Just a quick update: I'll probably post the (hopefully) final PCB schematic tonight. Just for people to see what it looks like, nobody has to care how it works unless they're into that kind of thing. We'll get a few test boards made, and if they're good without problem we can start production versions.

I have enough acrylic on hand to build a few more complete toppers, but not enough for the list, so I'm ordering more right now. I'm going to start laser cutting with what I have on hand this weekend though just to get ahead of things.

When things get closer I'll give people first on the list a heads up.

Hana9so finished the updated design for the PCB and will get some test boards ordered up. If there aren't any issues or little things that need to be fixed we'll get a little stack of production boards. They'll work with any SAM game, so be nice to have on hand if I decide to play more with Metallica etc.

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Going to get the Xmas tree out of the attic and do some family tradition stuff today, but will also find time to get out to the garage and spend some quality time with the laser cutter to get things kicked off.

I'll post some pics later of what the process is like to make these, I think if you're into that kind of thing it's hopefully interesting.

Kyle just told me he's still tweaking it, because he and I work the same way, can't help but want to look at it again and find something to tweak. Which means the PCB is probably over-engineered for what it's doing, but I know I spent a bunch of time on something on this topper that people probably will never notice too, but it would have bugged me to not get it just so.

All I know is if he's touching the electronics it's going to be bullet-proofed.

Got you added, thanks.

Our Xmas tree is up, but I didn't get a chance to use the laser today, so I'll start cutting tomorrow. I can't ship anything without the PCBs, but want to be ready with the first builds when they get in.

Here are the dimensions, should have thought to include them earlier:

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Thanks! Yeah, I get the low ceiling thing, especially for people with basement arcades where things might be more cramped.

My constraint is I need to be able to clear my garage door, but that's pretty tall still.

I love owning a laser cutter. One of the most versatile creative tools I’ve ever had. But man, they can be maddening at times. Spent way too long troubleshooting connection issues before finally starting some cuts. Didn’t get as far as I’d like but it’s my 23rd wedding anniversary and it’s time to call it a night and get cleaned up for dinner.

I will post more assembly details when I have more time to cut more.

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Can do! I've got family in Eugene, was last up there for the freaking heat dome. What timing lol.

I got one box of acrylic today, looks like the other is coming tomorrow. PCBs have been ordered. Don't have a date yet for shipping the first ones, but I hope to be reaching out Soon™ to the first people on the list.

Will post more updates when I have something more substantial to share.

Still waiting for the PCBs but spent the afternoon with my laser cutter. Have almost enough parts to start building 4 toppers while I wait.

I’ll try and document how these are put together better as I go. Need to do some wire prep and LED soldering before I can clean parts and build so that’s the next focus.

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Edit: Just to be clear, that's an earlier prototype in the background, the one I made before the one I built for the video trailer. The wiring on the real thing I ship people won't be a clunky mess like that, wasn't worried about being pretty at the time, just getting things working.

The basic principle is no different than any other edge-lit acrylic. You use a laser to etch the face of the plastic, and then when you put a light source on the side the marks will glow. There are plenty of inexpensive toppers done this way. They look fine for the most part.

They also tend to be single color, static, and a bit generic feeling. I especially don't care for how you usually see the edges of the bare plastic glowing, not just the art. The less creative ones are just rectangles with a design, so you see the squared-off edges glow and it ruins a lot of the effect for me.

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That said, the way they glow still looks great—the base idea is solid—but with some effort you can take it to new places. I wanted to display multiple colors at once, with animated effects, and package it so that you only see the creative parts, no glowing edges to ruin the illusion.

I also am using a different technique for the animated ring in the center, I can talk about that too. But if I make posts too long people's eyes glaze over and they ask me questions I already answered, so I'll try and break it up.

Sorry for lack of updates, it's been a really busy week and I haven't been able to take more photos of the process like I'd like to. We have 15 PCBs incoming right now, the plan is to start assembling them this weekend, and I'm going to work on building the first 4 toppers in the meantime. May get a little time on them in this week, and then try and finish up on the weekend.

