Arduino Wooden Pinball Machine - content.instructables.com
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Arduino Wooden Pinball Machine
by KayPoland
Ever since I was little, I was always fascinated by pinball machines. The sounds, the lights and the shooting and bounce ofthe ball. All this makes me feel nastalgic.
Now it was time to make one myself
Today in this instructables I am going to make a DIY pinball machine out of wood and arduino.
At the moment the project is in its basic form but this is a perfect start for everyone to put their own spin on it as theybuild it.
The wood I used for this project is 12mm plywood. And I used an arduino to display a score. The arduino section will beexpanded in the future. Those steps are also going to be uploaded in these instructables.Supplies:
- 12 mm plywood
- Screws
- Pinball balls
- Original ipper mechanics for right and left ippers
- Iron tube
- Split pin
- M10 threaded rod
- M10 nut
- M10 acorn nut
- Springs
- Smal door stopper
- Washer
- Arduino Uno
- MAX7219 8-digit display
- Micro switch
- Mounting wire with exible core
Handy Tools:
Drill and screw machine
Dremel
Jigsaw
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Soldering iron
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Step 1: Sketch
I started looking for pinball machines to get an idea of how I wanted my layout of the game eld. On the left I want one ormore targets to shoot at and in the middle 3 bumbers.
For the dimensions I came across ippers.be which lists the dimensions of original Bally/Williams pinball machines. TheBally/Williams pinball machines are 131,5 cm long and 56 cm wide.https://www. ippers.be/basics/101_ ipperkast_afm...
The site dimensions.com also had measures of a pinball machine. There they say that pinball machines are 130 cm long,56 cm wide and the playing surface is set at a slope of 6.5°. https://www.dimensions.com/element/pinball-machine...
I think 130 cm is too long for my own pinball machine so I went for a length of 105 cm and a width of 56 cm.
The playing eld is on a slope of 6.5°
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Step 2: Building the Cabinet
The sizes I used for the cabinet can be seen in the photos.
I used glue clamps and a straight piece of wood to cut straight with a jigsaw. The tape is to prevent splintering.
The pieces of wood are put together with angle irons.
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Step 3: Buidling the Flippers
The pinball mechanics are of a real pinball machine. In a real pinball machine, the ippers are operated by means ofsolenoids. To control this with arduino you should rst have 50 volts with enough ampere, a relay or mosfet and a diode. I
nd it scary to work with high voltages so I converted the ipppers to operate it with your own power.
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To do this I took the coil o the solenoid. The catch of the ipper mechanism has been drilled through together with theiron tubes. The mechanics and the tubes are attached to each other with a split pin. To get the ippers back to theiroriginal position after pressing them. Use is made of a spring attached to the ippers and a screw that is in the middle ofboth ipper mechanics.
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Step 4: The Ball Shooter
For the ball shooter I used an M10 threaded rod, small door stopper, some springs, whishers, M10 nuts and an M10 acornnut.
I used a acorn nut for the handle. In order not to let it hit the pinball machine, I use 2 washers, a light spring and a nut toabsorb the hit.
To shoot the ball I use 4 springs on the inside of the pinball machine, a nut to build up the tension and a small door stopto have a good surface to shoot the ball hard but not to damage the ball.
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Step 5: Playing Field
At the top of the playing eld I wanted to have a curvature. I drew this with a piece of string and a pencil. I made it byscrewing 3 pieces of wood together and sawing out the curvature with the jigsaw.
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On the sides I screwed a slat of 3,5 cm wide straight on. And to the left of the curve I made an extra curve so that if theball doesn't go too fast it goes between the ippers. To make a way for the ball shooter I screwed another slat next to it.
Next to the ippers there must be some wood to create 2 courses to lose the ball because they can no longer reach theippers and to make the ball roll towards the ippers.
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Step 6: Behind the Flippers
At the bottom of the playing eld there are some slats to catch the balls and guide them to the right below so that theballs can be picked up again. On top of this is a plank of wood in which I saw the shape of the bottom slats. The arduino isalso hiding under this wooden plate.
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Step 7: Score!!
The arduino part is far from nished, but you can score points. If you hit the left switch, you score points that can be seenon the 8-digit screen at the bottom left increase. The 8-digit screen ts nicely into the plate. This was done with a dremel.The arduino s powered by a battery bank.
This is the arduino code that is used:
//We always have to include the library#include "LedControl.h"
const int buttonPin = 2; int buttonState = 0;
//int Digit = 0;int punten = 5;
int eerstenum = 0; //Now we need a LedControl to work with.int tweedenum = 0; //***** These pin numbers will probably not work with your hardware *****int derdenum = 0; //pin 12 is connected to the DataIn int vierdenum = 0; //pin 13 is connected to the CLK int vijfdenum = 0; //pin 10 is connected to LOAD int zesdenum = 0; //We have only a single MAX72XX.int zevendenum = 0;int achtstenum = 0;
LedControl lc=LedControl(12,13,10,1);
unsigned long delaytime=250; ///* we always wait a bit between updates of the display */
void setup() { Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT); /* The MAX72XX is in power-saving mode on startup,
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The MAX72XX is in power-saving mode on startup, we have to do a wakeup call */ lc.shutdown(0,false); /* Set the brightness to a medium values */ lc.setIntensity(0,8); /* and clear the display */ lc.clearDisplay(0);}
void loop() { scoreDisplay();buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin); if (buttonState == HIGH) { punten++; Serial.println("HIGH"); } Serial.println(buttonState);}
void scoreDisplay(){
lc.setDigit(0, 0, eerstenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 1, tweedenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 2, derdenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 3, vierdenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 4, vijfdenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 5, zesdenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 6, zevendenum,false); lc.setDigit(0, 7, achtstenum,false); //punten++; eerstenum = punten;
if(punten > 9){ punten = 0; eerstenum = 0; tweedenum++;}if(tweedenum > 9){ tweedenum = 0; derdenum++;}if(derdenum > 9){ derdenum = 0; vierdenum++;}if(vierdenum > 9){ vierdenum = 0; vijfdenum++;}if(vijfdenum > 9){ vijfdenum = 0; zesdenum++;}if(zesdenum > 9){ zesdenum = 0; zevendenum++;}if(zevendenum > 9){ vierdenum = 0; vijfdenum++;}}
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Step 8: Quick Update Video
Here are photos and a video of the pinball's current condition. More information to come. And the wiring under thepinball machine needs even better management. only a lot did not work so it was a lot of loosening and reconnectingwires. All functional time now works except the electromagnet (solenoid) between the bumpers is not yet connected.
https://youtu.be/-tgZj8_Lb_A
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Step 9: The Future
This project is still going on and I will be sure to post all updates here.
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Very nice, this is a great start. I made a simple pinball table many years ago, and it was a lot offun. Keep it up!
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