Early days but have sourced some cheap cabinets :)

[slotsmagic]

Well, I will be making an MFME cab at some point, so had these delivered. Both are non-working Pluto 5 cabinets and cost very little (£30 a piece delivered, he wanted £50 all in but I stuck another tenner on) and I'm thinking I can either try and make a working machine out of the two, or make two MFME cabs.

Something I did like with these is (without having investigated) they look like the tops of the cabinet come off the stands? Even if not they have a nice compact footprint

They are quite narrow machines, but I'm thinking I might be using simpler machines anyway, and potentially a single button column next to where the screen ends up, or row of buttons below the screen, as well as using as much of the existing button panel as possible!

(edit)

Seller was totally honest about the condition of these, 'Skill Balls Of Steel' is 'almost' working, in that it boots and plays, but the alpha doesn't work and the coin validator needs updating. The alpha not working isn't the alpha itself, it's most likely a component on the mainboard.

The 'Super Skill Tower' doesn't boot at all, but not really bothered. It's got a notey fitted, which probably takes the old £1 note from the look of it (it's a seriously old validator!). 

From a quick glance it does look like it's pretty easy to take them off the bases... but that will be a job for much closer to the end of the project. In fact I could keep the bases and possibly repurpose them as storage

Edited January 29, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

I plan on starting work on something involving these cabinets over the coming couple of weeks, and have a random first question -

I plan on keeping the existing front door, but removing the glass and replacing with one of the following :

1) Perspex 

Pretty easy to work with, not expensive. Would allow the option of a fully transparent front so I could see the workings (I'm a sucker for all that, all my 'proper' watches have sapphire casebacks so I can see the innards). Could also mask bits off using something like vinyl or thin wood and have just the screen visible - a bit like a super sized screen protector.

Does scratch easily though and that might annoy me, and if used as a screen protector I'd lose any touchscreen capability (although being honest I'm still undecided on going the touchscreen route!).

2) Wood 

Timber yard right around the corner, they have a website as of today (it's only 2021!). Looks very good value and also should be easy to work with. I'm assuming hardwood ply would do the job? They do it in varying thickness up to 9mm, also birch ply and moisture resistant MDF. Maybe ply would be more susceptible to damp? I'm not a massive fan of MDF either though!

3) Sheet metal 

Will look rather industrial, would require new holesaw bits for button holes, would also be a bit of a pain to cut the viewable area out of as don't know anyone with correct tools off the top of my head.

 

Any thoughts appreciated

Edited February 4, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

Also looking at the monitor, I was tempted to go used like I did for my bartop but as I'm going 16:10 ratio I think I'll just buy new, this one seems to tick all the boxes :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/iiyama-XU2395WSU-B1-ProLite-Ultra-Monitor/dp/B07FHZBNYH/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1920%3A1200&qid=1612449625&sr=8-3

Plenty of inputs, IPS for a nice viewing angle. 

I'd hoped I could get a 24" in but it'll be right on the limit of fitting and dropping 1.5" should make an easy fit. Shouldn't make much difference when close up, after all I think the monitors on T7s and similar are only 19" and they seem a good size when up close. 

Used ones are kicking about but unlike with my arcade cab, I wouldn't be looking at £12, more like £60 for a 5+ year old model, so may as well buy new with a warranty!

Since this is such a narrow cabinet, I'm thinking I'll just mount the screen to the back of the cabinet, and have the door close over it, rather than attempting to mount the monitor within the front door itself. Shouldn't be too hard if I get a mount with decent depth, and can probably use a small amount of spacers to push it forward a bit more if needed

Edited February 4, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

... ended up ordering the 24" model (XUB2495WSU-B1). It would appear to be 53cm wide, so should fit since the top glass is 58cm tall. Having said that I've not planned anything, this is just a case of me ordering things blind (note to others, not a recommended strategy!).

Amazon Warehouse had 20% off their used value, so brought it down to £120.24 (new retail on the model is around £200-£210) so same price as the 22.5" model, and this one hopefully is a little brighter, I think the official specs show 300cd/m^2, whereas the smaller one is 250cm/m^2. 

Amazon Warehouse is a bit of a gamble - last monitor I ordered from there had a smashed screen - but returns were easy enough, and should come with 1 year warranty still.

