54 replies to this topic

[LynnInDenver]

 

 

Those work great, believe it or not, with colored LEDs. Doesn't matter the color. Radiant Silverball has Red, Green, Blue LEDs in the three coin slots on the Suzo-Happ door we got. If we tire of it, I have a complete set of LEDs so we can make them all one solid color, or even color fade LEDs.

 

I plan to replace all of my 6.3V light bulbs with LEDs. I have decided on all of the colors. People should be aware that they need to buy LEDs with a "wedge" base. These LEDs are meant to replace bulbs and have forward voltages of 6V, 12V, 14V, 24V, and 28V. No need for a current limiting resistor. You to make sure you get the right width - look for T10.

 

Here is a Mouser search list that should narrow down what you need.

 

I actually just ordered pinball LED bulbs in the wedge format. Radiant Silverball is actually standardized on the wedge bulbs between the coin door light harness and the Launch button. The exceptions are three cheap EasyGets buttons from Amazon.

[HiRez00]

Look great!

 

What did you use for the "apron monitor"?

[MikePinball]

What did you use for the "apron monitor"?

I'm using standard 7" LCD screens. They support up to 1024x600 resolution which is just fine things like instructions. There is a separate PCB for the controller to plug HDMI into and another one for the buttons/IR receiver. They cost around $20-30 each.

 

The flat PCB connector fits around the side to the bottom of the apron which has the PCBs attached to it. You just need an HDMI cable and a voltage source. Note some controllers take 5V and other take 12V.

[MikePinball]

Looking good.  I used some automotive LEDs and they don't fit right.  had to trim them and they still are not ideal.  Would love to find some replacements that the buttons don't occasionally drag on when pressing.

Another source for these wedge LEDs is here.
 

[MikePinball]

The last time I posted some pictures of my build was back on March 18th. In between making and sending out items for Oak Micros, I have been wiring my cab. Along the way I tested outputs and inputs using Pinscape to make sure everything worked. Last weekend I finished the backbox and then earlier this week I finished the surround-sound audio.

 

Because I had previously dry-fitted everything, it was relatively easy last night to add the PC and complete its wiring for the 4 displays (playfield, backbox, left apron, right apron), the 6 USB inputs (DMD, PAL, Pinscape, PC On, two extensions to cab bottom). After a small amount of work to reconfigure the displays for VPX and PinballY, download the new DOF configuration, and the setup the addressable LEDs, I had a working pinball table.

 

This morning I properly inserted the playfield monitor, the glass, and the lockdown bar. And ta-da my UFO Pinball Obsession cab.

 

 

The trailing wire is a keyboard/mouse combo plugged into the undercab USB port. The left apron 7" display hasn't arrived yet but the right one is there displaying the table instructions.

 

I have a lot more work to do on the software side but everything is essentially working. There are some hardware upgrades too. Some are minor and some are major such as a custom 3D-printed topper and a design for cab vinyl.

 

In the following appends I'm going to describe the wiring and hopefully give some useful tips along the way. I am also going to have a separate append to describe the wiring for the Suzo-happ coin door and how I connected to Pinscape together with the Oak Micros rotary encoder.

 

[apophis]

Congrats Mike!!! Looks fantastic! How does it feel to finally play a game?

[MikePinball]

Congrats Mike!!! Looks fantastic! How does it feel to finally play a game?

Thanks. I had my Mikrocontroller box before this but it has been quite a while since I last played on it. Most of the parts and even some of the wiring were used in full size cab. I am happy that it is all together now.

[MikePinball]

I haven't yet had time to write up anything on my build or improve things in my cab. In between fulfilling Oak Micros orders, I have been too busy playing pinball and beating old high scores. Finally having my cab built and working has been a year in the making and I'm just enjoying it too much. Mikrocontroller was a great learning tool but this is so much better.

