

Knowing what I know now, the most authentic solution would be to spend a few dollars more and go with OEM Start buttons as used in T2. These are white with clear lenses. As far as I know there is no OEM version of a white Extra Ball button, but it may be easy to replace the Start legend on one of the buttons with a white Extra Ball legend.  These buttons are available at a relatively low price at The Pinball Resource.

 

In my research, I have seen no OEM generic (not game specific) digital Launch Ball button that comes in white with a clear lens. I had to make my own version.

 

The cabinet as delivered came with a Doctor Who Launch Ball button like this one:

 

http://www.marcospec...rts/20-9663-B-2

 

Both the legend and the lens are yellow. Many tables use a similar button that has a red legend and red lens.

 

I disassembled the button and scanned the legend to png, Greyscale, 256 shades, 600 DPI. I modified the image in GIMP as black on white background and drew a 2 pixel width border as a circle to indicate the boundary of the image. Saved as a png with background transparent. I’m sharing the image file here:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...LaunchBallA.png

 

I took the image to an office supply store and had them print on a standard 4mm transparency film at 1:1 scale. The print cost 70 cents plus sales tax.

 

I cut my new legend out free-hand with a pair of scissors and it is ok, but someone who wants more precision may use an Xacto knife to cut it out.

The transparency film is held in place in the button by pressure between the lens and the blank legend that comes with the 2” Part Express button.

 

The 2” Parts Express button is definitely not OEM. The bezel is about ¼” wider so the new button sticks out from the panel a little bit farther than the Doctor Who button.  It would have been nice to simply swap out lenses and legends between the Parts Express button and the Doctor Who button, but because the bezel is wider on the Parts Express button the lens is deeper. The parts were not interchangeable. It looks pretty good though. Again, the Parts Express button came with the cheap and noisy Liguang microswitch, and I did swap it out for the microswitch that came with the Doctor Who button.

 

Knowing what I know now, the most authentic solution would be to spend a few dollars more and go with a licensed reproduction or OEM version of a Rocky & Bullwinkle Launch Ball button (aka the Boris button). It may be possible to swap the Boris legend with a blank legend from a Parts Express button and then use my launch ball image on 4mm transparency film. Or swap the Boris legend with my launch ball image printed with black on white background on heavier 5mm transparency film. This button is carried by Marco Specialties but it looks like the microswitch is sold separately.

 

The last picture shows the buttons installed. Right now they are illuminated just with the incandescent lamps that came with these Parts Express buttons.

 

Edited by Carny_Priest, 14 December 2013 - 05:33 AM.

[Practicedummy]

Looking sharp!

[Carny_Priest]

Player input - button locations

 

A lot of builds with both a digital launch button and a plunger locate the plunger above the digital launch button. But then the plunger is potentially in the way when you need to reach the digital launch button for events when the ball is in play such as the Martian Bomb in AFM or Smart Punch in CP. So I located the plunger below the digital launch button. That top location was already cut for a digital launch button anyway, so there was a little less work for me to do.

 

I’d like to say that I installed my extraneous input buttons in the bottom of the cabinet solely because I wanted the front panel to be clean and looking as authentic as possible. That’s partly true, but I also don’t have any woodworking experience. I didn't want to screw something up on visible areas.

 

That was probably a good decision because with the second hole I cut the spade bit skipped a little and ate into the wood a little bit. It did not turn out 100% clean. But it was good enough and in a place where no one will notice. I moved the Exit button to the left side under the cabinet, and I moved the Add Credit button to the right side under the cabinet in between my main power button and the front edge. I can’t think when I would need to access those buttons while the ball is in play, so I’m OK with having them under the cabinet.

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Hi, y’all. Merry Christmas from Texas!

 

It is not totally pinball related, but this project is wrapped up with a simultaneous arcade project. A lot of the tools and materials I’m sharing between the two. And some of my extraneous pinball components I’m finding a second life in the arcade project. I thought I’d take a pause and share the details if only to get it off of my chest.

The project is a table top set-up (no cabinet) with dual screens and operating with a remarkable amount of 20^th century technology.  One display is a 19” Trinitron-based CRT circa 1999 for landscape games. The sound system is a Cambridge SoundWorks  5.1 surround sound system from the same time, one of the first AC3 sound systems for PCs. I disassembled it and sprayed out the volume pots with some cleaner from Radio Shack. It now sounds as great as it did 15 years ago. I’m still using my Hanaho HotRod joystick from the 90s. It used a PS/2 keyboard encoder. I swapped out the electronics for a USB-based encoder. I touched up some wear with filler and paint, and I replaced the T-molding.

