My nephew is a senior in high school and wants to be an engineer.
He's not sure which type (mechanical, electronic, automation, ..etc) so we decided to build a pinball machine.
It is the perfect project IMHO.
We're both huge Mad Max fans so the theme was decided about 30 seconds after the project was decided.
We got my brother in law on board to do the art, and we're off to the races.
We set a timeline of 9 months to completion and are going to try our best to achieve that.
We're about 2 months in and have the virtual/solidworks design done(hopefully).
Maybe we should count our 9 months starting now

Anyhoo, hope some peeps will like our build.

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here's an isometric view

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Going with fast pinball controller and mpf software
Using a intel nuc computer

The solenoids in the back are to divert the ball to the lower scoop through a subway.
The brass pipes are supposed to represent the citadel water pipes.
There are ball locks within them.
The plan is to have a mode that locks a ball in each pipe. Once all 3 are locked then you hit a scoop. Vid plays of immortan joe turning on the water.
Light show of blue and white. Balls release for citadel multiball.

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When down to one ball after citadel multiball “do not my friends become addicted to water. it will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence”

Scoop is a concern... pretty close to a mirror of Metallica scoop placement, which I think has good flow. I considered swapping it with the target above it.
But then subway to it would be hard/tight

Right wire feeds upper flipper.
Will need tuning... just a place keeper for now.
A lot of 3 flipper games, the upper feeds itself. We want huge combo possibilities, so you can go 1,2,3 back to 1,2,3 etc

I’ll post a pic of the mech when I get home. Well... the virtual version.
I’m pretty confidant in it.
My real concern is the pop bumpers.
They’re custom...hopefully won’t need to many revisions to get them working

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Just about every line/clip in the movie makes great pinball call outs.
We have a lot planned.... just focusing on mechanical right now

We’re big boys...lay the honest opinions on us

We actually are planning to have “ILIDILA” in the rectangle between the flippers.

Play exact vid on extra balls.

If you look at the iso view of the ramps,
There are tabs at middle and top. Those will be bent at 90 degrees. Plastic covers will bolt on to save air balls. Also all three turn around will have lids

CosmoKramer!!! Thanks for the cab!!!
I can not recommend him enough for cabs in SoCal

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I didn’t want to bother doing solid model of the oring in an oval.
There will be one like my quick sketch up here
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As of now the plan for the switches is
Under red switch co-op or vs mode
#2 bonus on ramps or orbits
#3 bonus on pops or slings
#4 bonus on spinners or targets

For the different boss modes there will be a best config of switches for most points

Toys are hard because there is like zero licensed merch for mad max.
I would love to do kit cars/ models etc.
If they existed. My dream topper would be the doof wagon.

We’ve also kicked the idea around of headers/pipes coming off the side of the upper cabinet

I plan on making a plunger that looks like furiosa’s bone dagger / shifter.

Hopefully some kick ass art on the playfield and plastics will pull it all together.

If I end up getting a 3-d printer I’ll do much more as far as toys go.

I’ll post later on some of the ideas of theme integration.

Attached is a pic from awhile back of the ideas for the inserts/lights/modes

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Mof, this is about the 7th or 8th redraw of the playfield. I’m no pinball wizard.
I use to own Metallica and loved doing combos one ramp to other for as. Long as I could. Until recently We had the upper flipper ramp feeding itself. As we were fleshing out the rules we changed it.

Combos are king in this game.
If you notice the upper scoop has V8 inserts then 3 rectangles. First ramp hit the upper circle of the 8 lights up, then the lower circle, then “thunder up”, “fang it” it, and finally witness. At any point you can hit the scoop to cash out the combo. Witness will play video of morsov jumping at buzzard car kamikrazy explosion.

Haha... that’s another case of one oring going around both posts. Hilarious I left a virtual ball there

The toys I really want are gigahorse, war rig, and interceptor.
The newton ball is meant to represent the war rig. A ball can get trapped at the top to represent the fuel pod. The hole is offset so when the trapped ball hits it it will go out at an angle instead of straight up and falling right back in

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The models at shapeways look great
Thanks for the link.

