Project Virtual Solar Ride Pinball is a go (38.5/27.5/?)

[MTPPC]

Having been emboldened by the complete success and enjoyment factor of my impromptu mini-digital pinball build, I have started accumulating components for a full size virtual pinball machine. This empty cabinet fell into my lap and I'm going do my best to build an economical (read cheap) pinball simulator. I'm sticking with the original paintjob and will install stealth extra controls.

I'm budgeting a total of $1200 on the build. Here is the cabinet:



Here is my mini:



Here is the original pin:




I'm going to make another post for the components and costs and you can follow along as I build this over the next couple of months. Please feel free to criticize and comment at will. I'm pretty new to this stuff and can use all the help I can get.

BTW, thanks for this great forum and I must also give thanks to the following 2 boards for the information and ideas:

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showforum=29
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?38-HyperPin-Cabinet-Forum

[MTPPC]

Components (incomplete list to be updated over time): Last Update 8/23/12

06/25/12   Cabinet             Solar Ride by Gottlieb           Duncan   $60.00
07/10/12   Legs                                                              Ebay          $25.88
07/17/12   Playfield             Westinghouse EW39T4LZ   Ebay                  $269.00
07/17/12   Video Card          GTS250 PNY VCGGTS2501XPB    Ebay         $45.00
07/20/12   Backglass             Hanspree Basketball          TigerDirect           $159.99
10/10/11   MotherBoard     Zotac GF9300-K-E                    Amazon   $118.48 (I had this from before I decided to start the project)
12/07/11   CPU                     Intel (BX80571E3400)             Ebay           $46.99 (this will be replaced with an E8500 shortly)
12/07/11   Memory             4GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz   Ebay      $15.00
10/25/11   Case                     BROADWAY 1243MA-BLACK R   newegg   $29.99 (includes 500Watt power Supply - case will be severely modified)
07/22/12   SSD                     OCZ 64GB Vertex 4                   Amazon   $69.99
                                IPAC2   Ultimarc   
8/2/12                            AVR Encoder                             Degenetron $24.94         
                                Intel E8500 Processoror better LGA755 format processor      
                                          3rd Monitor
8/22/12     Backbox              Backglass Glass                Local                 $13.00 
07/27/12   Misc                     Chisel and Glue           Harbor Freight   $10.98
07/29/12   Misc                         Speaker Hardware   Ace Hardware   $0.90
07/27/12   Misc                         Backbox Bolts          Ace Hardware   $6.16
07/27/12   Speakers                 Logitech                   Target           $19.94
07/28/12   Misc                         Wood and hardware   Lowe's          $21.54
07/30/12   Nudge (x3)            Mercury Tilt Switches   ebay                  $16.22
07/31/12   Misc                         Paint and Door Hook   Ace Hardware   $7.24
03/15/12   Electrical                     Belking Smart Strip   Target           $14.67
07/31/12   Electrical                  Fuses and Buttons   Radio Shack   $7.18
06/25/12   Electrical                Fused Power Socket   Amazon           $7.58
08/13/12   Backbox                  Fish Tank Hinge             Ebay                $7.95
08/13/12   Backbox                   Speaker Grills               Ebay                $6.88
                Backbox                   Backbox Door Wood       Leftover           Free
8/22/12    Backbox                   Cam Lock/hdwr         Ace Hardware       $9.00
                                                                                          ==============
GRAND TOTAL - ---------------------------------------------------------------$1020.15

[MTPPC]

Today I took deliver of the Westinghouse playfield TV. It was obviously a store return. It wasn't packed so well and got a little scuffing on the screen. There seems to be a design glitch where the screws that hold on the base don't go in far enough because they added a steel plate underneath the base as an afterthought. Because of this, the screws were stripped. I removed the steel and it is on the stand acceptably for now. If I didn't have plans to ditch the stand, I'd feel really ripped off. As it is, I'm very happy to have a TV that can use it's own bezel in a standard cabinet. It came with no remote, so I haven't had a chance to dig through the menus. It has a rocker switch for power and a membrane switch for power on the side. It doesn't come up with the VGA signal and I doubt it will with HDMI. I know some people use an IR blaster and have hyperpin light up the TV on startup. I may look into this, but for now, the power switch is accessible inside the door. I may well put the entire power up controls inside the coindoor for "security". I'm pretty sure the hanspree basketball doesn't power up either, but since I am decasing that one, I'll probably just splice into the power button circuit on that one and use a DP momentary switch to turn that one on at the same time as the computer.

Now I must admit that this westinghouse LED TV is simply beautiful. I'm getting 147 frames on MM future pinball. I'm thinking this E3400 processor I have might be good enough for a while anyway. I only have Solar Ride and Jurassic Park set up on the visual pinball side and I'm still deciding if I need a USB to VGA video adapter for the 3rd monitor DMD. I'm thinking to just go with 2 screens for now. I have plenty of little monitors so I'm probably going to build the 3rd monitor into the back box whether I use it or not.



Now onto the software side of things: I pissed away a couple of hours on hyperpin's screwing up the table on startup tonight. I was having blackscreen over the playfield on startup. It didn't happen all the time, but seemingly randomly. I never figure out what was happening, but I installed "FPLaunch Mod - 1.295 WIP 9" and all those problems went away. It also comes with the benefit of snapping playfield and backglass screenshots, in-game flyers and info cards, countdown to exit and a few other nice things. This MOD is a MUST and when I come to think about it, every youtube out there I watch seems to have it. I guess this is just a little secret: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?10935-FPLaunch-MOD-Pause-and-Loading-screens

I also received my cabinet legs today. They are really nice for under $30. "I love it when a plan comes together."

[MTPPC]

Parts are starting to come together.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I was wondering wtf you were talking about with the basketball TV.  That last picture is worth a thousand words. 

[MTPPC]

I routed out the cabinet sides to fit the 39" TV and nailed in a couple of supports to test fit the TV. It looks like it's going to be a very nice fit. I took about 1/8" off of each side 2" deep.





I had to chisel out the ends by hand and groove out some room for the toggle switch on this particular TV.











Up next, I decided that I'm going to use the VESA mounting for both the playfield and the backglass. It's starting to look like something.



I did get that stupid basketball decased. Hanspree really wasted some nice monitors on those goofy cases:

[MTPPC]

Got a little more work done today. Fabricated VESA mounts for both monitors. Still deciding on monitor 3.

[MTPPC]

Yesterday I fit the side rails back on and made sure the playfield could be installed and removed with both rails on.



Today I installed the power jack, belkin smartstrip and painted the edges along the sides of the playfield.







I also installed a hook to keep the backbox door shut. I'll probably change this to a camlock at some point, but I couldn't resist the $.25 clearance solution when I saw it in the bin at the hardware store.

[MTPPC]

Today I upgraded the hard drive to the SSD and painted the backglass TV bezel and the inside of the backbox. I missed a touch in the lower right hand corner, but I'll probably just put a sharpie to it and call it good.



I've decided to cover backglass bottom with 9" of black masonite holding two speaker grills. Then I'm going to use a fishtank lid hinge and cover the backglass monitor with 1/8" glass tinted at 35% transmission.

I'm considering sticking with just two monitors, but if I want a third, I'm think I'm going to use a Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 Travel Monitor and mount it to the backbox door:

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/monitor/lt1421/

[mcseforsale]

subscribing...

AJ

[HanoiBoi]

MTPPC, nice build so far.  I'm enjoying the thread.


I too am pricing out a build to see if I can get something together for 1000-1300 (not including some stuff i already have on hand)

I'm looking for a monitor that can fit inside the cab, or at least one that I can remove without first removing flipper buttons and side rails.That said, can I ask for a couple measurements?  I'm looking for the inside width of the cabinet, before routing.  Also looking for the decased dimensions of the Westinghouse and the basketball monitor.

Thanks much, and keep up the nice work.

[MTPPC]

The inside of the cabinet is 20.25". The westinghouse is not decased so I can't answer that. The height of the westinghouse is 20.4". This includes the toggle button on the bottom.

28" 16:9 HANNspree 28" Class LCD 1080p 60Hz HDTV, ST285MUB <--The Basket Ball Decased Dimensions Length 24 3/4" Width 1 1/8" (total width 3") Height 16 7/16"

[HanoiBoi]

Thanks for the measurements.  Sorry I didn't notice that it wasn't decased earlier.  Looking back on the photos, I can see it now.

When I last measured my cab I came up with 20.5, so this looks like it might be perfect!

[MTPPC]

I've been out of town for a week, but arrived back home just in time to get my encoder from degenetron. I guess it was about 10 days from purchase - not so bad from across the atlantic. It's smaller than I expected, so I'm probably just going to build a harness that terminates right at the computer and plug it directly into the back of the computer. I really like how when you power it up, it flashes out the mode... very nice.

[MTPPC]

Got a few things done yesterday. Installed a mercury switch for up nudge. After tweaking the switch, i decided to stick with nudge buttons on the left and right. I rigged up an old leaf switch to the plunger for enter and soldered/installed a remote power button for the backglass monitor. I made a mount plate for two cheap radio shack switches and mounted them down where the original power toggle switch was. Those are the coin up and exit/pause buttons. The original coin mechs still work and can be used instead of the coin button. I am more familiar with arcade coin mechs and this is the first I've seen how wire levers can operate leaf switches for the credits.

The machine is looking very stealthy with its limited expansion of controls. The only obvious change is the addition of the nudge buttons. I have a black and yellow right now, but will replace the black with another yellow when I get around to ordering it. I'm going without magnasave, extra ball buy-in and upper flippers because I only know a couple of games that use either. Does anyone know which tables this will limit me on? I know black knight 2000 uses magna-save, but I don't even know which tables use upper flippers and extra ball buy-in. I hope I don't regret this decision later.

I learned something about degenetron's encoder - when you short the +5V terminal directly to ground, it resets the encoder, but does not damage it (immediately). I had my exit button carelessly wired in the wrong terminal for a bit, but apparently no permanent damage was done. At this point, it was time for a good test. I fired up Future Pinball Medieval Madness and kicked the King of Payne's ass to to tune of 208+ million points. It was a sort of long game (my personal best) and I realized that while the nudge buttons may be sort of a cheat, I can't be wrestling that machine around every time I want to use it. I'm just lazy that way.

Next up is the backglass and speaker cover. The parts are in transit right now and I'll have to order the glass once the bottom third is done. I'm planning on going with 35% auto tint only on the backglass. I think I'm going to make a stencil to match the cabinet sides and paint the speaker cover board to match the side of the cabinet. I'll have to first test it out and see if it's too distracting though. Next time I take the playfield monitor out, I'll snap a bunch of pictures of the wiring, switches, plunger switch, PC mounting and cooling. I'll apologize in advance for how disappointed you will be with my sloppy wiring when compared to most of the builds you might see.

[slykittycat]

looking forward to the pics update i finally got registered to post lol

[MTPPC]

Time for a short update. I got the backglass' bottom masonite and speaker grills installed. Then I've been adding a few VP tables. I haven't really had much time to work on the cabinet, but I should have the back glass glass by the end of the week. I haven't pulled out the playfield monitor since the last pictures, but I'll be sure to get a some more pictures soon.

In the meantime, I just today picked up a Gottlieb Preview (vintage 1962) for $50. The table glass was broken and the backglass is about 90% flaked off, but otherwise it's complete. I'm going to part out the playfield, electronics and backbox guts and get this thing into cold storage until "project virtual Preview" begins.

[MTPPC]

Picture updates. Got the back box door done. I used 20% tint because that was what I had. The 1/8" glass was $13 cut to size. I had to cut away most of the back side of the aquarium hinge because it was way too tight to get on the glass. I used a hammer to get it on the masonite. I think it looks pretty good.








Right flipper, nudge and plunger switches:







Eave vent covering the 120mm intake fan and recessed buttons for coin and escape:







Switches for PC and backbox display. PC switch lights with disk activity:



Mercury Switch for Up Nudge:


Now I just need black posterboard bezels for the bottom and top of the playfield.

There is still a lot of cleanup to do with the wiring and paint touchup, but the machine is playing 100% and I'm having a little trouble getting anything more done at the moment.

[slykittycat]

Looking good !!!!!
 was there a reason besidesnot having to relocating the flippers that the the playfield monitor is so far away from the lockdown bar?

[MTPPC]

The only reason was to keep the original flipper button and plunger placement. There is about the same amount of opening on both the top and the bottom of the playfield.

[MTPPC]

I'll just be stuffing strips of flat black poster board in those gaps. There won't be any more buttons or controls added.

[TopJimmyCooks]

If you get black foam core board (instead of poster board) from the craft store it will be very stiff and flat with minimal support. 

Looks really great.  I'm sure it's covered on VP forums, but can you give a quick summary of what you have to do software wise to get the backglass on a separate display? 

You mentioned getting a DMD - would you change your backglass images to clip off the DMD that shows on the display?

[MTPPC]

If you get black foam core board (instead of poster board) from the craft store it will be very stiff and flat with minimal support. 

Looks really great.  I'm sure it's covered on VP forums, but can you give a quick summary of what you have to do software wise to get the backglass on a separate display? 

You mentioned getting a DMD - would you change your backglass images to clip off the DMD that shows on the display?

For future pinball, you just set it up in the video options. For Visual Pinball, you drag the dmd and resize it how you want it. Then you let hyperpin throw up the background. I'm using static backglass images in VP so I don't have to mess with active backglasses. If you go with a 3rd screen dmd, there are backglass images that have the speakers and dmd images removed.

[ChadTower]

This is coming along really nice.  The price of the screens keeps dropping so much that I keep kicking around the idea of doing one of these. 

+1


I haven't really been paying attention to a lot of the recent VP threads because I often can't see the photos.  This is the first one I have seen where it's only two monitors and is using a nonDMD cab.  That brings the cost way down, too.  Now you can use any pin cab and that opens it up to a lot more reasonably parted games.  It will be a lot easier to find a thoroughly trashed out Sys7 or System 1 game or half an EM.

[MTPPC]

This is the first one I have seen where it's only two monitors and is using a nonDMD cab.  That brings the cost way down, too.  Now you can use any pin cab and that opens it up to a lot more reasonably parted games.  It will be a lot easier to find a thoroughly trashed out Sys7 or System 1 game or half an EM.

My plan for "Project Virtual Preview" is to use a 40" for the playfield and a 42" or 46" for the backglass similar to this one:

[ChadTower]

Very nice.  Is that one going to run you a ton of money in pin hardware, though?  Siderails, lockdown bar, etc?  That's the main reason I would ever use a real pin cab over a DIY cab.  All the extra hardware.

[MTPPC]

That one just above isn't mine. I'll be using this cab (a 1962 Gottlieb "Preview")

[HanoiBoi]

This is the first one I have seen where it's only two monitors and is using a nonDMD cab.  That brings the cost way down, too.  Now you can use any pin cab and that opens it up to a lot more reasonably parted games.  It will be a lot easier to find a thoroughly trashed out Sys7 or System 1 game or half an EM.

My plan for "Project Virtual Preview" is to use a 40" for the playfield and a 42" or 46" for the backglass similar to this one:

Can I ask what the main motivation to do a large (40") single screen for the Backglass/Playfield would be?  Is it ease of install, cost, possible future use, or something else?

I'm pretty sure it would still be more economical to do 2 separate monitors with an additional graphics card.  For example, looking at a 25" wide head, you could fit a ~24" monitor for about $150, a 2nd video card for say $35, and find a smaller monitor (DMD) for $30 or less.

