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Complete Grand Prix VP Build

I think @Andy B is talking about the gap between the screen edge and the front wall of the cab - not an issue I've had to tackle as I build my cab body to fit the screen exactly.
But I've always thought one route (assuming it would fit) would be to put a real apron in and then edit the tables to remove the apron from the display.....
 
ChrisH said:
I think @Andy B is talking about the gap between the screen edge and the front wall of the cab - not an issue I've had to tackle as I build my cab body to fit the screen exactly.
But I've always thought one route (assuming it would fit) would be to put a real apron in and then edit the tables to remove the apron from the display.....
Click to expand...
A bezel then !
:)

A quick easy way is to use mounting card or foam board. You can get plastic mounting board that is a pain to cut neatly - but is probably the best and looks pro. Just velcro that it.

I tend to get my screen as close to the front of the cabinet anyway. But you have to watch the plunger!

Plenty of pro's to building cabs to fit the screen but also some cons.... like lockdown bars! Probably best to keep width either standard or widebody I guess.

Do prefer to use an old pinball cabinet. Most of the hard work is done! Seen some kits for cabinets that are held together with plastic blocks and they would fall apart in no time.
 
Pick Holder said:
A bezel then !
:)

A quick easy way is to use mounting card or foam board. You can get plastic mounting board that is a pain to cut neatly - but is probably the best and looks pro. Just velcro that it.

I tend to get my screen as close to the front of the cabinet anyway. But you have to watch the plunger!

Plenty of pro's to building cabs to fit the screen but also some cons.... like lockdown bars! Probably best to keep width either standard or widebody I guess.

Do prefer to use an old pinball cabinet. Most of the hard work is done! Seen some kits for cabinets that are held together with plastic blocks and they would fall apart in no time.
Click to expand...
Yep nice easy cardboard bezel would do the job!
Or if you fancied a little project - get a proper apron, and but little screens where the cards go and have them display the correct instructions/pricing info on a per game basis - I bet that could be done somehow!

Mine fits the lockdown perfectly, it's exactly the same width as a standard narrowbody, but about 20cms shorter - screen fits like a glove. (And I benefited by someone on here getting some HS2 decals that were mint apart from the main body side decals misprinted 20cms too short - which was a stunning bit of luck as they look made to measure on mine!)
Getting the lockdown receiver and coindoor all lined and at the correct height up took a bit of work though, the other issue is you can't use standard glass or trim either - I used 2mm perspex and some 90 degree aluminium to cover the area the side rails would sit.
Mine is made from 1.8mm ply and re-enforced with 20mm x 20mm batons screwed and glued where each panel joins (because I'm no carpenter, and proper joints are beyond me!) none of this plastic block joining here, built like a tank :rofl:

There is the one obvious problem though - it fits the screen in it like a glove, so if it fails I'll have a bit of an issue unless I can find the exact same one again 🤞 I try not to think about that!

But 100% if I could have I'd have used an existing cabinet - way less time with the circular saw and having to get inventive with stuff, but I'm pretty happy with the result in the end :)
 
ChrisH said:
Or if you fancied a little project - get a proper apron, and but little screens where the cards go and have them display the correct instructions/pricing info on a per game basis - I bet that could be done somehow!
Click to expand...

I had thought of using an old apron, cutting the bottom of it and cutting the card holders out so you could read the screen below, need to be done well or it would look like cack though. Also wide body and narrow would be very slightly different to each other when re scaled to fit your cab. I guess you could cut the card holders out a bit more to allow for differences..

Might get Collywobbles to cut me a apron shaped bezel out when i get around to it and decide on a size etc
 
Pick Holder said:
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.
Click to expand...

Quit and Escape because I have trigger happy kids who would press escape to quit the game and keep banging it and quit the front end also 😊
 
Sliding potentiometer for plunger arrived today. There's some 3d model files for printing a housing but I'm getting a bit fatigued now so just bought one pre-made from Ebay should be here by weekend.

Extra ball button also arrived so have wired that up to Pinscape Controller and whilst I had the controller out I soldered the wires on ready for connecting the plunger pot too. The Pinscape did not come with pins pre-soldered and I dind't have proper connectors but I was in such a hurry to get this project started that I've been soldering direct to some pins I had lying around and mounted on the PCB. Each time I've though "Oh wait, I could do with a button for this and a controlled LED for that..." I've been having to get the thing out and solder straight to it. Once the project's done I'm going to hook up proper connectors because some of the pins are clearly getting stressed and a couple of times tonight I've broke a couple of wires off and had to re-solder. Told you I'm getting fatigued!

Got a call from the glazing shop to say my playfield glass was ready for collection so will be picking that up tomorrow.

So install playfield glass tomorrow. Wire up plunger once housing comes in. Sort out apron. Finish installing games. Thing will be finished by weekend.

For apron I may build a little 3 sided box out of ply and spray it black or maybe get a reverse printed window banner with some custom artwork and apply directly to glass.
 
Not much to update today, other than new play field glass installed (bet I’m not the only one that hates lugging those big chunks of glass around watching all around you as you install it, like a lorry driver reversing his artic down a narrow alley, hoping like hell that you don’t catch the corners and hear that dreaded “poof-kish” sound).

Also some more installation. Minor headaches on that side of things tonight. Some of the really old stuff it seems you can only adjust volume by calling up VPinmame menu and hitting the tilde key and then adjusting volume in there and can I for the life of me work out how to show the VPinmame screen. I can adjust volume for those machines in play using the shift key and right flipper and magna save buttons but I don’t want to be doing that every time I play one of those games and then, also, have to remember to turn volume back down again when I exit to front-end. Will search up (apparently that’s what the kids say nowadays rather than “Google it”) a solution to displaying VPinmame screen - unless one of you kind chaps know how it’s done and could put me straight first 😊

Other issue is my bloody back is killing me being stood up sideways to the table!

Photo below of progress to date.

Getting there.
 
Andy B said:
Also some more installation. Minor headaches on that side of things tonight. Some of the really old stuff it seems you can only adjust volume by calling up VPinmame menu and hitting the tilde key and then adjusting volume in there and can I for the life of me work out how to show the VPinmame screen. I can adjust volume for those machines in play using the shift key and right flipper and magna save buttons but I don’t want to be doing that every time I play one of those games and then, also, have to remember to turn volume back down again when I exit to front-end. Will search up (apparently that’s what the kids say nowadays rather than “Google it”) a solution to displaying VPinmame screen - unless one of you kind chaps know how it’s done and could put me straight first
Click to expand...
With everything else closed if you launch the VPinMAME setup exe you'll get the option to test (I think it's labelled test anyway) and that will let you launch a ROM independently, click on the display that appears and you'll be able to get at the options under the ' menu.
The issue is when launching the table VPinMAME isn't visible on those era table - there is no DMD and the DB2S is handling the alpha displays, so you never see it.
 
ChrisH said:
With everything else closed if you launch the VPinMAME setup exe you'll get the option to test (I think it's labelled test anyway) and that will let you launch a ROM independently, click on the display that appears and you'll be able to get at the options under the ' menu.
The issue is when launching the table VPinMAME isn't visible on those era table - there is no DMD and the DB2S is handling the alpha displays, so you never see it.
Click to expand...
Nice one. Thanks.
 
Andy B said:
Nice one. Thanks.
Click to expand...
This didn't work for me. When I tried to run a game in test mode a "loading table" message came up and then the window the table was supposed to be playing in disappeared. Will have to look at my various settings before I try that one again - probably something simple I guess but more of a fine tweak than a must have.
 
Just more locking and loading tonight.

Got all of the tables on there that I wanted now (all the ones I've played or wished I could play or fancied playing after rave reviews from others or been stood at the back of a queue at NLP or another such show waiting to play but ended up walking away when some Muppet put a four player game on just for themselves!).

I am contemplating installing Future Pinball but this is only, initially, for Magic City which is a game I've always wanted to play - just because it was made in 1967, the year I was born, and I've always said I wanted a pinball machine that was as old as me - and I can't seem to find a Visual Pinball version. But not sure I could go through the pain and heartache of configuring Future Pinball tables - another world of pain I fear to venture in to.

Just 3 older tables to sort the volume issues out which need changing in VPinMame and I can't seem to make that happen just yet and a couple of modern tables that are proving particularly troublesome but sure I will get there in the end.
 
Andy B said:
This didn't work for me. When I tried to run a game in test mode a "loading table" message came up and then the window the table was supposed to be playing in disappeared. Will have to look at my various settings before I try that one again - probably something simple I guess but more of a fine tweak than a must have.
Click to expand...
That doesn't sound right - if you're only running VPinMAME it doesn't know about tables

To be sure close everything, so you just sitting at the desktop - no VPX running, no PinballX nothing
Then go to you VPinMAME folder and run setup64.exe
Capture.PNG
You should then get this but it won't be greyed out (this is just from my backup so it's not actually installed here) - hit test and choose the ROM to run
 
Holder arrived for sliding potentiometer for plunger today. A plastic 3d printed one bought from Ebay. A really good design in terms of being a perfect fit for the potentiometer I bought and the plunger that was already in the machine but the bloody thing snapped when I was installing it so I ended up building a bracket to secure it in place which was exactly what I had been trying to avoid by buying a pre-made unit!

Anyways the thing works perfect with Pinscape controller board - am able to switch off the noise filter and get no on-screen jittering. Amazing how better it is for the games with a mechanical plunger, particularly TZ.

I just need to make the apron now and then I am calling it done (and probably selling it!).
 
Cut a piece of 9mm ply and sprayed Matt black to make an apron between bottom of TV and lockdown bar.

Now looking at getting some artwork printed off for that panel and calling it finished.

Did another panel for back of play field to hide all the wiring to the back box monitor and DMD but just going to leave that matt black.

Been playing AC/DC to death on it and I love it, even though hard rock/heavy metal not my thing
 

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Pick Holder said:
Have a look at some of my previous builds - I try and pull the TV as close to the front of the cab as possible.
Just an observation bud.
Click to expand...
Yep, I think if I do another I will go for TV pulled further towards lockdown bar - bit unsightly that big space. Fingers crossed the artwork will make it look pretty :)
 
Final bits for VP build arrived today courtesy of @xianek.

Custom designed perspex aprons. Wasn't sure which would look best so ordered 2 different designs. Both Xianek and me are agreed that the F1 design goes better with the cab. They look a bit hazy as the protective film is still on them.

I am going to mount some LED strips under these at the weekend and I think they'll look the dogs - will post photos and close the thread down when that's done but in the meantime couldn't resist taking a couple of snaps.

P.S. The Guns N Roses sticker is only in the photo as a bit of free advertising for Xianek - I won't be leaving that in the middle of the playfield for good :)
 
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