I'm currently at this stage with Spaceballs. I'm finding that there aren't a whole lot of dimensional drawings of pinball parts out there, so I'm having to buy/borrow them and actually measure them and put them into a CAD program.

I'd probably buy a hooker for someone if they magically had a 3d model of a blank playfield laying around, with all of the slingshot, shooter lane, flipper, etc... geometry figured out.

I am literally sitting here right now digitizing a model of the 3-bank motorized drop target assembly from BK2K that BadBrick was nice enough to take out of his machine and let me borrow.

I also ordered a bunch of inserts that just arrived this week. I'm going to 3D print router guides and test assemblies. I'll make those models public if anyone wants them.

Yes! Just like that. Someone else is hooking me up with some stuff as well, but I'll gladly take more if you are willing to share! Let me know via PM.

I can definitely help with programming. The spaceballs board set looks like its going to cost about $140 to make, so that's another option as well.

My christmas break started yesterday, so now I'm into my heavy winter project season. Let the fun begin.

For me, a whitewood takes up a lot of room, so I need to develop in much smaller bits before I jump into a full whitewood. One thing I've done just today is create these "insert test blocks" that hold an insert and one of my RGB LED boards, so I can get some testing done.

Idea is to have several different shaped inserts just to test and make sure they look good with the LEDs I've chosen. Also, to be able to line several up in different patterns and test coding different lighting effects without having an actual routed piece of wood.

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3d printer. The insert I bought from Marco.

Yeah, optimal positioning is definitely something I'm after. I've got a couple led options as well, so I want to make sure I make the right choices for each size/shape of insert. I printed a block for triangular inserts just a bit ago, but I made a mistake in one measurement. Got the fixed model printing right now.

Once I've got the positioning tweaked, I'm also using the blocks to test code. I want the light effects to be really nice.

Aaron, that's some great stuff!!! I love the metal playfield so you can move magnetic pieces around.

Here is the triangular insert box.

DSC01326 (Medium).JPG

Definitely. I'm more interested in the physical stuff that would come with it. Not super interested in any electronics. To be clear, the lack of interest has nothing to do with FAST. I think they have a killer product, I just enjoy doing that part myself.

I would be interested in buying the routed playfield wood by itself. #1 from your list.

If you ever do it, sign me up for option 3.

Which printer?

I'm in love with mine. It's literally run almost non-stop since I got it a month or so ago.

I woke up this morning to a bunch of confirmation emails from OSHPark and others. Apparently I "drunk ordered" a bunch of prototype pcbs and parts.

Cool, the laser engraving feature seems neat!

Haha, exactly. This definitely wasn't the first time for me. Sounds like Aaron does the same, lol.

I've learned to just trust my "Mr. Hyde" when it comes to engineering/coding. .

It's so true about using tools you are familiar with.

I chose not to code Spaceballs in python. I've been in .NET since it's inception, and found myself getting really frustrated in python. Logic/theory wasn't a problem, it was the frustration around having to google a bunch of syntax for python, or external libraries, when it was a 2 second bit of code for me in .NET.

That bender gave me enough wood to go and google more videos.

Check this monster out:

Or this one that can do more degrees of freedom:

Recently I've been prototyping one of the toys on Spaceballs, the tractor beam event. Concept is that there is a rectangular window on the playfield going vertically from the center drain to the front of spaceball one.

Under the window, the princess's mercedes is sucked toward spaceball one, and if you successfully complete the mode, the toy flips over to the winnebago side and flies away.

3D printing makes this kind of stuff so easy to prototype.

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There won't be video of this version for a couple of reasons.

- The lead screw I used was way too thin. I got a lot of wobble out of it.
- For the reason you mention, it's too easy to defeat the limit switch. I've done it twice already, lol.
- I need a more powerful motor.
- The carriage needs some type of active tension device to put some load on the lead screw so the carriage provides some resistance. Some form of an anti-backlash nut.

