I spent tonight mowing the lawn! ...And then I worked on cleaning the Jones Plug board and all the female plugs. Everything is nice and clean, so I started work on the cabinet.

The lifter was frozen in place, so I removed the shooter rod to get access to the assembly. Assembly is reasonably clean, but I spent a little bit scrubbing with a wire brush just to knock off anything that was a bit loose. The main pivot was a bit rusty. I have not lubricated it, but I was able to free it up - it turns very smoothly now. When I fire it up, I'll have to see if the lifter motor is struggling. I usually use the 'less is more' theory on lubrication.

The cabinet inside is very clean (for a bingo!) but I do need to run a damp cloth along the inside to get some dirt up. Will do so later, then start drawing my (rudimentary) schematic after mapping JP pins.

Ran the damp cloth through last night and pushed all the loose dirt to one small area to vacuum. Very late so I didn't turn on the vacuum, but I went ahead and started cleaning all the cabinet Jones Plugs and then mapping them.

Thus far I have the counters mapped, the 'R' button, the lifter motor, and that's it! I haven't been able to find any other switch in the set of plugs. That's gonna slow me down a bit... everything is nice and clean now, but the coin door Jones Plug seems to be the issue - I may have to pull that out of the cabinet (female side) and see what's happening underneath.

Still mulling things around a bit. Wires on the switch boards/driver board all use the same common for each set of 8 switches. I'll have to do some re-wiring once the switches hit the jones plugs if they are not already tied together.

I still need to pick up some lumber for the head. May be able to do that tonight.

Front right corner is separated, and needs to be clamped and glued. I'll work on that between mappings (if I pick up the lumber tonight).

Forgot to mention that I have a fix for the 'missing' switches in the Jones Plug. I just have to cross-reference the schematic for Silver Sails, which has a plug chart, and the switches I'm looking for within. I was trying to be clever/simple by mapping via a meter.

Interesting ideas! Thank you for the suggestions!

No need for a test switch, will function more like an EM than a solid state game. Mainly I don't want to write test code that's not going to be super helpful. With the number of switches involved, most of the time you're going to know there's a problem and what's causing it. #25 not registering across multiple games? Probably a broken wire. Bingo playfield switches don't get dirty frequently (or ever?) except for the shooter lane switch and the gate. And just like in an EM bingo, that'll be pretty obvious too (lifter continues to run, lifter never runs, etc). Nothing to really service - I'll have a coin counter, so no need for audit... I'm also toying with the idea of making the hard drive read only - this will protect data integrity in case power is suddenly cut (power cord issues, etc). This means that I don't want to write an audit log - it'll just crash the program.

No room for a bill validator - finding a place simply for all the player controlled buttons is a challenge that I'll tackle in an upcoming post.

I don't like hoppers on my bingos - I've worked on a couple, but I don't prefer that - they are big, they are heavy. (Plus, then I'd have to get a hopper). As the code will be open source, if someone wants to extend to add hopper control, they are welcome to do so.

Cash out - yes! That's one I had legitimately forgotten. Normally, the power toggle will activate the replay reset. On older games, there was a knock-off button, though, and I'll likely emulate that instead of trying to override main power. I may also move the power switch to the head, like on older games and use the power switch hole for the replay reset. If adding a hopper, simply add the extra switch handlers in your replay_reset function and you're good to go.

Thanks again - always happy to hear suggestions.

Ah, I see! That's very interesting!

The settings will be invisible to the user (at least for now). If I enable adjustment of reflex plug or extra ball plug, etc. I will likely use a special key combo.

To select a game in my menu, you press the left or right button, then the yellow button to start. To go back to the menu, you press left, right and yellow at the same time (something that would never happen in a game).

I can probably do something similar for the games. As implemented, I am putting the plugs in the most liberal position. The reflex will still activate and move, which means that portioning will continue to happen outside of mixer movement.

Essentially, any adjustment will make the game even more difficult. With one exception: replays for four in a line can be adjusted on several games. But I'll need to adjust my score cards to accept an argument to display the appropriate ones.

Hmmm!!! I'll think about it. It'll likely be added later on. The main machines I want to emulate are the EMs. I may think about the solid states at a later date. I'll have plenty to work on for now with the EMs.

Thanks again for the suggestion/clarification.

For now I leave you with this:
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Wooden supports to center the screen, and metal brackets to hold it in place (in front). Bottom back support can be removed to remove screen. In front I will be installing foam core and a mat to make it look fancier. For now, though, I can actually get this plugged in and test once I have the wiring complete!

More wiring marking tonight. I am marking each switch with a NO side and a V side. V is the short blade, typically and carries the potential. I'll use this to handle the wiring on the boards.

I've marked all the front door buttons, and footrail left/right and R. Still have trough switches to mark and tilts and power. Power should be the plastic coated wires.

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Toying with the idea of hand-drawing my schematic. No software package will allow me to replicate certain features of the schematic which will be important (like Jones Plug diagrams). My wife did a lot of drafting work in college, and still has her supplies. I am 100% art challenged, but I can usually draw a straight line with a t-square. Any other thoughts absolutely welcome. Keep in mind that I'm using Linux for all my desktop computers, and that I would prefer free (as in beer) software, if possible. I've played with Dia, Oregano, and even schematics.com. Each has a critical shortcoming. Oregano is closest to what I would like, and I'll use it if I must. I kind of relish the challenge of drawing a schematic in the Bally style. Foolhardy? Probably. Fun? Well, to me it is.

Also toying with the idea of speaker placement. More on that later.

Likely no real progress tonight. Saturday, I can probably finish the Jones Plug mapping and Ava can clean the playfield. Then I'll draw up the schematics and start wiring. I will scan the schematics and post in my repository for folks that want to do this at home (or myself, when troubleshooting). Unfortunately, I am severely limited by the wire colors I can use (only solid colors and a max of six). This means expect that listing showing the number of times repeated to be larger than the wire colors themselves.

If someone has a great source for cloth-wrapped wire, I'd love to know it.

That's the current plan, anyway!

Finished mapping all the cabinet switches. Now doing a small amount of cabinet work. Front left and right corners are damaged and covered with plates. Need to shore that up before I can install new leg plates.

I also need to remove side rails. Tomorrow, I'll continue this work (can use a hammer) and Ava can work on the playfield.

Thanks Ryan! I'm going to experiment with a bit of drawing today at some point. Kids can also draw at the same time (on another paper). I'll post a photo of the results.

I found someone who may be able to help with the wire, so that might work out!

Documenting playfield switches. I forgot the gi and switches are tied together on the common

Switch boards pull common to 12v so I may have to either use 17v bulbs on playfield or rewire every playfield. :-/

I'm leaning towards rewire as I can tie the gi with the controlled lamps... for a future enhancement.

Thus far - three switches changed in the cab, and this would be eight wires swapped on each playfield. It would make playfields unusable in any other game, which is something I wanted to avoid.

Thoughts are welcome.

Well, I now realize that I will have to rewire each playfield anyway - tested on another 25 hole and a 20 hole harness. The #2 playfield switch doesn't match up on any set of plugs.

Playfield rewired - the 6v gi I will run directly off of the transformer (in version 1).

I've started drawing my schematic. Molly gave me a quick drafting primer and I am cheating by using a Bally schematic and tracing paper to get my legend written and static items like Jones plugs.

It won't be a huge schematic: remember that only those 60-ish switches will be wired up and a small handful of coils. We'll see how it looks.

For now, here's some photos from today:

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Leg plates in front removed. Missing piece of triangular wood will need to be cut and drilled to hold the leg plate.

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Sophie was jumping up and down to help clean the playfield. Ava helped with posts and Sophie got to learn how to clean.

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Underside of the Lotta Fun playfield. I mapped all the wires, installed all the hardware that had been cleaned, moved some parts over, then rewired the gi lamps to stay off of the switch receivers.

At this point, I've had to cut the current limiting resistor on the shooter Lane. It will not serve the correct purpose in a solid state machine. In the em bingos, it prevents the lifter start relay from burning. Ever wonder why the lifter start usually isn't toasty? Well, here you go.

I've also had to wire the lifter start relay closed on switch 1c.

Lastly, I had to wire shutter motor 1B closed. Otherwise the shooter Lane switch will not register via the Jones plugs.

