Moved from members machines cos it's strictly not a Pinball table. Happy to share software and hardware tips and source files.
Build started in September last year and has taken much longer than I thought, mostly due to researching, adding extra toys – it was only going to be a simple PC in a box type setup! having 2 kids and a general tendency to procrastinate didn’t help!
I’d been thinking about a pincab as a next project after building a bartop and a full size replica Donkey Kong cab. I was lucky enough to jump on a forum post advertising a widebody pincab project and after about 5 minutes it was bought. Took a day off and made an 8 hour round trip to Scotland to pick it up but it was well worth it, the cab was built by a joiner so it’s really solid, made from 18mm MDF throughout. It came with a load of extra bits, 3 screens, buttons and a set of speakers but to be honest it was a bit scrappy inside with lots of hot glue and solder and the screens had issues so I basically gutted the cab and slowly got the bits together to build it out.
Electronics wise I’ve been playing with Raspberry Pi projects for a year or two so I was fairly confident until I saw some of the wiring diagrams for the toys so the Pinball Electrical 101 guide was a godsend. I managed to blow up a LEDWiz along the way so now everything has a fuse – everything!!
My design approach was if anything needs to be replaced or moved it can be parted out simply without having to unscrew a load of stuff. Partly because I’m lazy. OK, mostly because I’m lazy. And because the whole cab interior was evolving over time it’s an approach I’m really pleased I went with but meant a lot of cable crimping, molex connectors, Velcro straps and junction boxes and around 100m of cabling. I’ve installed 2 tracks of cable management along each side and every bundle of cables is wrapped in spiral plastic to keep things tidy.
The screens are all mounted using the built in VESA holes, the main playfield screen is on 2 cross braces that sit on rails on either side and I built a wooden frame wrapped in black vinyl that sits on top to hide the TV bezel. The Siemens contactors are also on cross braces, one with the 2 flipper contactors, one for the 2 bumpers and 2 more for the remaining 2 sets of 3.
Wiring is all colour coded, red for 24v, yellow for 12v, blue for iPac and black for ground with the appropriately coloured crimp sleeve on the end. The DMD panel is held on with strong cabinet magnets as is the RGB flasher bar and has a 24pin molex for the power and LEDWiz connections. I also mounted the fuses in holders along the back of the flasher bar for easy access in case one blows.
I mounted the LEDWiz on a separate board with the LED resistors on one side and the contactor fuses on the other. The RGB flasher bar connects up via the molex and the contactors use female crimp connectors. There are 2 strobes mounted on top of the backbox that connect up via the flasher bar on another molex.
For sounds I have 2 generic 2.1 amps mounted just inside the coin door for easy access to the volume controls, one runs a large downward firing sub in the main cab and the 2 backbox Pioneer speakers and the other one runs a smaller decased 2.1 sound system for table sounds. The speakers have in line spade connectors in case the back box needs to come off for transport.
I’m now down the last few bits to tidy up and I need to order the plexiglass for the backbox and apply some Judge Dredd decals and its done, been a great project that has taken up way more time than I expected it to but I'm really happy with the end result.
Full Cab Spec:
18mm MDF Pincab shell
Williams legs and rails
Williams widebody lockdown bar and receiver
6mm playfield safety glass
Stern coin door
LG 43 inch 1080p TV for playfield
Samsung 32 inch 1080p TV for backglass
Hanns-G 17 inch widescreen monitor for DMD
iPac2 for inputs
LEDWiz for outputs
Pinscape controller for nudge and analog plunger
5 RGB LED flasher bar
2 LED strobes mounted on backbox
10 Siemens 24v contactors for force feedback
Dual 12v 2.1 amps for separate table/rom sounds
Intel i5 3470 Processor
Nvidia GTX 750 SC graphics card
250GB Samsung SSD
8GB Corsair RAM
420W Corsair PSU
Windows 7
Visual Pinball 9 and 10
Future Pinball with BAM and Kinect camera
Pinball Arcade
Pinball FX2
PinballX running around 200 tables
Google Drive PicsChunksin2016-03-27 15:10:40
Build started in September last year and has taken much longer than I thought, mostly due to researching, adding extra toys – it was only going to be a simple PC in a box type setup! having 2 kids and a general tendency to procrastinate didn’t help!
