153 replies to this topic

[allknowing2012]

"Apparently there is a tip on the plunger I am missing." - oh wow I didnt know that little white cap was part of the "system". I would have thrown it out if I didnt know this. Its just looks like a white packing piece.

[court461]

"Apparently there is a tip on the plunger I am missing." - oh wow I didnt know that little white cap was part of the "system". I would have thrown it out if I didnt know this. Its just looks like a white packing piece.

 

Yeah, I am afraid that is what i did, although I don't remember doing it.  Apparently, it is a special 3D printed tip, that acts as maybe a reflective surface for the sensor.  I will let you know when I get it, but he knew instantly what my problem was and shipped me one yesterday.  

[scubajoe]

It must of not been there, mine is on so tight I couldn't budge it. 

[viktory2k1]

The tip on mine would fly off and he also sent me a new one.

[court461]

Originally Posted 03 September 2015 - 09:39 PM

I am pretty happy.  With some trouble shooting help from Zeb, I have most of my toys working.  The only thing I have left is the knocker and the gear motor.  I have correct voltage at both, but neither works as it should.  The gear motor is a cheap Chinese $11 motor, so if I can't get it working I am not too worried about it.  The knocker, I need to research how far away to mount.  I think maybe I have it too far.  Does it rely on the bounce back from the wall to work?  If I push the plunger in, it knock once but that's it.  I noticed the coil was getting warm so I stopped messing with it.

 

But RGB bar, solenoids, contactors, strobes and shaker all working.  I also got DOF running quickly.  I was a little worried because I see a lot of people with trouble, but I just followed the directions to a T.

 

Here is a crappy cell phone video of my first DOF testing.  

 

 

Light bar mount is not permanent like that, I just want to get my TV mount finalized before I put in the light bar.  Feels awesome with the feedback!  I am so glad I went ahead with the feedback, since at first I was going to start without.

 

 

Originally Posted 08 September 2015 - 10:06 AM

I have a few updates to some of my problems in case anyone is following this thread and has the same issues.

 

DMD would not resize to fit the full DMD screen.  It was half the size of the visible border.  Not sure what caused this, because I had it working before, but all I did was change the resolution on my DMDmonitor.  I set it to 800x600 or something instead of the max resolution and I was able to resize with no problems.  I used setdmd to update all my table at once and now I have no issues.

 

Virtuapin plunger.  I posted a video of the plunger input going crazy with no movement.  Paul at virtuapin sent me a plunger tip that I was missing.  This is a critical piece for the sensor to register.  After putting on this tip, my plunger is rock solid.  There is no phantom movement, the controller auto calibrates as described, and the movement in the joystick screen is nice and linear after calibration.  The only problem I have now is getting all my tables to work with the plunger.  This is a chore that is not too fun.  Everyone uses different types of plungers, and the process to change is different on all of them.  This will be a long project.  Of course, this is not the fault of the plunger.  I am now happy with the plunger kit.

Edited by court461, 22 September 2015 - 02:12 PM.

[court461]

Originally posted sometime between 9/2 and 9/21

Now that I have the thing pretty much functional, now it is time to get the finishing touches done.  I did install the knocker vertically under my backbox.  It works great, and is loud and awesome.  I have seen some mounted horizontally before, but never noticed they all have a spring on them.  The kind with no spring, need to be vertical.  Should have figured that out myself, oh well, thanks again to Zeb.

 

I have some wiring cleanup to do.  I want to route all my wires to get as clean a look as I can.  I final mounted by output board and ledwiz on the bottom of the cab.  I have some nice stick-on clamps to use with zip ties that seem to work great.  Adhesive back, stick to the cab, then zip tie.  If I need to undo or reroute, just clip the tie.

 

 

I also need to wire a main power switch.  I just bought a heavy duty toggle switch that I will wire on my main power right above the plug on the back of the cab.  I have a smaller switch of the same type that I am planning on using for a night mode switch.  I think I will put it under the cab right under the front so it is easy to get too.

 

Another thing I got in was a custom size photo mat I ordered for the screen.  I did not decase my screen, and the bezel was bigger at the bottom of the TV vs. the top.  My fix is to mount the tv all the way to the left, then I got this mat so that it will look the same on both sides.  I like how it looks, not sure about the white line where they cut the mat, I may color that black.  But it does what I wanted it to do.

 

 

 

Open Items

Mount power strip in back of cab.  

Mount toy power supply somehow in back of cab

Install power and night mode toggle switches

Install RGB Panel behind playfield

Find solution to get TV's to auto on (holding down power button seems to work)

Install glass slides and side rails

Order glass, and install glass

Mount computer on computer slide drawer

Install H channel and glass on BG

Install final 2 fans on BG

Install speakers and subwoofer

All the other stuff I am probably forgetting.

[court461]

Originally posted sometime between the last post, and when VPU came back online 9/21

 

OK, I got some more work done this weekend.  Now gets to all the little things that I have to finish.  Each thing is not too hard, but I have just been putting off.

 

First, I noticed I made a pretty sizable mistake when putting my cab together.  I should have cut the front panel shorter, I realized when measuring for the glass, that currently there is no way the glass could slide up the rails with the front this high.  This would have been much easier to correct before everything was together.

 

 

Luckily, my mini circular saw made pretty quick work of the excess.  Now I will just have some sawdust cleanup.

 

 

 

I mounted my power strip.  No idea how I will mount my power supply.  There are no brackets?  Are people taking apart to add brackets?  I may just get some steel or plastic strapping to strap down.

 

To mount my RGB LED board I decided to use the same magnet approach I did with my feedback struts.  I mounted the magnets to the back of the board.

 

 

Then I mounted my brackets in the cab.

 

 

The results is a nice removable board.

 

 

I got my power toggle mounted.  This was harder than it should have been, because the switch was not made to go through 1/2" plywood.   I just used a forstner bit on the inside to relieve some wood so that it would stick out enough to get the mounting nut on.

 

 

I used a smaller toggle to place a night mode switch on the bottom of my cab.  This is to turn off the contactors, knocker, gear and shaker.   The buttons you see are from a suggestion from noiseprisoner, I installed 3 buttons on the bottom of the cab.  I have the outside 2 for volume up and down since my speaker volume is in the backbox.  The middle button is to exit so I don't accidentally push it while playing.  I realized looking at this picture, that I never went back and put another coat of paint on the bottom of the cab.  I need to add that to my list, it looks pretty sloppy, not that anyone will see it.

 

 

I cut my side glass guides down, since I shortened the cab, I had to cut off a few inches.  I then used hot glue to put them in.  I think most people staple, but since I used 1/2" ply instead of 3/4" ply, I had to shave down the tab on the side where the staples would normally go.  Some type of adhesive was really my only choice, and I thought hot glue would not be too bad to remove down the road if needed.

 

 

I also had to cut down my side rails.  Since I shortened my cab, I needed shorter side rails.  I ended up ordering pinball 2000 side rails because they are cheaper ($36) and I was cutting them anyway, so the shorter length was not a problem.  I got black to go with my color scheme.  Now I am wishing I would have purchased a black lockdown bar to go with my rails and legs.  Maybe I will try painting, or maybe I will just replace later.  Not too worried about that though.

 

 

Lastly, I worked on my lockdown bar mechanism.  I think this will work, I just have to work on these a little to make sure they latch.

 

 

I think that was about it.  I did take some time to get my tables all added to Pinball X, and make sure I have media for all tables.  I think I am around 150 for now.  I have not added physmod 5 or VPX yet, I will do that once I am done with the cab.

 

Open Items

Mount power strip in back of cab.  

Mount toy power supply somehow in back of cab

Install power and night mode toggle switches

Install RGB Panel behind playfield

Find solution to get TV's to auto on (holding down power button seems to work)

Install glass slides and side rails

Order glass, and install glass

Mount computer on computer slide drawer

Install H channel and glass on BG

Install final 2 fans on BG

Install speakers and subwoofer

Repaint bottom of cab.  

All the other stuff I am probably forgetting.

Edited by court461, 22 September 2015 - 04:44 PM.

[court461]

Originally posted 9/21/15

 

So this weeks progress.

 

I finally mounted my CPU inside the machine.  Up to this point it has been in a case on the floor behind it.  My plan was to leave in the case but it was too big.  The I/O panel comes from Mountainmods and I bought it to support my graphics card since I would not have the case.  It is here http://www.mountainm...shed-p-715.html if anyone is interested.  About $25 shipped.  I was going to mount the motherboard directly to the drawer, but did not have any metric screws that would work with my standoffs (needed longer to go through the 1/2" plywood).  So I ended up mounting on a plexiglass motherboard tray.  I think I paid $25 or $30 for that too, so I have about $50 in my CPU mounts.  I could have got a smaller case for that, but I already had the tray, so I went with it.  Used plumbing strap to secure the power supply.  I could not find brackets made for this, and didn't feel like making my own at this point.

 

 

For the power button, I had bought this button for use in my MAME cab (which remains unfinished since I started this pincab) so I put it on for now.  I love the switch but it is more for a bench or desk so does not lend itself well to surface mounting.  For now I just have in the backbox, but I can hit it through the airholes, so I may just leave it there.

 

 

 

For my BG monitor, I fixed the power on problem with a couple of my zip tie holders, a zip tie, and a piece of plastic to hold the button.  It now comes on with my power like a champ.

