FunHouse
Williams, 1990Every once in a while a slow shot up the left ramp on my Funhouse will get stopped and stuck on the switch on the ramp behind rudy's head, under the little house thing....
Was thinking of converting this to an opto.
Anyone know of a stock board (IE. Williams board)i could use to do this?
Bob
I'd suspect your switch. Mine even if I just set the ball right under it it can still actuate fine.
But, for the fun of theorizing: it looks from the manual like the existing opto board has three slots, only two of which (hot dog ramp and rudy's mouth) are used? So I guess you could just plug into J4 there. The other concern would be whether they're inverted or not...
Optos will need a 12 volt supply, and they’re read by the MPU backwards. A standard microswitch is normally open, and when it closes to complete the circuit, it’s registered as a hit.
Optos are read as being normally closed, and when the beam is broken, it opens the circuit and the MPU registers it as a hit.
So while you could very likely piggy back a 12 volt supply, you’d still have to change the programming/code to tell the software what would constitute a hit, otherwise the game will just see the converted ramp switch as always being permanently closed.
Quoted from zacaj:I'd suspect your switch. Mine even if I just set the ball right under it it can still actuate fine.
But, for the fun of theorizing: it looks from the manual like the existing opto board has three slots, only two of which (hot dog ramp and rudy's mouth) are used? So I guess you could just plug into J4 there. The other concern would be whether they're inverted or not...
It's not that it doesn't actuate, it does, But the slight friction of the arm, on a rare occasion, stops the ball on the ramp. Am i understanding your reply correctly??
Quoted from mbaumle:Optos will need a 12 volt supply, and they’re read by the MPU backwards. A standard microswitch is normally open, and when it closes to complete the circuit, it’s registered as a hit.
Optos are read as being normally closed, and when the beam is broken, it opens the circuit and the MPU registers it as a hit.
So while you could very likely piggy back a 12 volt supply, you’d still have to change the programming/code to tell the software what would constitute a hit, otherwise the game will just see the converted ramp switch as always being permanently closed.
Couldn't i invert that somehow?
Seems like it would be easier to adjust/replace the existing switch so that the ball doesn't lose as much momentum passing through.
Quoted from BobLangelius:It's not that it doesn't actuate, it does, But the slight friction of the arm, on a rare occasion, stops the ball on the ramp. Am i understanding your reply correctly??
I mean, even a ball with zero momentum, rested against my switch blade, will still roll through and down the ramp. The switch shouldn't be able to stop it
Quoted from BobLangelius:Couldn't i invert that somehow?
Not with an existing board, you'd need a custom one.
Quoted from mbaumle:So while you could very likely piggy back a 12 volt supply, you’d still have to change the programming/code to tell the software what would constitute a hit, otherwise the game will just see the converted ramp switch as always being permanently closed.
Adding a logic inverter chip might work.
Quoted from BobLangelius:It's not that it doesn't actuate, it does, But the slight friction of the arm, on a rare occasion, stops the ball on the ramp. Am i understanding your reply correctly??
This is a problem with some of the switches.
Original cherry switches have a much lower force required than the newer Chinese ones.
Get a few from Bryan Kelly while he is making them up with diodes it's a great deal.
He has a continuous thread, just PM him.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ever-convert-a-mechanical-switch-to-an-opto?hl=mbaumle and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Trumbull, CT
Bermuda Triangle