i had 3 different 3d printers and have now settled on the Prusa i3 mk3. The software is really nice, i usually put in 2 or 3 parameters and it is ready for printing. And the printer just works. Although the filament is a factor as well. Right now i use a lot of Amazon Basics PLA and PET Filament, and it works very well.

When modeling the parts i usually use Autodesk Tinkercad. it is free and web based. It has it's limitations but is very easy to use and even easier to start with.
I have done a few things in fustion 360 and onshape but spent to little time with it, so i have trouble getting into them completely.

I am also not a woodworker, but i feel like wood is an awesome material, and like mbecker said, that goes for wood too. Of course any heavy machine will make the product better, but you can cut it with a jigsaw and make it work. That is the beauty of homebrew, you can go as deep and professional as money, skill and time allows, but it doesn't have to be a production piece to be fun. My jigsaw gets heavy use, couldn't do without it.

Totally have the same opinion! I don't think a 3d printer is essential. But it is an amazing tool, that really changes how you start to go at a new project. Before i had a 3d printer, i made gamepads with a microcontroller, and raspberry pi handheld consoles, with wood, plastic sheets, resin and parts from snes controller housings. I loved those projects, but it was always obvious that it was handmade.. With a 3d printer everything gets a little bit more professional. So i definitely recommend one, it is an advanced tool that will improve your projects.

Weird i can also not reach it. Pinballmakers is the best site for homebrewers.

I started with P3 on my first two homebrews and moved to CobraPin mainly because of the cost.
all the p3 boards i used on a pin cost me about 700 euros. And with CobraPin it cost me 150 euros. That is a huge difference.

Here are some pictures of my wires in my Startrip retheme.
I am very happy with the CobraPin so far, very easy to connect everything.

On the pictures there is the left flipper to see. The black cables are the main and hold coil that are connected to J6 Coil Bank A 0-0-8 and 0-0-9. The Red wire is daisy chained with all the Bank A coils and is connected to J13 HV-A, high voltage bank A. Which in my case is 24V for this Pin.

IMG_20230415_074308.jpg

IMG_20230415_074316.jpg

IMG_20230415_074332.jpg

IMG_20230415_074356.jpg

IMG_20230415_074421.jpg

Screenshot_20230415_074210_com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.sheets.jpg

I also like this documentation, very useful
, if not posted already
https://pinballmakers.com/wiki/index.php?title=CobraPin

and Thomas from Cobra is very helpful as well!

That would be cool, i am not familiar with the raspi pico. So what i read is that its not a normal raspi, so no computer, but a microcontroller. Much like those on the cobrapin o guess?
So much cool stuff out there, would be fun to tinker with that.

I am using a lot of teensy microcontollers, they are awesome in every way but cost at least 20 euros nowadays and the newer versions even more.

I think so too, had a bookmark to the latest, that doesn't work anymore.

do you mean, that the machine is not freeplay and you have to put in a coin to play?
usually when you have a coindoor, there is a part on there that can be adjusted for the right coin. when you drop in a coin, it rolls over a switch. So it is just an activated switch, that needs to be handled in mpf.

https://docs.missionpinball.org/game_logic/credits/index.html

yes or you could just use a button for the "coin".
but a coindoor looks just awesome, mine does nothing really. i just have it as an opening to access the computer and the soundvolume control.

The really cool thing is that Mpf does a lot of stuff for you, you don't have to worry about. Just start at the tutorial, and the most code is already done

I am making a new mode for TreeHouse Club

That is a nice tip! I will try that out , i usually only look in the logs when i have an error.
For finding the right eventname, or how you can get the value for a special device variable, i sometimes search the docs for a while. The docs are filled with information, but sometimes it show that mpf is huge and the exact information i need takes long to find.
but i have to say, mpf is just incredibly good, i love it and i could spend endless hours with it

Wow that is so impressive! Thank you very much for your work. Since i found mpf, literally my whole life is now pinball .
I will keep that in mind when browsing the docs!
And i do have tried out how to communicate with phyton and a teensy (arduino compatible) with serial to for example to start a servo. I don't know if that would be something for the docs? Like an example for using external code?

that is one cool loop

For the Cobrapin and P3Roc, no diodes are required, because the controllerboards have them on it.
I cut them off of every piece.

Smart Droptargets are a lot more fun . It makes everything cooler, when you can also lower the droptarget on special events in the code.
although it might not always be necessary.

you could do a lock withouth a smart target. The ball can just lie behind on the opto. Then shoot the droptarget to set it free. i tried this before, it does work.
however like Mudflaps said, a smart target would surely work better for a danesi lock.

Wow really cool, i followed your clocks since you started! They are really cool. But how did you hook it up to that em machine? Awesome!

When it looses the bios settings, i would think the bios battery is dead. Isn't there such a battery somewhere?

Hm ok that is weird

Fantastic!

What a nice machine , it really stands out.

That sounds good!

Wow love it!

My first use of a servo ever .