Will try and document some more as I go so you can see better how these go together.

if all goes as planned the first batch will ship next week and then I'll work out some kind of rhythm to keep building in further batches. I'll contact the people on the list once things are ready.

Right now of the first 15 I have 13 spoken for, and one more maybe I'm waiting to hear back from. When we start closing in on the end I'll see if there's more interest and order parts as needed.

I'm really looking forward to getting these first ones into people's hands, been a lot of (fun) work leading up to this.

PCBs are here.

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The part on the right will be separated off and I'll use it as a replacement for the terminal blocks I was prototyping with. Much flatter and more compact. And tbh I'd rather solder all the wired than screw them into blocks.

Hana9so just dropped off the breakout board, he'll be populating the main PCBs tomorrow. This is the last piece I needed to really build things out, so I'll see how many of these first four I've cut parts for I can finish tomorrow.

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Basically it's a little pad I can solder all the wiring too, along with a capacitor which is a nice best practice for the RGB LEDs. (tbh I usually skip it, but for things that aren't personal projects and will be out in people's collections I want to "do it right")

It replaces the screw terminals I've been using on the prototypes and will be much flatter and nicer, make it easier for me to make a little quick cover to hide all the wiring to keep them safe from being somehow snagged or poked at. Nobody will be looking at the backs of these things, but that's no reason to not do them up nice and proper.

Today was productive, but also discovered some hiccups in my process. Always how it goes when you try and ramp up from making one thing to more of a production line, even if it's all a hand process. So didn't quite get as far as I had hoped by the end of the weekend since I had to problem solve as I went. I have one built and several more in-progress. Need to get on Uline to find some good sized boxes, and create installation instructions before I can ship anything too.

I did take some process photos, but I'm too fried to really do a nice breakdown of it all tonight, so I'll save that for later.

Here's Hana9so testing the new PCB, it works great.

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Also, I decided that even though these aren't technically limited that since it's going to be a rare mod it would be nice to number them. So each one will have a subtle laser engraved build number in the Tron font, starting with 01.

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These are some photos I took during a build that I was too tired to post last night. Just want to quickly show how the layers work.

The left, center, and right parts are separate pieces, with solid black acrylic light spacers between them. If I don't completely optically isolate each part the light will find away even around corners to faintly light up sections when I want them to be dark.

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After the first layer is set there's a masking layer over it that provides the same isolation, but this time in the perpendicular plane.

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The next layer is built the same way, but it's mirrored, so this time the etching is facing down, instead of up. This way the two sides that glow are almost touching, only separated by the black chip board mask, which is about 1mm thick. This gives a nice subtle 3D parallax feel to things if you move your head.

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Then finally I start building up the other layers that provide enough depth to sink the silicone ring in the middle, and the FLYNN'S sign. I forgot to document how the sign works, but it's a similar principle. The N is optically isolated so I can flicker it without the rest of the sign bleeding into it.

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The center ring is built using silicone tubing with RGB LEDs mounted inside of it in a side-firing orientation. Give it a really beautiful glow that looks a lot like neon. I first started using this stuff to make faux-neon signs actually, you can it off the shelf with LEDs inside it already. But nobody was making an RGB version that was quite what I wanted so I started buying the empty tubing in bulk to roll my own.

I want a really dense RGB LED strip, so I can get super smooth animation and an even glow with no hot spotting. These strips are 144 LEDs/meter so I can fit over 60 of them inside the ring. I'd have to check my code, pretty sure it's 62. But when I code things I write it like it's actually 65, so the missing 'ghost' LEDs at the top are account for. That way when an animation spins all the way around it doesn't "jump" the gap at the top and feels smooth.