Quote

(All Amazon Warehouse items are covered under legal warranty for 1 year. If your item becomes defective after the Amazon return period, Amazon will repair any defective item, and if a repair is not possible, we will refund the purchase price in accordance with Amazon's Returns Policy.)

So that's one monitor crossed off the list! If all goes wrong at least I'll have a portrait 16:10 monitor for a desk to play machines on

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by slotsmagic

[davep180]

Hope it all goes well for you. Looking forward to more updates as and when.

[slotsmagic]

22 hours ago, davep180 said:

Hope it all goes well for you. Looking forward to more updates as and when.

I hope so too, but it's all being done on a whim, I really should have planned things

Anyway, in usual Amazon form, the monitor that was due on the 8th is actually coming today, so l will get a chance to test it 

I stayed up way too late last night researching PCs, I was looking towards USFF to fit in the top of the machine (it's going to be a very tight fit in there I reckon) but getting something with discrete GPU would be quite dear. Most are 4th gen Intel core i5 integrated graphics and I've no idea how well MFME runs on that! The issue will be the depth of the cabinet, assuming I take it off the stand and run as a bar-top only.

Obviously if I leave it on the stand it's no problem, loads of room in there and would make the build a lot easier.

Hopefully the monitor being here will give me a better idea of space constraints

(Edit1)

Here's the monitor, I'm happy with it but should have realised the difference between 1080x1920 and 1200x1920 wasn't going to be massive!

Anyway, having cropped the window a bit it fits well, albeit with a bit of border at the top. I was tempted when I started this layout to work with flat artwork, no cabinet perspective, and that might be something I stick with from now on

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

Decided to start stripping one of the cabs at 06:45 this morning (the least-working one, Super Skill Tower) while waiting for the courier to come and collect the T7 I had delivered a couple of days ago. That T7 didn't match description - was sold as a black PC, mentioned in description and shown in the photos, yet arrived with older PC, crackling speakers and a lot of scuffs / scrapes to chrome not shown on original photos, plus dimmer monitors and everything felt wrong, even the notey sounded a lot slower than my other T7... so not the machine they advertised but one with the same decals!

Regarding this cab, not much that can be salvaged in terms of the electronics, the Pluto 5 is faulty, the coin and note mech are about 10 years out of date, I don't know if the PSU is working, although I guess I could test that in my other cabinet?

Anyway, not done a lot really, just this so far. Tempted to order some wood to replace the glasses but still don't know the way to go, MDF or plywood? Still not decided on mounting the monitor, whether I attach directly to the MDF / ply (it doesn't weigh much, thank god modern monitors are so light!) or mount to the back of the cabinet or base on say a cantilever arm and line it up?

Oh, I'll give the cabinet a proper clean too, it's full of 15 year old dust and a bunch of other bits that can do with being tidied up. This one has rust around the button panel, so will be sorting that out as well, and respraying (just black I think, nothing fancy!).

 

 

[edit]

Well, I've got a sawmill literally around the corner, so figured I may as well go and have a look. Having checked out both the 6mm MDF and 6mm ply (the original glass is 6mm thick) I opted for the MDF. The ply looked a bit fragile, especially at the edges, and the MDF feels plenty strong enough at that thickness. Plus it's nice a cheap. The top glass is under 600x600mm, and they sell 600x600mm sheets of 6mm thick MDF for £3. Can't go wrong at that price.

The original glass might have only been 6mm, but there was also the lamp mask, which was at a guess 1 or 2mm thick. Didn't want to risk going up to 9mm MDF and then finding out it wouldn't fit, so have stuck with 6mm and if needs be I'll just pad the edges out with something so it's not loose when mounted in the cabinet.

The sawmill offers a cut to size service, since it's a proper mill, but as they are only really open for essentials I'd feel a bit silly taking some fruit machine glass up with me and asking them to do that. Plus the more DIY it is, the more fun** it is.

