Finally moving forward with Stellar Wars widebody build

[MrArcade]

HIstory:

2014 I bought a basket case Evel Knievel machine and sold anything still usable to EK owners except the cabinet. I had it playable with the bg monitor sitting in the backbox, no dmd monitor, Life happened so I sold the project.

Regret

2017 I trade some jamma arcade boards for an empty Stellar Wars cabinet with coin door, no glass, no lockdown bar.

Luckily I found a Williams widebody lockdown bar on ebay within days. I bought the Pinscape expansion boards and bought a new playfield glass. put a 42" in for playfield, 32" for bg, and 16" widescreen for dmd. Life happened again, but I held onto everything this time

A few weeks ago I decided to quit letting time go by so the project is moving forward.

I had an extra 50" tv, so it replaced the 42".

I ordered:

components for the pinscape main board

red and blue rotating beacons as well as bright led bulbs for them

the Attwood 1733-4 Blower for topper fan

four 6-led white beacons

service button assembly

clear flipper and magna-save buttons

dual leaf flipper switches, single leaf magna-save switches

10 rgb led's for flipper buttons and flashers

red, blue, green, orange, and yellow lit buttons

large red lit button for ball launch

led bulbs for non-flipper buttons

3d prints of the two parts for mounting my analog plunger hardware

12v relay contactor for powering up everything with the pc

 

Today the fan, blue beacon, and white beacons arrived.

I have a topper monitor on the backbox, undecided if it will stay or not. I like it and am thinking about making a plexi "facade" topper that would have a round hole for the fan and surround the topper monitor. Then I start thinking it is just too much. But then I think how much I like the videos on the big monitor instead of sharing the dmd monitor area. I put the old dmd panel pattern in place. I will not be using it. I will be making something that will allow most, if not all, of the screen to show.

 

I put the toys on the backbox to see how they look, imagine the red beacon being on the left mirroring the blue beacon that is on the right.

 

 

[MrArcade]

I built the Pinscape main board tonight. Unfortunately I did not get the obsolete pwm ic's. Sockets are there waiting for the tlc5940nt's. I ordered 5 from china.

Is it safe to use the main board without the pwm ic's installed?

[MrArcade]

I have a chime unit and bell (reciprocating) on the way. I still have to order components for the power and chime boards

[MrArcade]

Front Buttons installed and working, lights not wired yet. Plunger installed and working.

[MrArcade]

I noticed something recently.. Now remember, I got the cabinet with no lockbar, then I bought a lockbar on ebay.

I have never used any kind of tape on this cabinet or lockdown bar, and yet there is tape residue that seems to line up.

I think this is the lockdown bar that was originally with this cabinet.

Let me know what you think.

 

[MrArcade]

I got the power and chime boards mostly built tonight. Unfortunately I ordered 1K9 resistors thinking they were 1K resistance. They are 1.9K resistance. I am waiting to hear if I can use them, but I kind of doubt it. I haven't installed the mosfets on the power board because it would make installing the 1K resistors much harder. Also, I am only setting up for 12 channels on the power board for now. that is why the left half is unpopulated.

[MrArcade]

Out of the 8 TLC5940NT I bought from China only 1 works. In the picture below the one on the left is good. The one on the right is one of the seven identical bad ic's. I have installed the good pwm ic into the main board IC1. I can wire up the knocker, strobes, and 5 rbg flasher panel. I have a reciprocating bell, single bell, chime unit (I will clean it up), and knocker. I have to add diodes to the single bell and chime coils.

 

[MrArcade]

I am building what I hope will be a very close to genuine shaker motor. I bought a 12v 4k rpm 775 motor. It has dual weights for vibration. I am making weights like genuine pinball shakers: 3/4 square stock 2.25" long. I have to make a bracket. Not sure what I will use for that yet.

 

[MrArcade]

I got the shaker motor done today. It went well accept for the long bolt that holds the top together. Somehow I messed it up and it goes down on an angle, but it works.

 

I soldered up the tlc9540 adapter boards using surface mount tlc9540pwpr's. I had to clean up a bunch of solder bridges, but I think the surface mount adapters are good to go.

[MrArcade]

I mounted the knocker, reciprocating bell, and single ring bell in the backbox today.

[MrArcade]

I cleaned up the chime unit and added the diodes.

[MrArcade]

After my granddaughter's birthday party today I made up a schematic for the toys. It helped me find several kinks in my initial plan. Hopefully I will get started wiring things up tomorrow.