 

All this is driven by my old work Dell laptop, a workstation class machine from around 2005. It has some sort of ancient NVidea mobile graphics card. I did a clean install with mini Win7. Many of the drivers I have to use are Vista, but all-in-all I’ve been pleased with the performance given that I basically only care about golden age era games. I don’t have much loaded that is later than 1985. I have the original dock for the laptop that enables me to connect multiple displays.

 

I’m using my old Dell 5:4 LCD monitor from around 2005. I was able to modify the stand to rotate the screen in portrait orientation for vertical games. These old displays do not have a great viewing angle. Oriented vertically, you have to be right in front of it to not have fading, but that’s OK for the application.

 

This was very much supposed to be a budget build, but as usual I’ve allowed quite a bit of feature creep.

 

I got a relatively sweet deal from X-Arcade on a refurbished tank stick with a track ball (Centipede, Missile Command).  I decided to do some reversible mods on it: Replacing the trackball with an illuminated RGB LED one from GroovyGameGear. I’m swapping out the flipper buttons in my cabinet, so I will replace the microswitches in some of my fire buttons with the old leaf switches from the pinball. And I’m replacing the player 1/player 2 start buttons with illuminated RGB LED buttons.

 

I’m doing some permanent mods on the old HotRod controller: I installed a restrictor plate on one of the joysticks for 4-way games (Pac-Man). And I will be installing one of these days, a push-pull spinner (Discs of Tron, Tempest).  The mounting plate is translucent white allowing the spinner assembly to be illuminated with RGB LEDs. The spinner comes with a mini-wheel that can be swapped for the spinner knob for some early driving games (Pole Position). I’m swapping out an LED strip that came with my pinball cabinet for individual Cree flashers. I’ll reuse that LED strip somewhere in here.

 

I got a really good Ebay deal on a CH Products Fighterstick that I am using for a trigger stick (Discs of Tron, Zaxxon) and an analog stick (Tron). It’s usually used for flight sims but its build quality is definitely sturdy enough for arcade. Its throw is a little long compared to a real arcade trigger stick. There are mod instructions out there for restricting the throw with rubber bands.

 

In the course of sourcing parts for the pinball project I wound up with a 24V power supply and an extra knocker. I went ahead and bought another LED-Wiz with the idea of using the knocker in the arcade project (Q-bert) and, of course, driving all of the lighting effects for the project.

 

I’ve had constructed two toppers for the pinball project. One will hold a real Vishay plasma DMD and the second one an XPin white LED with theater gels for custom colors. Nominally, while one is used with the pinball cabinet, the other may be used in the arcade project. I still have to figure out where I will mount it and what it will do. I’ll probably have to create custom animations for it which is technically doable with XDMD API. At the rate I am working, it will be a long time before I get to this part of the project.

 

The real big indulgent addition to all of this was this decent Ebay deal on an original Star Wars arcade yoke controller.  I was pleased that although there was quite a bit of surface wear that it all appears to be in good shape mechanically. I still have to test the electronics. I have swapped out the U-HID that came with my pinball cabinet for a VirtuaPin kit. I should be able to put that U-HID to use here to hack the yoke for MAME. I may also need my old HotRod keyboard encoder. Then I just need to figure out a good solution for mounting the control panel. Using an analog joystick just doesn’t do it justice for playing Star Wars Arcade in a recognizable way. I’m hoping that it might be an OK solution for other driving games that are not based on spinners (Spy Hunter).

 

 

On software, I’m using HyperSpin as the front-end. The emulators are MAME, DICE, Daphne, and AAE (in case I find that I can’t use the new MAME HLSL vector settings with my ancient hardware). I’m experimenting with the HD versions of Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace to see if I can get high-def images to work either through Daphne or HyperSpin directly accessing the disc images on these remastered laser disc games.

 

And I’ll mention CPWizard, a very clever add-on for front-ends, that allows for display of game-specific layout maps on one screen and other information like marquee images while play happens on the other screen. It works great as an instruction card of sorts for guests working with a generic game controller. For me, I still need to have it work where the play happens on one display for horizontal games and the other display for vertical games. On which screen CPWizard needs to display has to swap conditionally based on the game being horizontal or vertical. I’m sure there is a way, but my priority has been the pinball project the last several months.

