16 replies to this topic

[rob3d]

Hey everyone. I've posted questions here and there, but now that I actually have some tangible progress I thought I'd start a build thread. 

 

To start with a little back story.  I found out about visual pinball 8 and 9 when I was in college while looking for info on The twilight zone machine, my favorite growing up. Messed with it a bit but found the inconsistency between tables annoying so I left it by the wayside.  When farsight pinball arcade dropped 10 years later  I picked it up hoping hoping to see TZ there at some point and was immediately hooked by Tales of the Arabian Nights.  This was the first time I took a chance to understand the fact that pinball wasn't just random flipping and modes and combos were a thing.  What pinball arcade lacked in physics it had in spades with its rule books so I bought up every table on both pc and android in the hopes one day I might build a controller or mini cab at some point.  Fast forward to now the collapse of pinball arcade the rise of zen Williams collection and me digging through high quality VPX tables I finally decided I should find a better way to play than with a touch screen or my keyboard.

 

 I really don't know jack about woodworking or electronics, I am however a 3D animator and Technical director so 3D modeling vector graphics and any software troubleshooting in general I can do in my sleep.  That apparently was enough to make me think I could pull this off.

 

Here we go!

 

 

Before I bought anything I set up rough dimensions of what I wanted and ran it through my bosses cricut. I was happy with the proportions, all I wanted was a cab that looked right at 1st glace.

 

 

The first purchase I made was a playfield monitor on cyber Monday. Was pot committed at this point, can't just let 200 bucks go to waste.

 

 

Took revision 400 or so of my design and decided to do a full size mockup. Thankfully I had a crap ton of boxes as I had just moved in.

 

 

Bought an Optiplex 990 MT, Can't really see in this photo but there is a HDD bracket that blocks a full sized gtx 1080 from fitting. So I gutted it like a fish with my dremel.

 

 

DMD test. My idea was to use a laptop replacement screen after seeing so many arcade 1up modders just buy panels and find a matching hdmi controller. Unfortunately the seller sent me the wrong panel for the control board I had and I had to get a refund and purchase another one. This was thankfully the only hiccup along the way. (Knock on 3/4 inch plywood)

 

 

Close friend got me a coin door as a secret santa gift. Wired it up straight away rigging pins to the pinscape since I hadn't gotten the nerve to actually solder it yet.

 

 

Revision 900 or so mocked up in maya to make sure my miters and such actually worked in 3D space

 

 

Big order from pinball life and I unfortunately only took a pic of the plunger. Just imagine a huge box filled with legs, buttons, bolts, etc.

 

 

one of several amazon orders for various electronics I needed. Speakers, amps, and whatnot.  Gonna have to figure out SSF on my own since the face book group wont approve my work FB account I use for testing client posts

 

 

Since my cabinet was not traditional size and since there aren't really any Hi res TZ side-art files available that I could find, I spent a crap ton of time tracing lo-res pics in Illustrator. The result was then printed by Brad after seeing so many recommendations. It came out amazing!

 

 

Used my buddy's 3d resin print to print the mount for the plunger and potentiometer. I couldn't find a file in this style that fit my pot so I grabbed one posted by Visual Pinball addicts and modified it.

 

 

This took 7 hours to print...

 

 

And 30 mins to cure under UV.

 

 

testing out the nudge on my pinscape

 

 

Finally having enough courage to solder up the pins after watching like 6 hours of tutorials on youtube. Soldering is cake, I don't know why i was so nervous. I also wanted a nice setup that I could easily rewire inside the cab so I built a quick connect control ceter based of an image I saw of an Australian vendors plug and play plunger setup

 

 

input connects left and right, Output connects on the top

 

 

Pluger rigged up to my new pinscape setup... And the sucker worked, sigh of relief.

 

 

Revision 1500ish finally made its way to the CNC guys. If i ever do this again I'll skip the miter and go straight for a rabbit joint on the front. Had one blow out while assembling that was easily fixable but would not have happened on a rabbit.

 

 

Laid out in all it's glory.

 

 

Backbox assembly, wedeged the DMD cover in there to keep it square

 

 

Main cab assembly, this was easier than I thought. Corner clamps really helped

 

 

Backbox screen mounted in for the 1st time. 24in Dell donor from my boss

 

 

rough hardware check. used regular angle bar cut to size was not gonna by legit rails just to chop them up, waaay too expensive

Edited by rob3d, 10 February 2020 - 11:55 PM.

[smithy001]

Hi rob3d.

That looks amazing.
Keep us posted, pictures are nice!
 

[rob3d]

Thanks hopefully I'll be able to finish paint and vinyl next week. here's a couple more images.

 

 

Playfield test fit

 

 

Playfield hinge made from rebar and floor flanges. Works Great!

 

 

 

And thats pretty much where I'm at right now.  Won't get to work on it again till next sunday and hopefully then I can do full paint and vinyl application.  Then during the week after that wire everything up and spend from then till infinity tweaking software.

[MikePinball]

Revision 900 or so mocked up in maya to make sure my miters and such actually worked in 3D space

Revision 1500ish finally made its way to the CNC guys. If i ever do this again I'll skip the miter and go straight for a rabbit joint on the front. Had one blow out while assembling that was easily fixable but would not have happened on a rabbit.

Good stuff!!

 

I'm in the middle of a CNC build as well, perhaps not as far along as you but at least my lockdown bar is in place now. And I have got all of my insides figured out so it will just a matter to getting out my #8 bolts and fitting everything into place. Then onto wiring etc.

 

I went through hundreds of CAD revisions too (using Fusion). I used rabbit joints from the beginning which made the CNC easier too. Of course now I have built the cabinet there are a list of some things I would change to improve/fix the design. Most are minor and the cabinet went together really well.

