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Cornell Dubilier Knowles
Another Ambassador Moment: DIY Pinball Machine
3
2021-03-26 | By Alisa Hathaway
License: Attribution
This project was designed by one of Digi-Key’s own university ambassador students. Check out how it works in the video below!
During college, finding fun projects to complete over extended breaks from classes can be a great way to occupy your time and expand your electrical engineering skills. Over the 2020 winter break, I spent my time designing and constructing a pinball machine, which included laser printable parts designed in Gravit Designer, 3D printable parts designed using Autodesk’s Fusion 360, and Vinyl Cutter designs created in Cricut Design Space.
Theme Selection
To give the pinball machine a unique design and shy away from the typical space-related pinball machine theme, I decided to focus on Tangled a Disney movie about princess Rapunzel. However, selecting any theme you like is essential; knowing more about the theme is beneficial, so the numerous parts on your board can relate to your overall theme. Keep in mind that pinball machine designing should be fun!
Bill of Materials
The total cost of all the materials utilized was approximately $19.56 (mostly due to approximations on 3D printed parts). In addition to the materials listed above, a soldering iron, hot glue gun, and screwdriver were used for construction.
The total cost of constructing a pinball machine at home will vary slightly depending on the components created but should all be approximately less than $20 for a total cost.
Vinyl Cutter
A vinyl cutter was used to decorate the pinball machine, and the Tangled logo was printed using Cricut Design Space. After choosing a .jpg or .png, the image can be easily modified by dragging and dropping it. Pictures that can easily be made into one color and don’t have small intricate designs are the easiest to produce.
Original Image
Cricut Design Space
3D Printer
There are many different programs for modifying 3D printable designs. This project utilized Autodesk’s Fusion 360, which is free for students.
Shown in the screenshot below is the pinball machine’s ramp. The ramp’s height and width can easily be modified using tools like Fusion 360 to ensure that the pinball will have enough speed to climb up the ramp. This ramp was printed in gold plastic to act as Rapunzel’s hair to stick with the theme. The other 3D printable parts were created in a similar manner.
Ramp for Pinball Machine
Laser Cutter
Laser cutters help develop different pinball machine parts, either for structure construction or for a more elaborate design. For this pinball machine, the base structure (the back panel and side panels) was laser-printed. In addition, the Rapunzel tower was created using laser-cut parts. Gravit Designer is a free software package that can easily publish files to be laser printed.
I originally intended to use extremely thin wood to print the tower and construct it. However, after calculating my other components’ dimensions, I realized that my Rapunzel tower needed to be very small to fit on the board. Thus, instead of laser printing on wood, cardstock paper was ‘laser cut.’ The Gravit Designer file was converted to a .pdf and printed onto cardstock paper using a standard printer. Shapes were then cut using an Exacto knife, and the pieces were hot glued together (after coloring them).
'Laser Printed' Tower PDF
Electronics
For this pinball machine, I created three different circuits using inexpensive household materials. Numerous other circuits can be created using lights/sounds to make the pinball machine more exciting. In the future, I’d like to incorporate a scoring system using an Arduino and counting program.
The three circuits created here include a star spinner with LEDs, a tower with fairy lights, and a buzzer bumper. The schematic is shown in the drawing below. Simple modifications to the circuits can result in different things, like swapping out the LEDs for a buzzer or adding another buzzer to the circuit in addition to the lights. As long as there is some mechanism to ‘complete the circuit’ using the pinball, it will be a great addition to your machine. Numerous methods to hitting something, spinning something, rolling over/into something, etc. can be played with.
Building a pinball machine on your own is not only fun but also educational. The device allows you to include as many components as you want, from different mechanical gadgets to electronics. The only limit to your design is your imagination!
Have questions or comments? Continue the conversation on TechForum, DigiKey's online community and technical resource.
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