Figures, Lights and Sound
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stan
Joined: May 18, 2008
Topics: 17 Replies: 16
Topics: 17
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Thank you for your imagination!
If I might suggest, providing dimensions such as height to glass surface and width of table in your details page would help with figure planning. I'm thinking of a player with out-streched arms operating the flippers. These are from Railking Figure Set 30-11043.
I think the man's right arm can be cut and re-positioned but the left arm is a no-go because of how it was molded. Does anyone know of suitably sized figures that can be modified to play?
As I understand it, on the back panel, the purpose of the 1/16" solid square piece behind the glass is to a) make the panel thicker, and b) provide a surface to hold the glass piece in place? I'd really like to light up the backpanel and need space between the glass and the backboard. I was thinking of a) replacing the solid square piece with a frame, and b) inserting my own thinner clear plastic square that I'd glue inside the front frame with clear-cement to give me more space? I'm considering either thin surface mount LEDs or white electroluminescent sheets (like Miller Engineering). Does anyone have ideas on how to illuminate the back panel?
I ran across the OGR scenery thread describing a $2, 30-sec recordable sound module. I haven't received mine yet, but figure it would be a natural to add pinball sound effects which are widely available on the web. Is anyone else tinkering with adding gaming sounds?
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Hi Stan - welcome aboard and thanks for joining.
You are correct that the middle solid rectangle is simply a spacer to give it more depth. This runs counter to my preference, as I think it creates unsightly lines along the sides of the backglass box, but it got the most votes via email from the OGR Forum thread. And, it's too late to change it for this first round, as I've already ordered and received the batch.
However, I think I might be able to help you, and anyone else who wants to do the same thing. I am ordering a set of parts for some R&D, and I can include in that some special back parts to the pinball kits which would have the rectangle cutout of it. I can also order a second "frame" which can be stacked onto the original one, and this could provide a way to back-light the scoreboard panel. Keep in mind that these parts are cut out of 0.06" styrene, so we're talking some pretty tight space.
A picture paints 1,000 words, so maybe I can whip up a special diagram outlining this approach, and see if it jives with what you are envisioning.
I'll try to get to that tonight...
Thanks,
John
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Oh and btw: those figures would be great! Especially for some nice photos showing someone playing the machines! Maybe I can try to hack a figure into a reasonable playing position. I will also provide dimensions in the details page for these, and thanks for the suggestion.
I just did a quick measurement, and the height-to-glass is ~0.675" in the front, and ~0.747" in the back. The table is tilted downward, hence the difference between front to back. A diagram can help:
The pinball tables are 0.75" wide.
More to come...
John
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Alan
Joined: Jun 18, 2008
Topics: 0 Replies: 2
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The market for these may be beyond toy trains. Pinball is a much bigger market.
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Does this help?
Alan - you are correct, I could see these being popular with Dept. 56 stuff, Homies, etc. I do have to be a little careful with copyrights. With O-gauge trains, I think the target audience is small enough that we stay under the radar, but if it gets bigger, well, then there's licensing to deal with.
(Thanks for joining Alan!)
John
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Stan - I am waiting to ship your order until I receive the experimental parts. They are scheduled to arrive today, so your package might even ship today, but no later than tomorrow.
Here's a diagram attempting to show what I did. I don't know if this will help or not, but it's a stab:
The left-most piece is the rear struts part with an additional rectangle cut out. The middle piece is the standard back-glass frame, and then there is an additional frame that could be used to bring the back-glass unit to the regular depth. This will create a rectangle that is "open" all the way through to the back, providing a possibility of lighting it up.
Let me know what you think, and also any other ideas/suggestions you have.
Thanks!
John
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stan
Joined: May 18, 2008
Topics: 17 Replies: 16
Topics: 17
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John, thanks for sending me the spare prototype back piece with the cutout. To locate the LEDs as far back from the sticker as possible, I used 1/32" copper clad board (e.g., DigiKey PC94) to mount white 0805 surface mount LEDs wired 4 in parallel. The board is scissor-cuttable and easily scored with a hobby knife. The LEDs are from eBay supplier "sureelectronics2" and were 16 cents each including shipping. He sells them under the title "50 pcs 0805 SMT SMD White Chip LED LEDs 440mcd".
I'd be pleasantly surprised if anyone else is as doggedly determined as I am to light this thing up so it's probably not worth the extra cost (?) of the additional lasercut step!
The LED board is 1/2" x 5/8" and drops into the cutout area. To demote the harsh white effect, I painted 1/32" clear acrylic sheet with Tamiya X-26 transparent orange acrylic paint as discussed at length in various OGR LED threads. I first sanded the sheet to give it a frosted appearance to help diffuse the back-lighting to demote the 4 "hot-spots" from the LEDs.
The finished backpanel is the same thickness as before (3 x 1/16"). The sticker still sits behind the original outer 1/16" clear sheet. Because there is nothing for it to mount to, I simply left the sticker a little bigger than the hole so it sticks to the middle frame piece. Some black marker touches up the white edge of the sticker to blend into the frame color.
The 2-wires will run into the lower chamber below the playing surface. That's my next step which should be easier since there's much more room. I'm think 6 LEDs under the playing surface will be enough...but I want to randomly blink some of them as on the real machines. This will take some experimentation!
Presently I plan to run each machine on about 3V since that will drive the white LEDs. Also the SAW-3 recordable sound module with pinball sound effects wants 3V. Of course the sound module has to hide below the floor. Since the real machine used an AC power cord, I'll disguise the wires from the model into the floor using black heatshrink or insulation.
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Stan - that is incredible! 
It looks terrific! You are a man of many talents, that is for sure. I am very impressed that you were able to get all those components into such a thin space.
Now I'm dying to see how the table playfield looks when you light it up. Although to truly capture the blinking effects, as well as the sounds, you'll want to video it.
Thanks so much for sharing. Also - let me know if you want more of those special pieces - I have two more I will happily send you (for free), just to see more of these pinball machines lit up in full glory!!
Too cool...
Cheers,
John
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Alan
Joined: Jun 18, 2008
Topics: 0 Replies: 2
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okay this is great keep going
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stan
Joined: May 18, 2008
Topics: 17 Replies: 16
Topics: 17
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A little more tinkering.
To animate lighting on the playing surface, the 4 LEDs are individually controlled by a custom, work-in-process circuit. My first idea was to randomly fade the 4 LEDs similar to John's flashing station platform lighting concept which is discussed somewhere on this website. The following short video clip shows progress so far; the sound is from the $2 sound module discussed earlier:
Video of Stan's Animated Pinball Machine
More tinkering is required for demoting light leak and such. The figure is too short.
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Stan this is really spectacular! That video really says it all. I am amazed you were able to squeeze all that in such a small space. I noticed when you picked it up, there doesn't seem to be any wires attached. Is it all running on batteries, that are also inside the machine?
Also, where is the sound unit?
That's got to be the coolest pinball machine in O-Scale!
Thanks very much for sharing.
John
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stan
Joined: May 18, 2008
Topics: 17 Replies: 16
Topics: 17
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Thanks for the kind words. The pinball electronics runs on 3V which is just enough to drive white LEDs. The photo shows the two power wires out the rear of the machine which I plan to thread thru black heatshrink or stripped wire insulation to represent an AC Power Cord.
The sound module is also 3 Volts but is enormous relative to the pinball model so it must go under the layout. Eventually I plan to replace the batteries with a voltage regulator powered by a transformer aux output.
BTW, no problem linking anything you think would be of interest to OGR Forum. As I understand it, threads there disappear after 6 months so I figure it's safer to post on your blog since my progress is tortoise-pace
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JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517
Topics: 110
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Ah, I see better now. I watched the video a few more times, and I did see the wires. What an amazing piece of craftsmanship that is.
Thanks Stan - I went ahead and posted this new material at the end of the prior thread on this in the OGR Scenery forum:
OGR Pinball Machine Topic
(Apparently, it survived the 6-month sweep.) But I think everyone's focused on the elections tomorrow.
Really great project!
John
Progress: