Time to start a new project! I just recently finished restoring my Williams Space Station, so I feel up to the challenge of re-theming and programing my own game. I didn't want to do something completely from scratch, because that's too expensive. And i didn't want to do anything too complex and ambitious, because I'd probably never finish it. I wanted a 'playfield-complete' pin, that was old-timey simple for rules, and had no guts inside, so I wasn't ruining a pin someone else would otherwise restore. I have been searching for a table that fit that description for 6 months or so, and finally found what I was looking for. Foxy Lady.

Picked up this table for $175 on craigs list. The glass is in good condition. The playfield is in good condition. The cabinet has no water damage. And under the hood the machine is completely empty. Exactly what I've been looking for. The previous owner had it sitting in storage for 20 years, as he never got around to making it a coffee table.

I'm looking to eventually sell the table, so I'm going with a non license theme, TIKI. I think TIKI fits the table well because its going to be an old fashioned slow play relaxing table compared to modern machines, and having a cocktail table is perfect for having a tiki drink while you play! (though I still don't think I'd ever risk a drink on a Pin)

Since the machine has no guts, I will have to completely re design gameplay, and program some sort of controller (either an Arduino, or Raspberry Pi) to run the game's code. In addition to re-programing the rules, I'm also going to add some playfield features:

- The round window in the center playfield will probably contain some sort of tiki god mask that will light up during wizzard mode, or multiball. Otherwise the Tinted glass will just be dark, and only show brief flashes of the Tiki god's fury during big jackpot scores.

- I'm removing the roll-over inserts and installing 3 drop targets. These targets will pop up in certain modes like 'The Scoleri Bros' or 'Trolls' mode.

- The 3 saucers will act like normal scoring objectives most the game, but if multiball mode is achieved, the saucers will all become 'ball locks'. Lock all 3 saucers and Multiball will begin, by kicking them all out at once. The objective is to re-load all the locks for a jackpot, and the balls will multiball again.

- need to install a 4-ball Trough in the game, as it is currently a single ball machine.

- would like to use an LED screen for scoring, but that's a bit beyond my current knowledge of coding, so I'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

- want to have a General Illumination color change for different modes. My Space Station's GI color change is really dramatic and I love it as a feature.

I'll be updating soon with updates on stripping the machine and some concepts on art and design! So Excited!

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Frax - might end up just being 3-ball. I'll have to experament.

Law - googled the table, thats a beautiful cabinet. Gonna throw that in my reference folder.

Jeremy8419 - probably not room under there for a fan, but i do like where you are going with the sound/lighting ideas. If i can manage it i'd like to get some music playing during the game. Something like The Lively ones 'Surf Rider' in the beginning, and the general Illumination be cool white to show off the art. and Once the Tiki god is awakened everything goes red and Orange with white flashers, and music changes to something by Deadbolt, The Meteors or The Mummies.

I put together a visual inspiration board on the vibe I'm going for. There's a lot of unknowns at this point but this in the general direction I'm headed:

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Thanks for all the interest guys! I'm currently trying to get the playfield completely stripped. Theres a screw that is shorn off on one of the flipper assemblies that I'm trying to remove. but other than that everything came off fine. Took a LONG time....

My current plan/schedule is:

- strip the playfield, sand off the old art.
- repair the cabinet, get the playfield hinges working, and glass re secured. install coin door etc...
- clean up all the playfield pieces. Cut new blank plastics.
- re-assemble playfield with power to the components. Play the game 'blank' to get a feel for how hard the shots are.
- Take my experience playing blank and write the rules code.
- Playtest the game with the code running, and refine until satisfied.
- strip down the entire playfield again, apply final artwork.

done!

not sure how long this will all take, but I'd really like to have it completely done for the 'Tiki Oasis' event in 2018.

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jwilson thanks for the links! Electrical hardware and coding are my weakest areas of expertise. I'm trying to digest all the info on the boards. Could you give a brief description on what will gain going with a PSoC prototyping board over using a raspberry pi or Arduino?

I'm really only familiar with C+ and arduino. Was planning to use arduino mega and some 12v relays to power solinoids.

Took the day off work to sand off the artwork:

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would this not work?

http://www.dx.com/p/arduino-compatible-8-channel-24v-relay-module-expansion-board-145731#.WOlZPVXythE

My coils are all 24V.

