Tron:Legacy Pin - 46/32/DMD - Widebody

[rotoforever]

When I read the article about virtual pinballs in the german C'T magazine a few months ago, I knew right away I wanted to build one of these. It was a classic "how hard can it be?" moment. Well, as it turned it, it is reasonably hard for someone with no woodworking or electronics skills at all. So this build thread will be more interesting to beginners than to the pros among you. It will contain all the mishaps I encountered, so hopefully someone else can learn from them.

There's no way I could've started building the cab without the amazing information found in the build threads in this forum. Thank you very much to all of you!

The goal is to start out with a basic set, probably 7-8 contactors, a real DMD and put in more toys as time and budget allows. I'm pretty much set on a Tron:Legacy theme, but this might change over time once I start the actual design.

Current status of the build: base cabinet woodwork is done

Next step: testing TV, PC and installing buttons

I used Autodesk 123D to do the design, based on mameman's plans. I much prefer this to SketchUp.

Used a router to cut almost all holes. The acryl template (with 25mm and 50mm holes) were used for the smaller ones. Just need to find the correct combination of bit size, ring size (like http://www.festool.com/EN/Products/Accessories/Pages/Detail.aspx?pid=486033&name=Copying-rings-OF-1010-KR-D-30-OF-900) and template hole size. For the bigger ones I used this http://www.festool.de/Produkte/Zubehoer-Verbrauchsmaterial/Seiten/Detailansicht.aspx?pid=483922&name=Anschlaege-und-Zirkel-SZ-OF-1000

These are the router pieces that I used: 8mm, 14mm and a 40x2mm.

I used a biscuit joiner for joining the 18mm plywood boards. Gettings the holes right (especially on the 45 degree angles) needed a bit of practice but what was a major nightmare was the glueing. Never having done it before, I almost messed it up because the glue dried faster than I expected. I think this was the closest I came to a heart attack in my life. At the end it all came out ok, except one little 2mm gap between the front and the bottom. Wanted to save the money for a 1500mm clamp to apply pressure on the front and the back and that was a mistake. But anyway, it turned out ok and stability is not affected.

The front is a few millimeters too wide (probably coming from a not-so-precise cutting of the 45 degree pieces). This turned out to be quiet a problem, as it meant that the lockdown bar didn't fit. I had to remove about 2mm on each side with a file. The other problem was the glass which now was not wide enough and I was afraid it could fall out of the plastic rails. So I had to insert some small wooden pieces to prevent it from doing that. This is a quiet an ugly hack but I just wasn't prepared to spend more money on the glass. This could've been prevented by measuring the width between the rails at a few different locations before ordering the glass.

That's it for now, I'm pretty sure a lot more will come to my mind once I think about it. But anyway, I'm very happy I made it this far, this has been a lot of fun. I'll make sure to keep you all posted.

[Ton]

Looking good so far. You have chosen to use "more expensive wood" what we in the Netherlands call "betonplex". Wood they use for making casting for poring concrete in.

Best of luck.

[DeeGor]

I don't know if anybody has a flawless build, aside from Mameman. There's always something that comes up. You just don't see people admitting mistakes all the time. I had a couple on my build as well.

You've done great so far, especially being that you don't have any experience with woodworking.

[chriz99]

welcome aboard, very good progress so far

[mikekim]

build looks good, so far.

As DeeGor says, no one highlights their mistakes, only showing the good aspects of the build.. Hey I messed up my positioning of the buttons on the front and had to cut a corner section of the lockdown bar to get the button to fit!!

[rotoforever]

Thank you all for the encouraging words! Will keep you posted about the progress.

[mameman]

Looking great

[BadBoyBill]

For someone with no woodworking or electronic skills I'm impressed, welcome to the forums.

[JaronSenna]

That looks very nice! Very slick and precise build so far. Thanks for sharing!

[rotoforever]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. It's been a blast so far, learned a lot about woodworking...

[JaronSenna]

That is pretty much my experience too: learning while building is so much fun. I hope playing the thing once it's done is just as much joy...

[Starlion]

Yes i make Tron Pincab Too french!!

[mameman]

Yes i make Tron Pincab Too french!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20674[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20675[/ATTACH]

Nice idea, looks cut and back lit?

[rotoforever]

Update

Work was crazy in the last few months, the kids eating up the rest of my time. Finally found a few days around New Year to work on the cab.

