Day of the Pinheads - Widebody 46/32/DMD

[Aurich]

Finally starting my build thread, big thanks to everyone who's done one, learned a ton from reading them!

I'm powering the cab with:

XP SP3

Intel i5 3.2 GHz

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked 2048

4 gigs of RAM, SSD

ASRock Z68 motherboard

Nothing insanely beastly, but should be plenty of power.

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For the screens:

Playing field - Samsung UN46D6300 46-Inch 1080p edge-lit LED TV. Nice and thin for the routed slot technique.

Backglass - LG 32" 1080p TV, nothing special, even decased has a bit of a bezel, but I'll try and minimize that.

DMD - Yellow/Green Xpin LED DMD, powered by a pinDMD by the one and only Russ. Note that if you want to use an XPin DMD you need to make sure you ask for the 5V version so you can power it with a standard power supply.

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I'm building a widebody, but it's technically about half an inch narrower than normal, to minimize the gap between the cabinet sides and the playing field screen. That means I can't use a standard lockdown bar, so I'm having a custom one made through VirtuaPin. Will still use the standard lockdown hardware and most other usual Bally/Williams parts. 3/4" plywood, roughly following the B/W widebody plans we've all seen, though I'm redoing the back box because I hate huge useless areas, so it will be chopped for the 16:9 screen and a somewhat streamlined speaker panel.

For the sound system I'm taking advantage of the update to VP to send cabinet and ROM sounds to separate outputs. So I'm building in to separate sound systems, powered by two separate amps. Cabinet sounds will come from a pair of 4" speakers I had left over from the door panels of my BMW when I upgraded the stereo, and a 6.5" sub inside a little custom sealed box. ROM sounds will come from 4" car speakers in the normal speak panel by the DMD, and a 10" sub inside the cab. Going to just leave the 10" naked I think, we'll see how it all sounds. I'm hoping for a bit of a realism illusions from separating the sounds sources.

For the plunger I'm a bit wary of the different analog solutions out there, they seem to always be breaking or having issues, so I decided to skip them for a pure microswitch solution. A launch button seemed a bit dull though, so I sourced the parts to build an Indiana Jones pistol launcher. Have some plans for that but I need to wait for some experimental lasercut parts to show up first, hopefully I'll have more to update on that soon.

That about covers the basics I think, I'll dive into more details in other posts and update this post when I have more finalized things to share so it's collected in one easy spot for later.

Video:

Xpin DMD in action (best viewed fullscreen at 1080p) -

[Aurich]

Decasing the 46" TV:

The bezel is nice and slim, not going to have trouble tucking the bulk of it inside the routed slots:

Testing out the TVs with the PC (this was before I had the real DMD):

The controls for the TVs are all embedded inside the bezels. I didn't want to keep the whole things, annoying, so I just used a miter saw to cut out those sections, now I can plug them back in at will if I need to use the remote for something. Both TVs power back up to previous state when power is cut and turned back on, so easy to use in a cab environment with a smart power strip.

[Aurich]

Some obligatory construction shots to prove it's real. I'm not the best at remembering to stop and document when I get working (okay, I suck at it) but I'm not reinventing the wheel here. If I do anything "interesting" I'll try and remember to document.

Clampin!

Test fitting the playing field TV, was binding slightly the first time, so I routed the slots slightly deeper:

Parts!

I'm getting so many packages for this build it's like a mini Christmas every few days. Have a lot more in transit right now still.

Using the legs to stand on its own for the first time:

Here you can see the holes for the 10" sub and the bottom intake fan:

[Aurich]

Getting ready to test assemble the Indiana Jones gun. I had to order parts from a couple shops to get everything for this, I imagine it's a reproduction, and not NOS, but the quality seems the same either way. To find everything I hunted down the manual, and the schematic has all of the part numbers that you can use for reference.

You can see the manual page here:

And put together:

The action is simple, the trigger is just a lever to hit a microswitch (I had to bend the microswitch actuator a bit to make solid contact) with a spring to provide return tension. As I said I have a lasercutting project to play with modding the gun a bit, but probably be a couple weeks at least before I get the parts back from being cut. I'll talk about that more then, crossing my fingers that it works!

