297 replies to this topic

[DedRok_V]

Are they ever really finished? Really?

Cant wait to see pics.

Think I,ve fallen behind a bit, too busy with videos and DVDs.

[Flying Dutchman]

Thanks Darkfall for the coindoor images .. might help me in trying to get mine connected, as I'm not such a 'Wiring-Wizard' myself!

Once you've slided in your screens .. fired up your Cabinet there's no way back! You'll enjoy every second of it!

For the PF glass I used one from hardened glass and for the Backbox I used a plexi-glass (which has a nice and shiny effect (& easy to cut )!

Cheers,
FD.

Edited by Flying Dutchman, 16 August 2011 - 03:46 PM.

[Darkfall]

Thanks Darkfall for the coindoor images .. might help me in trying to get mine connected, as I'm not such a 'Wiring-Wizard' myself!

Once you've slided in your screens .. fired up your Cabinet there's no way back! You'll enjoy every second of it!

For the PF glass I used one from hardened glass and for the Backbox I used a plexi-glass (which has a nice and shiny effect (& easy to cut )!

Cheers,
FD.

I was thinking I'd just order the two pieces of tempered glass for both locations in their proper thicknesses, so they fit into the plastic guides properly. I haven't called to check pricing yet, though, so we'll see if that changes my mind at all *grin*.

[Darkfall]

My contactors almost got delivered today (I wasn't home - they got here overnight, which totally wasn't expected!). They'll be here tomorrow, and I can do some testing. I hope these $13.00 units do the trick!

Yay to Mouser Electronics for the uber fast FedEx shipping to Canada. Wow! For $20, even - amazing.

If these contactors do the job, I'll make sure I post the part number and a link, so others can use them, too.

[maxxsinner]

You will be stoked with the feedback darkfall. Makes the cab feel that much closer to real.

[Darkfall]

Well...I finished the wiring, slid the playfield display into place, and powered up - no video.

I goofed around with it for a few minutes, playing with the menu button and stuff to see if anything would show up on the screen (nothing did - not even the Philips welcome screen during power up).

I slid the TV out and tried powering it up again. Still no video. It clicks when it powers on, so it's sort of working, but not completely.

That's when I noticed a big heatsink wasn't straight. Oh crap - it hit the cross bar of the cabinet on the way in, and just bent backwards a few degrees - enough to crack the power supply board.

I had a look at repairing the board with jumpers over the crack, but there's a bunch that'd need to be done, and the board is only $60.00, so screw it - I'll just replace the board.

Sucks, though - I was looking forward to seeing it come to life. Maybe I'll throw the Sharp in it's place for now to test with, while I wait for the replacement power board to arrive.

So - when you're sliding your display in for the first time, slid it in a few inches, check clearances, a few more inches, check again. Live and learn, I guess. Bah!

On the plus side, the cabinet's wiring looks awesome, and everything else appears to work.

[DedRok_V]

Oh no, and you were so close.

Patience is your friend.

[Darkfall]

Oh no, and you were so close.

Patience is your friend.

Hehe. It's a minor setback. At least it was an easily identifiable problem, what with the cracked board and all - and it's not a terribly expensive piece to replace - it's just time to get one. I have a few friends in the TV repair industry, so I'll try them first on Monday. If no go, then I'll order it online.

I did throw the Sharp on top of the cabinet as the playfield for now, with a little 24" on top for a temporary backglass display.

I discovered that the CPU fan is noisy as hell - it has to go, and one speaker isn't working (I saw a chomp in the audio cable, so I imagine that is the issue - easy fix).

I'll be notching the crossbar so the proper playfield display goes in without destruction once it's fixed *grin*.

In the meantime, I can fiddle around with the LEDWiz setup and get it going.

[DedRok_V]

I find that the GPU fans get a bit noisy when they ramp up , mainly FP works them out.

Glad you got it sorted out.

[chriz]

holy cow, I am glad it's only 60 bucks.

[maxxsinner]

I came so close to doing the same to my monitor every time I lowered it into my cabinet.
Good to hear you can get it replaced easily enough.

[Darkfall]

It's good to know I'm not the only one who got close to doing some damage on the display. I'll know tomorrow how quickly I can get the replacement board for the display, and then we'll be back on track *grin*.

In terms of the fans, the GPU fans seem to be ok - it's just that CPU fan that's a killer. It vibrates the whole cabinet. Maybe I have some sawdust in it, or something - I'll check that. If it's clear, then it's coming out of there.

[DedRok_V]

It can be a shaker motor replacement

[Darkfall]

It can be a shaker motor replacement

Haha. It almost could! I can barely hear the game over the noise the thing is making. I'm kind of shocked at how loud it is - it wasn't so loud in the temporary computer case it was in. I bet I will find that there's sawdust in it, and that's why it's not cooling properly and the fan is running at full tilt.

[bladexdsl]

It's good to know I'm not the only one who got close to doing some damage on the display.

i dropped mine once and it still works!

my cab doesn't need a shaker the damn sub turns the whole cab into one i even had to re-adjust my mercury nudges cos they kept tripping!!

Edited by bladexdsl, 22 August 2011 - 10:58 PM.

[Darkfall]

Still no part for the TV, but I did get the parts to upgrade the PC in the cabinet. I went from a AMD Phenom X4 with 4Gb on an ASUS motherboard to a much preferred Intel i5 with 8Gb on an MSI motherboard.

The system performs perfectly now. No more speed issues with HyperPin (HyperPin just hated the old motherboard / CPU and ran like a slug). I was surprised that Windows 7 booted without a reinstall after such a drastic hardware change, but it did. I had to add the new drivers and clean out the old, unused drivers, but it's all good. HyperPin runs exactly as it should, and video is smoother than ever while playing (it was fine before, too, but it does look smoother still now).

I also put in a Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCIe card, since some said it helped them solve ball stutter with tables that have just loaded when they first access sounds - and sure enough, it does solve that problem (or the new motherboard and CPU did - whichever).

Anyway, it runs awesome now.

I also made a bracket to mount a couple of micro switches near the coin mechanisms to capture when the coin reject is pressed, so I can use those as insert coin buttons without adding extra buttons to the front of the cabinet for that. It worked out awesomely. I will post photos and measurements in a bit - I took photos while I did the work.

[Darkfall]

Finally, some photos!


Relay add-on board to handle the strobes and knocker solenoid. The relay board next to it is for the contactors, and receives switched +5 volts, and this board taps into that - the switched means there is a switch to interrupt the +5 volts to shut off the noisy stuff for night mode. The relay add-on board also has a constant +5 volts for the strobe relay, since I don't want that turning off with the night mode switch. I ran out of screw terminal blocks, so I just soldered the ground right into the board.


This is the control panel under the front edge of the cabinet. We have the main power switch (big switch toward the rear), a momentary toggle switch as the PC power button (just in case Windows freezes, or something), PC power and HDD LEDs, the night mode switch (says On and Off on it). Beside those, we have a 4-port USB3.0 hub, and at the front of the panel we have the speaker volume, power button, and headphone jack.


The control panel on the inside. There's a bit of sawdust - I jigsawed and routed the hole with the panel in the cabinet (crawled under it like I was changing the oil on a car - got lots of sawdust in the face. Not recommended).


The tilt bobs (so hard not to type "boobs". I had to retype that three times to get "bobs"!). There's one on the other side, too. Each has half the brass ring taped off, so they only contact in one direction.

For those of you wanting to use your coin reject buttons on your coin door as add coin buttons, I've detailed how to make a bracket to get the job done below:


These are the parts you'll need. You won't need 2 of those nuts, as it turns out. I wanted to use them, but they weren't necessary, and they got in the way of the coin mechanism when the reject button is pressed, so I left them out. The short machine screws are 4-40 x 1/4", and the longer ones are 4-40 x 3/4". The aluminum stock is 1/8" thick, 1" wide. All available at Home Depot or something similar. The microswitches I swiped from a few extra arcade buttons I had laying around.


The backet you see in the previous photo with all the measurements and stuff you need. Measurements are in millimeters.


The bracket flipped over, with the microswitches attached, ready to screw to the coin mechanisms.


This is the coin door with the coin mechanisms installed (this is the standard Williams 2-slot coin door). You'll need the coin mechanisms, since we'll be attaching to those (the little hole in the middle of each one is what we'll be taking advantage of).


Here's the bracket installed, ready to be wired. The small screws are just the right length to get through the 1/8" aluminum and into the holes on the coin mechanisms, but not so long that they'll bind the mechanism's movement.



Popping off the plastic switch covers allows us to get our wires connected to the original coin switches. We just wire in parallel with those switches, so you can insert a coin to trip the original switches, or press the reject button to trip our new switches. Wire the grounds of our switches to the grounds of the original switches, and the other side of our switches to the other side of the original switches. I have wired the ground of only one of my switches to the original switches, and the ground of my second new switch to the ground of my first new switch - this saves me having to unsolder the ground on both of the original switches.


The covers are back on, and we're done. Test the mechanism's movement to make sure the microswitches are close enough to be engaged. If they aren't, loosen the screws holding the switches and move them a little bit to get them close enough (the holes drilled in the aluminum are larger than the diameter of our machine screws, so there's some wiggle room to move things around a bit).


Here's everything installed, with the coin reject button not pressed.


Here's with the reject button pressed - the microswitch is pressed in. When you press the reject button, the coin mechanism swings open to drop any jammed coins down through the mechnism. When it does, it hits our switch and trips it. As long as you've wired everything to your IPAC so that the result is 5 or 6 being pressed, then you're ready to rock.

Edited by Darkfall, 26 August 2011 - 09:10 AM.

[chriz]

paul, you rock!

awesome details

[mameman23]

Nice work. Seems a lot of work to wire the reject buttons for credits, when you have working coin mechs. Why not simply use the shift function on the iPaq and use a button combo?

Let's see some running pics

[bladexdsl]

I went from a AMD Phenom X4 with 4Gb on an ASUS motherboard to a much preferred Intel i5 with 8Gb on an MSI motherboard.

which msi m/b model?