 

http://headsoft.com....tegory=cpwizard

 

That’s it for the sidebar on the arcade build. Back to pinball. I’m currently doing burn-in testing on the VirtuaPin kit while I reckon I’m still within warranty. There are some discouraging reports in these forums. But it’s the nature of the internet that you only hear about the problems. I’ll post an in-depth review in a few days, but for me so far so good. I’ve had my cabinet up and running for days at a time without a reboot, and I haven’t had many issues with the plunger or nudging that couldn’t be quickly remedied. I still have to wire up the buttons, but I’ve been too busy with work and the holidays. In any case, HyperPin requires restarting far more often than I have to reboot for the plunger kit.  

 

Happy Holidays!

[Carny_Priest]

Player input - VirtuaPin Digital Plunger Kit

 

Happy New Year!

 

I received the kit in October, but I sat on it while I was sourcing other parts. Given some of the negative feedback about the kit in these forums, I thought that I had better test it out for myself while I was still under warranty. The experience tells me that on the internet you tend to primarily see feedback if there are problems, but at least for me the kit performed very well. I was too busy over the holidays to do a full install. I never got around to wiring the buttons, but button inputs don't appear to be the problem with the kit unless the entire assembly is DOA. The issues seem to be mostly about the plunger.

 

I have what must be one of the version 2 kits as it doesn't look like the unit in the manual. My previous solution was a U-HID G. In fact, for a couple of days I had both boards installed using the VirtuaPin only for the plunger. The VPCab has a small piece of angle iron screwed to the lockdown assembly. The bar protrudes a few inches into the playfield area. The U-HID G was attached to the angle iron using Velcro. To provide a more secure attachment, I used a 5" mending plate to bolt the kit to the angle iron upside down as recommended in the manual. The pre-drilled holes in the mending plate fit very well with the screw holes on the kit's enclosure. To avoid kinking the USB cable, I installed with the kit accelerometer's Y-axis in reverse. So, in VP Preferences/Keys I have to check the Reverse Axis box for the Y Axis.

 

As advertised, I've never had to run a calibration on the kit. I did have to make some tweaks to VP settings. One way to adjust nudging is to use the zero slope table in this tutorial:

 

http://www.vpforums....397#entry224740

 

It is a process of experimentation. Play the zero slope table. The ball should not move. If the ball moves with no player input, add one percent to the deadzone. VP must be restarted with each change to the settings. Repeat until the ball does not move. 

 

Then press a button for a Fwd Nudge, default is space bar. Adjust the Y-Gain up or down until a cabinet nudge has the same reaction on the ball as pressing Nudge Up. I adjusted in 25% increments. VP must be restarted with each change to the settings. 

 

Now press a button for a Left Nudge and a Right Nudge, default is "Z" for Left Nudge and "/" for Right Nudge. Adjust the X-Gain up or down until a cabinet nudge has the same reaction on the ball as pressing Left Nudge or Right Nudge. I adjusted in 25% increments. VP must be restarted with each change to the settings. 

 

Actually, I think the VP default on nudges seem too strong. Maybe I'm a wuss or just a poor player, but I think if I were playing a real cabinet I would really have to manhandle it to see the same reaction on the ball as I see with the VP default nudges. But the beauty is that with analog nudging, the settings can be adjusted however anyone wants. My settings are comparatively toned down:

 

X-Gain 75%

Y-Gain 75%, Reverse Axis checked

Deadzone 1%

Tilt Sensitivity is unchecked and set to 1000. I intend on installing a plumb bob, trough switch, and slam tilt switches to handle tilt simulation.

 

I started installation in early December. As a burn-in, I kept the cabinet running around the clock until today, a little over three weeks. In that time, I rebooted three or four times. The biggest issue I experienced was losing the plunger after upgrading VP to 9.2. Unplugging the kit from the USB port and plugging back in sorted out the problem. I can't say that the kit retained its calibration with absolute accuracy over these long sessions. After several days, the plunger may lose 10 to 20% of its range when looking at the game controller properties window, but it was still strong enough to launch a ball. With nudging, the playfield became slightly out of level where the ball would travel slightly to the left rather than straight down the middle. Still playable. Rebooting today, brought the calibration back to normal. 

 

I'm very impressed. Over these long sessions, the VirtuaPin kit retains its calibration far, far better than the U-HID G. The U-HID G at best retains its calibration for a few hours before tables are completely unplayable requiring a reboot. Due to its memory leak issues, HyperPin crashes and requires restarting the program at least twice a day while the VirtuaPin calibration remains relatively steady for day after day. The real good news is that I don't typically leave my cabinet on when I am not playing. As I boot-up each time I want to play, I expect that I'll always have rock solid performance.

 

So I can say that at least for nudging and the plunger, the VirtuaPin Digital Plunger Kit is working well for me. I consider the kit to be a really good addition to my build, and I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the buttons wired in the next couple of weeks. But I do hope that those that are experiencing problems find a solution. 

 

 

 

 

[Carny_Priest]

Cabinet - Lockdown bar loose

 

Real quick tip - Your lockdown bar is the correct fit, but it is loose and rattles as you play? Go ahead and add that second or third layer of beer seal/weatherstripping on the edge that covers the playfield glass. It's an easy, cheap fix.

[Carny_Priest]

Player input - RGB LED

 

I want all player input buttons to be RGB LED and individually controllable through an LED-Wiz DOF setup.

 

GroovyGameGear’s Electric Ice 2 pushbuttons is a turn-key solution for the flipper buttons that include leaf switches:

 

http://groovygamegea...products_id=238

 

These include a mini RGB LED driver board that is custom designed to fit their Electric Ice 2 pushbuttons. The mini PCB board includes a hole through which the plunger on the push button can engage the microswitch button.

 

The Electric Ice 2 pushbutton is specifically designed to use the driver board. The Parts Express buttons that I am using for my Start, Extra Ball, and Launch Ball buttons are not designed for these driver boards.

 

It is certainly possible to use an Electric Ice 2 pushbutton as a start button. You could use a vinyl decal as a label. The solution works for small buttons but it is not quite the same as an OEM style start button. And there would still be no solution for illuminating the launch ball button.

 

GroovyGameGear will sell the driver boards separately from their button, and the Parts Express buttons can be modified to use the driver board.

 

First, disassemble the button. A video can be found here:

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=W921yvVD2Mc

 

These buttons are illuminated with incandescent wedge lamps. Other styles for these arcade pushbuttons may use an LED but it will still be a wedge style. Pull the bulb off. Next, with a small flathead screwdriver pry out the blade terminals where you would connect to power.

 

The LED mounted on the driver board is 5mm, and the idea is that you would want to push the LED into the barrel of the part of the button where the lamp and microswitch are mounted.

 

With a drill press it would be easy work to bore out the barrel. I don’t have a drill press, but I used a clamp and a Dremel tool with a 1/8” general purpose cutting bit to do the same job. I then smoothed away the burrs using the file from a set of nail clippers.

 

With the Parts Express buttons, there is enough space between the barrel and where the microswitch is installed for the driver board.

 

 

The driver board and LED is intended for use at 5V DC.  The button can now be illuminated with the RGB LED. But with the driver board mounted, the LED is located deeper in the barrel than the wedge lamp would be. Perhaps the illumination is not as bright as it could be. Side spill from the LED source may be getting largely absorbed by the black plastic that makes up this part of the pushbutton. The LED would sit in about the same place on an Electric Ice 2 button, but there must be a good reason why the entire GroovyGameGear button assembly comes in translucent white.

 

 

I performed a little test to see if placing reflective material in the barrel would improve luminance, the objective measure of the intensity of a light source. It may be possible to use a vacuum deposition process to professionally adhere reflective material inside the button, but it seems doubtful that it would be cost effective to do for just three buttons. The unusual surface shape inside the barrel makes it unlikely that there would be a flashlight style reflector that would fit the space. I only checked this briefly before moving on to other ideas. That doesn’t mean that some sort of commercial reflector isn’t on the market somewhere.

 

I settled on two reasonably cheap possibilities. One, mylar film. And two, flat white enamel paint for models.  Mylar is highly reflective, but I figured that the film might be difficult to install. It is prone to tearing. Not getting the film to stick to the walls can not only allow gaps where light may be absorbed by the black plastic but could block direct throw from the LED. Flat white paint might be easier to apply, but it is not as reflective as mylar. The difference versus mylar may not be enough to perceive. However, the paint may peel or yellow over time.

 

I sacrificed my old start button for the test. It has a blue legend and blue lens, so it is not a white button with clear lens, but I expect that if we observe a difference with a blue button then we would see at least the same difference with a white button.\

 

As an aside, this particular button does not have adequate space between the barrel and where the microswitch is installed for a PCB. Other buttons on the market used for this mod may also have this design. For this test button two 1/8” slots needed to be cut, the width of the driver board, so that there would be room to reinstall the microswitch.

