DIY Skeeball

[lamboman]

Very impressive.

Does anyone have the measurements for this cabinet / runway / ramp?...Check out my thread in Arcade misc. I am going to attempt this and hopefully document it on the site. Thanks,

[Ixliam]

Sorry its been so long since I've done any update on this. Shortly after I finished it, I ended up moving to Chicago right as winter hit. After living there for about 1.5 years, I returned home to Georgia. We were in a small home with no room for the cabinet, so the ramp part was placed in our home standing up, and the scoreboard part was put outside in a shed. Unfortunatley the shed was not 100% waterproof and it took significant water damage, so when we returned home I did not have room to pack it all into a POD unit, so the ramp (the hard part) was taken and the cabinet was taken away by the sanitation dept. Needless to say I haven't done too much with it since then.

Now that I have a new home I do plan on setting up a game room downstairs with an updated skeeball machine and the mame cabinet, but just haven't had time. I do have the DWG files on this burned onto DVD, so its just a matter of tracking it down and then putting it on somewhere like fileshare for everyone to pull from if they want to.

I never got the switches working correctly, and due to the move I did not get into trying to convert the switches to an optical style rather than the spring switches. It wasn't a problem with the code but rather of the spring switches bouncing and causing it to count as multiple hits. I'm not sure how the actual machine did it, but its probably why the newer machines have gone to optical switches instead.

Brad

[bfauska]

Welcome back, I recently read this entire thread only to be bummed out that you disappeared before finishing. It'll be great to see the project finally on it's feet again when you get back around to it.

 

[VXAgent]

I started one of these.  Due to the lack of plans that I could find I did my own with google sketch up

Hope this helps someone.

[ShimmyAndGershon]

My 15 year old son Shimmy has gotten pretty far in building a Skeeball machine based on the pictures Ixliam and unclet posted, as well as the 3-D Google Sketch Up plans by VXAgent. He has built the marquee and target area (although he has not yet made the holes for the balls to fall through), and has built the ball return area. Half of the width of the S-curved bump is also finished, but no ramp yet. This past week he put in a pull string to release the 9 balls down the ball return. It uses bungee cord like Ixliam's to raise the gate again after you finish releasing the balls. Attached are pictures.

I promised to help him with the electronics. We bought a bunch of 4-inch high 7-segment LEDs that require 11 volts and 5-10mA to turn on. We are planning on using the sensors and microcontroller from the Vex Robotics starter robot kit. I am still wondering how to breadboard output lines coming from the Vex microcontroller to drive the four LED displays for the score and balls-used. I can write the program for the microcontroller to output 0 or 5 volts on 7 lines for each of the 7 segments of an LED, and have 4 additional lines to enable the seven lines for each of the LEDs. Alternatively, and preferably, I could output 4 lines for the digit in binary, and 4 lines for each LED. This would give me more input lines on the microcontroller for sensing balls going through a target hole. Anybody know of standard IC chips that can help with this job? I am trying to minimize components and wiring. I was hoping to get my son interested in electronics and programming, but he is happy to do the mechanical/construction side, and leave electronics/programming to me.

We are also still unsure on what to use for the white circles around the target holes. skeeball.com wanted too much money for their rubber. We have already spent enough money on the balls from them, LEDs, and wood. My son is thinking of cutting open plastic pipe.

[RandyT]

We are also still unsure on what to use for the white circles around the target holes. skeeball.com wanted too much money for their rubber. We have already spent enough money on the balls from them, LEDs, and wood. My son is thinking of cutting open plastic pipe.

Check out some white vinyl "mopboard" at your local home store.  If it's too thin for you, you can glue them back to back, but single thickness should do the trick.

RandyT

[samej71]

We are also still unsure on what to use for the white circles around the target holes. skeeball.com wanted too much money for their rubber. We have already spent enough money on the balls from them, LEDs, and wood. My son is thinking of cutting open plastic pipe.

