So, I've decided I want my next project to be a custom Spaceballs themed pin.

It's a movie that my wife and I love, and seems to have lots of elements that will translate well to a pin.

However, I'd love the opportunity to approach this a little differently. Instead of running to my bat-cave, designing it in a vacuum and showing back up with a spit shined turd, I though I might make it more of an open design to really get some valuable feedback during the process.

So,first I'd love to get your thoughts on the style of the game. I lean toward the mode style game, because of the tie ins with specific scenes in the movie. "Comb the desert" mode comes to mind.

Some of the basic scenes I want to translate to gameplay are:

-radar jamming
-mega maid emerging
-mega maid going from suck to blow
-Schwartz is as big as mine
-ludicrous speed
-gotta be a mr coffee
-perriair
-the Winnebago in general

So, what do you all think?

It's a mode where only 1 target gives the jackpot but its not lit up. You have 15 seconds to find the target or the mode ends and you get the "we ain't found shit" line. lol

Game has so much potential

Haha, I love it.

Love the suggestions! Keep them coming.

I was thinking about a multiball lock out of mega maid. You lock balls in the vacuum bag, and when you trigger multiball it starts with "shes gone from suck to blow!" And all the balls come out of the bag. I'd love it to be a variable multiball where you can lock between 2-4 balls in the bag, and trigger the mode start at any time once you have at least 2 in there.

We're the spaceballllss! WATCH OUT!

We love it too, it's such a great movie.

I'll definitely keep it updated, but don't expect super fast progress. I've never done a pin before, but have done a lot of design projects ranging from miniature timers to big liquor dispensing robots. Plus, I really want to get community input into the design and rules. That's going to take a lot of time to draw out of people and compile.

I made this original post when I was a little under the influence last night, so this morning I figured I better follow through and officially started a new project on my server. Good times.

I'm gonna start with the easy stuff like flipper geometry, slings, etc... since I can most likely copy those from a current machine.

My wife just put this on, so I'm "doing research".

image.jpg

I dunno, what do you think?

I am gonna rule out segment. I think LCD would actually be easier for me than DMD. I can code like hell but a dot artist I am not.

I'll be posting project updates as we go along, including compilations of ideas, etc... I'll probably make new posts about it versus updating the main post. I'd like this to be a journal of how things progress. I do like the concept behind your idea of making the latest status easy to find, so as I post status reports I'll update the main post to have a link directly to the status update posts I make. Thanks for the suggestion!

It's already a lot of fun just hearing everyones great ideas, so I'm excited to keep it going. I started banging out control electronics last night. Think I'm going to use the Raspberry Pi as my LCD/Sound controller, but not as the main CPU for the game.

Compiling all of these ideas, I think we need a "perspective" for the gameplay.

What do you guys think is the proper way to approach getting the player engaged in the game?

Are you playing as Lone Star trying to defend Druidia and take down the Spaceballs?

Are playing as the Spaceballs, trying to get into Druidia?

Are you playing as a third party just trying to activate modes and fun things from the movie?

Is it something you are going to build/have built? If not, would you be willing to share some of your designs in this thread to get some collaboration going?

I'd love for this machine to be a "community designed" machine. I will do the heavy lifting hardware/software wise, but am always amazed at how many good design suggestions I see come from threads on pinside, so I want to start that dialog at the start of the build, rather than after the first prototype is built.

I plan to release everything under one of the Creative Commons licenses, so anyone interested could follow these plans to build their own.

Ok, here is an update with all of the ideas loosely compiled. Some of the quotes may not be exactly right, but since I'll just be using the ones from the actual movie, its not important.

Keep the ideas coming, I've got some hardware on the way to go ahead and set up a development rig for this thing. I'll post some pics once I have something to show.

Specific movie concepts:

Ludicrous speed/They've gone plaid
Combing the desert - We ain't found shit!
All of the assholes
President scroob's reversed ass from the transporter
Self destruct
Virgin alarm
Pizza the hut
Chest alien
Dink Dink
Mega Maid
You went over my helmet?!
Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!
Radar - Bleeps, Creeps, Sweeps

Gameplay Ideas:

Build warp speeds up to ludicrous speed
Mega Maid multiball - She's gone from suck to blow!
Marketing madness where specific actions earn a piece of spaceballs merch
Lighting up false jackpot shots with a "FOOLED YOU" callout
Grand Champion is possibly renamed to Major Asshole, the other levels could be Gunners First Mate, etc...
Ball Save - Keep Firing assholes or May the schwartz be with you.
Cradle the ball too long, prince Valium yawns
1-2-3-4-5 targets for luggage combination
Match sequence could be luggage combination
Tilt callout: Why dont we take a 5 minute break, smoke if you got'em!
Callout: Why didnt somebody tell me my ass was so big
Callout: Are you playing with your dolls again
Callout: Get back here you fat bearded bitch!
Callout: What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz? CHICKEN?
Callout: Oh shit, there goes the planet
Callout: I Told you we should have put more than 5 bucks worth in
Attract Mode: long ship flyby with dramatic opening music
Attract Mode: Spaceballs: The Pin logo with "We're the spaceballs" theme music.

General Hardware ideas:

LCD
Standard Body

After seeing the STLE starfield projector, I think this pin needs a proper room/floor projecting starfield. Maybe tied into the warp mode, even projecting plaid somehow.

I did, but I'm going beyond what the PROC can handle for this game, at least as I understand it.

Plus, having complete control of the platform gives me warm fuzzies at night.

As a small update too, I've got the hardware set up on my workbench, and will take some pics tonight. I've been so busy with people here for thanksgiving, everytime I started tinkering someone came out and asked 1000 questions or wanted to talk about random stuff, so I never got anywhere.

I don't know 100% that it wouldn't handle it, but some of the main design requirements I have right now are all RGB controlled LEDs, an LCD display with video clip playback, and I need at least a couple servo control channels.

With me wanting all the GI, inserts, and flashers to be RGB/dimmable, I feel better about having complete control over the platform myself.

Another reason was cost. I have 99% of what I need for the main hardware/drivers already here in my shop. I'd have to fork over a few hundred bucks to even start messing with their platform.

A long status update. Apologies for the text, and thanks to anyone that reads it and provides input. This may not be the perfect solution, because I'm just trying as I go, so speak up if you see something that doesn't seem right.

I've been working on the hardware. I've chosen to use multiple processors for the game. I'm using a Beaglebone Black as the main processor for the game:

http://beagleboard.org/products/beaglebone%20black

I am not using HD video, only 480i quality, so the power is there for what I need. The Beaglebone will be running high level game code, communicating with the main driver board. The beaglebone black has separate I/O port processors, removing some of the signal timing factor from the main ARM CPU.

The main driver board is driven mainly by a parallax propeller:

http://www.parallax.com/microcontrollers/propeller

The propeller is in charge of controlling the majority of the LED's, Switches, and Solenoids. A individual cog in the propeller will be tied to each of these functions:

Communication
LED Driver
Switch States
Solenoid Drive
Real-time switch/drive (Slingshots, flippers)

I'm working on RGB led drivers based around the TLC59116 chip from Texas Instruments:

http://www.ti.com/product/tlc59116

Here is an update where I am on game information:

Attract Modes:
Video - Long ship-fly by
Video - Spaceballs rolling text

Game Features:
Mega Maid/Spaceball One transforming toy
1-2-3-4-5 Drop Targets for air shield unlock
Tractor Beam Moving Magnet Target
Spaceball One kickout saucer
Spaceball city pop bumpers
-Gray spaceball city buildings with a white flasher inside.
Mode sensitive center stand-up targets
Push button shooter, selectable plunge bonus
Moving speed control lever tied into ramp shots
Transporter Subway
Video Mode - Bleeps, Creeps, and Sweeps
Unique High Score "nicknames"
- President
- Major Asshole
- Gunners First Mate
- Spaceball

Game Start/Player Enter Sounds:
Audio - "You're Really A Spaceball, You know that don't you?"
Audio - "All rise in the presence of Dark Helmet!"

Tilt Callouts:
Audio - "Why don't we take a 5 minute break?"
Video - "Virgin Alarm"

Ball Save Callouts:
Video - "Keep Firing Assholes!"
Video - "May the schwartz be with you!"

Ball Cradle Callouts:
Video - Prince Valium Yawn
Audio - "What's the matter Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?"

Jackpot Callouts:

Game Modes/Goals:

Mega Maid Multiball
-------------------------
Once this mode is activated and a shot is made into spaceball one, the toy transforms into megamaid.
- Goal of the mode is to stop megamaid from sucking up all the balls.
- There is a magnet in megamaid that sucks balls into the lock. Just need to get it near.
- Hitting specific shots pushes the switch from suck to blow.
- Once the switch is on blow, audio callout "She's gone from suck to blow!" is active and all locked balls are dumped out of megamaid.
- More balls locked gives higher jackpot multiplier, but if she gets 4 balls locked, all the air is sucked out of Druidia and mode is over.

Air Shield Unlock
-------------------------
Dropping all of the 1-2-3-4-5 targets in the 5-bank drop target unlocks the Air Shield, part 1 of getting Mega Maid Multiball
- Audio callouts for each target drop, "1", "2", "3", "4", "5" in Dark Helmet's voice
- Video Callout on dropping all targets: "That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life!"
- Dropping them all unlocks the Air Shield, starting mega maid multiball. Shooting the ball into spaceball one starts the mode once its enabled.

Tractor Beam Multiball
-------------------------
Ball starts by getting sucked toward Spaceball One's shuttle bay, you get an extra balls to jam the radar. Either X shots or Y hits on the center targets jams the radar and releases the ball.
- Releasing the ball activates the Jackpots for Tractor Beam Multiball
- Failing to release the ball before it enters Spaceball one ends the mode

Ludicrous Speed Multiball
------------------------
By shooting a particular ramp, you build up speed until you get to ludicrous speed.
- Emergency stop target is active, goal is to build up score before hitting emergency stop.
- Build jackpots for hitting the lit shots.
- Go plaid by completing all lit jackpot shots.
- Hit emergency stop to award jackpot and end mode

Combing the Desert
------------------------
A shot is chosen at random, but not lit. You have to shoot the shots within 30 seconds to find the chosen shot.
- Shots that aren't lit give an audio "Fooled You!" callout.
- If the mode ends without finding the shot, an audio "We ain't found shit!" callout is made.
- If the shot is found, an audio callout is made and jackpot is awarded.

"His head is on backward" multiball
-----------------------
After the transporter subway has been hit X times, activate "His head is on backward" multiball.
- Ball will exit out of the transporter exit, and flippers will be reversed. Left button will activate right flipper, and vice versa.
- 2 additional balls will be kicked out of the shooter to give a 3 ball mulitball.
- 3 shots have to be made to either side of the transporter. Each shot awards a jackpot.
- First shot gives audio callout "Lock One"
- Second shot gives audio callout "Lock Two"
- Third shot gives audio callout "Loch Lomond"
- After third shot, pause for transporter audio and award mode completion.

Spaceball City Pop Bumpers
-----------------------
Each pop bumper hit advances toward the next pop bumper level. Each level gives an award, inceasing as levels go up.
- Each level will have a specific number of hits to activate.

Left Flipper Skill Shot
-----------------------
A normal plunge will send the ball up the outer orbit, blocked by a rising post to direct it through the pop bumper lanes. Holding the left flipper will drop this post to allow the ball to flow through the orbit.
- After the ball comes through the orbit, a shot is lit for the skill shot jackpot.

Unless a miracle happens, there is about a 0.000001% chance of me starting a pinball company. I'm open to teaming up with someone like Skit-B, Stern, JJP, or PPS to produce the games, but that is so far away I am not even thinking about it yet.

All I do know for sure is that I will release all of the materials to the public domain, so anyone that wanted to could build their own.

I have it in my head right now that I am going to build two of them personally. One for me, and one to auction off for charity.

I've also briefly talked to the artist I have in mind about doing the art for the pin. Once we get further along and firm it up, I'll give you some more info about him.

I've been trying to absorb a lot of the information on pinballcontrollers.com. I'm especially interested in your input given your experience with your family pin.

I'm not going to lie, the P3-ROC actually looks really badass, and I'd love to try it for this project. I just hate the ~$500 entry point. I may eventually get to it, because I'm in proof-of-concept mode at the moment, and who knows what will change as I experiment with stuff. I'm not even sure the Beaglebone and propeller is the right combo or will be able to do what I need it to do. Gotta start somewhere though.

If someone wants to donate a P3-ROC, a few SW-16 boards, and a few drivers, I wouldn't turn it down.

I think those LEDs are really cool, but I don't particularly care for the shift register style LED chains.

I appreciate the offer. I may take you up on it in the future.

In the meantime though, lemme see if BadBrick wants to get together sometime soon and play some pins over here. I'll PM you some info. You can check out what I've got so far and give me some pointers.

I'll add something with the alien, it's too good to leave out. Question is... what?

Maybe the torso of the guy somewhere in the design, hit something enough times and the alien pushes up through two doors, like an upside down bomb bay doors?

Or maybe more to it like some kind of moving target that comes out from one side and goes across the playfield or a ramp or something, and you have to hit it as it dances across?

I'm decently nervous about the BBB not being able to drive the LCD. I was targeting a resolution of 1280x720. Most of the screen will be drawn with text, and I was planning on a video window of 840x450, not exactly 16:9, but i'm cutting the video up anyway, might as well make it fit what I want with nice rounded numbers.

Here is the breakdown i kinda had planned. Given your experience with the BBB, you think I'll be able to do drive this LCD setup with it?

ScreenBreakdown.jpg

To be honest I haven't gotten that far yet. It probably will be a TV since I can exploit a $100 mediocre 19" that will upscale my 1280x720 to the native 1366 x 768, for right now I've got the BBB hooked up without audio to the HDMI in on my laptop, just running on the console right now.

Maybe something like this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/19-class-18-1-2-diag--led-720p-60hz-hdtv/5606251.p?id=1218671114012&skuId=5606251&st=categoryid$abcat0101001&cp=1&lp=1#tab=overview

I got my initial SD Card image configured and built for the BBB, and then moved on to working on the propeller and the switches/LEDs. I was waiting on some speakers to arrive before I moved on to the audio/video tests. I got a standalone USB audio dongle as well to try instead of the audio over HDMI, just as an experiment.

Thanks!

Anyone got any opinion on switch matrices? I was considering the Maxim 7370 to drive an 8x8 matrix. The "time sensitive" switches like slingshots, pop bumpers, a couple optos, and flippers are all going to be connected directly to the propeller. I just need something to drive the other switches.

What are you guys using?

Link to Maxim 7370 datasheet: http://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/MAX7370.pdf

I'm hopefully going to be able to get Java and JavaFX running on the ubuntu install I've got set up.

Second experiment will be to load up Android on it and build the game as an apk.

I like the propeller a lot. I've used it for half a dozen projects now, and am pretty familiar with it. propgcc and SimpleIDE are absolute garbage. It pains me to use them, but I like some of the unique features of the propeller that keep me coming back to it. A lot of my coding on it was previously done in spin or propeller asm. I'm trying to break out of that and code in c++ for this one, but propgcc and simpleide are so frustrating. I've been coding in .NET almost exclusively for the past decade. Visual Studio has spoiled me beyond repair.

As an example, one of the advantages of the propeller for this project is the RGB LED control. For those that don't know, this processor has 8 processors inside of it that run simultaneously. The company that made the chip calls them "cogs". I've set up a set block of memory shared by all of the cogs to store the 12 bit brightness level of the 24 LEDs in my test. 3 LEDs per RGB LED, so it's 8 RGB LEDs total. One cog is dedicated to shifting those 288 bits out, then flipping the latch for the RGB controller, over and over again. That way any other cog that wants to mess with the LEDs can do so, just by putting values into that block of memory, and not worry about sending it out to the actual LED controller.

When I clock the propeller up to 80Mhz, it will more than handle the max serial rate on the LED controllers, and only eat up one cog in the process.

So with you there. It'll just be operating as a slave to the BBB, so hopefully I will be able to keep it small. You know how these things go though, haha.

No clue yet, lol. In searching for some info on it, I've seen a couple of people just using java file access to write/read the GPIO, but I think that's going to be way too slow for what I need. From what I understand, those GPIO are actually mapped somewhere in memory as well, getting to them will be the challenge.

Got a bigger update coming this weekend, but just saw in the MMR thread that they are using a beaglebone black to power the MMR. That makes me feel a little better.

167273 (1).jpg

I wish I could read the designations off of the 4 larger chips to the lower left of the BBB. You got any ideas? I was thinking 2 of them are LED drivers, but I can't tell what exactly.

That is freaking awesome!

Then I saw that it's $180, heh. http://goldenarmor.com/spaceballs/2012/7/20/spaceballs-eagle-5-replica.html

Christmas gave me some time to work on the game and test out some of my hardware concepts.

Here is the first test rig I've got up. The display is a 19" samsung TV.

first_test_rig1.jpg

Here are the RGB LEDs I am testing with. They are pretty bright, but I haven't tested them with inserts yet. I don't know that they will be bright enough in the machine. That's ok though, the real hardware can run really big LEDs if need be.

There are 24 RGB LEDs hooked up serially in groups of 8. Gives me a total of 72 controlled LEDs right now. I am just using simple Adafruit TLC5947 boards (http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/06/28/new-product-adafruit-24-channel-12-bit-pwm-led-driver-spi-interface-tlc5947/) because I had 2 already, and ordered 1 more for good measure.

I am currently driving the LEDs at 30 frames per second, there is some headroom either way though.

first_test_rgb_leds1.jpg

Here is the switch test rig I have going. The green board with the little black dot is a custom piece I had made up by the guys at proto-advantage.com. It's the maxim MAX7370 chip, which is a 8x8 matrix driver. It will give me 64 switches in the switch matrix. There is no way I can solder a QFN-24 chip, so I had them put it on a DIP adapter for me. The switches on the right side of the breadboard are directly hooked up to the propeller, and serve as my real time switches for things like flippers, pop bumpers, slingshots, etc.. There is a debounce chip I have to go between them, but that's not going in until I get my first revision of the propeller board finished.

first_test_switches1.jpg

Here is the parallax propeller I am testing with. It's their Propeller Activity Board, which only gives me access to about half of the I/O pins on the breakout, but has some nice testing features built into it.

first_test_propeller1.jpg

Here is the Raspberry Pi that I'm currently using. I had all of this set up with the Beaglebone Black, and it met with an unfortunate accident. While I'm waiting on the replacement, I am using the Pi as a fill in. I've been writing the code in python, so right now it's running fine on the Pi.

All the code does right now is boot up, load my sound and video assets, and some basic communication with the propeller. No game elements have really been added yet other than my test stuff.

first_test_raspberrypi1.jpg

Haha, yeah. I am going to work on a draft of the playfield this weekend, if time allows. It's taken me a bit to get a solid idea together in my head, as more toys and modes get fleshed out. The game rules have changed slightly as well, but I haven't finished typing them all up. I've gotten some amazing suggestions, and I wan't to make sure to incorporate them if possible.

Cool! I'm following your Goonies thread, because it is definitely in my top 10 movies that we can watch over and over again. If we get Goonies and Spaceballs together in the same room, it will be completely awesome.

And I'll owe you a truffle shuffle.

Definitely!!

Will do, thanks for the heads up! I love the stuff he does. I cooked the crap out of my beaglebone a week or so ago, and have been using a Raspberry Pi as a fill in. It's actually working better than I expected. I'll go back to the bone once I get it back from their RMA dept.

You are more than welcome anytime. The wife is welcome too if she so chooses. Gotta promise you won't be too hard on F-14 though, I doubt it's near the quality you are putting out.

I'm getting there soon hopefully, I started laying things out and got frustrated that I wasn't near a machine to steal measurements from. I switched back to code in protest, and haven't quite made it back to the playfield yet.

I'm pulling the glass on NASCAR and Spiderman tonight for other reasons, so I plan to take a bunch of detailed dimensions and get that part out of the way.

I'm in all day off-sites this week so I'm sketching playfields. This was from this morning. I can explain later if need be.

The center tractor beam window will have a model Mercedes under it that moves toward spaceball one during that mode.

Top right is mostly empty at the moment.

20140121_100235.jpg

It's hard in a hotel conference room, while trying to pretend like I'm interested.

The geometry will be stolen from CFTBL for the left one. I'm not sold on the right one yet, it was just a placeholder.

Otherwise known as "as many little circles as would fit in the box I hastily drew". Another pinsider, WileECoyote, came up with the concept of self-destruct multiball. It's a homage to the scene where all the spaceballs flood off the ship to the escape pods. The drain has a diverter in it to keep the proper balls in the regular trough, but there is another storage area on the left.

The hair dryer really just conceals a feeding/shooting mechanism that will launch the balls up the playfield at half second increments.

You're killing me, but I do love a challenge.....

Good suggestion! I've been trying to figure out what to do with the upper right playfield, i might change the air lock combination into in-line drops up in that area, and do something different with the mid-left.

I am in more all day meetings today, so I'll sketch out another with some changes. If you have any more feedback, please keep it coming. I'm not going to claim to even be following the proper process, I'm just winging it.

The second one isn't a standard trough. Think of it like a paintball gun hopper. I really do want it to hold 12-15 balls (in addition to the regular game balls), so I've been working on a rotating feed mech that will cycle the balls from the hopper to the coil to fire them out of the hair dryer.

