My mini-cab build

[DBrown67]

Hi guys  Here is my mini cabinet that is now finished. We all say "finished" and then find there's always more to upgrade. But I think I really am finished with this one now with just one upgrade to go. I know some people baulk at spending money on "mini" cabs, but living in a one bedroom flat I really didn't want anything dominating the room. Still not sure I succeeded on that last part 😉

 

Specs:
Gigabyte B450 motherboard
Ryzen 5 2600X
GTX 1080Ti
16GB RAM
Playfield:  165Hz ElectriQ 27" monitor (set to 120Hz)
Backglass: old skool 4:3 Dell 2007FPB 19" monitor
DMD: Elecrow 10" 1080p monitor
4 x Daytona DAEX25QLP exciters
Tytan Trust 120W 2.1 system for sub/backglass
Creative Labs Inspire 5300 system for playfield sounds
All glass toughened

 

Dims:
Playfield is 17 inches wide x 36 inches long  Cabinet is exactly 6 foot tall to the top of the toys on the backbox. I took the dims of a Williams widebody and shrunk to about 2/3rd size. Original plan was to go half size but I felt that was too small to get everything in (it was). The rear legs sit on little mini dolly's to help moving around when necessary. Had them on the front legs too but the table was far too wobbly so I removed those.

 

The final upgrade would be the processor to a 5600X as I've noticed a handful of tables are not quite getting 120fps locked. Bord's Jack-Bot being the last one I found which was cured with a simple script change.
I noticed the cores were all reaching 90% and over on this table and one core would reach 100% and I'd get stuttering at that point. The GPU never seems to go above 65% usage so the 2600X is a bit of a bottleneck it seems. Once that upgrade is done then this table really is finished.

It has RGB LED strip lighting round the back and underside. A real tilt bob. Dual beacons and an Attwood 4000 blower fan in the box between beacons. There are three strobes but the two in the flasher bar are very mild. The one on top is ultra bright and needs to be kept in peripheral vision. The flasher bar works off 5V RGB LEDs from Ultimarc along with their PacLED64. Button inputs and nudging is done via a basic KL25Z board. Real plunger using a potentiometer in a 3D printed bracket. Coin mech works on pennies for credits but ofc you can use button inputs. I wanted as clean a look as possible on the front panel with minimal buttons. In hindsight I could have even lost the Exit button and used the Extra Ball as a shift (as I do with credits) but dunno if that would have been an annoyance.

 

The artwork is free generic online art created by Stuzza on the vpforums. I just changed one side from red to blue to match the beacons. That was a last minute touch.

So for toys I'm missing a knocker and a shaker which I cannot physically fit into this cabinet.

 

I basically followed the Pinscape build guide as this is my first cab. Last upgrade was the 120Hz playfield which did make things smoother. That was an upgrade I didn't think I would afford with this build.

I currently have no itch to build another. This cabinet was playable within 6 weeks of starting from scratch, but has taken two years to get to this point.

 

And I couldn't have done it without all the help online from the forums. The excellent creations in VPX software from the very talented authors inspired me to build this and I thank you all.

 

 

[ashleyb]

Looks fantastic!  Did you do the woodwork from scratch?

[Lifewater989]

I like it!

[DBrown67]

2 hours ago, ashleyb said:

Looks fantastic!  Did you do the woodwork from scratch?

 

Well, I didn't grow the trees.  😛   But yeah I bought plywood sheets and cut them accordingly. The back box was rebuilt at one point as initially it was a two screen cab with a slimline DMD. I soon realised I wanted a Stern style cab that could play most content available. The lockbar is wrapped in auto vinyl. It was initially painted (paint wore off) then it was wrapped in chepo Fablon vinyl and the colour layer wore off that too. Auto vinyl is much more resilient.

[ashleyb]

39 minutes ago, DBrown67 said:

 

Well, I didn't grow the trees.  😛   But yeah I bought plywood sheets and cut them accordingly. The back box was rebuilt at one point as initially it was a two screen cab with a slimline DMD. I soon realised I wanted a Stern style cab that could play most content available. The lockbar is wrapped in auto vinyl. It was initially painted (paint wore off) then it was wrapped in chepo Fablon vinyl and the colour layer wore off that too. Auto vinyl is much more resilient.

Nice!  Just wondered if you’d found a kit, had cnced or cut it yourself.  Mine’s 2 ikea kitchen units cut down to some plans I found on vpforums.  Also a similar size to yours, though I have a 32” playfield.
 

I’ve just 3D printed a stern style grill/dmd, just waiting for the lcd panel to arrive so I can switch it out and then fiddle with the dmds!

[DBrown67]

17 hours ago, ashleyb said:

Nice!  Just wondered if you’d found a kit, had cnced or cut it yourself.  Mine’s 2 ikea kitchen units cut down to some plans I found on vpforums.  Also a similar size to yours, though I have a 32” playfield.
 

I’ve just 3D printed a stern style grill/dmd, just waiting for the lcd panel to arrive so I can switch it out and then fiddle with the dmds!

 

The plastic grilles on my cabinet are exact copies of Stern grilles apparently. I just downloaded a file for 3D printer and a local company printed them out for me. I just had to trim to size. Getting nice little finishing details like that helps the first impression when people see it.