Thank you!
I’ll be there tommorow night.
We tried the new power supply last week - to mixed success.
The two voltages on offer are ~43V, and ~86V.
43V was unfortunately a bit below what we where hoping for, and even with @SDY’s beutiful capacitor pentagram, we had noticeable sag when more than one thing would activate.
Unfortunately 86V caused some scary arcing noises under the playfield when we tested it, so that seems to set our upper bound.
So we resorted to adding more capacitors. That big 10000μF one on the part shelves finally got a use! Before testing, we had neglected to change the voltage back to the lower voltage.
I had never heard a capacitor make clicking noises when it recieved power, which was one to add to the “let’s not do that again” list.
After lowering the voltage, we found that the capacitors did help, but we needed more.
Fortunately, we found some:
I’m very much out of my depth on the power side of things, many thanks to @SDY for all his help!
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Still making progress!
Took the placements from the prototype, measured, and added to the CAD model. Current rendering:
Interactive model: Fusion (this link isn’t a snapshot in time - it get’s updated as I make changes)
I also quickly built and prototyped an ugly spinner:
to test how much it reduced ball speed. Good news - not very much. There’ll be 6, 2 on each side - in those ‘lanes’ with a semi circle below them.
Still to come:
- switches/sensors
- central triangle
- Ball Feed mechanism
- lights
- artwork.
- Assembling the panels together
- scoring/rules.
We also noticed that the layout ended up looking snake head-ish on the three sides - that might become the theme…
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What happened in Nov!
Detecting the ball - tried out an inductive proximity sensor that’s intended for a 3d printer. Detects the ball very well, but not a huge working range. Very compact easy to install package, so I’ll probably be going with something along these lines. Aliexpress seems to have detectors rated for a longer distance, but if push comes to shove, mounting them through the playfield will be fine.
Lighting - the LEDs showed up.
With the sensors and LED size figured out, we’re starting on figuring out the placement under the playfield.
In the new-year we’ll be making prototype 2 - in real thickness, and getting things up and running under the controllers.
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Progress on this project hit a wall in mid December when the laser cutter went down, and most of my free project time went in to getting it back operational. Since then, I’ve plaid around with a few different positions for the Lighting inserts and proximity sensors.
After a few iterations on paper, I went and put them into the CAD model (as usual, the latest version is visible here) I also roughed out the centre triangle a bit more. The ball raising mechanism still hasn’t been designed, and nor has a mounting frame or assembly.
Next step would be to cut out whitewood two with half inch ply, move the components over, and start working on the lighting/detection/scoring for one side, and then on the centre and ball lift. It’s also at the point where art is ready to be be considered.
Unfortunately, this project is on hold indefinitely at this point, as I’m moving away from Vancouver for work, and unsure what resources I’ll have to continue it. I do intend to return to pinball machine building when I can.
I’m extremely grateful to all who helped it get this far, @funvill, @packetbob, @SDY, and @Jarrett, and I’m sure others have all chipped in and made it possible to get to where it has.
If anyone who donated components would like them back, please let me know, and we can make arrangements.
It’s sad to me that I won’t be able to demo this at maker faire anytime soon, and I’m disappointed to let down those who chipped in and contributed. Unfortunately, real life just … got in the way.
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