HOW TO MAKE A PINBALL MACHINE: Adding Power & Controller Boards

[@joelstyer5792]

I really have to commend your efforts for safety even at this early stage. The grounding is VERY important as well as proper ventilation and keeping the AC Line side protected from accidental touching or shorting. Too many DIY projects avoid all of these and are far from safe. As someone who has designed medical electronics and been through UL testing, all of these items are a top priority and should also be addressed in any system we are building. I started my home built pinball a few years back but lately it has been set aside. Your build is making me want to start with it again. Thank you for producing this wonderful series of videos.

[@alisonmoura3887]

hello, I can use a 50vdc source with 30 amps for the coils

[@thepinballroom]

Yes, that should work fine

[@DrainMortenPinball]

Love to follow these videos! Im currently working on my Age of Empires 2 homebrew pinball and ill start connecting up all the power and wires in a couple weeks, and it is scary :D

[@thepinballroom]

That’s awesome!! Do you have a topic anywhere where you’re posting pics of your progress?

[@DDDpinball]

Your google doc should be added to the FAST starterkit. Very useful, thanks for creating this!

[@thepinballroom]

Good to hear! Glad it was helpful!!

[@freedomfreedomfreedom]

You're the man! Grateful to you for sharing your knowledge to the world all the way from the Netherlands.

[@PinBallReviewerRepairs]

Sweet another that has Fast Pinball boards too! I just got my boards for my homebrew pinball about a month ago. And love how easy it is to follow the hook ups of everything! And even my assistant that comes over that knows a little about pinball but does not know how things work. Even he was saying heck it is in such a simple language and all the pictures they show even he thinks he can make a pin. xD I actually just recently re-did my power supplies I had it similar to what you had but no fuse. I have since re-done the power supply and have a IEC socket with a EMI filter in it and which is like a computer plug only it is 16G wiring for the power supply and switch. And yes with the re-do I put in a 8Amp Flo-Blow on the hot line. My switch is different though it is just a two terminal but it still works and that is what matters. ;) And yeah I got the Fast Pinball kit which I may need to get more RGB LEDs or use one of the bazzillion LED strips that I have. xD I sadly lack a cab though funny enough I do have a playfield that the only thing I have on it is the ball shooter guide and a few holes drilled into it. Oh and is there a template on aligning the flippers and slings at the lower playfield? That is what I am struggling with on the foam mockup I did and yes it is a full size foam pin mock up. xD Any ways I am going off all excited and sorry about writing a book in the comments section but I tend to do that when I am excited about pinball or in this case making my own pinball machine. :)

[@marcobucci]

Hey Steve! Which crimper do you use/recommend for attaching the spade connectors?

[@thepinballroom]

This is the one I am using, it's been working great. I added it to my "tools" list on the BOM sheet, thanks!

[@allenleper]

Im starting my own homebrew currently and these videos have already been incredibly helpful. Thanks for putting them together. Working on getting all the power and controller boards at the moment. The FAST bundle is out of stock, but I should be able to piece it all together after checking out all your info and documentation.

[@thepinballroom]

Hey! Congratulations on starting your project!! Yeah the FAST crew is transitioning into a new version of their primary board - the "nano" is being replaced with the "neuron" -but they're doing it in a way where a nano can be upgraded /expanded into a neuron which is awesome - so yeah just grab the items a la carte and you'll be all set! Lmk if you have any questions

[@allenleper]

@@thepinballroom Awesome, will do, thanks for the heads up. Looking forward to seeing Led Zeppelin in the future, and Ill definitely pass along links to content of mine, once I get to some major milestones

[@gilbertojimenez1185]

Hola y gracias por compartir tu conocimiento. Estoy realmente sorprendido de todo el trabajo que involucra la construcción de una maquina de pinball pero es muy gratificante. yo hace algún tiempo diseñe una fossball table con arduino y ahora quiero abordar este proyecto, por lo cual agradezco que compartas esta información. felicitaciones y muchas gracias. En mi país, Colombia no son muy conocidas las maquina de pinball así que desconozco como es la dinámica del juego, es decir, no se como se comporta una maquina desde las perspectiva del usuario, como se logra hacer puntos, así que espero, al mirar tus videos, entender bien la dinámica del juego. Hello and thanks for sharing your knowledge. I am really surprised at all the work that goes into building a pinball machine but it is very rewarding. Some time ago I designed a foosball table with Arduino and now I want to tackle this project, for which I appreciate you sharing this information. congratulations and thank you very much. In my country, Colombia, pinball machines are not very well known, so I don't know how the game dynamics is, that is, I don't know how a machine behaves from the user's perspective, how points are achieved, so I hope, at least watch your videos, understand the dynamics of the game well.

[@andres--9096]

Suerte!

[@ScottRobinett-z4j]

Love this stuff

[@FlippinFunFlips]

Thanks man!!

