You are exactly right, break it down into little compartments , just like a complex puzzle and you will be able to solve any issues and have a successful project. Sorry for the late reply, haven't been here for awhile.
It may be really hard to do, but if would be awesome if you had a series where you built a machine from scratch or nearly from scratch. And in each video you show some progress on the build and build some pieces live. Like all the white board process and the final building. That would be awesome.
That would really be cool. It takes quite a bit of time to construct each segment that is why it is 86 minutes long. Great idea though. Thanks for the comments.
@@phyxis101 I completely understand, its an incredibly complex process and well, in this video you are sumarizing most of the process and giving tips, which is great.
Glad you liked the video. Added an additional sound system and lighting to this pinball to make it more interesting. Hope to video it for builders to see how I incorporated them into the pinball. Fairly inexpensive add ons.
This is an amazing video with tons of useful information. Do you plan on building another one and maybe video document all the steps? I would love to build one myself but just don’t have the courage to start as the electronics are a complete mystery for me. Once again, thank you for your contribution to this topic!! Stay safe.
While this is a long video it is broken down into a number of topics separated by a description in white lettering with a blue background. All the topics should be beneficial to anyone interested in building a pinball machine from scratch.
I agree. We used the picaxe programs. They are free and the chips are very economical. The programs help you design your own way of getting circuitry to work as you envision it to work. There is no easy way to discuss this on the internet. Hope this helps.
Great video! Thanks for your time explaining everything. Can you provide more details about the audio? I'm curious about where you store the audio files and how to play them simultaneously when each action happens? I suspect the pics will tell something to play a specific audio files? Thanks
I actually have two sound systems. I purchased a sound card for around 23 dollars. It uses a flash drive with a MP3 format. I then built a sound board that is programmed to recognize a numerical assignment to each sound, for instance 001 would be a rollover button. When the sound board gets a signal, it prompts the sound card to play that particular sound. If you use this format keep the sounds to 2-3 seconds for most of the sounds so they do not get cut off when the pinball hits another module. I assigned 15 sounds total in this game. The second sound system is a radio that excepts SD cards. I was then able to copy some music off the internet using a digital recorder and play the blended sound tracks through separate speakers. Both systems allow you to adjust the volumes and sounds you think best for your game.
great video! that is quite the accomplishment! Clearly this takes a lot of work and a lot of patience. I would like to build my own but I dont have the patience or the tools or the workspace. :-) I like that all your connections are setup so you can easily replace parts. very smart.
Excellent presentation. Thank you. Question: Isn't the Arduino able to handle all the logic so that you wouldn't need to make custom circuit boards for each playfield component? Isn't there a "shield" for that ?
Subscribing because of the video and how genuinely humble and nice you are to everyone in the comments. You are very brilliant to do all this from pictures and checking out some machines. My question is installing one of your designs in a used pinball machine that has been gutted? So basically you have the shell and the legs and then completing it and sanding off the graphics from the old machine and repaint it. Is your design one that one could just drop in to most pinball machines? Thank you again for the video as I had a hard time finding any information and little for sale that isn’t thousands of dollars.
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, my machine is a standard size machine. If you had a old cabinet and back box, you could take the final playfield and install it into the shell and wire it up and you would have a brand new game. I would suggest that you build your own cabinet and back box though, as usually the old games are really banged up and the legs are very loose. Fixing up an old machine may take longer that just making your own. Caution on the old machines. many of them are really worn out and need extensive repair, especially the older ones known as electro-machanical machines. Lots of mechanical relays will need cleaning and repair. The newer ones use circuit boards and less relays, but even they need servicing to get them to play as intended. If you are into that, go for it. I spent around 1350 dollars on my machine, but I did all of the work myself and all the fabrication. This saves a lot of money in the long run. Good luck with your project and ask any other questions and I will try to answer them.
Hello! I have quite an ambitious personality and I am currently starting an engineering course, I have been working on the design for quite some time in very basic form, I would greatly appreciate if there was some way for you to explain in depth about the circuit boards as I have tried researching as much as possible. Sadly it feels like analog pinball machines are becoming a lost technology and I would love some instructions on how to create this, I realise how foolish it seems to ask as a person who has little to no experience with circuit boards, coding, and wiring. If you have any suggestions about how I can learn more about what I need to follow through on this endeavor, I would greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, RL III
***** I would like to provide some insight into the process. While I designed an early 1970's machine, most of the electronics are circuit boards driven by picaxe chips. I have an engineering friend who can explain the design process and programming far better than I. Provide me you email, as the explanation and schematics should provide some clarity on how I approached this project. As the video stated, I built individual circuit boards for each component which made for easier programming and redesigning / modifying a program without influencing the rest of the circuits. I have 12 individual circuit boards on this pinball , driving things like pop bumpers, sling shots, kickout hole, targets, rollover wires , buttons and scoring, regular and bonus, not to mention the sound system to each component. You can get free Picaxe programs on the internet.
Great question. It is call a wire wrap tool for 30 awg wire and you can find them on ebay for around $18.00. They also have automatic ones but i prefer the manual tool so you can tell how tight you are making your wrap. Normally you don't have to solder those connections but I did to insure no bad connections due to vibration while playing the game. Good luck with your project. If you have any further questions just ask.
+William R Martin I bought many of the electronic parts off of ebay, like power supplies, LED's, electrical wiring, circuit boards, electronic relays, speakers, digital power supply for sound system, stainless steel, plexiglass and the like. Also old parts, like scoring reels, ball saver and ball return. Those parts are not produced anymore. Basic components like sling shots, pop bumpers, flippers, inserts, shooters, kick out holes from the various pinball companies. I use 3/4 birch plywood for the cabinet ( home depot) 1/2 birch plywood for back box( home depot). The playfield is 1/2 in 9 ply, Baltic birch plywood. If you shop smart and do all your own fabrication, you can build a pinball for around $1200 give or take a couple hundred. Note: I use Picaxe chips in the circuit boards. The programs are free, you will have to purchase their cable 15-20 dollars to do your own programming. Use a reusable breadboard with the basic picaxe setup. I used 20 X 2 picaxe chips for all but one of the circuit boards and that was the bonus board that used a 40 X 2 picaxe chip. You will find great deals on ebay from Hong Kong and China for electronic parts. Good luck with your project and if you have any further questions just ask
I was wanting to use slingshots as paddles in a board game I'm making (think Pong). The problem is, I have no idea what parts I'd need other than the kicker assembly itself. Could you give me the insight as to what kind of power supply I'd need to solely drive two slingshots, and if anything more than the slingshots and power supply would be required?
Dorgodorato, You need two power supplies. A 48 to 50 DC volt,,8 amp and a 5 volt DC , 8 amp power supply. You need DC solid state relays in this range to drive the logic's and the component. If you need additional information provide an email and I will answer any additional questions.
Very nice work. You could save a lot of space and cable mess if you had thought and design a single board with driver transistors instead of that large quantity of big ssr's. The pinball would have looked even better.
Since I worked from scratch we did a lot of trial and error. This meant that working with a large board would be much more difficult to make corrections or adjustments . Now that we have a better understanding of the process the large board would be l preferable. Thanks for your suggestion
Yes, much of your electronics can be purchased on line through ebay companies at a fraction of the cost. Also, you can obtain free sounds for your pinball from sites like Sound Bible. We used an older Picaxe program, which is free on line. Most of the chips were 20X2 for around 5 dollars. The provide a lot of detail on how to do many of the functions found in a pinball. Unfortunately, there is very little information on how to build a pinball machine. Much of what I have researched were how to fix or repair a component. I surmised that each pinball is so dramatically different, that there are no generic designs that I could research. Photos don't help much is exact measurements as they are taken at angles and you will be dealing with critical measurements within a pencil line. Unfortunately, most of what you design is trial and error. Suggestion: you can always buy an old cheap playfield that will provide many of the measurements and angles for some of the components, shooter groove, return lanes, etc. as a start. I just figured it out on my own. I think the fun building this pinball was the experimentation on the white wood (practice play field) and solving many of the design problems by trial and error. One other suggestion: we built individual circuit boards for each component, so we could reduce design changes to a large complex circuit board. This made it much easier to design functions for a component. Good luck for your project and anything I can help with just ask.
@@phyxis101 Thanks for your reply. I am very interested in making one of these and have a lot to learn myself. I make Mame arcades for fun and I am planning a virtual pinball table. First, I will buy a few cheap beat up tables to repair to learn as much as possible then build a real one. I have been doing so much research and now I am beginning to understand the full complexity it takes to make one of these. I am good at researching and finding things out and I know I have a long ways to go. If from time to time I ever get stuck I will take your offer and drop you a quick line. Thanks Again!!
cool cant wait. loved the harness, and the pcb/breadboards were cool (and the way you do them with the little fork junction things i liked!) except greedilyish id rather see discrete components rather than integrated circuits.
Thanks for this great and detailed video. I watched it before restoring my own pinball machine with an Arduino. Although I went a different and "simpler" route using MOSFETS, I found a lot of the details to be quite helpful, especially the part about making your own plastics. I've got one question since you didn't use any inserts with text on them. Would a waterslide paper be a good solution for making an insert or is there a better way? On one of my playfields an insert is missing and I need to get a graphic on it, but since you can't attach it from below there will be a lot of wear on it.
Yea, I am old school, glad to hear that you were able to use a more modern method to be successful. I did use waterslide paper for all the numbering and lettering on the playfield. If you use very thin waterslide paper (papilio) and sand your insert level with the playfield, then a light coat of polyurethane to make it shiny again and then apply the waterslide paper. After the 3 or 4 coats of thin polyurethane over the playfield, everything should level out. Of course, wet sand between coats. If you have already clear coated your playfield the waterslide paper will not hold up to the pinball wear. Let me know how you did. Thanks for the nice comments.
This is unfortunately the case, I already coated the playfield and the insert. I could remove the insert and reglue it after attaching the waterslide, but I'm not sure that this will hold. I'm currently working on another playfield, so it's not urgent, but if I find a good solution I will let you know.
I did it ! I should'nt have watched your video...So far it looks really good, but it'll be some time before I get the board up and running again, so I can't say anything about how it holds up. I will clearcoat it a lot before inserting it again.
Thanks for the comment. Hoping to add a number of videos, on on the additional lighting including strobe to enhance the visual experience when playing the game.
Thank you for this video, I'm finding it very useful in my own custom game project. I had a question on the jig you made for the shooter lane. How thick is the plywood? Same 1/2" as the playfield? And is the guide just a second piece of plywood glued on top?
Great question. Notice the strip of wood on the bottom of the jig. It is exactly one quarter inch. This allows you to start have way through the playfield and by the time you reach the end of the jig the shooter groove will end.. Sorry for the late response. Hope this helps
Gymnrat, thanks for the comments. It really was a challenging project, but fun all the way. Glad you liked the video. Hope to do some more videos on additions to the pinball soon
Greetings,I have always wanted to do this. Any ideas on how to write the code that keeps track of the score? I lOVE the EM idea as I can understand how that works. Anyway, my machine is going to be insutrial steam punk with lots of coppery colors and ramps. Thanks. Jeff
Jeff Acheson I have two ways to keep score. Regular score that is added directly from the component and bonus scores that are tallied and added at the end of each ball. If you want that type of scoring sequence give me your email and I will try to provide some information on the programing. Thanks for your interest.
phyxis101 Jeff, I used a picaxe 20X2 chip in the circuit board written in basic pic code. If you need more specific information just provide an email and I can send more detailed information.
Of course it was 5 years ago, but I budgeted for 1250 dollars and ended up 1350 dollars. Really research you electronic items and get your cost down and fabricate as much as you can and save. I believe that you can do most projects for less than 1/3 of cost .
I always try to budget for 1/3 the actual cost of a project. I budgeted for $1250 and spent $1350. If you do good research on where to purchase and fabricate as much as you can, cost go way down. Example: solid state relay $50 got them for $7 and they shipped them free.
There are lots of free sounds you can find on the internet. Soundbible is one of the sources I used. Use the MP3 format as they load up faster on your sound card. Stay away from royalty free sites as they are not free. If you have a digital recording device you can record some cool sounds from non free sites. There are literally thousands of sounds for you to choose from on these sites. Keep your sounds short so they have time to load up and play before the pinball hits another component. Thanks for asking.
arduino relay question. I am converting a gottlieb electromechanical pinball to arduino control. These things have lots of solenoids using pulses of relatively high voltage. I read on Amazon comments that to use these with same, you need to add an rc snubber or the relay will be shot to shit in no time. can anyone shed light on this? Thanks
EnergeticWaves, I am old school, using circuit boards and picaxe chips. I can tell you that we tried to use mechanical relays and they arced like crazy and we knew that the relays would not last. We switched to a heavy duty solid state DC relay and there was no noticeable arcing. I have been playing this game for over two years now and not experience any problem with the solid state relays. We used Fotec ssr-25. They are in the perfect range for this application. We were able to purchase them directly from the manufacture in China for $7.50 apiece through Ebay. Of course there are many other ways to resolve this problem, but is my solution. Hope this helps.
EnergeticWaves, Yes we are aware of counterfeit ss relays. Fortunately, I have an electrical engineer who knows were to buy electrical components so we are always getting good components. We did some extensive testing before we use any of the components incorporated into the pinball. To date, we have not experienced any failures. You will find a variety of inferior products, digital cameras is another good example to be wary of. Thanks for the good advice thought, I am sure it will enlighten people who want to consider building a pinball.
EnergeticWaves Both Picaxe and arduino have the same 20 milliamperes to drive the relays so you should have no problem powering pinball coils. Note: not much has changed in the makeup of pinball components since the 60's. Good luck with your project and if you have any further questions just ask.
Thanks for the comment. Very challenging project, but very rewarding. I tried to provide a comprehensive overview of the pinball project for future builders of homemade pinball machines. Not much information on the internet on how to build pinball machines.
@39:05 Why do you recommend the use of a solid-state relay? What purpose will it serve? Why would you even consider the use of an SSR (read TRIAC) over a MOSFET when switching DC?
First of all, you did a great job of constructing a pinball. Will you say what you used for your final playfield? I've been trying to find a source for 13-ply 17/32" Baltic birch to no avail. Now that I've finished watching the video, I see how you're using those relays. I suspect that you could have saved a fair bit of money by simply using MOSFETs. Solid state relays are generally reserved for switching A/C by virtue of their TRIAC; in fact, this may be the first DC switching application that I've seen. You'll want to feed your Arduino with the 5V supply. The 12V input is just going into a regulator that drops 7V as heat. The Atmel chip has a maximum Vcc of +5.5V. I was a bit shocked by your use of wire wrapping. If you learn to use KiCad, Eagle, or (my favorite) DipTrace, you'll be able order a two-sided board from OshPark for $5 per square inch, in triplicate. So, by using stand-up resistors and proper routing, you could get three of your largest board for maybe $30.
Michael, thanks for the positive comment on the pinball project. We tried to use mechanical relays, but the amperage caused massive arcing and burning of coils. When we switched to ssr-25 dd there was no arcing. You are correct that these relays cost around $50, but if you buy them from the manufacture you can purchase them for $7.50 a piece and free shipping. I used 14 in the pinball. Now as for the Baltic birch, you want 1/2 Baltic birch plywood 30X60 inch,which is 9 ply. All your components are designed around 1/2 thick plywood. You can purchase for around $35 plus $10.50 shipping. You only use this for your final playfield not your whitewood, which is 1/2 5 ply birch from Home Depot. I did not use Arduino, but Picaxe to design and program my chips. I can purchase 8X12 inch two-sided boards ,5 pack for around $25.The Picaxe chips, 20X2 cost around $5 a piece and the 40X2 a little more. I use about 15 20X2 chips and one 40X2 chip on individual circuit boards for each component. This made construction and programming much easier. What I liked about the older circuit construction is it is easier to see and change your components to get the desired results. Remember, we are building a prototype, but hey, whatever works for you go for it. I used many power supply's for this project. One 48 volt,8 amp DC, one 5 volt,8 amp DC, five 12 volt DC and one 3 volt DC. You might have guessed I am from an older generation and you were brought up on the newer technology. I built a pinball from the electro-mechanical generation, but I use more modern technology to reduce maintenance and better efficiency . I hope my comments help you in you projects and if you have any further questions, please ask.
Thank you for the response. I recognize that you went with Microchip picaxe for the main logic, which is great! I haven't worked with Microchip, only Atmel microcontrollers. The "blue board" that you show @1:02:40 is an Arduino variant with an Atmel AtMega MC; you say that it is running from a 12vDC power supply. You should be running the Arduino from a 5v source. I had read on one source that the 17/32" plywood was used to allow for a 1/32" finish sanding. Though, some videos from the Stern assembly line at Chicago Gaming Co. show nine ply playfields. Can you provide your source for those 30"x60" sheets? If those SSRs are working for you, then you should probably stick with them. N-channel enhancement-mode MOSFETs are voltage controlled current limiting devices with an integral fly-back diode. MOSFETs are solid-state devices. Add an optocoupler and three resistors (one for the LED in the opto and two for a voltage divider on the emitter), suddenly you have a discrete replacement for that SSR along the lines of $1.50. I like your playfield. Glad you got the kinks worked out of your U-turn. There's soft spot in my heart for EM designs, though I was high-school age during the heyday of the mid 90s; that's when I spent time in arcades. All of the games I remember playing as a youth are on the SS top-ten.
Michael, I am using a 5 volt DC power supply for the circuit boards, the 12 volt DC power supply,s run LED light strips, signs, speakers,car radio, etc. I also use a 3 volt DC power supply to light up my individual LEDs, like in the backglass and under plastics which eliminates the use of resistors. Stern uses a commercial sander for their process. Since I hand sanded my playfield, I mounted my inserts just proud of the surface so I could light sand and get a smooth surface. You will be ok with 1/2 inch 9 ply. The wood+shop Inc has 1/2 baltic birch 30X60 for $35.00 plus shipping. You can use the other pieces to practice cutting out slots , shooter groove, insert holes for the final playfield. You seem to have a better knowledge of the newer stuff than I do, but in the end we will both have a working pinball. I was able to construct this pinball for around $1300 and a year's work. If you keep it to a one player game, you can make it as complicated as you want and keep program stuff to a reasonable end result. Combining reels, up posts and simple returns made my project much more enjoyable. Nice talking to you. Tom
Spiky, I just looked at a lot of photos of pinballs, both inside and out and started to put together a plan to build a working playfield. The video goes through the process that I used to reach my final goal. Lots of trial and error as there is no definitive design for building a pinball. Lots of fun and lots of hard work, but in the end you have a one of a kind pinball. Thanks for the question.
+phyxis101 thank you for replying Iv always wanted to build a real pinball machine since i was younger and there was no one who could teach me about how these machines work at the time but this helped me alot iv always loved pinball now you sir are a renaissance man...
Spiky, thanks for the positive comments. If you ever decide to build one, I can provide some additional information on the inner workings of the pinball
+phyxis101 thank you I really appreciate your help im going to plan out the pinball machine and the concept and other aspects of the pinball machine and based from your knowledge it can help me and apply it to my pinball build once i have it all planned out i will keep in touch with you once again thank you. ps: sorry for the silly name change my little brother changed it when i seen my channel in case you got confused. Once again thanks
Wish I knew where you found 3000' of wire for $40. That or inflation has gone up by a hell of a lot. Cheapest I can find is $120. Unless you meant $40 per 1000' roll?
Thanks for your comment. You are right about getting cost down. The wiring I purchased on Ebay was made in 1989 and there were 3 -1000 foot reels. I was lucky to get them for 40 dollars. I waited 6 and 1/2 months on Ebay to find a Bally return mechanism for my pinball and got it for 21 dollars at 3am. You never know when a good deal will come your way. The 24 gauge stranded wire is the most use in the pinball, other than the pop bumpers, flippers, etc. so if your cost won't be much for wiring. I did not use even half of the 1000 feet in each reel since I used solid state relays and microchips to run everything. Good luck with your project and if you need more information just add your email and I will try to provided addition information.
Really wish this guy would make more videos on how to build pinball machines .. he'd become so famous
Thanks for the nice comments. I have tried to provide as much information as i could in the 80 plus minutes
This was definetely the hardest thing when you do by yourself.... a big thumbs up for you!!!
Thanks for the comment. Planning to add some additional videos on lighting that I added to make the game more visual
@@phyxis101 wow. Sub went.. :D
Thank you for this. I think I might try it! Looks intimidating, but the step by step breakdown really helps.
You are exactly right, break it down into little compartments , just like a complex puzzle and you will be able to solve any issues and have a successful project. Sorry for the late reply, haven't been here for awhile.
phyxis101 thanks! I’d love to see more if you have content anywhere else.
Wow, looks great :)
glad you like it ... lots of work but a great game to play in the end
It may be really hard to do, but if would be awesome if you had a series where you built a machine from scratch or nearly from scratch. And in each video you show some progress on the build and build some pieces live. Like all the white board process and the final building. That would be awesome.
That would really be cool. It takes quite a bit of time to construct each segment that is why it is 86 minutes long. Great idea though. Thanks for the comments.
@@phyxis101 I completely understand, its an incredibly complex process and well, in this video you are sumarizing most of the process and giving tips, which is great.
Thank you so much for making this video! You're right, there's not a lot of good info out there, so this is really great to have!
Glad you liked the video. Added an additional sound system and lighting to this pinball to make it more interesting. Hope to video it for builders to see how I incorporated them into the pinball. Fairly inexpensive add ons.
This is an amazing video with tons of useful information. Do you plan on building another one and maybe video document all the steps? I would love to build one myself but just don’t have the courage to start as the electronics are a complete mystery for me. Once again, thank you for your contribution to this topic!! Stay safe.