Each of these changes will need to be made for each playfield. However! Each subsequent playfield will need to have the Jones plugs completely rewired. Note that this means I've had to do away with one of my goals: I won't be able to take these playfields made specifically for my game and use them in a standard bingo without modification.

Schematic in progress
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Destiny: yes, it must be!

Thanks fellas!

Starting the inking process!

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Things will move very slowly this week - I will still be working on my inking and compiling a list of wire colors, mapping those, and starting to physically fit everything in the cabinet. I'll keep trying to take photos as I go.

My wife has told me to slow it down and I am taking her advice this week (next week things will pick back up).

From my blurry schematic above (I've got tracing paper on top of the drafting pencil layer), you may be able to see that things are relatively simple. I've attempted to stick to late 60s-style Bally schematic drawing, which should make it really easy to follow along. Normally closed switches will be closed and not open to one side, though. I am only putting connector and physical switches/coils/lamps, along with broad electrical components like bridge rectifiers and transformers on the schematic. I am not adding the schematics for each of the electronic components. In this way, my schematic is really simplified - it takes you to the boards themselves, but doesn't go through and document each transistor/diode/resistor on the path. My schematic will help you wire /to/ the boards from the cabinet/playfield. Hope that all makes sense. I am not producing a Bally or United-style manual with the game - YET (I may do that after the rest of the games are complete, just for fun), but am including a parts list on the schematic.

I need to order some more electrical supplies, and I actually need to order three more computer boards! There are enough 50V components in the entire system that I need a separate driver board. I also need two more switch boards to run everything. I will have some space left on the second driver board, which I will use in the future. I'll have about five more switches to include in a future revision if desired.

I believe I am going to drive the magic pockets via relay. I really don't want to disturb the perfect balance that those mechanisms have by driving via DC. We'll see how that works out.

Those of you who wonder why I wanted to make a schematic: there is no better way to plan your project than drawing up a schematic. This process requires you to think of every switch and component in the game, and how it impacts every other switch and component. Even the simplified version allows me to review each individual wire needed, etc. Plus, it is a fun little addition.

Also, it helps to solidify how the system will work. I made a silly assumption about voltage loss when A/C is rectified. Apparently it's been too long since my last electrical math class. Despite my wanting it to work another way, you actually increase your voltage during the conversion. Rectification and smoothing is not a problem for me, but apparently math is way too hard. Haha!

Luckily, I had some homebrew folks set me straight (I asked if I could simply rectify the 17V secondary and run through the various boards), and I've changed my plans slightly. As of this moment, I will be running a 5V/12V DC switching power supply and a 48VDC switching power supply (for coils). The transformer will remain. This means that both my back door and the inside of the cab will start getting more crowded.

I'm going to have to redraw the upper-left portion of my schematic since the 120V section needs to be extended. I'll probably also kill the service outlet from the schematic to make it all fit.

Thanks NoQuarters. I ended up redrawing the incorrect portion tonight and started inking on a fresh piece of paper. It's not as pretty, but it'll do.

I've gotta roll that Target Alpha a few times! You'll see me soon - thanks for the invite!

I finally found a triangle template in my wife's architectural templates (hooray!). I'm still really enjoying the process of the schematic. Who knew? (I've never liked drawing anything in my life)

Schematic inking pt. 2. Glad the issue with the 120V section was revealed before I finished inking the last version!

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I'm back! I went on a super fun vacation, recharged my bingo batteries (not a single bingo to be found where we were staying - but there was some pinball!), and stayed with a friend and his family.

Now, I am working on the remaining inks, and am about to begin mapping my wire colors.

Here we go - inking complete. Now mapping wire colors. Trying to decide if should change wire colors from brown with brown tracer to a different wire color at the Jones plug. Schematic is mostly useful for figuring out to the Jones plug, and not to the playfield, so I think I could do this if needed.

Not great, but easier to crimp, etc.

Thoughts always appreciated!

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No, not really. Originally, the wire colors were all nicely separated but time and dirt have made them all appear the same dirty brown color. I could scrub the wires with soap and water, but that would require opening up the bundles at the jones plugs... it's a trade-off.

The schematic for silver sails does not list the jones plugs, so I do not have that as a reference, either.

So! I probably just need to pick colors that make sense and go for it. This'll be interesting.