[MTPPC]

Can I ask what the main motivation to do a large (40") single screen for the Backglass/Playfield would be?  Is it ease of install, cost, possible future use, or something else?

I'm pretty sure it would still be more economical to do 2 separate monitors with an additional graphics card.  For example, looking at a 25" wide head, you could fit a ~24" monitor for about $150, a 2nd video card for say $35, and find a smaller monitor (DMD) for $30 or less.

Since I am satisfied with most future pinball tables, I'd rather have a better proportioned backglass instead of LEDs, shakers, gear motors and solenoids. The larger backbox monitor also lends itself nicely to VP DMD games using the UVP BG image in HS and overlaying the DMD window. And it goes without mention how great the Future Pinball EM games look with a nearly square backglass. I guess I really just don't care for large borders around the BG monitor. I've just been spoiled with my mini:

[MTPPC]

The project is once again becoming active. I've decided to go with a vertical 42" or 46" backbox TV for Solar Ride. I don't want to bite off an entirely new cabinet project, but I want to change the look of the cabinet (especially for the old EMs). I'm thinking to have the screen protrude from the top of the backbox and customize the hyperpin back box images to simulate the standard images within the box and a topper or marquee on top of the back box. I'm hoping this will create a nice multi-screen illusion and should be easy to set up with future pinball and visual B2S/UVP. I think I will have to customize all the hyperpin backglass images somehow. I'm hoping to come up with a quick and dirty solution. I think the real benefit to doing this will be the nicely proportioned backglass images with minimal borders. I'm looking for the best fitting TV that has a height of 25.5". I'll probably put tinted glass over the front inside the backbox and the topper part of the TV will just stick out naked. Comments?

[TopJimmyCooks]

Personally I like the backbox monitor extending into the lower cabinet better. 

[PL1]

I'm thinking to have the screen protrude from the top of the backbox and customize the hyperpin back box images to simulate the standard images within the box and a topper or marquee on top of the back box.

Looks like a variation on this one by RandyT.

Demo video:





Scott

[MTPPC]

PL1, thanks for the link. I think in a pincab, the configuration will be a lot easier than in an arcade cabinet. I also like how he made the bezel on the top part of the screen. That really supports the illusion of two separate screens.

[Malikai]

I will be keeping an eye on this one.  Just got a pinball cab for free and was thinking of doing this exact thing.  Also pretty sure you are local to me as the mini pin looks really familiar from somewhere.

[mcseforsale]

Dayum!  If anyone has a spare pinball cab laying around, I'm just outside Atlanta.   

Watching with pregnant anticipation!

AJ

[rockyrocket]

Darkfalls pin  has a similar set up.

[MTPPC]

I finally finished Virtual Solar Ride yesterday. I installed the one-button power solution and the USB Hub. I went through some encoder problems due to poor grounding in the coindoor and the lockbar assembly. Once I got good grounding straps all around that problem is gone. I was also having a random lockup. I think I have solved this by replacing the RAM. With the directB2S version of Solar Ride as the start-up game, I think this unit is complete.

[Drnick]

Nah, It's not complete, Not till you get a real DMD in there. 

It looks like you have done a good job of the modification.  How does it play in comparison to the Mini?  Any plans on adding feedback to this one? I would love to build one of these, but I don't think my wife would be very happy.  She complains that I don't use the Bartop or the Jukebox enough, let alone a virtual pin 

[MTPPC]

Solar Ride has gone down the road.

[Rick]

Dude, SHUT. UP.

That is so beautiful! It makes me want to go out and find a nice, classic gutted pin and just build from there! Seriously - it reminds me so much of going to the local drive-in, and seeing 10-20 70's-80's era pins in a row, I'm tempted to style the outside of my new virtual pin (forthcoming project, tbs) after the classic looks.

Very, very jealous!

Nah, It's not complete, not till you get a real DMD in there.

You say. I think it looks pretty sweet as it is right now.

Solar Ride has gone down the road.

Oh.



May I ask what you sold her for?