297 replies to this topic

[Darkfall]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on my cabinet project for a few months now, and figured it was time to start my own thread, rather than keep posting little details here and there in (mostly) Chris' threads *grin* (my machine is heavily inspired by Chris' work (thanks Chris!), so I started asking questions there, and in the process started mentioning my work here and there).

My cabinet will be using two 46" LCDs, rather than the 3 display setup. The reason for this is because I like to switch back and forth between old and new tables, and older tables don't look right to me with a physical grill with a DMD and speakers, like many modern machines use. I wanted my machine's backbox to look as close to the original machine as possible, and the only way I could see to do that was to allow for the entire backbox to display whatever it needed - a full translite with no score or DMD (Cirqus Voltaire, for example), a translite with a DMD and speakers (most modern machines), or a translite with LED or reels in it (any older machine - KISS, for example).

So far, I have built the PC, have all of my illuminated buttons, have my IPAC configured, my LEDWiz is tested and waiting for me to set it up, HyperPin is operational, several tables are installed, and the two 46" displays are alive. The CREEs have arrived for the backbox flashers and mercury switches for the nudge feature are here. I got all of my cabinet accessories (legs, side rails, lockbar, etc.) from the VirtuaPin website in their Ultimate Cabinet Builders Kit (Widebody). I added the Williams/Bally coindoor option, and the custom lockdown bar (because my cabinet is slightly wider than typical for a widebody). I shopped around for all the parts separately, but it was actually slightly cheaper to get everything as a package - especially since I needed the custom lockdown bar anyway.

I don't yet have a shaker motor. All in good time!

Below are some photos of the displays running with one of my favorite tables, JP's Attack From Mars, as well as a few 3D models of what the cabinet should look like (or reasonably close to it). The 3D model was mostly to get measurements close and ensure everything will fit the way I imagined it in my head. The art on the cabinet is what I plan to have on the real cabinet (I have the fire image as a vector image, which I just purchased from a stock image site, and the Wildfire Pinball logo I created myself as a raster image - but at 15000 pixels wide, it'll be about 425DPI for the 35" wide image of the logo on the side). I ended up ordering the lockbar and stuff part way through the cabinet build, so I can position the playfield display properly. I've also included an x-ray version of the model, so you can see how the displays will be positioned.

I can't go a single night without sitting on the floor, playing some pinball on my decased, naked displays. I can hardly wait to get it all into a cabinet, where I can stand and play!

The cabinet is in progress, with the major parts assembled. I'll do my best to update with photos as I go, in the hopes that my experience will help others. I know that reading through other people's build threads has been immeasurably helpful for me, and my hat's off to all those that have worked out many of the problems and shared with everyone their build experiences. It's all been extremely inspiring for me, and very helpful.

Let the fun begin!







Specifications:

