How to Build a Pinball Machine

https://howtobuildapinballmachine.wordpress.com/

by evo_9 • 12 years ago

83 15 12 years ago

howtobuildapinballmachine.wordpress.com

jloughry• 12 years ago

So, flippers are more complicated than I thought; they have a microswitch and two coils in the solenoid for quick impulse response with low holding current. That's fascinating!

reddiric2• 12 years ago

They are fascinating :)

Also, flipper EOS switches are leaf switches, not microswitches.

Through the early 90s the flipper button switches were also leaf switches. In the early 90s some time after the introduction of the Fliptronics system by Williams/Bally, they switched to using a plastic opto-interrupter and U-shaped opto(s) rather than a leaf switch.

Games with upper flippers often used ganged leaf switches and later dual optos to allow independent "staged" control of lower and upper flippers on the same side of the machine. That allows you to press the flipper button in half way to engage only the lower flipper, and then all the way to also engage the upper flipper(s).

Animats• 12 years ago

Flipper solenoids are way overloaded for the first 100ms or so. To be strong enough to kick steel balls around, they have to be. So you need some way to turn the current down after the initial kick. Today this usually involves turning down the duty cycle for the coil power after the first 100ms or so. Older setups with dual coils and switches are mostly for repair work.

There are lots of good solenoid driver ICs around, but they're mostly sized for automotive applications. Pinball flippers typically need 5A at 50V, which is a lot to ask of an IC but no problem with an external power MOSFET. There are pinball boards for this. (http://www.allteksystems.com/products-mpu-replacements.html#...) No need to use electromechanical relays and put up with burned contacts any more.

(I'm interested in this problem because I restore old Teletype machines, which have similar electromagnet drive problems. The classical solutions are huge and inefficient by modern standards.)

elstevo• 12 years ago

Reminded me of this [1] that looked like a really interesting project to undertake, especially when you can create your own theme.

[1] http://www.benheck.com/bill-paxton-pinball-making-of/

sparkzilla• 12 years ago

That seems like a lot of work. I suggest starting with pinball restoration. I bought and restored a Creature From the Black Lagoon [1] which took about six weeks work. There's a very active restoration community and lots of parts suppliers, and just getting inside a real machine will give you lots of experience if you want to make your own.

[1]http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=588

ghuntley4• 12 years ago

Pinball restoration is a hoot, just make sure you get someone to show you the ropes. Start with a flipper rebuild - don't attempt to do a play-field swap without someone who has done it before. There is a very active international hobby community over at [1] Pinside who will be eager to show to the ropes. There's plenty of mod options available, such as [2] replacement of all globes with LEDs, [3] replacement of the plasma DMD to full color LCD DMD's, [4] to playfield swaps to brand new reproduction playfields.

[1] https://pinside.com

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2-2dlTH_wg

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_7E_DgtkJY

[4] http://de.myalbum.com/Album=W3DHWYNS || https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-new-star-trek-the...

geon• 12 years ago

Nice!

I've always wanted a physical version of Partyland from Pinball Fantasies (DOS game from 1994).

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/pinball-fantasies/screensh...

Like this guy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/felipesanches/sets/72157594271...

AdrianRossouw• 12 years ago

I've lost most of the month to zen pinball on ps4.

I'd never really considered pinball as a way to spend my time before, but I now see it as a future source of RSI in my wrists.

ghuntley4• 12 years ago

30 mins on this bad boy is guaranteed to bring on adrenaline induced RSI http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1000

ghuntley4• 12 years ago

The recent pinball machine 'Wizard of Oz' by Jersey Jack under the hood runs Ubuntu and the recovery image is available at http://www.jerseyjackpinball.com/game-specific-downloads/ and it works quite well under VMware. If ever wanted dig deeper software wise into what goes into a modern pinball machine this is the place to start. Boot the image with 'init=/bin/bash' and your in.

koz10003• 12 years ago

Very nice work. Now that you have a platform, you can start on the next mountain: making a fun game. =)

Here's an old presentation I did on designing the MONOPOLY pinball machine for Stern back in 2001. (so old I had to dig it out of the Internet Archive)

https://web.archive.org/web/20040806155145/http://www.patlaw...

ghuntley4• 12 years ago

Isn't it amazing who you bump into on HN? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Lawlor

TAF, RS and NGG are amongst my childhood favourites. Thanks :-)

koz10003• 12 years ago

Well, I can only take credit for one of those but thanks. It's always great meeting people that played our stuff all those years ago.

How to Build a Pinball Machine

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