Need for Pinball Management software?

[Cenobyte]

A pinball club near me with over 70 machines is setting up some kind of maintenance system (volunteers repairing and maintaining the pins) and they are looking for a system to organize things. Because of this, I was wondering if there would be a need for some kind of Pinball management software? People or clubs with large collections of pins might have the need to administrate things like:

- when bought and for how much
- current status (repairs pending? things to do)
- maintenance/repair history with dates, costs, descriptions of malfunctions & solutions, etc.
- high scores?
- other stuff you might want to remember?
- ability to create reports or lists (repair reports for the repair crew in case of a club where repairs are done by volunteers, list of Things To Do per machine or overall, sorted on priority and/or date)

Just brainstorming here and checking if more people would like a similar program (for Windows & Mac) or checking if such a program might already exist?

[smartbomb2084]

Sounds like a good idea.  I bet all auto dealerships have such a program to keep track of customer's repairs and scheduled maintenance.  You might be able to start with one of those programs to get the basic format and then tweak it for pinball.

[Cenobyte]

This sounds like an excellent way to clunk up something fun with a whole bunch of politics and rules.

What do you mean exactly?

If I understand you correctly, then I think your reply is uncalled for. I'm merely looking for a way to keep things organised for people that are responsible for maintaining bigger collections of pins with more than one person working on these machines.

The problem that this club has is as follows: they have 70 pins and you know what will happen with these machines: malfunctions are being reported, maintenance is needed, some need restorations, in other words: there's always work to do. Fortunately they have volunteers. The problem is getting the right info with the right people. Sometimes a malfuntion gets forgotten, sometimes people start working on a problem that was already solved a week earlier by somebody else, sometimes parts are ordered twice, etc. So they need a system to keep record of all active problems, work progress (one might run into problems fixing something and gets the job half done), parts needed (your work halts when you need a part that you don't have in stock). When this is a private collection and you do all the work alone, it's no problem: you know where you were last time you stopped. But in this club lots of volunteers work on a machine and sometimes somebody else finishes a job that you started.

Sure, you can also take a folder and stuff some papers with notes on it in there, one file or sheet of paper for each machine, but I was thinking of a more elegant solution and was just checking to see if there is any need for such a system. I have 6 pins myself, so I can remember my own things to do 

[ed12]

hi
as i do the route service work for a few co's. in my area
what we use is a perty straight foward service repair fourm
u can find them by google electronic reair shop invoicing/repair order's
but bashing aside,i fully agree with this statment

>I'll put aside my natural aversion to clubs involving a bunch of dudes, and give you an answer you don't want.  It's called the "out of order" sign.

Get a stack printed up and put a can of pencils next to it.  When something goes wrong, if the guy is too inept to immediately fix it, he grabs the piece of paper, writes "fliper borken" on it, and slaps it on the game.  As your volunteers feel competent enough to go around and fix these things, they either update or remove the signs.<

for all intensive reason's,it is called the kiss system >keep-it-simple<..
any competent repair tech will have a complete log of repair's-needed/done/factory-up-date's/cleaning time and rotation time etc etc

ed

[Cenobyte]

Well oke, that's clear  

The reason I suggested it is that a computer system might get you a more clearer view of the (complete) history of a machine. Repair forms from a year ago will get thrown out or get lost, while a computer allows you to view all of a pin's history. That might help with diagnosing recurring problems.

But it's not that I desperately want to write some program that nobody wants to use, so I'll save myself a bunch of useless programming  

[drventure]

Something simple might be some forum or WIKI software (very much like SMF used right here on BYOAC).

Create a topic for each machine, and the running commentary can be issues and fixes with that machine.

Wiki would work similarly.

Other options (barring custom coding) would be any of the open source web based bug tracking  software packages out there (there's tons of them).

Assuming you can add your own fields, it should be pretty straightforward to customize one of those to track this sort of thing.

But for just 70 pins, I tend to think PBJ might be right on this one. It might be more work to setup that system, host it, maintain it and do the data entry required than what you'd save with the organization of things.

Note cards or logs sheets stuck to the back of each machine might work just as well, if not better.

[lilshawn]

actually, we have 100's of machines on a route and would love to see some kind of dedicated software for this.

back in the day when i worked for a company where we had to service photocopiers and whatnot, we had some software called "service view" it was DOS based. i'm not sure you can find it anymore. basically every machine was in the system serials, place where the machine was located etc... if they called up and it broke down, the receptionist would punch up the customer account and it would list all the machines there... then type into the field what the issue was on that machine. it basically spit out a work order where we would go fix it, write in the parts/time/etc used and hand them in at the end of the day, where the info regarding the repair was input. if it broke down again later, we could pull it up on the computer and say "yeah, we replaced the drum, maybe this other thing is the issue"

now i'm off to see if i can find it...

