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Pinball machine using arduino

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Hi i was online where i saw people with the project idea to make a pinball machine using the arduino. I feel like the programming would not be too hard but building the circuits and the structure of the pinball machine would be a lot of work. I like the idea of making a pinball machine and i want to make it with a friend as a senior porject. My school has a machine shop i can use and my friend has experience building a minature pinball machine and is good at design. Is this project too ambitious or should i go for it?  Also if anyone has had experience in making a pinball machine, i would greatly appreciate advise. image

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    I've been working on a custom pinball machine for a while.  So far i have the 4 24x16 dot matrix displays working, a reasonable sound board capable of playing 2 sounds simultaneously (music and sound fx), the ability to read up to 64 switches, and the ability to turn on/off up to 64 LED lights.

     

    I actually broke the project up to run on multiple Arudino-compatible boards.  Actually I am using a Netudino to control the 64 lights and drive the 4 - 24x16 dot matrix displays, and a Fez Panda II to handle reading the 64 switches, playing sounds asychronously and for running the main game code.  The real trick so far has been getting the two boards to comunicate with each other (actually it is only a one way communication from the Fez Panda to tell the Netduino when to turn on/off lights or what dot matrix animation to play).  So far using the serial port seems to do the trick but debugging gets trickier when you have two boards running at the same (real) time!

     

    I actually have never tried to run everything from one board because I assumed it just would not be fast enough to keep up.  Plus I originally started with only a Netduino which has the same limited number of GPIO pins as an Arduino which was not enough for my needs.  The Fez Panda II has 54 digital IO pins which is enough to run everything (as well as a much faster processoer and more memory) but since I already had the netduino kicking around I figured I would divide the work up.

     

    There is still a lot to do however.  First pinball machines need a lot of power.  Using LED lights will help reduce the power load a lot but the flipper and bumper coils still need around 40v to run.

     

    I am lucky in that i have collected pinball machines in the past and have an old cabinet and scrap playfield to use for the initial model.  I am getting close to wiring up the first actual components but something gives me the feeling that once these boards are hooked up to the "real world" parts all heck is going to break loose!

     

    Courtney

     

    p.s. Good luck on your project if you get started!

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    I've been working on a custom pinball machine for a while.  So far i have the 4 24x16 dot matrix displays working, a reasonable sound board capable of playing 2 sounds simultaneously (music and sound fx), the ability to read up to 64 switches, and the ability to turn on/off up to 64 LED lights.

     

    I actually broke the project up to run on multiple Arudino-compatible boards.  Actually I am using a Netudino to control the 64 lights and drive the 4 - 24x16 dot matrix displays, and a Fez Panda II to handle reading the 64 switches, playing sounds asychronously and for running the main game code.  The real trick so far has been getting the two boards to comunicate with each other (actually it is only a one way communication from the Fez Panda to tell the Netduino when to turn on/off lights or what dot matrix animation to play).  So far using the serial port seems to do the trick but debugging gets trickier when you have two boards running at the same (real) time!

     

    I actually have never tried to run everything from one board because I assumed it just would not be fast enough to keep up.  Plus I originally started with only a Netduino which has the same limited number of GPIO pins as an Arduino which was not enough for my needs.  The Fez Panda II has 54 digital IO pins which is enough to run everything (as well as a much faster processoer and more memory) but since I already had the netduino kicking around I figured I would divide the work up.

     

    There is still a lot to do however.  First pinball machines need a lot of power.  Using LED lights will help reduce the power load a lot but the flipper and bumper coils still need around 40v to run.

     

    I am lucky in that i have collected pinball machines in the past and have an old cabinet and scrap playfield to use for the initial model.  I am getting close to wiring up the first actual components but something gives me the feeling that once these boards are hooked up to the "real world" parts all heck is going to break loose!

     

    Courtney

     

    p.s. Good luck on your project if you get started!

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