Pretty much, it's controlled by a small AVR. There are also 18 RGB LEDs on the side (the little open circles).

I've already got a box of anti backlash nuts, so I'll probably just use a leadscrew that matches them.

anti-backlash-nut.jpg

Nope, nothing going to the carriage. The trick is that the little car assembly flips over based on which direction the screw is turning. It's pretty neat. Just a little sloppy in this prototype. I usually never show this stuff to people.

I'm thinking about it. Mine also uses a GT2 belt, and that seems to be pretty solid.

No clue, lol.

The second prototype is already on the printer, so I'll know how much a better lead screw and motor help next weekend.

It flips on it's own accord, because of the tension between the two bolts on the carriage. I've got two trapezoid shaped wedges in this prototype to put the tension on it.

It actually flips really well and rides up and down the channel well, but it shakes because of the speed I have to run this particular screw at.

I don't mean to steer it into a discussion about Spaceballs specifically. Was more commenting on the usefulness of a 3D printer in this kind of design work.

I did take a clip of a video of this prototype running. You'll see why I want a stiffer screw with less TPI, and more tension on the carriage.

Thanks for all the ideas 3rdaxis!

One of the goals of my project is to make the parts easy to source, for anyone that wants to build one themselves.

With that in mind, after thinking about it some more, I've decided to use a nema 17 stepper motor to drive the lead screw, with a 3D printed anti-backlash assembly.

Using a stepper driver only adds a couple of components to the control board for this toy anyway.

I'm still using sketch up, because it's free.

I've got solid works 2013, but keeping with the idea that I want other people to have the assets, I need to keep my models in a format people can use for free.

There is a free plugin for Sketchup to import Obj files.

Just from my perspective, this isn't 100% correct. Sure, the BOM is lower for me, around $120 for it all, but I'm also able to have control over the project.

No offense to you or Aaron, but my controller has features you guys don't, its not just a money thing. Time in my life is very limited, only hours a week for this kind of stuff, so I take the measurement of my personal time investment very seriously.

I'm not intending to get into production, so the market share you have is safe from me, but the pinball controller market is ripe for someone with a better/cheaper design to jump in and really make a mark.

All of that said, anyone who can't out engineer the current designs needs to just buy a PROC or FAST. Gerry is correct about it being the logical choice for someone who can't do the low level engineering or isn't sure what the correct parts to pick are.

Yes please. Make it solid and I'll even print a couple in different colors and post pics.

One of the main improvements was bulletproofing the solenoid drivers and the switch matrix. You can literally dead short a solenoid and it won't blow the driver. The chipset can even tell you which solenoid is shorted. It's got several other types of fault detection built in as well.

It's got built in voltage monitoring and dynamic adjustment. For example, if your line voltage sags, like at a pinball show, it will automatically adjust the pulse sent to the solenoids to account for it. If the voltages still fall outside of an acceptable range (think 5V, 12V, etc...), it can throw an error condition on that as well.

As I said at the end of my post, the best route for most people is to just buy hardware. I happen to have an ace up my sleeve in the form of a former exec from Maxim semiconductor. He did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to bulletproofing the design. His career has been in industrial/automotive design where there can't be any catastrophic failures, or someone dies.

The good news is, I'm giving away this design for free once the PCB is done and I've tested it all. If Aaron or Gerry want to take aspects of the design to enhance their own product, I have no problem with that. I'm not looking for any compensation or even a "special thanks". I'm here because I enjoy it. You won't ever hear from me again when I don't.

I'll be honest, I don't care about what format training/education people have for the most part. If you are smart, you are smart. Schooling won't change that.

There are also some degrees that I take with a grain of salt. Computer science degrees are largely a joke nowadays. I've met a lot of graduates that don't really understand basic concepts like polymorphism.

I say, if you enjoy something like electronics, go for it! Don't let things like not having a degree in EE convince you that you can't be good at it. Just know that even when I reflect on myself, there is always someone better and smarter out there.

