286 replies to this topic

[antropus]

The full table showing the different sounds (vertical video alert. Watch in 720p, fullscreen):

 

 

-Kris

[zany]

Kris.....it sounds FRIGGIN AMAZING!

I will try to mount the one i have on like those electrical blastic boxes for flipper sounds, just as a test!

[maestro300]

Long hiatus (probably before another one). Stopping by briefly to share a new mod I just put together and to reply to some old questions

 

Webbly:

1. Whats the estimated spend of your pinball only build?

tough one. It was a lot of try and error so I spent much more than one would if they got the right pieces from the get go. I would put it around 6.5 grand at this point. It would cost between 4 to 5.5 grand if I knew what I was doing at first

 

2. Have you found your fans enough or too much?

At the beginning I thought I went over the top, but just recently my computer started to shutdown from overheating (???). I changed the CPU cooler and it's now all good, but at least it made clear that fans are never enough when comes to colling down a CPU and I believe it would be unusable if I didn't have all the fans I have when the cooler crapped on me. Besides, the blue glow on the back of the machine from those fans is an extra eye candy

 

3.The Belkin power board, does this power on TV's if the PC is in the control socket?

Correct, it "in theory" powers on the TVs... but, different TVs are more annoying than others. My solution was to get an IguanaWorks IR USB stick and run a script on windows start to send the power ON command to both TVs. It works pretty well.

 

BilboX,

don't trust me, man! Life is soooooooo busy these days and seeing your work I believe you can do a better job with your photo projecting techniques! I will have my models done one day, but no idea when

 

 

==============================================

 

So, for new, I saw some people talking about the 12v Chinese solenoids from eBay and I decided to buy them and give a spin. I was worried about them not being too powerful and how weak the sound would be... boy I was wrong!

I build a working prototype and from it I developed this little kit. The catch here is to make the back of the base completely hollow, so it can echo when installed against the side wall of the cabinet. It amplified the sound quite a lot in my case!

Then I thought about trying to get real, authentic old school mechanical sounds on the pop bumpers, so my solution was to get super cheap Chinese bike bells (90 cents each) from eBay and create the mod shown in the pictures.

It sounds AMAZING and it's LOUD as well. It helps that I'm actually running everything at around 16v instead of 12v (dunno how long everything will last ). Flippers, slingshots and pop bumpers sound pretty loud now and I'm convinced that this is the way to go. Contactors never did it for me. Too "plasticky" of a sound. Those sound louder and more authentic... and WAY cheaper as well. They also use  less space and are more pleasing looking as well. The cool thing is that now that I got the back of the base hollow, I can experiment filling it with different materials to get different sounds. For example, to differentiate between the sound of flipper and slingshots I'm planning to add a rubber pad on the hollow area of the flippers, or some thick piece foam or any other material that sound good, fix it back and done.

 

Enough talk, check out the little video showing how they sound like (the video doesn't actually do justice to how great they sound in real life):

 

Cheers,

-Kris

 

Kris,

 

How did you route out the back of those boards for the solenoids?   I'm at this point now with my build-- I have a router table but imagine I need to do this from top-down.  Did you have a jig/template for this?

[maestro300]

So I came up with another way to mount the solenoids-- similar to Antropus (except I hollowed out the entire length and did a much hacked job..hah)     I ended up mounting the solenoids with L bracket stops for both push and return.   The result is terrific but it may too loud now!    The hollow wood helped with the amplification and the metal brackets helped to add another timbre to the overall sound.

 

I'll be uploading the video soon (my phone was clipping the audio because it was too loud)   I'll show all three of these working together soon (these are the pop bumper layout)  

 

Also a picture of my flipper setup.   As someone else suggested:   Using a blue junction box (painted green though) and put one of those metal knockout round pieces as a strike plate (also painted in pic).   The result is great!   The issue I had with just having the solenoid on the box was it was too quiet-- then striking the box was too plastic sounding.   Adding the metal strike plate helped and also made it louder.   I'll also have a video of these as soon as I get everything working with the Sainsmart tomorrow (hopefully) 

Edited by maestro300, 03 August 2014 - 01:21 AM.

[maestro300]

Here is a short video of everything running--(cross posted on another thread)  Thanks again everyone for all the ideas.    Awesome to see it all come together.   The flipper solenoids are only just mounted right now.   I'm not sure how I want to mod them until after I put the playfield monitor/glass back in and hear how it sounds.   The rest all use the Antropus design and is simply genius!   Basically using it like a wood block instrument to amplify the sound.   

 

Just a short run of Attack From Mars and you can see the three pop-bumpers in action together unfortunately my game wasn't cooperating and none of the other solenoids fired.

 

Edited by maestro300, 05 August 2014 - 03:21 AM.

[FreeMason]

@Antropus since you want to donate something like a legacy to your kids wouldn't making two machines make more sense? How would this work when you are gone ... You want them to do time-share it?

Edited by FreeMason, 05 August 2014 - 09:35 PM.

[maestro300]

Thanks guys and yes, thank you Zany for bringing this idea to surface!!! What a great find, man.

Those are super sweet (and cheap to replace, if you are patient to wait about 2 weeks if you order from china ).

 

Those are the little bells I got. They are easy to take apart. You can use any long screw and the coil that comes with it to keep it suspended, so the bell rings pretty good:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161298024020

 

Here's the listing for the kit of four solenoids I got: http://www.ebay.com/itm/350897896277

 

-Kris

 

Thanks for the bell link!   I had to search on eBay as this particular auction doesn't ship to the U.S.   Found the same ones though from another seller... $.99 each with free shipping.   Ordered 10 so I can start my my next cabinet to sell.

After trying a similar approach as with the bells I quickly realized that the dry metallic sound is produced internally, as the shaft snaps. My solution was to use a heat-shrink tube and then cut it down, leaving only a little ring at the end, just enough to convert the metallic sound to a more plasticky sound. You can try different lengths. The smaller you get, louder and more metallic it gets, but if you leave too long, then overtime it might start breaking apart. I'll keep testing to see if it will last. So far so good.

On the video: left = original, right = heat-shrink moded (more realistic, plasticky):

 

Sorry to revive an old thread-- but did find that mounting the flipper solenoids to PVC plastic trim (outdoor trim) really helped with the sound!    It got rid of the hollow wood sound and added the much needed plastic/metal sound.   I am still experimenting with different widths of board.   Right now I started with 2 1/2" PVC and will try 4" PVC next.   I did try the heat shrink option-- it worked but cut too much of the volume out for me (even after snipping to just a tiny ring).  

 

I may try boosting to 16V just to see what difference it makes.    The PVC board works great but make sure it is still attached to the cabinet (across side-to-side) because the sound still needs the cabinet to conduct into.

Edited by maestro300, 01 December 2014 - 08:46 PM.