Thunderball 42"/32"/19" Pinball Cab

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Heres a build thread of my pinball cab from last summer as i never posted it up on these forums just on the HyperSpin forums.......



A few things have changed, in the end i went for a Intel i7 setup of the an i3 due to need both gfx cards running at there full bandwidth apparently only the i7 mobos supported this function at the time, i also upgraded to a GTX 260 1.8 GB card as the main and an older GTX 9800 card as the 2nd........


The PC spec i shall be using for this project are as follows:

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz Processor
Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel RAM
Kingston SSDNow V Series 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard
Gainward GeForce GTSx260 Gold Sample 1792MB
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply
Tiny7 (windows 7)




And the workbench for test and setting up VP/FP & HP...



This should run everything without any problems.

I shall be using the following displays:

Sharp 42" LCD. LC42DH77E for the Playfield
LG 32" LCD. 32LH2000 for the Backglass
Dell 19" LCD. for the DMD.

So today i decided to decase the sharp, came apart fairly easily and Lucky enough didn't have to remove any warranty stickers to get at any of the screws, so god forbid it anything ever goes wrong with the sharp i can just case it back up and get it fixed!







The length of the LCD deceased is 38" so the whole cab should end up being a bit shorter than i really pinball machine...

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So this afternoon, i started to cut the sides, base, front and rear of the main body. The cab measurements are:

47.5" Long
25" Wide
24" High
with a 12 degree slop...







With the Front and rear top of the cab fitted, i added the leg brackets inside the cab, tomrrow ill fit the legs, and start work on the backbox. Im still waiting on coin door and stern siderails....





Bit of progress today, but didnt get as much done as i wanted to, as went out to pick up a Song BRavia 32" LCD for the backbox. Anyway this morning i attached the legs to the cab and the Stern side rails turned up, which i might be changing already for some chrome stern side rails...

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Bit more progress today. More or less finished building the backbox, all i need to go is sort out mounting for the glass. Heres a pic of the backbox as it is at the moment...



I then cut out a bit for the dmd and speakers, the dmd display will be 14x5.5". Needs a bit of tidying up but will look really good when sprayed....




And heres a pic of the dmd/speaker panel in the back box...




I shall be using this Dell 20" 4:3 monitor i had in the loft, so that saved me a bit of money...




I then need to cut out the outline of the dmd monitor in the top part of the mainbody of the cab and also the bottom of the backbox...



Once i had my outline cut for the dmd monitor, i made a shelf inside the mainbody and place the monitor on the shelf, i cut a few bits of mdf to help wedge the monitor into place, not the most pleasing to the eye, but once everything is in place you wont see it...



I then moved onto mounting the backbox 32" display, and thank god my cuts where correct as the lcd sides into the groves nicely....



I then want to make sure the 32" lcd was secure so i carefully measure up the rear wall mounting holes of the rear of the lcd frame and drilled holes in the back of the backbox and secured the lcd even further with some bolts....



And thats where im up to at the moment. Next i need to mount the main PF display, wait for my speaker, coin door and other bits to turn up. Cut a door in the rear of the cab for PC access, and cut holes for cooling, so id say im about 80% on the building side of things, then i need to prime the cab and wait for Lord Hiryu to do my artwork

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 Fans and various buttons turned up....





Made up some beams to support the PF display....



measured the distance between the wall mounting poles on the back of the LCD, and then drilled 11mm holes into the beams and then fitted them to the rear of the LCD....



Coin door fitted and backbox attached to see if everything fitted together ok...





I then installed the PF display, got the angle i wanted and the fixed the 2 beams to the side of the cab via screws...





Am awaiting on the chrome plunger, siderails and 2.1 logitech system. Still need to make a draw for the pc equipment to sit on

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I decided to cut new sides, as the cab main body didnt look in proportion to the backbox, and looked a bit odd really. As i was wanting this to look as much like a real pinball machine as possible, this is how the cab looked before i added the new sides panel, ill think you'll agree it just doesnt look right...



The cab body now comes in at 51" dead on, rather than the 47 it was before, so should have plenty of room for flippers and plunger now.

I decided to make the back door for the cab for access to the PC, and also cut a hole for the 240mm fan, which will be exhausting air out the cab..



Fan fits nice and snug, im unable to find fan grills for fans this size atm, so im not 100% sure what to do about leaving the fan exposed....



And the back door fitted onto the rear of the cab, and also a nice shot of my kegs on the washing line ....