• Based on Williams wide body dimensions (widened by 1" to accommodate 46" LCD without cutting all the way through the sides to the outside to fit it).
• 1 x Playfield: Philips 46" LCD connected via HDMI
• 1 x Backbox: Sharp Aquios 46" LCD connected via HDMI
• 4 x ChromaLite buttons with premium microswitches from GroovyGameGear for front of cabinet
• 4 x Electric ICE 2 buttons with RGB Drive and True Leaf Pro switches from GroovyGameGear for flippers/magnasaves
• 1 x Williams/Bally large, red Launch Ball button
• 5 x CREE XP-E RGB Star from LED-Tech (backbox flashers)
• 5 x heat sinks for CREEs from LED-Tech
• 1 x LEDWiz from GroovyGameGear
• 1 x IPAC2 USB from Ultimarc (reprogrammed to match HyperPin/Visual Pinball keys (remapped HyperPin start from enter to 1, so I can use a single button to launch a table and start a game once table has started, and remapped Visual Pinball's ESC to E to avoid weirdness when exiting tables)
• Lots of colorful wire, and loads of push on crimp connectors for buttons
• 1 x 5V/12V 100W power supply from GroovyGameGear
• 1 x Intel i5 3.3Ghz 6Mb Cache with Integrated Intel 2000 Video
• 2 x Kingston 4Gb DDR3 (8Gb total)
• 1 x Gigabyte ATI HD 6850 PCIe video card (dual DVI/HDMI output)
• 1 x Intel 40Gb SSD
• 1 x MSI H67MS-E43 Motherboard (Slot 1155, 6Gbps SATA, etc.)
• 1 x Creatve Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCIe Sound Card
• 4 x Noctua NF-P14FLX 140MM Ultra Quiet Cooling Fans
• 4 x Mod Smart 140MM Fan Grills
• 1 x Extra playfield glass rear channel (needed two to span the width of the cabinet)
• 2 x backbox glass top channels for sides (stock sides are too short, since they expect a speaker panel)
• Updated 3 LED (brighter) lights for buttons and coin door from Pinball Life
• Windows 7 Professional x64
• HyperPin 1.0
• Visual Pinball 9.1
• UltraVP
• 2 x 3/4" good-two-side plywood sheets (8' x 4')
• 2"x2"x8' for corner bracing, cabinet body bracing in the middle
• Piano hinges (backbox door, cabinet body back door, cabinet body floor door (floor will drop down with all components mounted on it for each access under the machine)
• 4 x Door locks (2 for cabinet floor "door", 1 for backbox, 1 for back of cabinet body (the back doors are mostly to get at the backbox display and backbox flashers)
• A lot of #10 1-1/2" screws
• 3 x Mobilitics mercury switches from eBay (nudge/tilt)
• 1 x Set of 4 rubber leveler feet to protect floor from Pinball Life
• 5 x Clear twist-on light domes + bases (modified)
• 1 x Solenoid for replay knocker from All Electronics
• 8 x TE Connectivity T92P11D22-12 12 volt contactors for force feedback from Mouser.com
• 10 x 5v relays and diodes for above solenoids, stobe, replay knocker (the LEDWiz can't drive the solenoids directly)
• 15 x 22Ohm, 5 Watt resisters for CREEs (5 x Red, Green, Blue = 15 total)
• 15 x 500mV fuses to protect CREEs
• 3 x 8' lengths of slotted channel for wiring
• 1 x power switch
• 1 x Night mode switch (kills power to relays to stop solenoids from knocking)
• 1 x Front of PC USB/Headphone jack connector (headphone jack will kill speakers for night use)
• 1 x APC "Green" power bar (P7GB, with Master plug for PC that will kill power to displays and secondary power supply when PC shuts down)
• 1 x Power cord and plug for back of machine to wall
• 1 x Playfield glass (5mm, tempered)
• 1 x Backbox glass (3mm, tempered)

Not ordered yet:

• Vinyl artwork (waiting for exact measurements, but do have digital artwork already)
• Shaker motor for force feedback
• Strobe CREEs
• Solid state relay for strobe (the mechanical relay is ok, but it's not fast enough in some cases).

Resources of interest in this topic:
Williams Serial Number Sticker
Making Perfect Holes with a Router on the Cheap
Backbox Warning Template
Wiring Schematic (So Far)
Coin Reject Buttons as Coin Add Buttons
Awesome Shaker Motor for Cheap

Edited by Darkfall, 08 October 2011 - 01:59 AM.

[Rawd]

Very cool man. I messed around with two 40" monitors a couple of years ago when I was putting my cabinet together. I'll be watching this thread closely as I might consider using two 42" for my next project.

[gStAv]

Yes! This is interesting!!

[chriz]

I love the 2x46" setup. can't wait to see more pics

[DedRok_V]

Very cool plan, cant wait to see how you go with it. I'll be watching.

Almost exact same set up that I planned out,
just deciding on the 2nd 46" screen to get.

[settingsons]

I love my 3-screen cabinet but when I play EM tables I must admit I have been thinking how nice it would be to see a full-size backglass, so I am looking forward in seeing the progress on this .

[Darkfall]

Hi, guys,

Made some progress over the last few days.

I have cut most of the plywood for the body of the cabinet. I ended up with the plan to cut the slots in the sides about as deep as possible to hide as much of the play field bezel as I can. This should get me as close as possible to routing out the sides for a surface mount play field, while still giving me the depth I want.