Several of the wires on the female jones plugs need to be tied together in my system. Thinking about logistics here, too. I definitely do not wish to have my longest wire runs only connect at the boards. Bally did a max of two wires daisy-chained between lugs. I may do that...

Also: thank you! I'm excited to get this scanned and printed soon.

I've been thinking and thinking about how I am going to do the wiring. I found a source for cloth wire that will work, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, I need to use 22 gauge wire, which is much smaller in diameter than the 20 gauge or so that was used originally. I need this smaller wire because the boardset I'm using relies on .100 connectors. So very small. My long wire runs, therefore, have to be 22 gauge. Shorter wire runs could be normal 20 (or 18?). This means that I should only need the cloth-wrapped wire to my coils, and to my motors/relays. Pretty simple, still. I may also have enough cloth-wrapped excess wire to do this without additional (we'll see!).

I think I will need to stripe the plastic wire myself, with my built-in labor (kids). I have six colors of 22 gauge wire to choose from, and with striping I could easily triple that amount (black and white stripes).

Colors are:

Red
Green
Blue
White
Yellow
Black

The amount of wire that I need to run is actually fairly small. Essentially one unique wire per switch, then for every 8 switches, I have a ground or common wire that needs to run to the switch banks. Coils are similar. Distance is between each female Jones Plug and the back board.

I have the transformer to wire up, along with a service outlet, fuse panel, and two switching power supplies. I am using 48VDC to run my coils (several run via relay). I did some math and chose one with a small max amperage (read: cheap), so we'll see if it works! Really, a max current draw of a couple Amps is feasible for a couple of coil load.

The second switcher is going to control my 5V and 12V supply. For lamps that are controlled (playfield rollovers), I will be using the 5V supply to drive the 6V lamps. We'll see there, too. Brightness should be fine, but problems in the socket can cause board-level problems. 12V is needed for the switch boards, and to power the P3-Roc.

Then I need to crimp connectors and wire up everything.

Once all of THAT is done, then I can work on the meat and potatoes again - cabinet repair (corner brackets need to be cut and installed), fancy screen cover (I have a friend from up North that helped me with that - more on that later), and then I turn it on and see just how much I got backwards.

Now, before all of that fun stuff, I made a mistake on my inked version - I made a note on the pencil version on my Jones Plugs but didn't fix it before I started inking. Guess what I did wrong? Funny thing is that I stopped several times before inking and thought something was off with the Jones Plugs. Oh, well. Haha!

I am buying a white-out pen after work and getting that corrected.

I have an additional two switch boards on the way and an additional driver board. My final (ha!) design includes more coils, and the second driver board won't really be used at the beginning, but I will be adding to it as I go. I needed the two additional switch boards to handle the playfield Jones Plug selection and a few more special switches (up to 28 holes, etc).

So that's all the work left until my prototype is put together enough to test. After that, I'll be adding things like speakers, and working to isolate sounds to record. I have ideas for that as well!

Then I have one more artistic challenge - cabinet stencil and spraying.

After all that easy stuff, it'll be back to programming.

Sanity check: does that all sound reasonable?

Decision made! I am going to use the 22 gauge wire instead of cloth-wrapped. Unfortunately, I need lots of additional wire to make this happen. I have 50 ft of each color, but it will go very quickly.

I probably need 6x the amount in order to wire up the hardware I currently have.

Also white out tape is a great invention. Found and fixed one last problem as I went through to label each color. My 17V secondary was shown tapping off the 120V section. That's what happens when you extend your 120V section and don't pay close enough attention.

Makes me wonder how many revisions the original schematics of the 1950s and 60s were made. I know occasionally an error would sneak in, and in some cases, a second production revision of the schematic was made (usually to compensate for changes during the assembly). Just another fascinating thing.

Spoke with a master bingo tech last night and let him know what I was working on - he gave me a couple hints with some of the mechanical aspect of randomization. I explained my randomization function and how it emulated the mechanical portions. I am curious to hear his thoughts when he sees my game in action (hopefully at York)!

Lots of additional wire on the way. Now, to start stripping.

Maximum distance between the back door (when open) and female jones plugs is 4ft.

With somewhere in the range of 70+ switches, I'll need somewhere around 280ft. of wire. Not too bad!

Coils are easier/shorter.