21-50001-B (pops)
21-50002-B (flippers)
21-50003-B (slings)
21-50005-B (kickers)

not sure what coil I'll put on the pop-up targets I am adding to the playfield, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

doing some homework I found several 24V relays that are made to work with the arduino, and watched video tutorials on people using them. They seem to work just fine. I'll give it a go with the language I know.

Ordering parts today. Exciting! 0_0

mine did not come with an appron plstic. I have a metal appron (which I'm keeping) and the pressed wood section that has the displays on it. I wont be needing the pressed board or the displays if you are interested in those. Other plastics will be available soon, but I need to trace the shapes and cut my new ones first.

@jWilson, Its not that I'm dead set on replicating others work, I just literally cannot code in Python, and the effort it would take to learn Python would set me back at least a year in time. So as awesome as the resources are on that website, I just cant use it. As for the boards, I cant 'buy' those boards. I have to build them. That's something I may end up doing at some point down the road if I need the relays to fire faster, but when I do, I'll be using the arduino to drive them, because there is literally no reason not to. also slow relays are fine for MOST of the solenoids on this game. As I'm still in experimentation and learning phase, I'm fine with dropping a little extra cash on something that works right now slowly, and refining it later, rather than spend days and weeks building boards that may or may not work, and have to re-buy... in addition to... re-build.

For every 10 people on this forum who 'say' they are going to homebrew their own machine, you are lucky if 1 actually finishes their goals. The biggest reasons for that is frustration from road blocks, and wasted time. Learning Python would be a long frustrating process, with a lot of failures along the way. Hand building a bunch of boards would be a long and frustrating process, with a lot of failures along the way. Using an arduino I know how to use, and store-bought relays I know will work, may end up being a failure, but it will be a FAST failure. I can keep that hardware on hand for future projects, and move on to finding the next solution. Which may be building custom boards! and that's fine.

@cornelius, Good luck with the foxy lady. mine didn't come with anything inside. no boards, no power source, nothing. I did spend about a year getting a completely busted Williams Space Station restored though, so I have some experience troubleshooting electrical problems and diagnosing issues. If you ever want to run your current issue past me I'd be happy to be a second set of eyes on it. The manual and Schematics are available in PDF form, so if you provide pics I should be able to follow along and help where I can.

You seem really invested in me using your website. and I might at some point! But you are also are telling me that relays can not be driven by an arduino... which is wrong. You told me Arduino's have apparently never been used since the dawn of solid state pinball... which is wrong. If you google arduino pinball you will find many people have successfully run their custom, and restored pins (which are a lot more complicated than what I have in mind) with arduinos...

one example:

my machine will require maybe 5% of what that video is doing. And there are other websites out there with resources on how to make a pin function on an Arduino, including code examples in C. It's not that I don't want to listen to someone with extensive experience telling me otherwise, it's that you only have experience in doing things your way, and so in your mind it is very clear and easy. You know what you are doing in your chosen process because you have spent a lot of time in it. I only know how to do things in C and on an Arduino. It's what I'm comfortable with. You telling me its 'nothing' to learn python, is because you already know Python. I can tell you it is 'nothing' to draw the Millenium Falcon, while I could get that done in 10 minutes no problem. Because I'm a concept artist. You just do it. right? As mentioned before, I spent the past year restoring a non-functioning Williams Space Station, which included dozens of wiring issues, board repairs, replacements, optical sensor issues, and misc mechanical hardware/cabinet repairs. So I do have some idea what goes into these machines. I am not naive to how 'easy' it will be.

I appreciate the website info. It looks like you have documented a lot of great solutions to common problems. I'll be referencing it as I move forward as needed.

Bit of an update on where I am. I've been writing code and getting parts in slowly. I got the playfield re-attached to the cabinet and fixed its hinges. I just replaced the start button and flipper buttons last night. Very little to show physically right now but I'm making progress. Of course I had 2 months of being bored after the holidays and the moment I bought this cabinet and decided to do something with my weekends all hell breaks loose with work and family life. But that's how it goes.

More updates soon hopefully. Drama willing.

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Received my 2nd round of parts and supplies. New coil sleeves for all the solenoids, New ball tough, a smart drop target, some light inserts to experiment with, some on board LED's, etc, etc...