I've drawn the backbox in a CAD tool, based on mameman's measurements and modified it so the 16:9 monitor is a better fit visually.

The top of the backbox is split into two parts and one will be mounted with a hinge so it can be opened and the monitor slid in. The lower back part of the backbox doesn't have the hinge attached that's why there's still a gap visible.

The panel is based on a standard WMS panel, but slimmer and part of it serves as a base for the monitor. This way I save myself the trouble of the H-thingie and a glas.

For the best thermal flow I've mounted the fan as high as possible and put some intake holes in the lower part.

This is what I used for painting.

And a picture of inside the cab, with the velcro I use to attach the speakers (was too lazy to cut some wood for that).

A few mishaps happened, of course.

1. The routed hole for the LED to slide is in angled about 5-10% up (so it's not perpendicular to the ground). Measuring/calculation messup.

2. There's a 2mm gap on the right side between the top and the side panel. I've probably messed up a measurement somewhere and I didn't see it when test fitting the box (no idea how this happened). And of course I made a huge mess again when glueing everything together...

3. I forgot that the TV has several electrical components on the back that make that part much thicker than the lower edge. Result: I have to dismount all boards of the TV before sliding it in and then mounting them back afterwards, otherwise it wouldn't fit in.

Most of the PC is assembled as well, here are the specs:

Board ASUS P8Z77-M, mATX, Intel Z77

Intel i5 3570K 3.4GHz

CPU cooler Scythe Katana 4

ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DC2 2DI, 2GB DDR5 RAM

Intel 330 Series 120GB SSD

G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz 8GB

Corsair TX650M Power Supply

And Zebulon's amazing boards arrived as well, but didn't have a chance to assemble them yet. Hopefully this weekend.

This is it, I'll keep you guys posted with updates.

[JogZter]

Hey there,

congrats on your build so far. I came along nicely and looks really great I have just finished my corpus for my pinball machine and am now thinking of the size of the backbox. Since I have built my cab for a 42" screen, I made my cab 10% shorter than the original (118cm). Thus, the backbox, which is going to house a 27" screen + DMD should not get too big. I like the setup of you backbox and was wandering whether you might want to share your measurements?

Thanks a lot!

Jogzter

[rotoforever]

Sure, here they are (in mm):

Top: 710 x 240

Back: 710 x 608

Bottom: 710 x 160

Side: 644 x 240 (top) / 160 (bottom)

Panel: 710 x 196

Please note that the backbox is designed for a 32" inch decased Samsung LED (which sits in two routed slots, each 8mm deep) and a Vishay DMD.

Hope this helps!

[rotoforever]

Slow times on the forum, so I'll post a few pics from my progress on the weekend.

Installed the front speakers and a plexiglas window for the DMD.

Screen installed. It's angled a bit to the back. Damn. Hope you won't notice too much once you're playing.

Zebulon's "Zero Effort Boards" assembled.

[K3V]

Is that tinted plexiglas you used in front of your backglass monitor?

[rotoforever]

Nope, there's no glas in front of the monitor. The monitor sits tightly behind the panel and the sides of the backbox have routed slots so you can't see a bezel.

[K3V]

Wow, nicely done!

[evil eye]

Very nice indeed! Great pics too.

[rotoforever]

Thanks guys!

Today, I've hooked everything up with a temporary wiring, no buttons etc. but after 6 months of building time I couldn't wait any more!

Yep, the backglass image is not right yet and the images don't do it justice. Everything is much more saturated and contrasty in real.

The red Vishay is awesome! The color is really saturated and bright (but not too bright). The segmentation is only noticeable if you're looking for it but no factor during gameplay IMHO. I'm glad I didn't get the orange one.

[K3V]

I see you're using a video card very similar to what I'm using (here's mine, the ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051E3BYM/)

What version of the driver are you using? Do you see any strange artifacting or graphical glitches when running Future Pinball? I've had parts of my ramps flippers disappearing and odd issues like that.

Appreciate any help you can provide!

[rotoforever]

I see you're using a video card very similar to what I'm using (here's mine, the ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051E3BYM/)

What version of the driver are you using? Do you see any strange artifacting or graphical glitches when running Future Pinball? I've had parts of my ramps flippers disappearing and odd issues like that.

Appreciate any help you can provide!

I haven't tested FP yet, but I'll give it a try this weekend. Any specific tables that are giving you troubles or would I see the glitches in all of them?

[mikekim]

I'm using 301.42 with a gtx580 with no issues.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II.