If only IKEA would sell "ARKAID" flat-packed DIY arcade & pinball cabs. I think I once suggested to CPR they sell blank versions of their playfields if someone wants to re-skin a pf without the work of scraping off the art of an existing(re-sellable) one.

Or go even further back and sell the same-size pf for whatever cab you own, without any holes drilled, other than the corner cuts to fit it in the cab. A blank slate. Include a piece of same-size/shape cardboard for initial drawings & ideas.

That's what I was hoping Stern would have done with Transformers: a transforming playfield. Neat.

I haven't bought anything from him at all but was talking to zeb about his boards. Looks like this has potential for DIY pinball, and not just for souping up virutal pin cabs:

http://www.zebsboards.com/index.php/category/feedback-controllers/ledwiz-control-boards/bare-bones-booster-detail

For the programming section, I would suggest initially going the pseudocode route, not tying to any API or specific language(C#, Python, etc). Making the language ambiguous would get the general point across for programming, no matter what you are doing.

I did do some contributions to pinballcontrollers.com's wiki, outlining small things like the pop bumpers, etc, with a small software section at the end of it(accumulating points, etc).

As for the programming section, I got a good start on things Friday night with smaller pages. More to come, of course.

I suggest we put things on smaller, more focused pages. Makes things easier to find(or skip over). That, and you can put more detailed information per-page that might be otherwise skipped.

Wow there's a lot of accounts being made for the wiki, up to 10 times/hour! Okay, those are spammer accounts. Heh.

I would say shut off new account creation altogether, and make him/her send an email with a specific subject line. A few hoops to jump through should shoo away the overwhelming amount of signups. 99% of the recent changes is account creations.

It's better than showing nothing, especially in 2015.

Got this to work tonight. The rubber band was a bit too much, so I gotta tape off a 3rd point or something. Just hooked it up briefly to a Heathkit power supply, and it was solenoidin'.

2015-03-12 21.32.54.jpg

I was thinking about this myself. There's other considerations such as UL testing, owner's manual, localization options(power, coin door slots, foreign languages), volume discounts for parts orders, warranty, support, etc.

I just broke down an entertainment center. While it's particle board, I'm tempted to take a few good pieces from it to make a playfield for an entirely-junk-made playfield and back board(as opposed to backbox). Put the Utilimarc board(s) on the backboard & wire it down to the pf.

What about metal templates you can clamp onto any wood pf and cut as one pleases? Maybe introduce some inter-changability(multiple slides you can puzzle-piece in/out) to it so you can customize it to your project.

I was doodling at work(computer was running stuff) and the thought came to my head. You could assemble your dream bottom layout with the metal plates, clamp 'er down, and drill away. Or before you drill out, just move them around to see you have proper clearances so the ball won't get stuck.

For edge pieces, you could just have a 90-degree bend in the part downward, giving you(hopefully) that just right clearance, at least for the left outlane.

For a shooter lane, you could just lay it down & use a scratch awl(if no CAD), or a bit more for drill holes for your wooden piece to divide the outlane + shooter lane.

Are there established known measurements for things like the clearances for the inlane & outlane and such? I'm sure over the decades & companies there's variances...

That would be a fun virtual pinball game in and of itself. LEGO(TM) Demolition Crew.

Has anyone taken a Williams/Bally, etc, ball trough apart, and unfolded the metal back to a flat piece? Maybe use that as a template for a utopia open-source trough?

Is there some off-the-shelf capacitor board I can buy that would be suitable for a homebrew pin? I swore I saw one on the pictures in pinballmakers.

Gotta source the parts & solder, but can't beat the price on the mezelmods board.