** you can change 'fun' for 'frustating' depending on preference.

Edited February 12, 2021 by slotsmagic

[Retrofruit]

On 12/02/2021 at 15:24, slotsmagic said:

Decided to start stripping one of the cabs at 06:45 this morning (the least-working one, Super Skill Tower) while waiting for the courier to come and collect the T7 I had delivered a couple of days ago. That T7 didn't match description - was sold as a black PC, mentioned in description and shown in the photos, yet arrived with older PC, crackling speakers and a lot of scuffs / scrapes to chrome not shown on original photos, plus dimmer monitors and everything felt wrong, even the notey sounded a lot slower than my other T7... so not the machine they advertised but one with the same decals!

Regarding this cab, not much that can be salvaged in terms of the electronics, the Pluto 5 is faulty, the coin and note mech are about 10 years out of date, I don't know if the PSU is working, although I guess I could test that in my other cabinet?

Anyway, not done a lot really, just this so far. Tempted to order some wood to replace the glasses but still don't know the way to go, MDF or plywood? Still not decided on mounting the monitor, whether I attach directly to the MDF / ply (it doesn't weigh much, thank god modern monitors are so light!) or mount to the back of the cabinet or base on say a cantilever arm and line it up?

Oh, I'll give the cabinet a proper clean too, it's full of 15 year old dust and a bunch of other bits that can do with being tidied up. This one has rust around the button panel, so will be sorting that out as well, and respraying (just black I think, nothing fancy!).

 

 

[edit]

Well, I've got a sawmill literally around the corner, so figured I may as well go and have a look. Having checked out both the 6mm MDF and 6mm ply (the original glass is 6mm thick) I opted for the MDF. The ply looked a bit fragile, especially at the edges, and the MDF feels plenty strong enough at that thickness. Plus it's nice a cheap. The top glass is under 600x600mm, and they sell 600x600mm sheets of 6mm thick MDF for £3. Can't go wrong at that price.

The original glass might have only been 6mm, but there was also the lamp mask, which was at a guess 1 or 2mm thick. Didn't want to risk going up to 9mm MDF and then finding out it wouldn't fit, so have stuck with 6mm and if needs be I'll just pad the edges out with something so it's not loose when mounted in the cabinet.

The sawmill offers a cut to size service, since it's a proper mill, but as they are only really open for essentials I'd feel a bit silly taking some fruit machine glass up with me and asking them to do that. Plus the more DIY it is, the more fun** it is.

** you can change 'fun' for 'frustating' depending on preference.

I see you have purchased now so coming to this a bit late, just a few pros/cons from experiences.

Perspex: Main downside is when it scratches but you could put a transparent film over the exposed parts. Not affected by water/damp so ideal if you are planning to store anywhere humid/shed/near kitchen.

Plywood: Hard/inflexible. Good resistance to water/splashes but can stain easily. If it splinters it's a nightmare so anywhere you are likely to touch needs to be well sanded smooth and ideally treated. Splinters can be as bad as razor blades!

MDF: Softer but more flexible. More forgiving when trying to squeeze in edges although edges can fray into a fine dust. The worst choice for water/splashes/staining, it soaks it up as it is porous. Not a disaster for an occasional drink mishap as if you are quick with a cloth it will dry out fine but if going to store it in a shed or anywhere near humid like a kitchen it should be 100% primed and painted as once it deforms that's it. You can get an MDF specific primer from Screwfix like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/leyland-trade-mdf-primer-750ml/222fg

Hope this helps!

[slotsmagic]

1 hour ago, Retrofruit said:

I see you have purchased now so coming to this a bit late, just a few pros/cons from experiences.

Perspex: Main downside is when it scratches but you could put a transparent film over the exposed parts. Not affected by water/damp so ideal if you are planning to store anywhere humid/shed/near kitchen.

Plywood: Hard/inflexible. Good resistance to water/splashes but can stain easily. If it splinters it's a nightmare so anywhere you are likely to touch needs to be well sanded smooth and ideally treated. Splinters can be as bad as razor blades!

MDF: Softer but more flexible. More forgiving when trying to squeeze in edges although edges can fray into a fine dust. The worst choice for water/splashes/staining, it soaks it up as it is porous. Not a disaster for an occasional drink mishap as if you are quick with a cloth it will dry out fine but if going to store it in a shed or anywhere near humid like a kitchen it should be 100% primed and painted as once it deforms that's it. You can get an MDF specific primer from Screwfix like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/leyland-trade-mdf-primer-750ml/222fg

Hope this helps!