[@nightzelmods]

Watching this putting power in my machine right now 💪🏻 did you end up keeping your PSU’s at the bottom of your cabinet? Fast’s website shows all of that in the backbox

[@thepinballroom]

No I moved them to the back box for my final setup

[@nightzelmods]

@@thepinballroom dang I ended up putting them inside the cabinet haha My pc is behind my coin door (using a laptop) and I am using two screens in the backbox, so I figured having everything else centralized in the bottom was the smarter move.

[@VaxxedStories]

For the "high" power, does the node board need A/C or D/C? Does the node board use PWM to pulse the DC so that the coils ultimately get a half-wave type of A/C?

[@thepinballroom]

The way the FAST node boards works, only the ground is switched - so the ground goes from the node boards back to the power filter board. Outputs can be pulsed (PWM) and AC only goes to the main power supplies.

[@AngusCPU]

Love this project. I am nervous about your wiring setup though. Im not sure its safe to have your grounded connections in series. Also the main power switch seems to be directly switching mains voltage. Why not have the main power switch a relay that controls the mains voltage? Maybe thats overkill but it seems like it may be the safest option.

[@12twelves144]

So FAST is currently out of stock on the power bundles. What are some other power supply’s that will work similar to this? Or the actual names of these?

[@thepinballroom]

Great question- first I checked with the owner and he says he’s not out of stock but his inventory got off on his site, so check back later today and you should be able to order. I’ll also look up some alternatives for you though and reply back here again once I’ve updated my video description/notes with some links

[@nolesdennhardt8986]

Your awesome!

[@mekvanthoff4775]

I have a question Steve. You bought your power supplies from FAST. They should be good quality and fused already. Why did you place the 8amp fuse on your mains power line? The FAST documentation doen not say anything about a fuse before the smps’

[@thepinballroom]

Great question! Basically it's just another fail-safe to help protect your home, it shouldn't ever be tripped except in a very extreme situation, but sh1t happens and it's better to have one last safety point between your machine and your breaker panel. Particularly with a homebrew, there's always the unlikely possibility that someone might power on their machine forgetting exactly what state their in development machine might have been left in electrically speaking - just in case the other fused fail safes get circumvented, that last fuse might save you from something catastrophic. It's commonly done in commercial pinball machines, too - so for me, no reason not to be as careful as they are. 🙂

[@mekvanthoff4775]

@@thepinballroom thanks for the quick reply. Is 8 amp also a standard?

[@thepinballroom]

@@mekvanthoff4775 for that point on the main line in, I'm pretty sure that's the standard, yes

[@Cigarholzworth]

Not wanting to sound cheap, is there a promo code for the fast system that lets them know your hydra like influence and maybe gets us a hook up? Asking for a cheap friend… that is me

[@thepinballroom]

Heheh don’t know that I have that much influence yet anywhere but I can always ask!

[@thepinballroom]

ok, so they don't have promos or sales going on right now. Did you see the starter bundles? That's the most economical way to get started. I ordered the starter bundle with power supplies to get started and it's been great.

[@richardfedele7]

Been watching your videos, I need to ask a dumb question, when you power up the fast pinball components, will the flippers, etc work or do you need to apply coding first for it to trigger??

[@thepinballroom]

No dumb questions! 🙂 You need a pinball software platform in order for things to actually work - the FAST boards need software configurations in order to know what to do with the inputs it receives. I’m using MPF (mission pinball framework) they have lots of good tutorials and it’s actively being supported

[@richardfedele7]

@@thepinballroom Is the software installed on a mini pc that is connected to the fast boards permanently, or downloaded onto a USB stick once configured on a pc? need to look into it abit more..hehe

[@thepinballroom]

@@richardfedele7 you’ll need at least something like a raspberry Pi 3 or better, right now I’m just connecting a laptop to it while I build it but will eventually replace that with something compact like a nuc

[@Kaavoort]

Where did you get the high voltage power supply? I don't see that on you bill of materials.

[@thepinballroom]

Oh is it not there? Sorry I’ll hurry and add it- I purchased a bundle from FAST pinball that included all the node boards and power supplies

[@thepinballroom]

Yeah it’s there as part of the FAST hardware bundle currently linked in row 94 I believe

[@robertw5607]

How many amps is you 48v power supply?

[@thepinballroom]

It's a meanwell psu, looks like peak amps is 10.5. This is the model # if you want to look it up for comparison RSP-500-48

[@ryanmichalski7420]

Dose the computer need to be hooked up to play the machine

[@thepinballroom]

Yep, you'll need a computer connected to run the software in order to handle commands from the flipper buttons thru the controller boards to the coils.

[@alexballingall8570]

Interesting video, but I'd be nice for something a little more step-by-step. For instance you completely skip over the ground braid and what it should be touching/how it works etc. For someone like myself, who is trying to build a machine from scratch (cabinet & all), finding this sort of info is quite hard. Another example is you mention the snap fuse kits but fail to mention where they can be purchased - they're not in your build costs document.

[@thepinballroom]

Hey Alex, thanks for the feedback! Sorry that it wasn’t more complete- I’ll try to do a quick follow up video specifically around the ground braid. I’ll also check my parts list and get those fuse holders added, thanks for pointing that out! Please send me any other gaps so I can do my best to get those addressed ok?