I dismantled the back box and cut holes for the 220mm fans, the fan at the back it blowing into the box and the one at the top blowing out, i also used a bit cutter for routering at slots along the edges of the cab where i shall be adding some nice sliver chrome T-Molding. I then glued and screw the box back together...



I also added hindges to the top lid of the backbox, so if i ever need to get the LCD screen out i could do without too much trouble....



I then moved on to making a bezel for the backbox, to hide the metal frame of the LCD TV. I must admit this was one part of the project i wasnt looking forward to, i used the shell of the LCD to get the correct measurements. I must have spend about 2 hours measuring up and taking my time cutting the damn thing out, and after all that i still wasnt happy with it, hence the wood filler on 2 of the corners that i wasnt please with...





And then sanded the bezel down and added about 4 coats of grey primer....



Also mid week my mirror chrome stern siderails and backbox hinges turned up, they look real nice, i routed out the first set of flipper buttons and test the side rails to make sure they fitted correctly....





Im abit worried about cutting out the holes in these lovely shiney side rails for the 2nd set of flipper buttons i must admit. Im also thinking about getting a mirror chrome lockdown bar to complement the side rails and backbox hinges


Luckly my father was about today and gave me a hand hence why i got alot of stuff down, and learnt a thing or 2, old head young sholders and all that! Truth be told, he did most of the work today, it was nice to watch someone else work on this for a change

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My Logitech z 3000 2.1 system turned up over the weekend, so went about mounting this in the cab, as i wanted the sub speaker to be pointing out of the bottom of the cab, ---gosh-darn--- this thing is heavy......



Due to the sub pointing down within the cab it sits rather high, so high infact that i wouldnt be able to fit the LCD PF display in, so i cut a square in the bottom of the cab which allowed the sub to slide through, i then went about making up a box for the sub to sit in, as the sub need to sit 2 inches under the cab. So i measured up and cut the base of the sub box and cut a circular hole so the actual speaker would be exposed, and 4 sides of the box.......



Screwed and gluded the box together...



A nice snug fit....

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Right havent done massive amounts of work at the moment, or though it feels like a have put loads of hours in and achieved very little at the moment, always seems to be the smallest and easiest things take the longest.

I repainted the inside of the cab and cut the holes for the fan and sub speaker to sit in....



I then drilled to holes in the backbox base and the top of the main cab, so i can secure the backbox with M10 nuts and and wingnuts, so if i ever need to take the backbox off i can without too much trouble...





1 plungger installed...



And now the part i was dreading, cutting the 2 hole for the 2nd pair of flippers in my chrome siderails. The tools id be using are this workbench drill and this bit cutter....





I adjusted the bit cutter to the diamiter of the flipper button hole needed, and marked the center of the hole, i caked the siderails in masking tape to aviod any unnecessary
scratches......





I think it turned out well, and a nice fit too!

And lastly the siderailes where too long so took a hacksaw to the ends of them....

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Ok, its been a while since ive updated this thread, so have made a fair bit of progress, am now about 90% complete, and just need to wait for the artwork and install windows etc.

After reading in chriz's build thread, about how he used a usb hub, i thought id follow suit, will make it alot easier to upload new tables and update to the cab using the SD slot...




Backbox painted white inside and speaker/DMD panel fitted...



I shall be using the logitech speakers, seeing as the 2.1 system cost me over £100 theres no way i was going to not use them, and cut the ends of for car speakers. Got my glue gun out, and make sure they werent going anywhere...



Removed the metal frame from the 32" LCD backbox screen, and sprayed them black just to make sure you couldnt see any hint of them when all fitted together...



Black frames fitted back onto the LCD, and LCD inserted in backbox...



Plexiglass and wooden bezel fitted to backbox, these are held in place via 2 PVC 'U' channel strips at the top and bottom. Chrome T-Molding added, will be keeping the protective film on the molding until my artwork is fitted, as dont want them getting damaged!....



Refurded some leaf switches from a gutted batman cab i picked up last week, as good as new .....



Coindoor switch assembly wired up, thanks for jukedock for helping me out with the wiring...



Switch assembly fitted to coin door, also added microswitch to the door, so when you press the 'coin eject' button on the front of the door it activates the microswitches, will be using these as credit buttons....





All buttons wired up, tried to make it as tidy as possible. And man did it take ages, who would have thought it would take over a day, thank god for cable ties!!!. On a side note will have to swap out the LED-Wiz for an I-PAC, as there isnt enough inputs on the LED-Wiz .....




