New project - planning a homebrew machine. Tossing theme ideas around, but nothing solid planned thus far. I've got a few planned phases, thought it might help to document my progress for anyone who may want to follow in my footsteps.

So far:
-CobraPin board
-Mission Pinball Framework for software
-48V power supply from Mouser - RSP-500-48 (same one Stern uses)
-5v Power Supply from Mouser - LCS50US05
-LEDs- from Ebay, bought 2 sets of 50x 12mm LED WS2811 addressable LED strings

I've got a phased approach to development in mind.
Overall -
1. Mock everything up using arcade buttons for switches, get a basic faux game operating. I figured just getting something operating out of the box (literally a cardboard box), would be a good first step, using some extra arcade buttons I have lying around in place of other game switches.

2. Using a dead machine, install the CobraPin board, and play with real pinball hardware. With that approach, I plan to skip a lot of the tedious stuff, mucking around with installing components on a playfield, etc. Just want to get a game up and running, and start playing with game modes, etc.
I've found a Baywatch that's missing most of the head. It guts me to kill a machine, so I'll plan to find missing parts and restore this one in the future. For now, it'll be a good test bed to play with. Only real drawback is that I won't be able to do much with lights, as I'll keep the OEM Sega stuff intact. But I should be able to do whatever I want with a DMD

3. Design and build a new playfield, install it in the Baywatch Cab.

4. Build a new cab, and move everything over to it.

So, phase 1 is essentially complete:

I Installed Python on my machine and a simple bat file to launch it all. There were a few hiccups with the tutorial, and things I had to google, but eventually got Python and Mission Pinball Framework running.

From there, I mocked up the basic pieces of a pinball machine using a cardboard box. Instead of a drain switch, rollovers, and slingshot switches, I just have arcade buttons and have to move the "ball" around by pressing buttons. I was hoping I could just set a real pinball on the buttons, but they're not heavy enough to press the switch, haha. Anyway, after going through the tutorial and making some code adjustments, the game was actually playable.

I got a basic light show going too. I expected that to be a real pain, but it went fairly smoothly.

MPF definitely has its strengths and weaknesses, and it took a lot of trial and error and researching to figure out the overall flow. Still have some learning to do.

From here, I added some more basics, but each was a bit of a learning curve for me. Skill Shot, Ball save, Extra Ball, Lane Change, and some basic sounds, mucking around with the display (slides and slide_player in MPF).

Everything is event driven, and modes can be layered and running in parallel. My skillshot is a mode that runs on a timer, in parallel with Ball Save and the main game loop, etc. My biggest frustration thus far is with some of the syntax. I've struggled with some of the overall flow, and naming events properly so the game responds to events. But I'm making progress.

I should have the Baywatch machine by the weekend, so I'll likely call this phase complete and start working on the real machine.