(Topic ID: 262812)

Let's P-Roc this (Haunted) House. My 'Magnum Opus' has begun.

By HHaase

4 years ago


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23
#1 4 years ago

Wayyyyy back in time, Minneapolis airport had a great arcade in it, or at least I thought so as a kid. Travelling back and forth between NY and the Dakota's I played many a game in that arcade. One of them always stood out more than any other, and really fueled this entire hobby for me. The Beautiful Beast as some call it. Haunted House. It is one of three machines that are my core, the games that brought me here. Haunted House is the first pinball machine I remember ever playing. This game, above all others, has held a very special place for me ever since. There is just something about the artwork, the back-glass, and that basement playfield, that have called to me for nearly forty years.

Surprisingly I've never owned one, and I honestly cannot remember playing one since then. But I have never forgotten.

I've lurked for a long time. I've studied. I've watched the marketplace. But the timing never seemed right. As some people say, you should never meet your heroes. I feared disappointment. I feared that golden part of my childhood would be broken, and the whole house of cards would follow. This isn't a mere 'Grail' machine to me. Haunted House is the foundation by which my EVERYTHING pinball is built on. I resisted with every fiber of my being.

But some things cannot be forgotten.

And some things cannot be denied.

Temptation has won and a project has come home.

It is time for me to take on this beautiful beast.

But let’s not forget that this is me we’re talking about. If I’m going to do this, it’s going to be MY way. This will be my 'Magnum Opus', throwing everything I've learned into one single project.

Right now I am sitting on an original playfield set that is as dirty as it is stunning, and I have a lower cabinet en-route to me. This of course leaves me some significant missing parts. I have no head, no backglass, no boards, and no displays. So I am going to have to scavenge and create the rest of this game, and I think this is a perfect opportunity to improve upon the things that are lacking in the game.

My plan is to use a P3-ROC controller to build new rules, new lighting, and new sounds, into this cabinet. I'll use the soul of the original game as my guide, to mold it into something worthy of that pedestal I have put it on. There will be a lot of custom stuff under the hood, but anything visible MUST be worthy of the original art design work. There will be no multi-ball. Any changes to the appearance will blend with the 1982 style as best I can. Sounds and music will change in quality and how they are used, but all the beloved elements of the original will still be there. Speech is undecided at this point. The thought is something along the lines of Vincent Price and Orson Wells for style, and it will be minimal if there is any. I want anybody who plays this game to think it's a natural and worthy extension of the original.

Also, this will not be a fast project. I'm going to work on it when I am inspired. I'll take breaks when needed. But I will see this through to the end.

In my next post we will start getting to work.

#haunted-house

#2 4 years ago

Reserving this post for a few things. Staring off with parts for sale and parts needed.

Currently for sale/trade.
Playfield wiring harness, appears to be complete. Includes all lamp sockets, does not include any coils or switches.

#4 4 years ago

I know multiball does work well with the game, but I've got two reasons to keep single ball. One is sentimentality, which plays a big part in this project as a whole. The other is an explanation I heard once, that is part of what I'm using as my guiding muse.

The single ball represents you, the person lost in this grand mansion. You are exploring all the dark areas of a place you shouldn't be, lost, alone, trapped, and lonely for help. This is what I'm going to use as the basis for the narrative, which I'll build my rules around, that lost soul looking for an escape.

Here's a couple teaser photos of the playfield set I'm working with. You can see how dirty it is, appropriate to the theme I think, but the basement playfield is flawless under all the grime. And look at the secret passage entrance on the upper playfield. All this time and nearly no wear on the holes, and the plastic is unbroken.

Unfortunately there are a few flaws to correct on the main and attic playfields, but still a phenomenal original set to start with.

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#6 4 years ago

Framework is the first big decision hurdle I need to solve, thankfully I’ve got some time to sort that out. Code is a weak point of mine so I need to be pretty deliberate on my choice. Both mission and skeleton have their apparent advantages, not leaning either way yet.

Lots of easy, but time and money consuming, things to sort out before that. First things will be playfield tear down and starting the shopping list. I’ll also be doing a paper version of the basic rules concept too. If I don’t have a solid conceptual framework I’ll just be thrashing around pointlessly. I need to go at this like a project manager, not a technician.

#11 4 years ago

The more I look at it, the more I'm going to at least start with the Mission Pinball framework. From what I can tell so far it's just better documented and more user friendly. I've never worked with Python before so the higher level environment is more beneficial to me.

From what I can tell it also better supports non-LCD style displays. I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing for displays yet, but I do know I won't be doing an LCD system. Anything I do will still need to fit inside the original plasma display openings in the backglass and playfield. I am leaning toward some kind of alphanumeric setup at the moment but that's still wide open as I haven't done any actual work in that direction yet.

-Hans

#15 4 years ago

Whichever style the displays are, I'll be avoiding any kind of high voltage plasma displays. Trying to keep the power distribution simple.

-Hans

#21 4 years ago

Holy Moly, the harness on this game is a pain to remove. I'm used to Williams stuff where the lamps, switches, and solenoids, are all in their own bundles and can come off in layers. With Haunted House it's all one giant bundle that's all completely bundled together. The only thing that came off separately was the wiring for the score display.

Photos tomorrow, I'm wrapping it up for the night.

-Hans

#22 4 years ago

Teardown is always fun. I'm absolutely gobsmacked at the sheer volume of wiring on this game, no wonder it's considered to be a maintenance nightmare. I'm just glad it doesn't have to go back onto the machine, and I feel deep pain for anybody who does a playfield or restoration on one. It took me a good evening just to get the wiring off the main playfield. I've barely even touched the upper, and haven't started the lower at all. This harness is massive and not very maintenance friendly to work on or around.

It's also incredible how much functionality the designers got from the system 80 board set. For a driver board that was only made to support 9 discreet solenoids, there are 27 in this game (including flipper). I can really see the benefit that came from using matrix layouts on lamps and switches, would have saved a lot of complexity.

The crazy thing is, with all the stuff on this playfield, I've removed all the lamp sockets already. So this is just solenoid mechanisms and switches.

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#25 4 years ago

Lower playfield is here, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. That’s next on the list for pulling the wiring.

-Hans

#26 4 years ago

Wiring harness has been completely removed. Without all the relays, transistor boards, pop bumper boards, diode boards and so on and so on, some of these playfields look pretty stinking sparse on the bottom side. Particularly the lower playfield, though that one is missing a drop target mechanism at the moment. Only a couple pieces of it were present, I'll have to source one and I think I have a lead on one already.

Looking at the top side of the lower playfield it's an interesting comparison between the clean and bright artwork where I've wiped it down, compared to the areas I haven't yet. You can't even see the bat on the kicking target at all.