I'm working down to the millimeter here. The slots in the side pieces will be 14mm deep (the wood is 19mm deep), which will leave the last 5mm of the plywood on the outside as a thin skin to cover the exterior. I'll have to brace the sides from the outside to prevent the sides from just folding in half while the body is being assembled, but that's ok - I can do that *grin*. Once the body is assembled, front, rear, and top pieces will be enough to keep the sides safe. The display being in there will further strengthen the slots, too.

I decided to switch the Sharp and Philips displays around. The Philips is a little narrower, and the display starts sooner after the bezel than it does on the Sharp. All of this helps with the play field. Plus the casing around the Philips is stronger than the Sharp's.

That puts the Sharp in the back box position, where I'll have to cut the sidewalls of the cabinet body pretty deep to slot it in (down to 2mm thick). It's just a short distance into the cabinet, though, and I can brace it via the bottom of the back box, so it should be okay.

I'll get some photos together as soon as I have a chance. Right now, all there is to see if a bunch of pieces of wood. It'd be nice to assemble something worth showing you first. We're expecting rain this weekend and I'm doing this all on the deck in the back yard (the only other place I have to work is in the garage, and the Lotus is in there. I don't want sawdust all over it), so it may be a few days yet.

Edited by Darkfall, 24 June 2011 - 09:09 AM.

[Darkfall]

Hi, guys,

Chris had a great idea on his Big Bang Bar cabinet that he's currently constructing (awesome cabinet so far!) to put the serial number sticker on the back. It's a beautiful touch that I wanted to do, too. My version is below:



If anyone wants the files to create your own, I've zipped up the files needed. It's in Microsoft Word format, and you will need to install the fonts included in the zip file to render the bar code properly. You can get the files here:

Williams Serial Number Sticker

Thanks for the idea, Chris!

Edit: Chris has done some additional stickers for the high voltage warnings, too. You can find them in his Big Bang Bar thread.

Edited by Darkfall, 26 June 2011 - 09:30 PM.

[DedRok_V]

Hi, guys,

Made some progress over the last few days.

I have cut most of the plywood for the body of the cabinet. I ended up with the plan to cut the slots in the sides about as deep as possible to hide as much of the play field bezel as I can. This should get me as close as possible to routing out the sides for a surface mount play field, while still giving me the depth I want.

I'm working down to the millimeter here. The slots in the side pieces will be 14mm deep (the wood is 19mm deep), which will leave the last 5mm of the plywood on the outside as a thin skin to cover the exterior. I'll have to brace the sides from the outside to prevent the sides from just folding in half while the body is being assembled, but that's ok - I can do that *grin*. Once the body is assembled, front, rear, and top pieces will be enough to keep the sides safe. The display being in there will further strengthen the slots, too.

I decided to switch the Sharp and Philips displays around. The Philips is a little narrower, and the display starts sooner after the bezel than it does on the Sharp. All of this helps with the play field. Plus the casing around the Philips is stronger than the Sharp's.

That puts the Sharp in the back box position, where I'll have to cut the sidewalls of the cabinet body pretty deep to slot it in (down to 2mm thick). It's just a short distance into the cabinet, though, and I can brace it via the bottom of the back box, so it should be okay.

I'll get some photos together as soon as I have a chance. Right now, all there is to see if a bunch of pieces of wood. It'd be nice to assemble something worth showing you first. We're expecting rain this weekend and I'm doing this all on the deck in the back yard (the only other place I have to work is in the garage, and the Lotus is in there. I don't want sawdust all over it), so it may be a few days yet.

Funny, that's what I was also doing, maybe only 1omm slot though.
For now I knocked the cab together to just sit the screen in to get the heights right.
Keen to see your pics.
Time to start my build thread .

[Darkfall]

Funny, that's what I was also doing, maybe only 1omm slot though.
For now I knocked the cab together to just sit the screen in to get the heights right.
Keen to see your pics.
Time to start my build thread .

I'll get some photos up shortly. I routed the slots for the displays this afternoon (14mm deep for the Philips playfield display, and 17mm deep for the Sharp backbox display). The plywood held up quite well - I was surprised. Even routing down to the last layer on the outside, it's not in danger of snapping in half. Once it's braced with the bottom half of the backbox, it'll be a non-issue. I was very pleased.

