So I went to the show this year (it's been tough settling in from such a far move). Thanks to the coordination of Iomoto (marco specialties) they were able to setup a shipment directly to the show. When I moved the movers kept jumping the price (low balled a $5k moving fee over the phone, which became a $12k price for maybe 1/4 more stuff, to $22k once the movers had everything on 2 trucks. We really had no choice but to start leaving things behind. Ed Owens was kind enough to babysit Van halen and take it to shows in Chicago the past couple years. He also managed to fix a bad boot image (it stopped booting correctly last I left it), as well as replace the model A raspberry pi with a pi zero.
The speakers Ed included were computer speakers which should have been loud enough, but with all the show noise you just couldn't hear anything (which is sort of the point of a music pin). also because you can't hear the instructions at the beginning, I'm sure people didn't understand that you have to hit both flippers to choose a side. While I was moving it out of the exhibition hall out to my vehicle, some random person actually said how much they enjoyed it. I told him you missed half the fun because the sound wasn't loud enough. Still, it felt great to hear a compliment from someone.
One of my first goals is to embed some good speakers towards the front of the machine (possibly also include a headphone jack in the front). I also really want to simplify the connectors (perhaps two that make all the connections to the playfield). Setting it up at a show with 10 random old bally connectors isn't ideal. I'd also like to redo the backglass lighting, I think moving the led strips to the back of the box (like Stern does) will help a lot so the lights aren't oversaturating..
Sidenote: I'm also doing some part-time contract work for Fast Pinball. I did a talk about a pogo pin fixture I designed at the show:
