I created an account on BYOAC and posted in the Space Base thread asking for guidance from Le Chuck and his partners. Let's hope they see it and provide their help. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140466.msg1581811.html#msg1581811

I looked around a little bit for resources for steppers with Raspberry Pi.

I found this hat (like an Arduino shield): https://www.adafruit.com/products/2348

2348-02_(resized).jpg

Luckily, it can control two stepper motors by itself, and it has all the needed protection and stepper management circuitry built-in. There is also a Python library to simplify interacting with the steppers. According to the video, you can basically just tell it which direction to spin and at what speed. Sounds easy enough. It is designed to be stackable, so you can add another hat on top of it. That will be necessary for the errant ball solenoid. I don't know yet how to drive that. The steppers will require some external power, since the Raspberry Pi cannot provide enough on its own.

Tutorials for everything: how to assemble, wire it up, add external power, and program for it are available here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dc-and-stepper-motor-hat-for-raspberry-pi

It's compatible with these steppers: https://www.adafruit.com/products/324

324-03_(resized).jpg

I'd have to assume these are strong enough to move our ICB bar, since these exact steppers are used in CNC machines like the X-Carve.

Adafruit also sells handy mounting brackets for these steppers.
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1297

1297-00_(resized).jpg

One less piece to have to figure out how to fabricate, thanks to off-the-shelf components.

Promising update from Le Chuck!

Hey everyone, I'm glad to see this still has some interest. It certainly isn't dead but it has been moving slowly for the last year or so. A lot of life changes for several team members that had to be sorted out before work could resume, myself included!

All that said, I will be getting back into this shortly. I'll be fabbing up a second playfield (the first is with IDS) and I'll do a step by step build up on that. I can't put a deadline on anything past that but I'll be starting the playfield in August as soon as I finish the panel I'm building for my boys.

Once complete everything will go open source, the reason we aren't do releases as we go is because things are still in flux and I personally don't want to put out bad poop, have someone spend money, get ahead of me only to find out it doesn't work as advertised. Plans, parts lists, music, code, the works.

As it stands now the only truly custom fabricated bits are on the ball the return (which is simple) and the circuit boards (which is supposedly simple for those in the know but might as well be rocket surgery for me). Everything else is off-the-shelf modded or tooled.

Regular updates to recommence soon. Thanks!

TL;DR: They were able to build nearly everything out of off-the-shelf components, and he will start a step-by-step build detailing the entire process in August.

Definitely keep an eye on the BYOAC thread.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140466.0

I could perhaps be persuaded to program it...

Very cool project... I'm following it.

BTW: I have a used ICB control panel that I purchased with my ICB a zillion years ago. The one on my game is fine, and this one just sits on the shelf. Any idea of value or demand for it?

Thanks Kerry

Sounds like a good solution. Hopefully we can source a rod that is the proper length and won't require any cutting.

I'm not at home at the moment, so I can't check. I also don't have calipers so I'd have to eyeball with a measuring tape. Also, I don't know anything about metals; I don't have a clue what it's made of. Can anyone else that owns ICB chime in?

I like the idea of making the bar out of another material than metal. Colored (or white) bars open up possibilities for blacklight illumination, or simply just better integration with the builder's theme of choice.

I think we need to figure out a good solution for sensing the balls passing through the holes. Taito used switches, Le Chuck uses magnetic sensors, and I can't tell what ICE is doing. I would like to avoid magnetic detection, if possible. If you look at my Taito cabinet photos on the first page of this thread, you'll see pock marks in the playfield glass at the holes where the ball has dinged into the glass over the years. I'd like for it to be possible to opt for a ball of different material, maybe just a marble if the builder wanted. Also would provide options for theme customization.

According to Phoenix Arcade, the ICB playfield glass is 33.75"x23.5".
http://www.phoenixarcade.com/art.htm#ICE_COLD_BEER_

I think we could design our own restrictor plate for standard-shaped arcade joysticks in CAD, then either 3D print ourselves or post on a site like Shapeways to let anyone order a print.

http://ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html

Maybe not a cheap option but these are analog. $60 each.