I did manage to drop the thing on my foot, though. That was awesome. I didn't break the foot (though I was worried I might have at first), but it's a little tender. That'll teach me to try and pick the thing up all at once by myself. It would have been fine, except it slipped out of my left hand and my foot wouldn't get out of the way fast enough. Stupid, slow foot! I selected a different method to get it lifted up on my second attempt *grin*.

Edited by Darkfall, 27 June 2011 - 06:27 AM.

[Darkfall]

Hey, guys,

Photos! Finally!


The bare cabinet body, so far. It's up on end, so it sucks up less space in the room while it's not being worked on.


Close up of the grooves for the displays. You can see that the backbox display's grooves are deeper. The Sharp display is another 8mm wider than the Philips playfield display. The back of the cabinet is two pieces because the upper (larger) part is supposed to open on piano hinges for easy access to the displays. Whether or not I actually do this, I'm still deciding. I may just leave it as 4 screws to remove to take that part off for the odd time that the displays will need to be removed. The entire floor of the cabinet will open like a door in a roof, so that should give lots of access, coupled with the door on the backbox. We'll see...

Next up, a test to make sure my grooves are deep enough (and to mark the location of the flipper buttons), then on to the backbox construction.

Edited by Darkfall, 27 June 2011 - 09:47 AM.

[mameman23]

Looking good. Certainly going to need a lot of bracing if you are going to make the bottom open and still keep some rigidity in it. She's slottastic

[DedRok_V]

Is the back glass screen really sitting that deep or did you leave xtra.
Havent measured mine yet, but I estimate to not be quite as deep.

I,ll have to swap my HDMI's around to check the set up measurements I suppose.

Looking good so far.

Edited by DedRok_V, 27 June 2011 - 02:33 PM.

[Darkfall]

Looking good. Certainly going to need a lot of bracing if you are going to make the bottom open and still keep some rigidity in it. She's slottastic

I will be bracing the bottom with 2x2 stock, partially for the extra support, and partially as a sort of "door jam" for the bottom "door" to close against. The slots for the backbox don't go all the way down, leaving a fair bit of rigidity for the bottom, so it should all work out good in the end, I think.

Slottastic! *grin*.

Is the back glass screen really sitting that deep or did you leave xtra.
Havent measured mine yet, but I estimate to not be quite as deep.

I,ll have to swap my HDMI's around to check the set up measurements I suppose.

Looking good so far.

Well, the depth of the cuts really depends on the width of the cabinet. I deliberately selected the narrowest width I could get away with, so the width of my widest display (the backbox display) determined the width of my cabinet. I had always intended to get a custom lockbar, so I wasn't concerned about width. If you're going to use a standard widebody lockbar, then you'll have to ensure your display will actually fit.

I left an extra millimeter on each side of the display for wiggle room, so the display doesn't bind while sliding in or out. So, my cabinet is literally 2mm wood left + 1mm extra room + widest display width + 1mm extra room + 2mm wood left, which works out (for my display) to be 2mm + 1mm + 634mm + 1mm + 2mm = 640mm. With tolerances that tight, you have to make sure the cabinet is absolutely perfectly squared, or you'll probably end up binding when you slide the display in.

Edited by Darkfall, 27 June 2011 - 06:19 PM.

[Darkfall]

Good news!

The displays fit like a champ!

Woo!


Front view with displays. The backbox display is about 60mm lower than it will ultimately sit - it's just sitting in the gooves as far as it'll go at the moment - I will put a brace across the bottom later to position the display at the correct height. I plan to groove the top of the backbox, so I can stuff the display up as far as possible and hide as much bezel as I can. I don't know what I plan to do about the silver bezel that is visible yet. I'm thinking I may mask off the display and paint it satin black, like the cabinet will be.


Rear view with displays.

The displays fit snug, but not too snug. It's just right, and the cabinet is plenty strong enough, even with the deep grooves. I don't foresee a problem at all (and I was sort of worried about it!)