Thanks for your comments. I think one pinball in a lifetime is enough. Was lots of fun and full of challenges, but I finally got my pinball.
While this is a long video it is broken down into a number of topics separated by a description in white lettering with a blue background. All the topics should be beneficial to anyone interested in building a pinball machine from scratch.
Absolutely phenomenal video!
Thanks , glad you enjoyed the video. Really a fun project to build and love to watch people play it, especially my grandkids.
I wish you had more discussion about the software
I agree. We used the picaxe programs. They are free and the chips are very economical. The programs help you design your own way of getting circuitry to work as you envision it to work. There is no easy way to discuss this on the internet. Hope this helps.
Great video! Thanks for your time explaining everything.
Can you provide more details about the audio? I'm curious about where you store the audio files and how to play them simultaneously when each action happens? I suspect the pics will tell something to play a specific audio files?
Thanks
I actually have two sound systems. I purchased a sound card for around 23 dollars. It uses a flash drive with a MP3 format. I then built a sound board that is programmed to recognize a numerical assignment to each sound, for instance 001 would be a rollover button. When the sound board gets a signal, it prompts the sound card to play that particular sound. If you use this format keep the sounds to 2-3 seconds for most of the sounds so they do not get cut off when the pinball hits another module. I assigned 15 sounds total in this game. The second sound system is a radio that excepts SD cards. I was then able to copy some music off the internet using a digital recorder and play the blended sound tracks through separate speakers. Both systems allow you to adjust the volumes and sounds you think best for your game.
great video! that is quite the accomplishment! Clearly this takes a lot of work and a lot of patience. I would like to build my own but I dont have the patience or the tools or the workspace. :-) I like that all your connections are setup so you can easily replace parts. very smart.
Glad you liked the video. Hope to have some more videos on other projects in the future.
wow just getting into pinball proper and this is mental 👍
Excellent presentation. Thank you. Question: Isn't the Arduino able to handle all the logic so that you wouldn't need to make custom circuit boards for each playfield component? Isn't there a "shield" for that ?
Subscribing because of the video and how genuinely humble and nice you are to everyone in the comments. You are very brilliant to do all this from pictures and checking out some machines. My question is installing one of your designs in a used pinball machine that has been gutted? So basically you have the shell and the legs and then completing it and sanding off the graphics from the old machine and repaint it. Is your design one that one could just drop in to most pinball machines? Thank you again for the video as I had a hard time finding any information and little for sale that isn’t thousands of dollars.
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, my machine is a standard size machine. If you had a old cabinet and back box, you could take the final playfield and install it into the shell and wire it up and you would have a brand new game. I would suggest that you build your own cabinet and back box though, as usually the old games are really banged up and the legs are very loose. Fixing up an old machine may take longer that just making your own. Caution on the old machines. many of them are really worn out and need extensive repair, especially the older ones known as electro-machanical machines. Lots of mechanical relays will need cleaning and repair. The newer ones use circuit boards and less relays, but even they need servicing to get them to play as intended. If you are into that, go for it. I spent around 1350 dollars on my machine, but I did all of the work myself and all the fabrication. This saves a lot of money in the long run. Good luck with your project and ask any other questions and I will try to answer them.
Oh and great video I am now planning on tackling this in the coming years.
Thanks for the question. good luck with your project.
How to build a pinball machine from scratch provides an overview of topics describing the various processes in the construction of a pinball machine.
Hello!
I have quite an ambitious personality and I am currently starting an engineering course, I have been working on the design for quite some time in very basic form, I would greatly appreciate if there was some way for you to explain in depth about the circuit boards as I have tried researching as much as possible.
Sadly it feels like analog pinball machines are becoming a lost technology and I would love some instructions on how to create this, I realise how foolish it seems to ask as a person who has little to no experience with circuit boards, coding, and wiring.
If you have any suggestions about how I can learn more about what I need to follow through on this endeavor, I would greatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
RL III
***** I would like to provide some insight into the process. While I designed an early 1970's machine, most of the electronics are circuit boards driven by picaxe chips. I have an engineering friend who can explain the design process and programming far better than I. Provide me you email, as the explanation and schematics should provide some clarity on how I approached this project. As the video stated, I built individual circuit boards for each component which made for easier programming and redesigning / modifying a program without influencing the rest of the circuits. I have 12 individual circuit boards on this pinball , driving things like pop bumpers, sling shots, kickout hole, targets, rollover wires , buttons and scoring, regular and bonus, not to mention the sound system to each component. You can get free Picaxe programs on the internet.
HI Phyxis101 - just wondering if you have a name for that tool that winds the wire onto your vector posts?
Great question. It is call a wire wrap tool for 30 awg wire and you can find them on ebay for around $18.00. They also have automatic ones but i prefer the manual tool so you can tell how tight you are making your wrap. Normally you don't have to solder those connections but I did to insure no bad connections due to vibration while playing the game. Good luck with your project. If you have any further questions just ask.
I'm impressed. Can you tell us where you got all your parts and what you spent?
+William R Martin I bought many of the electronic parts off of ebay, like power supplies, LED's, electrical wiring, circuit boards, electronic relays, speakers, digital power supply for sound system, stainless steel, plexiglass and the like. Also old parts, like scoring reels, ball saver and ball return. Those parts are not produced anymore. Basic components like sling shots, pop bumpers, flippers, inserts, shooters, kick out holes from the various pinball companies. I use 3/4 birch plywood for the cabinet ( home depot) 1/2 birch plywood for back box( home depot). The playfield is 1/2 in 9 ply, Baltic birch plywood. If you shop smart and do all your own fabrication, you can build a pinball for around $1200 give or take a couple hundred. Note: I use Picaxe chips in the circuit boards. The programs are free, you will have to purchase their cable 15-20 dollars to do your own programming. Use a reusable breadboard with the basic picaxe setup. I used 20 X 2 picaxe chips for all but one of the circuit boards and that was the bonus board that used a 40 X 2 picaxe chip. You will find great deals on ebay from Hong Kong and China for electronic parts. Good luck with your project and if you have any further questions just ask
Absolutely Amazing!!! Fantastic video! Thanks for the info. I'll be making a pinball machine in the future and this will be very helpful
I was wanting to use slingshots as paddles in a board game I'm making (think Pong). The problem is, I have no idea what parts I'd need other than the kicker assembly itself. Could you give me the insight as to what kind of power supply I'd need to solely drive two slingshots, and if anything more than the slingshots and power supply would be required?
Dorgodorato, You need two power supplies. A 48 to 50 DC volt,,8 amp and a 5 volt DC , 8 amp power supply. You need DC solid state relays in this range to drive the logic's and the component. If you need additional information provide an email and I will answer any additional questions.
Very nice work. You could save a lot of space and cable mess if you had thought and design a single board with driver transistors instead of that large quantity of big ssr's. The pinball would have looked even better.
Since I worked from scratch we did a lot of trial and error. This meant that working with a large board would be much more difficult to make corrections or adjustments . Now that we have a better understanding of the process the large board would be l preferable. Thanks for your suggestion
Can you point me in the direction of any additional info on making a pinball I would greatly appreciate it thanx!
Yes, much of your electronics can be purchased on line through ebay companies at a fraction of the cost. Also, you can obtain free sounds for your pinball from sites like Sound Bible. We used an older Picaxe program, which is free on line. Most of the chips were 20X2 for around 5 dollars. The provide a lot of detail on how to do many of the functions found in a pinball. Unfortunately, there is very little information on how to build a pinball machine. Much of what I have researched were how to fix or repair a component. I surmised that each pinball is so dramatically different, that there are no generic designs that I could research. Photos don't help much is exact measurements as they are taken at angles and you will be dealing with critical measurements within a pencil line. Unfortunately, most of what you design is trial and error. Suggestion: you can always buy an old cheap playfield that will provide many of the measurements and angles for some of the components, shooter groove, return lanes, etc. as a start. I just figured it out on my own. I think the fun building this pinball was the experimentation on the white wood (practice play field) and solving many of the design problems by trial and error. One other suggestion: we built individual circuit boards for each component, so we could reduce design changes to a large complex circuit board. This made it much easier to design functions for a component. Good luck for your project and anything I can help with just ask.
@@phyxis101 Thanks for your reply. I am very interested in making one of these and have a lot to learn myself. I make Mame arcades for fun and I am planning a virtual pinball table. First, I will buy a few cheap beat up tables to repair to learn as much as possible then build a real one. I have been doing so much research and now I am beginning to understand the full complexity it takes to make one of these. I am good at researching and finding things out and I know I have a long ways to go. If from time to time I ever get stuck I will take your offer and drop you a quick line. Thanks Again!!
excellent job, thanks for making video
Thanks Magnus, plan to do some more upgrades on lighting additions and sound system to this pinball soon.
cool cant wait. loved the harness, and the pcb/breadboards were cool (and the way you do them with the little fork junction things i liked!) except greedilyish id rather see discrete components rather than integrated circuits.
When you are designing prototypes, it helps to have larger circuits so you can make changes to the designs while you are designing the boards
Thanks for this great and detailed video. I watched it before restoring my own pinball machine with an Arduino. Although I went a different and "simpler" route using MOSFETS, I found a lot of the details to be quite helpful, especially the part about making your own plastics. I've got one question since you didn't use any inserts with text on them. Would a waterslide paper be a good solution for making an insert or is there a better way? On one of my playfields an insert is missing and I need to get a graphic on it, but since you can't attach it from below there will be a lot of wear on it.
Yea, I am old school, glad to hear that you were able to use a more modern method to be successful. I did use waterslide paper for all the numbering and lettering on the playfield. If you use very thin waterslide paper (papilio) and sand your insert level with the playfield, then a light coat of polyurethane to make it shiny again and then apply the waterslide paper. After the 3 or 4 coats of thin polyurethane over the playfield, everything should level out. Of course, wet sand between coats. If you have already clear coated your playfield the waterslide paper will not hold up to the pinball wear. Let me know how you did. Thanks for the nice comments.
This is unfortunately the case, I already coated the playfield and the insert. I could remove the insert and reglue it after attaching the waterslide, but I'm not sure that this will hold. I'm currently working on another playfield, so it's not urgent, but if I find a good solution I will let you know.
Best not to not try to fix the insert once the playfield is coated. I have some little flaws in my game too.
I did it ! I should'nt have watched your video...So far it looks really good, but it'll be some time before I get the board up and running again, so I can't say anything about how it holds up. I will clearcoat it a lot before inserting it again.
Glad you were able to get the insert out. Getting the insert in level will be the tricky part. Good luck with your project
So damn good ... work of art!
Thanks for the comment. Hoping to add a number of videos, on on the additional lighting including strobe to enhance the visual experience when playing the game.
Thank you for this video, I'm finding it very useful in my own custom game project. I had a question on the jig you made for the shooter lane. How thick is the plywood? Same 1/2" as the playfield? And is the guide just a second piece of plywood glued on top?
Great question. Notice the strip of wood on the bottom of the jig. It is exactly one quarter inch. This allows you to start have way through the playfield and by the time you reach the end of the jig the shooter groove will end.. Sorry for the late response. Hope this helps
WOW! Very comprehensive GREAT project ! looks AWESOME Thank you for posting Jut subscribed and liked
Gymnrat, thanks for the comments. It really was a challenging project, but fun all the way. Glad you liked the video. Hope to do some more videos on additions to the pinball soon
VG Sir. I look forward to seeing the sequels :)
Thanks for the positive comments. I plan to add some new videos for the add ons, like strobe lighting etc. soon.
Greetings,I have always wanted to do this. Any ideas on how to write the code that keeps track of the score? I lOVE the EM idea as I can understand how that works.
Anyway, my machine is going to be insutrial steam punk with lots of coppery colors and ramps.
Thanks. Jeff
Jeff Acheson I have two ways to keep score. Regular score that is added directly from the component and bonus scores that are tallied and added at the end of each ball. If you want that type of scoring sequence give me your email and I will try to provide some information on the programing. Thanks for your interest.
phyxis101 Jeff, I used a picaxe 20X2 chip in the circuit board written in basic pic code. If you need more specific information just provide an email and I can send more detailed information.
What was the final cost , less your time?
Of course it was 5 years ago, but I budgeted for 1250 dollars and ended up 1350 dollars. Really research you electronic items and get your cost down and fabricate as much as you can and save. I believe that you can do most projects for less than 1/3 of cost .
I always try to budget for 1/3 the actual cost of a project. I budgeted for $1250 and spent $1350. If you do good research on where to purchase and fabricate as much as you can, cost go way down. Example: solid state relay $50 got them for $7 and they shipped them free.
Great Job! phyxis101, where did you get the cool sounds for the game?
There are lots of free sounds you can find on the internet. Soundbible is one of the sources I used. Use the MP3 format as they load up faster on your sound card. Stay away from royalty free sites as they are not free. If you have a digital recording device you can record some cool sounds from non free sites. There are literally thousands of sounds for you to choose from on these sites. Keep your sounds short so they have time to load up and play before the pinball hits another component. Thanks for asking.
arduino relay question. I am converting a gottlieb electromechanical pinball to arduino control. These things have lots of solenoids using pulses of relatively high voltage. I read on Amazon comments that to use these with same, you need to add an rc snubber or the relay will be shot to shit in no time. can anyone shed light on this? Thanks
EnergeticWaves, I am old school, using circuit boards and picaxe chips. I can tell you that we tried to use mechanical relays and they arced like crazy and we knew that the relays would not last. We switched to a heavy duty solid state DC relay and there was no noticeable arcing. I have been playing this game for over two years now and not experience any problem with the solid state relays. We used Fotec ssr-25. They are in the perfect range for this application. We were able to purchase them directly from the manufacture in China for $7.50 apiece through Ebay. Of course there are many other ways to resolve this problem, but is my solution. Hope this helps.
www.instructables.com/id/The-inner-workings-of-Counterfeit-FOTEK-SSRs/
EnergeticWaves, Yes we are aware of counterfeit ss relays. Fortunately, I have an electrical engineer who knows were to buy electrical components so we are always getting good components. We did some extensive testing before we use any of the components incorporated into the pinball. To date, we have not experienced any failures. You will find a variety of inferior products, digital cameras is another good example to be wary of. Thanks for the good advice thought, I am sure it will enlighten people who want to consider building a pinball.
phyxis101 so I can power gottlieb sixties coils with these and not worry about it? Will an arduino give it enough power?
EnergeticWaves Both Picaxe and arduino have the same 20 milliamperes to drive the relays so you should have no problem powering pinball coils. Note: not much has changed in the makeup of pinball components since the 60's. Good luck with your project and if you have any further questions just ask.
Super impressive 😊
Thanks for the comment. Very challenging project, but very rewarding. I tried to provide a comprehensive overview of the pinball project for future builders of homemade pinball machines. Not much information on the internet on how to build pinball machines.
@39:05 Why do you recommend the use of a solid-state relay? What purpose will it serve? Why would you even consider the use of an SSR (read TRIAC) over a MOSFET when switching DC?
First of all, you did a great job of constructing a pinball. Will you say what you used for your final playfield? I've been trying to find a source for 13-ply 17/32" Baltic birch to no avail.
Now that I've finished watching the video, I see how you're using those relays. I suspect that you could have saved a fair bit of money by simply using MOSFETs. Solid state relays are generally reserved for switching A/C by virtue of their TRIAC; in fact, this may be the first DC switching application that I've seen.
You'll want to feed your Arduino with the 5V supply. The 12V input is just going into a regulator that drops 7V as heat. The Atmel chip has a maximum Vcc of +5.5V.
I was a bit shocked by your use of wire wrapping. If you learn to use KiCad, Eagle, or (my favorite) DipTrace, you'll be able order a two-sided board from OshPark for $5 per square inch, in triplicate. So, by using stand-up resistors and proper routing, you could get three of your largest board for maybe $30.
