Hi all.
My wife just got a new iPhone 8 which has a nice camera and the ability to capture slow motion video. I've always wanted to see how various pinball mechanisms work in real life as opposed to just looking at schematics, but up until now I haven't had the equipment to film how they actually work. These types of videos are surprisingly rare on YouTube, too. There are a few slow motion videos of flipper skills but nothing showing the playfield mechanisms. So I spent a few hours getting some pinball action on camera in slow motion from my Getaway. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I thought I would post and see if anyone else had any cool slow motion pinball footage that they shot themselves.
Also, if you really want to get tripped out, listen to the sound as well!
Pop bumpers. This shows clearly how movement of the wafer triggers the bumper and brings the ring and rod assembly down onto the ball.
Slingshots. It's hard to capture the movement of the individual switch leaves but it's interesting to see how the rubber moves.
Lock ball release (down post) mechanism. This is a handy way to check that the timing of the lock release is just right.
I was really impressed by how the above videos turned out. So I started filming a few other things just to see what was actually happening in certain parts of the playfield. I am amazed at how useful this is as a tool for troubleshooting. I know of plenty of playfield issues on my games but rarely can I actually see what is causing these issues during normal gameplay. This is where slow motion videos come in really handy.
Problem 1: one of the screws that secures the left inlane ball return guides to the playfield had snapped. I have sometimes seen the upper screw snap due to balls impacting it, but the lower one was the damaged one on my machine. I had no idea how this could happen as there was no way balls would be coming into contact with this screw.
Turns out, balls were actually impacting it a lot - from above. Balls dropping from the wireform were coming straight down onto it.
Problem 2: the supercharger entry plastic on my Getaway was broken. I bought a metal backing bracket from Homepin as extra support. At some point in time, the metal bracket had been hit by a ball and bent forwards. What the hell? So I set up the camera and flipped a ball towards the area to see what could have happened.
Yep, airballs from the standup targets were impacting the ramp entry. Now I need to adjust the metal plate behind the leaf switch so it directs balls downwards.
Problem 3: ball hang ups in the right freeway orbit. Occasionally, a ball shot from the left freeway orbit would hang up on something on its way down the right side. I though this was caused by the switch and adjusted it a hundred times to no avail. The video helped show exactly what was happening.
The ball was actually hitting the screw that fastens the ball guide to the cabinet. Removing the screw fixed the issue.
Problem 4: balls being ejected from the supercharger early. Very occasionally a ball would get pushed out of the supercharger too early. I knew that this was due to the diverter not closing quickly enough, but it is interesting to actually see this on camera. The video also confirmed that the balls were not being struck by the screws on the diverter, which is another common problem. There are up to 3 balls in the supercharger in these videos.
That's all for now. Hopefully that was interesting to some of you guys. If you have any other slow motion pinball videos, please share!