192 replies to this topic

[Tesla]

Well, I easily got my last set of 10-VPX tables working with no surprises last-night.

 

All 40 of my VPX-Tables are now again working on my cabinet and are completely playable. This is a milestone for me on this project. Thanks again for yalls help.

 

I have set my PinballY front-end back to auto-load, and Tables are again running properly from there.

Edited by Tesla, 18 November 2023 - 04:06 PM.

[Tesla]

Depending on what before means, it may do you no good

 

The table recently entirely changed

 

I am running Heavy Metal v1.5.2 from earlier this year. With sound, videos, and whatever B2S that was included. It still plays fine.

 

I went to install the new v4.x version, but my system does not currently meet the minimum system requirements. I'll have to take a look later.

 

Since my cabinet (and my 40 VPX tables) is 99% working fine now again, I've kinda frozen all config-changes until after the Holidays (so me and the family can just "play" ... without needing to tinker/fix).

[wiesshund]

 

 

I went to install the new v4.x version, but my system does not currently meet the minimum system requirements.

 

 

Huh?

[Tesla]

 

 

 

I went to install the new v4.x version, but my system does not currently meet the minimum system requirements.

 

 

Huh?

 

 

It says I MUST USE VPX 10.0 revision 1465 or higher

B2S server 2.0.3 and VpinMAME 3.6

 

I don't have all that yet.

 

I won an extra-ball on Heavy Metal v1.5.x table the other night. You get to listen to a special music-track. After it finishes, my table goes kinda silent until you lose that ball.

Edited by Tesla, 21 November 2023 - 01:37 AM.

[wiesshund]

oh, yea

Needs vpinmame and b2s up to date or the alias wont work.

 

could play without it i guess, but would screw things up if you can a diff version of the table
and the DOF would not be right.

 

Not that you care about the DOF part.

[Tesla]

This ALP only has 4 buttons on the front, so I want to drill a standard-sized hole on the front to hold one-more switch (I really think just one-more will do it for now).

 

It will be for Extra-Ball-BuyIn.

 

But what do yall think of adding the switch on the right, near the plunger ... and move the Launch-button there ... free-ing a spot on the left.

 

It's the front, and first real-holes the drill-into this thing. I would rather not screw this up.

Edited by Tesla, 24 November 2023 - 03:34 AM.

[wiesshund]

sounds logical, for the launch button

[Tesla]

All is working fine here with my converted ALP cabinet... just Windows-10, PinballY, and VPX. New audio-system.

 

Had the family over for the holidays already, and everything worked good while we played Multi-Player on various popular 90's tables. It had been turned-off for a week or so. Powered-it-up and it booted and worked good. Very appliance or game-machine like (no fiddling required) and it was fun for all. 

 

All mods still on hold till after the holidays.

I was thinking I would remove the new LG-32in (and maybe the BackBox) and then drag it out to the garage and drill all the (button and venting) holes at once (while cab is still pretty empty). The other primary thing I want to accomplish is a more proper LG-32in mounting using the 100x100mm VESA pattern/mount.

Edited by Tesla, 14 December 2023 - 12:49 AM.

[wiesshund]

it you have the means to put the vesa mount on a rigid hinged arm, it gives an easy way to open the machine for maintenance etc.

 

A vesa arm could work too, if it goes low enough, but i dont think most do as usually the bottom have is vertically rigid.

 

Just an idea anyways.

 

32" screen is easy to work with due to low weight.

[merlinux2]

Hi, I've received the big version of  ALP (ha8819) for Christmas.

However OTG isn't working on my PC: known bug of version 5.7

Can anyone share an ALP firmware with me < 5.7 ?

It's a file like ha8819_update_43.56.4_5.56.4_20211025_1659_major.img

I will then be able to connect to my PC

[Tesla]

Hi, I've received the big version of  ALP (ha8819) for Christmas.

However OTG isn't working on my PC: known bug of version 5.7

Can anyone share an ALP firmware with me < 5.7 ?

It's a file like ha8819_update_43.56.4_5.56.4_20211025_1659_major.img

I will then be able to connect to my PC

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I suggest you work directly with AtGames Support on this issue.

Hopefully someone does, but I doubt anyone here is going to have that file.

 

Finally, I suggest you look elsewhere for your OTG-problems.

It should work fine (but obviously there are various prerequisites).

For example, you need both HDMI-cable and specific USB-cable, as well as various settings in both ALP and Windows-PC.

 

Back in Jan-2023, my HA8819 ALP shipped with Firmware: 10970-A21.

I upgraded to: 5.68.0.

 

OTG-Mode worked fine then, and all year (until I finally removed the motherboard recently). 

Edited by Tesla, 03 January 2024 - 06:20 PM.

[Tesla]

We only had one family multi-player VPX play-session over the holidays, but the newly rebuilt ALP cabinet worked fine and we had fun.

 

I can now get back to hardware mods and refining a few things.

 

I plan to mostly (and fairly easily) disassemble the cabinet (mainly remove the BackBox and LG-32inch monitor). That should make it lighter and easier to move to garage for drilling of the various holes.

 

Time to backup before I tear it apart again. I am now running a full Macrium Reflect backup,

of my stable Windows-10/Pinscape/VPX system (with 40 popular VPX-tables installed, configured, and working).

Edited by Tesla, 05 January 2024 - 01:01 AM.

[wiesshund]

I strongly recommend drilling the cabinet on the living room carpet

It is very good lung exercise for wives and it adds a rustic texture to the carpet.

