MiniPinball Cabinet. Ipad2

[Luckydogg420]

Hi all, first post.

I've been playing the pinball arcade for a while and love it. I've built MiniPinball Cabinet. This is still a work in progress. Thought that I'd share it here in case anyone else wants to build one.

Original thread.
http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1561

Please give me feedback, I hope to improve this design

 

[hootowls]

Very nice, I like - wish I had the wood working skills to build one myself! Just the proper size for your three year old too!

 

[sotie]

In my pinside thread you said you were going to keep the nudging internal. Are you still working that out? From your pictures it looks like you have two different types of buttons on the sides so I'm guessing one of them is nudge.

 

[sotie]

Took a closer look at the pics. Now I see the nudge wires. It looks like they're hooked up to switches but left inactive?

 

[Luckydogg420]

Sotie; thanks for the inspiration.

The extra two buttons are for the in game special.

Originally I was going to mount a plumb bob, with a couple leaf switches around it, one for each nudge direction. Now I considering picking up some mercury switches, I'd assume they'd be more sensitive to nudging.

I think the hard part will be getting only one nudge switch activating at a time, without causing improper registers of the other ones.

 

[Luckydogg420]

This build will be a precursor to the full sized cabinet that I build, once a good PC version becomes available.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Re: MiniPinball. iPad cabinet for pinball arcade.
by Luckydogg420 » Tue Sep 10, 2013 9:31 pm

Ok this is starting to get good. I've got a working tilt sensor and its pretty good. I took a pinball tilt plumb bob and mounted that in a semi circle of 3 leaf switches. This was just a proof of concept mock up. I used alligator clips to connect the icade's microswitches, so that I could test it out, the iPad is not in the cabinet while testing but the switches were not double tapping and I was able the shake the machine in each of the 3 ways, making the game respond properly.

 

[Codeena]

Hi all, first post.

I've been playing the pinball arcade for a while and love it. I've built MiniPinball Cabinet. This is still a work in progress. Thought that I'd share it here in case anyone else wants to build one.

Original thread.
http://www.pinballrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1561

Please give me feedback, I hope to improve this design

Hello Luckydogg420 and fellow mini pinball cab builder. This is codeena--I designed and built the iPinCade: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/4587-My-Pinball-Arcade-Cabinet-(iPinCade I just saw your cabinet pics and it looks really nice! Cute pic of your 'lil girl and pup I also wanted a plunger but thought it'd move the cab too much--does it jolt the cab at all? Do you ever experience flipper lag in the game (I do once in awhile)? How about a bezel to cover your iPad? How about rounding off the legs on the top?

I read your comment about my backbox design which I too wasn't too happy with since it looks too widescreen. I wanted to keep a certain ratio of the main box to the backbox when looking at the cab from the side. If I left it square, it wouldn't be as comfortable to play for me. One thing I'm thinking about it to have the backbox fold in the future. I was thinking of the tilt bob but mine doesn't have much room for it.

Nice job and thanks for sharing!

 

[Luckydogg420]

Thanks for the inspiration. I saw sotie's cab and new immediately that I needed to build one. And in the process found your thread. This is truly an inspired design, much better then anything commercially available (like the gameloft duo pinball attachment.)

The plunger was simply the icade core original joystick with some large flat washers and a spring added. Wire the switch as "NC" so it activates when pulled. It doesn't move the cab at all when plunging. I really like it for the skill shots, the longer you hold it out the farther the in game plunger pulls.

I haven experienced any flipper lag, the leaf switches that I installed are on a hair trigger.

There's no bezel. The iPad slides in the back along groves that hide most of the frame. I want to get some side mirrors for in the cab. (Just like on a real pin) lol. I think it will add to the affect.

The legs need work. I just cut them off and slapped them on the box. I might look for little leg levelers too. Any ideas?

