I'm about half done with the hardware for my mini-digital-pinball.

[MTPPC]

This is a made from scratch project using a 24" asus widescreen and a 17" dell 4:3 monitor. My buddy gave me an HP dual core 2.5. I'm going to use hyperpin, a xinmo 1-player encoder and joy2keys to run future pinball tables.  I don't know anything about visual pinball, but I might try that in the future. For now, I have all my software running good and about a dozen tables set up and working nicely.

I'll have flipper and left nudge buttons on the left side and flipper, right nudge, and bottom nudge on the right side. My coindoor came off a Steel Talons arcade machine and has room for eight buttons. So far, I'm thinking:

Coin
Start (shifted pause)
Plunger
Escape or Back
Instruction Card (shifted Flyer)
Effects Volume Up (shifted Music Volume Up)
Effects Volume Down (shifted Music Volume Down)
Shift (via joytokeys)

The PC power button will just be a standard arcade button on the back of the machine. The playfield will be covered w/ 3/16" glass and the backglass will be 1/8". It's built on a 1-1/4" Fiberboard adjustable leg table cut to 36" x 18". The box is made of 7/16" fir exterior plywood.

A buddy lent me an air brad nailer and I used 1" brads, 3/4" nailers and glue to assemble it. What a life saver!

I'm using 1.5" light aluminum angle for side rails and lock bar and using Large Flat ATA Flight Road Trunk Case Corners where the chamfered angles meet. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Flat-ATA-Flight-Road-Trunk-Case-Corner-/220284035561?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3349f3a1e9). There is a 16" x 8" eave vent and fan in the back. There are two 4" speakers mounted in the roof of the back glass.

This is the only picture I've got right now, but will update with more when I get them.



I'm to the point where sanding, bondo and painting will be next, but it's not too late to implement any suggestions.

Any tips, experience, questions or comments are welcome. This stuff is all new to me, but I'm giving it a go.

[edekoning]

Fantastic another small pinball build! We really need more of these here.

Looking good so far, but please, more pics

[PL1]

Looks like a solid start.

If you haven't bought the Xin-Mo yet, you might want to look at Degenatron's AVR encoder.  It already has almost all of the Future Pinball functions you mentioned programmed into it and several others that you might want to consider. (We made the keymap based on the Pinball Wizard controller keymap, and he can easily do a custom map for you if desired.)

Have you considered adding upper flipper/magnasave buttons? (Family Guy table has Stewie's upper playfield that uses the upper flippers, for example.)

Instead of the 3 nudge buttons, would a plumb bob nudge assembly sound interesting? You take the lower bracket, cut it into 3 pieces (left, right, and front), wire them to the button inputs and mount them on a piece of plexi.  Upper bracket is tied to ground so when you nudge the cab, the bob swings and closes the circuit.  You can adjust sensitivity by adjusting the height of the bob.


Scott

[MTPPC]

Looks like a solid start.

If you haven't bought the Xin-Mo yet, you might want to look at Degenatron's AVR encoder.  It already has almost all of the Future Pinball functions you mentioned programmed into it and several others that you might want to consider. (We made the keymap based on the Pinball Wizard controller keymap, and he can easily do a custom map for you if desired.)

Have you considered adding upper flipper/magnasave buttons? (Family Guy table has Stewie's upper playfield that uses the upper flippers, for example.)

Instead of the 3 nudge buttons, would a plumb bob nudge assembly sound interesting? You take the lower bracket, cut it into 3 pieces (left, right, and front), wire them to the button inputs and mount them on a piece of plexi.  Upper bracket is tied to ground so when you nudge the cab, the bob swings and closes the circuit.  You can adjust sensitivity by adjusting the height of the bob.


Scott

I had the Xin-Mo just laying around for a few months and didn't eve think of using it until yesterday. I'm familiar with joy2keys, but haven't tested it with FP yet. If it doesn't work well, I'll try your suggested encoder. If I used the plumb bob idea, I could used those nudge buttons for the upper flippers/magnasave. That's a great idea. I will look into that one for sure. Thanks for the great tip.

[PL1]

If I used the plumb bob idea, I could used those nudge buttons for the upper flippers/magnasave. That's a great idea. I will look into that one for sure. Thanks for the great tip.

Here are two other sources w. pics that might help you with the plumb bob:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?10895-Cab-nudging-with-tilt-bobs-filter-double-presses-with-ahk-script&p=112149#post112149

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=19365&hl=plumb


Scott

[MTPPC]

I got my xin mo encoder working with all the control buttons. Now it's time to start reassembling. I've got a line on some tron arcade art that I might cut up and wrap the machine with later. Here's some current pics:

[MTPPC]

Got a little further:









What's left:

Remap left flipper
Wire lights behind coin and plunger button
Final finish the exterior (might wrap with Tron art or vinyl)
Determine final button mapping
Wire up the electrical jack:



Set up about 100 more tables, info cards, flyers, etc. It's been a pretty good push to get this far so I'm ready to take a little break for a while and just enjoy playing some pinball.

[swaffar]

Hey MTPPC, joy2key (or similar programs) will work just fine for FP.