Lot of truth to that.

As you,mention, it's the trade offs. I prefer surface mount, not only because of part availability, but the cost savings. Knowing that, I wanted my board to be built once and not have to reworked every time a solenoid blows a driver. The board surface area saved, technologically more advanced components, and some guide rails for design more than offset any additional costs for me.

Totally! My degrees are CpE and EE. The 3D printer is so amazing for prototyping iterations.

I've also grabbed the model and made it solid. I've been printing a couple different variations to see what lighting effects look like under translucent prints.

I'll post some pics in a day or two.

Thanks. It's going to be a while (years), but hopefully it will be good.

Post pic of the prints when you get a chance, I'm curious to see how yours turned out.

I'll try with the hollow one as well.

The one issue I've had so far is that the unit is 152mm long, which is 2mm longer than my printer can handle. I don't care about the curve at the end of the lane, so I chopped off the last 13mm or so of the unit.

Any particular reason other than aesthetics for the curved "nose" of the piece? If not, it may be easier to just go straight across. It would make cutting the pocket on the playfield easier, at least for me.

That's a very good point. Consider it a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. I was fixated on using a very small bit and a jig, and didn't even think of using a bit the same size as the end curve.

No, don't modify the model yet. I swear I had some kind of stroke or something this morning. Having family in town for the holidays turned my brain into mush.

I'll let you know how these next few prints come out. I'm messing with print orientation and infill to get a few samples of different styles. I'm going to print out a "light box" that I can lay them on to test different lighting effects as well. Now that 75% of the visiting family is out of the house, hopefully my brain goes back to normal.

150mm x 150mm x 150mm

If I print it flat laying down, I can just turn it at a 45 degree angle on the build surface to fit it.

Thanks swinks. I'm gonna give the 5.5" one a few prints as well.

I uploaded the light box I made to test lighting effects with, for the 6 inch version. I'll do one for the 5.5 inch and upload it as well. I linked it as a remix/inspired by to your shooter lane model.

I've got a spool of crystal clear filament on the way, as well as some other translucent colors, so I can test lighting with that as well.

I'm sitting here working on a PCB to send to OSHPark that would slip under the hollow version. I was going to do 9 RGB leds. 1 under the rounded tip, then 4 running down each side. Added a small atmel microcontroller to make it easier to tinker with.

So far I've got 2 solids and 2 hollows printed, a set of each in white ABS and translucent orange PLA. Also got one of the lightboxes printed.

The PCB with the lights/atmel on it? I'd be happy to send you a couple!!

Once I get them back from OSHPark, I'll populate them, do some testing, post some videos, and PM you for your address. Maybe 2-3 weeks, depending on how fast OSHPark is with the holidays. I just had two other things go to fab pretty quickly right before, so hopefully it won't be too long of a wait.

$14.70 for 3 boards, so less than $5 a piece.

2 layers, silk screened.

Another cool idea man!

I'm printing some of these out as well. I will actually get around to posting some pics of it all today and some makes on thingiverse.

One good place might be up on thingiverse, that way we can link right to the model and other people not on pinside can access them.

Printing these now.

My damn camera battery died, but not before I was able to snap a few pics of some of swinks's stuff I've printed.

The ball guide parts separately:

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The ball guide parts stacked, they fit together well:

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Some of the shooter lanes I've printed. Top two are hollow, bottom two are solid.

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Haha, I had to google that model to see what kind of desktop mill it was. Wasn't expecting a full size mill with tool changer and everything, lol.

Whenever you are ready to start cutting and selling the blanks, let me know.

I absolutely hate woodworking. I can do it, I just hate the mess. I've already promised myself before I do any more major woodworking that I am installing a big dust collection system in the shop.

I'm in no rush, even if it's summer. Just wanted to toss that out there again.