A depressing amount of the plastics are broken, so I likely see a repro plastic set in my future, which isn't terribly upsetting. I can probably sell the secret passage plastic alone for a good price. All the rubbers are complete trash, no loss there as I'm going to replace with titan rings anyway. Missing a couple proper pop bumper caps, but I'm going to be changing the bodies and caps to different colors. The stuff I really need though all looks to be in great condition, which is the playfields and the mechanisms. I appear to have all the posts and wireforms too.

At times I was thinking with absolute dread that I was taking this all apart, clipping the braided wire for the lamps, and clipping where the harness attaches to the switches. But the more I went through it the less I was worried. The lamp sockets are all essentially trash from corrosion, though the wiring itself all looks fine. I think the P3-Roc conversion is actually going to be easier than piecing together a full machine and restoring it with original wiring and boards.

Next step is going to be labeling all the mechanisms and parts, and getting down to completely bare playfields.

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#27 4 years ago

I may change my mind later, but right now I don't think the wear and damage on this playfield justify the risk of removing the mylar to do a full restore and clearcoat. I'm not a phenomenal talent at playfield touchup, but I'm getting better, and I'm not afraid to do some small spots here and there.

Here's the upper playfield after a wipedown and spot touchup this evening. Perfect? No. Improved? Yes. Just needs a coat of wax and I can set this one aside and move to the next. I'm not too worried about the mismatched colors behind the pop bumper mounting holes, those will never be seen due to the angle. Nor will I do anything about the chipping under the inserts. For a 1982 playfield I'm quite happy.

If this project goes extremely well I do think I'll pull the playfield again and send it out to get done professionally. Right now I'm just looking to get it presentable enough for starting the later development.

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#28 4 years ago

The original clear posts are really dirty, and in this game I think the white rubbers and clear posts stand out too much. In fact, I think any of the transparent colored posts will be a bit too obvious, and I can't find colors that I like.

So I made my own. Printer will be busy for a bit. The green and black are going to be the best match on the upper playfield and lower playfields for sure. Main playfield will probably end up with reds and oranges most likely. Upper playfield is going to need 20, so I'll be printing most of the day, but I can at least get a good view of what it will look like before I take my week off.

I've also added these to the website for sale if anybody wants oddball colored posts. I can make different designs as needed too. A bit softer patterns than injection molded, but sometimes you just gotta compromise if you REALLY need that unavailable color.

https://www.siegecraft.us/presta/index.php?id_product=87&controller=product&id_lang=1
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#29 4 years ago

20 printed posts later, and we can cover up the only real damage under the old posts. It really improves the look of the playfield, and for now I'm only going to lavish my attention onto areas that will be visible. Nice thing is, if I want to change any colors it's quick and easy to just have more of them.

In person, the green is nearly a perfect match to the darker green on the playfield, though photos do show the plastic is a hair brighter than the paint, but not by much.

Unfortunately, as I'm tearing down the playfields, every single plastic is broken on the lower and upper playfields. So I'll be needing a complete set it seems. I'm sure I can get a few bucks for the secret passage piece from this one, but I'm going to wait until I've inventoried all of them before putting them up for sale.

I might keep the broken ones though for photo backdrops and things like that, or make something else out of them. Haven't decided yet.

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1 week later
#30 4 years ago

I was away for a week, so didn't get any work done until today. Mainly a teardown of the lower playfield. This seemed a lot easier than the upper for some reason, probably because everything came out the bottom and there was no wiring to worry about on the top. Unlike the upper playfield, there really is no damage to the playing surface, only some crackling under the posts, and of course it's extremely dirty.

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#31 4 years ago

This is about 20 minutes of work with Naptha and Griot's cleaner wax, which I've taken a liking to. I'll probably give it a bit more buffing tomorrow but no touch-up is required on this playfield. The flash catches a bit of uneven color, but in person it's not foggy at all. Once it's all polished up I can make some new posts for this one and them move on to the upper playfield.

I've also received word the lower cabinet I'll be using should be here in about a week.

-Hans

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#32 4 years ago

Another batch of playfield posts are done on the 3D printer, and I even managed to figure out how to import from CAD to Blender, and make up a Siamese style post fairly easily. Now that I know I can do these in blender, I can maybe make them even fancier.

This playfield looks awesome when it has a fresh coat of wax on it, but going to take a bit more work to really get it looking good normally. Once the wax dries the shiny black goes foggy again on me and won't polish up. After the PRoc stuff is done, I am definitely re-pulling the field and getting it done professionally.

Either way, progress is being made.

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#33 4 years ago

Also had this delivered today, so I can start doing a bit more in earnest. Came with a new CPR spiderweb plastic, and the 5-drop target bank that I am missing parts for. SCORE! A buddy of mine may have some generic legs I can use for the time being until I get a proper set sorted out.

Solid, no repairs needed, artwork is fantastic condition, one of the best coin-doors I've received on a game.

But.... well.....

It might have to go into the garage for a bit before I can keep it in the basement shop.

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#34 4 years ago

Hmmm, I'm tempted to make some Stern styled coin door entry plates, so I can put some different pricing sheets in there without the red tint.

But I also need the best method on the interweb's for ridding a cabinet of the smell of mouse pee.

-Hans

#36 4 years ago
Quoted from Mbecker:

Curious why import from cad to blender? Or are you just using STL files from online and then editing in blender?

I’m just starting to use blender, and haven’t quite got dimensioning figured out yet. So I did the initial post design in freecad.

Couldn’t figure an easy way to transform it into the Siamese post in freecad, but was super easy to do in Blender by just grabbing vertices in wireform.

#37 4 years ago

No updates at the moment, I've been absolutely swamped in orders the past few weeks, and probably won't be at this one again till next week. The good news is that the smell has died down considerably in the cabinet. I really need to get myself a more organized workspace for all this before doing much more, it's turned into a mess in a hurry. So that'll be my next step.

Then I need some legs for the cabinet, and I can get moving again. I have been slowly tinkering around with teardown on the main playfield as well, and working on a parts list to get the mechanisms in shape. Pretty small list at the moment.

I am wondering though, and Gottlieb die-hards may consider this the talk of a heathen, but I may use some Williams style pop bumper bodies instead. I just think the bright white bodies on the pops on this game are a huge negative in appearance, and I want something that blends better with the playfield and plastics. I can get transparent green and other colors for the Williams pop bodies. Still thinking on that.

I do also need to order some different filament colors for the main playfield parts on the 3D printer, as I'll need red and orange posts instead of the green and black I've been using. I also need a set of drop targets for the lower playfield, but really any Gottlieb part will work since you can't see the faces anyway.

-Hans

#41 4 years ago

Oooooh! I was actually going to ask what I could use for dye. That looks like a perfect idea.

-Hans

#43 4 years ago

The baking soda is working to get the smell down pretty quick, but when it gets warm out I might bring it to the garage and let it sit in there close up, sans playfield, with a few lightbulbs inside to bake the heat out. I did also finally get some legs under it, and mounted the playfields. So I can start stacking them up and visualizing things.