 

How did you drill the holes for the legs?

[rob3d]

Thanks!

 

How did you drill the holes for the legs?

 

 

I took 2 7in pieces of 2x4 and fastened them at a right angle which I then clamped to the outside corner I planned to drill to prevent blowout or the drill coming out at an angle. Then I drilled straight through the leg brackets and the triangular 2in spacer that was recommended in the pinscape build guide with a bit that was just slightly smaller than the threading on the bracket.  this worked perfectly on the but joints at the rear of the cab, but again the miters at the front weren't as clean and I patched that up with bondo.

 

[rob3d]

Came into work early to make some adjustments to the playfield mount.

 

 

After seeing some builds with an led matrix I lowered the tv enough so i can add one down the road.   Also a shot of the rebar hinge in action, and my side rails painted up to match my flipper buttons and eventually my lock down bar.   Gonna attempt to 3D print the lockdown bar based off this awesome thread by Quinalt.

[rob3d]

Spent a lot of time this weekend finishing up the body.

 

 

Prep for priming. Masking was a pain but worth it.

 

 

4 coats of primer, and then wetsanded smooth.

 

 

5 coats of black

 

 

Test fit before wetsanding

 

 

Once the sanding was done and dry I dove into the vinyl. Was super nervous about this but it went really well, I was surprised about how easy it was.

 

 

with the fittings in place.

 

 

 

Really happy with how this came out.  Still a couple loose ends here and there like the hinge for the door on the back of the cab and cutting plexi for the backbox. But all in all the majority of the construction is complete.  Now I just gotta bring it all home and start wiring everything up.

 

 

 

 

 

[MikePinball]

Looking very good. Nine coats of paint in one weekend is fast. Did you mask because you spray painted?

[rob3d]

Looking very good. Nine coats of paint in one weekend is fast. Did you mask because you spray painted?

 

 

Thanks! Yea spray paint was the original plan but after the 1st coat on one side I hated how uneven everything was.  So I went out got some Kilz2 primer and rustolem flat black house paint and did it all with that.  Applying everything with a foam roller made the paint go on as smooth as possible barely any nibs in the paint.   Wet sanding was easy with that finish and by the time I was done is was as smooth as veneer.  All Priming was done on Friday, then Saturday I wet sanded then did all the Black coats, then Sunday I wet sanded then and let it dry and hit it with vinyl.  I was exhausted at that point.

Edited by rob3d, 17 February 2020 - 08:36 PM.

[rob3d]

Finally brought the cab home to finish up, made some good progress last week

 

 

Got the protectors and legs on, it's time to fill that cab.  Not a lot of space in there.

 

 

Managed to get all the electronics in, it was snug but there's still room for a 12 port smart surge and a small form factor PSU if I ever decide to add addressable LEDs.  Spoiler: I will, just a little further down the road.  The shelf for the main controller and amp is movable so I can make any fixes underneath without unscrewing anything.

 

 

 

Buttons and Speakers all wired up ok I was very surprised when it all worked on the 1st try.  SSF feels amazing on this, has me curious how difficult it would be to add basic SSF to the tables that aren't scripted for it.  Amps all accessible from the coin door so i can adjust balances without lifting the playfield.

 

 

 

Still need to set up the lcd DMD, get the speaker grills on and cut some plexi for playfield and Back glass but it's playable now.  Which is presenting a problem because I'd rather be playing it than building.  I also want to get some shorter HDMI and Power cords so it isn't as chaotic towards the back of the machine.  I'm very close to finishing the build, and then I can finally focus on software adding tables and customizing pinup-popper.

[rob3d]

More progress this weekend, here we go!

 

 

DMD screen installed and speaker grills in place,  functionally its complete.  There's some more cosmetic stuff to do tho.  I need to cut some plexi to fill the gap at the back of the machine along with the playfield and backglass, and I need to try 3d printing a lock-down bar.  I will probably start focusing on getting the software and frontend  100% to my taste.

 

 

 

Practically finished, just a tiny bit more to go, but in the meantime playing the damn thing will be a welcome diversion. 

[Quinalt]

Looks great! I love the inside layout.

 

Let me know if you need any help with the lockdown bar. I have a version that has been adjusted for 3/4 plywood, but has never been tested. 

[rob3d]

Looks great! I love the inside layout.

 

Let me know if you need any help with the lockdown bar. I have a version that has been adjusted for 3/4 plywood, but has never been tested. 

 

 

Thanks,  I would appreciate any getting changes you've made to the stl I've been doing some cursory layouts in chitubox trying to see if i can print all 3 sections in one go but I haven't finalized anything yet.

[mariosrightnut]

Thanks for sharing.  This is a cool set up!

[smithy001]

WOW, looks great!

Gonna' change my playfield mount to your idea, looks awesome man !!

Edited by smithy001, 24 March 2020 - 10:34 PM.

[6of1]

Nice! I am doing something similar with my KL25Z.

 

PMed about your Keys/Pin-out

[rob3d]

Been a while since I've updated this since I basically got everything playable right before covid lockdown, but I've finally finished today.    Last pieces were the siderails, rear glass channel, some lexan, and a custom lockdown bar.   

I also messed with the angle of the playfield mount a bit as I realized I prefer it to be parallel to the glass.  Took a full year to get here with a huge gap in the middle where I just messed with software and tweaking all my ssf, but I'm glad I put in the effort.   

 

Thanks to everyone on this forum who helped along the way. Thanks to Paul from virtuapin who really took the time to make sure the lockdown bar I ordered was perfect for my setup. And thanks to anyone who enjoyed looking through this thread.  Off to play some more tables!

 

Edited by rob3d, 02 March 2021 - 08:57 PM.