Hey swinks, I've been printing a bunch of these to mess with, really good stuff!

I also printed a 1mm thick strip of ABS to use as a temporary guide instead of the steel. It is thin enough to bend, but thick enough to mess with a ball a little (it's probably not very durable).

One thing that would be helpful would be to have another ball guide model, elongated in the direction of the pocket for the guide. Say 5mm wider, so there is room to butt two of these guide strips up to each other, in order to join them into a longer strip. Does that make sense?

I disagree.

We are actively building a library of parts and techniques to find the easiest entry point to whitewoods.

We've been exploring 3D printers as a way to get the basic necessities up faster and cheaper.

Maybe I'm taking the point of the thread incorrectly, but I was hoping to end up with a list of parts and options for future people to run with. I also assumed that wouldn't just be a parts list from pinball life, but also some options for 3D printing, computer aided design, etc...

I don't know if people necessarily need 3D printers to benefit from the technology. Shapeways is always an option, as well as having someone like me print things for them. I would just charge the cost of materials. For example, if someone wanted a set of swinks ball guide posts, a couple shooter lanes, and some other stuff printed, they could either use shapeways or work out something with me/swinks/whoever to print them.

One of the ways I am using to get to a whitewood is by making "dummies" of the different types of things that stick above a playfield.

I want to be able to freely move them around my workbench while I tinker with ideas in my head. No balls needed yet, and no holes to cut. I just move them around like chess pieces.

For example, here is a dummy of a 3-Bank motorized target I made. It's the same dimensions as the real one when it is up above the playfield.

Swinks's ball guides are allowing me to move guides around my workbench easily as well, I just have them hot glued in place, but when i want to move them I just pop them off and stick them down somewhere else.

I'll take a pic in a bit of what I've got going on. I am trying to also get the dimensions for inline drops, if you happen to have access to a metallica.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/need-measurements-for-metallica-drop-targets

Dummy_3Bank.jpg

Got a set of four of these printing right now, I even used translucent orange to match your render color.

Heck yeah!

Cool stuff, I can't wait to check it out this weekend. I signed up for an account, I'll contribute as time allows.

This.

I could show people how to code their game in any .NET language all day long. I'm not familiar enough with pyprocgame or the mission framework to be able to advise people on their use.

Mission pinball framework has some really good documentation on how to get started with their stuff:

https://missionpinball.com/docs/tutorial/

Yes please!

Linolium, where do you get your large format prints? I was thinking I was just going to use Kinkos or something.

That's fantastic man. I love to see organized, clean work!!

I haven't been able to touch anything remotely pinball related in a couple of weeks now. I had my laptop completely die, so getting a new one in and set up has completely wrecked productivity in the shop.

The mission pinball framework is very impressive.

You just gave me wood, and the only cure is more cowbell.

I've figured out what I want to buy from someone.

I want the bottom part of a playfield CNC'd with all of the "standard" holes, including lane inserts, between the flipper insert, etc....

But I only want the wood to be long enough to get right past the entrances to the lanes. I'm going to build a side rail system on my playfield rotisserie that basically has the playfield in multiple pieces. That way I can keep messing with the upper part of the playfield without having to have a new lower piece.

The only thing I can compare it to is like leafs in a dining room table. The leaf on the end is the standard playfield bottom, then I can swap out other panels as I fuck them up or improve them.

Does that make sense?

I put a red line on ecurtz's picture to show the piece I want. Everything below it, plus a bunch of holes that his pic doesn't have yet.

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Exactly!

I don't even know that there would be a gap, I can easily model and 3D print some type of bracket/latch that keeps the center of the two pieces aligned vertically. The rails would clamp down on the sides keeping them aligned.

It would definitely be easier to ship too. Someone please get on this! I'd like a modern Stern style setup.

Anyone got one they would be willing to sell? I'd be willing to purchase it for a reasonable price.

