HOW TO MAKE A PINBALL MACHINE: Working Flippers

[@jameschapin7150]

Thank you for documenting your process and sharing out your discoveries and understanding. I actually appreciate the delivery speed so I don’t feel the need to skip ahead. You have really centralized the important information in fine detail. Please keep them coming. I am using this as a guide now for my own project. Hardware and software included.

[@thepinballroom]

Woohoo!! So glad to hear you're doing your own, too!!! Lmk how it goes! I'm glad the videos are helpful, here's hoping more and more people build their own homebrew pins!!

[@thedogjuicettv]

Thank you so much for these videos! I love how you're so thorough and don't skip over anything, I feel like I could definitely attempt to make my own pinball after this series. Keep up the great work!

[@thepinballroom]

Thanks, Mike!! Glad they’re helpful/interesting!! You should definitely give it a try- there’s more people doing this than you might think, lots of support available to help - I’ve been getting lots of help from folks in the community. Check out the “strictly custom pinball machines” fb group if you haven’t already.

[@nolesdennhardt8986]

Great job! Thanks for taking the time to explain it thoroughly

[@marcobucci]

Thanks for documenting all this so thoroughly, Steve. I've been binging the series (having just recently discovered it.) Your work is fantastic. Quick question - I know that the flipper gets an initial blast from the 48v supply to the high-power coil. But then what delivers power to the weaker coil to keep the flipper up? Is it the 12v supply? Or is there something inside MPF that still draws from the 48v supply, but somehow adds lots of resistance to decrease power, or maybe an altered PWM setting as to not burn out the weaker coil? Hope this question makes sense. Thanks again! EDIT: Just found the answer in the comments (looks like it's PWM from the 48v supply.) Should've checked the comments first, huh? D'oh!

[@pliskenmovie]

I'm really interested in all these frameworks and boards for homebrew pinball. Watching another channel's videos, I was pondering if the EM circuits could be converted into software, which led me down the rabbit hole of MPF. I do software for a living, so I should've guessed there would be abstracted scripting languages. I will admit, at first, I was concerned about the daisy-chain wiring to your slingshots, but after thinking about it I suppose each switch line is held high, and closing it drops it to ground, letting the controller know it was hit. Great job on flipping without smoking the components.

[@thepinballroom]

Thanks! So far no fires 😅

[@CrossPlatforming]

So I just got super into this whole idea. I am a little overwhelmed choosing flipper coils though. I was on Pinball Life and there are just so many options for coils.

[@thepinballroom]

Agreed! Check out the list of parts I Linked in my description, there should be a direct link to the coils I’m using, if you still have questions shoot me an email and I’ll helpful you get the right ones - thepinballroom at gmail dot com

[@CrossPlatforming]

@@thepinballroom Thanks. I'll check it out some more. I really want to get to the point of working flippers and mocking up some stuff.

[@thepinballroom]

@@CrossPlatforming there’s a guy that is selling a “starter kit” that includes a CNC cut playfield and a pair of flippers and the hardware controller boards from FAST pinball and the basic stuff for the bottom third of a playfield that you might want to look into- search for Trident pinball on Facebook in the strictly custom pinball group

[@renzoryaly]

Tip: always check if your diodes are faulty before first use. One of my flippers had a shorted diode which caused permanently damage on one of my driver boards :)

[@thepinballroom]

Oof! That’s unlucky, great tip for sure thanks for mentioning this!

[@hernancoronel]

Nice!

[@tomcatmeow69]

nice video.

[@owenradtke9444]

I am working on building a machine with parts from a very old machine. The flipper coils from it are 24v, so do you have any suggestions on how to connect these to the 48v system? Thank you!

[@thepinballroom]

Good question, I'm not as familiar with the older systems so I can't tell you the best way to get those same coils working with a 48v power supply. If it were me, I'd replace the coils aside that's likely the simplest approach 🤷

[@VaxxedStories]

Are there any Facebook groups for sharing tips/info on the FAST boards?

[@thepinballroom]

Not sure about fb but there’s a slack group you get access to after you purchase them and become a customer

[@pearhalfeaten2202]

These videos are really helpful, I have a question though. About how many volts/amps go through the thinner wire/hold power and the main power?

[@thepinballroom]

For coils, a single high voltage line (48 typically) runs to the coil and then there are two ground lines of the same gauge wire (18GA typically - same thickness as the power in wire) these two lines run back to the IO board that controls the coil, these lines switch on/off with one to the hold coil and one to the main coil line. Does that answer your question?