Play Total Nuclear Annihilation it's a good game

When I'm assembling these I cut a little board with 3D printed pegs to stack everything on. Let's me get everything aligned before I put the cap head screws through to lock it down. I'm still working out the most efficient way to do it all but this makes it much easier compared to my first prototype builds when I was constantly having to shift things to try and put screws in.

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Oh, last image post for the moment, forgot I took this photo. One thing that bugs me about most laser-etched toppers is seeing the sides of them glow. It often ruins the illusion, I posted a pice of some examples earlier show how that looks.

My solution for that is to wrap the sides in 1mm EVA foam. It's flexible, light impermeable, and I affix it at the top with a 3D-printed pressure foot, so there's no glue involved. That means if anything needs to be disassembled for repair or anything else it's easy to take apart without a mess.

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Thanks! I know it’s pricey, I take no offense.

I’ve been focused on complicated hand built stuff lately, mostly because I enjoy the challenge and design process. At some point it would be good to do something that’s not quite so intensive, and expensive.

Thanks! You have a really nicely varied collection. I was just watching Bowen's old tutorial on Meteor today. I'm missing my old solid states lately.

I'm down to 3 pins these days, so not much room for variety, but in my modest collecting years I tried to own as many different games as I could. Explored EMs, early solid states, all the way up to my only actual LCD game being TNA, which is about perfect. Though I admit I wouldn't mind owning one of Keith Elwin's games and having a proper modern pin.

Tron was a special game for me, before I started collecting I would play an LE at a local bowling alley. It was actually only years later that I saw a Pro, and I was so used to the fiber optic light show that it felt like a real let down.

Happily I have Eli's ramp kit installed on my game. I wanted to make some hyperbolic text for my topper, like THE ULTIMATE TRON LIGHT SHOW, but really, the ramps took that crown. And you see them while you play!

Narrowing down to 3 pins wasn't the easiest call, but I just wasn't ready to let Tron go. And part of that was I knew at some point I really wanted to make a mod for it, I just didn't know what it would be at the time. Something that lit up!

Oh I'll have to look into this. I'm very interested in modern code thoughts on old school layouts. See my ownership of TNA above.

I'll do a search but if you have a link to share or info lemme know. Thanks!

Nevermind I found the code easily, but now I'm really missing my Flash Gordon ...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-2021-re-imagined-code-for-bally-flash-gordon-1981

Pinball is so funny. One hand you have stupid prices, and people selling fricking $1500 mods and it's all ridiculous. On the other, all this cool stuff! If I ever find another Flash Gordon I might have to do what it takes to get it. Sigh.

I think Metallica and Tron are a bit too similar to really carry a small collection, but eh, not like I'm following some set of guidelines.

Metallica is a great game, but like Tron another reason I kept it is I still have mods for it I've never finished. Perhaps after this, we'll see. I've discussed doing a topper for it since I'll want something to go with the Tron one. But I have other ideas in minds too.

Honestly I don't really worry about what I 'need' to do next, and just let the whims of whatever I'm into carry me. I spent months making this Tron mod, and I think it will be successful enough to make it worth the time investment. But honestly in a very real sense it was worth it from the start, because I genuinely enjoyed all of it.

There were weeks when various prototypes lived on my desk running all day as I tweaked animations and stress tested it. I never got tired of watching it, so hopefully the people buying it feel the same way when I start shipping them out.

Thanks, and yeah, I didn't want to specifically throw shade at any specific topper, as you said, it's fine for what it is, just a different sort of deal.

The light cycle image on that one is well done. I'm at a point in my "modding career" where I don't want to use logos and trademarks anymore, but the TRON text works too. It's just not worth it when you can get a C&D over it though, been there done that. I even waffled briefly over the FLYNN'S logo on mine, but I decided that was safe enough.

I bet it looks great lit up, it's kinda hard to mess up glowing acrylic. I'm not a big fan of seeing the glowing squared-off edges, but it's not a huge deal either. Enjoy it!

