56 replies to this topic

[Petar2]

Hi JM136, your vpin looks great.
I'm looking at that monitor, buy for mine and I wanted to ask you a question.
This monitor has a joystick, on the bottom, to control the menu. And I see that in your construction, you have it adjusted by both sides of the vpin.
how have you solved it, have you taken it apart? or is it there and I do not appreciate it in the photos ......?

[JM136]

Hi JM136, your vpin looks great.
I'm looking at that monitor, buy for mine and I wanted to ask you a question.
This monitor has a joystick, on the bottom, to control the menu. And I see that in your construction, you have it adjusted by both sides of the vpin.
how have you solved it, have you taken it apart? or is it there and I do not appreciate it in the photos ......?

Thanks Petar2!  Sorry I didn't see this post sooner, I'll have to double check why it didn't send me an email.  Anyways, I've been more than happy with this monitor so far.  It's one of the parts that I had a difficult time making a choice on, and I have not been disappointed with it.

 

So the little protrusion with a joystick you're talking about on the bottom of the t.v.  There are two small Phillips head screws that hold it on.  I just simply unscrewed them, and there was enough slack in the wire harness to just fold the joystick backwards.  I stuck a piece of velcro on it, and stuck it to the back of the t.v. for now.  From the front, you can't even tell it was there, the bezel looks perfectly smooth. 

 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by JM136, 01 February 2019 - 10:34 PM.

[Petar2]

thanks for the photo, do not worry about the delay, we all have life apart from the hobby.


That's what I imagined, but I needed to make sure. I'm going to use an old widebody cabinet from a Star trek of Williams, so I'll have holes in the sides, I'll see to cover the gaps, with wooden slats and paint them black.
If you can, put pictures of the playfield clamping system, I'm going to try to use the original elevation fittings of the original playfield, but I do not know if it will allow me to give the right angle to the monitor, and if I do not see it clearly, I will change to a system similar to yours.

Greetings and thanks again

[hlr53]

Great looking build 

 

How do you like the LG 43" 4K Monitor 43UD79-B? Any perceptible lag on the flippers? Do you run in straight 4K with the 1080?

[JM136]

thanks for the photo, do not worry about the delay, we all have life apart from the hobby.


That's what I imagined, but I needed to make sure. I'm going to use an old widebody cabinet from a Star trek of Williams, so I'll have holes in the sides, I'll see to cover the gaps, with wooden slats and paint them black.
If you can, put pictures of the playfield clamping system, I'm going to try to use the original elevation fittings of the original playfield, but I do not know if it will allow me to give the right angle to the monitor, and if I do not see it clearly, I will change to a system similar to yours.

Greetings and thanks again

 

You're welcome!  Half the challenge of building these is finding what worked well for others.  Sometimes it's difficult to find the exact details and I've found that pictures help quite a bit.  Here are a few pics of how I mounted the playfield.  I used a pivot system similar to what other's had done before.  I just used 1/2" electrical conduit for the horizontal bars and plywood for the plate that mounts to the monitor.  If I did it over again, I would probably step up to 3/4" conduit, or try another type of pipe that has less flex, maybe iron pipe.  The 1/2" flexes a little so when you nudge the cabinet it moves more than I like.  It is nice though because it acts a bit like a suspension for the monitor.  The Vesa mounting system is recessed on this monitor, so I just cut a piece of 3/4 plywood to act as the Vesa mount, and then routed slots in the longer vertical plywood member to allow for forward/back adjustment.  I achieved the right height/angle of the playfield by trial and error.  I just cut the supports that mount inside the cabinet until i got the height that i liked.  The monitor sits about 1/4" below the playfield glass at the front and 4 3/8" below the glass at the rear. Here are some pics! (Also, I edited the post above with some better pics showing the control stick on the bottom of the Monitor)

 

 

 

 

 

[JM136]

Great looking build 

 

How do you like the LG 43" 4K Monitor 43UD79-B? Any perceptible lag on the flippers? Do you run in straight 4K with the 1080?

 

Thanks!  So far it has exceeded my expectations and I'm very happy with it.  The only time I had any lag was when I first was playing with different configurations and I tried an HDMI port instead of the display port.  As long as I am using the display port and am in game mode I have no lag.  And actually, while taking the pictures for the posts above, I just realized there are different HDMI ports on the back for different refresh rates.  Two are labeled 4k 30p and two are labeled 4k 60p.  I'm betting that I had it plugged into the 4k 30p port, and that may be the reason why performance suffered!  And yes I'm running in 4k with the 1080 graphics card.  Looks great, and pics do not do it justice!

