What about a Pinball Machine?

[Fusion Disaster]

This seems like the next logical step in custome home entertainment. I've built the arcade machine, now what about a pinball machine.

Would be the same type of connection as arcade controls, just some pieces would need some seperate powering to activate them. And would need some custom software.

Anyone built one yet? Anyone know of some online resources?

Thanks for your help in advance on this!

Fusion.

[Tailgunner]

It's possible, but restoring an existing pin would be a much more "doable" project.

[mp2526]

I'm actually in the process of doing this.  I just want to see if I can do it.  I know it will be difficult.  I plan on using a PIC to control the hardware.  I initially thought about using a PC as the brains, but started to think about the problems with Windows (being that I'm a windows developer) not being a real time OS, so I abandoned that idea.

I have been reading over various old school pin schematics and (very) basically the components needed are a Solenoid driver board that can drive about 10 or so solenoids.  I switch matrix to register the inputs.  A lamp matrix to light the thing up, and the motherboard.  Oh, and obviously the various components on the playfield.

I'm in the process of rigging up a test bench so I can begin development.  Once all the software is written I imagine the real difficulty is the physics involved to get a good playable playfield with very little dead spots.

I figure this will be a long project, but should be fun putting it together.  However, as was said by Tailgunner, would be easier to restore an older pin.

[johnpurs]

For an interface you could probably use this site for info on using your printer port and an IPAC
Long link fixed

Check the above URL for a good start. It may cost a small fortune by the time you are done buying parts and manufacturing a playfield and such. You could probably have bought yourself a nice new Lord of the Rings new in the box. 

For online pinball parts check some of these sites all offering great service
http://www.pbresource.com
http://www.bayareaamusements.com
http://www.foramusementonly.to/
http://www.marcospec.com

[Tailgunner]

Sounds like a cool project mp2526.

[Generic Eric]

There used to be a website called Pinityourself.com or something to that affect

ITs no longer hosted, but you can find it in the Wayback Machine website.

[Hoopstar]

http://members.fortunecity.com/batmanpinball/pin2kdetails.html

http://home.wanadoo.nl/marcel.vissers/index.html

[Jam161]

the older pinball machines are not all elvtonicized and dont really need that much software , im not an expert but my uncle is, he just doesnt know what goes on when they became electronic like video arcades, heres my moms pinball machine shes had for along time

http://www.purgeworld.net/arcade/pinball.jpg

[Chris]

There used to be a website called Pinityourself.com or something to that affect

ITs no longer hosted, but you can find it in the Wayback Machine website.

If I remember, it was all a bunch of theory... nothing actually got built.

I got into this hobby with the intent of building my own pin, but shelved it as I determined that it would end up being more expensive than just buying a real pin.

My advice: Start with Visual Pinball and see if you can make a table that is fun enough to play to be worth actaully building. This will let you experiment with the flow of the table beforehand.

Next: Check out http://www.marcospec.com for parts.

When I was planning mine, I wasn't going to use a computer as the brains... it somehow seemed like "cheating" to me.  Somewhere I have schematics doodled for circuits to run the scoreboard, drain, ball counter, etc... ended up figuring it would be a couple of hundred dollars just for circuit parts.  If I did it now, I would definately use a computer...

[fredster]

I posted about this once and everybody told me I was crazy for trying.

[Chris]

I posted about this once and everybody told me I was crazy for trying.

Actually, I thought a lot of useful suggestions came out of that thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,23428.0.html).