Better yet if anyone wants to donate or loan one for a bit, you'd be helping games like Spaceballs come to life.

Maybe Jared could fine us one at Stern? Community relations could be letting us model after their layout and use their parts.

I'm not above begging Stern. Worst they can do is say no.

I've done a lot of fiberglass and Japanese tissue lay ups, so I have the experience to try, but I don't know anyone that prints on rice paper.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how the layup would go. You would either have to precut the fiberglass somehow, or do the layup and try to route out the holes afterward.

Just brainstorming, so this probably could be better, but I would probably do the layup on a clean sheet of plywood with just inserts in it and an uncut sheet of rice paper. I'd let the paper/glass/resin cure completely, then align a CNC by something on the artwork to do the playfield cuts. Then I would probably coat the whole thing with clear after the CNC routing.

For what it's worth, here are my thoughts on P3/Lexi Lightspeed after playing it at SFGE a couple of weeks ago.

I only played 1 game, so I did not get to experience much of the gameplay. What I did see of the gameplay was pretty neat. Seeing things like smoke trails from the ball on the LCD screen was a new experience. I wasn't playing it to see what Lexi Lightspeed was like though, I was playing it to check out the concept of having a ball tracking LCD as part of the playfield.

The platform wants to be a pinball machine, but is definitely not a video game. I think it might have more success as something entirely new. A lot of this is off the cuff, so some (or all) may not stand up to scrutiny.

The LCD concept feels like it is being held back by the need to hang onto things like slings, outlanes and inlanes. Come up with a new experience down on the bottom of the playfield as well, other than just the LCD. Why not eliminate outlanes in the traditional sense and redesign the apron so the flippers become part of the apron area versus a very industrial feeling linkage apparatus.

Make it more than about the traditional pinball game. Go on a bender and play Mario Party for 2 days straight then write some mini-games on the platform. Make it a competitive thing. 4 player mini-games somehow tied to pinball skill.

Again, just brainstorming, so you may have already thought of this stuff and I'm thinking I discovered the gas engine.

tl;dr - The P3 has a lot of potential, but I think it's limited by the desire to make it a "real" pinball machine. What is a real pinball machine anyway.

If I want to do foamcore ramps to test, what's the best way to do the transition between the whitewood and the ramp?

I was thinking about just using a bead from the hot glue gun to provide the smooth transition, but wanted to ask opinions here.

Hmm, interesting thought.

I was thinking maybe I just use an x-acto and try to trim the foamcore parallel to the surface of the whitewood where it needs to lay, but I think a ball would chew that up past 1 or two shots up it.

I have no idea why I didn't think of it, but you are right. I'll model something I can print that serves as a ramp entry for foamcore.

Vid's idea is probably the most viable, especially at the low price point. You could make hundreds of flaps from that roll.

I'm gonna do the 3D printed one just to mess with because you peaked my curiosity.

There is a lot that I love about this picture, lol.

There's a lot of value in doing things completely in paper/foam/cardboard. It's cheap and won't cause any angst if you mess it up a dozen times.

I decided to go with FAST for Spaceballs. I had my own boardset 90% ready to go, but decided to set it aside and go with a retail solution. It wasn't an easy decision. I spent a lot of time working with a buddy of mine on the boards, and we ended up with something I was really proud of.

Trouble was, I had basically flown myself to a very lonely island and was setting myself up for failure. My boardset and code would have been fine, I'm extremely competent there. I had screwed up by not building relationships and trying to isolate myself.

I picked FAST over P-ROC because I got more fuzzy warm feelings from Aaron at FAST than I have anyone involved with the P-ROC stuff. They are both capable board sets, but I like what FAST is trying to accomplish and think they deserve to have a project like Spaceballs under their brand umbrella.

Also, I hate Python. I plan on using the MPF, but I'll be writing a lot of stuff to go with it and enable it's functionality in .NET.