[smartbomb2084]

C'mon people, get real here...  A simple fix like a hand written repair log is not good enough.

This is the 21st century. Everyone has and needs some kind of technology hard wired to their ass just to get through the day.

[lilshawn]

C'mon people, get real here...  A simple fix like a hand written repair log is not good enough.

This is the 21st century. Everyone has and needs some kind of technology hard wired to their ass just to get through the day.

i suppose if you have a hand full of machines a repair log on the machine is the way to go...but, I don't particularly like the feeling i get driving 4 hours because of a report of a "dead machine" to read the log sheet.

the binder we have of our machines is big enough, and all it contains is itemname/serial/purchasedate/purchaseprice in and excel sheet format. i couldn't imagine how many 3" binders it would take for service sheets.

[lilshawn]

voting on pinball officer positions.

okay.


...


can i be the "ball search co-ordinater"?

[ChadTower]

Any issue management software will do with or without an actual workflow.  It would take a little bit of upfront work to populate the database with the games, issue types, and volunteers.  After that it would not be hard to create tickets, place them in a queue, have a designated person review them, and then assign them to a volunteer.  The volunteer updates the ticket as appropriate and either marks it complete or places it into some other queue for reassignment or review for completion.  From there it gets reassigned or marked as finished.

I have never worked with any of these open source systems but I used to design such systems in the high end issue management platforms.  What we're talking about here is a pretty simple one that wouldn't take more than a couple days to set up in the right hands.

[drventure]

How about this list

I'd bet there's something in there that'd work

http://www.opensourcehelpdesklist.com/

[Cenobyte]

Yeah, but we aren't talking about you.  We're talking about a bunch of pinball enthusiasts that are praying they get to tinker with something in between slamming beers and voting on pinball officer positions.

Well... No.

I was targeting everybody in the pinball scene that has the need and wish for such software. The idea started from the situation in our local pinball club (and even they are still debating all options), so I started asking around to check if more people needed such a program. If somebody wants it for maintaining only two machines, than that's also a 'Yes' for me  

Any issue management software will do with or without an actual workflow.  It would take a little bit of upfront work to populate the database with the games, issue types, and volunteers.  After that it would not be hard to create tickets, place them in a queue, have a designated person review them, and then assign them to a volunteer.  The volunteer updates the ticket as appropriate and either marks it complete or places it into some other queue for reassignment or review for completion.  From there it gets reassigned or marked as finished.

I have never worked with any of these open source systems but I used to design such systems in the high end issue management platforms.  What we're talking about here is a pretty simple one that wouldn't take more than a couple days to set up in the right hands.

Well, I use a rapid development system do develop my software and you can literally create a program in a couple of days. Fine tuning will take more time, but it's a whole lot less work to create a nice looking program than it was 10 years ago  

From that standpoint it's often easier to develop a small piece of software with all the things in it that the user wishes than to adapt an existing system, which always results in compromises. A dedicated program can also be optimized for fast input of data, skipping optional stuff that most people will never use.

[ed12]

hi
i went looking through my bauck-up's today
what we used in :the-day: was excel,then we moved to wordpad
reason we moved away from it was because the comercial market up here in canada tanked
a few :10: year's ago
now john at flipper's .com may be able better to help u ?
but if u want to ground it up pre-say
open any excel spread sheet
a few day's of editing and u will have what u are looking for
please rem a few thing's first and foremost most ppl are lazy :hence: :kiss:,and mistake's will be made
plus u need to have a person in charge of this data at all time's
but with this in mind and hand u can easily do it and make printed out work sheet's and repair log's
but as we pointed out,most pinball machines will as a rule have a :log: sheet in them

just 31+yr's of doing speaking to u
i do look foward to what u come up with

ed

[ed12]

excatley my point pinballjaming
i will if u do not mind add a few thing's.

As collecter's/repair-men/player's
we know what to keep on hand and what not to
ie a coil or 2/rubber's/light's/opto's/drop traget's/fuse's
in short the thing's that are the most common to break

what player's in my mind mis is the play feild is olny as good as u treat it
ie a little more time cleaning and waxing goe's 100-% futher then just playing it

ed

[ChadTower]

From that standpoint it's often easier to develop a small piece of software with all the things in it that the user wishes than to adapt an existing system, which always results in compromises. A dedicated program can also be optimized for fast input of data, skipping optional stuff that most people will never use.

Look at existing issue management systems.  They are designed to be customized in a short timeframe for your needs.  Don't just dismiss them because you think you know what they might be.

Any software developer who has worked in an organization that has any sort of software lifecycle process should have at least used a basic issue management system.  Any developer in a good lifecycle process has used a decent one.