Yeah, I understood, but I think the movement definitely needs to be restricted to up and down, despite whatever input capability. Looks like there are readily available 2-way restrictor plates for Japanese joysticks. There's probably something similar for HAPP/EL as well: https://www.focusattack.com/sanwa-gt-2f-2-way-restrictor-plate/

I worry that the programming complexity and especially the added cost of analog joysticks may outweigh their benefits in the end. You already get a surprising amount of refined control and smoothness even on the Taito cabinet with digital joysticks, and even more so on the ICE cab with the motors connected directly to the pulleys.

Due to the nature of controlling a ball on an inclined plane, there's a bit of "lag" and a gradient of speed as gravity pulls the ball at an increasingly faster speed toward the earth. That alone already gives you subtle speed control over the ball; the nature of needing to make more dramatic movements on the edges of the bar to influence the movement in the middle.

That's a good point. I suppose some sort of acceleration could be programmed into the game, and your game mode idea sounds like it could be an interesting dynamic: to switch it to a more extreme movement speed, or alternating one side stronger than the other, etc.

No clue really on pricing. It will be rpi3 based as that is what the code is currently built for we have developed. Plus, lots of good libraries to get a start on joystick function etc. Mini doesn' seem to equate in mini price it seems, all the same hardware b ut smaller cab. We can laser cut our own cabs which helps. I'll post pic of one of my mockups later today I cut last night

Yeah, wood surrounding the already obscured parts will be necessary considering the thinner glass. The issue becomes the maximum length the bar is able to extend needs to be greater than the hypotenuse of a triangle made from the bar being at its lowest possible point on one side and the highest possible point on the other. If the bar is less, its two parts will just unsheathe themselves and the bar will fall apart. So the taller the playfield becomes, the wider the wood siding and obscured parts become.

That's a good price, but I'd recommend short shafts so the ball top won't have to travel as far, which will feel more responsive. To change that one to 2-way, unscrew the green restrictor plate from the joystick, move it to the right, then screw it back in.

My question is why do you need steppers for this? The only reason you need steppers is for accurate position control, and this game doesn't need that. You put a switch at the top and bottom of the throw so you know TDC and BDC. That's why the current games just have regular motors.

If you want your ramp up speed, just use PWM to drive the motors. Also, just use the cheaper leaf switch / microswitch joysticks. You are making this project way, way more complicated than it needs to be.

Also, if you want the absolutely cheapest controller option, check out the Open Pinball Project - I'm converting an EM for less than $100 because the controllers are $4 each and can be daisy-chained for however many switches, lamps and solenoids you need.

Control everything from a RPi using USB.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/507097900/open-pinball-project-open-source-pinball-hardware

https://openpinballproject.wordpress.com/

I can't speak for winteriscoming, but I know very little about electronics and motor systems. I assumed you could PWM a motor to reduce the speed, but I worried that would kill the torque, and I wanted to avoid a complicated and noisy gear situation, like the Taito cabinet. The stepper solution is relatively inexpensive, videos have shown they move how I want, the brackets we found make them easy to mount, and the Python library with included documentation and example code appear to make it as simple to control as a regular motor. That's been my logic on steppers so far.

This thread is meant to be a call to the community for ideas on how to accomplish a DIY ICB; we aren't saying that these ideas we're putting forward are the One True Way, we're just throwing them out there to see what seems reasonable and what doesn't, as demonstrated in how we already killed the analog joystick idea through discussion.

This looks really promising. Is there any info on when they will be available outside of the Kickstarter, and a timeline for documentation for us newbies? I love the price, but this seems a little too advanced for me to not have any examples or documentation to work from.

That sounds like a good plan. I was thinking the tubes could be 3D printed, and aside from serving as the lit ring, they could have mount points to hold the RGB LED and opto sensors in place. Just print, cover the sides with glue, and push through a hole until flush with the front, then clip in the LED and sensor.

it would be really cool if you used WS2812 rings around the holes to animate it a bit

ex:

RGB-LED-Ring-12-x-WS2812-5050-RGB-LED-with-Integrated-Drivers-Small-Ring_(resized).jpg

they are available in all sorts of sizes and have individually addressable LEDs

If I'm being really honest, I don't see a reason to involve a computer in this at all - you could directly connect the power through the switches in the joysticks to drive the motors and make the Top and Bottom switches cut power, just like pop bumpers and flippers used to be even on SS machines. I suppose you need to reset the bar to the top when the game ends but that could be wired up easily as well.

