Rooter's Pinball

[rooter]

How about wire them in parallel and chop the IEC (C14) socket from an old PS.  It looks more pro, IMO.  I did that with my cab...

I have the surge protector built into the inside of the cabinet, only one cable comes out.  Nothing I do looks pro on the inside.  I usually get the outside looking decent though.  I don't even know where to learn how to do that stuff.  For example, it seems like I should should be using molex connectors in some places, but I don't know how to connect the wires up.  I probably need to buy another tool.

[rooter]

I made an easily removable board to contain my fuse holders for my LEDWiz.  I want to be able to take it out of the machine without moving my LEDWiz or anything connected to it.  I'm still pretty new to hobby electronics, what kind of quick disconnects can I use to easily plug and unplug all the wires on each side of the fuses?

[TopJimmyCooks]

If there was a pcb involbed .156 molex connectors are very commonly used in pinball.  you usually don't see 30 pin headers I guess because it gets hard to pull the connnector on and off.  so I would do 2 16 pin connectors for input and 2 more for output.  use the extra pin on each for a key so you can't mix them up. 

Since you don't have a pcb, you're probably looking at 3x5 round pin .93 molex setup for wire to wire. 
http://www.molex.com/webdocs/datasheets/pdf/en-us/0019091156_CRIMP_HOUSINGS.pdf

mouser and digikey have them.  the link is just for the male side, obviously there's a female side too, and pins, and a crimper required.  you'd need four and they would need to be color coded with stickers or something since with 30 pins total, you woudn't have room for a pin key.

[rooter]

If there was a pcb involbed .156 molex connectors are very commonly used in pinball.  you usually don't see 30 pin headers I guess because it gets hard to pull the connnector on and off.  so I would do 2 16 pin connectors for input and 2 more for output.  use the extra pin on each for a key so you can't mix them up.  

Since you don't have a pcb, you're probably looking at 3x5 round pin .93 molex setup for wire to wire.  
http://www.molex.com/webdocs/datasheets/pdf/en-us/0019091156_CRIMP_HOUSINGS.pdf

mouser and digikey have them.  the link is just for the male side, obviously there's a female side too, and pins, and a crimper required.  you'd need four and they would need to be color coded with stickers or something since with 30 pins total, you woudn't have room for a pin key.

Can someone please quickly review the Molex parts I am going to order?  I am not confident that I picked all the right things.  
Why don't they sell all these pieces in kits?
4x Pin & Socket Connectors 15 CIRCUIT PLUG Male
4x Pin & Socket Connectors 15 CIRCUIT PLUG Female
60x Male Pin & Socket Connectors TERMINAL .093 CRIMP PIN 1190T
60x Female Pin & Socket Connectors TERMINAL .093 CRIMP PIN 1189ATL

4x MOLEX 15-pin Connector Kit 0.093 1 Set

Could someone also suggest an inexpensive crimping tool?  The ones I am looking at somehow range from $3-$500, I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

[rooter]

Holy freaking god, are you really fusing each LED? 

 

I'm going by the Pinball 101 electrical guide.  They know a lot more than I do, and this is their design:

[TopJimmyCooks]

get extra pins beyond the exact amount needed for the kit.  you will goof some up.  I kludged and used my cheap gc waldom crimpers that I got from Marco Specialties the last time I did round pins.  The housings are not very tight around the barrel of the pins, so it's not as critical as say .100 header pins. 

[Nephasth]

I'm going by the Pinball 101 electrical guide.

Fuses are used primarily for stopping the magic smoke that makes everything electrical and electronic work, stay inside the components.

Joke or not, doesn't sound like the wisest choice to use when it comes to a manual/guide...

[Mysterioii]

That manual also says to solder wires onto pins of your LEDWiz to drive an H-bridge to in turn drive a shaker motor, when really all you should need to do is hook up a simple mosfet circuit to the regular outputs (cheaper, simpler, and no hacking of your controller board). 

[rooter]

That manual also says to solder wires onto pins of your LEDWiz to drive an H-bridge to in turn drive a shaker motor, when really all you should need to do is hook up a simple mosfet circuit to the regular outputs (cheaper, simpler, and no hacking of your controller board). 

I have all my shaker parts, but I didn't read that section yet. I'm really hoping to find a better way.  I was waiting for my molex connections to arrive, so I could wire up the many fuses.  I have already had my LED's wired up without fuses, but I was afraid to add the knocker and the shaker motor without adding them as the guide has me a little paranoid.

I am still having trouble finding a decent deal on two contactors.  I just need those and the LED DMD and I will be about done.  I have had the DMD controller board for a while now, but there is nowhere to find the actual displays at the moment (need to wait a few more weeks).

[ViriiGuy]

The new pinball simulator that loads Future Pinball tables and connects to VPinMame has me really excited.

Your build is looking great!

Now you have me curious about this new Simulator..... Any details? I LOVE the FP Tables, but HATE the lack for feedback abilities.

[rooter]

The new pinball simulator that loads Future Pinball tables and connects to VPinMame has me really excited.

Your build is looking great!

Now you have me curious about this new Simulator..... Any details? I LOVE the FP Tables, but HATE the lack for feedback abilities.

Thanks!

Work on the new simulator has stalled, but another incredible development has occurred.  A guy named Macro has come up with a way for Future Pinball to send data to real DMDs.  The video below is legit.  I have it working on my own machine.  He is currently working on getting it to work with the LED Wiz as well.  This has me incredibly excited as work on my own FP table stalled due to not being able to use all the awesome features I have put into my cabinet.  Also, my SIX month wait for my real DMD to arrive have finally ended.  I have it working perfectly in my machine, but I still need to make the cover for the back box, everything is kind of floating around back there now.

FP Using DMD:


Video of my cabinet (skip to 1:03):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W_9ovR8cOHk#t=63s

I will embed the videos later when I have more time to figure it out.

[ViriiGuy]

Ok... That is awesome!!
Now, to make it send to an LCD, as I am building a Pin2K cabinet.

[kahlid74]

Looking great man!  Really makes me want to build one of these the more I see people doing it.

[Le Chuck]

That DMD is fantastic.  Rest of the build is looking sharp too, look forward to seeing it complete.

[Junai]

This thing is awesome. Need to start a vpin cabinet soon. Have an itch only pinball can scratch right now.

[DaOld Man]

I agree with everyone else, this project is extremely cool.

[lettuce]

Looks the tits, well done mate. I havent played my Pincab for about 8 months now  , hopefully when Farsight pull there finger out and get 'The Pinball Arcade' released on the PC i might use it again!!!

[rooter]

Looks the tits, well done mate. I havent played my Pincab for about 8 months now  , hopefully when Farsight pull there finger out and get 'The Pinball Arcade' released on the PC i might use it again!!!

Thanks everyone!

It's not Farsight's fault it is not available on the PC yet, the problem is with Steam.  If you have a Steam account, you can help out by voting for  them on the Pinball Arcade greenlight page  It is driving me crazy because they have the best pinball simulations by far and they even built their own cabinet to run their games.  I don't know if there will be DMD/LED wiz support, but if there is, it will be amazing.

I got the DMD working with Future Pinball.  Here is the wife playing Ironman.

[rooter]

FYI, thanks to Macro, Future Pinball now fully supports the LEDWiz.  Here is the Addams Family table by GLXB that I modded to use the LEDWiz.



There should be a lot more tables with LEDWiz support coming out soon.

Get the .DLL here.
Get the supporting VBS class and documentation here.

[Malenko]

looks fantastic, I PMed you