Fair enough. I guess Mike set me off when he started publicly strutting his "superior" grammar skills and taking an arrogant, concieted attitude. Once you do dumb stuff like that then the "gloves are off" and everything is fair game in my eyes.

QSS

yes that indeed was a dick thing for him to do indeed. no one likes a grammer nazi mr homepin ( intentional typo

Are you directly developing the electroluminescent stuff, or is it all subcontracted to local firms? How reliable is it? Has it been used in vending machines or amusements before? If I recall correctly it has a fairly high voltage driving it, in a thin film on the side of the cabinet? What's the film made from? How hot does it get? Will it fail if it gets scratched?

I was glad to hear you'll be using zero formaldehyde ply (and presumably other products). I hope you sue for low VOC (or as low as feasible) paints and bonding agents generally.

A couple of newer Sterns I've played are very chemicular smelling even past their first birthdays. I find this really unpleasant, plus the health concerns. Indeed one I bought was like this (18 months old) ..... took a couple of weeks of leaving it in a room with a commercial air purifier running 24/7 before it finally lost its odour.

I wasn't strutting anything - the original question was ambiguous because of poor grammar and I simply wanted to ascertain exactly what the writer meant.

Imagine if books were written in such a way, we would never "no what the riter ment with they're book".

funny-quotes-grammar-the-difference-between-knowing-your-shit-and-knowing-youre-shit_(resized).jpg

Quoted from Pavlov Pinball article.

"So we asked Kalinowski directly if Popadiuk is involved in the design of Homepin’s Thunderbirds game. Choosing his words carefully, he replies: “Many people would suggest JPop is a bad businessman, but not that he is a bad pinball designer,” adding that he will only reveal who the designer is once the game comes out.

Cabinet art
Cabinet art from Popadiuk’s ill-fated Zombie Adventure
Why the reluctance to reveal the designer until people have had a chance to actually see the game? Kalinowski points out: “If it is him (Popadiuk) involved then I would be tarred by the same brush.”

Since Kalinowski won’t straight out confirm that Popadiuk is the designer of Thunderbirds, the obvious next step is to ask JPop directly. Pavlov Pinball attempted to contact him, but received no answer one way or the other."

How are we supposed to interpret this and why were you so damn coy? A simple "no F'n way jpoop is working with me" sure would have made things simple and allot easier for you and everyone else.

Just say it "no damn way that POS jpoop is working on my game". Simple!

QSS

Thanks for your logical and well thought out questions. I will do my best to respond to them.

The actual printing of the EL panels is quite a tricky process that involves "ordinary" plastic printing on the reverse of the finished, outside layer and several screen printed layers of the EL material behind that with even more screen printed, silver based inks for the 'wiring" inside the panels. The company making these panels for us is literally "over the back fence" from the Homepin factory.

The finished sandwich has a flexible printed circuit "tail" that plugs into our EL invertor/controller. We have designed and built this unit all in-house. Our unit generates 120V AC from a 12V DC supply and that is switched to the various circuits in the EL panel by the inbuilt microcontroller and via the flexible cable. We wind the invertor TX ourselves as well.

The controller runs barely warm to the touch but the panels themselves are completely cold. The picture below shows our EL driver and its aluminium case before any labels are affixed.

For mechanical machine construction we are using powder coated finishes or stainless steel parts and anything that is plated is (mainly) plated with nickle as that is RoHS. All paint we currently use on arcade cabinets is water based and we do our best to ensure there are no "nasties" in the paints and other things we use. Probably the most toxic things we use in the factory are the silk screening inks and thinners as we screen print almost everything we currently produce and there isn't any water based ink available to us that would stand up to the abuse.

I'm happy to answer questions as best I can but the few need to stop the whining and "he told me I was fat 10 years ago" crap! I had valid reasons for my comments YEARS ago which I explained clearly at the time and I am not going to visit that again.

EDIT: I found some more pics of the invertor being assembled.

el_(resized).jpg

finishedpcbs_(resized).jpg

one_pcb_(resized).jpg

tbirdsel6_(resized).jpg

tbirdsel2_(resized).jpg

tbirdsel3_(resized).jpg

tbirdsel4_(resized).jpg

Very interesting. Thanks for the response.