I like the look of a speaker panel, although mine is empty looking. I'd like to add something to the DMD area, maybe a sticker, maybe a mini LCD on a raspberry pi. Lol. I doubt it, but there is room in the backbox for a raspberry pi. The lights and sounds in the backbox is a definite bonus. I really like sotie's idea of the jambox in the backglass, (but I can't afford one now) I used a USB powered speaker that plugs into the iPad headphone jack. (Bluetooth would be way better) the lights and speakers run off 4xAA batteries. When the music thumps, the lights dim a bit. It's kinda cool, kinda not. My backbox folds to change the artwork. I like the pic you have in the back ( I have no photoshop skills )

The tilt bob I installed works with 3 leaf switches around it. In total you'd only need about 4" height to have it swing around. Right now it does bounce and register a double hit occasionally, I want to improve on this. I have a mercury tilt switch from a thermostat that will work but again it might be to sensitive as well.

I really need an idea for a theme. I want to disassemble and paint it before I make everything permanent.

 

[sotie]

It will be really cool to see you get nudge working perfectly.

Jawbone just announced a new jambox model last week called Mini Jambox which is not as thick as the original model (one I used). Unfortunately, the price is also going back up to a higher level with the new model. This might bring the price of the original down to under $100. It was already selling at Costco for $129.

https://jawbone.com/speakers/minijambox?r=em32e

 

[Mick Morry]

Nice build. I love the size. It looks pretty much full sized if there is nothing in the photo to show it's true scale. Well done!

 

[Codeena]

Thanks for the inspiration. I saw sotie's cab and new immediately that I needed to build one. And in the process found your thread. This is truly an inspired design, much better then anything commercially available (like the gameloft duo pinball attachment.)

The plunger was simply the icade core original joystick with some large flat washers and a spring added. Wire the switch as "NC" so it activates when pulled. It doesn't move the cab at all when plunging. I really like it for the skill shots, the longer you hold it out the farther the in game plunger pulls.

I haven experienced any flipper lag, the leaf switches that I installed are on a hair trigger.

There's no bezel. The iPad slides in the back along groves that hide most of the frame. I want to get some side mirrors for in the cab. (Just like on a real pin) lol. I think it will add to the affect.

The legs need work. I just cut them off and slapped them on the box. I might look for little leg levelers too. Any ideas?

I like the look of a speaker panel, although mine is empty looking. I'd like to add something to the DMD area, maybe a sticker, maybe a mini LCD on a raspberry pi. Lol. I doubt it, but there is room in the backbox for a raspberry pi. The lights and sounds in the backbox is a definite bonus. I really like sotie's idea of the jambox in the backglass, (but I can't afford one now) I used a USB powered speaker that plugs into the iPad headphone jack. (Bluetooth would be way better) the lights and speakers run off 4xAA batteries. When the music thumps, the lights dim a bit. It's kinda cool, kinda not. My backbox folds to change the artwork. I like the pic you have in the back ( I have no photoshop skills )

The tilt bob I installed works with 3 leaf switches around it. In total you'd only need about 4" height to have it swing around. Right now it does bounce and register a double hit occasionally, I want to improve on this. I have a mercury tilt switch from a thermostat that will work but again it might be to sensitive as well.

I really need an idea for a theme. I want to disassemble and paint it before I make everything permanent.

It's nice to hear that you were also inspired by my cab! Yea, I shared my iPinCade's design details and dimensions w/Sotie so our cabs look like clones, but he added some mods like the jambox and extra buttons. Yours is quite different looking...I definitely wanted a backbox more like yours but I wanted it as portable as I could make it. BTW, I think your light on top is a cool addition. I was thinking of placing these sound-activated lights I have in my cab, but I'd rather keep mine simple. My full size cab's plunger works similarly to yours.