Still working at the teardown on the main playfield as time permits. Whatever made this thing dirty is annoying. When I wipe it with Naptha, and while it's still damp, the colors all look fantastic. But it's some kind of dust that just won't really let go from the playfield wood, though it comes right off the mylar.

I've also been doing some behind-the-scenes work upgrading my 3D printing capacity to do multi-color prints. My brain keeps coming up with ideas on this one and I'm looking forward to implementing them.

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#44 4 years ago

Ok, now on to some of the FUN stuff finally. I've been researching lighting methodology, and at the moment I'm going ahead with serial indexed RGB lighting for a good pile of this machine, if not everything. Even lights behind colored inserts will still get RGB's, because I want the ability to do a proper lightshow on this beast. I've settled on WS2815's, instead of the more common WS2812's. This way I can drive them from the 12v rail on the power supply and not overload the 5v. Going at 12v also reduces the overall wattage by a considerable amount.

This means a lot of custom PCB work, which "I know a guy" who can handle that part pretty easily. Here's my test-fitting of the dimensions on the first three before ordering the boards. The pop bumpers are getting 4 each, because that means I can do some lighting effects inside each bumper too. I'm going to get things running with all the insert lights before handling the GI, mainly so I can see where I need to do the GI lighting. All the GI is also going to be serial RGB's as well.

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#46 4 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

How are you going to wire them all together?

I'm going to have a dedicated power bus for the LED's, probably split between the GI and inserts, so only the data signal is going to come from the PRoc controller. That eliminates worries of drawing too much amperage. That's the beauty of using these particular RBG serial LED's, data and power is split.

Every LED, GI and insert, will be individually controllable though.

-Hans

#48 3 years ago

Non-Photo update for today. The three PCB designs have been ordered. Assuming they work, this will cover all the pop bumpers, the 1-4 inserts on the top playfield, and all the 1" inserts.

I've been cleaning mechanisms and re-mounting them to the upper playfield. That and a lot of cleaning and waxing for the main playfield and main playfield plastics. I'll probably also re-mount all the plastics for now, even the broken ones, just to get an idea for colors and such, but eventually I'll need all the upper and lower playfield plastics.

Oh, and lots of 3D printing of playfield posts. The red and orange arrived the other day.

-Hans

#49 3 years ago

All the standard posts are printed and installed, and I've done a lot of cleaning. So I've been re-assembling the upper playfield assembly, and will tackle that one first for wiring up. Just waiting on a couple payments to arrive and I'll start ordering the main P3-Roc board, and an SW-16. I don't know yet for sure what I'll be using for the serial LED controller, I'm still trying to sort out how a PD-LED board handles the serial LED's.

Today I'm dipping my toes into the Mission Pinball Framework to start defining things and laying the groundwork for the control systems.

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#50 3 years ago

Yowza! Working on the config files now for P-Roc, and 8 flippers is spendy on hardware and code. Since they're dual-wound that's 16 coils to define, and 16 coils to drive! A coil-heavy game like this is sure going to need a lot of drivers. In the P-Roc hardware set, that means it'll consume an entire PD-16 driver board just for the coils.

Then again, I want to have the flippers also driven by other events than just the flipper buttons, and I want to activate/inactivate them based on ball location. That and I want the ability to individually control flipper strength based on the needs of the playfield. Complex features aren't cheap.

-Hans

#52 3 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

Most flippers of any game 70s/after?

Most that I'm aware of. Also most coils that I'm aware of. I'm just about to hit 400 lines of code, and all I've really done so far is define coils and switches, with very little else. A LOT of annotation though, to keep it all semi-organized.

If you count flipper coils as two coils each, I've defined 37 coils so far in this game, which I think is accurate for how it was originally done since there were no flashers originally. That means I'll need 3 driver boards for the coils, which leaves me 11 un-used circuits I can use for flashers or other things.

I'm also at 62 switches, assuming I keep all the 10pt switches as individuals, and keep the under-playfield tilt. That's 4 switch boards, and leaves me an extra two switches to add in.

#54 3 years ago
Quoted from slochar:

You can't do a setup where you just define the flipper relay and let the switches do what they do? Or are you doing it so you can use low voltage contacts on the flippers in a fliptronic-type setup?
That's a lot of coils just for flippers!

If I wanted to, I could probably just toss a pair of relay on there and not have any CPU control of the flippers, which is how it originally was. Just one relay to energize them all, let the EOS switches do their thing, and away we go.

I'm making this un-necessarily complex on purpose, and doing it this way gives me a huge amount of abilities that wouldn't be there otherwise. I can individually adjust the flipper strength via the software, activate/deactivate flippers based on any criteria I can think of, and I can make the flippers flip whenever I want as part of a light/mode show. Oh, and the EOS switches will be removed actually for this style of control.

-Hans

#56 3 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

I think Hobbit may be a contender for most coils. Two coils per drop target! HH is definitely in its own league though..
Why put all the 10 put switches separately? Gottlieb put them in parallel originally, seems like it could potentially save you a board

They also only did a 10pt score for Gottlieb. I've got a few ideas for doing different things based on the location you hit the target.

-Hans

#61 3 years ago

I have absolutely no worry at all about flipper delay with this method. This system is the standard and recommended method for MPF/P-Roc design, and as far as I know all the Multi-Morphic and Spooky machines are doing it the way I'm handling it, except they use Skeleton instead of MPF for programming. I'm using MPF because it's supposed to be easier to program, though not quite as powerful for some things. I need the easier version. End result though is the same method of flipper control.

Though CPU controlled is a bit of a misnomer, since P-Roc and Mission Pinball handle certain fast-reaction devices differently than normal coils, and for just the reasons you guys are concerned. MPF has something called auto-fire devices, and they get handed directly by the P-Roc control board itself as part of a separate control system. This way it cuts out that entire loop of processing that could induce lag. This method gives slings, flippers, and pop bumpers extremely fast reaction times, and after they're activated the P-Roc board sends a signal to MPF for scoring/rules purposes. But the actual coil activation gets absolute priority on these auto-fire devices. Not terribly unlike a firmware managed version of the old Williams 'Special Solenoids',

-Hans

#67 3 years ago
Quoted from uncivil_engineer:

Well, it looks like I was wrong, and the correct information came straight from the source.

No worries. You had a very valid concern, and I seriously don't mind if people ask questions about how and why I'm doing things. I get inspiration all the time from that, and it's taken me in some oddball directions for sure.

Hell, this whole project started because I jumped on a good deal for a playfield, and somebody said it might be easier to do a P-Roc than to source the rest of a machine. I don't think this is the easier route by any means but I'm having a blast.

Once I get a check in from one of my vendors I finally get to start buying some of the main hardware.

-Hans

#69 3 years ago

The P3-Roc main board, an SW-16 switch input board, and a PD-16 driver board have all been ordered This will give me the ability to start live-testing some hardware soon. I can only afford so much stuff at a time for this project and that's about it for the current budget. Still a huge pile of stuff to buy.

Another thing I have to factor in is the sheer volume of installation and wiring, and there's only so much work that I can do at any given time. So this will force me to pace myself. I'll only be ordering the boards I feel I'm ready to integrate into the system and this will be enough for now. I know most people do the flippers first, but I'm actually going to work on playfield switches and coils initially.

I'm still undecided on what I'm going to use for a lighting controller, partly because I'm not quite sure on the limitations in the PD-LED when it comes to serial RGB LED's. I haven't done much research on that part of things yet. A bit down the road, I'm still figuring out switches and solenoids.

-Hans

#70 3 years ago

I'm continuing to define things in the config file for switches and coils. I've defined all of the ball devices and autofire devices so far, I think. The ball devices are anything where a ball stops, and then a coil activates to kick it back out. So this means the outhole, vertical upkick's, kickout holes, things like that. Autofire devices are the super-quick-don't-be-laggy stuff, such as pop bumpers, slingshots, and kick targets. Flippers were already done and are their own thing.

I've got to say, the Mission Pinball tutorial is f'n fantastically well written. It's super easy to follow along if you've got a background in repair/restoration these machines. This project would be extremely difficult to impossible without it. But it's really starting to feel like I might be able to pull this off. I've been in a zen frame of mind when I'm doing the code work, very therapeutic.

One thing I can say, which isn't really covered in the MPF tutorial, is that a well defined structure and copious annotations in your code will make or break you. I think I have more notes in the code than actual code right now, but it makes it super easy to navigate. I'm also a big fan of Notepad ++ for this kind of work since it can handle all the hierarchy and autocomplete work for you. Huge time savers.

-Hans

#71 3 years ago

I spent some of today trolling for cheap PC's locally and on various internet sites. I ended up ordering a refurbished mini-ITX based system from e-bay. These are the dinky little office PC's in the tiny form factor, but still big enough that it uses a standard power supply (SFX format). I'll be able to pull all the guts out of the case and mount it on the backbox proxy that I'll be using for the short term. If the power supply isn't beefy enough I can always move to an ATX format with more available 5v and 12v power. Trying to keep reasonably small and inexpensive.

-Hans

#72 3 years ago

As an electronics manufacturing engineer by trade, I give Multimorpic my stamp of approval. These boards are obviously designed by somebody that understands DFM and DFS. (Design for manufacture, and design for service). Thumbs up!

Cute little things too! I made some standoffs for the SW-16 boards and mounted this first one on the upper playfield, then wired in all the upper playfield switches. I was just going over the datasheet, so please ignore the fact I need to move some pin locations in the molex connectors. Glad I checked too, as I didn't initially realize there was a 12v power output to use for optos. That could have been bad.

Edit: Well, poop. Board can't go in this location. Doesn't fit when installing the upper playfield onto the main. I'll have to find a new spot.

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#73 3 years ago

Ok, all better. Found a good location for that first SW-16. Probably better in the long run for me anyway, as I needed to tie a few main playfield switches into this one anyway. This location gave me a clean run for a couple of the trough and standup/kick target switches. I'll need to put another connector in there soon to enable removing the upper playfield, but that's easy stuff. Also, now that I have these switches physically wired, I've got the actual switch numbers into the MPF config file.

Once that little PC arrives on Monday I can start doing a temporary mounting board for the control PC and the main P3-Roc board plus driver boards. It'll be a big step actually getting live switch registers to show up even if they don't do anything yet.

-Hans

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#74 3 years ago

You guys like my temporary backbox? My control PC will be here Monday, and I need to start working integrating the first few boards. So I used a 2x4 and sheet of scrap plywood to get things mounted with close enough dimensions to a real backbox. So now I can also start planning the actual board layout and wiring. It also looks like the hole spacing on all the switch and driver boards is the same. So the 3D model I did for the SW-16 standoffs will work for all of the SW-16, PD-16, and maybe the PD-LED, without having to constantly design new ones. I did have to make a new 3D model for the main P3-Roc control board, but that was easy enough.

For the serial wiring, I've got the perfect stuff too. 22awg multi-conductor wire. The red and black are wrapped in a foil shield, with a separate un-insulated ground. I've got a good sized spool of the stuff at home, plus I think I have 15,000ft or so up at Dads farm on a pallet. More connector housings are on the way as well to let me start wiring things.

-Hans
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#75 3 years ago

Some days you just want to kick yourself. I've been digging around trying to figure out what I'll be doing for the solenoid voltage, looking at various 48v power supplies, and doing some research on the topic. Then it just hit me this morning.... I have all the cabinet wiring and components still inside the cabinets. I already have the coil voltages taken care of via the original transformers, both 38v and 24v! So I can do high power and low power as needed, it'll definitely be beefy enough, I don't have to spend any money on this section, and it's already installed and wired up. Oh Happy Day!

Also, I got tracking info that the computer was also delivered today. So I get to have some fun with that later too. That and I ordered the three remaining SW-16 switch boards that I needed. I've been having a bad week, so I decided to treat-my-self today.

-Hans

#77 3 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

Note that the 38V is actually just the 24V with a big capacitor on it. Works out well though to give the bumpers extra juice
Might want to check if both transformers are needed (iirc, there's two?). Might be able to sell one

Correct, there are two and I only need one of them. Since it's all unregulated voltage it's really only 'somewhere' near the listed values anyway. If I need to I can always play with the input taps a bit to raise or lower the actual voltage. Though I won't make any tweaks like that any time soon, since the coils and transformer voltages are already pretty much matched correctly.

I originally planned on selling all the transformers and cabinet wiring, but I'm glad I hadn't gotten around to pulling anything yet. Turns out at least some of it needs to stay.

-Hans

#78 3 years ago

Well, crap, that little PC arrived today D.O.A. That's quite annoying. Time for plan-B, which I haven't deciphered yet what that will be.

-Hans

#79 3 years ago

Good News! I've got a replacement motherboard on the way for that little PC at no charge. Hopefully this one works. I also scored a free monitor at work today.

But I'm not sitting around waiting, I stripped all the cabinet wiring out yesterday and started building the AC power circuit today. I had some odd colored 16awg stranded wire and used that for basically all the AC wiring. I'll go back and replace it at some point with more code/UL compliant colors, but it'll do for now, there isn't much of it. It's also larger than the 18awg wall cord so I think the gauge is more than plenty. Plenty of re-arranging of the few factory components I decided to keep and I have my solenoid voltage sorted out too. Once I get a better idea of the final configuration I'll definitely be adding some fuses into this. I just don't know how many I'll be needing yet.

Should probably start a schematic too at some point.

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#81 3 years ago

Software?

Is it too nerdy to say I want to free-hand it all? My other monitor is looking at old-school templates on amazon right now.

