(Topic ID: 155184)

Is John Popadiuk really working on Thunderbirds Pinball?

By mfresh

8 years ago


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  • 189 posts
  • 79 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by mgpasman
  • Topic is favorited by 7 Pinsiders

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    #77 8 years ago

    The only thing I will say is to please read the LAST PARAGRAPH of the article and PLEASE take note of it. The rest is gossip.

    1 week later
    #127 8 years ago
    Quoted from Artimage:

    Second, is it really true that in Australia it is common practice for the wife to have the assets in her name and the husband to have the debts in his like Mike claims? - so please set me straight if that is a common practice "down under".

    Yes, it is perfectly normal practice for small business people and one partner IS NOT liable for any debts incurred by the other. Many married couples (and also people living together) hold separate bank accounts as well.

    -1
    #138 7 years ago
    Quoted from QuickSilverShelby:

    he is indeed apart of his project.
    QSS

    You are correct:

    "apart" - means: not connected, separate from, no connection to.

    "a part" - means: one and the same, connected with, one piece of a whole.

    You can see how correct grammar is indeed very important - and NO, I am NOT nit-picking, I am explaining why it is essential to get spelling and grammar right!

    I am known as a "spelling nazi" on AA and with very good reason. The post above is a perfect example. I rest my case.

    I said he wasn't connected with Homepin, my comment was clear and in plain English.

    #142 7 years ago
    Quoted from QuickSilverShelby:

    So he is not "apart" / "a part" of your arrogant, pissy production?
    QSS

    I don't know which question you are asking as your sentence asks two questions? Arrogance is certainly not my style although you come across that way with your cryptic post but I'll put it down to lack of keyboard skills.

    "Pissy" - that could be your interpretation of my efforts and a view you are entitled to but also a view not shared by many others. That's something you would do well to take on board.

    #146 7 years ago

    We can "get over it" and move on and then I can respond to serious and sensible questions if people want OR the few that seem to hold a grudge for no good reason that I can ascertain can keep up with their drivel and I will not bother answering the vast majority who would like some feedback "from the coal face".

    It's your call keyboard warriors!

    #156 7 years ago
    Quoted from QuickSilverShelby:

    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

    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".

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    #158 7 years ago
    Quoted from rubberducks:

    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.

    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.

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    #161 7 years ago
    Quoted from rubberducks:

    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 punch of plastic and adhesive.

    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.

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    #164 7 years ago
    Quoted from CNKay:

    No user serviceable parts inside. I'm out.
    I hate reading that on products.

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

    Quoted from SuperPinball:

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

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

    #166 7 years ago

    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.

    10 months later
    #181 7 years ago
    Quoted from CUJO:

    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.

    #184 7 years ago
    Quoted from CUJO:

    even if it's not going to be made available to USA distributors.

    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.

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