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Right flipper was a bit weak for my liking though so had to increase strength in editor - another new skill learned 
Pinball info
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Complete Grand Prix VP Build
- Thread starter Andy B
- Start date
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Cheers.Looking good mate - 16 down, about 100 to go
Loaded up different versions of Star Trek today (Bally, Dara East 25th Anniversary, STTNG etc.) and found an issue with the PinballX wheels. Although I import a different, game appropriate, wheel for each game, when I run PinballX some of the wheels are duplicated (so STTNG has same wheel as Bally etc.) and when I go back to Game Manager it has been swapped out there too.
Googling it, it seems to be a glitch with the file matching option in PinballX but when I disable that it loses the wheels every time I go back to Game Manager and I have to start again (it’s like it’s not remembering what I imported).
Anyone had similar issues with PinballX?
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Little more progress made last night.
Took a break from installing games last night (I got download fatigue) and worked on the illuminated buttons.
Had bought some plain LED ones from Arcade World and Start and Launch from Pinball Mania and 5v PSU from Farnell (@Pick Holder suggested I could just hook up to 5v supply in PC PSU but it was an USFF I bought and it didn’t have any spare connections). Wired up the buttons I’m going to have “always on” directly to the PSU them was going to wire up the two controlled illuminated buttons of “START” and “LAUNCH” directly to Pincsape board but checked Pincsape Cabinet Build Guide which states output devices shouldn’t be connected directly to I/O pins (glad I double checked!). In the guide there is a wiring diagram for a “booster” which involves hooking up a resistor and transistor so have ordered those parts and some blank PCBs to make up that circuit. Due in Friday.
Will also be buying another illuminated button for Buy In. Thought I had enough with 5 static buttons plus 2 controlled but is a bit frustrating not to be able to press one button for a Buy In (I could set it up to do it with a shift button and another button combination but have saved the shift button combos for more complicated stuff.
Also took @Pick Holder advice and made button labels with a Dymo label printer using clear tape.
The front looks a bit cluttered for my liking and I didn’t get them all spot on vertically aligned (which is going to annoy the hell out of me) and I am going to have to rotate a couple of buttons so the text is lined up (another thing that would annoy the hell out of me) but the lighting effects are nice and I’m glad I went down that route rather than stick with plain buttons.
Until components arrive for making the flashing buttons circuits it’s back to downloading and installing....
Took a break from installing games last night (I got download fatigue) and worked on the illuminated buttons.
Had bought some plain LED ones from Arcade World and Start and Launch from Pinball Mania and 5v PSU from Farnell (@Pick Holder suggested I could just hook up to 5v supply in PC PSU but it was an USFF I bought and it didn’t have any spare connections). Wired up the buttons I’m going to have “always on” directly to the PSU them was going to wire up the two controlled illuminated buttons of “START” and “LAUNCH” directly to Pincsape board but checked Pincsape Cabinet Build Guide which states output devices shouldn’t be connected directly to I/O pins (glad I double checked!). In the guide there is a wiring diagram for a “booster” which involves hooking up a resistor and transistor so have ordered those parts and some blank PCBs to make up that circuit. Due in Friday.
Will also be buying another illuminated button for Buy In. Thought I had enough with 5 static buttons plus 2 controlled but is a bit frustrating not to be able to press one button for a Buy In (I could set it up to do it with a shift button and another button combination but have saved the shift button combos for more complicated stuff.
Also took @Pick Holder advice and made button labels with a Dymo label printer using clear tape.
The front looks a bit cluttered for my liking and I didn’t get them all spot on vertically aligned (which is going to annoy the hell out of me) and I am going to have to rotate a couple of buttons so the text is lined up (another thing that would annoy the hell out of me) but the lighting effects are nice and I’m glad I went down that route rather than stick with plain buttons.
Until components arrive for making the flashing buttons circuits it’s back to downloading and installing....
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Use a pacdrive special edition for button and coils
There is a link to it on our chat.
I use pinscape only for button encoding and the analog plunger.
There is a link to it on our chat.
I use pinscape only for button encoding and the analog plunger.
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Oh, almost forgot, and how could I when it was such a pain in the backside!
I don’t want to reinstall the on/off switch back in to the base of the cabinet so I have just installed an on/off button for the PC. That means when I have machine plugged in and switched on at mains, the Pin2DMD is always on and TV and monitor are in standby mode. This wouldn’t be a problem if the mains socket I am using was easily accessible but of course it’s under one of the other machines I have in the room and there’s no other easily accessible ones.
So I bought a smart plug (photo below). This connects to your phone via your home WiFi and an app. I didn’t want to do this as I hate WiFi and I hate using apps for such basic stuff as switching plugs on and off - over engineered IMO.
Anyways couldn’t get the thing to connect to my home WiFi. I have great coverage throughout the whole house as I have installed a mesh system but could I buggery get the thing connected. Small print in instructions says thing will only connect to 2.4 ghz network. Mine is supposed to be 2.4 AND 5 but, like I say, would not connect. Grr...
So I bought some cheap remote controlled plugs (Status brand). Programmed these and they work but only just. I have to press the buttons multiple times to switch them on and back off again. I figure they work on RF signals and the pinball machine that the sockets are underneath is a great RF blocker I guess.
More pain in this far from painless build!
I don’t want to reinstall the on/off switch back in to the base of the cabinet so I have just installed an on/off button for the PC. That means when I have machine plugged in and switched on at mains, the Pin2DMD is always on and TV and monitor are in standby mode. This wouldn’t be a problem if the mains socket I am using was easily accessible but of course it’s under one of the other machines I have in the room and there’s no other easily accessible ones.
So I bought a smart plug (photo below). This connects to your phone via your home WiFi and an app. I didn’t want to do this as I hate WiFi and I hate using apps for such basic stuff as switching plugs on and off - over engineered IMO.
Anyways couldn’t get the thing to connect to my home WiFi. I have great coverage throughout the whole house as I have installed a mesh system but could I buggery get the thing connected. Small print in instructions says thing will only connect to 2.4 ghz network. Mine is supposed to be 2.4 AND 5 but, like I say, would not connect. Grr...
So I bought some cheap remote controlled plugs (Status brand). Programmed these and they work but only just. I have to press the buttons multiple times to switch them on and back off again. I figure they work on RF signals and the pinball machine that the sockets are underneath is a great RF blocker I guess.
More pain in this far from painless build!
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Bit more progress.
Hooked up start button and ball launch button to controller and downloaded DOF cfg files so now start button is off until sufficient credits are put in to buy a game. Launch Button lights up only when a ball is ready to launch.
Trimmed some red card to create a border for back glass. Not sure about the red. Might swap out for black.
Installed the resprayed original coin door.
Drilled another hole for extra ball button that’s on order.
Ordered linear potentiometer for plunger.
Downloaded everything for over a hundred tables.
Guess I’ll be doing a lot of file transferring this weekend!
Hooked up start button and ball launch button to controller and downloaded DOF cfg files so now start button is off until sufficient credits are put in to buy a game. Launch Button lights up only when a ball is ready to launch.
Trimmed some red card to create a border for back glass. Not sure about the red. Might swap out for black.
Installed the resprayed original coin door.
Drilled another hole for extra ball button that’s on order.
Ordered linear potentiometer for plunger.
Downloaded everything for over a hundred tables.
Guess I’ll be doing a lot of file transferring this weekend!
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I think black would look much better. Top work!
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Some more tables loaded up today (interrupted whilst I watched The Tigers win 3-0).
Up to 47 now.
Also fitted cam lock to coin door £4.62 from Toolstation. Sweet.
Resprayed plunger housing. Potentiometer on order.
Remote controlled plugs not working though.
WTF!
I used to have one of these before. Plugged in behind my jukebox. Had absolutely no problems whatsoever.
It’s like they are forgetting the code sent from the RC when they have been switched off for a while.
Anyone got any recommendations?
Up to 47 now.
Also fitted cam lock to coin door £4.62 from Toolstation. Sweet.
Resprayed plunger housing. Potentiometer on order.
Remote controlled plugs not working though.
WTF!
I used to have one of these before. Plugged in behind my jukebox. Had absolutely no problems whatsoever.
It’s like they are forgetting the code sent from the RC when they have been switched off for a while.
Anyone got any recommendations?
I use TP-Link too and also use some generic brand RF ones I bought years ago which work as expected.
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Yep, I’ve been trying to use some generic ones branded as “Status” but no good. Will try TP-Link as they connect to router via electricity wiring right?
With your power issue - what I do is run the mains permanently to the PC. Then take a 12v solid state relay and switch everything else from that. So when the PC starts to boot it switches everything on.
You can set your PC motherboard too - to not give out 5v in stand by. Depending on the bios, it will name it something differently buy google it. This is done so USB ports on PCs can be used to charge mobile devices when the PC is off.
You can set your PC motherboard too - to not give out 5v in stand by. Depending on the bios, it will name it something differently buy google it. This is done so USB ports on PCs can be used to charge mobile devices when the PC is off.
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Thanks.I dug out an ol
Thanks.
I found an old Masterplug branded RF socket down the garage and that works a treat.
Weird since as I guess it operates in the same way as the Status branded socket which I just could not get to work,
54 tables and counting...
Thanks.
I found an old Masterplug branded RF socket down the garage and that works a treat.
Weird since as I guess it operates in the same way as the Status branded socket which I just could not get to work,
54 tables and counting...
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Almost there (hardware wise).
Plunger back in, just waiting for potentiometer from Farnell.
Coin door back on.
Software wise, up to 71.
Finishing off the night with a few games of TZ.
Plunger back in, just waiting for potentiometer from Farnell.
Coin door back on.
Software wise, up to 71.
Finishing off the night with a few games of TZ.
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Still left to do:
Apron - any suggestions?
Install Extra Ball/Buy In button when received.
Put another Ball Launch button in since as I broke off plastic tabs of last one.
Apron - any suggestions?
Install Extra Ball/Buy In button when received.
Put another Ball Launch button in since as I broke off plastic tabs of last one.
Apron - really - every game has one.
I used to edit a lot of my tables to actually get rid of the apron and bring the 'table' closer to me (if you understand)...
Do not forget on Pinscape you can assign a SHIFT button to give your cabinet buttons extra features (like whilst holding down LEFT magnasave, the volume can be operated by the right flipper and right magnasave).
ALSO - why do you have ESCAPE and QUIT on your cab. You do not need them both. Assign both of those to your escape key on the keyboard in the software. The only time I use escape is with a keyboard plugged in whilst setting up a table.
I used to edit a lot of my tables to actually get rid of the apron and bring the 'table' closer to me (if you understand)...
Do not forget on Pinscape you can assign a SHIFT button to give your cabinet buttons extra features (like whilst holding down LEFT magnasave, the volume can be operated by the right flipper and right magnasave).
ALSO - why do you have ESCAPE and QUIT on your cab. You do not need them both. Assign both of those to your escape key on the keyboard in the software. The only time I use escape is with a keyboard plugged in whilst setting up a table.