 

 

For my playfield TV, I took off the case, found the power button, and rigged it to hold down.  I should have tested it before I put everything back together, that was a dumb mistake.  Once back in the cab it does not power on automatically, so I will have to look at that again.  Here is the button assembly.

 

 

I installed my back door.  Once the hinge was on, it was too big, so I used a hand planer to remove some wood so it would close.  Here is the back of the machine all closed up.

 

 

I got my H channel and BG glass in since my auto on problem with that TV is solved, and I no longer need that IR receiver visable.

 

 

I also ordered my playfield glass from a local company.  Should be ready in 5-7 days.

 

 

Open Items

Mount toy power supply somehow in back of cab

Find solution to get TV's to auto on (holding down power button seems to work) - One down

Order glass, and install glass

Mount computer on computer slide drawer

Install H channel and glass on BG

Install speakers and subwoofer

Repaint bottom of cab.  

Touch-up paint everywhere that I have cut

All the other stuff I am probably forgetting.

[court461]

So been a while, but did a few more things.  Got my speakers mounted, just used a sub and set of speakers I had for a computer, seems plenty loud enough.  Secured the speaker and subs with the plumbing strap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by court461, 04 October 2015 - 07:44 PM.

[scubajoe]

Looking great. You still have got me pumped to start mine. Need to order a launch button. I have also started my Hyperspin console project since that can be used in the family room while work on GarageCade continues.

[court461]

My glass came in.  Now I get to find out if I can measure correctly.  

 

I ordered locally.  Since I changed the dimensions (wood thickness as well as overall length), I could not order standard pinball glass.  I got the same thickness, measured to fit my cab.  I ordered clear, tempered.

 

 

Test fit looks pretty good.  Probably should have went 1/8th of an inch wider, but I don't think it will fall.

 

 

Cleaned up and cork pads removed.

 

 

Side view, to show off artwork.

 

 

Lockbar installed.

 

 

And, a few games loaded.

 

 

 

I am close to calling this thing done.

 

Open Items

Still have to figure out auto-on of playfield TV, have not had time to take apart again.

Repaint bottom of cab.  

[Sneetch]

Great updates!   Nicely done sir.

[court461]

I bought an adapter on amazon to get USB connectivity as well as headphone accessibility to the outside of the cab.  I decided to put it on the front, bottom of the cab.  Now underneath the front I have two volume buttons, one button currently unused, my night mode switch, and now a USB port, along with headphone plug.  I have a wireless adapter, so may not need the usb, but thought it might be nice to have for transferring files or possible non-network backup solution.

 

 

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I also put in the photo mat after I colored the cut with black sharpie.

 

 

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All I really have left is to get the main TV to power on automatically, but have not got around to taking it back apart yet.

Edited by court461, 14 October 2015 - 05:51 PM.

[scubajoe]

So you have had it working (only minor exceptions) for 3 weeks now, any feelings? How is feed back working?

[court461]

Still works, it is budget season at work so have not had much time to play.  But every time I do I love it.  Still have to work out the power buttons, since it runs I find it hard to get motivated to take the screen back out to look at it.  I am hoping to actually move it inside the house this weekend, so hoping my playtime will go up once that happens.  

[scubajoe]

I feel you, In the city I work for IT reports to the Finance Director and it seems like we are always in Budget, Audit or year end mode! 

 

Right now I am working hard with the HyperSpin box for the projector in the GarageCade (still full of junk) it will have dual light guns and Wii Motes along with XBox 360 wireless remotes for the couch in front of the 130in diagonal screen.

 

Working on converting the rest of my cabs to all but the custom one I am building will be specific machines not going to have 30,000 games on them. I have one that uses rotory joysticks, an old Robotron the will become a dedicated multi-williams, a Dokey Kong JR that will mostly be nintendo games, and a generic caberie that will be dedicated to 4 way joystick 2 button (or less) games for the kids.

 

 

I think I will do the pin last, but I think I will be coping most of your excelent work.

[court461]

I decided to test out the solenoids.  My 4yo son strategy is just to continue to hit the flippers as fast as possible the entire game.  Sometimes he does pretty well.  They seem to have held up just fine.  

 

[Sneetch]

My wife plays the same way hehe.

[fxdwg]

just read your thread from beginning to end over the last couple of hours. a wealth of info. thanks for sharing.

 

getting ready to start my first virtual pin cab project in the next couple of weeks. can't wait!!

Edited by fxdwg, 09 November 2015 - 01:39 AM.

[viktory2k1]

I missed a few pages but did you ever have to use all the buttons?, I have 5 on the front panel and I don't think it is enough to navagate pinballx. If I need more, I will put them on the bottom, Did you mount the solenoids to the 3 2x4'S? Later, Vic