[TopJimmyCooks]

M$ Access. 

There was a time when I could develop this very user friendly dbase with frontend for you in about an hour.  Unfortunately, that time was 1993.

[ChadTower]

Yep, and in a lot of those systems, you could have the db tables implemented in less time than it took to figure out what tables you really need.  The front end form will be generated for you in the process.  You don't have to spend a week designing a full on workflow here unless you really do want one.

[TopJimmyCooks]

CT, you know what I'm talking about.  Roll your own rather than waiting for JD Edwards or Oracle to drop some megabloat "custom" app on you. 

tables: 

list of machines
list of possible areas of repair
list of responsible fixers, name, phone, email etc.
list of repairs needed done
list of repair requests/trouble tickets???
list of possible parts
list of parts vendors
list of list of parts orders/status
list of parts inventory

Hmm, wonder if I still have a copy of Access 97 installed anywhere.  . . . . ......

[ChadTower]

CT, you know what I'm talking about.  Roll your own rather than waiting for JD Edwards or Oracle to drop some megabloat "custom" app on you. 

tables: 

list of machines
list of possible areas of repair
list of responsible fixers, name, phone, email etc.
list of repairs needed done
list of repair requests/trouble tickets???
list of possible parts
list of parts vendors
list of list of parts orders/status
list of parts inventory

Hmm, wonder if I still have a copy of Access 97 installed anywhere.  . . . . ......

That list can probably be normalized way down into 4-5 tables or maybe split off into two separate ticket types:  repair tickets and parts inventory.

[Cenobyte]

I was thinking of something like the picture I attached. This is a small mockup I created in about 15 minutes.



"Machines" gives you all machines in the collection you're administrating. From here you can select other machines.
"Repairs" show all service (current and old) for this machine, red background means an active/unsolved problem. Double clicking on a line opens a more detailed screen of this particular repair ticket
"Parts" show parts for this machine and also gives a status on delivery (red background means ordered). In a simple world, this could be a system with user descriptions for the parts, but I could also add a parts table which would allow a parts inventory with vendors and prices connected to it.
"Contacts" show all desired contact info for vendors and fixers.
"Hi Scores" is added for users only

I think setting up this program and it's required tables in it's simplest form (with all of the above in it) would require a days work.

[lilshawn]

I was thinking of something like the picture I attached. This is a small mockup I created in about 15 minutes.



"Machines" gives you all machines in the collection you're administrating. From here you can select other machines.
"Repairs" show all service (current and old) for this machine, red background means an active/unsolved problem. Double clicking on a line opens a more detailed screen of this particular repair ticket
"Parts" show parts for this machine and also gives a status on delivery (red background means ordered). In a simple world, this could be a system with user descriptions for the parts, but I could also add a parts table which would allow a parts inventory with vendors and prices connected to it.
"Contacts" show all desired contact info for vendors and fixers.
"Hi Scores" is added for users only

I think setting up this program and it's required tables in it's simplest form (with all of the above in it) would require a days work.

looks alright. maybe having the option of searching for a specific field value IE: resets or flipper broken or all games of a certain name or place.

also being able to click on the issue and print out a sheet of the work needed and the tech can fill in the parts used which can be used to update the machines database would be good.

[ChadTower]

Needs a list of volunteers and a way to assign repair tickets to them.  Also a way for the techs to update the ticket status with an analysis, progress, or completion.

[pinballwizard79]

You guys need to get out more often

[Cenobyte]

You guys need to get out more often

I also plan to incorporate a reminder section in the program, normally used for replacing batteries in your pinball or for reoccurring jobs, but I guess you could also use it to remind you to get out 

[Cenobyte]

CT, you know what I'm talking about.  Roll your own rather than waiting for JD Edwards or Oracle to drop some megabloat "custom" app on you.  

tables:  

list of machines
list of possible areas of repair
list of responsible fixers, name, phone, email etc.
list of repairs needed done
list of repair requests/trouble tickets???
list of possible parts
list of parts vendors
list of list of parts orders/status
list of parts inventory

Hmm, wonder if I still have a copy of Access 97 installed anywhere.  . . . . ......

Database setup is complete and I now have these tables:

list of machines
list of repairs per machine
list of parts per machine
list of reminders
list of high scores per machine (especially for EM and Arcade guys)
list of contacts (suppliers, fixers, players and owners)
list of parts (parts info & prices)

Development of the program is going fast  

[Cenobyte]

Thanks, that sounded like a compliment  

The "Repairs" screen is coming along nicely as well:



You can filter all repairs easily: on all fixers or just one fixer, all machines or one machine, all repairs or just the repairs that still need fixing. Printing a report will have the same filtered result.

