176 replies to this topic

[Michael Goldsmith]

I haven't read through your thread in a while. Are you using the PinScape controller? If so, why not use that for nudge? It works great on my cabinet.

[blackvulcan3]

So it has been a month since my last post, unfortunately life has gotten in the way.

 

I have been in contact with codemercs re a joywarrior 24f16. It is pricey but seems to be a pretty sweet and easy solution.

 

​I did look for a board to run pinscape but I must be looking in the wrong place because they seem more expensive through eBay here. 

 

I have started looking into DOF and LED, but at the moment I am too time poor to consider it as I am so inexperienced in both.

Edited by blackvulcan3, 19 April 2017 - 10:44 AM.

[blackvulcan3]

Okay. So the purchase has been made. I bought the joywarrior 24f16. Leaves Germany tonight, hopefully won't take too long to get here.

 

I have also explored my feedback & I am 99.9% (mainly due to finances but also to @rustycardores passion) sure that I will be investing in a PMD solution.

 

I have to say, in my weaker moments I did consider just maxing a credit card and buying a ready made Zeb solution, those things are sweet. All that wiring scares the heck fire out of me.

 

In the end it came down to the fact that the PMD seems to deliver more feedback and thats what I am lacking now is nudging (nearly sorted) and tactile feedback (oh and also a front end but this takes time & I prefer to just play so I've been slack). 

 

I have to give a very special shout out to @xenonph for a special treat this week. Very much appreciated. 

[Thalamus]

I've been pondering about doing a combination of regular DOF and adding PMD. Guess, you can do it the other way around if needed.

[blackvulcan3]

Hey all. Lots of work recently. I received my JoyWarrior24F14-WP from Germany. It was simple to fit, USB connection, no soldering required.

 

I have fit it about 45cm from the front of my cab, in the centre and WOW, the nudging is very good. Side to side nudging is awesome, its not perfect yet, but I'm very happy with it so far.

 

I added six tables tonight, 2 I couldn't believe I didn't have, Next Gen and the first Elvira. I also put on Whirlwind which is also a bit of fun, I had never played that table before.

 

I'm almost ready to have another crack at PinballX. I want to do a back up of my working system before I go down that path again, after last time.

[DDH69]

Sounds like a great plan, take a backup of the working system, work on it, if it all works just right, its the new system to backup before the next changes!  Have fun.

[blackvulcan3]

Well today I decided that I would complete the exterior of the cabinet before I did PinballX.

 

I had, in the past, decided that I would not add the siderails and glass until everything was complete, sort of a symbolic end. Today I said nuts to that and got to work.

 

Since I've had the glass for, what feels like, ever. I never actually measured it when I received it, well, its too wide. Wider than I ordered anyway. This threw out the plastics and I had to start whittling. I'm pretty good at that I found.

 

The glass was also very funky from sitting downstairs for 6 months, it scrubbed up okay though.

 

Here is the finished product, after just over a year, plenty of blood, sweat and tears (lots of tears) the cabinet is complete (ish - minus PMD and a front end but that is all to come).

 

I have decided to throw back to the start of the project when all I wanted was a Theatre of Magic cab. Here's my Fallout tribute to a TOM cabinet, I think its pretty sweet.

 

[blackvulcan3]

I've had so much fun playing my cab over the past few weeks with the glass on. I am so happy with it.

I had to take the glass off today as I am now (after a full day of errors and fixes) ready to start the front end work.

This meant ghosting the machine once stable which it now seems to be with 10.3 3088 installed.

Windows 10 is supposed to make it easy to make a clone of your machine and save it to an external device. Nope. That wouldn't work so I used a 3rd party free software solution that took about an hour to save the image to an external drive.

With the glass on my cab I realise how hard it is to plug in a USB - read impossible, so glass off, monitor out just to connect an external drive. Still that's all done and in the next few weeks I will work on a front end. Let the fun begin.

By the way, I have removed FP, much to the annoyance of my wife and kids, PBA & FX2. I don't play them and they were just there because. I am now solely running VPX with a select few Physmod 5 tables.

Edited by blackvulcan3, 28 May 2017 - 12:51 PM.

[blackvulcan3]

Not sure if anyone is still monitoring this thread but my cabinet is now playable with PinballX.

 

It has 105 working VPX tables and thats it, no other systems.

 

I've completed the PinballX setup & this was a chore until I discovered PBXRecorder. Wow, what a program. I spent all of today recording table videos. I only have audio on 5 tables so I will add some more audio to the mix.

 

I've hidden an escape button under my the front of my cab, as the chore of getting it to work with the coin return button was too much.

 

The kids are giving Minions, Smurfette, Ghostbusters and Gargamel Park a workout. I should be paying JP babysitting money.....

 

Only feedback left, this can wait. I am going to enjoy my cab for a while.

Edited by blackvulcan3, 11 June 2017 - 06:45 AM.

[Binkles]

I've recently followed your progress. Well done, it looks fantastic.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Brer Frog]

That's a great looking VP.

[Nemo]

Sure we follow your every move    ...... kidding,,,, i was wondering though, how did you setup your nudge within vp ?

I see i can order the JW24F14module here for about 25 euro (ex shipping).

 

Nice cab ! And regarding the PMD i can be blunt: DO IT ! You'll never look back, it's sooooo great and customisable i love it.

[blackvulcan3]

Setup is very easy. Plug and play. Run the calibration tool and thats it.

 

Here are the setting I use from knorr & laylow 

 

            #24            

 

The downloads are just above that from knorr.

 

Sometimes it drops out but that seems to be a USB/WIndows thing, open the calibration tool (just select it from the drop down & its ready to go again)

 

laylow has less trouble in Win 7 than I seem to in Win 10. I drop out once or twice a week, takes nothing to fix though.

 

PMD is coming....

[DDH69]

Yes, definitely still watching .... I love seeing them come to life!

[Thalamus]

Setup is very easy. Plug and play. Run the calibration tool and thats it.

 

Here are the setting I use from knorr & laylow 

 

            #24            

 

The downloads are just above that from knorr.

 

Sometimes it drops out but that seems to be a USB/WIndows thing, open the calibration tool (just select it from the drop down & its ready to go again)

 

laylow has less trouble in Win 7 than I seem to in Win 10. I drop out once or twice a week, takes nothing to fix though.

 

PMD is coming....

 

Advice you to try a usb hub attached to you cab. I made a mess of my keyboard/nudge controller a while back. I got crazy reading from it. It kept dropping out. No wonder, it IS kind of broken. BUT, the interesting thing is that while debugging I noticed that connected directly to the computer or a relatively new usb 2.0 hub it behaved very differently from what it did connected to an older usb 2.0 hub. On the older one, it never disconnects. Yes, it still sends some crazy data, but, not at all the same behaviour.

[blackvulcan3]

I'll give that a try Thalamus and to be honest, I'm not sure now if its in a USB 2.0 or 3.0 slot, shouldn't make a difference in theory but we all know how these things can make a difference in reality.

[blackvulcan3]

Cheers Thalamus. I tried it in where I had my mouse and keyboard, under the LAN port on the motherboard, but this time using an old hub (actually a coffee warmer, warming turned off) & it hasn't dropped out since.

 

It was in a USB 2.0 port not USB 3.0 but still it was hit n miss. Thanks for the tip.