Williams Blackout 40/28/15 - First Time Build

[frodus]

I figured I'd start a thread now that my project has officially started. I spent the last few months lurking and reading a lot before I committed.

 

Backstory:

I posted an ad on craigslist a month ago for an empty pinball cabinet. A local called me and said he had an empty Williams Phoenix machine (standard size) and would deliver to me for $100 and some change. He called me a few days later and said he had another cab in better shape, a 1980 Williams Blackout (also standard size). He came by and brought me both cabinets. He thought the project was cool and gave me both cabinets in case I needed anything.

 

The Blackout cabinet was pretty complete minus the electronics, playfield and backglass. The Phoenix wasn't in very good condition and was missing the playfield glass, lockdown bar and legs. With two cabinets I have picked the parts off the worst cabinet and put together one good cabinet. I chose to use the Blackout cab because it was in much better physical shape, and I liked the retro black/red/orange paint. Both have coin doors and mechanical, knockers, buttons, backbox, side rails. The plan so far is to keep the Blackout cabinet as original. I'm going to make use of the coin mechanism, backglass lock, stock flipper locations.

 

Some pictures of the cabinet:

 

 

For the build, I'm planning on the following equipment:

 

Displays:

Playfield: Insignia NS-40D510NA15 LED HDTV, 1080p, 60hz, 176° horizontal and vertical viewing angles. This display ALMOST fits without decasing (20-5/8" wide). The Insignia logo at the bottom will need to be trimmed, otherwise it is a perfect fit. The playfield length will be approx 35-5/8".

Backglass: Insignia NS-28D310NA15 LED HDTV, 720p, 60hz, 160° horizontal and vertical viewing angles. I tried a 32" but it was just 1/8" too wide (and unfortunately the same price) and I didn't want to modify the cabinet. I chose the 28", which should be just fine. NOTE: the 28 and 32 inch Insignia LED TV's unfortunately cannot be decased because the enclosure holds in the display layers.

DMD: I haven't decided yet. I'm looking for 15" displays that will fit. 

Computer:

Processor: Intel i5-4690K, 3.5GHz (up to 3.9GHz), 4-core, 64bit processor. Found a great deal through a friend.

Motherboard: TBA. I just need something with at least 1 PCI-express 16 3.0 slot Z97 chipset. 

Video card: EVGA SuperClocked Signature 2 02G-P4-2661-KR GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit. Found an open box at Fry's, and not only was it on sale, but there's a $30 rebate on it right now and only cost $140 after rebates. I plan on using this to drive the playfield, backglass and DMD display (if I use a 15").

RAM: 8gigs. Whatever has decent performance versus cost.

Drive: Looking at options for SSD, but if something happens, I can't play. Wondering if I can use my 1TB for tables, and a SSD for the OS? Will likely get a 120/128gig SSD.

Accessories: bluetooth trackpad/keyboard combo

I'll just use the onboard audio, as I think that'll be sufficient. Haven't decided on connectivity like ethernet or wifi.

 

Controls:

Virtuapin Digital Plunger kit V2

Ledwiz for outputs

All new buttons for flippers, start, navigation, etc.

I want to use the original coin door and have a free play hidden or enabled with a lock.

2 contactors for the flippers (will add contactors later if I feel I want them, but will build with them in mind)

LED flashers in the back of the playfield

 

Other:

One large fan for backglass

One large fan for the back of the cabinet, one in front to pull air through.

Custom wood bezel for the backglass with speaker holes

a couple of small speakers for the backbox and an amplifier. Haven't decided on sub yet.

 

Here are some pictures of the LED display fitment. You can see that the 40" fits width-wise, except for the insignia logo. I will decase this display since the bottom is too deep.

 

 

I've got the processor and plunger kit on order. Both of the Insignia TVs, EVGA video card and a power supply for the Ledwiz have already been obtained.

 

That's it for now

 

[frodus]

So time for a little update. I've been busy and haven't posted much.

 

I got a few more parts:

- Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H motherboard

- Toshiba Q-series pro 128GB SSD

- 15" 4:3 monitor (almost exactly 10" tall) for $5 at a local surplus store

- Various microswitch buttons for menus, start, insert coin, alternate Launch button. $3 each at the local surplus store

- Logitech K400r wireless keyboard

- Cheap computer case to install the computer parts in. I completely gutted it down to just a frame. $10 at the surplus store.

- A friend gave me an old MAME cabinet he built with an iPac and a bunch of buttons and a joystick. Keeping for spares/etc.

 

On order:

- New black legs, cabinet protectors, leg levelers, bolts

- LED-Wiz

- New Coin entry plates (mine were old and one cracked)

- Backglass trim

- Coin door and Backglass locks

- 4 flipper buttons and leaf switches

 

The Virtuapin plunger V2 came in and I had trouble getting it to install. It seems like it won't work at all if the Intel USB 3.0 drivers are installed. I uninstalled them and it works. I'm fine, since I don't have anything that would use USB 3.0. Its very easy to use and so far works as advertised.