Also, there's the suggestion of making the escaping spaceballs a different type of ball, or a different design. Keeping them separate would be required for that.

The general idea in the software for this mode is that all 4-5 regular balls need to be returned to the regular trough before the escape mode begins. Same for ending the escape mode. Not sure how feasible that is yet though.

I want to hear anything you have to say, even if you think its worthless. You've done this already. You're like my yoda right now.

I like the funnel idea! When I had drawn this sketch, i wasnt even sure where the pop bumpers would be, so I kinda misaligned the ramps.

Definitely! I have a SVN code repository with this code and assets in it, and plan to release everything except the clips of audio/video from the movie. I'll just provide the time codes for the clips, and it will be up to the person who owns the movie and is building the machine to chop it up. if someone wants to monetize it, let's talk and move forward on that. I reached out to MGM, but haven't heard back yet.

Keep the suggestions coming!! I drew a few more sketches today, but I like some of these ideas and want to incorporate them.

I'll leave it up to rosh to decide if he wants to post the info, but I do want to publicly thank him for the message he sent me.

He has already spent a decent chunk of time helping me avoid some of the same mistakes, and I'm a complete stranger to him.

Thanks rosh!

That's how I figure I'll do it if I can figure a way for it to fit in the modes well.

I suppose I am going to put the model on a long screw drive, with a guide "fin" that is part of the model (the wings or something). Instead of locking the fin into a double walled guide, I am going to let the fin push against a single guide on each side depending on what way it's rotated. When the screw drive is rotated in one direction, the model spins with it until the fin hits the guide rail hidden in it, and then holds position, making it move along the screw as its rotated. When it rotates the other way, the model does a 180 degree rotation with the screw until the fin hits the guide rail on the other side, and causes it to stop rotating so it will move along the screw.

I'm going to try to see how that can fit in the modes before I go drawing it up.

Haha. I'm still here.

My life has been a little too crazy to post a coherent status update, but I got my beaglebone back from repair and I have been working on code.

I'll get you all something a little juicier this weekend. I've been having fun picking out the audio/video clips.

I'm still holding on the update, I'm transferring all of my disjointed notes into a more coherent design doc.

I do want to get opinions on what "form factor" I should use for the cabinet/playfield. I had initially thought WPC, because the flat-pack CNC'd ones I've seen online are mostly WPC.

What are your thoughts? Does it come down to which playfield mounting system/lockdown is best?

Should I be using a modern stern cabinet?

Oh cool, I definitely want to check that out.

Yeah, that's the problem I am running into. Part of the latest additions to the design document is my first pass at sourcing some of the major components, like the cabinet.

I'm wondering if I should try to find a WPC game that has been stripped of all its boards/transformer/etc.., and go from there. Anyone got one they want to sell REALLY cheap?

I figured I would post an update, since I've been promising one. I wanted to get more into this doc before I shared it the first time, but I realized I will just keep telling myself that until I finish the entire thing, lol. It's mostly ideas we've already talked about in this thread, just more coherent and organized.

I would love any suggestions you have, just don't be too brutal. This is my first attempt at a pinball machine, so I'm bound to screw up almost everything at least once, if not twice.

Hmm, looks like I can't attach a PDF to my post, so here it is on google drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwF5bPpteXJCem9FMWpLaGdEb0k/edit?usp=sharing

Not entirely, but a little. . I've got no deadline, and it's fun to do.

The thing I am still most afraid of is the cut/art for the playfield. I'll get it designed, but getting the actual plywood cut and routed gives me a little anxiety. I can't decide what the proper way to do the art on the playfield is either.

Right now I'm leaning toward stencils and airbrush, then send it to someone like vid or Whridlsoncestood to have it clear coated. The problem with that is that it isn't reproducible very easily if someone else wanted to take the plans and build their own.

What kind of material for the overlay? Printed on some vinyl like Controltac? Would you clear over it?

Bookmarked, thanks!

I think that sounds like a much better option, and it will allow me to use more actual graphics vs what I could handle doing with an airbrush.

I don't mind the discussion in here, maybe it will help someone.

To answer the original question, I'm a pretty good programmer. . I also understand how the hardware works, I've coded in assembly in some fashion for 25+ years.

Today I manage a team of principal developers and architects. Full disclosure, BadBrick is one of them. I still somehow end up writing code on an almost daily basis. I love it to be honest.

For sure, Barf, Dot Matrix, Vinny, and some others too.

Doin a big spaceballs blitz this weekend, with the goal of completing the power supply designs.

I've put off the math as long as I can, lol.

My son was sick, so I didn't get as far as I would like, but here is the initial alpha version of the hub for the flashers.

**Disclaimer: I posted this before I've even breadboarded it, so there may be huge mistakes in the schematic. Don't build this.

It uses the LT3976 switching regulator to give me approximately 17-18 volts to drive the flasher circuits. I picked a switching regulator over a linear regulator because of the heat and the voltages I am dealing with. I picked 17-18 volts because I am going to drive 5 LEDs in series for each color channel. Putting the power regulator on the actual hub board gives me the advantage of having the power supply close, helping to reduce any visible flickering/dimming from LEDs when other's cut on/off. It also limits the load of this particular regulator to the flashers only.

Each flasher will consist of 15 LEDs (5 red, 5 green, 5 blue). I am using some pretty standard 5050 SMD LEDs, so the highest Vf is with the green LEDs at 3.3Vf. Multiply by 5 and that gives me 16.5Vf total that I need to supply (hence the 17-18v).

I am also going use the TLC5947 as my PWM driver for the flashers. The LEDs have a maximum current of 20mA, so I am using the 5947 to drive a constant current of 20mA. To make life easier, I'm using Adafruit's already designed breakout board for the 5947.

You can find Lady Ada's breakout here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1429

This hub will give me control of 48 individual color channels, or 16 RGB flashers. If I use all 16 flasher spots, that will be 240 LEDs driven by this hub.

Any electrical/design comments would be much appreciated. As I said this is a first pass at the design. There will be similar hubs for regular insert LEDs and GI leds.

The idea is that these hubs will connect back to the main board via the same types jacks you use for networking on a computer.

FlasherHubSchematic.png

Cool. When I release all of the design materials (specifically access to my source repository), the MS Publisher source file (vs. the pdf) will be there if people want to re-use it.

If someone wants something sooner, just PM me and let me know. I don't want to waste time on a public SVN branch if I don't have to. I've got film clips and stuff in there that I shouldn't distribute. I'll have to cordon those off before making it public.

Next steps are the schematics for the Insert/GI hub and the solenoid hub. Then I'll be breadboarding and testing the actual circuits to make sure my math isn't way off base. Then, PCB design and manufacture.

Then I'll move onto the main processing board schematic, testing and then PCB.

That will give me a workable set of hardware that I can use to begin working on the actual playfield and toys with.

There has been some progress, but not the "interesting enough to post" kind.

As Kneissl mentioned, I've been working on the design for the controller board. I'm lucky enough to have access to a brilliant friend that has been helping me by reviewing the designs and giving me feedback on them. The downside to that is that it makes a whole lot of work for me.

Right now, he is helping with the switch matrix. The discussion is about bulletproofing the matrix with ESD and other protections (overcurrent/overvolt/etc..). The component count starts to go up significantly when we start to talk about adding hardware to help handle all of those. 16 inputs multiplied by 5-8 more components drives a BoM up quickly. Kind of a "what's good enough?" question.

If anyone has any opinion, I'm all ears.

Progress is slow, but that's the way this project is going to go. I started 3D modeling the Spaceball One mechs as well, but got sidetracked with this controller stuff (3 months ago). I want to get this board done and tested so I can move on to the code, which is what I really enjoy.

I figured it was time for another update. Sorry for the wall of text this became.

The controller board has grown from something specific to Spaceballs to something I think some of you could have a lot of fun messing with.

The design got walked up from a hobbyist design to something really bulletproof. I am hoping to have the first prototype set of boards back to me and populated by late fall, pending another review of the schematic and PCB art with my friend. I'm not even going to try to take credit for some of the ideas he has put into this thing.

Hopefully some of the features will give some courage to people who want to tinker with this kind of stuff, without breaking the bank. Features like solenoid fault detection. You can short out the transistor, among other cruel things, and it can recover without blowing. The board even knows which solenoid had the fault. Other features include really robust serial links (both i2C and SPI (or bit-bang, your choice), 8x8 protected switch matrix, voltage monitoring on all of the voltage lines (solenoid, LED, etc..), and some other things I can't wait to show you. I will be releasing the design, documentation, PCB artwork, API, etc... under some public license. If you want to build your own, you will be able to. The components are 90% surface mount though, and some of them aren't the easiest packages for beginners. Maybe someone will be interested in assembling a few for a fee or something.

It does require a computer to drive it, and the API is in .NET, because that's where I'm most comfortable. The API can be used easily in Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express. The USB commands for it will be in the documentation, so you could technically connect it to anything with a USB port that you can write code on. Just to set expectations though, it's not a game API like pyprocgame is. It's a simple event driven API with generic objects like "Solenoid" and "Switch".

Do I need a puppet video?

For sure. I just don't know if I have the desire to be the one that deals with selling it to people or organizing a group buy.

I'm hoping that's true. It's still code though, Visual Studio doesn't make things drag or drop or anything, but Spaceballs will be a good example of how to use the hardware. Using a windows machine and .NET opens up some other fun possibilities too. Ever wonder how a Kinect can be integrated into a pinball game?

With this boardset, you also have access to some fun modules like NFC/RFID, Bluetooth, and accelerometers. Lots of possibilities.

I would like to confidently say yes, but I won't know for a bit. As long as it could power whatever display setup you want to use, I don't see any reason why not.

You are right about the graphics being a big part of why I went the route I did. I was first planning to write a bunch of python and tap into the power of pyprocgame, but I found myself getting pretty frustrated having to look up syntax for code that I just knew how to do in .NET. I felt it was a waste of time to keep running into linux/python issues when they wouldn't even be a second thought in .NET where I belong.

It's not a slight on pyprocgame, because that code is really solid. Python just isn't a language I felt comfortable in due to my own lack of experience there.

I'm actually just using some simple voltage dividers, with some added overdrive protection. Had some ADC pins left over so I figured I would do something with them.

Yeah.

I've got most of December off from work, and I'd like to have the boards back by then so I can use the time to test.

Haha, good feeling. Junkies for that smell of solder and fresh PCB.

Just FYI, Spaceballs is now on Hulu Plus!

It's cool to see some posts in here.

I'm off of work all week, so I've been spending some time finalizing the design for the controller board and getting ready to send it to the board house.

That will get it back here in time for my december vacation for assembly and initial testing.

I also bought a 3D printer, so I am able to more quickly prototype parts for the machine. First up is the Spaceball One ship mechanisms.

Got a Printrbot Simple Metal with a heated bed. Just got it last week though so I am still learning. It's taken me a dozen or so prints to get my Slic3r settings dialed in, but it's printing beautiful prints now.

What software do you use for modeling? I'm currently using Sketchup because it's what I've used for years, but I'm open to something better.

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I'm still dialing in the quality, but this literally just came off the printer.

It's a bracket I modeled quickly to hang a movie screen off the interior of my garage door. You can see on some of my seams it over extrudes giving a little push out on the sides sometimes, but other than that it's pretty sharp. I've got it on .2mm per layer, but supposedly this machine can do .1mm. I haven't seen how slow that is yet, I've got the speed yanked up a bit to get these brackets cranked out.

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This is my first 3D printer, but I have nothing but good things to say about this printrbot. I bought the simple metal kit with heated bed. It took me about 3 hours to put together. I followed someone's assembly videos on YouTube.

If only had it for a week so I'm just beginning to really understand what all of the settings do, and how speed and temperature factor in.

Been working on the Spaceball One toy. The look is based on some other models I've seen, but redrawn to be more dimensionally friendly with what I am trying to accomplish.

SpaceballOne_WIP.jpg

Been using the 3D printer to help me prototype and test.

Just started printing out what I refer to as "insert test blocks". I'm wanting to start tuning my LED control and programming, but needed to make sure the LEDs I've chosen look good.

I created these little blocks to hold an insert and one of my LED boards, so I can see what looks best under real inserts and also refine the coding so the effects and color changing look good.

I'll post a video once I get into testing them, so you can see some of the LED effects in motion.

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PS - extrusion temp was too high for the first layer and that's why it looks a little rough on the top.

Just a little update on what I've been doing...

I've been working on the Tractor Beam playfield toy a little, to get it ironed out before I start on some other parts.

I talked a little about the first prototype in Aurich's whitewood thread (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-figure-out-the-bare-minimum-costparts-to-build-a-whitewood/page/4#post-2125544).

Since then, I have been working on a much better prototype. It's way more robust than the first. The entire assembly consists of a motor block, a bearing block, and 3 pieces of channel extension between the two blocks.

Here is the current concept for the motor block:

Interior of the motor block
Exterior of the motor block
Interior of the assembled motor block prototype
Exterior of the assembled motor block prototype

Here is the current concept for the bearing block:

Interior of the bearing block
Exterior of the bearing block
Parts for the bearing block
Plate on securing the bearing
Assembled view from the interior

And the current concept for the extension channel:

3D model of the channel
Printed prototype
RGB Board for lighting effects, 1 per extension channel
Test fit for the RGB board

Thanks swinks!

I don't want your money. Maybe we can cross that bridge in a couple years, but for now this is just fun for me to do.

Everything that doesn't exist, yes. 75% of what I need already exists (flippers, slingshots, kickouts, drop targets, etc....) I don't need to recreate the wheel on those, I'll just buy the assemblies from pinball life or somewhere.

I use either OSHPark.com, AdvancedCircuits, or Futurlec depending on what I need. The RGB board pictured was done at OSHPark.com using my design.

Thanks for the offer! I may take you up on that one day.

The channel goes under the playfield going from between the flippers to the front of Spaceball One. There will be a rectangular window in the playfield that lets you see the ships going back and forth.

Think of it as taking up the area the lower playfield takes up on AC/DC. The length will be adjusted once I have an actual whitewood to mess with, but for now it's this long as a prototype.

I've got most of the assembly built, I am waiting on a test model of the winnebago to print, and then I'll post a pic of the full assembly.

You'll have to come check it out sometime. Only got 1 game at the moment, but it's always fun to shoot the shit. Im sure rick would come out too.

The plan right now is to possibly get one at SFGE in June if I can find a way to transport it back.

It's going to have to be a special game I really want for me to do NIB. I definitely want the experience at some point, but with the current state of NIB machines, I'm not interested yet.

Next up is the Spaceball One mech. This is just a prototype drawing, never been printed or tested yet, so there are obviously a LOT of things I need to tweak on it. There are body panels that get put over the skeleton, removable for maintenance/cleaning.

hDBykQL.jpg

Got more work done on the prototype tractor beam assembly.

Here are some pics and a video of it in operation. Powered by a drill at the moment, because the stepper isn't hooked up yet. The movement is MUCH smoother than the first prototype. The car models sit on a tensioned carriage that has two nuts inside being pushed apart by a spring.

The stepper motor end with a spider coupling

The bearing end

The entire assembly with carriage

Sorry for the cheesy music in the video, I had to get rid of the shop noise somehow.

Relevant!

http://www.break.com/article/mel-brooks-writing-spaceballs-2-with-rick-moranis-2816775

He got thin, lol.

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I'd like to see a Craig Robinson mawg.

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Just a couple more small updates.

Got the RGB leds installed on the side of the tractor beam toy. Just using a little 5V adafruit trinket for the testing, using the adafruit neopixel library.

I also got the first printed prototype of the Spaceball One ball lock printed out, so I've been fooling with it looking at what I need to change for the second print. This is just the skeleton of the mech, there are body panels that go on the outside. The mega maid mech goes behind this one on the playfield.

SpaceballOneLock_Prototype1_1.jpg

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Don't be too sad. I had a disaster in the shop and had my main development laptop die. I didn't lose any data, but I have had to spend a couple of weeks getting everything set back up and configured.