[mameman]

looking nice,

get that at at inside where it belongs. not outside covered in dust

[DeeGor]

Looking good so far Aurich. I love the Indy gun.

[Aurich]

looking nice,

get that at at inside where it belongs. not outside covered in dust

No room inside, that's just part of the Star Wars toy collection in the garage.

Started on the DMD speaker panel, somehow routed the hole slightly skewed though. Bleh. Gonna try and fix it, if not I might be talking CNC with you mameman.

[mameman]

No room inside, that's just part of the Star Wars toy collection in the garage.

Started on the DMD speaker panel, somehow routed the hole slightly skewed though. Bleh. Gonna try and fix it, if not I might be talking CNC with you mameman.

i know what you mean, i have my at at, ready to mount in a plexi case box, still need to think how i am going to display the trench set. had to force myself to walk away from the 2 1/2" foot falcon in toysrus on friday!!

can do you a speaker panel anytime, even something funky with the grills if you wanted to theme it

[Aurich]

Well my friend, my will is weaker than yours, I picked up that giant Falcon when it came out a couple years ago, it's on the the other side of the garage hidden by some plywood right now!

can do you a speaker panel anytime, even something funky with the grills if you wanted to theme it

Welp, I just utterly F'd up the DMD opening trying to straighten it out, let the router jump and gouged it. :/

So ... I'll have to ponder. Easy enough to CNC up something simple, I've already got the dimensions:

But if I was going to have you do it I'd want to take advantage of your magic machine to do something fun.

[Aurich]

mameman I think I PM'd you, or at least I hope I did, I didn't get a confirmation and there's nothing in my sent folder. Haven't used a PM on this forum before, maybe that's normal. If you didn't hear from me let me know though!

[mameman]

Yup I replied

[Aurich]

Did some work on the mechanical cab noise speaker set tonight. Using a cheap little Chinese amp that technically has a bridged subwoofer output, but the crossover on it does absolutely nothing, so you're sending all the high frequency signal to the sub, blech. Get what you pay for right? Luckily it's not that hard to fix, just takes a meaty 100 Hz crossover to filter just the low end to the speaker:

Just a 6.5 inch woofer, not going to win any Miami bass competitions with it, but inside a sealed enclosure like that it will still vibrate the floor. More then enough for the thunk I want to hear for flippers and ball launches etc. When combined with real force feedback toys should be pretty respectable.

I knocked together a quick little angled panel to hold the amp and the 4" speakers, it will sit inside the cab behind the coin door, angled to point the tweeters at the player. It will have to go through the TV and the glass, but I'm not looking for high fidelity here, with some volume adjustments I think it will have the intended effect of making the mechanical sounds appear to really be coming from inside.

I've got a second one of those amps, and another crossover, I'll wire them up to power the DMD speakers and the 10" sub closer to the back of the cab.

[Aurich]

Did a test fit of that speaker setup in the cab:

Also started test fitting the back glass TV. Tucking what I can of the fat bezel into the sides, and I'll sink an equal amount behind the DMD speaker panel and a routed out slot in the top piece (removable for access) so while not flush it should be pretty minimal around all sides. Maybe a half inch black border, which is acceptable.

Of course you can't see the bezel in that shot, but use your imagination.

[Aurich]

What time is it? TIME TO GET RICH.

[Aurich]

Custom button inserts:

I can't really see any reason to have more buttons than that (not counting the launcher gun). LEDs are hard to photograph, and I'm also temp lighting those with a little white LED flashlight for the shots, they're a lot more saturated in person, and when lit by a matching color LED.

The way I do inserts by the way is I print them with a laser printer on transparent address labels, and I print two images on each label, one the mirror of the other. Then I peel the label and fold the two against each other. This basically double prints the black, making it stand up to being backlit better. You can also play with not mirroring everything, like the web on the start button is only on the back, reversed side. It makes the START letters float above it just slightly, and it's not as dark. Once folder together I cut out the circle.

