Luckydogg's virtual pin project

[Luckydogg420]

Well I've done lots of reading... Originally I bought my first pin (f14) to gut into a virtual pin, but fell in love and kept it. From there I ballooned to 4 pins within 6 months. Currently only have one pin, but thought this was a good time to resurrect the dream of a multipin.

I found a beat up cabinet as a starting point, this is a better starter for a VP build. Gottlieb panthera, a wide body machine to donate a lockdown bar, the glass, side rails, and a few other odds and ends.

The playfield is not that bad and I plan to hang it on the wall with some lights in my man cave.

From here I plan to look for a screen. The most important part. With a wide body lockdown bar I should be able to use a 46" screen for the playfield.

 

[Luckydogg420]

This is the thread that originally made me want to build one of these machines.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showt ... g-Bang-Bar

I love the Big Bang Pin artwork. I hope to find the creator and buy a copy of the vinyl decals.

For the plunger I plan to buy one of these guys
http://virtuapin.net/index.php?main_pag ... cts_id=105

Computer.... Something great, big video card for playfield. 2nd video card to run backglass (32"lcd) and a 3rd screen (17" lcd for DMD)

Controls will probably be an ipac board from ultimarc.

Sound will be car audio. 2x 4" in backbox, sub in cabinet

 

[Luckydogg420]

I bought the playfield tv today. Decided to get a sony 46" led for $599 + enviro fee + tax = $725.

http://store.sony.ca/46-r450-series-led ... ony-HD-TVs

The largest tv that you can use in a wide body cabinet is 46", this will give you a cabinet that's about the same depth as a real machine and a playfield that is bezel less. That means the screen will reach from side to side and from front to back inside the cabinet without having a large black dead space around it. During gameplay the tv will be in "game mode" to reduce the input lag of the display; and since while in game mode the tv drops to 60hz for better performance, i only needed to buy a 60hz tv. Ive read a couple reviews and the sony tvs had the fastest response time, so hopefully the flippers will be quick.

 

[Luckydogg420]

The other week their was a humble bundle for the steam version of pinball fx. It's a pay what you want web site. You decide if your money goes to the developer, a charity, or to the humble bundle website (slide bars for the three that you set) if you pay more then $6 you get extra table packs also. I just spent $10.

Downloaded the software to my desktop and gave it a try. It was pretty good. My desktop only has a 500mb graphics card, so it wasn't the best machine to play on, but I had lots of fun, and with a new pc this will rock.



Sorry no cats in this build thread, but Scooter really like to stand I between the player and the screen, can't wait to build the box for this thing.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Some days just feel like Christmas.

Another group of parts arrived today. This time from the guys at virtuapin. I picked up their shooter rod/nudge kit, backbox hinges, leg mounting plates and a plastic channel for the back of the playfield glass.

With shipping, tax and customs fees this group was $300.


I've almost collected all the pieces that I need. Just a computer and backbox tv left to complete a basic cabinet. I plan to add lights, force feedback, and custom graphics, but that will all come in time.

....time to begin cutting wood I think

 

[Luckydogg420]

Last night I had a bit of time to work on ideas. I think that I've figured out the side of the cabinet along with tv placement. The side rails that I have, have holes in them for flipper buttons so this limits the button placement and screen placement. I don't think there will be enough room to have the bottom edge of the tv touch the lockdown bar like I wanted. I'm thinking about having the tv 5" from the front of the machine. This will leave plenty of room for the tv at the back of the cabinet. I plan to install the tv at a small angle instead of having it perfectly level. The "width" of the tv is 24 1/2" wih the case on. So I will be slotting the inside of the cabinet. The inside dimension is 24" so I won't have to go deep with the channels, just enough for some wiggle room.


Hopefully tonight I will be able to finish the front of the cabinet drawing. I have to be aware of plunger placement so it doesn't interfere with the tv or flipper buttons.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Here's the same picture showing where the screen will sit inside the machine. I'm planning on having the glass at an 8deg angle and the screen at a 4deg angle. This will give the illusion of depth without having the playfield sit flat. I hope it works well.

 

[Luckydogg420]

A while ago i saw this post in another thread

Here is the combo shooter housing from Borygard if you want to make swaps easier in the future.

Immediately I thought this would be cool for my virtual machine, but didn't want to pay their price...so I made one.

I took the regular shooter rod plate,


Used a combination of power tools to put a hole in it,


And then added a light up button that I had laying around.


And that's how you save $100 on a shooter rod plate.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Finished plunger with a light. The crappy cell phone pic doesn't give it justice.

 

[zebulon]

Nice work and a great idea.

Not sure if you're interested, but I have a design for a digital plunger and encoder that I've been working on. I'm past the prototype stage with it and it seems to be trouble free.
I have no plans on going head to head with Noah over on vpf with this, but it's an option for you.

Let me know if it interests you and we can work something out.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Thanks for the heads up zeb, I'm going to try what I've got for now, but I'll be making another one of these for a buddy in a couple months, so maybe I'll try yours then.

I will be contacting you for a couple boards once I get closer to that stage in the build. Probably buy a whole kit if you make one. Ledwiz, booster board, shaker and controls, lights, ect.

