Hi All,

I'm wondering if anyone ever found a source for replacement Zizzle components. My son adores his and would not understand my inability to repair it in the event of an electronics failure...

Thanks!

Ok. So, does this sound like a terrible idea?:

Background:
The Zizzle has 4 coils (one for each flipper, one for the pops and one for the slings). The transistors are proprietary and not easily sourced in the US. The solenoids are tiny, but might be interchangeable with other 12v mini solenoids from sparkfun/adafruit.

Stats on the specific solenoid are:
Open Frame Solenoid SH-1253

Duty Cycle continuous 50% 25% 10%
Power consumption 6.0w 12.0w 24.0w 60.0w
MAX on time (sec)  140 50 9

So:
Can't I just pump 12v, 1A (12watts) into the coil with a protective diode present (like in a "real" machine) and connect ground via TIP120 (again, like a real machine)? I can drive the TIP120s via arduino, as shown here:

http://wiki.bildr.org/index.php/Controlling_a_solenoid_(TIP120_Arduino)

There's only 4 coils to drive from 4 switches, which is easy to do in arduino. I can even limit the maximum power time, or pulse the coils to prevent burning like in new Sterns.

Ok. So: what am I missing? Why is it harder than this? I know this isn't dealing with other switches, lights, scoring, etc, but these things tend to work on the Zizzles longer than the transistors. Moreover, I know how to do the other things in the arduino world.

I'm a CS guy. All the electrical engineering is very new to me.

Thanks!!

I'm star struck by a reply from the father of the 3/4 machine! Dismissing it as a toy is really modesty. It's ingenious. Thank you for making them!

Well, I have one where something did go wrong... The prior owner tried some repairs and made it worse, I think. I tore it down trying to see where things went wrong and I think it's the transistors on the PCB (and the prior owner disconnected the solenoids from the L1 through L4 to protect...something.

I'm not worried about ressurecting this machine as I bought it as a parts spare for the G1 POTC that my son loves (and I enjoy playing too, despite owning other full size machines). If I could secure a spare PCB and bring this back from the brink, I'd be ecstatic. if you don't have a spare, I might try my experiment. I guess I don't have much to lose?

Also, fwiw, I picked up a 3/4 star galaxy. Is there an official jpop/Zizzle statement on these very close for comfort machines? Many of the assemblies are clearly identical, though the shallow "kids toy" rules makes that thing a lot less fun to play. how did these. It violate copyright/intellectual property?

I really love these Zizzles. I still want to find a Marvel for my son. No reason he can't have a mini wall of pins, just like mine in the basement.

Thanks for the reply!

OK. Proof of concept complete. I fired the flipper on my dead dead man's chest (ha!) via Arduino, and I'm pretty stoked.

I built, essentially, this circuit on a breadboard:
http://wiki.bildr.org/index.php/Controlling_a_solenoid_(TIP120_Arduino)
I say essentially because I over did every part based on only having heavy duty pinball equivalent parts on hand (I used a TIP102 instead of a TIP120, a 1N4007 Diode for EMF protection, and a 2k Ohm resistor to keep the output from floating).

The Arduino is powered via USB from my laptop and the coil power comes from a generic 90W laptop P/S, capable of 24V at 4A. That power actually comes to my board via the barrel connector from the Zizzle iteself. Grounds are tied on the board! In short: the Arduino drives the TIP102 via a PWM (pseudo analog via fast pulses) output pin, so you can easily adjust the power the coil actually receives.

My Arduino code takes two parameters from my laptop via Serial port in order to drive the coil: strength [0..255] and duration in ms.

The spec sheet for the solenoids has nothing to say about 90W (though 60W is safe for 9 full seconds, which is a lifetime). I hit it at a full 90W for a second and it was fine. It fired nice and strong. I was also able to fire it at 50% (presumably 48W) and it would be strong enough to hold the coil for ball trapping. 25% was not strong enough to raise the flipper.

I have one more TIP102 on hand, which limits my ability to drive more than two coils on this machine (and I need to do four, fully).

I'm happy to share code or detailed pictures with anyone who might care.

The code is pretty simple. The most complicated thing in it is reading the Serial input and parsing the ints from it (and I had that from a previous Arduino project I worked on). The meat of the code is this:

analogWrite(solPin, iPwr);
       delay(iTime);
       analogWrite(solPin, 0);

Next I'll adjust the code to read from two buttons and drive two pins/coils. I plan to hit the coil with full power when the button is first down, and then drop the power to hold the coil if the button is down later, since these aren't double wound (no EOS here!). I'll also need to keep track of bursts per time unit, since I don't want to burn out these hard to replace coils (though I suspect I might be able to make some other coil fit in here).

I can upload a video if anyone cares...

Photo_Jul_09,_11_02_51_AM.jpg Photo_Jul_09,_11_02_56_AM.jpg Photo_Jul_09,_11_02_59_AM.jpg

Oops. I missed these replies.

The arduino /is/ a computer. The USB port isn't necessary, I was just using it for debugging purposes (it will send status and such via serial over USB). I'm fact, in those pictures I might have been using USB just to power the board, I don't recall.

In truth, you can use this exact same rig to drive "real" solenoids at 50v.

Glad I helped you soil your pants. Always happy to help.

Arduinos are cheap ($15+ depending on model) and this stuff is fun.

I'd greatly appreciate it!