I just ordered the widebody cabinet builder's kit from Noah, too. I grabbed the custom lockdown bar, since my cabinet is slightly wider than normal (25 1/8"), and the full Williams/Bally coin door for the authentic look. He says it shouldn't take too terribly long (the custom lockdown bar being the hold up, since it has to be custom made for me), but will send everything else ahead of the lockdown bar, so I can start putting things in place while I wait. Yay! Thanks, Noah!

Edited by Darkfall, 27 June 2011 - 10:11 PM.

[DedRok_V]

Good news!

The displays fit like a champ!

Woo!

Front view with displays. The backbox display is about 60mm lower than it will ultimately sit - it's just sitting in the gooves as far as it'll go at the moment - I will put a brace across the bottom later to position the display at the correct height. I plan to groove the top of the backbox, so I can stuff the display up as far as possible and hide as much bezel as I can. I don't know what I plan to do about the silver bezel that is visible yet. I'm thinking I may mask off the display and paint it satin black, like the cabinet will be.

Thats what I meant by the depth of the slots down into the cab, so you have to lift it a bit for the backbox height to be correct.

[Darkfall]

Thats what I meant by the depth of the slots down into the cab, so you have to lift it a bit for the backbox height to be correct.

Oh! Yes, that depends on the backbox height. I cut down about 425mm or so from the top. It's more than needed for my backbox height and display, but I didn't have exact measurements when I was doing the cuts, and I was too lazy to calculate it out - so I just fired up the cabinet's computer and grabbed the measurement from the bottom of the display to where I set up the backbox image to appear on the screen (I'd already configured HyperPin to get the backbox image close to the right size), then added a few extra centimeters to make sure I'd be deep enough, always knowing that I'd put in a stop to make the depth exact later.

I'm thinking I'll probably put the stop a few millimeters low, then shim it up to fit in the groove I cut into the top of the backbox perfectly. I need to put in small shims for the grooves anyway, to keep the display from wobbling around the 1-2mm I put in for safety. Actually, now that I think about it, I probably won't use shims, but an adjustable L bracket that I can loosen off, slide up against the display's edge, then tighten down. That makes more sense and I won't have any concerns about shims falling out during moving or nudging.

When the rain stops, I'll get the backbox built, and the machine will start looking like a real pinball machine and I'll have my correct depth for the backbox display figured out at that point.

Edited by Darkfall, 28 June 2011 - 07:14 AM.

[Lobotomy]

You go Darkfall! Looks sweet, still worried about the durability, but looks like you're on top of things regarding that.
Remember to charge that camera every night

[Darkfall]

You go Darkfall! Looks sweet, still worried about the durability, but looks like you're on top of things regarding that.
Remember to charge that camera every night

Thanks for the kind words!

I had serious concerns about durability, too, but the plywood layers are tougher than I expected. I figured I'd have to be all delicate with it once I'd made the slots so deep - but not so, especially once the bottom of the backbox is there to shore up the top, rear corner of the cabinet, which has slots on two sides - that's the weakest point, but it's really not bad. I haven't felt a need to baby it at all while sliding displays into it for testing, or moving the cabinet around. That being said, I wouldn't sit on that rear, top corner, either *grin*.

Yes, the camera has a solid charge now - no more issues with that *grin*.

[Darkfall]

Hey, guys,

Made a little more progress today - backbox structure is built, and I drilled the countersunk holes for the flipper and magnasave buttons.

Also, my CREEs arrived from Germany, finally. We had a postal strike here over the last several days, so I imagine the CREEs would have arrived sooner, if not for that. Oh well - it's not like I was ready for them yet, anyway.

I expect the mercury switches will arrive in the next day or so, too. They were coming via postal service, as well.


You can see the flipper button holes, but just barely. I took the display out, so they don't get wrecked while I build.


The hole from the backbox to the body for the backbox display.


5 tiny CREEs with their heatsinks from LED-Tech.de

I find myself needing the cabinet trim to do much more big stuff, so I can ensure I'm putting things in the right place, etc. I'll sand the cabinet to smooth out the edges, install hinges and locks, etc. for now, while I wait. I'll probably do some painting, too, I think. And make holes for fans and stuff. Maybe do some wiring. Ok, I have lots I can do!