Much appreciated

Pretty much the conclusion I came to. Don't mind splashing out on primer given the MDF itself was so cheap

While on the topic of splashing, I don't expect to get direct moisture on these, so not too concerned. I'm planning on having at least one in the house and possibly one in the garage if I end up building two

I think the main thing for me is to get the monitor and PC in, and a working button panel. I would like coin entry and payouts at some point but it's a fair way off.

The machines both came with Universal hoppers, if I could use them that would be nice but if not I will see what others have used and source one of them

Edited February 15, 2021 by slotsmagic

[Retrofruit]

1 hour ago, slotsmagic said:

Much appreciated

Pretty much the conclusion I came to. Don't mind splashing out on primer given the MDF itself was so cheap

While on the topic of splashing, I don't expect to get direct moisture on these, so not too concerned. I'm planning on having at least one in the house and possibly one in the garage if I end up building two

I think the main thing for me is to get the monitor and PC in, and a working button panel. I would like coin entry and payouts at some point but it's a fair way off.

The machines both came with Universal hoppers, if I could use them that would be nice but if not I will see what others have used and source one of them

No worries. I marvel at the threads of cabinet builds, it is definitely something I would like to do at some point in the future. Time is my main enemy there, lot's to learn. It's great that MFME can now interface with real parts, makes the whole thing much more authentic, so hopefully you can do something similar on those lines in future. Have a look at @Reg threads if you haven't seen them already, quite inspiring.

[slotsmagic]

I reckon I was lucky picking these cabs, they easily come off the base, and are light enough (admittedly while empty) for me to pretty easily carry about. Sure they'll be heavier with innards, but it's a nice surprise! Might have one as a bar-top and one as a full height cabinet? Who knows? I probably should have made proper plans in advance but that's not my style

Plenty of dust and rust, and will definitely need the metalwork touching up. 

I've kept the lifters for the top door (they are the bits that look a bit like wiper arms in the middle), BUT if you open the front door with heavy glass in the cabinet does it's best to fall forwards (it would be the same or worse with MDF if a monitor was attached to it I reckon) so it'll only be used with the machine on it's back for access / maintenance reasons

[edit]

Bought some black 'spray over rust' Hammerite earlier, think I'll give it a shot with that. With button panels I normally strip back to bare metal but they are simple, flat things. With this I think I'll just wire-wool it and then give it a few coats. 

I'll hopefully get on with some of it tomorrow, if not I've got Saturday and Sunday off so will do it one of those days. Once it's sprayed and dried I'll probably move it in the house and get it to my 'project' room, which started as an old bedroom I stripped and redecorated, and has now become a warmer place than the garage for my weird projects

Edited February 18, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

Decided to take the door off and paint it, surprisingly easy to remove the door (5 bolts). Just hope it's as easy to reattach!

5 coats of Hammerite satin black, will leave it a good 16 hours at least to let it dry now. Probably should have got the hammered texture stuff, but this should do for the moment, and it's all they had. Couldn't find any old paper or anything to lay it on, but do have some very old Christmas wrapping paper, so that'll do

Edited February 19, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slotsmagic]

Well the metalwork is dry and looks pretty good!

Been struggling a bit with mood again (bloody typical) but thought I'd do a nice small job and just clean some buttons, so I took the decals out of some Gamesman reels from some awful Betcom, and gave them a good clean inside and out. I've left the diffusers in.

The original button panel on the cabinet is exactly 60cm, so I reckon I can squeeze 10 buttons in quite easily, I'm thinking 9 standard and 1 narrow?

