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Final Project

A Pinball Machine

As a final project, I made a pinball machine. It has paddles, bumpers and a launching mechanism, with the obvious addition of the board. Pinball machines are just for fun, they do not have any practical purpose. The project is just a hobby project of mine, I have wanted to make a pinball machine for almost ten years. If I ever finish this so that it looks like a proper pinball machine, I might sell/rent/put it to a public place, where people could use it.

The original plan did not change that much from what it was at the beginning of the Fab Academy. Sure, some components were not finished in time, but otherwise everything seems to match the expectations.

Original plan

Slide

Previous Work

There have been at least two previous pinball machines in Fab Academy:

In addition to those, I perused a lot of hobbyist discussion on the subject on the internet, website for spare parts of Stern machines to get understanding on how they work and thepinballroom in Youtube for general design ideas.

As far as Fab Academy is concerned, my pinball machines seems to be the first one to have enough strength to feel like a pinball machine. This is mostly thanks to the DIY solenoids I made for this project. Using weak general use 5V solenoids that can be run without external power supply is doomed from the start. Pinball machines are all about the oomph provided by the solenoids, so tweaking them to be just right should be the priority when making pinball machines. Granted, even my solenoids are on the weak side, as they can only move a half-inch steel ball, compared to the default 1 inch balls used by commercial pinball machines. To increase the stregth even more, the easiest solution is to increase the voltage, but then the power consumption would get close to or pass lethal levels, at which point this stops being a fun hobby project.

Prototype v0.1

This is at most an early prototype of a working pinball machine. This has only three working electronic or mechanical components: paddles, bumpers and a launcher. The main thing that is still missing is a way to detect the ball; maybe a switch or a light sensor. Once that sensor is designed, there would be enough working components to start designing and playtesting the gameplay of a pinball machine. Spend some time to fine tune the angles, target spots and routes.

Once the board design is done, I could make the thing prettier by adding lights, score boards and better graphical design.

Project Development

More on what has been done and where to go with this has been discussed during Project Development week.

Bill of Materials

As all the separate articles below list their own material, components and parts, it would also be important to list all materials together in one place. Then you can cross refenrence this list, if you need more detailed instructions.

Table and prices
Amount Part Details Used in Price per unit Link
2x Plywood 4mm thick, 61cm x 61cm Surface 12,40€ Link
A lot 3d printing filament PLA Paddle, bumper, launcher 20€ / kg
1x Power source 24V 6A DC Solenoids 32,90€ Link
2x Pulling springs 10mm long, 6mm diameter Paddle 0,05€ Link
3x Pushing springs 30mm long, 10mm internal diameter Bumper, launcher 0,55€ - 4,58€ Link to similar
3x Relays With an opto-isolator Bumper 5,90€ Link
2x Big buttons Chassis 9,00€ Link
3x ATTiny412 Bumper 0,50€ Link
1x ESP-32c Main board 4,60€ Link
8x 2mm nails Paddle, bumper 0,01€ Link
~80m Copper wire 1mm gauge, lacquered Solenoid 0,80€ / m Link
20x 3mm screw Surface 0,03€ Link
20x 3mm nuts Surface 0,01€ Link
30cm x 30cm Copper foil tape Bumper 6€ / 10m
3x Magnets 1cm diameter rare earth magnet Bumper 13€ / 300 pcs Link
80g Smoothcast 300 (plus the silicon mold) Launcher 25€ / kg Link
15cm Metal pole 6mm diameter Launcher 10,95€ / m Link
1-2 tubes Hot glue Launcher, bumper, paddle 0,35€ / tube Link
1x Lock ring 6mm diameter Launcher 0,20€ Link
5x Lock ring 10mm diameter Solenoid 0,20€ Link

The total price for the machine thus comes to about 177,60€ plus a couple of euros for the filament.

Created Parts

A pinball machine is just a collection of multiple separate components, that work in unison to create a game. There really is no reason for them to even communicate with each other for any reason other than score keeping. Thus, all components have been documented separately.

Partly Designed Parts

Other Projects

These are the projects I did during Fab Academy just for my own enjoyment.

  • My Own Currency Laser cut coins for game night. Poker Chips
  • Keyboard with 4 Buttons Buttons for quiz nights. Quiz Buttons
  • A Canadian Carrom I started making a crokinole board. I did not finish it, but it will get there. Crokinole Board

License

© Joni Matias Rajala 2024

All designed 3D models, components, graphics and other files can be used under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license.

All source code can be used under MIT license.