I'm using the Groovy Game Gear Stealth buttons for my start/exit: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=396

They work perfect with a 1 1/4" forstner bit for the countersink, and a 1" spade for the actual hole. So just a bit smaller than a standard arcade button.

[mikekim]

Looking good..

Sent from my mind, using the psychic friends network..

[evil eye]

Very nice!

[Aurich]

I think I'm just about ready to strip the hardware back off, route the glass holder slots, and sand things up to prep for paint.

[RetroRepair]

I think I'm just about ready to strip the hardware back off, route the glass holder slots, and sand things up to prep for paint.

Very cool! I'll probably be using a similar design when I get underway with mine though I'll probably drop the playfield a bit to accomodate flashers etc. Are you planning to add lamps?

Do you have plans you are following by the way? Would be interesting to take a peek.

[Aurich]

Very cool! I'll probably be using a similar design when I get underway with mine though I'll probably drop the playfield a bit to accomodate flashers etc. Are you planning to add lamps?

Yes, I'm adding lamps and force feedback (waiting for Zebulon's new board!), and there should be plenty of room, that's pretty much the standard playfield depth people have been using. I think the angle of the photo makes it look like it's a little tighter back in that area behind the playfield than it really is. I haven't designed out the lamp area yet, I'll wait until I position the TV in its final spot, and I need my lockdown bar fabrication to be finished for that first. Soon I hope!

Honestly though you don't need much room for the lamps, and my build is big on not wasting space. That's why the back box is shorter than usual, it's sized to tuck the 16:9 TV bezel away, and even the DMD panel is shorter than the Bally/Williams one, I don't care for their aspect ratio.

Do you have plans you are following by the way? Would be interesting to take a peek.

Not really, I started with the standard widebody plans that are floating around, and modified them on the fly for the most part. It's a half inch narrower for instance to tuck the TV deeper into the sides, and like I said, the backbox is shorter than standard. Made a few small mistakes from the on the fly part, but nothing fatal.

If there are any specific dimensions you'd like just let me know.

[Aurich]

Got the first couple coats of paint on. Needs a little sanding and touch up, maybe another coat in spots, and I still need to flip it up to paint the bottom etc, but it's starting to feel more together now. It's actually a dark blue, not black, hard to tell from the shots. The custom artwork is all still in sketching stages, but I'm starting to work out the color scheme, and the blue will play the base.

I got a box of electronic bits from Mouser yesterday, waiting on PCBs to build Zebulon's coin door interface (the one for the plug, not the one for the door open switch, though I will be installing a microswitch for that plate on the door). The order was for 10 PCBs, and I only need one, maybe I can figure out some way to get extras to people who want them.

It's also not a project until you've mocked up controls in cardboard!

Getting Hyperpin and my I-PAC configured and happy, making sure I'm not missing any buttons. I couldn't care less about magnasaves, hate the extra flipper button clutter, pretty sure I'm set.

[boogies2]

Here's a silly question. Does the top of your backbox open up to slide in the backbox monitor?

[jasonsmith]

Looking great Aurich, keep the pics coming.

[Aurich]

Here's a silly question. Does the top of your backbox open up to slide in the backbox monitor?

Not a silly question, I had to ponder how to make it all work. I decided on magnets over another hinge or something, clean, and it was key that the top open to let the TV slide into the routed slots. I'm hiding about a half inch of bezel on the sides and top, and the bottom will tuck slightly behind the DMD panel to keep it even.

So the top of the box is routed to fit the TV, and everything is fitted such that the slot basically rests on top of the TV, as well as a couple of blocks in the back. It really doesn't take much to secure it, just a little front heavy. So in between each of the vent holes is a magnet, matched to a twin on the back panel of the box. Even without the TV and glass in (the top part will have a thin bezel that locks in front of the glass too) it's pretty secure with just the 7 magnets. If I was to fold down the backbox to move it or something I'd probably want to remove the TV though. Not really a pressing concern.

The back of the box will be on a piano hinge in the standard fashion to allow access to the back of the TV and DMD panel if needed.

[kizam33]

Nice and sweet. Sounds like you have done all of your homework. Keep the pics coming, I am a visual learner!!!:laugh: