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In Progress Dr Dude - continued.... and a retheme.....

Pick Holder

Pick Holder

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The first part of this story is here:

In Progress - Dr Dude - from ebay, what was I thinking

I got this back in November when when there was 2 on ebay at the same time. Coming up to Christmas I barely had the time to work on it nevermind do a shop log. I'm about half way through so far so this is a little run down. I should hopefully be able to update as I go now but things will be...
www.pinballinfo.com

A couple of months ago @Wintonmartin and I got talking about me buying this as a project and continuing with it from a for sale listing on this forum.

I messed about and was umming and arring, during that time @Jagspete went to view the machine and decided to buy. Of course, my fault.

A week or so ago Pete contacted me asking if I wanted to take this project over as he has so many other things on the go. I agreed and this morning (well yesterday morning) - I went to Petes and collected it.

Martin did a great job on the cabinet. That is the bit I would of hated to do.
Having lots of work in for other people I am putting in a few hours here and there on this machine so I worked 7pm - 10pm to make sure it does not mess with my paid work.


THE FUTURE OF THIS GAME:

I want to get this up and running and working 100% so I can enjoy it for a bit, but it will become a retheme.

Ideas are: Futurama, Prince (the singer!), Rush (as artwork on the Stern makes me sick), The Muppet Show, Queen (the band! because yet again, on the PB's Queen the art is rubbish)......
Each of the above have either good or great assets.

The game will have:
Large monitor in the backbox (like a Jersey Jack),
Fantastic sound system giving high class audio.

Have already got the mini PC in hand as well as the CobraPin board, and CobraPin xpansion board

When the game begins its transformation, the last thing I will do is the playfield art and cabinet art.

Another reason for getting the game wokring is so the original PCBs can be sold to help pay for some parts.

TODAYS JOBS (Tues 27 Sept 22):
Changed caps on aux power board and main MPU board.
Changed damaged coils (x3)
Installed a new EOS switch on right flipper and cleaned switches in cabinet (flippers now work).

TOMORROW EVENINGS JOBS (Wed 28 Sept 22):
Fit new transistors into MPU to stop locked on coils and flashers.
Check if non working lamps are down to faulty row/columns or just faulty lamps.

CobraPin - Pinball Makers

pinballmakers.com pinballmakers.com
 
Good look Phil!
Nice to see you get stuck in straight away. Hopefully the MPU won't cause too much bother and the rest is straight forward!
 
One other option for a system 11 hardware game is my drop in controller board.

No need to change any connectors
Fits existing mounts
Onboard Audio
Flipper relay onboard
8 extra drives included in design
Supports sound overlay board
Rpi compatible
MPF support coming
Python game code (pyprocgame) based system
Framework supports ac relay out of box
All plate through parts


166B0A40-C040-4AA8-8028-F3D1AC14D8EE.jpeg
 
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One thing i would say regarding custom projects though is dont underestimate the amount of time and effort needed to code the game. It will eat time and enthusiasm, so you need to put on your 'thick coat' :). Good luck with it though, it's always great to see more custom projects getting started.
 
myPinballs said:
How is your custom game coming along????
Click to expand...
I got it to stage 1. Game plays and mimics more or less the 8 ball champ game. - then i’ve let it sit there doing nothing for over 6 months.

The next stage in my plan was to make up a set of game rules to make it more challenging. ie a set of modes or levels that you work through on a timer. After pinfest I also thought about making it into a “stall-ball” type game that could be used as a fast knockout game.
 
myPinballs said:
One thing i would say regarding custom projects though is dont underestimate the amount of time and effort needed to code the game. It will eat time and enthusiasm, so you need to put on your 'thick coat' :). Good luck with it though, it's always great to see more custom projects getting started.
Click to expand...
I am under no illussions here Jim @myPinballs - I am sure I will be jumping around on the spot to see the flippers flip when I press the button!

Under no illusions with time. Due to me deciding to have some time off gigging I plan to have more weekend time at home.

Have a lot to learn, but the last thing I do at home is sit by the TV every night, would rather keep busy.

I have an excellent artist on board who is doing the design for playfield when the time is ready, as well as other people who will help me out too.

I did ask @Paul if a homebrew section could be added to the site - as a few people are into it on here. Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes.

Wish I had known about your system 11 boardset. Too late now.
 
Pick Holder said:
In fact @myPinballs - what are the prices for your board set?
I would rather use a mini pc than a RPi.
Click to expand...

The board is self assembly at the mo where you get the major items then buy the rest of the parts yourself etc

The std cost for the main board is usually £300 plus vat & shipping and for this you get:

1 x Blank PCB (main cpu)
1 x Programmed Main Board Hardware Controller
1 x Programmed SD game card for rPi4 (to run a basic game score, ball tracking, trough, flippers, slings, pops etc)
1 x LA4440 Amp ic
1 x Mouser/Element14 BOM sheet with part order codes and notes on where to source any other parts needed.
1 x Instructions doc and notes on various assembly requirements needs etc

Plus once i have mpf support sorted assistance with this should you need it etc.

I can discount it to around £250 plus vat & shipping for uk pininfo people wanting to get into system 11 rewrites, as this is what i offered to @stumbler i think for his possible diner rewrite.

The hardware is pretty mature now and i have over 20 people running the whirlwind board and update as beta testers.

As a final bit of info, One of the main issues with system 11 custom games is how you control the ac relay so be sure to spend some time thinking about how to do this. The framework i have already allows control of this.
 
Pick Holder said:
Thanks for the info Jim.
Click to expand...
No problem.

re computers , you can use any pc you like to connect to the board as the controller connects via usb and the audio section has a line in jack, just it wont be mounted on the board like the rpi is. I used rpi boards so the board itself was a complete unit to add to the factory feel etc and for dmd games the rpi4 is powerful enough to run the loop speed ok
 
Still busy doing two playfield changes so just an update to this project. No photos.

So far I have:

MPU - Installed a CR2032 battery. I prefer this to a remote battery box for the simple reason I can not stand those things swinging around the backs of pinball cabinets. As I say to everyone, each Christmas swap the CR2032. These batteries are pennies when you buy 10 at a time.

SPECIAL SOLENOID ISSUE - This was a bit of a pain to get fixed as I had to wait for deliveries of chips. First off the two slingshots locked on at power up. I noticed the two TIP32Cs on the aux power board were stuck on, so these were changed. But before reconnecting I noticed the TIP102/122's were both stuck on. I decided to change the drivers (2n4401) as well as the TIP102/122s. STILL locked on, just those two. Then replaced the 7402 IC and then it was exactly the same. Both solenoids locked on. Was then time to change the 7407 and then everything worked.

LEFT VUK FAIL - on the main MPU noard the TIP102/122 was locked on, and so was the TIP36C on the aux power board. Easy fix.

As of today, all the solenoids work. Next job is to correct a couple of locked on flashers, I hope these are the other side of the A/C side of the two TIPs I have changed.

Have to put more efford into the 'day job' work for the next few days. Easrthshaker needs finishing so I can get that and Diner out the workshop and back to the owner.

ON THE RETHEME SIDE:

Screenshot 2022-10-05 at 23.33.47.png
Bought a couple of these Zotac 8gb Quad core mini PCs. One will be the machine used to run the retheme.

CobraPin parts are a couple of days away (well longer knowing the Royal Mail and the duties....)

cobrapin main.jpg
This is the main board, based on OPP stuff. But I honestly think its the best spec stuff for the money.

cobra sat.jpg
This is the second board to run the lamp matrix and some other flashers etc.....

Once I am sure the System 11c boards are working 100% I will be selling them on. I know its the point of no turning back but I think I need to just get into it.

After a few attempts at getting Mission Pinball running on the other PCs I have, the iMac was the only one that I had success with. So the plan is with the mini PC I just have that solely for this task. Very tempted to use the iMac 27 I have but I do not want to port the game over at a later stage.
 
Well - not much has happened since repairing the last problems posted above.

The game is going to be save from the sander and no re-theme will take place. I have just said yes to two new bands that will start performing in 2023, so the spare time I had put to one side to do a retheme has been swallowed up again.

Next up will be a strip down of the playfield and give it a good clean. and get some LEDs installed.
 
Does this mean the big shot character toy might be available to buy? Mine never came with one I’ve been on the hunt for a spare. Please let me know if you are looking to part with it. And any other parts for that matter. Thanks
 
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