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Mini Builds (27/22/DMD)


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OK, here is our (post) build thread. I have been wanting to build a mini cab for a couple of years, I actually purchased some screens to do it a couple of years ago, but babies and other things got in the way. A work colleague built a full size cab recently and I decided I should revisit. I asked another friend if he was interested in building a couple together, he has much better woodworking stills than I do, he was up for it, and so the process began.

 

Here is the end result, for those that want to skip to the end and don't want to link off to google photos.

 

20170507_172817.thumb.jpg.14c1b86413a148ce988e2d1d084b1774.jpg 20170507_172823.thumb.jpg.cbb3e3173948ee447cfcc91dea779f1e.jpg

 

We scored some new playfield screens (27” LG IPS LED LCDs) in Boxing Day sales, and the purchasing continued from there. I had a couple of 22” LCD’s so we used those as the Backglass screens. We had originally intended on using 7” LCDs for the DMD, I already had one from my purchases 2 years prior, but after seeing a pin2dmd in action we decided it would be really nice to have one. It took quite allot of planning and playing around in sketchup, but we decided we could (just) squeeze one in, without the backbox being too big.

 

I did a heap of software config \ tweaking on my desk before any building begun, and I was using the 7” LCD for much of this, although it does a good job, it really is chalk and cheese compared to a real dmd, this image gives you some idea, but the brightness of the DMD is so much better.

 

As mentioned above we did plans in sketchup first well before we started cutting, I based my plans off this thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120248.0.html) who was kind enough to post sketchup plans for. We ended up doing allot of tweaking, due do variations in screens etc. The end result was something like this.

 

474905279_AsBuildISOPic.thumb.JPG.2941ae09e87d073ac53ae2e5ab90a8a4.JPG

 

I want to make some adjustments so it is as close to as built as I can.

 

I’m not going to post the build process in detail, or post of the pics in the forum, since I have a limited attachment quota, but I have an album with a filtered down set of pics (we took heaps) right here (https://goo.gl/photos/APjz4fgzMDUxdnr27)

 

I will however list some of the more important things we did or learnt on the way

 

• First and Foremost, we build mini cabs for space saving reasons, not for cost saving, there are some things going mini actually cost more (lockdown bar), some less, but overall I would say a mini build will cost the same, if not more than a full size cabinet. If you want the same kind of finish (we did). Our total build cost has come it at around $2400 per cabinet.

• On the lockdown bar, we ended up ordering an “Ultimate Cab-Builder's Kit (Mini)” from virtuapin, I didn’t want a wood lockdown, and really the options are very limited. I decided to get a full kit, as it was expensive to get the lockdown bar by itself and the rest of the kit seemed reasonable. The costs of shipping was a killer, but we decided to do it anyway. Now the kit as a whole is pretty good, but the lockdown bar DOES NOT look like his pictures, it is not pressed, but folded and welded, it was also not finished very well, a light sanding and it turned out fine, but as this is the biggest selling point for virtuapin, I would not recommend ordered from them, you could easily have someone local fabricate something similar up for much cheaper.

• You can get 1 cab out of a 2.4x1.2m sheet of ply, we used 17mm sheets (that is what my sketckup plans are built on), we used standard ply, but I would recommend getting marine grade ply so the finish is better.

• We used a Master\Slave powerboard from bunnings, this is wired to a IEC socket at the back of the cab. The PC is the master, our power button is hooked to the on\off switch of the PC, turning it on then powers the rest of the cabinet.

• We originally didn’t allow for the glass thickness at the top of the sides, we fixed this by adding another piece between the playfield and the backbox, later removing the one it sat on top of.

• We have the PC on drawer that slides out the back for easy access.

• We didn’t want to de-case the monitor, for warranty reasons, so made custom rails to hold it, the shape of the monitor was a little “different” but we got them on special.

• We counter sunk the Start, Extra Ball and Quit buttons. I would highly recommend this, I think the end result is worth the effort.

