coming along nicely. looks a nice big space.
Pinball info
Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Outbuilding to Pin Room Conversion
- Thread starter JustLikeMe
- Start date
I'd be optimistic that'll still work fine too.
I had a (disconnected from power) power cable running to the end of my garden that the previous owner had just cut off and left hanging in dirt - it sat there, in the weather, for about 9 years before I looked at using it. After cutting off about 100mm of the wire (just guessed that was about OK for potential corrosion/potential water ingress), it worked fine when checked with a multimeter. It's now powered some external wall lights for a couple of years with no problems.
OP
OP
Big day today - the floor has been poured!
Nothing happening tomorrow as it needs time to dry - meeting the electrician on Weds am to plan out where wires need to be run.
Nothing happening tomorrow as it needs time to dry - meeting the electrician on Weds am to plan out where wires need to be run.
OP
OP
Looks finished to me! Get the pins in
That would be one way of sticking keepers to the floor!
Be sure to go overboard on the sockets,,, there are never enough and you will always want one where you thought you wouldn't !
OP
OP
Funny you should say that - when the sparky came last week to chat through what I need he said he’d never been asked to install so many sockets in a single room before!
He came back yesterday to start running the cables and as of this evening is pretty much finished apart from the wiring for the three pendant lights in the ceiling. To briefly summarise what he‘s done so far…
- Wiring for two outdoor lights, one either side of the door that leads from the carport into the pin room.
- Wiring for a future install of a motor for the gate to the driveway that is to the West side of the pin room.
- Wiring for a future (potential) install of an EV charger on the outside wall in the carport.
- Wiring for a lit house number sign on the road facing wall of the outbuilding.
- Wiring for a dusk til dawn sensor for the lit house number sign on the wall of the outbuilding.
- Wiring for the ring doorbell on the outside wall of the outbuilding next to the gate.
- Seven single sockets for the hue LED strips that are going to be run along each beam - three in what will eventually be the space behind a small access panel where the electricity meter is installed, and four in what will eventually be the space behind another access panel the other side of the same wall.
- Wiring for six double sockets along the long wall of the room which will have room for 10 or 11 pins. As close to waist height as possible given the windows.
- Wiring for two double sockets along a small stretch of wall which will have room for 4 pins. Same height as the others.
- Wiring for two double sockets along a smaller stretch of wall which will have room for 3 pins. Same height as the others.
- Wiring for two double sockets at a lower level on the wall which will eventually have a back bar unit / fridge / sink installed, and the frame for an RJ45 socket at the same height where the cat 6 cable terminates.
- Wiring for two double sockets at slightly above counter height where the back bar will eventually be.
- Wiring for a double socket in each upper corner of the room, one of each to be used by the Sonos One SLs. These will be installed on the shelf at each end of the room.
- Wiring for two double sockets on the shelf at each end of the room, which will be mounted flush with the floor of the shelf.
- A small conduit through the wall that leads from behind the point where the RUN-DMD clock will be installed, which will hide the cable as it loops up to one of the double sockets on the shelf at that end of the room.
The pinball sockets are going to be on two circuits, one for each side of the room - six double sockets on one side, and four double sockets on the other. Lighting will be on another circuit. I’ve forgotten how he is doing the shelf and back bar sockets but will ask. Tomorrow he’s going to fit the RJ45 socket on the cat 6 cable in the outbuilding and the conmector on the other end of the cable in the house so we can see if it actually works… bit of a moment of truth there! I have an AP ready to go to test.
The aircon installer also came by yesterday to work out the mains install for the unit, and will hopefully be back tomorrow to run the cable.
Moving on from the electrics, after the screed set last week the director of the building company came back to check up on the progress. Whilst there is still just about enough head room given the new height of the floor and the height of the beams, he did suggest raising the beams slightly to give a little more clearance. It also turns out that one of the beams which was previously covered by the mezzanine storage area can’t have an LED strip run across without this happening given how it connects to the ceiling. He reckons that it’s a two day job for two of his team. If I’d realised how easy this would be to achieve before I’d probably have asked for it day one, so I’ve decided to go ahead and raise them all up by a few inches.
As the sparky had finished running the wires within the frame of the wall by early this afternoon, a few of the other guys came back to start insulating the walls. Here’s how it’s looking as of the end of today:
D
Deleted member 2463
Looks awesome!
Excellent planning on the electrical
Looking forward to the next instalment
Looking forward to the next instalment
D
Deleted member 2463
Might be too late to suggest but is he putting in a seperate consumer unit for the outbuilding? If not make sure you concert the main consiner unit to RCBO’s otherwise you’ll have the pinball machines tripping the power fairly regularly.
Looks like a really good space and it is coming along.
I agree with Neil on the RCD, I had a small one put on my room and it was the right decision, as it did go off a bit when I had Street Fighter II. Saved the whole house tripping.
I agree with Neil on the RCD, I had a small one put on my room and it was the right decision, as it did go off a bit when I had Street Fighter II. Saved the whole house tripping.
OP
OP
Cheers Neil - the outbuilding does have a separate consumer unit and he’s putting in RCBOs so think I have my bases covered. He actually asked for the electrical spec of pinball machines before he started the job as he knows what I plan on using the space for, so I printed out the relevant page from a recent Stern manual for him to work things out.
OP
OP
One last update before we fly to HK on Sunday and the big news is that the cat 6 cable that runs from the house to the outbuilding is working! Set up an AP in there today after the RJ45 socket was partially installed to test. So relieved.
Apart from that, we now have the outside lights installed:
And we have the brize box installed on the outside wall of the outbuilding just before the gate:
Other than that, it’s mostly incremental progress on the interior:
Unfortunately we’re now going to be away for most of the rest of the build seeing that we fly on Sunday and the next couple of days are bank holidays. The good news is we should be coming back to a mostly finished pin room, but I’ll be sad to miss seeing it come together in person. Fortunately the guys doing the work understand our situation so have kindly offered to send photos and do video calls to keep me updated, but it’s not going to be quite the same. Something to look forward to upon our return though!
Apart from that, we now have the outside lights installed:
And we have the brize box installed on the outside wall of the outbuilding just before the gate:
Other than that, it’s mostly incremental progress on the interior:
Unfortunately we’re now going to be away for most of the rest of the build seeing that we fly on Sunday and the next couple of days are bank holidays. The good news is we should be coming back to a mostly finished pin room, but I’ll be sad to miss seeing it come together in person. Fortunately the guys doing the work understand our situation so have kindly offered to send photos and do video calls to keep me updated, but it’s not going to be quite the same. Something to look forward to upon our return though!
OP
OP
There’s a car port linking the house and the outbuilding. Unfortunately it’s open to the elements on one side so not suitable for pins!
I would if I was you get the sparky to install a couple of contactors to turn on ring mains from a light switch by the door.
Looks fantastic to me.
Looks fantastic to me.
OP
OP
Quick update for you @Jb3d on the HK experience - so far things aren’t exactly going great.
My wife and I flew out on Sunday with her mother. We all had negative PCR tests on Friday, and when we landed at HKG on Monday morning we had swabs taken for both lateral flow and PCR tests. We were allowed to leave the airport and board the coach for our quarantine hotel as our lat flows came back as negative, but a few hours after we checked in we got a call saying that my mother in law had tested positive on her PCR test. She was told to pack her bags, and a few hours later she was transported by taxi to another hotel in Tung Chung that is being used as a community isolation facility for confirmed covid cases with mild to no symptoms. She now has to have daily lat flows, and if she tests negative on days five, six and seven she’ll be released.
We’ve been told that we can stay in our quarantine hotel for now, but that we’ll have daily PCR and lat flow tests instead of daily lat flows with a PCR on day five. If any of those PCR tests come back as positive then we’ll also be moved to the same hotel for isolation, and that our quarantine period will reset to day one. We had connecting rooms and spent time with her unmasked when we got here before the notification re the positive test came through, so there’s a decent chance one of us will have picked it up and we’ll be heading over to join her. Either way, nothing we can do now but wait and see what happens. Going to be a stressful few days waiting for the daily PCR test results to come in.
Hoping to have some updates on the conversion soon to distract me from the current situation!
Thanks for the update. Really sorry to hear about your mother in law and the quarantine disaster. I hope you keep testing negative so you can stay where you are. What is the accommodation like where they’ve taken you MiL ? Will she have to pay for that on top of what you’ve already paid for your original quarantine hotel? I hope things all get sorted out soon. Best wishes. John
OP
OP
No worries, hope it’s useful. I’d strongly recommend against travel to HK until they get rid of all these quarantine requirements if there’s any way you can avoid it, there’s just too much that can go wrong. We tested negative on our daily lat flows yesterday, and our mandatory twice daily temperature testing / recording was also normal so we appear to be fine so far. Weirdly no one came yesterday to take our samples for the daily PCR tests we were promised but the hotel are on the case this morning.
My MIL is at the 4* Novotel Hong Kong Citygate which has been taken over by the govt as an isolation facility for mild covid cases. The pictures she has sent us of the room look very nice, and she says the food is surprisingly good too. Financially, testing positive on arrival is a great result - she was refunded for six of her seven nights at our quarantine hotel, and the stay & food at the isolation hotel is all paid for by the HK govt! If there’s anything else you’d like to know feel free to drop me a PM, I have plenty of time on my hands this week.
To get back on topic, my dad stopped by our house yesterday and reports that fast progress is being made. They have already finished raising the height of most of the beams, and he says that it’s a significant improvement. They’ve also made more progress on insulating the walls. Afraid he forgot to take any photos, but he says he’ll try to remember next time.
OP
OP
Some new pics arrived this evening so time for an actual update! Looks like one of the new doors and at least one of the windows is installed, all the beams have been raised, and the walls are mostly boarded. Very impressed with how much they’ve got done since we left, just wish I was there to see it in person.
OP
OP
Time for a long overdue update. Apologies for not keeping up with the thread whilst we were in HK, but after we were released from the quarantine hotel we had a busy couple of weeks. Fortunately avoided catching covid whilst there despite my mother in law testing positive the day we arrived. We had a close call during our last few days though - the app you have to use to enter places over there pinged us to say we’d been in the same restaurant as a positive case and we had to get a PCR test within 48 hours. Fortunately it came back negative or else we’d likely still be there!
In case anyone is considering it, I’d strongly recommend against travel to HK at the moment. It’s a total hassle, and you spend most of your time worried that one of your many tests is going to come back positive and you’ll be shipped off to a government isolation facility. Wearing a mask outdoors in the heat and humidity isn’t much fun either. Can’t tell you how glad we are to be back.
Anyway, we got back last weekend and great progress had been made on the pin room conversion whilst we were away, including the air con install. Here’s a few pics from Monday evening:
And a few pics from this evening after a week of plastering:
It really feels like it’s starting to come together now. Next week is windowsills, painting and flooring - and if there’s time, electrics. Finishing touches the following week, and then it’ll be ready for pins. Speaking of which, after a few too many beers one night in HK I got in touch with @philpalmer and arranged a pin room warming present which should actually be here quite soon.
I’ve been in touch with Martin @gopinball and he’s kindly agreed to help me move 10 machines down from London over the 18th and 19th, so a bit under three weeks from now I’ll finally have the whole collection in one place for the first time. Can’t wait.
In case anyone is considering it, I’d strongly recommend against travel to HK at the moment. It’s a total hassle, and you spend most of your time worried that one of your many tests is going to come back positive and you’ll be shipped off to a government isolation facility. Wearing a mask outdoors in the heat and humidity isn’t much fun either. Can’t tell you how glad we are to be back.
Anyway, we got back last weekend and great progress had been made on the pin room conversion whilst we were away, including the air con install. Here’s a few pics from Monday evening:
And a few pics from this evening after a week of plastering:
It really feels like it’s starting to come together now. Next week is windowsills, painting and flooring - and if there’s time, electrics. Finishing touches the following week, and then it’ll be ready for pins. Speaking of which, after a few too many beers one night in HK I got in touch with @philpalmer and arranged a pin room warming present which should actually be here quite soon.
I’ve been in touch with Martin @gopinball and he’s kindly agreed to help me move 10 machines down from London over the 18th and 19th, so a bit under three weeks from now I’ll finally have the whole collection in one place for the first time. Can’t wait.
Last edited:
D
Deleted member 5505
Awesome!
If you sourced those doors yourself would you happen to have the link for them please mate ? Really like them
If you sourced those doors yourself would you happen to have the link for them please mate ? Really like them
OP
OP
Didn’t source myself I’m afraid so I don’t have a link, but I do have the info:
Really happy with them - look great and very secure. Nice and wide too which will make getting the machines in and out easier! Highly recommended.
D
Deleted member 5505
Cheers
OP
OP
Small update for this past week - flooring is now in along with the windowsills, most of the skirting and half of the electrics cupboard. Windows being finished meant that I could get someone in to measure for blinds so have those ordered. They’ll always be closed / blocked by machines so just went with metal venetians.
Decorating was delayed due to sickness but is now due to start Monday morning along with the rest of the skirting, the other half of the cupboard and the access panels to cover up the two holes in the walls for water shut off and plug sockets for the beam LED strips. Electrician back towards the end of the week to install sockets and lighting and then the interior will be done!
It was hot down here yesterday so gave the air con it’s first proper go - switched it on and came back in 20 mins later and it was lovely and cool in there. Didn’t want to leave the room!
Decorating was delayed due to sickness but is now due to start Monday morning along with the rest of the skirting, the other half of the cupboard and the access panels to cover up the two holes in the walls for water shut off and plug sockets for the beam LED strips. Electrician back towards the end of the week to install sockets and lighting and then the interior will be done!
It was hot down here yesterday so gave the air con it’s first proper go - switched it on and came back in 20 mins later and it was lovely and cool in there. Didn’t want to leave the room!
Nice, you can’t beat a smooth plastered finish
What colour you going?
What colour you going?
OP
OP
Nice, you can’t beat a smooth plastered finish
What colour you going?
I’ve decided to just go with pure brilliant white on the walls and ceiling. The Hue LED strips will effectively paint the room in colour and they work best with pure white . Also, with the blinds permanently down / blocked by machines I won’t have any natural light so wanted to keep it bright and airy.
The beams are going to be painted anthracite for contrast - same colour as the doors.
So what ever colour you fancy then with the white walls, you could even get a projector instead of a flat screen with white walls