Power supply came in, I'm flipping

Flippers are really strong, I'm actually quite curious how far up a ramp it would go now.  One thing I'm curious about is when I'm holding the flippers up, there's a slight whining noise.  I don't know if that's normal for PWM'ing a coil (I used a meter to verify 12 volts), or if maybe a 3-lug coil is not meant to PWM and I need to find a 2 lug coil?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b0VD4zP-nE&feature=youtu.be

Anyway, pretty exciting.  Now that I have flippers, I intend on getting the ball trough wired up, the upper 3rd flipper, a 4th flipper in the upper right, and get the slings wired up.  I also definately need to do some wire management.  My wire tabs came in today, but the re-usable tie wraps are a day behind.

Here's the power supply.  It has a nice shielded case, terminal block (3 for the input cord, 3 each for ground, 3 each for positive 48v output).  It's got an LED for power to let you know it's working, and even has an adjustable pot.  I was able to crank it up to about 68V, but then brought it back down to 52V (doesn't seem like it goes lower than that).  The fan never turned on (yet) which is good.  That means it's not getting hot.

playfield overlay thoughts

So the question was brought up, what's the best way to do the playfield art.  While I haven't actually yet installed my high speed vinyl overlay, I figured it anything I did was better than the condition it's in now.  However, there is the nightmare of getting the cutouts of the inserts lined up.  I've printed small sections of space shuttle to touch up my existing playfield with 8x10 stickers, and even that's a nightmare to deal with.  Also after reading a recent thread on pinside about planetary pinball selling overlays (and people talking about how CNC cutouts varied during production), it makes me second guess myself.

Now when I worked at a company that built OEM chargers for other companies, we did decals for multiple customers all the time using the same plastic housing.  One thing I learned to avoid manufacturing error was to have about 1mm overlap of LED windows.  Let's say in the plastic case you had a 6 x 10mm viewing window where the LED shined through, that would mean the clear window was 4 x 8mm.  That way, even if the window was slightly off, you would never see the edge of the hole in the case.

Now inserts actually sort of suck on their own (exposed).  They swell, they raise out of their holes, they cup, they crack.  They also make printing rather hard to line-up.  Mylar has been brought up, it's even been used.  Mylar however is still very thin, usually .010" (compared to say .004" for paper or vinyl).  I'm starting to toy with the idea of printing a semi-transparent inside window decal.  Think car window sticker, think the decals that are on the bottom of pinball plastic ramps like earthshaker or elvira.  Now imagine instead of a decal being applied to the playfield, you simply apply it to a sheet of thin acrylic plexiglass (1/16") with a sticker pre-applied underneath.  This gives you several advantages:
1. You have complete freedom to get it aligned.  Because it's so thick, you can literally line it up with a couple screws, then hold it down with playfield posts alone.
2. You will never wear down to the artwork, ever.  Plexiglass is super tough, and if it does get worn or fogged up, it can be flame polished.
3. There's no need to separately print waterslide decals (that don't stay on very well) onto each insert, it can be pre-printed on the decal already.
4. Since most store wood is just under 1/2" (and playfield wood is normally 17/32"), this extra thickness will help make up the difference.

So basically you get a clear PET vinyl decal, like this (but reverse the image since it will be backwards):

From a place like bannerbuzz for $29:
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/clear-window-decals.html

Order a sheet of acrylic for $18:
http://www.estreetplastics.com/Acrylic_plexiglass_sheet_s/182.htm

Use soapy water to apply the decal to ensure there are no bubbles (like installing window tint), then install it on your blank playfield.

Also the thicker acrylic sheet is more likely to keep the inserts flush vs mylar (I have a whirlwind that's holding up, but you can feel a slight hump on a couple of them).  This will ensure smooth play for many years.

waiting is the hardest part

So the tracking on my 48v power supply finally shows movement, expecting it tomorrow.  Depending on whether I'm motivated tonight (it's getting below zero tonight), I may get the 3rd flipper and the ball trough solenoid wired up.

