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Generic Tech Device Section For HomeBrew Pinball.


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Why exactly do you want them in perfect harmony with each other?. It isn't as if your ear will detect the sound being a mS or two out of sync.

 

ha, i realised almost immediately after posting that i shouldn't think out loud in a forum post :) - the clock stuff was simply me thinking about the ways the pinball cpu board would be connecting to the rPi for sound triggers and yeah theres no need at all for a clock signal.

The other thing i was thinking about was the source of the grounding for the pins on the original williams hardware - am i right in assuming that the ground source can/will come from the cpu board? cos at the moment im triggering the mcp23008 pins with the ground from the rPi?

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ha, i realised almost immediately after posting that i shouldn't think out loud in a forum post :) - the clock stuff was simply me thinking about the ways the pinball cpu board would be connecting to the rPi for sound triggers and yeah theres no need at all for a clock signal.

The other thing i was thinking about was the source of the grounding for the pins on the original williams hardware - am i right in assuming that the ground source can/will come from the cpu board? cos at the moment im triggering the mcp23008 pins with the ground from the rPi?

 

Yep, switching to ground for triggering would come from the cpu although more than likely through the driver board.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Multuple Eddy Switch Custer.

 

I've been thinking about making the playfield switches easier for the HomeBrewer where as instead of individual switches for each rollover or switch on the playfield, what if each switch was an Eddy switch that all went to a bank of say 10 eddy switch circuits all on one board that is fitted to the underside of the playfield?.

 

The board could include a De-bounce circuit for each of the say 10 inputs coming from the say 10 Eddy switches on the playfield.

 

The advantages with using eddy switches is you don't need to create a slot for a switch actuator wire for every rollover as the Eddy switch can be mounted to the underside of the playfield and "sees" though the playfield to detect the ball.

 

I was thinking 10 inputs because 10 would be about right for most machines rollover switch needs but maybe a 5 input option as well would serve everyone's needs better.

 

The cost of a board made to do this using someone like @Homepin to make it and supply suitable Eddy detectors I would suspect a lot cheaper than buying micros, holders etc and the effort required to mill an actuator wire slot for each switch would be no longer needed.

 

Also a playfield without slots would allow for easier playfield painting.

 

Any thoughts on this or a similar idea HomeBrew boys?

 

This is a picture of a single Eddy switch detector board..

 

http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wpc/wmseddy1.jpg

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Eddy switches are a reasonable idea. However they can be a bit finicky . I have them on my Theatre of magic, and they continually go out of adjustment ( tuning ). If a good reliable circuit was designed, then yes, they would suit homebrews quite nicely. It makes it a lot easier to create a playfield.
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Eddy switches are a reasonable idea. However they can be a bit finicky . I have them on my Theatre of magic, and they continually go out of adjustment ( tuning ). If a good reliable circuit was designed, then yes, they would suit homebrews quite nicely. It makes it a lot easier to create a playfield.

 

Yes they can be finicky. I've spend time adjusting Twilight Zone ones myself.

 

What I'm hoping is technology has improved, costs have gone down and with electronics, there is more than one way to get what you want.

 

Not having to cut out every playfield rollover slot in the playfield is the main advantage though for the HomeBrewer I think.

 

Where is my direct line to HomePin?.

 

HomePin, I have another one of those stupid ideas to run past you.:o

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  • 1 month later...

aye, @Autosteve , in the interest of getting things moving along for the williams sys4-7 drop in rPi sound engine i am shifting dev to a python based lib called pydub. it uses libav and ffmpeg for playback but more importantly has a nice set of features that should offer a lot of config options for playback types in an easy to use manner. this means that others will be able to add and change stuff as they see fit and install shouldnt be too complex.

 

i will open a new topic later so as not to hijack this thread, when i have something useful to demo...

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aye, @Autosteve , in the interest of getting things moving along for the williams sys4-7 drop in rPi sound engine i am shifting dev to a python based lib called pydub. it uses libav and ffmpeg for playback but more importantly has a nice set of features that should offer a lot of config options for playback types in an easy to use manner. this means that others will be able to add and change stuff as they see fit and install shouldnt be too complex.

 

i will open a new topic later so as not to hijack this thread, when i have something useful to demo...

 

I'm not 100% sure it will be as useful to me any longer unless I can use it with Bally board sets which I probably can.