I’d been thinking about a pincab as a next project after building a bartop and a full size replica Donkey Kong cab. I was lucky enough to jump on a forum post advertising a widebody pincab project and after about 5 minutes it was bought. Took a day off and made an 8 hour round trip to Scotland to pick it up but it was well worth it, the cab was built by a joiner so it’s really solid, made from 18mm MDF throughout. It came with a load of extra bits, 3 screens, buttons and a set of speakers but to be honest it was a bit scrappy inside with lots of hot glue and solder and the screens had issues so I basically gutted the cab and slowly got the bits together to build it out.
Electronics wise I’ve been playing with Raspberry Pi projects for a year or two so I was fairly confident until I saw some of the wiring diagrams for the toys so the Pinball Electrical 101 guide was a godsend. I managed to blow up a LEDWiz along the way so now everything has a fuse – everything!!
My design approach was if anything needs to be replaced or moved it can be parted out simply without having to unscrew a load of stuff. Partly because I’m lazy. OK, mostly because I’m lazy. And because the whole cab interior was evolving over time it’s an approach I’m really pleased I went with but meant a lot of cable crimping, molex connectors, Velcro straps and junction boxes and around 100m of cabling. I’ve installed 2 tracks of cable management along each side and every bundle of cables is wrapped in spiral plastic to keep things tidy.
The screens are all mounted using the built in VESA holes, the main playfield screen is on 2 cross braces that sit on rails on either side and I built a wooden frame wrapped in black vinyl that sits on top to hide the TV bezel. The Siemens contactors are also on cross braces, one with the 2 flipper contactors, one for the 2 bumpers and 2 more for the remaining 2 sets of 3.
Wiring is all colour coded, red for 24v, yellow for 12v, blue for iPac and black for ground with the appropriately coloured crimp sleeve on the end. The DMD panel is held on with strong cabinet magnets as is the RGB flasher bar and has a 24pin molex for the power and LEDWiz connections. I also mounted the fuses in holders along the back of the flasher bar for easy access in case one blows.
I mounted the LEDWiz on a separate board with the LED resistors on one side and the contactor fuses on the other. The RGB flasher bar connects up via the molex and the contactors use female crimp connectors. There are 2 strobes mounted on top of the backbox that connect up via the flasher bar on another molex.
For sounds I have 2 generic 2.1 amps mounted just inside the coin door for easy access to the volume controls, one runs a large downward firing sub in the main cab and the 2 backbox Pioneer speakers and the other one runs a smaller decased 2.1 sound system for table sounds. The speakers have in line spade connectors in case the back box needs to come off for transport.
I’m now down the last few bits to tidy up and I need to order the plexiglass for the backbox and apply some Judge Dredd decals and its done, been a great project that has taken up way more time than I expected it to but I'm really happy with the end result.
Full Cab Spec:
18mm MDF Pincab shell
Williams legs and rails
Williams widebody lockdown bar and receiver
6mm playfield safety glass
Stern coin door
LG 43 inch 1080p TV for playfield
Samsung 32 inch 1080p TV for backglass
Hanns-G 17 inch widescreen monitor for DMD
iPac2 for inputs
LEDWiz for outputs
Pinscape controller for nudge and analog plunger
5 RGB LED flasher bar
2 LED strobes mounted on backbox
10 Siemens 24v contactors for force feedback
Dual 12v 2.1 amps for separate table/rom sounds
Intel i5 3470 Processor
Nvidia GTX 750 SC graphics card
250GB Samsung SSD
8GB Corsair RAM
420W Corsair PSU
Windows 7
Visual Pinball 9 and 10
Future Pinball with BAM and Kinect camera
Pinball Arcade
Pinball FX2
PinballX running around 200 tables
Google Drive PicsChunksin2016-03-27 15:10:40