Same. I think it's the Tilt Topper with the Sparky face and Metallica logo that's pretty nicely done, but it's really smack dab in the middle of that trademark infringement stuff. Metallica don't like you using their logo, Stern will say something if they see it, and well, Sparky being their thing probably doesn't help.

Also, this is just my preference, but beyond the trademark stuff I'm not big on seeing the logo from the translite repeated right above it on the topper. It's cool for White Water or games designed for it, but otherwise not my favorite approach.

It's the weekend, back to topper building. I've always wanted to try laser stripping wire. You can only do this with silicone insulation, it's laser safe. Other insulation has stuff like PVC, can create toxic gas when you burn it with the laser, not good!

It worked pretty well, definitely faster than hand stripping the ends of 32 wires:

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After giving this some thought today as I was working on soldering wires and boards I'm realizing that I don't love trying to ship things right around Christmas. Too many packages, too many people potentially traveling and maybe not home to receive packages, just feels unnecessarily messy.

So I'm going to just keep building what I can and however many I have done I'll plan on shipping in early January when it feels less hairy.

That gives me a little more time to work up installation instructions and packaging too. When I'm close to ready I'll start contacting people on the list based on how many I have good to go by then.

My local post office moved to people dropping things off at their loading dock in the back during the pandemic so you didn't have to go indoors and they've kept it since. It's super convenient tbh, I've rolled up there with boxes of translites etc and can just go straight from my car up the ramp, deposit, and be on my way.

But yeah, Christmas kinda snuck up on me this year, and when I realized the date last night I just figured it was stupid to try and rush to get anything out immediately given all the extra chaos. I haven't taken anyone's money or promised any timelines, but I had been aiming for this month to try and get at least the first few in people's hands because I really want to hear the feedback!

Anyways, this is the sane method, so I'll keep plugging away and see how many I can have done. I'm aiming to have 4 finished this week if I can. It's a process to make these things, hence the price.

Hey, wait a minu—

Oh. Hey, thanks!

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

I've really explored a lot of techniques, from 3D printing, to laser cutting, to CNCing, but the truth is with a little effort you can do a lot of this stuff with some foam core and an x-acto knife.

The main advantage of the more high-tech tools is they give you a level of precision that is more difficult to achieve by hand.

If I was to sum up the things that make this topper really work, aside from just sweating all the details, these are the tips I'd focus on:

- This neon flex silicone is just ridiculously fun stuff to work with. I went a little above and beyond rolling my own, but even the off the shelf stuff is great

- If you're going to explore laser-etched acrylic you can really take it up a notch by looking at separately lighting multiple layers, and hiding the edges in some fashion so it's framed. You don't have to own a laser cutter, my early signs were all made by outsourcing to companies like Ponoko

- My last tip is a little more advanced, but not rocket science: if learning a little programming doesn't scare you I highly recommend tinkering with RGB LEDs and Arduinos. There are so many articles and YouTube videos to get you started if you're a novice, so many examples you can copy from, and a little animation and control can take even simple ideas way up

This is my garage, all of these signs are ones I've made using the various techniques I described, and all taught me things I used in this topper design:

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For instance the noodle bowl one animates (if anyone has watched Loki it's a re-creation of a sign from the planet that gets blown up, animation and all) and is how I first dove into making my own silicone flex lighting solutions.

Thanks, that was the first time I tried animating this stuff, and where I discovered to get a really nice smooth movement I needed a more dense LED count.

If you haven't seen Loki btw it's a fun show, but this is the scene with the sign. It's just a background prop, only on screen for a few seconds, but something about it really struck me and I had to recreate it, including making it animate properly. I took a few liberties with some things, but it's pretty close to the screen version.

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Edit: I should add one of the features I added was a dial to let me change the colors in real time, so that video I shot is one of the custom color palettes, the default does match the show. But it's fun to let it be customized.

Quick update just to let you know I am building these over my break. Will start a 4th today.

It’s a process, definitely thinking whatever future projects I take on I should really not make them so much work to build.

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