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#82 3 years ago

First set of custom boards for this build have arrived. The longer strip is for the 4 standup inserts on the upper playfield. The circular one is the pop bumpers, and the oddball one is for any of the larger single inserts. Other things going on, but I'll probably order the LED's for them in the next couple of days.

The big push right now is around getting the PC running for the machine itself. Replacement motherboard arrived today and is working just fine, so MPF is installing over on the other side of the room as we speak. Then I'll mount it all on the backboard and get that first SW-16 integrated.

I'm also working on a big shopping list for various wiring and connectors, as the needs are going to increase pretty quickly once I start getting additional boards installed and integrating them all into the software.

-Hans

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#83 3 years ago

PC is mostly mounted now, with a mount for the power supply currently printing. Haven’t figured out the monitor yet. Annoying amount of little crap to do for getting this up and running, mostly windows related. And I’ll get to do it all again eventually when I get a better PC installed. I couldn't even tell you how many layers of windows updates have pushed through so far. But you get a cheap PC and that's what happens.

But it’s pretty close to having MPF running for me now live, instead of virtual, which is awesome. Last attempt actually ran with the P3-Roc board. Just waiting on this batch of updates and I'll connect the SW-16 and see what happens.

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#84 3 years ago

We
Have
Interface!

Machine computer is successfully interfaced with the P3-Roc controller, along with one each SW-16 and PD-16. It compiles, runs, and registers switch conditions via the PC. And, yes, I have a stuck pop bumper switch. I haven't seen tracking info yet on the other three SW-16's that are on the way, but I'm looking forward to getting them installed as well.

Little pieces each day but damn this was a milestone that I'm happy with.

-Hans

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#86 3 years ago
Quoted from 20eyes:

Is it possible with this system I'm not even sure what the limitations are but have you thought about making this a convertible cabinet? After this build a Black Hole or Sprit to pop in?

I won't say it can't be done, in fact it probably won't be too hard to swap back and forth if things are planned out correctly. Though if I were to do those games as well, which as the moment it's too early to say what I'll do next, I'd prefer to do dedicated cabinets. The artwork is just too good in this era of System 80's to do a generic cabinet or mis-match.

-Hans

#87 3 years ago

I'm waiting on wiring and boards to do the rest of the playfield switch installations. So I'm at a standstill on being ability to work on programming. I also cant' even start the solenoid wiring without the wire. That doesn't mean I'm without things to do. It's time to handle the grounding in the cabinet for safety and board protection purposes.

I had considered doing ground braid just like, well, every other manufacturer did... but I am working on a Gottlieb machine. So I wanted to keep as much of the Gottlieb personality as I can when the opportunity presents itself. I spent this morning carefully pulling the grounding wire system out of the cabinet harness and re-installing into the cabinet. Because the original power wiring was such an over-complicated nightmare I have plenty of grounding capacity coming from that original board. So far I've only tied in the rear half of the main cabinet. I do have wiring running up toward the coin door, and also to the head box, but they aren't connected yet. I'm making copious use of the insane number of wiring clamps that came in this machine in order to keep it all clean and organized.

Since I'm going with controlled flippers it means most of my high voltage no longer needs to run to the front of the cabinet. All that was left needing the 25v/38v DC up front were the knocker and coin lockout coils. I see no need for a coin lockout coil, thus it's been removed. I also moved the knocker to the rear of the cabinet to simplify wiring and reduce high voltage exposure through the coin door.

At some point I do need to figure out how to include the AC power for the PC and monitor into the machine wiring. I don't want to just tap into the service outlet since that's always live. I want the ability to power on/off through the main switch. That's a problem for future Hans though. Right now it's time to stop working on my pinball hobby and get back to my pinball business, because I have orders to ship.

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#89 3 years ago

Not a bad idea. I'll probably just sort it all out later though. Right now I'm not 100% sure yet how many AC sockets I'm going to need. That will depend on what I end up doing for displays and that's a long way off still. Short term I'm just going to keep using the free and crappy monitor I have. Same reason I haven't even started working yet on a power distribution board for all the DC power. (Hmmmm, maybe do all that into one board with sufficient isolation.)

I did actually wire up another dozen switches in anticipation of the next SW-16 arriving. The connectors are just hanging there loose but the wire runs are done and waiting for a board. The upper playfield, and entire left side of the main playfield, are both done. Next up will be right right side of the main playfield.

-Hans

#90 3 years ago

Couple parts needs if anybody has. I need one round white stand up target. Also need 5 white Gottlieb drop targets, Plus springs, doesn’t matter what face the drops have. Old and yellowed is preferred to new.

#92 3 years ago

In this case I’d have to keep the gottlieb stand up. Brackets are different between the two and there’s already too many holes in that area. I have a williams mounted for the moment and it’s not located properly.

#93 3 years ago

With the latest batch of boards arrived from MultiMorphic, I've been happily wiring in switches. The entire main playfield set is completely wired now for all switch locations. I did remove the playfield tilt, as I don't feel it's needed. There is plenty of capacity to add more switches as needed, which is good because I can already find a few spots I want to add more. Most importantly to more reliably detect which playfield the ball is on. I'm not at that point yet but I will be in the not TOO far future.

With a full playfield of switches, including the all-important outhole, I started working on the 'Base' mode tonight, which is the generic "game is playing but nothing special going on yet" mode. So I started adding in scoring to the mode and I have the upper playfield pretty much sorted. Next step is the main playfield. Note that this is just a plain situation where hitting targets gives you points. I don't have any lit shots, bank completions, or anything like that worked in yet. Nor will I for a bit as there's far too much to do in the base mode still for switches. This makes 3 of the 5 SW-16 switchboards wired in and integrated. I still have one for the lower playfield to install, and another for the cabinet that I have to purchase yet.

Friday I should be getting my next order of wire. This is the heavier gauge wire I need for the solenoids so that I can start wiring those in as well. I'll get about 2/3 of the main playfield solenoids taken care of with the existing driver board I already have. I still need two more of those, one to finish up the regular playfield stuff, and another for the flippers.

There are some frustrating moments here and there, but hot damn I'm enjoying this. Every couple days is another big milestone and I really feel a sense of progress with this project. Definitely hitting a layer of calm with this game.

-Hans

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#94 3 years ago

Today I finished up all of the playfield switch locations. So all three playfields have full switches registering. I still need ONE MORE of the SW-16 switch boards for the cabinet switches but at the moment it really won't help me much as there's really no point in attaching the flipper buttons or any of that. Another week or so I'll probably be ordering that and maybe the other two driver boards.

Speaking of driver boards, I also started wiring up some of my first solenoids tonight. Just the wiring, I haven't connected them to the driver board yet, I'm tired and am ready to put it down for the night. I also verified my solenoid voltage, and I'm getting a steady 28v DC coming out of the solenoid rectifier. So tomorrow, if I have the time, I'll try getting some solenoids connected and firing. I'll be able to get all of the main and upper playfields onto a single driver board, plus the knocker. 2nd one will hand the flippers on the main playfield. Third one will take care of the lower playfield solenoids and flippers.