One thing I've been reluctant to mess with any more is the slings.  They aren't completely necessary to be powered during testing, but they need to be in the game.  My issue is I'm using sling assemblies from a 1978 Stern memory lane, and it's like 3-4 pieces that all need to be assembled in the right position, otherwise I'll get rubbing, or the arm will stick out too far and the ball will be hitting the arm, not the rubber.  My playfield has been turning into swiss cheese underneath because I can't quite get the position right.  Well I decided to do a search for a sling assembly.  Surely if boutique and hobbyists are building small runs of pinballs, they aren't piecing together sling assemblies.  Sure enough, there does exist a full assembly sling just like flippers, though it's a Data East/Sega/Stern assembly.  Do I care?  Nope.  Pinball life sells them for just $45:
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=658

The advantage of a sub-assembly is not only does it ensure it works as designed, but it makes it easier to replace in the future, and it also means I only need the 3 holes (1 for the arm, 2 for the switches on each side).  Stick the assembly through the playfield, mark the holes, and mount it.  If I make some brackets, I can also swap out the leaf switches for the cherry switches I have (DEATH TO LEAF SWITCHES!)

Wires shall be my next challenge

I know everyone that is involved with building pinballs talks about wire management, and even those that work on it can imagine.  But until you start routing wires (more importantly wires carrying 48V at several amps), you realize how vital it is to not only manage it, but to make sure wires don't get crossed.

I am very fortunate in that the system I'm running not only allows the positive voltage to be daisychained, but the negative side is tapped into a daughter board mounted to the playfield (firing each solenoid is done by pulling it to ground using a thin wire).  Still, with that said, I would like to keep the wiring down to a single harness running up the playfield.  To help with management, I've ordered some cable tie mounts and re-usable cable ties to keep things nice and tight to the playfield
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008OC2EE6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUB81DC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This will still allow me to pop wires out as needed.  I know if I keep stapling things, I'll eventually turn the bottom of my playfield into swiss cheese as I'm developing it.

My 48v power supply showed as shipped early this morning, but I haven't seen any movement.  I don't know if this means the seller created a label and hasn't actually dropped it off, or if USPS really does suck this bad at tracking (I had a 2-day priority package take 5 days during christmas, and showed up as on-time).  Now that I have flippers wired at 12v, I'm excited to see them at 48v.

I made this sketch at work today, which will likely make sense to nobody.

I'm also thinking about rethinking the boat.  I don't know that I want a solenoid mounted to a moving boat, nor do I want it flipping the entire time.  I may make the boat slowly rock forward and back automatically, and have separate buttons tilt the boat side to side, and simply make it a (keep the ball from draining) last ditch bonus game with a couple holes in the center of the boat.  It would be more akin to a labyrinth table.

It would also fit the lyrics a little better:

I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Into the ocean, end it all

Sooooo close

So, I finally got my flippers wired up.

Went to fire it up... nothing.  So I check the voltage on the 48v power supply, nothing.  Well, about 2 months ago when I was trying to figure out the wiring, I accidentally touched a couple pins on the power board with my ring.  It was unplugged at the time, but I think there was enough stored juice in the caps to retain energy (hurt like hell too, had 3 dots on my finger like I had touched an arc welder).  So I figure maybe it's a fuse, run to radio shack, nope.  Then from some advice from the guy supplying the electrical hardware (more on that later), I hooked up a known working 12v supply, and sure enough the flippers fired up (slightly weak, but they moved all the way).

So at this point, I can either:
A. troubleshoot the power supply
B. Order one for $30 on ebay from a guy in wisconsin (has a fan, but he claims he's never pulled enough juice for it to turn on)
C. Pay $60 for a fanless power supply from a place in mesa, AZ
D. Buy a 48v power supply from ebay china for $28, and wait 2-3 weeks

Pretty sure I'm going to go with option B.  It'll be quick shipping, it'll give plenty of juice, and in early development I doubt I'm going to pull enough power for it to get hot.  If it does, I resell it on ebay after I've ordered a replacement fanless unit.