The single on-board LEDs I got are fantastic. They are bright as hell from the Arduino output. I also can now control up to 64 LEDs individually through shift registers using only 3 output pins on the board:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTzXt40A8FZ/?taken-by=scarybeardpro&hl=en

spent a day buffing and polishing age off a bunch of metal components. I started re-populating the table with the bare necessities. Going to have to cut some new holes in the playfield for the ball tough.

Also worked up the courage to hook up a solenoid to my 24V power supply for the first time this morning, went well! going to spend the weekend cleaning all the assemblies and testing all the coils.

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I WISH it would be ready by Friday! I'm hoping I can get it semi-functional by august for 'Tiki Oasis' in San Diego.

Building a 'test box' to get my solenoids tested and art/top coat worked out. I figure if I'm gonna start an electrical fire might as well be in the cheap box and not the cabinet.

spent the weekend dismantling, cleaning, and re-assembling all the solenoid assemblies. Replaced all the sleeves. First time doing that with pop bumpers at all, so that was fun. Also the pop bumper lights were designed super dumb. would have to take apart the whole pop bumper to change the bulb. I'm going to be replacing them with on board LEDs. I'll be using these singles for now, but I may be printing my own board in the future to allow multiple colored LEDs to change during the game.

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Made a little progress over the week. I got my 7segment eight digit display in the mail, and got it hooked up. Took a look at the sample code, and it may be beyond me to program with it. I'm going to spend a few days trying to wrap my head around it but it looks like you need to reference each digit and spell out which number should be displayed, and for a score counter that seems impractical unless I'm missing something... having a hard tome finding a tutorial where anyone is using it for anything other than spelling out a single number to display or as a clock... Might have to go back to using an LCD

also I had some more fun experimenting with a 'Jackpot' style animation using LEDs and a flasher through my shift registers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUi9RZugcwW/?taken-by=scarybeardpro&hl=en

Going to hook up the flippers in my test box this weekend and see if i cant get them working in an EM style, rather than using relay control through the Arduino. wish I was making more progress on this but life has gotten stressful lately. way too many things hitting me at once.

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Got my power supply hooked up to some solinoids. It's firing off the slingshot coils just fine but I had some trouble wiring the flippers. Should have it sorted next weekend. Looks like it's going to work just fine though.

I did some doodling if tiki art, not designing yet just getting a 'feel' for the style. I have been thinking of adding another element to the theme like 'Tiki Monster Party' or something to give myself some constraints. The theme is a little too open for me to be inspired for specific design work right now. Might look and see if I can find any classic folk lore I can adapt. Like the type of stuff you hear when in line for the Enchanted Tiki room at Disneyland.

Also built my first Wav Shield. Going to be running music off of it, and will change songs during modes. I may install a second arduino with another wave shield that plays sound effects later, triggered by serial port. Was shields can only play one sound at a time but nothing wrong with installing 2 shields.

The adventure continues next weekend.

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Finally had a whole day to dedicate to the pinball.

Spent the morning designing and laying out a test box game design. My right flipper crank needs to be replaced, and everyone is either sold out or are asking way too much for a replacement, so i designed this as a one flipper game and contacted Marco, who says they will re-order the part for me. But it will take a month or more to come in. I actually ordered brand new 'old' style cranks a few weeks ago but there was one small difference between the old Stern cranks and these off brand ones (might have been made by data east?) so I had to re-order.

Anyway, I laid out the pieces and drew out my design. Then spent the next 5 hours drilling out the holes and inserts. I did all of this with a power hand drill and hand held jig saw. Used Fostner bits for the insert holes and saucers. Was tricky drilling the inserts by hand had to go real slow and keep checking the depth. The arrow insert was the hardest. I definitely need to get a router before I do the real thing so that I can have controlled depth when drilling.

I spent the evening masking off the playfield with painters tape and did a primer coat where the artwork is going to go. I'm not going to spend a ton of time doing artwork on it. I really just need to get something down so I can test top coats. Want to get that top coat on as soon as possible to I can assemble the playfield and get to testing out the components.

also here's some doodles of Star Wars Tiki helmets I did a little while back.
Hopefully more updates next weekend.

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Bummer. I always have to shake my head with how people store pins. If your goign to leave it in a barn/your back yard, etc... might as well sell it for whatever anyone will pay for it rather than let the elements make it worthless. Shame.

Spent last night pounding out some artwork on the test playfield. Looking to get the art done, and clear coat on this weekend:

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