Thanks for the the write up on grounding/bonding on hyperpin, I'm usually good with keeping wires apart, but it might be good to add some custom shielding in the cabinet. I also might not de-case my tv to keep it as shielded as possible, because it's looking like I won't have to; to get it to fit into my cabinet.

Just because it might be useful to others here. Here's the link to zebulon's grounding tips.
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showt ... n-addendum

 

[Luckydogg420]

I've also been posting on hyperspin forums with this build. It's virtually the same information. But you can follow it here.
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showt ... L-(pinball)-KOMBAT-a-build-thread


I was able to begin cutting wood yesterday. I took a 4'x8' sheet of plywood and cut it down to manageable pieces with the table saw then used a circular saw to cut the top angle of the cabinet. With the side piece rough cut, I decided to dry fit the side rails to ensure their length and button placement were correct.

So far so good.

The next step was the coin door. I measured out its location and drilled holes in each corner of the square that I will be cutting out. Then I used my circular saw to connect the holes, and cut out the piece. If your not confident with power tools then I'd suggest to do these cuts with a jig saw, it's safer. The circular saw has a higher chance of binding and kicking back if you don't get it just right.

I have a friend that lost the top of two fingers from a circular saw. BE SAFE.

The next step is placement of the plunger. I measured out the location. And drilled a hole for the plunger rod and button. The hole was a little small so I used a wood file to round it out and make a perfect fit.

This is just a dry fit. I will be cleaning up the coindoor before final installation.


The next step is to take this apart, finish cutting the miter joints on the edges and the dado joint for the bottom panel. Hopefully I will find time to finish the lower cabinet this weekend.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Today I put some more time into the bottom cabinet build. The front of the box is mitered together on either side. The bottom of the cabinet slides into a dodo joint, and for the back I used a rabbet joint so that the back door will be recessed once closed. The top piece is sitting on top with rabbet joints to secure it in place, it sits 3/8" above the sides so that it will be inline with the side rails and glass once installed.

45deg cut on front. The dado is 3/8" from the bottom and 5/8" wide (thick enough for the bottom)
Same dado on bottom. 3/4" rabbet on back

Here's the box clamped together. Notice the dado for the bottom board.

The front miter corner with bottom board installed

Here's a detailed image of the rear top in place.

Again the cabinet back, with the door in place. This is a "dry fit" so the hinge hasn't been installed.

And one of the whole cabinet, with side rails and lock down bar.


Now it's time to take it all apart again to cut the slot for the tv, a slot in the top edge for the plastic glass channel, and drill holes for flipper buttons.

 

[tkaye]

Wow! Great stuff LD!
Nice cabinet work there!

 

[websherpa]

I'm impressed too. I'm following this thread because vicariously it's what I'd really like to be doing during my spare time...if I had a proper workshop. (sigh)

 

[Luckydogg420]

I decided against fully de-casing the tv as I started pulling it apart I realized that the screen goes fully to the edge with very little metal frame behind the screen instead of having it around the outer edge like in an LCD. The rear edge was about 1/2" lower then the front and connected to the bottom panel of the tv case holding the speakers in place.

I removed the lower rear of the case, that's the cover for the circuit boards. This unscrewed easily.

Then I removed the bottom speaker panel from the tv. Next I needed to cut off the lower panel down by about 1/2". Once off of the tv it was easy to make a line and cut the plastic. then I reinstalled the rear panel back onto the tv. The bottom is exposed now (although it was full of air vents and speakers before) but will be covered fully once installed in the cabinet.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Now that the tv was cut down to size I grabbed the plunge router to make the channels for the tv to sit in. The inside dimension of the cabinet is 24", and the width of the tv (cut down) is 24 1/4". But the bottom front of the tv has a bulge in the center for the Sony logo. I routed the channels to 3/8" deep allowing some wiggle room, and enough space to make it possible to install the tv. (Because of the front bulge)

Inside the cabinet I installed 4 angle brackets under the mounting points for the tv's wall mount screw holes. I think this will support the tv well enough.

The right side of the cabinet required a slot of 3/4" wide to fit the top of the tv, and the bottom required a slot of 2 1/2" for the bottom of the tv.

And one with the tv installed.

 

[Luckydogg420]

.....and here's my first problem.

With the tv left in its case , it's thicker then originally planned. So now the shooter rod hits the back of the case.

The easiest way to fix this will be to remake the front of the cabinet and install the shooter rod 1" lower.

Ah well... At least it's an easy fix.

 

[Luckydogg420]

While I had the screen installed I was able to mark out the pieces that go in front of, and behind the tv. The front piece will have cabinet instructions on it, and the back piece will get the 5 flasher treatment. These are the last two pieces (I think) for the bottom of the cabinet.

 

[Luckydogg420]

With the bottom cabinet almost finished, it was time to look for a tv for the back box. Because this tv isn't that important I decided to go with something cheap.

I found a 32" RCA LCD used for $100 form kijiji


This tv has a huge bezel so I will be de-casing this one and slotting it into the backbox. (Hopefully).