Check out this post in a different DIY Skeeball thread. He used "4” white rubber wall base for the rings (“Baby’s Breath” is the Flexco off-white color description)".

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=91011.msg970658#msg970658

I originally was going to use an arduino clone and some 6.5" 7-segment LEDs, but after seeing all the game variations using the computer and LCD screen I changed my mind and I'm going that route. I even picked up some WOOT OFF lights to mount on top.   I haven't settled on an interface board. I originally was leaning toward RandyT's LedWiz+GP but I'm having trouble getting information about it to determine if what I want to try to interface with it will work not. So, now I'm not sure if I want that or something from Ultimarc or use the arduino to interface (there are some really cheap versions that will work, $25-$35 depending on the feature set).

Anyhow, you might want to look at ThePurpleStuff's whole thread. There are a lot of good ideas in it.

Good luck with your build!

--James

[ShimmyAndGershon]

Thanks RandyT and samej71 for the mopboard/baseboard vinyl idea. Shimmy and I went to the biggest hardware store in town and looked at the different vinyl/plastic mopboards available. Most were too thin to handle the ball abuse, probably even after doubling. But they were much cheaper than skeeball's rubber. We found one that was stiff enough, but it had a wavy top. Another was stiff enough, but not high enough. Next stop will be a gardening store, as the hedging plastics are generally stiffer. A carpeting store might have the best choice. We'll see.

My son Shimmy is still unsure how wide and how deep the gutter should be. We will be experimenting hopefully this week with placing a sensor in the gutter and attaching it to the microprocessor for the ball count.

Anyone have the exact dimensions on the gutter (gap below the target area for balls with no points)? unclet?

Google helped me find IC chips to interface the Vex Robotics microprocessor to our 3-inch LEDs (its not 4-inch, sorry). A 7447 chip for each LED looks able to handle the sink current from each LED segment. I still need to look up if the VEX microcontroller can supply exactly 5-volt output lines as BCD digits, even if the microprocessor is driven by a 12 volt power supply.

Thanks also for the link to the other DIY skeeball. The idea of having an LED light up a target for a few seconds for extra points is great. It should be straightforward to code that into the microprocessor. Should we use lighting-strength LEDs for lighting up a target? Place them inside the target hole?

[samej71]

I know you mentioned you already had some hardware you are wanting to use for this, but if the cost of the parts starts to add up to $40 you might want to consider an Arduino-like microcontroller. The ATMega128 can be found for as little at $39 w/free shipping on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270562834281#ht_992wt_1165  Like I mentioned in the last post, there are some cheaper clone boards (freeduino, perhaps) that were even cheaper.

It has 12 PWM connections (could be used for 4 individual RGB leds/led banks, or ), 36 Digital I/O (3 digits * 7 segments = 21, 6 for ball sensors, and a handful left over for other lights/buttons), and 16 analog inputs for whatever you wanted. They're easily programmed via a computer, you write your program, connect the board via USB which appears as a thumb drive, and then copy the compiled program to drive. I've not done it personally, but have heard good things about it.

If you scan this thread and the other one I pointed out, there have been some "blueprints" drawn up by the awesome UncleT with measurements. They have been the de-facto standard the DIY skees here have been based off of. I think the images are also available on his website, I believe. He's a great guy and I bet if you're unable to find the information in what is already posted, if you email or PM him I'm sure he'll be glad to help out. I did a quick search, and he does have that info posted. A page of photos is here http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/SkeeBall/SkeeballPics1.html and the one with the information you'll need to determine the gutter size is  http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/SkeeBall/pics1/023-SkeeBall.jpg

I've read the "real" skeeball material for the rings is made from the same material as the whitewall part of whitewall tires by Goodyear. Incidentally, you can get real Skeeball rings from Happ, but they're not cheap. You need to be careful about picking a material that is too tough--it might not withstand the stress of repeated ball impacts and crack, or even worse take some chunks out of the balls.

