Motion detecting switches...

[Sinner]

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a motion detecting switch (IE: mercury switch)...that could be used with VPinMAME...when you give the machine a shove, the switch would activate and signal a key press for the left/right push...does this make sense??

[Sinner]

Oooops, I thought I was in the MAIN forum...can someone move this?  I tried to delete the thread, but it won't let me...
Thanks...

[CheffoJeffo]

A machine (Midway Open Ice JAMMA cabinet) that I picked up for a buddy had a tilt mechnism in it.

Don't have any pictures, but it was basically a light leaf switch with the leaf pointing up and a magnet or weight attached to the top. Rocking the machine would cause the leaves to contact and presto magico ... TILT.

Now, I haven't seen one since, but they do exist.

EDIT: I have now seen one since ...

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/pinball/95417600.htm

[saint]

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_vdt.shtml

[Shep]

If you do understand, do you think this could be made to work?  Has anyone done it?  Would it be worth it??

Sounds like a good way to wreck your hard drive to me... 

[Sinner]

Protecting the drive shouldn't be very hard to do...there has to be some sort of mount you can use that will allow for the drive to remain level and not get jolted too much...besides, I personally wouldn't plan on banging on the thing...just a little nudge...

[Dire Radiant]

Of course what it's actually for is to connect to an alarm so the missus will know when he's been humping the cab again 

[lustreking]

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_vdt.shtml

I had looked into this and on Radio Shack's webcatalog, all I could find was the following item
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=49-530
It has a different part number than listed in the instructions, and it says "For normal closed loops; opens when activated "
Wouldn't we want a normally open detector?  Has anyone done this recently?

-Steve

[IntruderAlert]

what if you just put a bar of some kind across the front of the panel with a couple of switches on it
that way you could just shove on the bar to get the same result without actually shoving the whole cabinet and you could use regular microswitches

[Flinkly]

interesting idea...a tilt bar.

[IntruderAlert]

yeah.. you could even make it a panel across the front of the CP
a false front if you will

[Flinkly]

yeah, i hate the idea of bashing on my cab.  after all, it's taking so long to build.

[mpm32]

Here you go;

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=060-275

[SOAPboy]

If you do understand, do you think this could be made to work?

[Mark70]

If you do understand, do you think this could be made to work?

[www]

Here is an bump idea so simple you may wonder why it hadnt been thought of earlier


or

[mahuti]

[Bumblebounces]

I thought about using one of these

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/pinball/95032800.htm

The idea being using the plumb as the common and then bending thick copper wires (12 GA solid conductors, 3 of them) around the hoop and connecting them to the inputs for nudge right, left and middle.  Of course you'd have to isolate them somehow (hey, I haven't actually attempted this yet, it's just and idea ). 

It might take some fiddling with and you would probably have to dampen the plumb movement a bit so it doesn't swing too freely but I think it could work (and it's only about 10 bucks).

Bumble

[mahuti]

If you cut the bottom harness up a bit, you could easily turn that into 3 switches...

[www]

The difference with my idea is that it is not a tilt switch but is a bump detector.
If you use a traditional tilt switch you will get lots of false bumps while the mechanism is swinging.
With my idea the ball will always center in the hole and false triggering will be minimised.

Can you can see the difference ?

[NiN^_^NiN]

I wouldnt worry about the HDD it can take alot of punishment :p i use a standard desktop 3.5" hdd in my car everyday for my carpc and people use it for there carpc's whent he 4WD so a lil hit from the side of a cab will wreck a harddrive then you got screwed over 

[www]

I wouldnt worry about the HDD it can take alot of punishment :p i use a standard desktop 3.5" hdd in my car everyday for my carpc and people use it for there carpc's whent he 4WD so a lil hit from the side of a cab will wreck a harddrive then you got screwed over 

I am presuming this is a joke post ? If so please forgive me for not understanding it.
I have probably made a mistake, but I interpreted this thread to be about bump detection for a PINBALL simulator. Have I missed the point somewhere?

[mahuti]

Read from the top. Someone mentions fragging an HD by bumping the machine. The above note attempts to refute that.

And so far your idea holds the most merit in my mind.

[Bumblebounces]

The difference with my idea is that it is not a tilt switch but is a bump detector.
If you use a traditional tilt switch you will get lots of false bumps while the mechanism is swinging.
With my idea the ball will always center in the hole and false triggering will be minimised.

Can you can see the difference ?

That's why I said you would have to dampen the plumb movement so it doesn't swing too freely.  I also said it would likely take a lot of time and patience to adjust for any satisfactory result (maybe not in those exact words). 

Your idea has merit as well.  Just trying to give another angle to see things from.  People in this forum tend to like to tinker with things (myself included) so I thought if anyone might want to take a crack at this, it's cheap and it might actually work.  I abandoned the idea of building pinball emulation into my cab so I will probably never attempt this.  I would actually be curious to see if it would work.


 

[Jess--]

you could employ a trick used on some car alarms.

that is you us a spring through a metal tube (both soldered down to the board) any slow movement does not trigger the sensor but fast movement causes the spring to flex and connect with the tube. they are good at centering after being triggered and can be mounted at almost any angle

[RickDIII]

I wouldnt worry about the HDD it can take alot of punishment :p i use a standard desktop 3.5" hdd in my car everyday for my carpc and people use it for there carpc's whent he 4WD so a lil hit from the side of a cab will wreck a harddrive then you got screwed over

[Martoon]

It seems to me the best solution would be an accelerometer.  These are the same cheap devices used in car alarms and the tilt sensor in some handheld games (like Kirby's Tilt'n'Tumble on the Gameboy).  They tell you exactly how hard something is being tilted or nudged, so for a pinball sim, you could get physically accurate results for how the ball should respond.  I'm actually really surprised that Visual Pinball doesn't support something like this.

[www]

I have also been alerted to these.
They have 4 prongs inserted in a bubble of fluid. as the fluid moves ot changes the capacitance.
They are only 5 bucks too.
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G15429&variation=&aitem=8&mitem=12


Dual axis electrolytic tilt sensor type SP5010-A-006 is similar to the SP5000 shown on the Spectron Website (http://www.spectronsensors.com).

The sensor features 5 PC board pins and a special liquid electrolyte housed in a .433" diamter x .865" glass cylinder. The electrolyte used in these sensors is an alcohol based fluid, contains no heavy metalss, and is non-corrosive. These sensors are used in oceanographic, aerospace, medical, GPS, etc., applications. There is a circuit on the WEB of an RC helicopter which uses one of these to provide information on tilt as it is flying. These sensors are very unique and are hard to find on the surplus market. Brand new - no data supplied. Has factory label SP5010-A-006. Check out our incredible price! G15429