Computer acquired

So for about the past week I've been combing ebay and craigslist.  There was one ebay post of 4 computers, all the same specs.  Honestly it's a deal at $35+$15 shipping.. Core i5 750 (2.66ghz cpu, 4 cores, 4 threads), 4gb ram, 250gb hard drive, windows 7, geforce 310 (not awesome, but plenty for open GL), and if at some point I decide to add 3d unity graphics or I want to run dual screen it does have an open slot for a nicer video card.  Even though it's a 10 year old computer, it's still very decent.  I mean even if you were to piece together parts it would add up quick.  Probably going to upgrade to 8gb ram and a solid state hard drive since that's what mission pinball recommends as an ideal machine for development.  My home computer has a 120gb SSD drive that seems to float between 1-5gb of space left, so my goal is to buy a 240gb SSD, upgrade my home machine (re-install everything), then pop the 120gb drive into the pinball computer.  120gb should be PLENTY for windows plus framework plus yaml.

P3-roc powered up, skeleton game installed

So I'm still waiting for my 12v power supply, was supposed to be here last thursday but fedex is the worst shipping company so I might see it today.  Guess it doesn't really matter, 12v is typically just used for lighting/flashes/switches from what I'm reading.  So since I got my 5v 30a power supply (probably overkill for logic, but it was cheap), I wired up the 2-pin IDC connector, and fired it up.  Right away the blue LED's lit up, and I got a rotating pattern which I assume means it's functioning normal.

I installed Skeletongame as recommended by Scott Danesi.  He says mission framework is a little easier to get going, but it's more limited if you want advanced features.  I ran the demo, which is some color faux T2 game where basically your only functions are start game, and hit switches to add scoring.  I wondered if I hooked up my switch board and added a switch if it would translate that to the score on the PC.. I started reading through some of the documentation, and apparently by default it's set to be fake, but if you rem out one statement in the config file it becomes live with the board.

So my next plan of action is to read through the 6 pdf documents of getting a whitewood flipping from scratch, which looks like some forum that was saved out.  From reading other stuff, it looks like there are two config files.  One for the framework (IE all the standard coding like hit switches, lamps, coils firing, ball trough management, basic scoring), and then you have the "machine" config which is specific to your game.  This almost seems like it's turning raw python code into more of a basic language, spelling things out like start_button = start game, or left_button = left_flipper_coil.  Yet another thing that isn't explained in any documentation (but I have some knowledge of watching Ben heck videos over the years), you don't want to edit code in a standard word program, you want a true python editing program so that you get the color separation, and the suggested code as you begin to type something (which helps speed things up, not to mention avoids spelling errors which can break code).

preparing

So here's my plan of action moving forward.. I have my 2 power supplies, I have connectors on the way.  I need to at least power up the boards to verify they function normal.  I don't know how deep I need to go to, if I can just power it up and get some sort of blinky light?  Do I need to connect it to a computer and run code?

Beyond testing the boards I bought, I want to start planning how I'm going to re-tackle blue october.  I've been sketching some ideas, been testing some of those ideas in virtual pinball (got a great idea for a mini double orbit playfield).  I bought a notebook so both me and my wife can start writing down ideas in it (and sketches).  yes there are probably more hi-tech ways of doing it, but there's something to be said about a simple notebook for quickly capturing ideas.
The other thing I've been thinking about is redesigning the cabinet.  Without going too JPOP (I don't want to reinvent the wheel), but at the same time my end goal is to have a cabinet I'm happy with and can swap playfields in and out easily.  My ideal cabinet would be:

* All power supplies mounted to the bottom, power management, P3-roc control board, switch boards, driver boards, LED boards.  This is assuming slightly longer cable lengths aren't going to affect voltage drop or cause interference.  This way if I ever want to design another layout I'm not re-buying all the hardware.  I'm literally plugging in a standardized wiring harness, with standard connections (IE flippers are always the same channel, slings are always the same channel, ball trough is always the same channel).  Anything beyond that is simply going to have to get re-assigned in code, but at the very least I can have a blank flipping whitewood waiting to be populated that I can quickly plug in.

* I would like the cabinet to be light, I hate how heavy games are still.  One way is to sort of steal Heighway's idea of hollowing out the sides for sliding new artwork in (which I also want for each table).  I believe they slotted the cabinet in the center, but I want a nice system.. Maybe something that pops in with built-in lighting.  I'd also like to build the cabinet using 1/2" plywood instead of 3/4.  Even if that means re-enforcing it with aluminum framework inside, wood is pretty dense and can really add to the weight.

* I want a better way of sliding in a playfield easily, and locking down easily (have an idea that involves a tab that slides in from the coin door).  I also want feet under the playfield so I can yank it out and set it on the floor without needing to rest it vertically.  Most likely going to go with some 80/20 channels to act as legs

* I don't necessarily want a real coin door, but I DO want the action of a coin drop.  I miss the days of hitting the start button, and having the machine insult you for not having any credits.. And then as you add coins having a sound play related to the theme.  Also bringing a homebrew (or any pinball to a show), I don't like the idea of freeplay where ignorant people can put 4 credits in and hog the machine.  I want the user to physically have to drop some sort of coin through a mechanism to add credits.  I also like the idea of making custom tokens that represent the project, have a cup holder mounted to the leg with a giant cup of tokens, and a sign that says "If you really liked my game, please take a token as a souvenir... BUT ONLY ONE!"

