What's new
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Any home brew makers here?

Goodwinsplace

Goodwinsplace

Site Supporter
Joined
Apr 7, 2021
Messages
144
Location
Barry, Wales
Alias
Goodwin
I'm looking to start a slow burn home brew project. Probably looking at a year build rather than throwing time and money at it.

My current phase is to consume as much info as I can so welcome any links or suggestions.

I'm watching through projects on YouTube and reading as much as I can on Pinball Makers.

My current thinking is I'll be using Mission Pinball framework, possibly designing my game as a virtual setup first to get an idea in the setup I want before buying lots of mechs that I might not need.

I'm going to be looking at getting my own PCBs printed off using Open Pinball Project as my control hardware.

I think I'll be basing the playfield and cabinet on a wpc.

Any help, tips or links welcomed. Thanks.
 
Hello -
I am about to start a retheme.
Going to grab a Cobrapin board set. If you want me to pick up 2 sets to save postage and duty let me know.
It is OPP and looks to be the best thing I have come across.

CobraPin - Pinball Makers

pinballmakers.com pinballmakers.com

I am using one of the main baords, along with the xpansion board

Agree with mission.

Going to use a Bally Game Show and rewrite software and re print the playfield.
 
I'm on with my own:

In Progress - Mishmash self build - let’s make a pinball machine

I must be fricking mad. I bought this fully populated playfield a couple of years ago. It was going to be a wall art led project, but it’s fully populated, so it’s almost a pinball machine, right? It needs to be saved and turned back into a fully working game again, right? It’s...
www.pinballinfo.com

I decided to do it without using anybody else's hardware or software - i.e. almost from scratch. So using an ESP32s as the main processor, and off the shelf boards and parts:
WS2812B Addressable LED lighting
4 way mosfet power boards (for the solenoids)
Max7219 8 X 32 dot matrix displays for the score display
SD card sound card and amp
off the shelf DC Psu's

Total hardware spend on the electonics £86 !!!

I have used a fully populated playfield as the starting point

Software I have written from scratch - happy to share it. it's pretty easy stuff.
 
Thanks both for the replies. Sounds like you both have amazing projects ahead.

Pick Holder said:
Hello -
I am about to start a retheme.
Going to grab a Cobrapin board set. If you want me to pick up 2 sets to save postage and duty let me know.
It is OPP and looks to be the best thing I have come across.

CobraPin - Pinball Makers

pinballmakers.com pinballmakers.com

I am using one of the main baords, along with the xpansion board

Agree with mission.

Going to use a Bally Game Show and rewrite software and re print the playfield.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the offer, I did look at ordering cobra boards from them, but as I'm not in any rush I quite like the idea of getting some OPP boards printed up and populating them.
It works out a lot cheaper and will give me money to put towards other hardware as I'm starting without anything on this.
I keep looking for populated playfields but never see them come up at a decent price, would be good to have even the basic flipper mech and some of the lower third items to hand to get started.

AlanJ said:
I'm on with my own:

In Progress - Mishmash self build - let’s make a pinball machine

I must be fricking mad. I bought this fully populated playfield a couple of years ago. It was going to be a wall art led project, but it’s fully populated, so it’s almost a pinball machine, right? It needs to be saved and turned back into a fully working game again, right? It’s...
www.pinballinfo.com

I decided to do it without using anybody else's hardware or software - i.e. almost from scratch. So using an ESP32s as the main processor, and off the shelf boards and parts:
WS2812B Addressable LED lighting
4 way mosfet power boards (for the solenoids)
Max7219 8 X 32 dot matrix displays for the score display
SD card sound card and amp
off the shelf DC Psu's

Total hardware spend on the electonics £86 !!!

I have used a fully populated playfield as the starting point

Software I have written from scratch - happy to share it. it's pretty easy stuff.
Click to expand...
Wow, that is a bold move. Sounds like you'll end up with something you'll be really proud of knowing that you've done everything from the ground up.
I'm a while off software stage, might give you a message if choose not to mpf build it.
Will take a look at your thread now to see how it's going.

Thanks both, any others please share info as I love seeing how others are doing things, already two great examples of different approaches.
 
Sven Normansson said:
Forbidden Planet. P3_roc and MPF. There will be home games at pinfest.
Click to expand...
Are your videos FFPinball on YouTube? Can see a few people have covered gameplay on your setup. It looks amazing, I'll be looking at it in more detail soon so expect a spike in YouTube views and likes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom