Hello

I should start out with this and explain in detail important aspects in pinball electronics and starting off, Lets talk about Power Regulation and Rectification.
(If you already know about this, let this be a guide for New People).
Lets get started.

Why do we need Regulation and Rectification?
To simply convert between AC to DC and peel off certain voltages.

Alternating Current that comes out of wall socket is 60hz (50 if you live in Europe) 120v (Something else in other countries).

If you were to plot the power coming out of your socket it would look like waves, Sine wave to be precise but with logic needs, we need a straight line, AC does not give us a straight line of a current so we need to translate that to Flat line, this translation is Rectification.

It does this in Three Stages.

The first Stage is that the current is stepped down, by the use of transformers, I am going to boil it down. we have been told to us that their is a relationship between voltage and magnetism and the way we translate the two is through inductors.

The more windings the bigger the field, the more power however, if that field collapses (down turn of the sine wave) in a coil with less turns (That is nearby), a lower voltage is induced, in that coil.

In some cases we need to step up or down and that is accomplished by tapping off one side of the transformer, the less windings we tap off the lower the voltage the more windings we tap off from the higher the voltage in relationship to the coil that feeds the transformer.

The Feeder coil, is called the primary winding. the coil that taps off from the transformer is called a Secondary.

The magnetic field is carried around by the metal that the primary is wounded on and the secondary gets that field via that same metal or "Core"

To calculate the ratio is to count the primary winding and divide it against the winding count off the secondary.

We cannot step down DC with Transformers is because, that field does not collapse to induce another voltage in that secondary.

Step Two
After voltage stepping next is the real deal Rectification.

The heart of it all is a full bridge rectifier and it has 4 diodes connected to each other in a ring.

On the upswing of the current wave the rectifier will let it through. When the current reaches zero and proceed into and through the negative region the bridge will then conduct in away that what should be a valley in the wave is now deflected so that the current is back up into a new hill.

Instead of
Hill, Valley, Hill

Its now
Hill, Hill, Hill

This current is not suitable for logic because, the current now fluctuates to 0 to what ever the orginal voltage coming in to the bridge.

We fix this by inserting a capacitor that branches off the output leg.

What this does is that is smooths it out it acts like a shock absorber and we get our DC current.

That DC current is not pure DC current but the ripple has becomes small, really small.

Dont think that the current is unsuitable it is suitable for our needs.

Step three
Now lets talk about regulation.

Our new DC current and Voltage is unstable it fluctuates and we need steady.

So what the regulator does is it regulates the voltage to a steady magnitude, its like a self adjusting variable resistor and it adjusts itself.

I hope this information is useful and helpful for the next time you need it.

Thoughts and or Questions?

Resistors or a resistor divider circuit.

Remember DC cannot be stepped up or down with transformers.

Think of this as this way.

You have a water line that the level flow is unstable, you add a piece of pipe that is perpendicular to the line.

And what that does is it do is provides a extra water to keep that fluncuation to a minimum.

Same with the capacitor in this case.

Yes voltage is stepped down at transformer but thats a raw step down.

That capacitor at the end of rectification is calculated to the design because, if we go too high if we are to turn off the load, capacitor discharges or could supply too much + what is rectified.

The higher that capacitor the smaller the ripple but like I said you go too high danger awaits.