176 replies to this topic

[blackvulcan3]

No Rusty, I had dismissed magnasave buttons. I may do some more research on that. I may have been shortsighted.

 

I mounted microswitches behind the two coin return buttons on my coin door.  They come in handy sometimes.  I like to have plenty of buttons without looking cluttered.

 

 

 

DDH69, I was thinking then maybe having 1 player and A button on the left, credit and escape in the coin door and launch on the right. With my artwork I do like the thought of less is more.

 

I really need to research magna save buttons, Black Knight uses them (I think??) but what else??

[DDH69]

I use magna save buttons more for stuff other than magna save, PinballX menu and nudge in Pinball FX2.

 

What's the 1 player button for, is it your Start button?

[blackvulcan3]

Start button, I just stole it from my MAME cab today, always liked that look. 

[blackvulcan3]

Big morning this morning, I took the morning off golf so I could spend time on the build, excellent decision.

 

I drilled out the leg holes today, in readiness for the move upstairs for assembly.

 

I sanded the cab at 80 grit, 120 then 180 to get where I was happy with it. Around some of the holes that will be covered are split so I didn't fill them, only I'll (and by "I'll" I mean anyone that reads this blog, so me and about 2 others) know about it so thats cool.

 

Anyway, after sanding I brushed it down, vacuumed and cleaned it ready for paint.

 

Gave it a paint and I'm happy with the result. I used an expensive (I thought it was, others may disagree $50AUD a litre) paint and primer combo. I will do two coats where visible when assembled but only one everywhere else like under the decals. Even being a primer/paint combo the plywood still drunk it up.

 

Time to have a rest because I'm going to get hammered drunk tonight at my 25th school reunion and then hurt for days thereafter. I am hoping to be voted "most likely to throw up on myself" this evening.

 

Heres some pics.

 

Edited by blackvulcan3, 22 October 2016 - 01:15 AM.

[BorgDog]

Looks nice, my favorite color. 

[blackvulcan3]

So I have decided to include magnasave buttons from the outset. A couple more holes to drill tomorrow and some more paint on the exposed bits.

 

I have spent today wiring up the i-pac 4 with the 9 buttons (it seems like such overkill for only 9 buttons but it was free so I'm cool with it), the hardest part was looking through my hundreds of cables here to find I didn't have a male to male PS/2 cable. eBay and $10 later I had it here in a few days.

 

Took a while for the PC to recognise the i-pac. Some bios tampering required but finally it works.

 

I made up a little cardboard simulation of the cabinet to tinker with tonight. Everything is now wired up to get into the right buttons for the programs.

 

Heres some pics from today.

 

Edited by blackvulcan3, 28 October 2016 - 10:44 AM.

[STAT]

Think about it, to add a Joystick before you complete it ... for Pinballs like Baby Pacman, Caveman, ...

And where is your "Buy-In" Button ?

Edited by STAT, 28 October 2016 - 12:35 PM.

[blackvulcan3]

Think about it, to add a Joystick before you complete it ... for Pinballs like Baby Pacman, Caveman, ...

And where is your "Buy-In" Button ?

 I guess I'm not buying into a buy in button. 

 

I've spent today downloading some VP9 tables. Indiana Jones is getting a workout withe my oldest right now, but I can't get the VP9 backglasses to load.

 

I have more reading to do on VP9. Some tables play well, others have stutter. 

[blackvulcan3]

I'm a little dirty on myself this morning. Its the old two steps forward, one step back.

 

So I got all the VP9 tables playing right, had to play with the table scripts a few times due to a Windows glitch but simple but time consuming.

 

This morning, in an attempt to try and fix the stutter, I loaded up the Intel video for the backglass monitor to take the load off the playfield. This has thrown everything into chaos and I am a little frustrated that I can't get the backglasses to load on that monitor now.

 

Frustrated. Tired. I may get back on it this afternoon, I may not. Deep breath.

[RustyCardores]

Have set the screenres.txt in the tables folder to reflect the changes?


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[blackvulcan3]

No not yet Rusty and the swap has meant that the DMD is now monitor 2 not 3, which I am trying to fix first.

 

I seem to recall that I will have dramas if I don't sort that, especially with FP.

