For those looking for a solution: use capacitors. 50v, 10000uF capacitance. Use laptop charger, use stepup module to 38v. 2 tactile buttons. 1 to charge capacitor, 1 to release. Even a 6v solenoid will give a gd kick, i suggest 12v, to prevent overheating. Entirely possible to use, say 100v capacitor, charge to say 68v, but you need a better stepup module. Thank me later.

Good Job! I have a many ideas for a pinball machine, with a 7 segments displays too! Thanks! Continue sharing your experiments!

Don't forget: You can over voltage the solenoid and and then use a microswitch to detect the end of stroke to then reduce the voltage back to standard rating (or a bit less) of the solenoid.

What solonoids did you end up using in the final implementation of this project?

Give those 12V solenoids 24V or more! Use an arduino port that cna do PWM. Actuate the solenoid by setting the port for some hundred milliseconds. Then if the button is still pressed, do PWM at a fairly low duty cycle. The holding voltage is much lower than the actuating voltage. Do use reverse diodes at the solenoids! Otherwise the BEMF when you release them can kill your driver or throw your AVR out of it's intended programming. Artig prosjekt!

@FunctionalDesign

7 жыл бұрын

PWM should be useful for this kind of solenoid control! Good idea!

@supercables251

7 жыл бұрын

Umm, i don't think relays PWM well, use a MOSFET to PWM large voltages.

@FunctionalDesign

7 жыл бұрын

I agree. I connected the relays to be "on" for 80ms when a button was pressed and didn't use pwm through the solenoids.

@revimfadli4666

7 жыл бұрын

Just like how they do its with real pinball machines!

I have a game design and would like to make it IRL. I am trying to make a mini game with everything scaled to match a 5mm ball. Your demo here is exactly what I needed and I was already looking at those solenoids. So while it's awesom that I now know they wont really work I am left wondering if you ever found solenoids that will work well with that size ball. I'm trying to stay with a 12v supply if I can. Anything more to share since this video?

I attempted the same thing. I gave up and ordered flipper assembly's from Marco. At $40 each they are expensive but still cost less than building DIYing your own.

Half the text was unreadable, because it was white text, against a mostly white background. From what I could tell, it appears you're demonstrating a flipper system. Looks interesting.

hey you might have the 3d print attachment design? if you do can u send it please? Thanks a million

A cheap desktop pinball game i have here uses mechanical flipper design and for a smaller desktop game, it's actually a very good compromise.

@TheTurnipKing

7 жыл бұрын

the big problem is "real" pinball flipper solenoids actually use specialised solenoids with two different coils. A strong coil for the initial activation and a weaker one to hold the flipper in engaged position which is less likely to burn out, but the voltages employed in those things are pretty overkill in an application like this.

@FunctionalDesign

7 жыл бұрын

+TheTurnipKing I've read about that kind of solenoid setup. I've been wondering if it would be possible to simply contol the voltage level for that purpose, and use a normal solenoid instead. Still, my experiment kind of told me to go in the normal direction here.

FUNCTIONALDESIGN, 1.) Why does DC coils solenoids have more "torque" compared to using AC coil solenoids? 2.) Why doesn't the flipper coil gets "burned out" when its being held down because the coil#1 is still turned on while coil#2 is turned off by the end of stroke switch but the coil#1 should get burned out since its being turned on while holding down the flipper button.

arduino relay question. I am converting a gottlieb electromechanical pinball to arduino control. These things have lots of solenoids using pulses of relatively high voltage. I read on Amazon comments that to use these with same, you need to add an rc snubber or the relay will be shot to shit in no time. can anyone shed light on this? Thanks

@FunctionalDesign

6 жыл бұрын

Hi there, comparing to traditional pinball setups I'm kind of going in a different direction with this test. I used a relay switch as a quick prototype, but it isn't necessarily the best solution. There are some comments about this below. I hope someone can help you out :)

Do you have 3D designs? ( fliper and more ) .. still making videos about pinball .

You'll never get enough power out of a single winding solenoid for flipper use. Use dual winding solenoids with a high power pull in winding and a hold winding.

Why the relay switch? Is it because Arduino is 5V and the Solenoid is 12V? Is there an Arduino that can support 12V?

@FunctionalDesign

6 жыл бұрын

Yes, the arduino is only controlling it, and it needed 12V. There are more neat tips on controlling the solenoids in other comments below.

Does it handle the power if you hold more than 30sec? Without burning the coil?

@FunctionalDesign

7 жыл бұрын

It's not recommended, so I wouldn't try. I guess you could add a timer in the code that releases the solenoid after say 15 sec, and make that part of the game rules.

@salimubeydullah7681

7 жыл бұрын

I had to use a Driver to manage that. The driver has the capability to drive the 40V power with ms precision. So to hold the flipper it sends a modulated power signal, and the coil won't burn.

Yo man look up solenoid kicker you can do with what you have there just need capacitors etc

could you do it with pop bumpers, please?

@FunctionalDesign

6 жыл бұрын

Yes I will, stay tuned. It will be tricky and I will try out various designs and see what works.

why not increase the leverage also?

@FunctionalDesign

7 жыл бұрын

That would make things interesting for sure. The solenoids have a certain travel and the geometry of the tilt point and angle of the flipper would probably fix some of it. I need to get this to a functional level, as the flippers are kinda essential for a pinball game before anything else on the playfield ;) The biggest solenoid in the video might work for a pop bumper... maybe.

I have an idea for you. Use the bigger solenoid with the smaller ball - problem solved

i would love to use your arduino code :D