 

I haven't actually had a good look exactly how Ballys select the sounds yet. Early Bally SS machines used transistors to drive coils for chimes exactly as Williams did so it may not be that different in later model Ballys anyway but I certainly haven't looked, more taking it for granted ATM it will work that way.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This isn't a priority at the moment but I've had these IN-1 nixie tubes, high voltage supply and control chips lying around for a while now so I thought I'd design a board for them to use as a pinball display. I've been drawing the nixie tube in Designspark this afternoon and have been thinking about how to mount them on the board as they're built to plug in not solder in. You can buy individual solder pin sockets or full sockets for them but they're painfully expensive. I've decided to cut down some female molex crimps and solder them to the board. $10 against $132 for the proper pins, sounds good to me.[emoji16] I have 12 tubes so I'm thinking of using two for credits two for ball and match numbers and eight for the score.

Cheers Trevf5dd085dd281c6982297ef817605509d.jpgbe34dc450ad7ad052023ba8423c57c60.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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This isn't a priority at the moment but I've had these IN-1 nixie tubes, high voltage supply and control chips lying around for a while now so I thought I'd design a board for them to use as a pinball display. I've been drawing the nixie tube in Designspark this afternoon and have been thinking about how to mount them on the board as they're built to plug in not solder in. You can buy individual solder pin sockets or full sockets for them but they're painfully expensive. I've decided to cut down some female molex crimps and solder them to the board. $10 against $132 for the proper pins, sounds good to me.[emoji16] I have 12 tubes so I'm thinking of using two for credits two for ball and match numbers and eight for the score.

Cheers Trevf5dd085dd281c6982297ef817605509d.jpgbe34dc450ad7ad052023ba8423c57c60.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

I dont know where you find the time @BIG Trev ? I will make a nixie clock one day. I also have some nixie tubes that will end up being a VU display, they are a long tube. Have a look at things called "magic eye tubes " then you might have even more projects. keep up the good work :D

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  • 1 month later...

The cost of a board made to do this using someone like @Homepin to make it and supply suitable Eddy detectors I would suspect a lot cheaper than buying micros, holders etc and the effort required to mill an actuator wire slot for each switch would be no longer needed.

 

Also a playfield without slots would allow for easier playfield painting.

 

Any thoughts on this or a similar idea HomeBrew boys?

I am using inductive proximity sensors like LJ18A3-8-Z/BX or LJ12A3-4-Z/BX even TL-W5MC1 . Search on aliexpress. They only cost a couple of dollars, and work reliable.

They don't have huge detection distances, so the playfield needs to be hollowed out, or mounted below an insert, to get the sensor close enough to the sensor.

There are also more expensive variants like the SE-3025B that can sense longer distances and would be able to detect through a full thickness playfield.

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I'm trying to dumb it down a bit electronics wise and steering more to new playfield ideas and mechanisms.

 

I think these will have more of an impact on a HomeBrew than electronic boards I could possibly make with electronics the advantage person probably wouldn't be aware of.

 

As I want to use old factory boards anyway, I may as well take full advantage of there systems they used to great success and try to keep some reliability in the machine and to tell you the truth I have done electronics all my life and I'm getting a great reward altering the mechanics.

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I am using inductive proximity sensors like LJ18A3-8-Z/BX or LJ12A3-4-Z/BX even TL-W5MC1 . Search on aliexpress. They only cost a couple of dollars, and work reliable.

 

USD 2.10 on eBay for a TDA0161DP chip. Add a coil and a few other bits, and you are set. There are plenty of circuits and instructions on the web if you search for "TDA0161 metal detector".

 

Michi.

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USD 2.10 on eBay for a TDA0161DP chip. Add a coil and a few other bits, and you are set. There are plenty of circuits and instructions on the web if you search for "TDA0161 metal detector".

 

Michi.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't work when you are hell bent on using ceramic balls.;)

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Ah, minor glitch there :) Artificial eyeball instead, maybe?

 

I'm actually hoping the white ceramic ball is easier to see as well as being much quicker. Might have to make the playfield colour predominantly black for a good contrast but I guess the real reason is rollovers are simply easier to setup reliably.

 

Reliability I mean a fast traveling ball over a sensor as opposed to a simple rollover.

 

Cutting out the playfield may be a bit more work but when something goes wrong, it's a lot easier to fix the problem than tracking down electronic problems on a custom board

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are very nice optical reflection boards on aliexpress that are using the tcrt5000 sensor. I think there is even a pinball manufacturer that uses a similar sensor. They should work with metal and white ceramic balls. Just mount it below the playfield (or behind a metal rail) with a round hole or slit where they look through.

The main problem with these simple module electronics, is that they could react to light from overhead lights. Sadly there are no ready made module boards using this sensor that would surpress external lights using this sensor.

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There are very nice optical reflection boards on aliexpress that are using the tcrt5000 sensor. I think there is even a pinball manufacturer that uses a similar sensor. They should work with metal and white ceramic balls. Just mount it below the playfield (or behind a metal rail) with a round hole or slit where they look through.

The main problem with these simple module electronics, is that they could react to light from overhead lights. Sadly there are no ready made module boards using this sensor that would surpress external lights using this sensor.

 

Your pretty much seeing why I've gone back to just using conventional switches.

 

There are ways around the surrounding light issues such as modulated pulsing of the beam set to the receiver.

 

This is the exact same way good quality outside photo electric beams work where the transmitter beam frequency is set to exactly that of it's matching receiver so other light sources like the sun don't interfere.

.

These things work so well you can run another beam beside another one and they won't interfere with each other but the electronics even though is small is quite expensive and when a pinball uses a lot of switches, cost prohibitive.

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  • 5 months later...

What’s the consensus of what to use to power flippers.

 

Without reading up on the whole thread, just thinking ahead.

 

I’m probably looking at 75v as in newer games , thinking system 11 style setup currently but wanting to see what else is out there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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What’s the consensus of what to use to power flippers.

 

Without reading up on the whole thread, just thinking ahead.

 

I’m probably looking at 75v as in newer games , thinking system 11 style setup currently but wanting to see what else is out there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Im using 50 volts in battle pinny. I have used a remote resistor as the cooling resistor with a cap on it to reduce the arcing on the end of stroke switch. Works fine.

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What’s the consensus of what to use to power flippers.

 

Without reading up on the whole thread, just thinking ahead.

 

I’m probably looking at 75v as in newer games , thinking system 11 style setup currently but wanting to see what else is out there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

On multiball machines as long as it isn't the same supply as the playfield coils I don't think it really matters.

 

Using the same supply loads up the coil power and makes for slower gameplay. I took a couple of machines for Williams to learn that.

 

75volt I think is ideal though. They are common and cheap.

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What’s the consensus of what to use to power flippers.

 

Without reading up on the whole thread, just thinking ahead.

 

I’m probably looking at 75v as in newer games , thinking system 11 style setup currently but wanting to see what else is out there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Are you looking at joining the HomeBrew family possibly?.

 

As for what voltage to use for the flippers I go by the higher the voltage, the lower the current so therefore the cabinet flipper switches and EOS "should" last longer but the arcing will increase causing the contacts to burn more rapidly .

 

I put capacitors over these contacts to preserve these contacts as well even when the original machine was never fitted with them, ( Bally SS machines for one), because caps "do" help prevent this arcing and the cleaner you can keep these contacts, the less resistance and therefore the more power you will get out of the flipper coils no matter what the voltage they run on.

 

As a further improvement I have been fitting 10 amp micro switches in place of the original EOS and cabinets switches on my test bed machine.

 

The idea is using micros allows you to fine tune when exactly the switch opens and closes as micros provide a very precise switch operation, they are either fully on or fully off and the difference between being either on or off is only about 1-2mm where as a standard EOS is about 4-5mm and that makes for a further 3-4mm of pawl travel under full power before dropping to the hold up winding and that 3-4mm of extra pawl travel should make for another 10-15 degrees of flipper travel under full power making for better back flip ability.

 

Been testing the about for about 4 months now and appears to be doing exactly as intended. The most noticeable improvement is in backflipping but the overall strength of the flipper is pretty much the same as you would expect out of brand new EOS except these are not brand new. The micros have been in place for over 600 game.

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Yeah.

 

Got a couple designs pre done and tested. Just starting to cab up and start flipping to double check shots.

 

Need to clear my backlog of work first.

 

Yeah I was thinking system 11 NC EOS with cap style setup.

 

Micro switch sounds good but as a former comp player, I need the feel of a leaf switch and to be able to half shoot too.

Backshots arent normally a problem.

So not worried about sparking for now and can dial in the power later with coil ohm changes or flipper stroke lengths.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Just trying to find some cheap Transformers for now.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Excellent news and look forward to seeing what your thinking.

 

Pinball trannys are expensive but nothing stops you from sourcing a single voltage tranny for the flippers and using switch mode power supplies for the other voltages.

 

What electronics are you thinking?.

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