• We really wanted the plunger to be in a realistic spot (high and close the edge), so we got it as close to the playfield monitor as we could, and had to modify (cut shorter) the lockdown tabs to make it fit. The end result is good, but if we redo we would move it left about 15mm to make it directly under the virtual plunger.

• That leads onto the next thing, space inside a mini cab is at a premium, there is not allot of space to spare, and you really need to spend time making sure things are not going to foul other things. We did 3 alterations of our monitor “rails” for the playfield to help other components fit.

• The DMD panel is VERY tight, we had it dismantle the Ozstick supplied pin2dmd and drill the mounting frame as we did the speaker holes, this enabled the speakers to be very close to the DMD and was needed to the backbox didn’t end up too much out of proportion.

• I did comparisons in sketchup of ratios comparing to a widebody cab, keeping most between 0.7 and 0.8. The depth of the cabinet is the smaller (around 0.6) but this is really set by the screen) and the height is around 0.9, need to get all the stuff in there.

• We originally mounted the legs all fairly even, but later moved the back to the front (the inside parts) so as to bring the front down, this made the front height closer to the real thing, it did mean we needed to cut a bit off the inside leg bracket as one of our buttons mounted near it.

• We ended up using a HP quick release mount for the Backglass monitor, and it worked perfect, the added width was just about right and it enables us to remove the backglass screen if needed.

• We sprayed the cabinet a gloss black, we used matt gloss first, it looked too much like blackboard paint, so go for gloss. We didn’t do the whole cab, as we were installing Vinyl.

• We based our cabinet width off the lockdown bar, and the backbox on the space for the DMD panel, as such we had a gap around the screen, and you really don’t notice this in use.

• We used some Aluminium angle to cover the side gaps on both the playfield and the backglass screens, this was sprayed with some etch primer and then some high gloss black to make it look similar to the screen bezel, end result was great.

• The mini kit included plastics for playfield and backglass, it took us some time to work out what went where, but we used all bar the H channel (between the DMD and backbox glass) we still used the lift channel to fit it onto our rebated DMD panel.

• We ended up removing some of the playfield back (below the playfield) as we needed the space for the PC cables, it is very tight in there.

• We used a custom molex (6 pin) to get 5v, 12v with ground wires, and the power switch, from the PC to the cabinet, this will enable easy removal of the PC for transport.

• We included a basic PMD, 3 exciters, one either side and one of the bottom at the front, I think the “base” exciter may get some tweaking, but if you don’t do anything else I would recommend a 2 exciter system, even disregarding the “feedback” it is subtle, but it is there, just having the tables sounds come from the table and not the backbox speakers really does at to illusion of a real table.

• We had hoped to run both the audio and PMD amp from the onboard sound, but it didn’t want to split, so we added a SoundBlaster PCI card, it runs the Audio while the onboard audio (Realtek) runs the PMD

• We used 2 Leppy amps, the LP-838 for the PMD (as mentioned in his thread) and the LP-168S for the Audio, wanted a little more grunt for the audio.

 

Sorry for the mass information dump, but I think that covers it, hopefully it make sense the pictures will speak for the rest. Fire away if you have any questions.

 

We still have some tweaking of software to do, and a couple of rattles to silence, but we calling it done from a build point of view.

 

Cheers,

Wob

 

Edit:

 

Also just want to thank a few people

@Nomadtales for doing the project with me.

@JustAnotherRat for being the groundbreaker and starting me on VP.

@redferatu for sharing his artwork.

@OzStick for all the advice and his products to help bring it to life.

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OK, here for anyone that wants the plans. In sketchup (2017) format.

 

I also used the Builder Plugin for Sketchup to produce the ply cut sheet, it was very handy, I have included one for reference.

(The back of the cabinet is uncut in this sheet, we did that later, and it is just cutting down to squares, you then need to do the angled cuts on the sides, etc. Oh and ignore the costs, they are just default values)

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K_I35-WDNvea-6j_mf83CSQZRhu-zQRs

Edited by Wob
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  • 3 years later...

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