That's basically the conclusion I came to. I *could* do it alone, but that's just plain stupid and will take me twice as long. I had to remind myself this is supposed to be for fun and not work. I'd be lying if I said the whole JPop thing didn't play a part in that. I saw the crazy number of people we have in this hobby that are capable of helping and realized I was making as stupid a mistake as JPop by ignoring that.

Sorry, I don't mean to make it that way. In fact, I reworded my post several times to try and not make it seem like I was bashing P-ROC while I justified my FAST choice.

This is a thread about how to get a white wood up and running, and picking a piece of hardware is part of that, so I don't feel like it was too off-topic.

Whoa! I know of a handful. Is there a list somewhere with links to their blogs/sites?

it's definitely cool we can even have this discussion about different platforms.

Here's to seeing a bunch of games at shows powered by both systems!

Spaceballs will debut at SFGE in 2016 as an example of what's capable with FAST.

I've got some great "screw ups" and stuff from Spaceballs. I'll post some tomorrow night when I'm back at my laptop.

I really like it!

Terry, please add pre-cut playfield templates, sized properly and with the "italian" bottom or whatever the hell it's called already cut on it.

I'm seriously *this* close to ordering a CNC router to cut my own. I can't do it with my hands, it will look like dog shit.

Swinks, that is EXACTLY what I need to cut my own. Damn man, that's excellent.

I was excited about this too, and I gave it a go. It's not a windows desktop, it's basically an IoT shell for the Pi 2.

I get what they were going for, but it fell a little short of my hopes.

You won't need to use the GPIO for pinball, the timing is hard to control anyway. If you are using FAST or PROC you just connect them via USB and off you go.

My FAST Pinball Playground software runs on Pi 2 with no problems.

When you get rolling on your stuff, there's a decent number of us that can help support you now too.

By the time you start, I'll probably have released the FAST Playground for general use. Just got some tidying up I want to do, and I need to add support for some of the other boards I don't have access to yet.

All that has to wait until after expo though. I've seen some of the stuff that the FAST crew is bringing to Expo, and I think you all will like it. The games are really moving along, and the MPF is growing up before our eyes. It's an exciting time for sure!

The Playground is just a piece of software that knows how to talk to the FAST hardware. It gives you a simple interface to do things like see switches triggering, set lights certain colors, and fire solenoids. It has some other features too, but the idea is to get you something that you can immediately tinker with, without having to set anything up. It even auto detects your FAST hardware for you.

I think I posted an early screenshot in one of the FAST threads, but I use it constantly for sending raw commands or fiddling with the hardware.

I've also begun the discovery process on a config wizard for MPF. The MPF team has given me some good suggestions of features to start with, but that's at least a month or two away from seeing the light of day.

It's in addition to MPF. The playground is just a quick way for someone who received their hardware to play with it out of the box, without setting anything game related up. It's just a supporting tool to use when building a pinball game based on FAST hardware. The playground only works with FAST stuff.

I find it helpful to fire up the playground and just send test stuff or test my wiring without getting near game code.

The config wizard is the complement to MPF that will hopefully give people who don't want to mess with the actual config files a more visual way to set up their game. It won't be capable of creating complex game logic, but people who want to go that far will need to learn some coding anyway. Since the config wizard is a complement to the MPF, it will work on any platform that the MPF supports. (PROC and FAST)

With the RPi you have to be conscious of media loading times from the SD card.

It doesn't have enough memory to preload 1080p clips, so there is always some lag in starting a video and getting the initial stream from the SD card. At least, that was my experience when I tried it.

I'm kinda with you on that.

For just slightly more you could get something that is modular (motherboard, processor, memory, vid card) so individual parts can be upgraded as needed.

That new Beaglebone X15 is certainly cool, but it seems like a decent chunk of the new price is spent in areas that don't really benefit a pinball game.

The draw of the Pi is that it's $40 for the most powerful one, and that could certainly run a DMD game.