[Tesla]

I strongly recommend drilling the cabinet on the living room carpet

It is very good lung exercise for wives and it adds a rustic texture to the carpet.

 

You joke, but that is the best way to get various activities completely banned from the inside of the house.

Me and my newly tricked-out pinball cabinet will have lots of fun in the cold winter garage.

[PacketNarc]

So, can we get back to the original topic which was 'is it possible to use an after-marker LVDS cable with a different / new display, to connect to the stock 32" playfield monitor ?

[Tesla]

So, can we get back to the original topic which was 'is it possible to use an after-marker LVDS cable with a different / new display, to connect to the stock 32" playfield monitor ?

 

I think the answer is Yes. Mainly because the guy on Amazon review said it worked fine on his ALP, and even uploaded a pic.

 

This should have worked:

https://www.vpforums...=52387&p=528518

 

But it did not for me. I think maybe Murphy's-Law got me or a transient power-surge. Also, (obviously) be sure you get Pin-1 correct on the LVDS-header because there is no physical connector keying at this point.

 

https://www.vpforums...=52387&p=528690

 

I will try it again if the opportunity ever presents itself.

 

As far as the LVDS-cable goes, if I recall correctly ... you use the ALP's existing LVDS cable, one side of which is already connect to the back of the AtGames 1080p/60Hz 32-inch LCD-Panel. You also can just leave the panel's power connected to the ALP's Power-Supply. 

Edited by Tesla, 12 January 2024 - 05:32 PM.

[Tesla]

Hello Noah,

 

So, if I post here in my build-thread ... will all the (10 or so) people I used to chat with here see it?

 

All,

 

Well, after 4 years of trying to be healthy (and staying up-to-date with my COVID vaccinations) ... I finally caught COVID-19 in Spring-2024 (my wife brought it home after volunteering at church charity event). We both got it, and even our large-male 6-year old Bengal-Cat caught it.

 

I caught it that night she got back from event. I started feeling bad (but it didn't seem like a cold or the flu). We both tested positive with home-tests. 

I'm 59, good weight, and no serious pre-existing conditions. I was working-out and feeling-great before I got sick. I felt 40-ish.

 

     IT PROCEEDED TO DO A GOOD JOB OF RAVAGING MY BODY and TRYING TO KILL ME (well, both of us actually). 

 

Luckily, we got to a doctor quick and they prescribed the LaGevRio (alternative to Paxlovid, but with less side-effects).

There is no medicine for cats-and-dogs, so they either survive it or just die.

Long-story-short ... we all three got cured.

My best advice to yall it to Act-Quickly (once you test positive for it). You only have 5-6 days to see a real-doctor and get the proper medicine in you.

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

So, I'm back to working on this Pinball Cabinet.

It still plays good (just the way it is).

With this 1440p screen, sound-upgrade, the nudging-ability ... the code-speed of a simpler VPX-tables like Terminator-2 play great. F14-Tomcat plays fast and excellent.

 

However, I'm ready to get back to upgrading it (computer hardware, OS, and VPX software to latest).

Edited by Tesla, 19 October 2024 - 05:40 PM.

[digitalarts]

Hi Tesla, so good to hear you and your family are fine now.
Yes, COVID could be a pain in the ass. But you made it gladly.
Best wishes and good luck of forthcoming works with your cabinet

[Tesla]

What I like about my cabinet now (in it's current hardware/software form) is that I can ... Cold-Boot it every few weeks and it just works fine ... with no fiddling (even for Multi-Players like the wife and I like to play).

 

It's just Windows-10 on an old Intel-i5 Dell, but with a newer Nvidia GTX-1660 I popped in 2-years ago. 

 

Pinball-Y front-end with VPX-7.2.x  ...

The real-time nudge (with KL25z) is working nicely at 150%. This really adds to the realism and the cabinet and play-experience.

At 32-inches, the new LG 1440p@60Hz IPS is noticeably better than the original 1080p playfield lcd-panel. We stand so close to play.

 

Out of the 40 VPX-Tables I have installed, configured, and working ... some our favorites to play Multi-Player on are F14-Tomcat , Terminator-2, Theater of Magic. One reason being that when all the lights and reflections are ramped-up for multiple-balls in play concurrently ... this current-config can still keep-up on it without any lag. Remember how fast F14 can be? ... well, it's still smooth and nicely playable with all 4-balls going at once. Moving from 1080p to 1440p looks great, but is straining-it to the edge. 

 

When you are playing F14-Tomcat Multi-Player and you earn a capture/lock, but the location is already occupied by the other player's previously locked-ball ... it does a cool ball-swap.

 

Our favorite table (Star Trek - TNG) seems to need a bit more horse-power to run a good multi-ball experience. It seems to idle at around 80% CPU-utilization, and 90% during single-ball play. This normal-play seems fine (and I do allow the laser-sight). But once Multi-Ball gets going ... lag and glitchy/disappearing balls . So, we don't really get to play it much.

Edited by Tesla, 26 November 2024 - 09:47 PM.

[err404]

I know this is an old topic, but I want to report on that that the LVDS controller linked in this thread worked for me to connect directly to the ALP playfield. This makes the screen look far more clean than the OTG passthrough. The image is more sharp, has more accurate color. Banding / graininess are gone and the latency is noticeably less. Im playing with DLSR at 4k and the image is much better than I expected. I have mainly been using my cabinet as a VR super stubby and wasnt worried about breaking the screen. I just wanted the screen available for more social game time.