I'm quickly nearing the point I have to sort out power distribution for switches and solenoids. during the week I should have a good enough idea on what I'll be needing, so that I can start sketching out some kind of system. I'll put any lamp wiring onto a completely separate system I think that way I have RF separation.

-Hans

#95 3 years ago

I was trying to get the coils working but it didn't go well. Something strange is going on and I do not like it. Any time the cabinet plug is connected to a wall socket, I see a very dim LED on the driver board power input indicator. Even if the cabinet power switch is turned off, and all the P-Roc/PC stuff is disconnected/unplugged. There is a hint of voltage coming through the transformer at all times and I don't know why.

When I do turn on the cabinet power switch to properly energize the transformer, I get all the coils activating until the fuse immediately pops.

I just don't know where I'm going wrong on this. I'm looking over the original Gottlieb schematic, and I have it all wired the same, and verified the actual wiring in the machine. Maybe I got something wrong with the rectifiers? Maybe I should ditch the whole transformer and go with a 48v power supply?

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#97 3 years ago

Yep, doubling the voltage will really juice things up, which is why I was/am trying to avoid doing that route. I don't suspect the driver board though as there's no way I should be seeing voltage coming out of a transformer with one leg disconnected.

Just tried removing the service outlet, no change.
Disconnected all of the grounds, except the ground from the main cord going into the line filter, still getting 5v coming through.
Right now all I've got on the AC circuit is the line filter, transformer, switch, and rectifier.

I wonder if I may be chasing multiple problems though? I get about 10 MOhms resistance through the switch when it's 'off'. So maybe it's bleeding a bit of voltage through. I already know I want a new power cord, maybe I'll just do the switch and line filter too, to make sure I'm not dealing with old problems.

-Hans

#98 3 years ago

New switch and new cord.....and I was still getting 6v at the rectifier with the power switch off, and that was with no line filter installed. So I really dug into the pre-transformer wiring and it definitely didn't match my schematic. So I connected it up properly, minus the line filter, and things appear to be working properly now from a DC power standpoint.

Unfortunately, that didn't solve my issue at all. I rigged up a remote fuse (ran out of the correct size), and still powers on all the coils as soon as the driver board gets DC power. I'm wondering if maybe I have something wrong with the coil for the trap-door. It's a dual wind and I could potentially have something wired wrong on that too.

-Hans

#99 3 years ago

Update:

It's not the dual-wind coil. I removed that from the circuit and still getting the blowing fuse.

-Hans

#100 3 years ago

Sweeeet! I got coils!!!!!!

Have to make sure the coil ground is connected to the logic ground or you get the exact problem that I had. All fixed and coils are now working for the first time.

I’m pretty stoked.

#102 3 years ago
Quoted from slochar:

Ironic that a new build on a system 80 platform has a similar grounding issue as the originals did.....

The thought didn’t escape me, seems appropriate really.

#103 3 years ago

No work on the machine today, too many things around the house to do, and customer orders to work on. But I did get the remainder of the switch and driver boards ordered today. I also have a box of stuff on the way from Marco as well, just a few bits and pieces, and a generic set of white rubbers to use for now. Eventually I'll be doing all colored Titan rings, but I need to slow down the expenses on this project for now.

-Hans

#104 3 years ago

Round standup targets have been found, and should be here in a few days. Got a 3-pack on e-bay with 2 red and 1 green, original Gottlieb round targets. That'll work nicely.

-Hans

#106 3 years ago

Could definitely use them if you have them, sure!

#107 3 years ago

Ok, more progress today, I got the 2nd half of the main/upper playfield solenoids wired up and running. I also installed a set of rubbers as well to let me start adjusting switches for proper activation I've got a couple things that will need a little bit of work, and one really annoying thing I'll have to deal with, so here's a rundown of the current problem list.....

The big problem is I made the wiring too short! The harness for that solenoid bank barely reaches where I have the solenoid driver board right now, and it's already basically right above the neck on the cabinet. Everything reaches just fine as long as the playfield is installed.... but if I pull it out at all to work on it I'm coming up short. That's going to be an annoying fix and I didn't really have much wire on hand. So.... whoops! Crap happens and I'll get it straightened out.

Then there's the minor issues. The VUK from the main to the upper playfield is too weak. I've got an overly sensitive pop bumper that fires on pretty much any other autofire coil activating. I've also got a loud buzz coming from the transformer at times that I'll have to sort out.

One more big/little thing I've got to take care of in the near future. There's a LOT of coil activity running off one bank, so I'll have to increase the fusing a bit to compensate, currently a 2A slow-blow fuse will eventually pop if things are too active on that bank. Two kicker targets and two pop bumpers are pretty lively for sure. Not sure if I should bump up a half amp or full amp on that bank, the rest I'll keep at 2 amp until I see reason to increase. Otherwise, I forgot how damn fast this game really was with all those kicker targets and pop bumpers. It's making me rethink my music choices.

The rest of my solenoid and switch drivers are arriving in a couple days. So hopefully in about a week I'll have full flipper control, running all three playfields, with transitions between them all working. At that point I'll start doing some video updates.

#109 3 years ago

I was thinking of a variation of that theme actually. It's irked me about how I was going to work the knocker coil into the wiring harness, and there's a couple surprises I'm working on that also necessitate additional coils that are not playfield mounted. So I'm very strongly considering an intermediate fuse/breakout board for the coil harnesses inside the cabinet.

So instead of dragging all the coil wires up from the playfield to the neck, they'll go to this other board instead that I'll put on the back wall. From this board, the wiring will then go up into the head box and that harness can handle the distribution among the driver boards. If it works out well enough, it'll also dramatically reduce the number of connectors to remove when I pull the head for transport, assuming I don't modify it to add a hinge. I just don't know yet what I'm going to do on lighting, so it's too early to make it.

I'm also going to have to do a layout for a custom power distribution board as well. My power wiring is turning into spaghetti soup.

-Hans

#110 3 years ago

Knock two problems off the list.
VUK is now firing strongly, and kicking the ball up from the main playfield just fine. A bit of cleaning, and a bit of software tweaking, took care of it. Transformer is also no longer vibrating. I left something sitting on top of it that was making the noise.

I spent this morning establishing the proper 'shots' for the base mode on the main and upper playfields. So all scoring switches on those are doing their normal un-lit default scores. Upper playfield drop target bank is also properly established in the software as well, so it's resetting on completion and during game/machine start conditions.

I've been working on the layout for my power distribution board as well. I just can't decide if I want to put the rectifiers on there, or leave them where they are currently. I'll probably have to do at least one more revision of it in the future so I think for now I'll just leave them as-is. But I did put a number of fuses on it for every power circuit that passes through the board. Just a few more tweaks and I'll be ordering that the next day or so.

I'm going to have to make those decisions on lighting in the very near future I think. I may also be ready to start integrating some sound. Should probably get some speakers.