I'm a big fan of not making things more complicated than they need to be - much more reliable!

You don't really need a library to drive a pin on an Arduino or RPi to activate a transistor, but then I'm looking at this from my perspective as someone who knows how this stuff works. I'd suggest looking up motor control to get a baseline understanding.

This looks really promising. Is there any info on when they will be available outside of the Kickstarter, and a timeline for documentation for us newbies?

Docs are here: https://sourceforge.net/p/open-pinball-project/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/Docs/

It's available right now. You can email the project leader and ask to get boards, which have complete BOMs all ready to order parts and full documentation online. It's still a little DIY in terms of the quality of docs but once you understand that the controller can control up to four wing boards of any type, and they're all hooked up in a daisy chain, they're really easy to build and use.

Here's a photo of me mocking up my OPP controllers and wing boards for my EM conversion:

Open Pinball Project Boards

Ahh yes, all you have is a hammer so all you see are nails. Got it.

I've been printing decals, translites, cpos, etc. for the pinball and arcade community for about 5 years. I keep this super affordable for the community to help everyone stay within budget on projects. If I can help let me know as I would be happy to offer any and all services here to keep this project as affordable as possible. I like what I'm reading!

Consider that we're not building turnkey kits for people here. These things need to be as straightforward as possible, not just for us design and program, which is also important, but for other people to source the same parts we used and build.

Like has been said earlier, the steppers are a known entity for winteriscoming, seem reasonable to operate for a newbie like me, and are easily mountable in the threaded rod system that we're planning to build.

I need a computer in my project because I want to make it more of a multimedia experience than the original ICB. I want RGB LED light shows, sound effects, custom game modes, and a display of some sort. It makes sense for us to build this with a computer base so that people that just want the vanilla ICB experience can put it together with minimal soldering and circuit design, and then for the rest of us, to have a good base to build forward from.

Right, which isn't our audience. We want an easy to purchase and assemble system from off-the-shelf electronics, not necessarily the best system, just the one normal people will be able to put together with some amount of confidence.

I just meant you don't need a computer for controlling the drop bar. Obviously you'll need one for the rest of the stuff. Sorry if that was unclear.

The less parts you use, the more reliable it'll be, that's all I'm saying.

Actually, you still do need a computer. The game auto increments the bar upwards when either joystick hasn't been touched after a certain amount of time. It also more aggressively increments the bar up even while you're actively playing it in the second round after beating it the first time to add to the difficulty. When the ball is lost, the bar has a routine it performs to try to help dislodge it from wherever the game can't find it (lowers all the way down, raises one side all the way up, then raises the other side until the ball hits a switch). It may do other things I can't remember at the moment.

That's true, but again, the more limiting. winteriscoming and I have been discussing other possibilities in this thread that would benefit from the computer beyond the vanilla stuff, like spontaneously alternating joystick controls or varying the movement intensity for a game mode.

The steppers are wired directly into the HAT on the Raspberry Pi anyway. This is the simplest way for everything to be connected for us and any other inexperienced person trying to assemble their own. We don't need to worry about blowing circuits with reverse current or H-bridges or anything else. It's just plugin and go.

Why not use an arduino? Cheaper and better suited for this type of project.

Right on! Can you print straight on plexi?

I can certainly help with the templates and the artwork when you are ready.

I can print on plexi for bezels or translite material for marquees.

I think you forgot to link o 2nd item, curious what it looks like.

Rad! I'll be contacting you for our project

I have to admit, this is a lot more sturdy of a solution than I was expecting. I assumed for the left and right sides of the cabinet, there would just be a stationary guide rod on the front side of the playfield running parallel to the threaded rod on the back side, and the carriage would have the threaded rod running through the ball screw actuator on the back of it and the guide rod running through a hole toward the front of it. Sort of like the existing system in the Taito cabinet, as in it would keep the guide rod as is, just replacing the pulley system with the threaded rod.