Had some serious wind here last night. Had to take the kids to an interior room. Lots of trees down, but! Before all that I was able to finish wiring #1-25 and the front cabinet buttons. Started on trough switches when the power went out.

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Wish I had bought that battery-powered soldering iron. Power out for an estimated two weeks(!) in my area. I suspect that's a worst-case scenario.

If anyone feels like lugging a generator over, let me know.

Dennis, I feel like you're enabling, haha! (I will definitely be checking that out). Probably can't do that for a prolonged period of time (will need to run lights and engine to charge battery)... but that would be great!

Haha! I'll resist the temptation to run another game off of that plug (or will I?)

Ran an errand after work and power is back on!!! Back to soldering after mowing the lawn and picking up debris.

The lawn had to wait - Ava wanted a little help finishing a little EM rollercoaster project. (a knex model, not the Gottlieb).

But I soldered the heck out of stuff. I finished all playfield and cabinet switches, and cut the wire necessary for the playfield jones plug selection as well as the receiving plug, and the coils and controlled lamps.

Tomorrow, I have to cut and solder all the commons, and solder the cut wire above.

Soldering complete! Now doing initial wire bundle ties to put the jones plug panel the head. From there, I still have 50 V source, 6v source, etc to wire up.

If you have to strip and solder over 150 wires in less than two full days, invest in a soldering gun and one of these:

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Happy Father's Day to the Dads out there.

I cut corner supports for the leg plates today, and bought a pane of glass for the front of the machine. The glass broke in the car on the way home. *sigh*

Ah, well. I'm going to try again this week with a thicker piece of glass. Once I have the cabinet on legs, I'll be able to mount the head on it and start working on the back door wiring. If the thicker piece of glass breaks, I'll probably try plexiglass. Then if that looks terrible, I'll custom order a piece of tempered glass.

Then I'll work on stencil artwork (after a lot of play testing, of course)!

Lots of progress tonight, wow! Cabinet supports were clamped and glued, now legs are installed, and put the head on.

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Hand-lacing my cables now that they are at waist height.

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Next I'll start crimping connectors and installing. The remainder of my switch processors and driver board arrived, along with connectors and such.

Check out this beautiful new old stock coin counter:

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This is from the same supplier that Bally used when the bingos were new. Gorgeous! Now installed and will count coins.

Once wiring is complete, I'll install the apron screens, then wire for power.

Thank you Vic!

Dennis supplied me with the Lotta Fun playfield, which I agree, is perfect for this game. It has some beautiful artwork as well as being very colorful! He also supplied that beauty of a counter above. Thank you again, Dennis.

Ryan Claytor cut the foam core and matte board (matte board not yet installed) for the screen. I have to install the front wood trim in order to install the matte board, but it looks amazing. If I'm not careful, I'll get ahead of myself!

I still have to stencil and spray the sides, which I've been putting off because the idea Dennis gave me is so awesome I just need some time to percolate about it. If I can pull it off, it will be truly amazing.

I still have a long way to go, hardware-wise. I know it's starting to look like it's coming together, but I still have transformer, outlet (will be switched to allow computer shutdown), and power supply installation, along with mounting the Raspberry Pis that will drive the apron screens.

The playfield is looking gorgeous, though. I installed a different apron, and with the clean rubber (and dead rubber provided by Dennis!) along with the nice lamp shields, shooter gauge, etc... I can't wait to light this game up.

I am having a bit of trouble with the shooter rod alignment. I've never really had to adjust the height of the shooter rod, but this one has trouble clearing the shooter gauge. I've tried loosening it and manhandling it around. Not really working well. It shoots a ball, but the rubber tip scrapes against the screw holding the guide in place, and doesn't sit in the center of the gauge.

I'll poke around with it a bit more tonight. Last night it was about 1AM when I was fooling with the shooter, so probably not the best time to be messing with it.

Tonight is... connectors! Lots of them. I have somewhere in the realm of 70-100 pins to install. All .100 (little ones). Then I need to tie the larger bundles of wire to each other, and everything will be neat and tidy!

I found a Bally sounder on eBay (spring-loaded knocker) and just received, will be installing that as well to the side of the head.

My relays and new boards are mounted on the backboard, and the backboard is installed on the cab again!