[hlr53]

 

Great looking build 

 

How do you like the LG 43" 4K Monitor 43UD79-B? Any perceptible lag on the flippers? Do you run in straight 4K with the 1080?

 

Thanks!  So far it has exceeded my expectations and I'm very happy with it.  The only time I had any lag was when I first was playing with different configurations and I tried an HDMI port instead of the display port.  As long as I am using the display port and am in game mode I have no lag.  And actually, while taking the pictures for the posts above, I just realized there are different HDMI ports on the back for different refresh rates.  Two are labeled 4k 30p and two are labeled 4k 60p.  I'm betting that I had it plugged into the 4k 30p port, and that may be the reason why performance suffered!  And yes I'm running in 4k with the 1080 graphics card.  Looks great, and pics do not do it justice!

 

 

I'm looking to upgrade my 40" Hauer ($150.00 open box at Best Buy in 2016) which has always been a tad blurry with text but lag wise has been stellar. Just so I understand, you're using a HDMI-DP adapter into the display port on the 1080? I had a 1080 on my cab but moved it to my VR system (Samsung Odyssey+) for sim racing. I'll have to upgrade the 1060 also if moving to 4K. 

[JM136]

 

 

Great looking build 

 

How do you like the LG 43" 4K Monitor 43UD79-B? Any perceptible lag on the flippers? Do you run in straight 4K with the 1080?

 

Thanks!  So far it has exceeded my expectations and I'm very happy with it.  The only time I had any lag was when I first was playing with different configurations and I tried an HDMI port instead of the display port.  As long as I am using the display port and am in game mode I have no lag.  And actually, while taking the pictures for the posts above, I just realized there are different HDMI ports on the back for different refresh rates.  Two are labeled 4k 30p and two are labeled 4k 60p.  I'm betting that I had it plugged into the 4k 30p port, and that may be the reason why performance suffered!  And yes I'm running in 4k with the 1080 graphics card.  Looks great, and pics do not do it justice!

 

 

I'm looking to upgrade my 40" Hauer ($150.00 open box at Best Buy in 2016) which has always been a tad blurry with text but lag wise has been stellar. Just so I understand, you're using a HDMI-DP adapter into the display port on the 1080? I had a 1080 on my cab but moved it to my VR system (Samsung Odyssey+) for sim racing. I'll have to upgrade the 1060 also if moving to 4K. 

 

 

Nope, no adapters, I'm running straight display port output from graphics card to display port input on the monitor.  Originally I had tried running the HDMI to HDMI just to experiment.

[hlr53]

 

 

 

Great looking build 

 

How do you like the LG 43" 4K Monitor 43UD79-B? Any perceptible lag on the flippers? Do you run in straight 4K with the 1080?

 

Thanks!  So far it has exceeded my expectations and I'm very happy with it.  The only time I had any lag was when I first was playing with different configurations and I tried an HDMI port instead of the display port.  As long as I am using the display port and am in game mode I have no lag.  And actually, while taking the pictures for the posts above, I just realized there are different HDMI ports on the back for different refresh rates.  Two are labeled 4k 30p and two are labeled 4k 60p.  I'm betting that I had it plugged into the 4k 30p port, and that may be the reason why performance suffered!  And yes I'm running in 4k with the 1080 graphics card.  Looks great, and pics do not do it justice!

 

 

I'm looking to upgrade my 40" Hauer ($150.00 open box at Best Buy in 2016) which has always been a tad blurry with text but lag wise has been stellar. Just so I understand, you're using a HDMI-DP adapter into the display port on the 1080? I had a 1080 on my cab but moved it to my VR system (Samsung Odyssey+) for sim racing. I'll have to upgrade the 1060 also if moving to 4K. 

 

 

Nope, no adapters, I'm running straight display port output from graphics card to display port input on the monitor.  Originally I had tried running the HDMI to HDMI just to experiment.

 

 

Ahhhh, it has a DisplayPort on the TV. Good to know it works much better than HDMI to HDMI. I haven't kept up with all the interface specs in ages.

 

For anyone else reading here is a comparison between HDMI & DisplayPort from Toms Hardware.

 

https://www.tomshard...ming,36876.html

[JM136]

I have to apologize for not updating in quite a while.  I've been working on the pinball sporadically but haven't found any time to post the pics.  I'll be making several posts to show the progress thus far...I promise it should be done very soon! 

Most of the following are just final details before paint.  I wanted to get everything assembled and mostly working before paint so I'm not having touch up stuff as I go.  

 

First off, was installing fans and their respective guards on the back door of the backglass, and the cabinet.

 

 

I thought about routing out a square for each fan so it wouldn't protrude as much, but no matter what, I couldn't completely flush mount the fans, so I opted to just surface mount them.