-Hans

#112 3 years ago

I'd be interested in reading that one, I'll have to try and find the issue or a scan of it. Would be neat to know what the original intentions were and if the playfield artwork still aligns with it or not.

Just ordered some more wire today for the flipper power and returns. I want to have a different color for the 38v solenoids as opposed to the 24v solenoids. I've basically run out of color choices on solid wire, so starting to get striped wire instead. Price goes up a lot with striped wire that's for sure.

-Hans

#113 3 years ago

Gutz is an awesome pinsider

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#115 3 years ago

Latest batch from Multimorphic. These will finish my switch and solenoid circuits. Just waiting on some more wire to do the flippers but can start installing these now.

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#116 3 years ago

All the switches are set up now, just need to do a hair of pop bumper adjustments.

The VUK needs to be tweaked before testing the remaining playfield solenoids though. Just a hair out of whack.

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#117 3 years ago

Awwwwww Yeahhhhhh. We've got video peoples! All the 25v coils are running on all three playfields.

#119 3 years ago

So the only real problem I've got to sort out at the moment is the VUK from the lower to main playfield is marginal. The ball can make it some of the time but not always. When I pull the playfields again to wire in the flippers I'll give it a good cleaning. Otherwise maybe pull a few windings off the coil. I've basically got it set at full strength in the software as it is.

I'm also going to start working on lighting soon too. So that means I need to sort out the lighting controller soon, and get some LED's to populate the light boards I have, as well as making up some more for the various single lamp locations. I'm not 100% sold yet on the RGB's for all the inserts. Definitely for the GI but not sure on the inserts.

-Hans

#121 3 years ago

Top of the tube is just a straight cut across, acrylic all the way other than the mount brackets. Nothing broken or deformed at all. In my case the ball doesn't always clear the top of the tube, much less get enough height to bounce off the deflector. It's entering the tube cleanly on the bottom side too so it appears to be an issue with the strength of the VUK mechanism.

#123 3 years ago

It's the stock coil, I had the numbers, but can't recall off the top of my head.

I'll have the playfield out later in the week to wire up the flippers and I'll start with a good cleaning before doing anything else. I had to do the same with the main to upper VUK coil as well. Figured I'll start with the easy stuff first before I worry about modifying things un-necessarily.

Today I ordered the LED's for those serial boards I had made up, plus a fadecandy serial controller, and the PCB for the power distribution board. I opted to move the rectifiers onto the power board instead of having them on the original bracket. This will clean things up quite a lot, and let me do a lot of fusing on every power circuit going through the machine. Probably be 2 weeks until all of that arrives. In the meantime I'll be working on the flipper wiring anyway so no big deal waiting on that stuff.

Right now all the lighting decisions are up in the air. I do think I'll also be ordering the MultiMorphic lighting controller too but I need to decide if I'm going to run the inserts as RGB's or single color LED's. There's only 33 insert lights, most of them are colored inserts, so I don't see a point in doing the insert lights exclusively as RGB. That's one reason I'm going with just the fadecandy at the moment, to test the effectiveness of the WS2815 RGB's under the insets. I don't want to commit to them completely until I know they're going to work.

#125 3 years ago

I hadn’t dug that deep yet into the schematics, but I’m currently running it off the 25v not the 38v. Will be easy enough to move it over to the 38v once I get the drivers for that installed later in the week.

Doesn’t need much more oomph, it does clear some of the time currently, so that will probably be enough to get it to reliably go. Stock, I believe it was only relays and high voltage leaf switches, pretty much a flipper style wiring but without the hold coil and EOS switch.

#126 3 years ago

Ok, that SHOULD be the last board I need to order from MultiMorphic, I just ordered a PD-LED for the insert lights, and a few of the Multimorphic RGB boards to compare light outputs.

Looking forward to testing these all out and finally making some lighting decisions.

-Hans

#127 3 years ago

Lower playfield flipper wiring done. Moved that vuk from the 25v to the 38v line.

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#128 3 years ago

Well, Poop. Didn't order enough Grey/Black wire. Came up short and unable to wire the upper playfield flippers without ordering more. I have enough to do the main playfield. Just ran out of time today.

My power management is also an absolute embarrassment at the moment on the cabinet. The power distribution board should take care of most of that but still going to irk me in the mean time.

-Hans

#129 3 years ago

Turns out I didn't have enough wire for the main flippers, but I did have enough to do to the uppers, so I got them wired up last night. More wire is already on the way.

Software I believe is ready to go for the flippers but I have to trace down an issue with the 38v solenoid wiring between the transformer and the driver boards. My power wiring is just a disaster and hard to work through problems on it. I'm really looking forward to that distribution board arriving so that I can get it all cleaned up.

If I were to do this again, knowing what I've learned, I probably would have used the Multimorphic power distribution board, run all the coils on the 38v circuit, and used software to dial back all of the 25v mechanisms.

-Hans

#131 3 years ago

I hadn't gone through your build yet, I'll have to look into it to see if I can catch some ideas. Did you also use MPF/P3-Roc? You're correct that the trap-door is a dual wound. Other than flippers I don't think I have any other hold coils since I removed the coin door lockout. I know there is a way to adjust the power of hold coils via PWM but haven't had a need to figure that out yet.

I thought I had the grounding needs of the driver boards figured out when I was popping fuses on the 25v initially, and I duplicated the same grounding for the 38v. Unfortunately the same problem came up first time I tried to power the 38v's, and stupid me had all three banks of 38v connected when I did it. I got too confident and need to take a step back and evaluate. Maybe tonight, but I've got a few orders to work on first.

I did decide finally what I'll be doing for lighting though. I'll do all the inserts as standard LED's driven by the PD-LED. Single color under colored inserts, and discreet RGB's under the white inserts. GI will be serial RGB all around.

-Hans

#134 3 years ago

The diverted will definitely be coming up soon.

Had to sort out a few wiring and computer issues, but I have the lower and upper flippers running now. Can’t wait to get the lowers going too.

I do think I need to dial back the upper left. Took one flip to do this. Thankfully I have a couple spares.

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#136 3 years ago

38 for all the flippers plus that vuk. Vuk working great now btw.

#138 3 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

I think the flippers on the non-main playfields were 24 originally

Easy enough to bring the voltage down if it proves necessary.

#139 3 years ago

Well, I do think I found out the most convoluted and difficult method for changing out a drop target!

One of the things on my to-do list was to put some connectors into the wiring harness, to allow me to easily separate the upper playfield from the main. It's still on my to-do list, and is not on my 'done' list. I ordered some incorrect pins for the molex mini-fit jr connectors I want to use and they will not latch into the housings. So I had to leave the wiring attached and this made it much more difficult than necessary. I need to spend some time to properly pick out some part numbers that actually work with each other.