 

I tested with an X-rite i1 LT colorimeter using the colorHCFR freeware for calibrating TVs and computer displays. I tested in my living room at night with lights off and using a cardboard box as a hood to reduce extraneous light noise. I tested red, green, and blue outputs. ColorHCFR reports luminance in units of candela per square meter, but let’s just say that if the reflective material results in a bigger number than it is brighter. 

 

 

The mylar film, I bought at a hobby store as a tissue film for wrapping gifts.  There is enough material in the package to do dozens of buttons. It was actually easier to work with than I thought it would be. I cut a small piece and rolled it into a cylinder shape. I inserted the cylinder into the barrel and allowed it to expand naturally to the sides. I trimmed the excess length with a small pair of scissors. No adhesive was required for the film to stay in the barrel. No problem with tearing. Much easier than I thought it would be.

 

After taking measurements with mylar film, I removed the mylar and brushed on two coats of paint to the inside of the barrel. This was from a plain old bottle of Testors paint that is used for models, ¼ fl. oz, purchased at a hobby store. I allowed the paint to cure, more than 48 hours. This was harder than I anticipated. The paint ran during application and did not adhere very well to the plastic. It just did not cover very well. And of course, you have to wait for the paint to dry versus a couple of minutes work to insert a small roll of mylar film.

 

Here are the results:

 

Untreated

R – no reading (After all, I am trying to push a red light source through a blue lens)

G – 68.95 cd/m2

B – 12.85 cd/m2

 

Mylar film

R – 2.82 cd/m2

G – 91.75 cd/m2

B – 19.59 cd/m2

 

Flat white enamel paint

R – 0.10 cd/m2

G – 55.58 cd/m2

B – 14.34 cd/m2

 

For my one trial, the mylar film produced the best results in terms of luminance. The difference in the measures is merely an objective difference. Whether the difference in these measures is enough to be detectable via human perception appears to be, according to my research, up to individual circumstances. Is the player’s vision healthy? Is the machine located in a room full of sunlight or in a basement game room? Is the front panel painted with a light color or a dark color? I’ll have to leave it up to each builder to decide what to do with this information.

 

I only had the one button to test, so I could not look at these tests head-to-head and make a subjective evaluation. And I’d hate to rely solely on memory. I tend to play my machine in low to medium light conditions and the front panel is painted black. Based on these playing conditions, I’m going with mylar film. It’s pretty easy material to work with and the resulting improvement is worth the few minutes effort.

[Carny_Priest]

Cabinet - paint, finish

 

When I received the cabinet, I felt like the paint job was Ok but not quite like the tables at the arcade. The finish on the head was fine, but the finish on the bottom was rough. There were a few tags and a few paint runs from overspray. I could see the wood grain underneath. I guess I might come off as a bit nitpicky. On the other hand, it was not like I was expecting a glossy piano finish either. Compared to my cabinet, the true pinball cabinets have a few more coats of paint built up in order take the years of abuse of a machine on route: rough handling, spilt beer, etc. I was looking for a closer reproduction. Sure, it will all get covered with side art anyway, but it may be a long time before that happens. I'm basically leaving that part for last. I haven't even considered what I might do for a theme or for an art design.

 

I had been debating with myself what to do about it. If I were to apply another coat or two, now would be a good time to do it while I have the machine partially disassembled. However, it is a lot of bother. I don't have the means to safely drag this thing out to my shed to spray paint. And I can't count on the weather to cooperate anyway. So, I'd have to paint inside with sponges and rollers. Also, I don't know exactly what was used for the existing finish. Probably latex-based, but who knows? I risk using a product that doesn't work well with the existing paint finish, and I may come off with a really awful looking outcome. I put the question up to the final arbiter, my wife. She said the cabinet does not look bad as-is. Don't bother painting. I can live with that answer.

 

I wound up making a few light passes with a fine 220 grit sanding sponge to smooth down the rough patches. Cleaned up all surfaces with a vacuum using the brush attachment. And then finished with some ordinary grocery store wood polish. It's good. I can live with it. I'm ready to move on.

