56 replies to this topic

[JM136]

Nice progress. On SSF: I've never heard a cab with contactors so I don't know what I'm missing. But the whole point of SSF or contactors is to trick the mind ,,, a tactile feel to a video game. SSF does a good job of that in a much simpler way, in my view. I like that I can completely control the sound of everything, from "off" (in my early morning game testing) to something that makes my real pins feel weak. 

 

Subwoofer: I'm sure I'm cancelling a lot of frequencies with three different subs firing inside my cab. One day I may enclose my backbox sub which fires down and outside the cab. My SSF subs are open air, but are there only to provide thump, not tuned audio response. And they do a good job on the thump. (And I don't have room for enclosures on those.)

 

Looks like you don't have a sub for SSF. I recommend one. Here's an early test I did to demo the difference by pushing my flipper button:  

Thanks for showing the video, there is quite a difference when the sub is turned up.  You're right, I only have one sub and it isn't dedicated for SSF.  When I went through the SSF post for reference I decided to use the scenario with only one sub.  I was under the impression that both the regular audio and SSF audio would share that sub, but maybe I was mistaken.  I may have to do a little more research and revamp the plan!

[JM136]

Sorry, It's been a busy couple of days trying to work and get stuff done on the pinball in between, so here is a big blast of pics on the latest progress.

 

Got the slots cut for the plastic glass channel.  Used a 3/32" slot cutting bit and my new router  both from harbor freight. (I know not the best quality, but for how often I use it, it works well enough for me)

 

Holes drilled for the legs.  Used a 45 degree 1 1/4" chamfer router bit to flatten the edge before drilling the holes with a cordless drill.  It helped to get the holes started, but I still struggled getting straight holes on the first couple, and had to open them up a bit with a dremel partnered with a straight cutting bit.

 

Hinges installed.  Used a 1/2" core box bit with a plunge router to make the main pivot holes.  I clamped some spare wood underneath to keep it from chipping out.

 

And then I made what seemed like a million holes for ventilation, fans, subwoofer, etc....

Used the Jasper 240 circle cutting jig with the plunge router to make the holes. Then followed them up with a trim router and 1/4" round over to smooth out the edges.

 

[JM136]

Small update to the progress of the build, was sick for a couple days, so doesn't feel like I got much done.  But I worked on the playfield tv mount, got it fitted and made a few adjustments.  There is some adjust-ability in the placement of the tv so I played with different looks of it. I pushed it all the way forward, inbetween, and then all the way back.  I settled on pushing it all the way forward like in the second/third picture.  You can see I mocked up some cardboard to help visualize what it will look like.  It's not set in stone yet so I wanted to get some feedback on what others thought?  Also was looking at feedback for button layout.  I was planning on Start, Exit on the left hand side, and then plunger on the right with launch button just under it. I will have a power button/switch under the cabinet on the right side.  I have a usb volume button coming in the mail on thursday, and was thinking of mounting under the cabinet or possibly just inside the coin door.  I guess my question is, is having a plunger and a launch button redundant?  I like the idea of having the plunger because it ties in visually with the plunger on the screen.  What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

[knightrdrx]

A coin button isn't needed right? Set everything up to Freeplay or add a ton of credits with the keyboard first. I like the idea of a pause button that brings up the rules. I would eliminate continues and buy ins to keep eveey play the same
Good to have both a plunger and launch button

[JM136]

A coin button isn't needed right? Set everything up to Freeplay or add a ton of credits with the keyboard first. I like the idea of a pause button that brings up the rules. I would eliminate continues and buy ins to keep eveey play the same
Good to have both a plunger and launch button

Forgot to mention I plan on wiring switches into the coin return buttons, so it adds a credit when pushed. I thought I might use a pause button, but then again real pinballs dont have them, so it is kind of like cheating a bit. Didnt think about it bringing up the rules though.

[knightrdrx]

Nice job so far! I was looking at those fans...did you get the rgb wireless ones? or just the red ones...i never knew they had wireless ones..

Edited by knightrdrx, 20 November 2018 - 01:23 AM.

[tps]

Ok did you follow a guide somewhere for suggested bios settings and such?

You likely will not have to mess with the BIOS settings. More likely than not if you're using a newer system board it uses UEFI instead of BIOS. The firmware should find all the hardware and install drivers automatically during POST—the days of manually setting interrupts are long gone.

The only thing you may need to adjust is your boot sequence if you are using a usb drive to boot or want the option to boot from USB for diagnostics. That's a bit advanced for most people and probably not something you will need to worry about.