Michael, thanks for the positive comment on the pinball project. We tried to use mechanical relays, but the amperage caused massive arcing and burning of coils. When we switched to ssr-25 dd there was no arcing. You are correct that these relays cost around $50, but if you buy them from the manufacture you can purchase them for $7.50 a piece and free shipping. I used 14 in the pinball. Now as for the Baltic birch, you want 1/2 Baltic birch plywood 30X60 inch,which is 9 ply. All your components are designed around 1/2 thick plywood. You can purchase for around $35 plus $10.50 shipping. You only use this for your final playfield not your whitewood, which is 1/2 5 ply birch from Home Depot. I did not use Arduino, but Picaxe to design and program my chips. I can purchase 8X12 inch two-sided boards ,5 pack for around $25.The Picaxe chips, 20X2 cost around $5 a piece and the 40X2 a little more. I use about 15 20X2 chips and one 40X2 chip on individual circuit boards for each component. This made construction and programming much easier. What I liked about the older circuit construction is it is easier to see and change your components to get the desired results. Remember, we are building a prototype, but hey, whatever works for you go for it. I used many power supply's for this project. One 48 volt,8 amp DC, one 5 volt,8 amp DC, five 12 volt DC and one 3 volt DC. You might have guessed I am from an older generation and you were brought up on the newer technology. I built a pinball from the electro-mechanical generation, but I use more modern technology to reduce maintenance and better efficiency . I hope my comments help you in you projects and if you have any further questions, please ask.
Thank you for the response. I recognize that you went with Microchip picaxe for the main logic, which is great! I haven't worked with Microchip, only Atmel microcontrollers. The "blue board" that you show @1:02:40 is an Arduino variant with an Atmel AtMega MC; you say that it is running from a 12vDC power supply. You should be running the Arduino from a 5v source.
I had read on one source that the 17/32" plywood was used to allow for a 1/32" finish sanding. Though, some videos from the Stern assembly line at Chicago Gaming Co. show nine ply playfields. Can you provide your source for those 30"x60" sheets?
If those SSRs are working for you, then you should probably stick with them. N-channel enhancement-mode MOSFETs are voltage controlled current limiting devices with an integral fly-back diode. MOSFETs are solid-state devices. Add an optocoupler and three resistors (one for the LED in the opto and two for a voltage divider on the emitter), suddenly you have a discrete replacement for that SSR along the lines of $1.50.
I like your playfield. Glad you got the kinks worked out of your U-turn. There's soft spot in my heart for EM designs, though I was high-school age during the heyday of the mid 90s; that's when I spent time in arcades. All of the games I remember playing as a youth are on the SS top-ten.
Michael, I am using a 5 volt DC power supply for the circuit boards, the 12 volt DC power supply,s run LED light strips, signs, speakers,car radio, etc. I also use a 3 volt DC power supply to light up my individual LEDs, like in the backglass and under plastics which eliminates the use of resistors. Stern uses a commercial sander for their process. Since I hand sanded my playfield, I mounted my inserts just proud of the surface so I could light sand and get a smooth surface. You will be ok with 1/2 inch 9 ply. The wood+shop Inc has 1/2 baltic birch 30X60 for $35.00 plus shipping. You can use the other pieces to practice cutting out slots , shooter groove, insert holes for the final playfield. You seem to have a better knowledge of the newer stuff than I do, but in the end we will both have a working pinball. I was able to construct this pinball for around $1300 and a year's work. If you keep it to a one player game, you can make it as complicated as you want and keep program stuff to a reasonable end result. Combining reels, up posts and simple returns made my project much more enjoyable. Nice talking to you. Tom
Michael, I should note that the ssr 25 dd's are VDC relays.
How did you learn to build pinball machines.
Spiky, I just looked at a lot of photos of pinballs, both inside and out and started to put together a plan to build a working playfield. The video goes through the process that I used to reach my final goal. Lots of trial and error as there is no definitive design for building a pinball. Lots of fun and lots of hard work, but in the end you have a one of a kind pinball. Thanks for the question.
+phyxis101 thank you for replying Iv always wanted to build a real pinball machine since i was younger and there was no one who could teach me about how these machines work at the time but this helped me alot iv always loved pinball now you sir are a renaissance man...
Spiky, thanks for the positive comments. If you ever decide to build one, I can provide some additional information on the inner workings of the pinball
+phyxis101 thank you I really appreciate your help im going to plan out the pinball machine and the concept and other aspects of the pinball machine and based from your knowledge it can help me and apply it to my pinball build once i have it all planned out i will keep in touch with you once again thank you. ps: sorry for the silly name change my little brother changed it when i seen my channel in case you got confused. Once again thanks
Wish I knew where you found 3000' of wire for $40. That or inflation has gone up by a hell of a lot. Cheapest I can find is $120. Unless you meant $40 per 1000' roll?
Thanks for your comment. You are right about getting cost down. The wiring I purchased on Ebay was made in 1989 and there were 3 -1000 foot reels. I was lucky to get them for 40 dollars. I waited 6 and 1/2 months on Ebay to find a Bally return mechanism for my pinball and got it for 21 dollars at 3am. You never know when a good deal will come your way. The 24 gauge stranded wire is the most use in the pinball, other than the pop bumpers, flippers, etc. so if your cost won't be much for wiring. I did not use even half of the 1000 feet in each reel since I used solid state relays and microchips to run everything. Good luck with your project and if you need more information just add your email and I will try to provided addition information.
This table seems more suited to be a ss table but in any case it's beautiful
I grew up in the 60-70's so this is an electro-mechincal style machine.
wow, what a challenge. Not sure if you're a genius or a madman.. or possibly both :D
Thanks for the comment. I think the key is not to make the pinball too complicated that it does not play well.
Awesome!
Thanks , working on a levitation project now.
WOW.
So you have to jump at 3:28 to start seeing something interesting?
Actually, jumped to 18:24 because of all the blah-blah before.
@@baruq4786 Sorry you felt that way. I wanted to provide as much information in the short time frame to anyone interested.