 

One of the lessons from Mikrocontroller is that the black paint (at least on bare wood) will start to rub off due to finger friction on the flipper buttons and sides of the cab. I don't yet have vinyl for my cab, so I created a prototype flipper protector. It is a little less than 1mm thick and includes a stencil for the theme of my cab (UFO). I think the shape is a little square so I going to update the prototype shape and round it off a bit more. Obviously the holes are made to match my flipper and magnasave placement.

 

 

What do you think?

[MikePinball]

Here is the final version. I made a left and right. Note they are not mirror image because of the lettering. Same thing applies for a vinyl covering with any kind of writing.

 

[MikePinball]

I have wanted to do some writeups on my cab wiring. Here is the first one. It might help other people or at least give some ideas.

 

First a few cab wiring principles:

• Plan ahead - essential
• Use a color scheme for different voltages (where possible). My scheme is:
  • Black - common ground (5V, 12V, and 24V)
  • Yellow - 12V (and 24V)
  • Red - 5V
  • Blue - low-side power output to 12V and 24V toys
  • Green - low-side power output to 5V LEDs
  • White - common KL25Z ground for buttons
• Use other color coding to help e.g. color of crimp connectors. I have used the following:
  • Red - 5V
  • Yellow - 12V
  • Blue - 24V
  • Black or green - ground
• Use the correct gauge wire for the amperage. Use more than one wire for higher currents (easier to handle than one very thick wire)
  • 24/26 AWG for signals from buttons etc
  • 22/24 AWG for low voltage, low current signals e.g. LED
  • 18 AWG for anything needing a higher current e.g. solenoids, chimes, addressable LEDs
• Label, label, label wires (both ends if appropriate) so you can see what is what
• Use screw connectors, crimps, spade terminals etc so you can easily move things around
• Tie things together and keep cables neat - no need to go overboard as you will inevitably need to change things
• Make things flexible and removable

There are multiple ways to provide power for the cab. I decided to standardize on a PC power supply unit (PSU) of 550W, partly because I have several spares. These power supplies have 5V, 12V, 3.3V outputs. Below is a picture of the PC power supply with its maximum ratings. Note that you cannot use everything together as it will exceed the total power rating of the PSU.

 

Each voltage has different amperage limits and by far the largest rating is for 12V to drive PCIe cards like GPUs. My idea is to use the 12V and then have buck and boost regulators to provide 5V and 24V. The PSU has a fairly common breakout board on top which right now I'm using as a simple way to turn it on and off (the breakout board acts like a PC and most importantly it connects the PWR_ON signal wire to ground to turn on the PSU). The 5V and 12V outputs provide extra fused power connections if I need them.

 

 

The PSU has 8 pin and 6 pin PCIe power connector for GPUs etc. I'm going to utilize these power pins to drive power distribution board in the rear of the cab. This rear distribution board includes a 5V buck regulator rated at 150W (30A) and a 24V boost regulator rated at 240W (10A). This will be plenty of power for 24V contractors and 5V real DMD, 5V LEDs, and addressable LEDs. Everything else is 12V.

 

I have used three busbar connectors for the different voltages (red) and a couple for the common ground (black). The rear power distribution board drives the real DMD, addressable LEDs, rear cooling fans, and 12V for the backbox toys such as the knocker, beacons, and strobe.

 

The rear power distribution board has one 8-way 16 AWG bundled cable that takes power and ground to the front power distribution board. Four wires are used for ground, one for 5V, two for 12V, and one for 24V. Each wire has a maximum current capacity of 10A and should be fine for everything needed in the front of the cab.

 

 

The front power distribution board really consists of two bus bar connectors mounted on the PCB tray. This PCB tray also contains the Pinscape AIO, fuse board, and 3 audio amps (not shown). And as a side-note, the audio amps get their power separately from some laptop power bricks.  The front power distribution board powers the Pinscape AIO, button LEDs, rotary encoder and door LEDs, front cooling fans, chimes, shaker motor, gear motor, and the ten 24V contractors.