I've been through a lot of processors for Spaceballs, in the end I came back to the standard PC. It helps that I have a bunch of extra ones lying around, so that influenced it a little bit.

I'm running a 19" TV with 1360x768, very similar to yours. Cool.

Hopefully it will get back there, I think we are just waiting now for someone to reach the point of making the parts available.

Right now, there is no user story around how to get the actual whitewood together, mainly the CNC/cutting. A couple of us are about to enter the CNC world, my machine should be here in late November. I'd be willing to sell CNC cut bottoms to give people a starting point.

I think finding a supplier of those is step #1, or very close to it.

I've been tempted, but I'm a really bad woodworker!

If I don't do CNC, it will come out crooked and looking like a 4 year old made it, lol.

I've been working on a 3D printed trough I call the infinity trough.

I'll post some pics Sunday, I'm traveling right now.

This is probably a good place for me to start, because I tried it a few months ago.

Archimedes_Screw_Trough.jpg

The problem with this model is that the ball can still be at an indeterminate place and there's no real simple way to say "yes, a ball is in position X".

I moved on to a dual auger system that allowed me to move balls up and down a very closely sized channel.

I started by printing a set of test pieces to check for fit:

trough_fit_test1.jpg

Once I was happy with that I made the first, hand powered prototype:

trough_concept_1_1.jpg

trough_concept_1_2.jpg

For the next revision I decided to change to a better form factor, include a stepper motor, and have some type of feeder designed to feed the track.

First up was a test of the new form factor:

trough_fit_test2.jpg

Then I moved on to making the parts for the next real test, a stepper powered auger with the capability to also back up balls to the trough. The balls are detected in positions on the track, the augers are intended to go the entire length of the track to the exit, I just haven't printed them yet.

I'm working on the PC for Spaceballs right now, but once I've got that up, my next piece to work on is getting this newest design turning through software.

infinity_trough_new_version_parts.jpg

infinity_trough_new_version.jpg

infinity_trough_closeup.jpg

For Spaceballs, I wanted to handle more than just a handful of balls, and also be able to transport them up the playfield a bit against gravity. The design is intended to be printed in as many segments as you need, not just the 4-ball trough pictured.

This design requires no solenoids or mechanical switches and also with a pretty high degree of certainty knows when it has dispensed a ball. At least, that's the goal.

That was part of my experimentation with the larger archimedes one. Once you ramped up the speed, the balls were not happy just sitting at the bottom, sometimes they went up and over.

The dual auger can be run pretty dang fast. A very similar design is used in high speed paintball loaders.

I actually know nothing about paintball as a hobby/sport. All I learned about their loaders was from mining their patent data.

Mine still has a pretty high chance of failure. I just don't post all the failures, a lot of them I keep to myself.

Fail fast, fail often. Don't be scared.

A 3D printable assembly that uses a servo for reset would be magical. Someone do it.

I bet you could still have the spring and shelf for ball hit down, along with servo motions that can both lift the target and also push it back off the shelf to have it drop down. It would take an interesting cam or something, but it could be done I think.

Dude, that's awesome!

It's always fun to play "what if".

I've dreamed about how I would live on mars without any intention of actually doing it.

That's awesome!

I'm currently watching scott's stuff closely. I just got an X-Carve as well and I'm deciding between lengthening it or doing what Scott is trying to do. I will do so few playfields, I don't know if it's worth lengthening, but it sure would make cutting them easier.

You work for Ars. Even if you just have macs, you should have Windows in Fusion or Parallels.

Awesome job Compy!!!!

I think a decent number of people have cut their play fields by hand. Pinsider Rosh is one of them.

That will work if you have the skill to do it by hand. I'm not one of the people that does though, lol, so CNC for me.

Spaceballs has a inverted u-turn like Who Dunnit does. It loads the balls up into the physical ball lock in Spaceball One.

Been running the X-Carve a decent amount lately, cutting out stuff.