Crane Arcade Machine

I didn’t make it originally, but I bought one with a lot of problems and restored it. Just got done today. Replaced crane cord, rebuilt power supply, and changed out a few microswitches and a bunch of wiring. Took out the old 110v “disco” rope lights and replaced them with a string of neopixels running on a Nano, which is running on a USB plug-in charger. I went out the other day and bought a bunch of toys at a few garage sales so I could fill it up and try it out, and the neighborhood kids have been dropping by to test it out in my driveway. 100% neighbor kid approved!

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I think this is super cool- end to end restoration for something fun does my heart good! If there are / will be classes around MakeICT that point in this kind of direction, from the mechanical elements to the digital and aesthetic I’d be totally up for taking them!

I know Dallas Makerspace has an area dedicated to Pinball/Arcade machine repairs and refurbishing. It appears to be pretty popular.

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That sounds pretty darn cool. I’ve got a buddy in town who’s grandpa had a business in the area leasing out all types of coin operated games, pool tables, pinball, early video games. He got to work on some of them a bit through high school. I mentioned a raspberry pi kinda project with him. He’d dig that Dallas maker space too. I’ll have to lay the ground work and do some recruiting for MakeICT get us both on the path for being members

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