 

 

The indicator on the picture above shows where the color coding can breakdown. The 5V common anode for the four RGB LED flipper boards is actually yellow. This is because the red wire is used for the red LED color. But the crimp is colored red and there is a label on the four bundled wires to indicate its usage. The label is mostly hidden by one of the flipper contractor that is installed above the PCB board.

[MikePinball]

Before talking about wiring buttons and output devices, I thought it was worth re-iterating the point about labeling. Sometimes color coding is not enough, especially when everything is the same color. Case in point are my 6 USB cables:

• Oak Micros Pinscape AIO
• Oak Micros PAL for LED
• DMD (that shalt not be named on here)
• Power indicator (5V to power switch LED)
• External USB 1 (socket on bottom of cab)
• External USB 2 (socket on bottom of cab)

 

It is also worth making an annotated picture of the back of the PC so you know where everything is connected (when you take things apart or move things around). Video cables to the various displays tend to be all black as well and are therefore worth labeling too.

 

[MikePinball]

Before cutting any wires, you should plan the cabling for buttons and devices. Thinking about what needs to be connected where and the route for the cables. I found that cable ties like the ones below are very useful. You should screw them to the cab wall or floor as appropriate because the glue backing pad is not strong.

 

 

I created an input spreadsheet to detail all of the buttons connected to the Pinscape AIO. It also includes one that is connected to the PC for power on. More on input wiring later.

 

I also created an output spreadsheet to detail all of the output devices connected to the Pinscape AIO. It also includes two that are powered directly and are always on (coin slots and power on button). More on output wiring later.

Edited by MikePinball, 31 July 2020 - 06:43 AM.

[MikePinball]

This append is about my input wiring for buttons. As noted earlier, my input spreadsheet shows 19 inputs from three areas of the cabinet; the left, the right, and the door. The Pinscape AIO supports up to 24 inputs separated into three banks of 8 (each pluggable screw connector has 8 terminals).

 

To reduce wiring clutter, I opted for the following:

• Daisy chain the grounds for the buttons (using white wires) and connect separately into the common ground on the Pinscape AIO
• Use stranded CAT 5 Ethernet cable that has colored strips on the 4 white wires (brown, blue, orange, green). I happen to have yards of this stuff that I collected before it was thrown out at work.

I connected one end of a CAT 5 cable to the AIO screw header, and the other end was stripped back far enough so that I could reach all of the buttons. There are 7 connections on the left side of the cabinet, 3 on the right, and 8 for the coin door (more on the coin door later).

 

Below is a picture of the left side. In this picture you can see the following:

• Grounding strap
• Clear flipper and magnasave buttons with Oak Micros RGB flipper boards
• Start, extra ball, and exit buttons on the front of the cab
• Night mode button on the floor of the cab. 
• White door open switch
• Part of the main speaker amplifier sitting on the PCB board

 

Below is a picture of the right side. In this picture you can see the following:

• Grounding strap
• Clear flipper and magnasave buttons with Oak Micros RGB flipper boards
• Launch ball button on front of cab
• Potentiometer plunger with 3 separate wires to the Pinscape AIO

 

The picture below gives a view of the "input corner" of the Pinscape AIO which shows the four blocks of 8 screw connectors for the plunger, left side of the cab (inputs 1 to 8), right side of the cab (inputs 9 to 16), and door and rotary encoder (inputs 17-24). The three blue CAT Ethernet cables can be clearly seen as well as the KL25Z and its USB cable.

 

 

Edit: Fixed minor typos.

Edited by MikePinball, 02 August 2020 - 03:58 PM.

[Fleetz]

Hi Mike,

Blown away by your build!

If you don’t mind me asking where do you source your 5V bus bar for your connection blocks from?

Cheers,
Ian

[MikePinball]

Google or amazon search for "bus bar for your connection blocks" e.g. https://www.amazon.c...nnection blocks