A couple of circuits that might help.
William Brower
Me again, I'm not trying to take over this group, I'm just trying to
help anyone that might need it.
I'm building a two player head-head pinball with my two nephews, these
are two circuits that could build such an animal. These are just the
start-up and score and shut down circuits.
This circuit is a little more simpler then the bottom one.
Push start button, Sends a signal to pc.,
Pc starts program and sends a signal to the "game start relay".
"game start relay" Energizing all circuits and sending signal to pc
to start game.
"Ball eject hole" sends signal to pc ready to start.
When ready, Pc will send signal back to "ball eject hole" and launch
ball.
Every time ball goes into hole it would send another signal back to
pc to keep score.
When game achieves score total balls it sends signal back to pc and
game over.
Also when game goal is achieved, pc will send a signal back to de-
energize start relay through another relay. This would be the "hold
relay" and would have a (spdt switch) to make and break the start
relay. There will be a button for the the outhole for the ball ejector
coil.
This for inputs: http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html
This for outputs:
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4757839&keywords=usb+relay+controller#
Or this for inputs and outputs: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMega
I thought I was building a rocket ship here, LOL
Since I'm an a electrician this was the first direction I was going
with this build.
This is an electromechanical version of our circuit. (dose not need
pc)
Game start-up and shut-down sequences and scoring for custom head to
head pinball machine.
n/o = normally open switch
n/c = normally closed switch
By pushing the "start button", this will send the power to reset the
"stepper unit" to a zero/home position (resets the coil). When the
"stepper unit" is reset, it closes a set of n/o contacts at the
"stepper unit" and sends power through that switch to the "start
relay" and engaging it, When the "start relay" is engaged, it will
closes a n/o set of contacts and sends power to the "outhole's" coil
contact switch and energizing it through the n/o contacts before coil,
the "out-hole's" n/o set of contacts will closed when ball drops in,
this will send power to the 2nd coil on the "stepper unit" advancing
it one time (one score, one point, or 1st ball), the coil will
energize and the ball will get ejected back in to play. When the
"stepper unit" reaches the end of last ball on the stepper's disc (5th
Ball), it closes another set of n/o contacts at the "stepper unit"
sending power to the "game over relay" and energizing it, when the
"game over relay" is energized it will open a n/c set of contacts and
drop out the power to the "start relay's" coil ending the game. Also
on a n/o set of contacts on the "game over relay" will be the power to
feed back to the "start relay" so that the circuit can repeat it self
over and over. The contact switches on the "game over relay" will be N/
O-N/C single pole double throw type switch (spdt), so no power back-
feeds back into the circuit. Also there will be more n/o contacts on
the "start relay" one for lighting, one for flippers, bumpers and one
for the I-pac keyboard encoder signal back to the computer. Also on
the "game over" relay there will be additional N/O contacts for the I-
pac keyboard encoder signal back to the computer. And on the stepper
unit there are five contacts sensing each ball, these contacts could
be used as signals going back to the i-pac for scoring through the
computer, They can be set for score lighting on the playfield and
backbox also. These five signal from the stepper can also be set up to
be only one signal going back to the computer for scoring too.There
will be another button either in front of game or by right flipper
button for ouhole coil. Also, this circuit would need to be done twice
for each game, once for each player, with 4 relays and 2 - 5-ball
stepper units and 2 outhole kickers, for each game. Each circuit would
also need to be set up in a series circuit to allow the first one to
complete the circuit and end the game. And the first player to get 5
goals wins the game.
I had to draw this one out, whacked out my brain though, but I got it.
Hope this helps,
Bill
Eli Curtz
Welcome to the group.
Many of us are working on projects using the P-ROC at this point, so
there is a lot more active discussion on the forum at http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/
Your machine sounds simple enough that you can probably run it off the
Arduino Mega without the need for the PC (except for programming the
Arduino) it is certainly capable of doing the I/O and taking the place
of a lot of your EM style relay and stepper logic. The Arduino
community is huge, so there are lots of projects out there to borrow
from. You might find some good stuff in the archives of this group as
well, which are available on Google Groups.
Good luck with your project, I look forward to seeing your progress,
Eli
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William Brower
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White_Spot™
enough to control the things you have mentioned.
I personally bought an Arduino Duemilanove to try to control an
America 1492 from Juegos Populares (Spain) I have with no CPU, Drivers
and sound boards.
My knowledge about the Arduino stuff and programming are none and
after some lecture I manage to create a little concept test of
controlling some pinball bulb´s.
The community of Arduino is so big that even using examples or parts
of different codes (other stuff than pinball) its possible to learn
how to control the pinball related stuff´s.
It´s an amazing "toy" to play with hehe.
Like I said in another topic I have someone who have give me two
Canasta 86 (url=http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4097) with very
missing parts, but the CPU / Driver board are presents (I don´t know
if they work however).
The idea is to complete one of them with the better parts and use the
other to create an homebrew project controlled by the Arduino.
I don´t have with me this pinball machine because I don´t have space
for them, but I hope in the near future manage to find a perfect place
to keep and work in them.
Returning to the subject of the topic hehe.
Like you said, if you don´t need very much I/O ports you can use the
LPT port (if you have one in the pc) of your PC.
If you search a little you'll find the PinMame-HD project (I thinks
this is the correct name) and there you´ll see a schematics to control
some pinball hardware with the LPT port.
I hope you make some progress in your concept and show us the
evolution of this project.
Best regards from Portugal,
Jorge Fernandes
William Brower
Good luck with your project.
Our project is still in the thinking and testing stages. I'm working
with my two nephews, One is a software programmer and one is a very
good artist. This thing will take a long time to complete. We got some
bugs to take care of.This is just a hobby for us all and we don't want
to rush into it and screw things up. We do have a personal blog for
just us three, but like I said, we are still trying to figure all this
stuff out. I'll post information on this machine as time goes on.
Thanks for your Time,
Bill