Use a good quality thermal paste between the processor and heat sink, and don't bother with water cooling or anything fancy like that. A good quality cooling fan should be all you need.

[knightrdrx]

Thanks,

Edited by knightrdrx, 20 November 2018 - 03:25 PM.

[JM136]

Nice job so far! I was looking at those fans...did you get the rgb wireless ones? or just the red ones...i never knew they had wireless ones..

 

Thanks!  No I opted for the unlit fans.  I think the LED ones look pretty slick, but I decided to just keep it simple for now, I may upgrade them later to some addressable LED's, but I just want to get this thing together and running first.

[JM136]

Ok, small update with some pictures of what got accomplished over the last 2 weeks.  I had been spending a bit too much time away from the family working on this obsession, so I've scaled back a bit until we get past the holidays.  So hopefully I can do some small updates from time to time until then.  

 

So anyways, last week got all the holes drilled on the front for the buttons/plunger, and on the bottom for the volume knob, and PC power button.  Saw some posts in the forum regarding PinVol http://mjrnet.org/pinscape/PinVol.html and decided to download it and try it out.  I've been slowly trying to adjust the volume on various tables trying to get them roughly the same volume.  This program makes it super easy and as a bonus, my USB volume knob is compatible with it.

 

 

 

 

Then today I turned my attention to the speaker panel.  I used measurements for the Williams/Bally panel and tried to get it as close is I could.  I still have to sand few places to get it bit smoother.  Now I just have to figure out how to make the panel that frames the back glass monitor.  I was thinking of just using a piece of glass, similar to a regular pinball, and painting the inside to make a bezel around the monitor.  

 

Here is the image/measurments I referenced to make the panel. I tried to find the source where I originally got the picture, but couldn't find it on the website reference on the pic.  So thanks to whoever originally put this out there!  

 

 

 

 

Edited by JM136, 09 December 2018 - 05:11 PM.

[JM136]

Alright, another small update here.  Last week I ordered the glass for the playfield, the back glass, and the DMD.  Went with 3/16" for the PF, and 1/8" for BG and DMD.  Also ordered some speaker panel brackets, as well as some plastic speaker grill material for the BG speakers and the BG vent holes.  It all showed up yesterday, so I worked for a few hours today finishing up construction on the speaker panel, and figuring out how to mount the glass for the BG. I'm going to include some close up pics of the backglass, because it was one of the harder things to find images online to try and replicate, and maybe it could help someone in the future wanting to do something similar.  I'm not sure it's exactly how a real pinball is made, but I think it's close, and it works better than I thought it would.

 

So the speaker panel is made up of two pieces of 1/2" MDF.  The speakers and DMD are back mounted to the rear panel.

 

It was then lined up and screwed to the front panel which sandwiches the 1/8" piece of glass between the DMD and the front panel. 

 

And here is the finished panel from the front.

 

Here it is mounted in the Back Box.

 

So here is the Back Glass with the trim mounted to it.  The trim came from Virtuapin, and I believe is standard on most pinball machines.

 

The bottom trim piece is the lift trim.  The front edge has a lip that you can grasp when installing/removing the glass from the Back Box.

 

Here on top of the speaker panel is the glass channel.  This is where the bottom of lift trim will sit.

 

Here's where I improvised in making the top glass channel.  I couldn't find any pictures online, found a few videos, but it was always too dark to see exactly how it was made.  I do know that most had a build in lock so it could be locked in place.  I guess I could have made a trip out to the closest arcade and inspected them, but I figured this worked well enough for me.

 

So you put the glass in the top channel.

 

Then swing the bottom of the glass in.

 

And then drop the bottom edge into the glass channel on top of the speaker panel.

 

Here is the progress so far.

 

I've been working on a few Ideas for graphics, maybe I'll upload some snips later this week.  So far I have a Guardians of the Galaxy theme, and a Rock' N Roll theme.  I would like to do a retro Sci Fi theme, but finding suitable images is a bit of a challenge.

Edited by JM136, 09 December 2018 - 03:03 AM.

[JM136]

Here are a couple of cabs that I've been slowly working on over the past couple of months.  Stuzza has been a bit of an inspiration for me while I've been working on these, so kudos to him for putting his artwork on this forum for others to use.  I have downloaded a few of his cabs, and have used a few of his patterns and ideas in some of the backgrounds.

