DX Nishijin

[Ash]

Yea I'd like to get some LED's in the coming week or two. I have a fear it might look pimped up by the time I'm done. The single 6V battery is working okay as-is.

Only the centre jackpot light is turning on now as I've switched off the payout window light. Gonna leave it off til I've got a 100% working unit (sort the dodgy seesaw issue) and can source a lower power bulb. The camcorder light I'm using is very bright (6V never looked so blinding) but it's power hungry.

Looks like a previous owner attached a push on-off switch to the top light, but I'm not going to trust their wiring to use it.

Counting the balls in the machine, I'm running just short of 130 pachinko balls, but I keep running out if I get jackpots. The 200 balls on order will hopefully give a bit more of a realistic playing time. If the ball size is correct I'll order another 500 so hopefully I won't need to open the machine at all.

The creaking spring is making me anxious!

[Moparformances]

thinking about it. Might not be a good idea to run 12volts through the light bulbs due to the heat generated. Wouldn't want to damage or distort something. Halfords and Maplins do white LED lamps already set to 12volts , as replacements for cars.

12 volts is not an issue at all.. the original lights are only blinking on and off.. never on longentought to generate enought heat unless left one and ignored...

now if your adding lights that are on full time you might have a good point

[Ash]

The bright white camcorder bulb was too power hungry, and too bright.

My friend found some fairy lights (xmas lights) in a pot of stuff at his shop, so I acquired them to try. Initially the red/orange looked nice, but appeared as if it was the stray light from the main bulb, so I decided that a blue to contrast would be nice.

I've not soldered the light in, so I can replace or remove it as I wish.

The cool blue is really nice in operation.


Now I'm tempted to add a bulb in the bottom window where the balls get ready to launch, or even in the payout hatch as they fly through. I'll probably go crazy once I source some LEDs

[TailTrauma]

I like the look of the blue light in the jackpot window... I may try to imitate that at some point.

I've been busy letting the smoke out of rectifier diodes fiddling with ways to use LEDs in place of bulbs on 24VAC. Fortunately, they're cheap.

[Ash]

Thanks, this is a lot less 'damaging' to the machine than the other light mod.

Since I'd already cut the side off the payout box/cover (for a big bulb) the machine won't ever be perfect on the back, but it's definitely nicer when playing.

The payout window light is soldered onto the central light, so it acts in parallel, this way both lights are nice and bright. It's the addition of two wires to the machine, so not at all difficult.

Since I have more balls now, I've also released the switch for the top tray/hopper, so when it runs out I'll know. Playing for 20 minutes I nearly empty the machine, so I ought to buy a load more, or make a hole in the top of the cabinet to refill.

[takethecastle57]

I use the 4.5 vdc self color changing LED light sets like the Halloween skeleton set at Target:

halloween led : Target Search Results
______________________________________________________
or , if you like these from ebay powerd by a lithium 3vdc button battery . Just take the LED out of the candle and place where ever you want

COLOR CHANGING EVERLASTING LED Tea Light - SET OF 12 - eBay (item 110590026348 end time Oct-23-10 19:22:03 PDT)

[Ash]

My biggest gripe with this machine so far is seeing some amazing colour patterns behind the central piece, but when it pays out the bulb just shines really bright red through.

To combat this (during a tidy-up) I found the LED's-on-a-board from the base board of a novelty themed cake. These are the type that have a push button, flicker in a sequence, then go out. I'd looked for halloween gimmicks in the shops, but none seemed simple enough for what I wanted (lots of flashing LED's on a switch), so I'm glad I kept these from a couple years ago.

Testing them (holding them) in lieu of the main bulb looks amazing, all the oily colour patterns show through.

Ideally there's enough on the circuit to have one in each of the two green boxes by the payout window, half a dozen or so in the central piece, and either one in the payout tray, the top-left 'empty' light, or even behind the two small winning pockets.

I have a friend over from Germany this week so I won't have any time to do it, but maybe next week I can bring this vintage to life - just enough that it looks great without looking like a pensioner trying to look like its trendy grandchild.




Another restoration was to engage the flag in the bottom right window. Someone had bent out the metal to stop it flagging when out of balls. This seems to work now I've bent the two pieces of metal to connect again.

[Drunkenclam]

If you want different lights/led patterns. Look at the kits or modules maplins do.

[Ash]

Had a go at putting the flashing LED's in place of the bulb. The switch is wired in. It looks great but the lights flash for way too long. They need only flash for a moment, but currently it's more like 10 seconds?

YouTube - Pachinko Flashing LED mod

Considering this, I might take the LED's off the circuit board and wire them to the various locations, so they merely light on and off with the switch, instead of flashing. It's a shame. I'd have liked to see them flash for a few seconds but not as long as that.

Initially I tried wiring the switch to the battery connections, and having the circuit's switch closed. This meant the lights didn't flash for long enough (unless the machine was sluggish to pay out).

[Moparformances]

the light affects are really neat

[mackoftrack]

Whoa cool!!!