 

 

Here is a completed set on the one of the doors.

 

 

Next up was securing the bottom of the speaker panel.  The brackets that I used are standard Williams Speaker brackets.  They secure the speaker panel, but there is still play in the bottom of the panel allowing it to swing forward 3/8" or so.  These magnetic door catches work pretty well to secure it and still allow for easy removal.

 

 

 

Next came routing some channels on the bottom of the cabinet for RGB strip lighting.  Although I could have just stuck the strip lights on the bottom once everything was completed, I like the idea of having a routed channel on each edge to allowing recessing of the strip lighting.

 

 

The channels are just wide and deep enough to accept strip lighting. It should be nearly invisible under the cabinet when viewing from distances.

 

Similar channels were routed on the back of the backbox to accept RGB strips.  

 

 

The four routed out circles are for more strip lighting.  These will be white LEDs that will serve as white flashers/strobes.  Similar circles were routed on the bottom of the cabinet, I just didn't capture pics of them.

[JM136]

Guess I didn't get a whole lot of pics during the painting process, but here's what I got.  Prior to painting, I sanded all pieces with an orbital palm sander and some 250 grit sand paper.  Any holes, major flaws, or uneven joints were filled with bondo and sanded again.  My biggest mistake was not priming before painting.  It was kind of unconventional but I thinned and sprayed with chalk paint.  I had used it to brush and roll other home projects before so It was what I was comfortable with.  I thought it would act like a primer and seal/fill little imperfections.  What I found was that it was very easy to use, and produced a consistent finish, but because I didn't use a primer, the spots where bondo was used left a slight change in finish.  It is very slight and would bother me if it wasn't being covered with graphics.  But since it is, I opted to finish off with a satin poly clear, and be done with it.  All in all, I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and I'm excited to get it all back together.  As a side note, this created an incredible amount of over spray in the garage.  I'm still finding it in every nook and cranny! 

 

 

 

 

[JM136]

Update on current status: 

 

I had worked on several ideas for graphics and finally decided on a Ghostbusters theme!  The decision was made for several reasons, the first being that it's a favorite movie from my childhood.  The second being I was able to find some high quality images on google that laid out nicely and looked the part.  The third being that it had to pass the wife test.  She gets a lot of say in what goes on the machine because she conceded in letting me make an "arcade" room in the house.  So....Ghostbusters it is! 

 

I've seen similar cabinet themes on Google and Youtube, and of course I took some cues from the Stern machine, but in the end I laid out a theme that I'm excited to see once completed. 

 

So one of the funnest parts was making the front panel.  I tried to make it feel like the buttons/controls were integrated into the traps.  It was made to look weathered and some warning stickers were added for realism.  The backbox shows Slimer infatuated with a pizza sitting on a chair.  The cabinet shows Slimer in a chaotic library with a proton stream zipping by, and a trap waiting for him in the corner.  

 

Like the real Ghostbusters pinball, and the Virtual one featured by Dave Gilmore on Youtube, the Lockdown bar, siderails, legs, and hinges will be powder coated green.  Those should be back this week, the first try didn't turn out right, and the powdercoater is stripping and re-coating.

 

Graphics were sent to Game Room Solutions for printing.  They printed on Oracle vinyl, arrived last week, and look great.  The only thing I'm waiting on is all the parts at the powdercoater.  Once those are back, I'm ready to apply the graphics and put this thing back together.

 

 

 

Here's a snapshot of the graphics:

 

[Nemo]

Ohhhhhh my.......that machine is going to POP ! Just LOVE what you did with the frontpanel.......those buttons DO look integrated 

And with that green powder coated lockbar ........ oehhh that's going to look just superb !

 

Overall a high quality build Sir !

[JM136]

Ohhhhhh my.......that machine is going to POP ! Just LOVE what you did with the frontpanel.......those buttons DO look integrated 

And with that green powder coated lockbar ........ oehhh that's going to look just superb !

 

Overall a high quality build Sir !

 

Thanks Nemo!  The build is fun, but I just want to be able to play it again!

[robertms]

Great progress Josh, love the theme you picked and execution 

[JM136]

Great progress Josh, love the theme you picked and execution 

 

Thanks!

Got the parts back from powder coat and they are up to PAR!  Color is Illusion Green Ice.

 

 

 

Here's a closeup of the green next to the graphics.

 

 

Was also able to lay the graphics down, had a few hiccups, but definitely got smoother as I gained more experience.

 

 

 

 

Next up will be final assembly, and I'll finally get to play it again!

[jwish]

Looks like I'm a bit late.  How did everything turn out?  I'm just about to get started on my own and have found your posts very helpful.  Thanks.