PROC paid by mod

I mentioned in my last post that my mods take up most of my time, but it's paying for my hobby.  3rd wonkavator just sold and not only paid for the P3-roc, PD-16 and SW-16, but I have enough left to pickup a PD-LED now and start messing with RGB light shows when I get back into it.  The lighting is probably what I'm most excited for.  After seeing Scott Danesi use that light show software, I wanna start messing with it
http://docs.missionpinball.org/en/dev/tools/showcreator/index.html

What's going on?

My mod business has really taken off.  I keep saying I need to just pause so I can get other stuff done, but it's so hard to say no to money.  One thing I did manage to fabricate was an electric leg leveler.  Jack said on stream a few months ago "wouldn't be awesome to have legs that were electric?", so I was like "challenge accepted".  Granted they aren't auto-leveling (yet), I did manage to build a working solution.. I am working with someone to make that second part a reality.  If you want to see video, here's Jack at my house playing wonka showing them off:
https://youtu.be/fdcJ8ydXigY?t=5348

So I took the plunge, bought a PROC.  If Hugh is reading this, I didn't pay full price.  So I've had a PROC search term on ebay for a while now.. Some boards came up this morning.. some guy bought boards with the intent on making a homebrew, but he gave up.. Brand new boards never used.  He also had a make offer button, so I of course made one.  Well he accepted without offering a counter-offer.  I got a P3-ROC and PD-16 (main board and 16 coil driverboard) for $160 (it retails for $260) so I'm already $100 off.  He also had a SW-16 (16 switch inputs) for $27 ($45 retail) but didn't bother making an offer, just added it to my cart.  So for $200 I have everything I need to get a game started-ish (I know I'll need at least another switch board, and an LED driver when I get to light shows), and I'll probably spend the $90 on the power supply just to ensure I don't blow up any boards.

So why the decision to go PROC and not continue with OPP?  I think pretty much every person that has tried out OPP has realized it has it's limitations.  It can't do video, I think one user complained about the lack of speed?  I will have to say considering how cheap Hugh made his boards it's really incredible what he was able to achieve and it's still very usable if your game doesn't require any flashy graphics or animated GI light shows.  In fact I still think there's a market for just a dumb board that requires no PC for laying out whitewood (which is sort of what OPP started as with a single chip).  Just a 4-coil driverboard that takes in 48v, and drives a coil safely.  One board would be flippers only (so it would fire full power then PWM at some default rate), and one board would be full on as long as the switch is activated (for things like ball troughs, slings, pop bumpers, VUKs).  Perhaps that board has some logic too that keeps it full on for 2 seconds but shuts off if it doesn't deactivate (so coils don't burn up).

So what's the plan?  Well I'm not getting to any homebrew until next year for sure. I also took the plunge and started an intro to electronics class at the same college I got my degree at.  My work has started to take goals seriously, and I put that down at the beginning of the year so I pretty much had to enroll otherwise face the consequences of not getting my full end of year bonus.  I'm actually happy I'm doing it.  While I know enough about electronics to not be dangerous, I really want to learn how everything works.  This class is intended to help me at work, but clearly this will come in handy in my pinball hobby.

Projection mapped playfield - someone did it!

So I blogged about this idea 5-1/2 years ago:
http://homebrewpinball.blogspot.com/2014/04/ben-heck-eliminate-bulbs.html

Well someone in Germany is working on a homebrew project and they are actually doing it! (and it works with glass on).  check out this video:
https://diode.zone/videos/watch/dd039de1-e8e2-47c9-b761-6ca2092eb717

So a few things why this is amazing now that I see a proof of concept:
1. This makes a playfield VERY adaptable.  I mean imagine you're doing a movie theme, say goonies.  Well you could have the art be the jeep chase at the beginning of the movie, then the art changes to the attic looking for the chest, then it becomes the fratelli house, then it becomes the pipes, then it becomes the organ, etc. etc.  Everyone complains how there's only so much playfield real estate, well that same real estate can morph into many layouts.
2. This potentially eliminates the need for art.. I mean if you're going to do everything white to get the best contrast (I assume a grey color like a movie screen is ideal), then you don't have to paint the playfield, you don't have to make custom art plastics.. You cut your playfield, cut your plastics, and all artwork is updated with code.
3. Potentially NO GI lighting or insert lighting.  Imagine that, saving on all those bulb sockets, all that wiring, not having to carve out insert pockets, not worrying about inserts popping up overtime as the wood expands.  One projector mounted above covers it all.

The ONLY drawback I see here is I suppose if the bulb burns out in the projector, the whole game sorta falls apart, but honestly lamps are getting better and it's not like you can't have a spare.  Also I would imagine the projector has to be fairly rigidly mounted, and if this did go commercial there would have to be some sort of alignment by the user (like when you used to have to do alignment on light gun arcade games).  You would probably have some sort of image with a dot in each corner representing a corner of the playfield, and you'd have to adjust the mount/zoom to make sure each dot is aligned into some mark on the playfield to ensure your image was centered correctly.

I hope this is not the last pinball we see doing this, it has a lot of potential.

24-gage steel, bad choice

So I ordered some 24-gage (.025") galvanized steel.  Doesn't seem to be a common size, but found a person on etsy selling 8"x 8" sheets for $1 each ($6 shipping).  It's really stiff, I don't even have to build up a prototype to know it won't flex like I want it to (which means the ball will have to hit it pretty hard to register, which isn't what I want).  Well at least the good news is that 28-gage is readily available at home depot in 12x12 sheets, or I can acquire a 24" x 48" sheet for $18 and pop out 672 parts at 2 cents each.  Hopefully I can still re-use this metal for other parts in the future (ramp flaps, ramp side rails, short guides).