And I need to get it done quickly, because I just got a shipment notice on the new power entry boards. The bare boards will be here on Wednesday.... along with a lot of other stuff. So I'm going to have to get some connectors on order for it, along with more fuses. Once this is done it'll be significantly easier to move things between voltages.

Right now I have the power entry board on the way as well as the remainder of the flipper wire. Then I already have my lighting controllers and a few of the Multimorphic LED boards. The RGB LED's for my serial boards are enroute. I also have a 3rd 3D printer coming too. So plenty of things about to start happening soon.

That and anybody have an old PCI-E Mini SSD laying around? I'd love to switch to that instead of the big honking 3.5" SATA drive I'm currently using.

-Hans

#141 3 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

What was the reasoning for using the mini fit Jr?

Compact, good amperage capacity, available in either wire-to-wire or wire-to-board, and will only mate when correctly lined up. I also like the much lower insertion and removal force of the latching tabs. My only real complaints with the Mini-Fit Jr's are the confusing selection of compatible parts, and they are nowhere near as easy to remove pins from the housings compared to the KK series.

On the power board I'm using the mini-fit Jr's for all the 12v, as well as any in-harness connectors. The 5v on my power board will use 2-pin KK 3.96's (or is it 3-pin? I'll have to check the gerbers). The 25v/38v will use 9 pin KK 3.96's. This will help me prevent wrong connections.

I'm also using this build to set design standards for my next machine.

-Hans

#142 3 years ago

Well, $125 worth of crimps, housings, rectifiers, fuse holders, fuses and such have just been ordered. Lots of things to connect on this machine still. Still waiting on one more bit of wire before I can finish up the flipper wiring.

Tired, been doing a lot today. Time to rest.

#143 3 years ago

Should have a lot more progress to show over the weekend, considering most of the things arrived today that were holding me up. Plenty to do for sure.

-Hans

#144 3 years ago

All solenoids powered. Let’s see if we get a full set of fllippers now on all three playfields.

image (resized).jpgimage (resized).jpg
#145 3 years ago

Good News!

I've got a full set of working flippers on this game now. I'm actually not 100% sure I have all my main and hold coils correct, but that's something I can tinker through and sort out no problem. Either way I am now able to completely play a game with a very basic rules and scoring set. It's been many years since I've last played a Haunted House, but it does not disappoint with the layout. I had forgotten how much the lower playfield actually gets used compared to Black Hole.

I am finding that I need to tweak the design of those 3D printed playfield posts I made. I tried to duplicate the original dimensions as much as possible, including a small lip around the bottom edge. That little lip sure gives me a lot of air balls. Especially up into the secret passage plastic. I've even managed to jump a ball back into the shooter lane of all places! I can probably just sand the lip off of the existing posts rather than re-print. Easy thing to fix now that I'm aware of it.

My power distribution boards arrived yesterday too, and looks pretty good. As is normal, there are a few things I'd change if I need to update them, but they'll work fine for now. I'll get that installed in my next session working on the game. I also picked up a few high-capacity mini-fit connector pairs to solve my too-short playfield harness issue. I'm going to do a separate head harness from the playfield harness, like most other games of the era had. This way it'll make things a lot easier to disconnect when I need to remove the head for transport, as opposed to pulling about 20 connectors like I currently have.

-Hans

#147 3 years ago

There are days I think I am seven levels of insane for taking this thing on. My first full programming and full hardware install on a pin and let me choose one of the most complicated games ever made.

In the terms of early 80’s pinball, Black Hole was a shot across the bow at Williams and Bally. Haunted House? A full-on broadside. Let’s face it, the green beast was a show of force.

So suuuuure let the rookie try and throw a new board set and wiring harness into one.

I mean...... this is dramatically cleaner with the new power board installed. The wiring is seriously imposing at this point. That’s without the lights installed yet!

And why is pinside suddenly rotating all my images?

3CB180A3-C066-4619-8518-0EA64D1C1D34 (resized).jpeg3CB180A3-C066-4619-8518-0EA64D1C1D34 (resized).jpeg
#148 3 years ago

The good news is the power board works perfect. I’m probably going to do another revision of it to clean up a few issues I have with it, but it’s perfectly serviceable and doing the job just fine. So I can ignore it for quite some time.

I started doing some work on the lighting today. It all compiles just fine and the game runs, but my dinky little attract mode doesn’t actually control any lights yet. I know they are wired up correct as the board can be configured to turn them all on by default, but no software control yet. I’m suspecting I’ve either got something wrong in the serial chain or the wrong locations in the config file.

-Hans

#149 3 years ago

Found my lighting issue. Pretty easy once I found it.

The PD-LED boards from Multi-Morphic start at address 8 in the serial chain, not at address 0 like I thought they did. So I thought I had it set to 3, it was really set to 11. Tonight I can do a few lighting tests and then start planning out what I'm going to need to populate all the insert lights.

-Hans

1 week later
#150 3 years ago

Video update of the current status. Just ordered more RGB boards to get more lighting taken care of.

Business has been insane still, so still very buried under customer work, no time to get to this one.

-Hans

2 months later
#152 3 years ago

I've been utterly swamped making LED adapters the past few months, and only just recently got enough breathing room to start working on my own projects again. The new aquarium and some rocketry stuff had priority, but this one is not forgotten.

I just started tinkering with Haunted House again a few days ago, making some improvements to the wiring harnesses for the playfields. I'm hoping to go more into detail soon.

1 month later
#153 3 years ago

Been slowly tinkering with some wiring improvements, but nothing really worth reporting in a bit. Just been too busy to work on this.

I did just order a virtuapin flatpack head box though, and a solid state drive. I really need to get a headbox of some type sorted out to get things where I'm not propping up a monitor on a chair to work on things.

-Hans

2 weeks later
#154 3 years ago

Good News Everyone!

I just got tracking info on my headbox.

-Hans

2 weeks later
#155 3 years ago

Coming along. Borrowed a brad nailer to keep it looking clean. I gotta get me one of them.

Not sure if I’ll paint now or later.

DF7FA9F7-3626-4F09-8CD1-7E2AF26C05DC (resized).jpegDF7FA9F7-3626-4F09-8CD1-7E2AF26C05DC (resized).jpeg
7 months later
#157 2 years ago

I just haven't had a chance to get back to it lately. Way too much going on right now.

8 months later
#158 2 years ago

Ok, finally getting some time to work on things. I’ve got the new virtuapin head mounted on the cabinet and I’ve started transferring the boards in.

Unfortunately, all the playfield wiring is to short to reach and I’ve got to extend it all. I may have mentioned this earlier, it’s been a while. I’ve already put in an extension harness for one of the three driver boards, need to get the other two done.

Once I get past this stage and have it all wired up again I can get back to development. Hard drive is temporary, until I can get it cloned into the SSD I’ve had sitting here forever.

C24F6EB1-1FA3-432A-A88D-D425F6C13212 (resized).jpegC24F6EB1-1FA3-432A-A88D-D425F6C13212 (resized).jpeg

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