40 replies to this topic

[Lobotomy]

Since my stuff is arriving at a steady paste, i thought it's time to open up my own thread, so here we go!:

Monitors:
=========
40" 16:9 LCD Fullhd Samsung 1080p - Playfield
32" 16:9 LCD HD Ready Samsung 720p - Backglass
17" 4:3 LCD Dell Monitor - DMD

Cabinet:
============
19 mm MDF
Mamemans (thanks!) Twilight Zone Widebody measurements with a few adjustments for the 40" Playfield.
Ipac 2 and Ultralux Chrome Buttons - Ultimarc
4 x 120 mm Blue LED Fans
2 + 2 Flipperbuttons with trueleaf switches - VirtuaPin
Custom made nudge function (More on this later, when i've tried it out first)
Used coindoor from my mame days (not as wide as a pinball coindoor, but will try and fit it and go from there)
Abused Williams legs (one is straight) - got them free from a pinball graveyard just to get going, will buy straight ones...

PC-setup:
=========

Was going to use my i7-2600 gaming computer for this project, but thanks to a understanding girlfriend ( ) and a large tax-refund i could buy a new setup for this.

OS = win XP SP3 - 32bit (going to try win 7 64 bit first)
CPU = AMD PHENOM II X4 965 BE 3.4GHZ
MB = ASUS M4A79XTD EVO 790X
GPU1 = 1x ASUS GEFORCE GTX 460 DIRECTCU TOP V2 1GB DDR5 (Playfield+(dmd?))
GPU2 = got an nvidia 9600 or something somewhere, will try it for the backglass - hope it will be sufficent, or i'll buy another gfx for the bg+dmd
HDD = Samsung HD501LJ 500GB (found this lying on a shelf unused, will maybe upgrade to ssd, love the ssd speed)
SOUND = Logitech Z-340

More updates as time goes

[Rawd]

Nice! You're going to enjoy it!

[faralos]

for a different look ( I have seen some of these on the web) you can use furniture table legs for the pin legs! does the job and looks cool! of course the more intricately carved the better!

[Lobotomy]

I did my body for the cab, and i wanted a nice snug fit to the playfield.
I measured the playfield tv to the millimeter, and added two millimeters to the widht.

All was fine, untill i tried to fit it in, and it got stuck...
I screwed a support beam on the back of the tv and measured the middle of the tv, where it got stuck...

It is 5 millimeters BIGGER in the middlepart!

So i had to unscrew one of the sides and but a 5 mm board between and screw it back again...


After some sanding the result isn't that bad...

[Lobotomy]

A little progress with the backbox today =)



It looks BIG, since my original plan was to go 26", but got a good deal on a 32" instead.
Big isn't always better i guess..

[bolt]

Looks very good Lobotomy.

[gStAv]

Nice work there Lobotomy!

I got a 26" for the BG monitor, but hey, when you're making your own cab you do better going up to the next size LCD!
I couldn't fit more than 30" in my Judge Dredd cab, so I had no choice! Damn Swedish LCD sizes! (26" and next step is 32")

Looks great so far man!

Cheers!

[Lobotomy]

Been away for the last couple of days...
But came home today and got an hour of cab time.

Had to try out the dmd cutout

[Lobotomy]

Work and kids has slown this project down abit for me, will give a short update:

Button holes drilled:


Got access to my boss workshop this morning before work, and made my very first metal creation, well, actually two
My custom siderails:

The two buttons are perhaps too far away from eachother, but since the second button is rarely used, i chose to put them further apart so the second button would'nt interfare with the primary button.

Lesson of the day: everything is soooo much easier when you got the proper tools and machines, AND you save alot of time too

[bladexdsl]

Been away for the last couple of days...
But came home today and got an hour of cab time.

Had to try out the dmd cutout

how did you get your dmd to look so perfect? when i make mine bigger i get like these lines coming down vertically in the center and on the sides?

[Lobotomy]

Been away for the last couple of days...
But came home today and got an hour of cab time.

Had to try out the dmd cutout

how did you get your dmd to look so perfect? when i make mine bigger i get like these lines coming down vertically in the center and on the sides?

The "square" size has to have a ratio of 4:1, an easy example: 400mm x 100mm (my dmd cutout is 340mmx85mm) 340/4=85
Since the DMD is made of "lit squares" they have to be perfectly square (atleast in reality).
So if you, lets say have a dmd size of 480mm x 100mm, the horizontal "squares" need to stretch to fit the new width and distorting the "perfect squares".
You might say that it creates a moiré pattern, not exacly true, but it "simulates it" sorta.
I Googled this moiré pattern, and it is similar to the effect that happens when you distort the "overlapping" squares:

Read more on Wikipedia
Enough classroom for one day , just resize the DMD and keep the aspect ratio of 4:1 and it will look good.

Note: the larger the resolution is, the harder it is to see the patterns, they are there but the squares have more pixels to overlap and you wont see it =)

[bladexdsl]

well the dmd cutout in my cab is 330 x 90 (not my choice) but if i resize the dmd to that full size it looks really bad at 640 x 480. so i wonder why peeps in the 1st place reguest this large size when you can't really use it?

Edited by bladexdsl, 24 June 2011 - 05:58 AM.

[Lobotomy]

well the dmd cutout in my cab is 330 x 90 (not my choice) but if i resize the dmd to that full size it looks really bad at 640 x 480. so i wonder why peeps in the 1st place reguest this large size when you can't really use it?

I COULD be wrong, im just a noob at these things
Besides, if you resize the width to 330, and the height to 82,5 and then center it you wont miss the upper or lower part that much, or do you want to fill the whole screen?

[bladexdsl]

i'll show you what i mean your dmd is perfect and it covers the whole dmd cutout area but this is what happens when i try to do it on mine


the top left image is the dmd resized to fit the whole cutout area as you can see it looks terrible
the bottom left is resized to fit the width of the cutout area but again it still looks bad
the right image is the current size i have and it looks great but as you can see it does not cover the whole cutout area.

how did you get yours so perfect?

Edited by bladexdsl, 24 June 2011 - 08:42 AM.

[Lobotomy]

i'll show you what i mean your dmd is perfect and it covers the whole dmd cutout area but this is what happens when i try to do it on mine


the top left image is the dmd resized to fit the whole cutout area as you can see it looks terrible
the bottom left is resized to fit the width of the cutout area but again it still looks bad
the right image is the current size i have and it looks great but as you can see it does not cover the whole cutout area.

how did you get yours so perfect?

Well first of all, i actually measured the "original" size of the dmd in double size, then i measured my total widht of my monitor, and calculated the height.
Then i measured the height on the screen and opened up photoshop and did a new background with that measurement using a green box on a black background.
Then all i did was to rezise the dmd so it EXACTLY covered the green "box".
The problem is the visible border when you resize the width, you have to move the dmd offscreen to the left to be able to fully get the dmd screen to fit, and then move it back again (unless you have a third screen to the right where the mouse cursor can go)

I wish there was a program out there where you could enter the upper left corner pixel coordinates, like 0,0, and then add the lower right pixel coordinates to scale the dmd, maybe there is, but im not "there" yet to search for it, will do more research when the cab is in the installation state =)

But i think there IS a program that duplicates one table dmd preferences to all other tables, but can't remember what it's called.

[bladexdsl]

yeah it's called setDMD

[Lobotomy]

A little update to show that my humble project is still alive


Flipperbutton holes drilled and sunk.
"Servicehatch" hole done.

[Darkfall]

A little update to show that my humble project is still alive


Flipperbutton holes drilled and sunk.
"Servicehatch" hole done.

Nice work, Lobotomy. It's really coming along nicely!

There is another program for configuring the DMD, too, called the DMD Alignment Tool by TnP. It allows you to position and resize the DMD pixel by pixel using the keyboard, so you can get it perfect. His thread is here: http://www.vpforums....showtopic=14509. Might be helpful for you. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounded promising.

[Lobotomy]

A little update to show that my humble project is still alive


Flipperbutton holes drilled and sunk.
"Servicehatch" hole done.

Nice work, Lobotomy. It's really coming along nicely!

There is another program for configuring the DMD, too, called the DMD Alignment Tool by TnP. It allows you to position and resize the DMD pixel by pixel using the keyboard, so you can get it perfect. His thread is here: http://www.vpforums....showtopic=14509. Might be helpful for you. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounded promising.

Thanx Darkfall!
I'll look into it, been fiddling around with regedit since I'm used to it I'm not scared, but a dedicated dmd resize program sounds promising, regedit, is... well regedit
Reason for edit: I should atleast spell the names correctly, even though English isn't my native language

Edited by Lobotomy, 28 June 2011 - 10:13 AM.

[Darkfall]

Thanx Dakfall!
I'll look into it, been fiddling around with regedit since I'm used to it I'm not scared, but a dedicated dmd resize program sounds promising, regedit, is... well regedit

Yeah, I was considering regedit and a calculator at first, but a tool that lets me do it visually is so much better!