Reg's Second MFME Cabinet

[No1Stoney]

Thanks so much @Reg. But trying to help others build their own cabs is a thrill in itself. I love following everyone's design threads and seeing the updates. Way back in 2016 I decided I would try to build my own cab (back then, MFME didn't have any pacdrive implementation so I had to think of workarounds for practically everything. Payouts were worked out after quitting a game, by working out the difference between the TotalOUT figure from starting and exiting a game taken from the .GAM file. Lamps were 'always on' and different machines would trigger different combos of lights to be on depending on what buttons they used. It was all very sloppy. But I really loved the idea of being able to insert real coins to play machines and then the sound of coins hitting the coin tray when you collect a bank. I had no knowledge at all with mechs and hoppers etc.

Initially for the hoppers, I found this website: https://www.casino-software.de/shop/en/Hardware/Boards/HOPPER-Interface?source=1&refertype=10

Spoke to the guy who created it and he helped me on how to implement this board for what I needed. It was originally created for vending machines I believe. But this worked perfectly and a massive thankyou to Bernd who created this over in Germany for help with that.

I had to study the coin mech manuals for pin-outs and how they operated, I had little clue on circuits and that sort of thing, so kind of winged it with some old mechs and thankfully managed to find a way to wire them up that would work well with MFME.

I then started my project and created a thread over at fruit-emu to see if anyone would be interested:

https://www.fruit-emu.com/forums/topic/51381-mfme-machine/

I coded my own front end bespoke to my build which I still make tweaks to to this day.

Anyway, as it turns out, it piqued a few peoples interest as in the next coming months other people started to create theirs.
@uptown47 @WibbleWobble @Road Hog Mad to name a few off the top of my head. And of course yours, @Reg

and subsequently we had the new forum areas to talk about each others' creations.

And then the late, great @Wizard added functionality for the pacdrive into MFME, and that was a GAME CHANGER. suddenly we had instant payouts and flashing lights. Naturally it meant I had to re-do my cab wiring and I also made some changes to the cab itself to make it as small as I could with what the hardware would allow.

I love seeing other people getting on board with it all and seeing everyone's visions for how they want their cab to be.

 

I'm really glad you got yours going in the end Reg, It is still strange yours won't work with 12v, as I have 2 and both say 24v but work perfectly (I don't notice any slowdowns either) on 12v. Not that it matters, if its now working, that's all that matters. I really do look forward to seeing the additional progress you make.

 

[Reg]

@No1Stoney so please to have it back together and proof it works.  Thank you again.

Coins in and Paying Out

[Reg]

The joy of having this actually finished is soo cool.  Thanks again to all that helped me.

Yesterday, I scrapped the original cabinet that I had, but kept a couple of bits that I liked so the original legacy could live on here.

This was the original...

I really did like the bezels on on original - they gave it character. 

For this machine they also fixed the problem of needing to cover up the coin mech hole once removed and also cover some damage that was already on the lower part of the kick plate.

A refill key was also added and configured from the original machine.

The build is complete.

I am over the moon - it's done and just itching to be played.  Even the missus spent about 30 mins playing Monopoly Club and Big Brother, so that is a seal of approval.

What's Next:

When the technology is affordable ( IE - very cheap ) replace the Fruits panel at the top with a 15.6" USB-C monitor.
Get a Rasperry PI and an HDMI to USB-C convertor for the screen.  This is simply to create an attract display that will be a slideshow of the graphic shown and anything else I care to put.  There is no rush for this and it might even be a couple of years away - but otherwise - this is done.

[Amusements]

Nice job Reg:)

I wish you would of kept the note acceptor though, especially as we now have the way of getting it to work, or even give change.

[Reg]

This is the final post I think here on this thread for me in terms of progress for the immediate future.

As mentioned above, there is this outstanding...

On 26/09/2021 at 13:21, Reg said:

What's Next:

When the technology is affordable ( IE - very cheap ) replace the Fruits panel at the top with a 15.6" USB-C monitor.
Get a Rasperry PI and an HDMI to USB-C convertor for the screen.  This is simply to create an attract display that will be a slideshow of the graphic shown and anything else I care to put.  There is no rush for this and it might even be a couple of years away - but otherwise - this is done.

...the only thing I have left to do on the cabinet now is the marque legend until it goes digital, I changed some button features around so that is now out of date.

Since the last update, we have seen the install of a new SR5i coin mech that accepts £1, 50p, 20p, 10p ( new and old ) and 5p.  It also accepts Eurocoin tokens and they register as 20p so I can play games like Roller Coaster with tokens.

It's had a button update as per below...

BEFORE - Need to either know the buttons or check with the marque for functions.

NOW - Custom buttons for basic navigation of front end and the right hand button doubles as a start button.  The rest of the machine is controlled via the touch screen.

NOW - Different view of the buttons.

NOW - View of @vectra666 Double Impact layout.  Eventually stuck with the vendor logos for the wheel and put an underlay so that the area behind is darkened.

Finally we are done.

Thanks to everyone involved and a special call out to @No1Stoney...

...you were right in encouraging me to put the hopper in.

It's done, we're finished and I think @Wizard would have liked the end result of his emulator in this one.

Right, time for a version three - maybe in a few years time... ...it's actually time to play it.

[Reg]

Today I upgraded the cabinet.

The system runs Touch-Play front end from @tspeirs and I took advantage of the attract mode.  When a layout loads the top screen goes out which is fine - previously we had this as the topper...

That has now been replaced by a Digital Version, the default image is shown...

I have only configured two games - however - when they are highlighted it changes to...

...launching a game to turns off - this is actually a conidence as I thought it would stay on and I believe is because of MFME's full screen max mode that I run in - however - that is actually what I wanted it to do and had no idea how I was going to configure that - lady luck shining done.

Here is a video of it working if anyone wants to see the front menu in action...

The monitor is a USB powered monitor and display is also via USB.

Monitor is attached with three long strips of 2 inch velcro.

The monitor is also kinda cool as the USB presents at the back so it's not sticking out the sides and is fed through to the inside of the cabinet via the rear.

Above shows the selection I picked and again - signal and power via USB.  It has a splitter as well so if not enough power present from one USB port, you simply plug htem both in.

The silver AOC letting on the bottom is easily peeled off when you make sure it's 100 working.

Hope this is useful.

Now the cabinet is finally done...

[No1Stoney]

Thats looking spot on @Reg. The cabinet is never truly finished though. Always something else to tinker with. Having said that, my cab hasn't had an upgrade for quite some time.