As far as nudging, I was hoping that TPA would eventually have improved accelerometer implementation so I wouldn't have to use a tilt bob or side/front buttons. Would it improve the double hits if you have a wired on the bottom of the bob as well (to restrict movement more)? One thing I may do to mine is re-work the fake coin door in the front and either just have one large button (which I'd still want to look like a coin door) to use for the front nudge. I could live without the 3 mini buttons since I could use the screen to make those selections.

It's strange to me that neither you or Sotie experience any lag. However, I have the original iCade so perhaps I need to get the Core. One thing I'm afraid of is losing iCade support on the iPad (I've read that it's possible from Dutch).

For your cab legs, I suggested rounding the tops to make it more authentic and perhaps safer to touch. I think the levelers would be great, but how would you put them in?

For my original theme for the side of my cab, I was just going to take a bunch of artwork elements from my favorite Pinball Arcade titles (from flyers or original cab art) and create a montage. I'd include logos of manufacturers and TPA and/or Pro Pinball after it's released. Keep us posted with updates!

 

[Codeena]

It will be really cool to see you get nudge working perfectly.

Jawbone just announced a new jambox model last week called Mini Jambox which is not as thick as the original model (one I used). Unfortunately, the price is also going back up to a higher level with the new model. This might bring the price of the original down to under $100. It was already selling at Costco for $129.

https://jawbone.com/speakers/minijambox?r=em32e

Dang. Is that worth $100ish-does it sound that good?

 

[sotie]

It's strange to me that neither you or Sotie experience any lag. However, I have the original iCade so perhaps I need to get the Core. One thing I'm afraid of is losing iCade support on the iPad (I've read that it's possible from Dutch).

Hey Codeena. Haven't seen you here in a long time. You've been gone or just quietly lurking! I'm convinced the lag issue is a difference between the circuit board in the original vs. the newer core models. I've ripped open a bunch of cores and haven't experienced any lag on any of them.

Who's Dutch? I haven't heard any mention of that. It doesn't make sense to me that FS would implement support in April then remove it a few months later.

 

[sotie]

Dang. Is that worth $100ish-does it sound that good?

Probably not, but it sounds damn good. A lot of bass. I already owned the jambox anyway. There's a slight audio delay when using the TPA app. Maybe half a second. I don't always notice it, but sometimes I do. I don't always play with the speaker on because I get lazy to reach my hand around the back and hit the switch! I guess I use it more to really show it off when people that come over and want to play. The demo video I posted in the other thread (playing space shuttle) is with the external speaker; that's why it sounds so loud.

Luckydogg420: It's going to be cool to play Haunted House on your cab very soon!

 

[Codeena]

Hey Codeena. Haven't seen you here in a long time. You've been gone or just quietly lurking! I'm convinced the lag issue is a difference between the circuit board in the original vs. the newer core models. I've ripped open a bunch of cores and haven't experienced any lag on any of them.

Who's Dutch? I haven't heard any mention of that. It doesn't make sense to me that FS would implement support in April then remove it a few months later.

Hey hey Sotie. Haven't been playing much recently. You convinced me to get a Core. Want to buy mine?

Dutch Pinball, I think his name was. He wrote something about Apple making some ios change or something like that. The change may only allow genuine Apple products to work (nothing to do with TPA/Farsight removing support). I could swear it was on your iCade core thread. Sound familiar by chance?

 

[sotie]

Sure, I'll buy it. Shoot me a pm with your price!

I just found the post but I read it more as him hypothesizing that there won't be much chance for iCade with the new controller support in iOS7. I don't see any reason that support for it will stop. I think we'll be fine playing our iCade's.

 

[Codeena]

Cool, you'll finally experience the fun-inducing lag I've been enjoying.

 

[sotie]

LOL, obviously I didn't read your offer correctly! I read 'core' and 'want to buy mine'.

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

hat was be me i think.

IOS 7 supports gamecontrollers. So, have to wait how and if the icade is still working then. I think it does for pinball arcade, but new games will have the official gamecontroller support.

IOS 7 should be out next week, only for iphones though. Hope ipads follow quickly.