I got sidetracked building a little "cookie selection wheel" for my daughter's Girl Scout Troop.

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I'll be back onto Spaceballs soon enough. I've gone through 1 revision of the controller and decided to split it out into a few smaller, more modular boards.

We just turned in all of our money yesterday. We sold just over 650 boxes. So glad to be done with that mess, lol. My wife was making deliveries like it was her job.

Major props to your wife for being the troop leader, that's a demanding gig.

Dads & daughters man, what else can we do? They've got us wrapped around their fingers.

Awesome! Thanks for posting that. Those are good reference photos too.

I've been working on the "Infinity Trough" for handling the large number of balls for multiball. One of these days I'll put together a real update.

Been a while since I posted an update, so here goes.

Changing the hardware over to FAST has been exciting and fun to do. I made a post in the FAST pinball thread about the initial switch, which you can read here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fast-pinball/page/4#post-2631947

Since then, I've been working on the power systems for the game. I decided to use switching supplies, so I needed a good secure way to mount them. I also wanted to put in some panel voltmeters for the different voltage rails, to give me a quick reassurance that they are healthy.

First up was to design a set of brackets:

Front Bracket

Rear Bracket

When I printed the first front bracket, I noticed a slight problem. I had blocked access to the screw terminals. Whoops. You can see v1 on the front right, and v2 in the back left in this pic:

Open Access vs Closed Access

Eventually ended up with a mount I am happy with for the first prototype.

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For the voltmeter tower, I just made a simple tower angled back a bit:

Voltmeter Tower Drawing

Printed it out, and voila!

Voltmeter Tower

Next steps are to get all of the supplies mounted to a board and wired up to get ready for the next phase.

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Dammit, that's a really good idea.

Thanks!

The project will definitely keep moving. I'm constrained first by budget, then second by time. I'll be bringing the first prototype to SFGE in Atlanta in June 2016, so I'll probably be posting more frequent updates as I progress towards that.

There is a lot of work going on that I just don't post about too. For example, I've been working on a very primitive RGB animation editor, to make creating lightshows for the FAST hardware easier. The animations it dumps out can be fed directly into my .NET framework.

Here is a video of the proof of concept, showing a VERY early version of the code where I was just testing some things.

Keep the ideas coming! I like the prince valium mode idea a lot.

BadBrick and I were just talking at work about how I wanted to do a mode where the flippers got weaker, but I wasn't sure where to fit it in. Looks like you just solved that.

It's raining here, but nothing stops the Spaceballs.

We didn't need the shower anyway....

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I haven't, but it's a good idea!

Thanks! Aliens and Timeshock will put Spaceballs to shame, but I appreciate the enthusiasm .

If there's anything you'd really like to make sure is in the game, make a post about it. I'd love to make sure this really ticks as many boxes as I can!

Found time to get the power supply put together this weekend.

The only bummer is that the 5V supply I ordered is DOA, so until the replacement comes in that circuit is dead.

Thanks to DeeGor's suggestion, here is Spaceballs: The Power Supply

powersupply_1.jpg

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There's lots of stuff on this game.

Just basic cheap supplies from eBay/China. I got a 48V 8.3A for coils. 12V 30A for steppers, some lighting, and hardware. 5V 40A for lots of logic, RGB LEDs, and other fun stuff.

Having 3 supplies is overkill, i could have gotten away with a combined 12 and 5, but my personal experience with them hasn't been super positive. Changing loads on one rail can sometime effect the other rail, which isn't really desirable.

Absolutely. All of my 3D models, code, schematics, etc... will be released. I'm sure a torrent would probably pop up with the audio/video. Damn hackers.

5v power supply is completely dead. It was dead on arrival but I didn't test it prior to putting it in.

New one arrives tomorrow along with some more black filament so I can reprint that orange bracket as black, I had run out this past weekend.

Lots of stuff!

On that power supply, all of the brackets, the mount for the fuse block, and the voltmeter tower are all 3D printed.

The main Spaceball One spaceship mech is all 3D printed. My trough is 3D printed as well.

Lots more too.

Haha, don't think it hasn't crossed my mind. The technology just isn't quite there yet. It could be done *maybe* as a one off, but the print would take astronomical time and a huge area.

Good plywood is still the best choice, IMO.

Totally! I think it's cool what Spooky and Ben did. You can even go to Ben's AMH site and download all the 3D printed models so you can repair your own game, or even do things like different colors.

http://www.benheck.com/amh/

I don't think they got enough press for that. They basically released everything, code, assets, etc....

To date, I don't think anyone has used any of that to try and steal their business either. Everyone could learn a little from them on making things more open.

IMHO, Stern should have seized the opportunity with Spike to make it available as a platform to others. One of the founders of google said something to the effect of "don't make a product, make a platform, that's where the money is".

I obviously can't release the actual assets from the movie, like video clips, sounds, screen caps, etc.....

But, that's not to say I can't list out what all of the actual assets are and where they came from in the movie. If anyone actually wanted to build a Spaceballs machine, I'd obviously have conversations with them about how to get all those assets on their own.

I think that's the only thing I can't release though. All the code, all the tools, all the 3D models, CAD drawings, etc..... will be able to be released. I'm trying to make conscious decisions about that stuff too. For example, I'm using an open source font that looks like the Spaceballs font. Anyone can use it.

Sometimes it's worth fighting, sometimes it's not.

I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

The head is already packed with stuff, but I did incorporate the Mr. Coffee "theme".

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