Good luck in your search. Please let us know what you end up picking out and and how well it works for you.

--James

[unclet]

I would recommend looking for an arcade vendor in your area who has a broekn old skeeball machine and then buy the target area (with white rings) for $20 or $30 only.   The white rings clean up nicely and they will withstand the pounding of the wooden balls.

[Krahsloop]

Sorry its been so long since I've done any update on this. Shortly after I finished it, I ended up moving to Chicago right as winter hit. After living there for about 1.5 years, I returned home to Georgia. We were in a small home with no room for the cabinet, so the ramp part was placed in our home standing up, and the scoreboard part was put outside in a shed. Unfortunatley the shed was not 100% waterproof and it took significant water damage, so when we returned home I did not have room to pack it all into a POD unit, so the ramp (the hard part) was taken and the cabinet was taken away by the sanitation dept. Needless to say I haven't done too much with it since then.

Now that I have a new home I do plan on setting up a game room downstairs with an updated skeeball machine and the mame cabinet, but just haven't had time. I do have the DWG files on this burned onto DVD, so its just a matter of tracking it down and then putting it on somewhere like fileshare for everyone to pull from if they want to.

I never got the switches working correctly, and due to the move I did not get into trying to convert the switches to an optical style rather than the spring switches. It wasn't a problem with the code but rather of the spring switches bouncing and causing it to count as multiple hits. I'm not sure how the actual machine did it, but its probably why the newer machines have gone to optical switches instead.

Brad

Hey Brad, are you still making stuff here in Georgia?

[Joeadamsactor]

Hey guys!  New to the forum.  I'm looking for a template for the curve.  I know this has been out there for years, just hoping someone has this.

[PL1]

Hey guys!  New to the forum.  I'm looking for a template for the curve.  I know this has been out there for years, just hoping someone has this.

Welcome aboard, Joeadamsactor.   

Unclet posted some excellent ramp template pictures with an L-square for scale reference.

Here's a fairly comprehensive list of BYOAC skeeball build threads -- the template pictures are in at least one of them.   

Nickels - Skee Ball V2.0
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130545.0.html

Entropy42 - Skee Ball Restoration and Improvement
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116309.msg1232320.html#msg1232320

Thatpurplestuff - That's how I roll!
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,91011.0.html

Jayhawk - Skee-ball Repro
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,55648.msg545673.html#msg545673

Ixliam - Skee-ball
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,29455.0/all.html

Ixliam - DIY Skeeball
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,29727.0.html


Scott

[Ixliam]

Just thought I would post an update that while I no longer have the skee ball machine (it was damaged/destroyed by weather/hurricane/water damage), the files for Autocad are around on backup here somewhere. Once I locate them I'll see about getting them to someone here  so they can go up for anyone to use. Glad to see a few others have built their own over the years. I never could quite get my counting mechanism to quite work well, as I would occasionally get a double count from the counter. Using an optical sensor probably would solve this issue is my guess, but that would require a bit of rework of my circuit. With things out now like Raspberry Pi, there's so much more you can do than there was 11 years ago when I built this thing.

Picture archive on imgr: https://imgur.com/a/AKeAmrb and attached below.

[rustymoose]

Does anyone have UncleT's ramp template? I've been sifting through the great builds out there and haven't been able to find working link yet.  My son and I are planning out the build right now.  Appreciate it!

[PL1]

Does anyone have UncleT's ramp template? I've been sifting through the great builds out there and haven't been able to find working link yet.  My son and I are planning out the build right now.  Appreciate it!

Check out pics 29 and 30.
http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/SkeeBall/SkeeballPics1.html

I also saved the images that Nickels uploaded in this post, if he doesn't have a copy of them.
- If you scroll down in that thread, UncleT talks about his ramp template images and other useful info.   


Scott

[rustymoose]

Thank you Scott, appreciate it.  I copied the UncleT link into a new browser window and it worked.  The Nickels post is helpful too.  Appreciate it!