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Total Cost
The total cost for this complete system was $692. The only discount was a second hand 17” monitor. Everything else was purchased at Amazon or my local hardware store. Since there was plenty of trial and error, some resources were wasted, so the total cost is an estimate only. My cost target was $450, so I totally missed that mark. The break down cost is shown below:
- Wood $15
- Legs (angle Iron) $18
- Trim $20
- Hardware, misc (I added everything here) $30
- PC (refurbished off-leased Lenovo) $70
- CPU upgrade $15
- Memory upgrade to 4g $14
- Graphics card $45
- Wifi dongle (optional) $20
- 17” 4:3 monitor $15
- 27” IPS 16:9 monitor $165
- 1/8” Acrylic for backboard $16
- ¼” Acrylic for playfield $31
- Sound system $45
- Bang! board $30
- Plunger $17
- Plunger pot $8
- 24V invertor $7
- Vibe motors $8
- Solenoid $12
- Cabinet paint $18
- Trim paint $7
- Plastic paint for bezel mask $6
- Illuminated buttons, 7 ea. $22
- Standard arcade buttons, 2 ea. $6
- KL25Z evaluation board $15
- Exciter, 4 ohms 2 ea. $17.00
Future Development
As mentioned, I am playing with Flight Distance Ranging Sensor for a plunger system, upgrading audio for enhanced haptics, and redesigning the Bang! Board for more DOF outputs. In addition to all that, I am also playing with a 5” LCD HDMI module that I hope to use as a low cost DMD. This 5” device cost ~$30 on Amazon and has a native resolution of 800×480. It will fit neatly straddled between both speakers on the back box, but I’ll need to redesign a new back box. I am leaning towards a trapezoidal shaped box so that it has full retro style appeal. I expect my net system cost will go northward to just under $770.
BTW- They also make a 7” monitor for slightly more money. This larger version would suite well for full size cabinets.
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Folks,
Next is the internal guts. I refuse to organize my wiring, as I am still tweaking the insides. So excuse the mess.
Shown here is my rats nest of all my electronic goodies inside my machine. On the left and right side you can see my vibe motors. In the middle is a 6″ subwoofer. in the foreground of the subwoofer is my open chassis audio amp delivering Class A/B 2.1 sound. On the right front is my plunger system. This is a kluge and will be replaced with a PLA 3-D printed assembly. In the rear you can barely see my compact size Lenovo PC which can be had for ~$70 (used with Win 7). I upgraded the CPU for 3.1GHz and up the DDR3 memory to 4 gigs. Last I tossed in a HD6450 video card which is more than adequate for a non-moving table.
Note
I have read people recommending faster CPUs and video cards. I can vouch that the video card is not causing any performance problems. However, on some of the more demanding games I am experiencing some audio stuttering when playing some of the more intense games. I am still looking into this.Audio and Subwoofer
During experimentation I went through 3 subwoofers and four amplifiers in attempting to best my first cabinet attempt. I eventually settled on an open chassis, low-power, with a three channel amplifier driving a 6 inch woofer. The two 4” coaxial front speakers remained, as these sounded great and were relatively cheap. The complete audio section was only ~$45, as long as I am not driving it beyond 5 watts it can stand up to the best and still come out as a close second. I am in-process of exchanging audio amplifiers again. This time I am going forward with a 24V Class D audio system that provides 20W @ under .1% THD and a bridge amp for subwoofer rated at 40watts @.1 THD. I am currently composing an audio guide that discusses all audio options for virtual pinball. I urge all to read it, as it will have some great information.
Haptics using Audio and DOF
Haptics (tactile feedback) is still eluding me. I placed two DOF controlled vibe motors close to the flipper buttons. When activated, the rumble can be felt, but my subwoofer can almost reproduce this effect too. The knocker sounds realistic using a cheap $9 solenoid from one of those Arduino supply sites. I have concluded that using superior wave files and an optimized speaker system can faithfully reproduce 90% of all the sounds and feel of real pinball.
To fill the gap further, I am now experimenting with audio exciters thanks to “Poor man’s DOF article I read on the Aussie pinball boards”. Exciters are sound transducers that use a mounted surface to transmit sound instead of air. This results in an increased tactile response. The problem with my setup is that my vibrations are not rich in low vibration. I attribute this to my audio amplifier having a built-in 3 dB cross over at ~240 Hz. So to make these exciters fully effective, I need to upgrade my amplifier. Exciters are best for reproducing playfield events such as ball bounce, roll, and solenoid. Amazon has a full line of Dayton Exciters. Mine was only $9 on Amazon.
Plunger
My current plunger works with a linear 10k potentiometer that is both cheap and effective. Mike Roberts, author and designer of the Pinscape suggest using his CCD linear array. I remember Mike posting his research on You-Tube a few years ago and I am happy that he has finally perfected it. The CCD linear array is great, as the only moving part is the plunger that is used to progressively interrupt a light source white it is being pulled. Unfortunately, the CCD linear array is cost prohibitive for my project. I attempted to use a smaller and cheaper CCD solution, but complications of the increased optics made this idea impractical. I also played with a variable reluctance system, but it was not stable and became too complicated to implement. I am currently researching an alternative solution using an Adafruit VL6180X Time of Flight Distance Ranging Sensor (VL6180). This solution is slightly more expensive than the linear potentiometer, but should offer the same performance as the Mike’s CCD array at half the price. Provisions for I2C interface and applicable coding will need to be mitigated into the next version of the Bang! Board and into the Pinscape firmware. As mentioned this is still in the research stage.
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Folks,
Dimensions for the cabinet:
- 17” wide
- 32” long
- 46” backboard height
- 25 ½” playfield base height (at front of cabinet)
- 6 degrees Playfield Angle
- 71 lbs
Pinball Cabinet
I wanted something that resembled the classical electro-mechanical cabinets. The design would be simplistic yet realistic. The cabinet is intentionally nondescript and doesn’t catch your eyes immediately. The trim and legs are void of chrome; this decreases cost and provides a cabinet that can blend in to a variety of décor. The backboard is secured by a piano hinge. This allows it to fold down for easy shipment/storage and eliminates the need for electrical disconnects. The uniformed width of main cabinet and backboard compliments this feature. The 17” width was chosen for practicality. I could have squeezed the width down to 16”, but this would have limited the selection of playfield 27″ monitors.
Buttons and Lighting
With an LED controller, I splurged on illuminated tactile buttons. I used my label maker to create graphics for each of these buttons to give them a professional touch. I used a generous amount of buttons and time will tell whether this was a wise decision. The pinball cabinet has hints of vintage pinball, and not lavish with spinning siren lights, chrome, and flashy bling.
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Folks,
Thank you all for your encouragement and kudos. Allow me to work backwards as I go through some of the technology that I developed. First, I am a big fan of Pinscape, as it was the promise of nudge and plunger that got me committed to building a cabinet. The bonus was having digital outputs that are LED Wiz compliant, but it required a series of complicated companion board along side the KL25Z board to make it work. So I designed a mezzanine board that simply plugs into the KL25Z giving it 16 channels of medium current (50mA) enough to drive most LEDs. I have another 3 outputs that are amplified MOSFETS that can drive 2 amp each. Last, all the button inputs have been neatly routed to designated headers along with plunger pot connections and MOSFET output connections. Below is a photo of this PCBA and an image of the raw PCB.
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