Completed Cabinets

Nearly completed another couple of cabinets, just playing around with the computer for one which seems to not want to power on. Possibly a power supply issue but we'll see.

Also need to order the glass, and deside what I want to do for graphics.

These machines are similar to the first one I built, but the wiring is a lot cleaner now since I know where everything should be layed out, and also I am using different flipper buttons.

The flipper buttons seem great so far, emulate the leaf spring feel without the adjustment headaches, and are RGB LED lit so you can get several colors out of them.

Power on TVs Automatically for Pinball Machine

The current TVs I am using do not stay on when powered down. They will stay on in standby and come on automatically if they get a signal, but they won't stay on if power is removed which is how I have wired my machines to work.

To get around this I will be using this cap/resistor and DPST relay. All together this solution is about $10. I'll post pics and more details once it's all wired.

Side Shot of Animation

Visual Pinball Machine in Attract Mode Lights on Video

Video of Visual Pinball Machine Played in the Dark

Here is a video of the Visual Pinball Machine played in the dark, the 3 CREE RGBW LEDs can almost light the entire basement when they go off. It's amazing the difference between them and the standard LEDs in the side of the cabinet which aren't nearly as bright although they are about the same size.

I will probably tune the Arduino animation further, this is just a rough first cut. I think speeding up the winning flashes will help and perhaps some other changes. Interestingly the animation works fine off the USB power supply of the computer, but using a 12V 1600mA power supply the animation will not work completely. I suspect that the external power supply must not be up to it, but it should be ample theoretically.

Pinball Cabinet Inside Pictures

More Pinball Cabinet Shots