PC fitted inside the cab, minus my 40GB SSD HD that turned up today!!.....




A full shot how it stands at the moment, well i actually have the PF LCD installed now also....



A close up of the backbox, damn its hard to keep the screen clean, shows up every mark and spec of dust ...



I added a microswitch near the coindoor, so when you open the coin door it releases the microswitch thus activating it, ill use this as the 'Coin door open' button....



As many members have done, im using a microswtich for the plunger atm, until a better option appears, i have heard alot of memebrs talking about 'bounce back' though im not 100% sure what they mean???



USB and SD reader HUB installed, and also the logitech's volume panel installed, so i can change the volume without too much hassle...



Fitted the power and reset buttons for the PC, though im having slight problems with the power switch. For some reason when i turn the PC on, it powers up but then a few seconds later powers down, i have tired a normal PC power switch and this works without any issues, so i dont know what the problem is???...



And a final shot of the front of the cab...



Hopefully will have the tables up and running by the weekend, so i can start enjoying my creation!!

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Just a quick vid of the cab in action with monster bash in its almost finished state:

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

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 been ages since ive worked on my cab, which is a bit werid as i was on it big time to start of with, but as soon as i got to the stage a couple of posts up, i lost interest! But anyway i now have the artwork almost finished.......







Just have to decided if im going to have artwork around the dmd or not.

Still need to sort out the frame to go around the playfield display, im really not sure the best way to do this, as i cant find anywhere in the UK that do sheets of cardboard (thats arent corigated) the size i want. Also need to sort out some relays or solenoids for the flippers

Have now got my artwork printed and added it to the backbox....




Need to clear a space in the back room for the cab to do in and then ill move it into the house, as its still out in the garage atm.

Things i still need to do:

Get frame for PF LCD
Buy Solenoids for feedback
add artwork to main body

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Some after a year of deciding to build a pincab i have finally added all the artwork and have move it into its home.......







And it seems once i think im near the end of the project, some forward thinking genius comes up with new ways to bring virtual closer to reality. So i order contactors for flippers, bumpers and slingshot effect. Cree leds for flasher effects, shaker motor for added rumble effect, psu for all these added effects etc...



8 Contactors installed in the cab along with the led-wiz, cabs a bit of a mess at the moment whilst im installing all these added extras...



And Cree leds installed along with flasher caps on top of the backbox...



Ive made up this pcb board for connecting the 4 cree leds, so if i ever need to remove the backbox i can just unscrew the terminal blocks...



I need to decide where best to place the shaker, im thinking toward the front on the cab between the sub and 120mm fan...

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finally got around to tidying up the inside of the cab....



Will probably end up adding a wiper motor and strobe at some point, but as it stands i only have 3 inputs left on the led-wiz, but these are probably going to be used for the flipper led boards, if i can get them installed without getting in the way of the LCD PF frame, im guessing i could remove some of the admin buttons lights from the led-wiz to free up some more connections.

Any ideas if the problems with wolfsoft Dual H-Bridge for the Shaker has been sorted out yet??

Am going to get around to config my ledwiz with the leds and contactors today, i have the connactors connected to the ledwiz all together, for instance inputs 1-8 on the ledwiz are all connected to my connactors, and the same for the cree leds for instance inputs 16-32, is it ok to have them like this, as i think i read somewhere u shouldnt have them all on 1 of the 4 banks of the ledwiz?? I really hope this is fine to have them like this as ive cut all the wires to the correct length now so they look tidy

Managed to get hold of a wiper motor, i got the same make as Chriz used on his.....daihatsu..




Cab buttons now labelled...



Shaker, gear motor and strobe light all wire up now...



The relay wire into the strobe's power cable, thanks to maxxsinner for his brilliant wiring guide....



The strobe light fitted to the rear of the cab, i didnt think it would be this large!!!...



I decided to only add 1 set of the rgb flipper LEDs to each side of the cab, as having them place in this position achieved the same effect as having 2 on either side of the cab...

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And the cab as it stands at the moment...



So im now 99% finished, i need to change out the plexiglass on the playfield and get some proper glass cut, and also get a nrw custom frame to cover the metal frame of the PF screen as the current one does fit 100%, other than that on the hardware side of things ill be done. Now just need to spend may hours configuring the table for the shaker, strobe and gear motor effects to my liking!!

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Nice work!