Very nice

Clear coated my graphics today. It looked fine at first, but i guess the graphics got soaked and the glue is not the best. So i have a lot of wrinkles now. And i did a test piece first and it looked good, but i should have waited longer , also wrinkled now.
so the plan is i will order some more spray, then wet sand it and spray it again. Or should i do something else?

You guys had great tips for clear coating but boy i am not patient enough to do it all right . Hopefully i can fix it a bit.

IMG_20231004_154724.jpg

IMG_20231004_154844.jpg

IMG_20231004_154848.jpg

After some time now it got even worse.
i think it is save to say, i am never doing this again.
Do you guys have any suggestions. What material do you normally use for the graphics? Maybe with my graphic it just won't work..

IMG_20231004_195243.jpgIMG_20231004_195250.jpg

IMG_20231004_195243.jpg

Patience is not a skill of mine . Ah man, just ripped the graphics off. Maybe I will order a new graphic from a different store, since i need it anyway.

allright thank you very much!

oh i see the cuts now. i tried that on my first homebrew but like you said it warped pretty bad. It also covered the whole playfield. then i used adhesive transparent pet like you would use for schoolbooks. Was a good solution, but the last one was a different brand and was not as good and got bubbly.

i think i will first try a store. i always order my graphic as a poster for about 200 Euros. but hey i ordered now a graphic that is for outdoor advertisement. and the best thing is, that it is 40 Euros?!?!

so maybe that could work without a protection overlay. i'll report back when i receive it.

Unbenannt (resized).png

did you cut the overlay by hand? looks great!

Holy hell impressive.
Wood primer is a good idea. When i inspect the playfield i found that that part without decal is also not totally smooth.

I found a store where i could order a decals with white and transparent. I will consider that for the future, but i struggle to make the files accordingly. I don't want to pay for photoshop monthly.. And my freeware Krita cannot do it.

So does anybody have experience with a partially transparent print?

And i am wondering what is your prefered way to stick decals on?
I am always sweating my ass of doing this.
In the past i have my decal and cut out the inserts. That makes it easy to allign it on the playfield. And then put weights on one half and try to stick on the first half.

So i was thinking when i have a partially transparent print which is on white paper, i cannot see how to allign it, right? So how would someone do that?

Very cool of you! Ok so illustrator can do it, cool! My store actually needs exactly that, but exported to PDF/x 1a. Can illustrator do that?
I will first clearcoat the hell out of the playfield, but when i finally ruin it again, it would be awesome if i can send you the file!
I can make the white layer in inkscape. Illustrator can surely open it and hopefully export it to pdf x 1a?!

Thank you very much, i appreciate that!

I dont know if printing in a pdf will create the correct result, since it needs to be the correct pdf format. Without knowing i would expect an export to work but not necesserely a print.

I think for adobe you ll have to pay monthly right? I don't like that

Thank you very much, that is really nice of you!

I do my designs in inkscape, i use the filetype svg. That goes very nice with cad.

For the allignment question i had, what i meant was:
When i have the decals in hand there is usually a white paper underneath, therefore i can not really see where the inserts are in the wood. I do it now like this: i cut the inserts out of the decals the lay it flat on the playfield and can allign it perfectly.
fix it with some sticky tape and weights. The i pull of the paper just a bit an stick it on. And then goe from there.

I guess though you can put on decals easier with more hands..

It really looks like the plunger is not straight.
maybe it couldvalso help to make the groove in the plungerlane deeper and longer, once the ball is straight in line it should stay straight the whole plungerlane.

i am just using a normal pc speaker system, since there is usually a pc in a hombrew

For startrip i used petg, and transparent decals, but i sanded the plastic before so that it is smokey for defusing the light.

I don't know the thickness anymore, but i was able to cut it with scissors.

What error do you get?
But upfront after installing python the pc usually needs a restart, so that it gets the correct python path etc.

I wish you good luck on your homebrew!and i am looking forward to seeing your progress!

thanks, i love that hobby, and i really think it is the best to see others progress of such cool projects, it makes me want to build more and more!.

You can test continuity with a multimeter. You don't need to connect the grounds on the cobra itself, it should already be connected. But since the 24V powersupply goes not directly into the cobra, this is the ground you will need to connect with the others.
so when you make that connection in your first drawing it should connect all grounds.
do you have a multimeter? It is a good way to tell if there is a ground thats not connected.

Hmm or could it me like my servo jumping problem...
when i pressed the flipperbutton, sometimes a servo would move. What i think helped was: making a more direct gnd connection and making sure the high voltage cables are not close to the servo cable.
So in your case the led cables.

Hm i don't know but does the uppost have an old singlewound coil like from an em machine? Or is it new? I am not an expert but when i first used old em coils on deep blue rage, there was buzzing, but that was alright because of the coils. But in that case take a look at this to prevent something burning. Look at single wound coils.
https://missionpinball.org/mechs/coils/dual_vs_single_wound/

Hope i understood your problem correctly.

Ha just thought of something. You could try to plug the satelite into a different usb port of the pc.
(i don't have a reasonable explanation for that, just had an experience once, where an usb port caused problems, where a different didn't. There a usb busses on a pc, some ports might do something a little bit different.)

Hm ok