 

The video card has monitor 1 & 2 and the Intel driver monitor 3. Searching on how to change that in windows. May revert yet if I can't fix it, hence the reasons why I haven't messed with the text files. 

 

EDIT - I think I may try having the two HDMI monitors from the video card and the DMD from the VGA input see how that goes. 

 

So that worked in at least its back to having the monitors in the sequence they need to be. The DMD shouldn't create too much load I guess so this may have all been for naught, however I think it is how I am going to configure it moving forward.

 

I may spend the rest of the afternoon just playing pinball, enjoying what I have and not messing with it.

 

EDIT AGAIN - BTW I dropped my playfield about three inches & caught it before it bounced into my PC but just enough to rip the end off the HDMI cable. One of those days.

Edited by blackvulcan3, 30 October 2016 - 04:44 AM.

[RustyCardores]

 

 

EDIT - I think I may try having the two HDMI monitors from the video card and the DMD from the VGA input see how that goes. 

 

So that worked in at least its back to having the monitors in the sequence they need to be. The DMD shouldn't create too much load I guess so this may have all been for naught, however I think it is how I am going to configure it moving forward.

 

 

I think the general consensus is that all off the one GPS works best. 

 

 

EDIT AGAIN - BTW I dropped my playfield about three inches & caught it before it bounced into my PC but just enough to rip the end off the HDMI cable. One of those days.

 

Crikey! 

[blackvulcan3]

The wife is playing Addams Family and just found out what lucky numbers is.....

 

It has stutter on VPX, only on the way down near the right flipper. I have plenty still to try. It would appear that the consensus are probably right.

[RustyCardores]

Bugga about the stutter... there are pages and pages for you to read on that one and there seems to be no universal solution.

 

Once you have gone through and fine tuned all the video pref stuff, you may find some tables will still stutter.  These tables (in my experience) can often be helped by one or more of these....

 

* turning off playfield reflections 

* increasing the "lamptimer" in the table script (sometimes as high as 200) Note: Not all tables have this

* skipping frames in the B2S settings

* turning off the playfields backdrop image in the editor

[blackvulcan3]

Cheers mate, its seems all I have done for a few weeks now is read about stutter and yes, there is no "one size fits all" solution.

 

Some tables that are quite taxing such as Demolition Man work really well and then other tables that shouldn't be so taxing suffer from it. 

 

Cheers for the tips.

[blackvulcan3]

Just saw this on shopping express. 

 

http://www.shoppinge...onitor/E1659FWU

 

I must admit I had always like the idea of the 15.6 LCD screen used by @DDH69 for his DMD but was concerned about durability, especially in postage and then me and my big sausage fingers.

 

This is USB 3.0 powered and I can't see a reason not to buy it but wondering if anyone here has seen a USB monitor setup and know of a reason why is wouldn't work??

Edited by blackvulcan3, 01 November 2016 - 07:57 AM.

[RustyCardores]

I bought that exact monitor and I found the DisplayLink side of it very finicky.

 

Prior to buying it I looked at it in store... The first one worked, but the screen was cracked out of the box. They tried to show me the second one and they had issues getting it to work, so they pulled out a third. I purchased on the proviso that I could bring it back if it didn't work with my cab.

 

Oddly enough, it worked on my son's PC and wasn't a bad little monitor (although not huge in contrast), but it just wouldn't work in the cab no matter how hard I tried.

 

Others are using USB3 monitors with success though, perhaps spend a little more on the ASUS?

[blackvulcan3]

Thanks Rusty. I'll sus out the Asus. 

 

TBH I am happy with the old PC monitor I am using at present but if I don't have to cut through and recess half of it in the cabinet I will be very happy, even if it means spending a few extra (hundred) bucks.

[RustyCardores]

That one may work, don't get me wrong, but just make sure that you have a good return policy if it decides your cab is not friendly.

 

Why not go a proper DMD? A few hundred would see you into a plug and play kit fro OzStick.

 

I've been offered an old pokie and I'm hoping it's got one of those super short but wide monitors up top.  Perfect for a Poor Man's DMD

Edited by RustyCardores, 01 November 2016 - 08:38 AM.

[blackvulcan3]

Nice. I didn't realise that OzStick had them and also that they were relatively cheap. 

 

I bought all my original mame machine parts through them.

 

$280 is a nice price. Very nice in fact.