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zebulon

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Congratulation to everyone who was involved in this! All these years of virtual pinball, who would have thought that interfacing a spring on a rod would have been the hardest feature to get right. Nice job guys!

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Great work gents! So this is why you've all been so quite lately :)

For those of us that were stupid enough to invest in the mot-ion nanotech solution, is there anyway to incorporate our existing plunger and just us your nudging solution for now?

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Great work gents! So this is why you've all been so quite lately :) For those of us that were stupid enough to invest in the mot-ion nanotech solution, is there anyway to incorporate our existing plunger and just us your nudging solution for now?

 

BigBoss just posted this link over at VPF and it should help you - apparently it combines 2 physical joysticks to 1 virtual joystick.

 

http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/89279-ujr-universal-joystick-remapper-using-vjoy/

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Well, still a bit of work to be done as something we changed somewhere broke the code for the encoder (works, just not as well as it was working). Always a few things to deal with...still need to refine the mount for the housing anyway....:)

 

This is a completely new design and doesn't resemble the nanotech at all. It will be a little more 'bulkier' in appearance but should fit in the same space. I'm designing the housing to be universal meaning that you could remove the nanotech equipment from the actual plunger itself and put this unit on the existing plunger.

 

The nudge and keyboard encoder are a no brainer,  screw the box to the floor of the cab in the correct orientation and connect your buttons, usb cable and the plunger harness.

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Getting even closer....code is fixed and updated a little bit.

 

Be kind with the comments, I know I suck at multitasking and I had one hand busy with the camera. Almost pulled the test bed off the table.

 

 

 

About the test bed...

 

I call it the "OHNOTECH PINBALL GIZZARD" and don't be getting any ideas, it's Patent Pending (pending me collecting enough empties to pay for it). I'm charging $199.95 and it comes prefinished in "whateverthehellIhavearoundtheshop" (that's a custom colour you know, easily a $4.99 value). I'm so confident in its quality that I'm going to close the business after I get a sale because you'll never need support.

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I am soooooooo freaking excited that someone other than Paul has a solution... This is definitely a solution I can stand behind and support.  Whatever you guys need from me just let me know.

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Just finished beating the hell out it on CFTBL and Embryon and everything works as it should.

 

Status:

 

Coding complete

Sensor design complete

PCB design complete

Housing - just working out a bulletproof mount

 

Should be good to go very soon.

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Zeb, this really sounds interesting. My VirtuaPin kit - it is still a v1 kit - has a lot of problems if a contactor fires or when the gear motor goes off no matter how I shield it.

I had to disable nudging altogether, the cab is completely unplayable with nudging turned on.

 

So can you run a few tests with the acceleratometers close to contactors and gear motor?

 

Secondly, the button inputs work as keyboard controller or can they also emulate an joystick button?

I have all of my buttons connected to an ipac except for two - the first is my coin door button, the second is my "service/exit RDP" button. Especially the letter doesn't work if it is connected to a keyboard contoller.

Of course this is an minor problem - I can always slaughter an cheap joystick for this functionality.

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Sure, I'll post a video tomorrow.

 

The inputs are currently set as keyboard inputs but there are still 3 or 4 empty slots. If there's an interest in making a hybrid controller I could add a couple of buttons.

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I hadn't really thought about putting out a control unit, that was more of a tongue in cheek description. I'm sure I could make something up for you though. You can pm me if you'd like to discuss it further. Thanks.

 

For Sir Cheddar:

 

 

There's not much movement created by the vibration of the gear motor. Obviously a shaker motor on "GAWDALMIGHTY" speed would have an impact, but in a real pin, the shaker is more of a feeling through your hands than an actual shaking of the cabinet.

 

I tested the unit in vp and had to boost the gain to 750% before I started to see any drifting or playability issues. Unfortunately, the webcam gets kicked out when vp takes over the focus of the desktop so I couldn't film it.

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I didn't have the unit in the camera view (a cinematographer I'm not) but the sensor is almost 90 degrees to the horizontal plane when it's on the motor and is horizontal at the beginning of the test. That's how effective the centering and smoothing routines are. 

 

As with everything, your mileage may vary. Cabinet construction, positioning, how much oomph you put into the nudging will all have an impact on the effectiveness of the sensor. I've tailored the sensitivity in the code to a point where I think there's a nice balance, but there is all kinds of room to tailor it even more with the gain settings in vp.

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