Cleveland, OH
I made a phototransistor/IR opto switch to replace the lower ramp switch (the one under the shuttle toy). The switch under my shuttle was completely missing and is apparently a proprietary part for the shuttle which can't be found individually, so instead of trying to bend metal to make a mechanical switch with a mount, I decided to use an IR-LED/Phototransistor unit (about the size of a cork board pin) mounted on a piece of clear thermoplastic material that sits above the ramp. The setup is tiny and fits completely hidden under the shuttle. I used an Arduino Uno and a relay (mounted inside the cab) to control it. The code is very simple, it detects a change in the amount of light hitting the transistor when the ball rolls through, it clicks the relay for .25 seconds to simulate the switch, then delays for 3 seconds so it won't accidentally double-trigger if the ball doesn't make it all the way up the ramp (since the real switch only activates when the ball moves in the forward direction). The Adruino runs off of a USB charger/cable plugged into the service outlet in the back of the cabinet. I made a custom wire harness with 6 wires to connect it all together. The whole setup cost under $20. It works flawlessly and another added bonus is that the clear plastic mount slightly raises the nose of the shuttle so it doesn't get smashed up if the ball bounces a little when it hits the ramp.
To clear up any future confusion there is no diode on the original lower ramp switch mounted in the shuttle toy (it is somewhere up/downstream). I also added pics of the GI mods I made to the shuttle toy. I added two LED's in the toy shuttle to illuminate the rockets, which are directly tied to the strobing rocket lights in the back box GI. There are some pics of my playfield as well. I used some purple and pink LED's around the lower playfield and drop target GI for effect. In the back box I used warm white LED's for the "Space shuttle" text illumination and cool white LED's for the shuttle illumination. I can provide the Arduino code if anyone ever wants to do this for some reason. FYI, all the wiring and connection is on a blank shield board which plugs directly into the UNO board. This way if the UNO microcontroller ever fails I can replace it in 2 minutes. Enjoy!
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