Thomas the tank engine. TTTE.

Those small units cant handle much work... they are usually only capable of pumping out smoke for 10 seconds, then it will stop for like 2 minutes.... you'd need at least a 1500W unit if you want it to work every single time you tell it to pump out smoke, or if you want it to blow out smoke continuously.

Yeah, But you don't want so much smoke you can't see the pinball!

Is this what you mean @jason1?

 

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I'm actually planning on getting a thin sheet of polycarbonate reverse printed for the playfield and it'll just lay over the top of the Orbit1 playfield held on by all the mounting screws. I'll just need to measure the positions of all the holes and draw it up in inkscape. (When I learn how to use it)😉

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Yeah, But you don't want so much smoke you can't see the pinball!

The plan is to make it puff small amounts of smoke not a constant stream and probably only in attract mode.

Cheers Trev

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The plan is to make it puff small amounts of smoke not a constant stream and probably only in attract mode.

Cheers Trev

 

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Great idea, Also toot the whistle to attract attention.

Another thought was to make it smoke when a credit is added - Into a holding box then fan it out during play at key times.

Day 5

Just a quick trip to the shed today.

I wired up the flipper and start buttons, not the neatest wiring I've done, there won't be a credit button as I'm keeping it simple.

I also mounted the two torches to the backbox as a topper. I took Percy apart to see what I need to do with the wiring. I might just have it light up and remove the voice board as sounds will be handled by a wav trigger. Percy was reassembled so I didn't traumatize my son next time he came out to the shed.😉

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How cool is this. @stuzza it looks fantastic. Thanks so much.

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This thread is awesome Trev - i wish i had the knowledge of control systems to do this. I'm too scared to show this to the kids as they will want one as well!

Keep the info coming, and top work by Stuzza!!

I'm not sure if my electronics setup will work properly as there's something called switch bounce which I might have to address and I might have to change from an 8bit Arduino Mega to a 32bit Arduino Due which will run a lot faster but I'll work it out as I go. The switches might need pull up or pull down resistors too.

I agree the artwork is gorgeous.

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At the rate this project is going Trev, you'll be finished before @Hompins Thunderbirds pin.. :) Great work!

I'm sure Mike @Homepin will have TAG at Pinfest I'm not sure about TTTE.

Cheers Trev

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My mock ups of the translite.

Can't let @stuzza have all the fun.😉

I'm not sure if I should put the ball numbers down the bottom?

I'm hoping the game over could be a black mask on the back so when the lamp lights up it shows as a silhouette and when it's not lit you can't see it?

Cheers Trev

First attempt using photoshop.

I'm seriously thinking of going with this one.

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Day 6.

I'm going with this version and its associated black mask.

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Yep . 2nd one is the go.

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Brilliant idea a Thomas The Tank Engine pinball. Good to see someone thinking outside the square.

While it isn't going to be high tech, what it will do is get young kids involved with pinballs and this is exactly what is required if we want this industry to continue long after we are dead.

I seriously think you may be on a winner here mate. Just a pity you used a licensed theme which will prevent you from making more but at least you are opening people's eyes to what is possible with kids in mind.

Your power supply looks nice and stout. Just a tip...If you power the coils off the +12v 2 and have the return back through the -12v that will give you a potential of 24v and have 16.3amps for driving the coils.

Far more than you will need.

This is just going to be a one off for my son so there shouldn't be any hassles with licensing.

I bought a 24v switching supply for my Aussie Arcade pinball project that I'll use in this pin. It's adjustable so I'll crank it up a bit if I need more power. If Thomas doesn't make it to Pinfest this year it'll definitely be there next time.

This pin will also help iron out a few bugs before I get going on the Aussie Arcade pinball.

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Here is an alternative to your solenoid mosfet driver. You can get the one with logic level triggers and they are perfect for driving pinball coils if you parallel a couple of gates together.

They have back EMF circuitry included in the chip as well as a 2.7K series resistor to run off a 5vDC signal.....(ULN2003)

There are 7 Darlingtons in one chip and these chip are cheap and easy to get.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5Pcs-ULN2003APG-ULN2003-ULN2003AN-DIP-16-IC-NEW-/301924721216?hash=item464c1da240:g:i8sAAOSw14xWMYMK

These parts are being used a lot in current redemption machines.

A bit of data on the chips...

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ulq2003a.pdf

Just a thought..

Here are some example uses:

http://www.bristolwatch.com/ele/uln2003a.htm

The author recommends not to parallel the devices for higher current applications and to use a TIP 120 instead (even though the data sheet clearly says that you can parallel them). But he doesn't say why he doesn't like paralleling the device. Anyone know what the reason might be?

Michi.

I've had no issues paralleling the drives myself. 3 gates is the max I have used before paralleled but I suppose the issue is if you short out the thing you are driving, it will blow all 3 drives but my attitude is "who cares".

You would be replacing the whole IC anyway.

What I do like about this approach is you can mount the 2003 ICs each in a socket and if you kill it, you swap it out with another chip and all the diodes and resistors are all being changed as well with no de-soldering needed.

Even if you use one 2003 to drive just two coils because you are using 3 gates to drive each coil, look how small they are. The size of a 16pin IC with all the circuitry included and cheap as chips, no pun intended.;)

I've had no issues paralleling the drives myself. 3 gates is the max I have used before paralleled but I suppose the issue is if you short out the thing you are driving, it will blow all 3 drives but my attitude is "who cares".

Right, my thinking too.

What I do like about this approach is you can mount the 2003 ICs each in a socket and if you kill it, you swap it out with another chip and all the diodes and resistors are all being changed as well with no de-soldering needed.

Yes, it's a nice chip, really convenient.

Even if you use one 2003 to drive just two coils because you are using 3 gates to drive each coil, look how small they are. The size of a 16pin IC with all the circuitry included and cheap as chips, no pun intended.;)

They cost about a dollar each. Dirt cheap, and much easier to service than a TIP 120.

Michi.

I've been trying to figure out some of the programming today, which is coming together and I got a few bits in the mail. So I should be able to do a bit more work on the weekend.

Those LEDs are going to be fun to string together. I'm not sure how to mount them at the moment but I'll work something out.

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Gotto love those bumper caps. They look so sweet.

A trick I started doing long ago with Bally and Williams bumper caps was to not put in the screws to hold them but simply line up the holes with the bumper body holes designed for the screws and shoot clear silicon in the holes instead.

Leave it overnight and it is set.

The screws have now been replaced with flexible silicon.

The main reason for doing this was if the ball hits the cap, it doesn't break so the cap never needs replacing and it actually works perfectly.

It allows quite a bit of give but pulls the cap back in place.

If your real adventurous you can hit the silicon before it dries with one of your kid's textas to colour match the silicon with the bumper cap colour.

This looks much better than a pair of screws.

If for any reason you need to remove the cap, not very likely with LEDs, you simply rip the cap off, use a toothpick to clean out the holes ready for another use.

Bloody addressable LEDs.

If you're going to get some pay a bit more for ones with leads. Fiddly little crap things. They'd better look good.😁

The last one in the string has no lead. Pins on the incoming side and lead on the outgoing side. There are 28 here.

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Fiddly job… But it looks like you did that very cleanly!

How did you solder the pins onto the PCB? Do you have a photo that shows one from underneath?

Last time I tried to solder one of those three-pin connectors, the plastic started to melt almost immediately, so the pins came loose and out of alignment. I eventually managed, but it was messy and fiddly.

Michi.

Just like this @Michi

The pads aren't shorting together it's just the angle of the photo.

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