The Parts screen will have the same functionality: you can filter parts per machine or per supplier, which will come in handy if you want to accumulate parts you want to order before you order them at your supplier.

[Cenobyte]

The main part of the program is completed now! At this moment I'm working on the multi-language section of the program (since people also like it in other languages than English). That's going very well too, so I can start testing soon! 

[Pinball Wizard]

I'm willing to help test it out! Looks like cool software, and potentially generic enough to be used to manage an arcade in general not just pinball.

[ChadTower]

I think what kinda cracks me up is it takes our database guys months to implement minor fixes, and here you are cranking out a new system in a week.   

I feel that pain.  I can justify some of it but also know intimately exactly how much and where the wasted ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow--- time lies.  Most of it is ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow---.

[Cenobyte]

Well it's here! 

At least, the beta (test) version is. You can find the website and the download here:
http://www.cenobyte.nl/pinhead/index.html

Please download the Beta version if you want to give it a test drive and report any bugs back to me by e-mail or through this thread if you like. The program is final, except for some bugs that still need to be discovered 

This means that everything is finished and should be working correctly and that there will be no more new features added to this version. I gave the Mac version a good test drive, but haven't tried the Windows version that much.

Have fun and please let me know what you think!

[ed12]

dam nice job indeed congrat's etc etc

ps. windows user :make a : .dir for it ...
work's like a charm from there

ed

[lilshawn]

seems super so far. i'm on my way out the door so i just loaded it up and bummed around for a bit.

can we have a setting of where the database is? that way i can install the program on a few computers in the office/shop etc. and have them all access the same database on a server...

i realize you may run into a database issue, but i don't think in my particular instance the software would be running at the same time.

i normally access the shop computer, where the person entering the repair info would be in the office. the repair requests would be in the AM and the completes would be in the evening.

[ChadTower]

I work with databases that take in 150,000 entries a day.  150,000 total is cake.

[ChadTower]

Entities, not entries.  ("customers" or whatever else you want to call them)

 

Anyway, nice work.  I still prefer the sheet of paper system. 

Good point, misread that, but it's still the same point just as a smaller difference.  The databases we implement here are among the largest retail data warehousing systems on Earth.  Not a big deal, really, except in the context of it taking a year to implement minor changes.  Yes, it'll take longer than people outside that role think it should, but a year is just stupid.

[jennifer]

 
      Nobody cares who worked on a given machine or what was done to it,or when. any compentent tech can walk up to any one of these and probibly
know the problem... who paid how much for that? sounds to me somebodys trying to track some of somebody elses collection.

[lilshawn]

who paid how much for that?

speaking of which, if you click on the "price" column to sort by highest to lowest price... it will place the least digit before more digits.  


IE:

800
4700
2000
1500
1000

[ChadTower]

 
      Nobody cares who worked on a given machine or what was done to it,or when. any compentent tech can walk up to any one of these and probibly
know the problem... who paid how much for that? sounds to me somebodys trying to track some of somebody elses collection.

Actually, if you're talking about a cooperative with a shared collection, this is exactly the sort of thing that has always been the largest stumbling block.  Aside from maybe a shared location the biggest issue is always the allocation of work and use of common resources.

[Cenobyte]

Nobody cares who worked on a given machine or what was done to it,or when. any compentent tech can walk up to any one of these and probibly know the problem...

The one thing you got right in there is the "probibly" part (and that's not even right, because it's misspelled   )

Frankly, there are lots of people out there that do not need my program. But the statement you make is proven wrong several times: people tend to follow the same path in trying to pinpoint a problem. It's a waste of time if you're going to perform a series of tests somebody else already did, so it's nice if there's a record on that. You can make notes on what parts were swapped out and what tests have been done, which can save you a lot of time if there would be a second malfunction to the same machine. This will of course not be a big issue with somebody who is maintaining his private collection of 3 pinball machines himself, but it will be nice for somebody who is managing 30 machines in 9 different locations and with 3 different repair guys.

who paid how much for that? sounds to me somebodys trying to track some of somebody elses collection.

That WOULD be an issue if my program were a web based project, but my program runs on a local database, so the only way you can share your info is by emailing me your database file  

speaking of which, if you click on the "price" column to sort by highest to lowest price... it will place the least digit before more digits.

It's actually sorting like it was a string (text), so low to high on the first character. Normally it's not supposed to sort by clicking on the column title, so I disabled that now.

[jennifer]

       I couldn"t care less how probibly is spelled..... Three guys taking care of 30 pins on a route, doesnt require a streamlined database. 1 girl/guy
should be able to do them all. It would be almost be a insult to expect less. But supposing you need 3, a notebook, or comment section in the
servce manual should suffice.