It does bring me to another question though... I'm wanting the buttons lamped, these are normal buttons with 10mm lamp holders. I'm hoping I can just put some LEDs in there (I'd be happy with normal tungsten but think that would draw too muc current?)... but I don't want to blow up a Pacdrive!! If it sounds like a bad idea let me know and I can scrap this plan and just grab some pre-lit arcade buttons instead

Edited February 20, 2021 by slotsmagic

[123]

Hiya there, I had the exact same problem with mine. I bought some buttons off eBay and there had 12v bulbs inside which like you say would probably blow the pac drive. These are my buttons, 

and I put these 5v leds inside

Which you can get off eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122265668678 as @No1Stoney pointed out to me when I was building my cabinet

Hope this helps with you adding lamps.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by 123

[No1Stoney]

You can wire 12v bulbs using the pacdrive but please read the instructions online for it, as wiring 12v directly to the pacdrive will blow it. You need to wire to a separate 12v source which is easy enough to do. Or you can opt for 5v led bulbs and they will also work wired directly to the pacdrive

[slotsmagic]

Lovely, thanks for all that

I'll probably go the LED route then, the same seller does a pack of 20 for £14.99 all-in, which will cover all my needs (probably going for 10 at the bottom and 10 at the top). Looking at about £100 then for the 20xLEDs, 2xPacdrives and 1xiPac 2. The iPac will come with all the wiring for the button switches and ground, the lamps won't. Then again it'll be the same loom won't it, so I can just buy another loom? Same terminals for both lamps and switches on the button assembly so can't see why it wouldn't work?

[edit] Although I have just remembered that there are only 10 lamps per Pacdrive so it would need a little bit of butchery!

I'm tempted to stick at 9 buttons on the bottom and possibly go for 11 buttons on the top? I'm sure some of the DONDs for example might have 6 buttons for hi-lo (belt reel), and then possibly 3 for the DOND (play, deal, no deal), and then bonus and message from the banker for 11 in total? Could be wrong. 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by slotsmagic

[slasher]

2 hours ago, slotsmagic said:

Lovely, thanks for all that

I'll probably go the LED route then, the same seller does a pack of 20 for £14.99 all-in, which will cover all my needs (probably going for 10 at the bottom and 10 at the top). Looking at about £100 then for the 20xLEDs, 2xPacdrives and 1xiPac 2. The iPac will come with all the wiring for the button switches and ground, the lamps won't. Then again it'll be the same loom won't it, so I can just buy another loom? Same terminals for both lamps and switches on the button assembly so can't see why it wouldn't work?

[edit] Although I have just remembered that there are only 10 lamps per Pacdrive so it would need a little bit of butchery!

I'm tempted to stick at 9 buttons on the bottom and possibly go for 11 buttons on the top? I'm sure some of the DONDs for example might have 6 buttons for hi-lo (belt reel), and then possibly 3 for the DOND (play, deal, no deal), and then bonus and message from the banker for 11 in total? Could be wrong. 

 

MFTB is usually on the bottom glass to be fair.

Apart from the odd hi/lo dond game, the one I can think of with the most on the top glass is probably banker's bonus. It has Bank it, Swap Box, Message (lol typical), Play DOND, Deal, No Deal, Take Streak. Most just have Play DOND, Deal, No Deal and Cash or Bust on the top glass.

[slotsmagic]

Something I didn't think of was £1 entry, since I'll be going without coin handling on this first one. Bearing that in mind I'll definitely go with 9 on the bottom and 11 on the top, although one on the top will be running on the same Pacdrive as the bottom ones. Suppose I really out to get a pencil and some paper and start planning it out!

[slotsmagic]

Hmm... now I'm wondering about the choice of 6mm MDF. Kinda wishing I'd gone for at least 9mm. I picked 6mm as that was the thickness of the original machine glass (without the lamp holding plastics attached), but with the machine stripped down it looks like it'll easily take 9mm.

I've not started cutting it yet (picked up a little handheld circular saw multi-tool thing earlier, looks like fun!) but while the monitor isn't that heavy, once I've cut a large section out of the MDF for the screen to show through, I'm worried it'll lose a lot of rigidity. Might have to brace it with something?!

Edited February 21, 2021 by slotsmagic

[Road Hog Mad]

Monty Python looks mint, there really is some MINT layouts coming out recently and some have stood the test of time. 

This will be an interesting post of how you build yours, give us a shout if you need any guidance as I and others have built there own. 

[Road Hog Mad]

Not the same without coins! Last year I saved £600 in mine.

Coin mech ME126 off BF74 at the Mecca £20 - £30, and coin acceptance is 99.9%.

I uploaded a wire diagram somewhere which is quite similar to an SR5i coin mech which a lot use. 