[@pearhalfeaten2202]

@@thepinballroom Thank you for the fast reply. Yes this helps a lot, I was also wondering how many volts/amps go through the IO board to the wire that holds the flipper bat up.

[@thepinballroom]

@@pearhalfeaten2202 so if you're asking about how much voltage is used to hold the flipper up, it's technically still a 48v line but the boards use what I believe is called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to send a lower controlled amount of current - the exact amount is controlled by the game software config settings - that's about as far as my knowledge extends in that area - so if you're wondering what size wire to use for the hold power of a flipper - you should use the same size as the main power line - recommended to be an 18 gauge wire - let me know if that doesn't answer your question

[@pearhalfeaten2202]

This answers my question, Thank You!

[@MRNBricks]

You probably cover this at some point, but on the flippers. You’ve got a wire to the pulse and hold lugs. Does MPF just not use the EOS switch on the flipper to physically change from pulse to hold?

[@thepinballroom]

That’s correct MPF handles it all via software- however I’m pretty sure mpf can handle a physical eos switch too, but from everything I read a physical EOS switch isn’t necessary

[@mathaeis]

Question about the wiring for the right flipper button (the one with green and yellow): why do you need both wires? You mentioned that there is going to be a second flipper, but they are still both controlled by a single button, right? So wouldn't the software just know "switch 00 closed -> fire both right flipper coils"? Or am I missing something?

[@thepinballroom]

So there are two ways of setting up a second flipper on the same button: you can do it the way you're talking about, where both flippers always fire when the button is pressed. Or you can do what's called a "staged flipper" where the button actually has two switches inside instead of one. And depending on how hard you press in the button, you can either activate one or both of the internal switches. This allows you to hold in the button lightly and have the lower flipper activated without activating the second flipper until you press the button in more fully. It allows a bit more control over the two flippers for certain situations where the player might want it, etc. Does that make sense? And so, since there are two physical switches inside, you need a second wire to track the extra switch contact

[@mathaeis]

@@thepinballroom That makes perfect sense, thank you! I didn't realize that was a thing, haha. But yeah, I can totally see the application of it. This has all been a blast to watch and seriously really inspiring, thank you!

[@roamingcelt]

Sorry, I know this was posted a while ago but your flipper switch is a binary state. Because you're going through a I/O board, you only need a single pole switch to kick as many flippers as you need.

[@thepinballroom]

The switches I'm using are so I can stage the upper vs the lower flippers

[@roamingcelt]

@@thepinballroom I understand. What I was saying is that the code and I/O controller already separated your flipper from the switch. From the code/controller you can cut the power to the upper/lower flipper using the same wire switch you're using to tell the system you went in to the upper field. Anyway. Just an idea.

[@thepinballroom]

@@roamingcelt ah ok I see what you're saying now, thanks for the extra explanation, I'm very new to how all of that works

[@mitko7074]

He knows the movie ahhhh (Jurassic Park)

[@findvoltage]

Thanks for making these videos, they are so easy to make a pinball after watching them. Only Idk why you dont sell the parts, i just tried to look for "dual wound coil flipper pinball" to no avail. SELL THE PARTS, please.

[@thepinballroom]

Hi! I don't make the parts, but in the description of every one of my videos I have a link to a Google sheet where I list out all the parts I'm using and a link to where I bought them from - pinballlife.com is where I get most stuff including the coils, good luck!

[@findvoltage]

@@thepinballroom yeah, i did see that after i wrot the msg. Thanks again

[@Laracrafttrabant]

Linux is best

[@thepinballroom]

one of these days I'll have to try out linux,.... just a matter of time I think, haha. definitely the way to go for a pinball system from what I've heard

[@computerjantje]

it feels like you are rushing all the time. it gets me tired really fast. it feels like you talk like you have to be quick to prevent your get shut down or locked out. please slow down.

[@thepinballroom]

Haha, sorry I’ve always been a fast talker, I’ll try to slow down though thanks for the feedback

[@computerjantje]

@@thepinballroom don't get me wrong, I LOVE your videos about this and it is helping me a lot. so thank you very much :)

[@coffeeuser470]

I‘ll use the Speed by 0.75% Otherwise i wouldn understand Not half of it. ^^