[Ash]

I decided that I couldn't deal with the lights flashing for so long, and I also don't want to put too much more effort into getting an extra perk from this otherwise mechanical monster, so Maplins is out of the question

The machine's re-wired so that the power runs through as normal, but when the payout switch closes it powers the LED circuit (so the switch on the circuit board is always closed). This means it's a lottery how long the machine will flash for per payout, and which lights will flash. That means sometimes the payout tray lights don't flash. I guess it adds more interest, but it's a bit of a nuisance all the same.

I don't know how to sort out the sluggish payout. Please don't groan, but it can take an assertive tap or push on the machine to get the ball down the chute sometimes.

In the video I've got a nice run of a few payouts where the machine works as it should. You can see how varied the duration and light flashes are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq6hw14oZyA

[Ash]

Here's the FINAL video of the machine working.

The culprit of the sluggish payouts was my attempted workaround for a different issue early on. I'd bent one of the metal levers upward a little to push the seesaw into position. This isn't necessary now the machine has enough balls, and was fouling the drop of a ball through the chute.

Now that the erratic payout is sorted, I managed to play for about 26 payouts before something hung up inside after 3 balls were waiting next to the seesaw.

Anyway, the lights flicker for a consistent time now, I get the same pattern each payout. Nuisance is sorted!

Finally, I moved one LED to the top left, so the machine makes use of all windows.

YouTube - DX Nishijin Flashing LED Payout Mod - Final Revision

[MrGneiss]

Very cool!!

[Ash]

Finally I've rearranged the lights inside the Pachinko. The little green pockets and the bottom dump flap thing also have a light behind them. The light is a lot less obvious than some of the translucent plastic elsewhere. At least now the lights are a bit more balanced. Before now nothing was happening in the lower end of the playing field so it looked odd.

Hope to add more lights at some point and make it a bit more interesting during play. Also, going to finally buy/cut some perspex to fit into the front. The old piece has a hole in the front and it's growing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpunYIWnCh4


Also, The battery needs replacing, so I may use a proper battery holder and regular batteries now instead of the big expensive 9V I have in at the moment.

[Ash]

Using a D-Cell battery holder, I've wired up the lights to a bunch of big batteries. I have a silly number of them laying around with a short date of expiration!

Now that the lights look good, I've got around to replacing the cracked and broken front plexiglass/perspex/plastic.
I'd measured the original piece, it was roughly 41x45cm, as an oddball size I'd have to cut a larger piece down.

"Wilkinsons" had 29x20" clip-frames for £3 each, or 24x20 for £6. It seemed silly to pay twice as much for less, so I bought two of the taller pieces.

The plastic is very thin, and the noise it makes is very dull and low pitched. I guess it's because of the flex.
A benefit of using clip-frames is they're cheap, and the clips double up as a clamp to hold the original front piece on top.

Using a very thin flat-head screwdriver I scored along the edge of the original front piece and cut a groove into the plastic.
Next, using a pocket knife (no scalpel to hand) I scored until the plastic was cut to size.


It's amazing how much difference new materials make. The machine looks new, thanks to the reflective and scratch-free finish.

[Ash]

I can't seem to edit my last post. I forgot to add that I've now put one more light in the machine.

That blue bulb I was using before in the payout window, it's now wired up to the lever that fires the balls... when you pull it back the wires close a circuit and light the little bulb in that bottom right corner. It's not too powerful, it's like a blinking blue light because it's only on so long as you pull back the lever. It's a tight fit with the wiring there and I hope to make something a little more exciting.

Hopefully I'll find a bunch of LED's and attach them around the edging sometime.

[Ash]

Unable to sit still, the blasphemy continues...


When I looked back on the thread I noticed Microbus' Nishijin A had a lot more colour than mine. I'm not sure if my features had faded or were never painted or what. A bit of experimenting with the few acrylic paints leftover from years ago and the spinners have ended up a pale yellow, the crowns on the tulips are all red, and there's a dark blue outline to the detail on the green pockets. I washed the yellow over the wreath on the orange feature as well, to pick up where the shiny paint had worn off.


Then the itch got worse...I've painted the front side of the cabinet red!

I was getting sick of the bare wood, it didn't seem right for all the excitement going on inside the machine.

Personally I love it, but I'm not sure the purists among us will condone any of my actions


Also, there's a clue of what the little ball-fire light looks like when it's lit.

[Microbus99]

Hi Ash,

The reason my center feature has more color is because I repainted it with enamel. I repainted all the spinners, pockets, the upper center feature and the fine white lines on the tulips.

By the way, you're lighting mod looks great and the machine appears to working fantastic.

Keep up the good work!!

IMGP1678 (Medium).JPG

[Ash]

Thanks Microbus. That explains it then!

Well, your pictures definitely inspired me to paint a little extra colour into the machine. It's a shame I didn't have anything brighter in the toolbox. Next plan is to find some silver and gold paint/markers to go over some of the detailing with to really make the lettering stand out.