Right now the wiring is pretty messy because I just wanted to get the thing working.  Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm likely going to route things better.. Use shrink tubing instead of electrical tape, use terminal strips.  Actually the radio shack local ran out of them, and they haven't restocked in 2 months (can you say bankrupt?).  The other radio shack that's sort of local was chock full of parts, but I think nobody really shops at that one.  They DID have a 8-position terminal block in stock, so I'm likely going to route the ground into it so I can tap each solenoid easily.

New Years update

So a little more got done the last couple days.  Finished the backbox which means sanding the old F14 art off, painting it black, clearing, applying the decal, then re-clearing.

I removed the GI sockets I had mounted in the inlane (the ones with the L-bend).  They were making the sockets far too low.  Yes they could be seen, but they wouldn't illuminate the playfield much.  The bulbs are now at the level they should be.

The only option seems to be the one that radio shack sells, and unfortunately it doesn't have a boss for adding a screw, so about my only option was to staple them in (AKA sega style).  Also I ran into a sale around christmas.  they normally sell 6 sockets for $2, but they were half off plus a 50% general store discount (radio shack is hurting), so I ended up buying all 4 bags they had in the drawer (24 sockets) for $2.10 (can't beat that!).  Now I realize these aren't easily serviceable, but honestly If I'm using LED I'm already reducing current, and I don't imagine a ton of hours like a commercial pinball.


I decided to mount the 48v supply on the center hump of the bottom cabinet.  I used clear star posts to give it some space underneath.  I figure centrally located is probably my best bet, but I think I want to wire it to a quick disconnect faston so I can remove power when I need to take the playfield out.  I'm also going to want some sort of terminal block to distribute power to all the solenoids on the playfield.  I also realized I don't really have any good wire, so I'm going to pick some up at home depot tomorrow.  It'll probably be overpriced compared to say amazon, but I really want to get this done.

I'm still alive

I've spent the last couple months getting my other pins ready for a party, and partially finishing my basement.  2 months ago it was completely unfinished and now.. well, it's... partially finished.  I replaced the basement door (it had a hole from a cat door I removed years ago), I painted the steps, I removed the stair noses, I put up diamond plate rubber sheets on the fronts, I covered the foundation wall with drylok, then studs, then insulation and drywall and put some trim up.  I also put down some temporary carpet in the main area which really makes it feel more cozy.  I'll eventually get the rest of the walls studed, wiring installed, and drywall but I wanted at least the entryway to look decent.

Anyway, since the party was last Saturday, I can finally get back on the project.  So one thing I did with the new door, I really wanted to dress it up.  Thinkgeek sells decals for doors (just so happens to be a 32" wide sticker to fit my door exactly), and they had a sale for $50.  Stupidly, I installed it dry, thinking if I went slow enough I wouldn't get bubbles.  Well the material stretched, and bubbles found their way underneath, and frankly it looks like crap (see red circle below).  I might try to remove it, put down some glue, and redo it hoping the liquid glue will float it until it dries.

So onto the cabinet, I ordered new stickers for the new cabinet.  Thankfully bannerbuzz had a 30-50% off sale during christmas, so I took advantage and got decals for next to nothing.  Now I've heard of the wet method before (water with a little soap), but it just doesn't compute to me.  I know that's how they do tinted windows, but glue and soapy water just doesn't make sense to me.  I went ahead and tried it, and I'll be damned if it didn't give me a nice smooth finish.
 
See, no bubbles!  I just applied it, so we'll see how well the glue sticks after it's cured.


I also got the brackets installed for the cherry leaf switches for the flippers.  Turns out the leaf was too long because it was hitting the shooter lane cover, but after trimming it back it fit just fine.  I really like the feeling of cherry switches, feeling that click as you push the button in.

My hope is to get the flippers and ball trough wired up, confirm my wiring is correct, and start flipping.  Once that's going, I'll truly have a flipping whitewood and can start experimenting with ramps, walls, and targets.