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LEGO Batpin Build Blog (46/19/32)


DeeGor

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Thanks guys. It sure is a lot of work to keep it all tidy, but I like how it's all turning out.

@Typefighter01: amazon.com has a fairly large selection of them. Just search for "Desk USB Hub". I went with this particular one because it had audio. I wanted to be able to use headphones at night when the kids are sleeping.

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Actually I didn't. With the way I originally wired up the relays, there really wasn't a place to put one. I'm in the process of creating a relay board instead of the mess I have right now that will have them connected. Just waiting for some screw terminals.

The solenoids function fine without them, but I've heard that it can cause problems down the road if a diode is not in place.

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Finally attached my backbox to the cabinet. Also put in LEDs for the speakers. The LEDs are recessed into the wood, but were still pretty bright. I put a little silicone over them to tone down the intensity and I like how it turned out.

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Actually I didn't. With the way I originally wired up the relays, there really wasn't a place to put one. I'm in the process of creating a relay board instead of the mess I have right now that will have them connected. Just waiting for some screw terminals.

The solenoids function fine without them, but I've heard that it can cause problems down the road if a diode is not in place.

I didn't have any problems with the cheap solenoids and no diodes. I did have a problem with my contactors not having diodes, though. Diodes are cheap, though - like $0.30 each. You don't need huge ones - they're just blocking power flow in one direction.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I sent over a pm as i am very interested in using what you've used. A master thread about these relays and solenoids would be awesome as im sure you know it takes alot of time to read through all the builds and see what works and what doesnt. I've ordered my led wiz and all parts but, am just missing the core components of your build being which relays which contacts what kind of psu did you use for 12 and 24v ect.

I am still a little confused at how ledblinky interacts with the your setup? perhaps you or someone could elaborate.

thanks again and sweet build.

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I originally used this 12v external power supply, but I ended up frying it when I accidently connected it on the same circuit as my 24v power supply. :bawling: Instead of buying a new one, I just converted an old PC power supply instead.

As for the force feedback I would suggest picking up some contactors. I picked up 6 of the Seimens contactors that a few on this forum use, and they work really well. Unfortunately they're really hard to find in the states without having to shell out like $60/ea. A possible alternative to the Seimens contactors are these GE miniature contactors. There are also the allelectronics.com pull type solenoids. They're dirt cheap at just under $2, but be warned they're pretty loud. The solenoids also need a relay, as they use too much power to be directly connected to the LEDWiz.

There is actually an add-on for VP that allows the pinball table rom to control the outputs of the ledwiz. So, no LEDBlinky needed. Here is the thread on where to find it and how to use it. It's actually pretty straight forward.

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I was finally able to get my computer parts purchased. I was originally going to wait till Black Friday to get the best deal, but I ended up getting impatient and purchased it anyway.

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I am a little disappointed that I didn't go with a modular power supply. If I were to do it again, I would definitely purchase one. Cable management is a real bitch when you have all of those cables to have to deal with. Especially when I didn't even end up using half of them.

Here's the cabinet all up and running. I still need to get the artwork done and get the glass and side rails on.

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I'm an avid comic book fan, and reading comics on the 46" LED was awesome. :)

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The art for that comic is nicely done. Maybe that's an idea for cabinet art? A mashup of comics, or something.

I was leaning towards that at one point, but finally decided to go with the LEGO Batman theme instead.

From the beginning of this build I had always planned on using a Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro gamepad for nudging after seeing gstav's thread, but since I had purchased the Nanotech plunger, I thought I would give the built in accelerometer a fair try.

I spent a week trying to configure the damn thing and I could never get nudging to work exactly the way I wanted. I spent hours calibrating, recalibrating, and calibrating some more. The accelerometer is either too sensitive where it would fire if there was absolutely no movement in the machine other than fans spinning, or I would have to body check into the machine to get it to fire. I also tried using dxtweaks to introduce a deadzone, but that didn't work out very well either. :banghead:

Frustrated, I decided to go back to my original plan of using the gamepad. I had the thing up and running with xpadder in less than half an hour. That includes mounting it in my cabinet. It worked perfectly, and xpadder has a great tool for adjusting the deadzone.

Now I just have to figure out why the screen goes black for half a second when I nudge occasionally. I thought I had read something up on it before in another thread.

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Now I just have to figure out why the screen goes black for half a second when I nudge occasionally. I thought I had read something up on it before in another thread.

I think its the "startshake" bug on the newer nvidia drivers. mostly on "left nudge", right?

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I found this thread concerning the issue. I'll try rolling back to the 182.50 drivers tonight. Another thing mentioned was to comment out the startshake function, so I'll try that too.

Hmm ... once you test please post back. I have the NANO tech item and preferred to keep things simple. I'll scroll through that other thread as well.

Thanks!

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So I tried rolling back to the 182.50 drivers and the video went completely black upon reboot, and I was never able to recover. Even after reinstalling the new drivers in safe mode. Luckily I imaged the drive before installing.

I'm thinking the 182.50 drivers I found are not the correct ones for my video card (GTX 260). Unfortunately they're not available on the nvidia site anymore. The md5sum of the drivers I was able to find is:

11ed20c27ea3df0ed4b92116ea571341 182.50_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe

Can anyone with the 182.50 drivers verify that I have the right ones?

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