 

While I am assembling my input buttons, I am going to get the software part squared away. Need to update drivers. I haven't updated any Visual Pinball tables in over six months. I will install Future Pinball for the first time. I've played VP since Randy Davis's dogfood beta releases, but I've never touched Future Pinball in all that time. I bought Pinball FX off of Steam months ago when the tables were on sale, but I've not yet installed them. Need to do that. I think I'll switch from HP to PinballX and update my media files. Once I have the software working well with each other, I'll layer on the toys one system at a time starting with the input buttons.

[freneticamnesic]

I don't think you could go wrong with some roller paint on there. If it's going to be a long time before you decal it (if ever), don't let yourself be disappointed with it in the meantime. And like you said, it's a good protective layer.

 

That said, I think the cabinet looks good, it's definitely ready for artwork.

 

I'd like to see more about that lit up button, and did you say you're using it for the flipper buttons?

[Carny_Priest]

The buttons I am modifying are for Start, Extra Ball, and Launch Ball. I have to create my own solution because there are no off-the-shelf solutions for a push button with a transparent lens that will fit a custom legend and hold an RGB LED. GroovyGameGear does have a solution for RGB LED flipper buttons.

 

By the way, I maintain a complete and comprehensive build list with parts, costs, and sources in the last link of the original post. Each and every purchase, large and small are documented. I took inventory of the parts that went into the original cabinet build and those are now included as well.

[Carny_Priest]

I woke up the first weekend of February anticipating making real progress on the build, but the machine would not turn on. Very disappointing. I disassembled the PC and long story short, I thought I had traced it to the power switch. I was able to jump off the pins responsible for power on/off and access the PC long enough to update some VP tables. Since then, work and real life have gotten in the way. I returned to the build today and could not get anywhere. 

 

PSU delivers the correct voltages within measurement tolerances.

 

The motherboard is not connected to a speaker so if there are error beeps I wouldn't know it.

 

I stripped down the motherboard to PSU, CPU and fan, RAM, and SSD. Connected a separate VGA monitor to on-board video and a USB keyboard. Jumped the power. The CPU fan runs but no video signal or USB power. The fan will run ten seconds or so. Power down and then back up again for several seconds and repeat.

 

I've reset CMOS several times and even reseated the battery. If I reset CMOS then on power up, the CPU fan will stay on but I do not have a video signal.

 

I have 8GB RAM in two DIMMS. I've tried starting with one and then the other. No change in behavior.

 

I don't have any other parts laying around that I can swap. I only have laptops and an ancient tower whose technology is way too old to use for testing any current generation components.

 

Any ideas on where to go from here?

 

I don't know for sure that the issue is with the motherboard. I may wind up having to get another one to find out. Could be the CPU, but any way to tell?

 

Biostar H77MU3 motherboard

Intel i5 3570k CPU

Thermaltake Water 2.0 Liquid Cooler (CLW0215)

Ballistix Dual Channel DDR3 2x4GB DIMM RAM

Thermaltake 500W PSU (TR-500)

Samsung SSD 840 Series, 120 Gb

Windows 7 64x Home Premium

 

EDIT: Purchased a POST test card and a PSU tester to get to the bottom of this.

Edited by Carny_Priest, 19 March 2014 - 04:14 AM.

[Carny_Priest]

Quick sidebar on the build. Visited the local pinball palace a few weeks ago:

 

http://www.pinballzarcade.com/

 

I was looking to get a look and a picture of the back of a RFM or SW1 so that I could modify the head on my cabinet to open in a similar fashion, Unfortunately both of the Pinball 2000 machines were placed directly in front of columns where I could not get a good look. I think both machines open at the top with the back panel swinging open from top down, continuous hinge mounted on the inside of the machine at the bottom.

 

But enough about that. Here are the four licensed Star Trek tables all in a row. Stern Star Trek LE is at the end:

 

 

One of the playfield areas on the second floor:

 

 

 

 

 

[Nemo]

Wow ! That's a nice arcade ! Wish we had something like that over here !

[vampirolatino2]

wow, that pdf price list .... why so many things?!!

[Carny_Priest]

Why so many toys? For the fun, of course.

To be clear, every purchase, large and small, is on that list. For those considering their own build, there are a lot of hidden costs if you don't have access to a wood shop or are not much of a hobbyist with a lot of electronic parts laying around: wire, connectors, resistors, fuses, cables, cords, hardware, tools. It all adds up.

Also, the list does include both my pinball and my arcade projects but most items are for the pinball project.


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[vampirolatino2]

Cool, so... did you finish your cab?

[Carny_Priest]

No, progress is very sloooowww. Busy with work and life at the moment.


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