 

I'm seriously undecided on which theme to go with, and may even come up with another one before it's all over.  Anybody have any thoughts, or Ideas? The hardest part is finding images that are high enough quality to blow up to these sizes, and I'm still a noob when it comes to Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

[JM136]

So I was able to work on the pinball a bit a few weeks ago.  Got the backglass monitor mounted, the playfield mounted, the legs on, and all the electronics mocked up and temporarily installed to test for functionality.  Of course all fabrication halted because I had to play the machine in all its glory.    It's quite satisfying to finally have it all in the cabinet with functioning buttons, sound, and the tactile speakers playing the Surround Sound Feedback.  It took quite a bit of tinkering but I went through the 80 tables I have installed and balanced the sound between the backglass speakers, and the cabinet speakers.  After reading about SSF in some of the forums, I downloaded Peace Equalizer which tremendously helped to make the tables sound as real as possible.  Anyways, here are some pics of the latest progress.  I purposely left out pics of the electronics because I'm a bit embarrassed about the temporary rats nest of wiring I have.  I promise to post pics later once everything is "cleaned up".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after getting back up to speed after the holidays, I was able to put some more time into the pinball today.  I worked on the light bar and trim panel that sits behind the playfield.  It's not permanantly mounted yet, just held in place by some tape until I figure out a mounting system.  I'm still working on getting the parts here and assembled for the RGB's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brer Frog]

Your cab looks really nice.

[JM136]

Your cab looks really nice.

 Thanks, it's slowly coming together!

[JM136]

Small update: Ordered the rest of the parts to get the lightbar behind the playfield working.  Awaiting shipment of the LED-Wiz, and related parts to assemble resistor/fuse boards to go between the LED's and the LED-Wiz.  Also ordered some clear flipper buttons, and some corresponding RGB LED boards from Lightmite.  Will also be working towards hooking up some undercabinet RGB strip lights.

 

As this will be my first venture into the DOF realm, anyone know if there are some generic settings for getting the flashers or other various LED's to flash/react to table events, or does each table have to be custom setup individually?  I'm just trying to gauge how much work I'm looking forward to.

 

Oh yeah, here is one more set of cabinet art that I worked on a couple weeks ago.  The Simpsons theme is one of Stuzza's originals that I modified in a Big Bang Bar type color scheme.  I like it, but the wife hates it!

 

[Nemo]

Awesome build quality, very nicely done sir ! I never touched DOF as i'm a SSF devotee    but it's all pretty straightforward.

 

Yeah not sure bout that Simpsons theme, its very specific ofc, maybe a more generic theme would suit your excellent cab better.

[JM136]

Awesome build quality, very nicely done sir ! I never touched DOF as i'm a SSF devotee    but it's all pretty straightforward.

 

Yeah not sure bout that Simpsons theme, its very specific ofc, maybe a more generic theme would suit your excellent cab better.

Thanks Nemo!  Looks like I'll have to just hook up the lights and learn as I go!  The SSF seemed easy enough, but as with anything new, there will be a learning curve.

[JM136]

Small update for this weeks work.  I thought that work on the pinball would speed up after the holidays, but I haven't been able to find a lot of time to devote to it.  Anyways, here are some pics of what I worked on this week.  Finally got all the parts in for the light bar so I began soldering the RGB Led's to their heat sink boards and then assembling the fuse/resistor boards.  For some reason this became much more tedious than I had anticipated! 

 

Here are the 3 watt LED's prior to soldering.  Found them on Amazon and next time I'll find a different seller.  4 out of the 10 were RBB instead of RGB.  Of course I didn't find out until they were all soldered.   Next time I'll test them before soldering.

 

 

 

Here are the LED's with pigtails.  The only thing I wish I would have done differently is add some type of connector between these and the resistor/fuse boards.

 

 

Here's all the components waiting to be assembled.

 

 

One completed board....only took about an hour.  Luckily It went faster the next four!

 

 

Had to trim some of the fins off so mounting holes could be drilled. I tried to make the holes without removing fins, but the screw driver would catch in between the fins, and sometimes the head of the screw would catch if the hole wasn't drilled perfectly.  Touched the corners up with some flat paint.

 

 

Mounted the LED's to the heatsinks with the heat tape adhesive that came with the heatsinks.***Update*** The adhesive heat tape didn't even stick for a night.  3 of them fell off, so I stuck them back on with the tape and ran a bead of hot glue around the outer rim.  I made sure to catch the circuit board, the tape, and finally the heatsink.  So far so good, it has held up under real world testing!

 

 

 

Here it is all finished up and ready to be mounted in the Pinball!

Edited by JM136, 31 January 2019 - 07:09 PM.

[Nemo]

Nice ! And seriously ?? RBB led's ......... that's just bad luck, but nicely sorted now