 

The computer is built and running smoothly. I've installed some of the software and all looks just fine. I'm trying not to rush through things and learn what I need to do and add more progressively. So far its super fast and I've been watching movies on it, trying to see 

 

I got the nVidia GTX 660 set up with my displays and it looks pretty nice on the 40" and 28" inch Insignia displays, as well as the 15" that I'll use for the DMD. The 28" LCD is right at 15.5" tall, and the 15" LCD is right at 10" tall decased, giving a total of 25.5" inside the backbox, which is right at 26". I test fit and it fits pretty much perfectly. I'll build a speaker panel about 10" tall and get some clear plastic to cover the backglass display. I cut off an aesthetic strip that was hanging on the bottom of the 40" LED display, and now its pretty much symmetric top and bottom and fits into the cabinet perfectly.

 

In the coming weeks, I'll be cleaning up the cabinet, mounting the buttons and displays and testing out some of the software. For the time being, I'm only using the LED-Wiz for lights on the buttons, a knocker (already have it) and maybe some LED lighting. I plan on adding contactors and more lighting at a later time. 

 

More pictures and such later.

[Landon1984]

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this one!

[frodus]

Spent most of Saturday with a friend doing the wood internals. We cut the speaker panel, Backglass LCD mount, Playfield LCD mount, equipment panel and some extra mounting pieces. 

 

I cut a 36" x 20.25" board that the Playfield monitor will mount to using the VESA mounts. I could have made a frame, but we had some MDF and just cut to size. Also cut some rails that will go along the sides and allow the Playfield to rest securely. 

 

Also, since the bottom of the cabinet is a really thin particulate board, I wanted to cut a board that would screw down to the two internal supports that goes across the inside. We cut a 39" x 20.25" board that will go from the back wall to the front support and give a nice base to mount computer, IO cards and power supplies.

 

Then we cut the Speaker panel with two 4" holes. The LCD I got for the DMD was exactly 10" tall by 12" wide. We cut the hole to be about the same aspect ratio as a real DMD, with a height of ~3.1". We routered it out and rounded the edges. It fits perfectly in the backbox.

 

 

Some pics of the buttons and plunger kit

 

 

 

 

Next is installing the mounts and speaker panel, doing some paint, and mounting some things in the cabinet. I have most of the parts I need to get it running, minus speakers and Amp.

[frodus]

Speakers were ordered Friday. Mental note for future: DO NOT CUT HOLES BEFORE I GET SPEAKERS! I made that mistake and cut a 4" hole thinking that speakers are generally the same. They're not. Took me a week to search all the dimensions out there to find a compatible speaker for the panel.

 

Went camping this weekend but did get home early enough to do some work on the Cabinet. I took all the metal parts off late last week, and spent some time polishing them up with some buffing compound. I didn't take the side rails off, but pretty much everything else came off. I removed the original side rails and lightly sanded the insides. Then I took some flat black spray paint and went over the entire inside of the cabinet and back box. I just wanted a solid color, as the cabinet is a bit discolored. 

 

Test fit the bottom panel I cut as well as the computer. I'll be cutting the case apart a little so it fits better. Lots of wasted space, and a motherboard panel is way too expensive.

 

One thing I did was tried to keep the original back-glass locking mechanism. It keeps the original full height back glass locked in place. Even though I'm using a speaker panel, I can use the same locking setup. I also kept the original playfield prop bar and coin mechanisms (they work!). The metal is all in good shape and only a few items inside were corroded from sitting. Cleaned it all up and re-installed into the cabinet.

 

   

   

 

 

Next up is cutting button holes and then mounting the speaker panel and LCD displays.

 

[frodus]

I've gotten pretty far along the last couple weeks.

 

I've done the following:

- Mounted BG monitor into the backbox

- Mounted speakers and DMD into the speaker panel and backbox

- Installed 8" subwoofer

- Mounted side rails for the PF/Mounting board to rest on

- Mounted 4 buttons (Start/Coin/Instructions/Exit) as well as the two flippers (Might do the Magnasave's later, we'll see)

- Mounted the VirtuaPin digital Plunger kit V2

- Mounted the computer, LEDWiz, VP Plunger board, power supplies, Lepai amp and plug strip to my base-board

 

Still need to:

- Get glass/Lexan cut for the backglass

- Install some fans (one 140mm fan for bottom, and two 100mm fans in the backbox)

- Wire the buttons, plunger, knocker and coin mechanism

- Configure the Pinballx, Visual Pinball and Pinball FX2 along with xpadder (so I can use the service buttons to raise/lower volume)

- Wire a relay off the computer PSU that will connect power to the power strip and turn the cab on/off when taking computer out of sleep

- Bring inside from the garage and start playing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry this one is blurry)

[frodus]

Finished the cabinet up today. Still need a few things before its 100%, but its working!

 

 

Need to wire the LEDs on the buttons to the LEDwiz, along with the Knocker. No contactors for now. 
 
I ended up running Pinballx, Nukelauncher and Pinball FX2 on Steam. Works pretty well. I'll be adding VP later, this was just to get it going quickly.