If the EL panels get damaged, are they easy to replace, or are they bonded into the cabinet?

Are we to infer from your reply that the cabinets may be screen printed rather than decaled? Obviously from a finish and durability point of view it can be superior ... I'd also argue it's likely better in terms of lower toxic load than a bunch of plastic and adhesive.

It would not surprise me
Mikes favorite game is BSD

The EL panels are very much the same as a standard plastic decals, perhaps a little thicker. They are exceptionally durable. Easily replaced if required as they are sticky backed and simply plug into the invertor.

At this stage we are using decals for the cabinet as screen printing them, although a much better process, just isn't economically viable. Most of the items we screen print are parts and the glass for our arcade machines but there are also pinball parts we screen such as the fuse box shown below.

swbox10_(resized).jpg

swbox4_(resized).jpg

swbox_(resized).jpg

No user serviceable parts inside. I'm out.

I hate reading that on products.

For me its "refer to service manual" I hate reading those things.

I realise you are saying this in jest but I will clarify that those exact words are required for legal liability reasons.

I agree but I have tried to include the "most important" details where appropriate.

well done guys you got him in two posts hehehhehe

A bit more information for Rubberducks: The Environmental Protection Agency here in Shenzhen is getting serious about solvent based finishing processes. Below is an email that was forwarded to me by a local businessman friend here in Shenzhen. We already use water based paints as I mentioned before and I have this morning confirmed from our powder coater that all powders used are RoHS compliant and comply with the new requirement.

************

Subject: Fwd: Low VOC paint requirement in SZ - Please Read If You Have Shenzhen Based Supplier with Painting/Coating Process

Hi all,

As SR team notified there’s a requirement from Shenzhen EPB that all manufactures in Shenzhen city who have painting/coating process, to start to use water-based paints or powders to replace the existing oil-based or solvent-based paints, starting from July-1, 2016. Any violation to this requirement will result in a penalty (not confirmed yet but usually a fine, or a shut-down).

Please check with our Shenzhen supplier base who are running painting/coating process to understand what’s their current manufacturing technology so that SR team can assign DRI to work with our suppliers on more updates.

Please send back to Marina and me for consolidation by 5pm today, 3/23 Asia Time.

Thanks.

So what kind of clearcoat can we expect on the playfields Mike ?

Hopefully something VERY durable .

I would imagine they'll likely have more strict regs re: clearcoats too, but clearcoating is usually done in a controlled environment and once done the off-gassing is usually a relatively short period, unlike paints. They won't remain toxic for years. Also I'd imagine the clearcoat they use WILL be imported and be either German / US / Japanese / Korean made.

As a buyer of TAG, this is my biggest concern
Who ever made the playfield for Bally/Williams could not get it perfect 100% of the time
Sterns clear coat varies a lot
Some WoZs have clear coat issues

Can someone in China, who has never made a playfield, get it right?

also curious what Stern and JJP use to seal the playfield, water based or 2 pack

will a water based Chinese made clear be tough enough?

If you read Mikes responses and look at the quality of work displayed it would seem that he has the intention of delivering a world class quality product.

If YOU were going to produce a pinball machine would you be going for the "she'll be right approach" or "If I'm going to spend my hard earned money I better do this to the best of my ability"

Think some of the pix here say it all IMHO.

agree the powdercoated parts look great which is fine

just interested in the playfield clearcoat as that is probably the most important surface of the whole pinball but don't know enough of what the clear is on Stern's JJP's and even CPR's playfields.

Fark, i have seen Mikes website and seen the TAG flyer
Now I an REALLY worried about the art work :p

Er yes the artwork. Was told licence images were very strictly adhered to. Early on Mike tried quiet a few ideas and all were rejected. Hope something better appears if/when we see it.

And the reason for the IF. Having watched that last Stern video geez it's gotta be a hard slog making a pinball machine. Hats off to all that can achieve it. Even if years late.