Universal hoppers, rather expensive in my opinion. £80 for two. Then you have to fiddle attaching shutes to them to payout etc. And somewhat make your own coin routing. Again a wire diagram is available. 

You'll need an old PSU to power the coin mech and hoppers, maybe an old psu came with it? If you cross 2 wires on a psu it will run fine and not need switching on (maybe someone can explain that better). There are alternatives to old PSU's but if you have a spare, upcycle! 

[slotsmagic]

32 minutes ago, Road Hog Mad said:

Monty Python looks mint, there really is some MINT layouts coming out recently and some have stood the test of time. 

This will be an interesting post of how you build yours, give us a shout if you need any guidance as I and others have built there own. 

Cheers, was pretty happy with it in the end. There's some changes I could make to it but don't want to obsess about it too much!

17 minutes ago, Road Hog Mad said:

Not the same without coins! Last year I saved £600 in mine.

Coin mech ME126 off BF74 at the Mecca £20 - £30, and coin acceptance is 99.9%.

I uploaded a wire diagram somewhere which is quite similar to an SR5i coin mech which a lot use. 

Universal hoppers, rather expensive in my opinion. £80 for two. Then you have to fiddle attaching shutes to them to payout etc. And somewhat make your own coin routing. Again a wire diagram is available. 

You'll need an old PSU to power the coin mech and hoppers, maybe an old psu came with it? If you cross 2 wires on a psu it will run fine and not need switching on (maybe someone can explain that better). There are alternatives to old PSU's but if you have a spare, upcycle! 

If it was my only machine I'd definitely go down the coin-handling route, but I do also have other machines, including Monty Python (obviously) and a sit-down T7, so can use them as moneyboxes. I left the metalwork in for the coin acceptor, which was an odd make (NRI or something?) - will try my spare C435A in there tomorrow and if that fits in the metalwork it'll give me confidence a MARS mech would also fit. 

Regarding the universal hoppers, there is one in each cabinet and they are easy to fit / remove (just pull out of the cabinet with the top door open). Not sure I'd get away with two hoppers in one of these cabs as they are huge! Could always go for real money and stick to £1 coin payout machines (most from my era are £1 only).

Main thing for me though is the screens and buttons, coin handling would be a bonus. Bit like my arcade bar-top - playing with coins would be a nice addition but not really necessary.

Edited February 21, 2021 by slotsmagic

[Road Hog Mad]

Think they have to be parallel or something, someone needs to step in on that one. And I think you'd need something else to power it as they maybe 24v and not 12.

I see your point with just 1 hopper, having 2 gives more options though. 

Re. Buttons, not as hard as it looks! 

[Retrofruit]

2 hours ago, Road Hog Mad said:

Think they have to be parallel or something, someone needs to step in on that one. And I think you'd need something else to power it as they maybe 24v and not 12.

I see your point with just 1 hopper, having 2 gives more options though. 

Re. Buttons, not as hard as it looks! 

Agree on the two hopper route as a £1 and 20p hopper would match most machine payout configurations of hoppers and tubes at least post sort of 1990 time. However if you want to payout on really old stuff like 80's machines you would need 10p, 20p and even 50p in the case of old Barcrest clubbers. Solid Silver for example can payout 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 coins. There could be the option of unchecking the coin high switches for certain tubes in the layout, for example the 50p tube on Barcrest clubs then it would pay the lower denomination coin instead.

I don't have experience of implementing this as I say, so no doubt someone will chime in and hopefully say something along the lines of you only need £1 and 10p and the "voodoo box" between MFME and the hoppers will count the coins for you so spin out 5 x 10p for a 50p coin payout for example.

At least I hope that's the case at it would make everything so much simpler!

[Road Hog Mad]

9 hours ago, Retrofruit said:

There could be the option of unchecking the coin high switches for certain tubes in the layout, for example the 50p tube on Barcrest clubs then it would pay the lower denomination coin instead.

This is indeed an option i'm looking for in some games as my setup is a 20p hopper and £1 hopper. Example 777 Heaven pays out in 10p's. So I can't use that one (but can use the pull handle version).

Long shot... and every game is probably different, but which boxes do you un-tick to make the machine think its low on 10's so it pays 20's?