Mike would be very aware of the quality control issues suffered by Stern and JJP. Being the terrier he is I'm sure it would be high on the priorities list. Being a pinhead and not just another engineer/designer he knows the playfield is king scenario.

Interesting to note that I guess all those mentioned CPR included are all trying to put out a quality playfield.

Afm mars rules are not so linear and allow some stacking and strategy. You can carry in a multiball to help destroy a saucer, etc. In afm you constantly have a plan of what you want to accomplish next, when to start this or that. Revenge from Mars has no strategy and it's very linear. All modes are paused during all multiballs. You're never planning what to shoot next. Instead the game tells you what you must always do. It's fun in its own right, but the software doesn't come close to Lyman's afm rules. I own both games.

I came across this today and then found reference to it here on Pinside when I searched.

I was a fan of the original show and now my 4 year old grandson loves watching the new episodes on Amazon Video with me.
I admit I love what they've done with the Thunderbirds..not sure about all the Kayo involvement at the end of the second season.
I guess the plan is to get girls interested too?

Look like there will be a Season 3 of Thunderbirds coming out in April 2017 too!

http://www.homepin.com/updates.html

So the link says Thunderbird Pin Coming 2015. It's now 2017..is this pin really really happening?

Look here...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/homepin-official-thread-pinball-parts-machine-progress

I don't see any teaser of the Thunderbirds pin in any of those links other than those that are supposedly some of the mechs for it.

Thanks for your interest in Homepin's project.

Forget "Thunderbirds Pinball" for a moment.

Homepin has started a factory in China from an empty shell, no staff, no equipment - nothing! All this in a country where I don't speak the language.

This factory has been built up to a working facility and next Tuesday we will ship another container of licenced Hankin arcade tables and that will make serial number 650. Not bad from zero to shipping 20 high quality, licenced arcade machines per month average since opening day!

Back to pinball. Small businesses in China cannot import parts. Everything has to be built and made in China. Alongside designing and building the Hankin tables, employing suitable staff, complying with ever increasing Government regulations, we have spent the past years designing and making EVERY SINGLE PART to build pinball machines.

When I say EVERY part I mean it. literally. Just this week I ordered 100K of special screws for under playfield use as these just aren't available. Each and every part has to be designed, drawn up, prototypes made, adjustments and tweaks made before final production.

All of this takes a LOT of time, money and an extraordinary amount of effort - more than I ever imagined.

To answer your query, yes, Homepin IS building Thunderbirds Pinball and yes, we are a couple of years late for many reasons (some include my wife of 40 years passing away two years ago, our pinball programmer dying in one of our dormitories and the subsequent fall out and costs from that debacle and many other hurdles).

So, keeping things positive and avoiding the usual "Pinside slide" please follow the Thunderbirds progress either in the thread referenced above or much more on our Facebook page facebook.com/HomepinPinball

I am not and WILL NOT release images or game play EVER so don't bother looking at the threads if that's what you want. Just wait for the game to ship (later this year) and play it then.

I am not playing the game like several other notable players. Homepin is a serious manufacturing facility building and shipping finished, quality machines monthly - right now - and intends to become a serious contender in the amusement industry.

No Hype Mike! Love it.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. So very sorry to hear about your wife and all your setbacks.

The ONE positive note I got from your post was "Just wait for the game to ship (later this year) and play it then".

That's very exciting news indeed to hear you will be finishing the game this year.

I'd love to see it out by the end of the year even if it's not going to be made available to USA distributors.

Congrats on getting the rights to this franchise and being able to produce this pin. I'm looking forward to seeing the end product and wish you the VERY BEST!!!

CuJo

We have a USA distributor and he hounds me regularly for pinball machines. He is excited and keen to get some to the USA.

Go and talk to him at the Texas Pinball Festival, he will have our tables and arcade uprights there so you can look at our quality and finish.

I guess this confirms it, thanks Jpop, taken from HP fb page.

IMG_0285 (resized).PNG

Wonder why he doesn’t thank Ben Heck and Spooky pinball for the ability to rip them off!

Noticed Ben got a mention

Oops, Yep, I read it too quickly, you are correct

Who is John Popaduik?

*runs