Yes I’m machining the parts. I’m actually a machinist by day. I sneak in time on machinery where and when I can.
I really really want to get a small used cnc lathe and mill for my garage. Someday.

Alright, here's some pics of the citadel pipes/backboard diverters to hopefully put some of your fears to rest.
I realize it's an over engineered monster, but for a prototype/homebrew sometimes that is faster.
not shown is all 3 backboard diverter turn around things will have lids so the ball wont go flying out.
and yes "backboard diverter turn around thing" is the technical term.

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We’re going with quarters/credits for a couple of reasons. We realize we can’t charge for it as we don’t have the rights... but

For each coin you put in the machine you’ll hear a line from max’s opening dialog
“My world is fire and blood”
“Im the one who runs from the living and the dead”
“Boiled down to a single instinct...survive”
Etc.

Instead of start button there will be a key to turn below the plunger.
Not enough Credits ... engine will turn over and not start. Enough Credits and you get a revving roaring engine sound with shaker motor. When ball leaves plunger switch... burnout sound.

“Knocker” installed

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A little progress this weekend
Back glass led lights in.
Shaker motor in.

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CLEllison,

We are going with the 3rd slingshot.
The pic with the targets was an older version, I only included it to show what the different inserts were for.

We added the 3rd sling for more chaos and make it more unique

Mdpinballdude
Don’t think flames coming out of this machine hasn’t crossed our minds

Mbecker
Yes, despite everyone’s advice we’re going straight from cad to cnc. I think of it as a learning experience all the way around.
So if the geometry is terrible we’ll just cnc another. Besides a lot of the shots are...er...um... borrowed.

Slowly pushing forward.

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I’m trying to get my nephew on here to explain the rules, modes, features etc.

We’ve split up duties as follows

Layout , features, mechs 50/50 Nate and Justin (nephew)

Machining - 100% Nate

Wiring /assembly 50/50

Programming, rules, modes - 100% Justin

Art - 100% Lee (BIL)

I’m proud/impressed with Justin’s design and mode ideas.

It started out a 2 flipper game with no orbit. But slowly morphed into what it is now.

luvthatapex2,
Wrath of Olympus looks awesome. Very inspiring.

This has kinda turned into an obsession for me.

under playfield shot if anyone is interested.

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Mbecker
Yes it's going to be tight.
wiring will be an issue...especially when folding for transport

Dark Pinball
those look awesome

oldskool1969
It's my opinion that there should be 4 Mad Max pinball machines. 1 per movie.
Thunderdome would need an upper playfield for well..er.. the Thunderdome. and a lower/under playfield for where they shovel pigsh*t.

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Gornkleschnitzer,

I went with what pinballmakers suggested from pinballife for the sliding bracket parts. Googled “mounting dimensions of stern sliding brackets” just about every way I could think of. All that would pop up is YouTube videos of how to lift your playfield.

Got so frustrated I made this playfield.

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Op 1 of 2 for 2 of the diverter bodies

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Slowly chipping away. Got my ramps and orbit ready for waterjet.
Adding plastics. Still have work to do on areas where ball can get stuck.

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Getting tired of posting virtual stuff... But haven't been able to get some CNC time lately.
Wood playfield rev1 design done ...just need to find a good CNC router in SoCal.

Attached is a pic of a scoop design I'm working on.
If the scoop is waiting for ball a ball to get there through the subway (from diverters behind backboard), the horizontal coil/plunger will get a ball there faster.
Then when the subway ball finally gets to the scoop it will replace the ball that was "on Deck"

if a ball enters from the top, it should work normally

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Russdx

I use solidworks. Most hobbyists use fusion360 because they have a good student/hobbyist price. I kinda wish I had got and learned fusion360 so I could be a better help to the homebrew community

Greenmachine19
Yeah I just copy pasted the 23-800 for the model... will definitely use something smaller in the real world

It supposed to fire/shoot the ball out of the scoop anytime there are 2 balls (or more) unless it’s holding them for a video or mode selection.
This scoop is meant to hold 1 extra ball for speed while waiting for A subway ball

Got ramps and orbit back from waterjet.
Not impressed with quality, they must’ve used max grit size and federate.
Should work fine though.
Now I need them welded up.

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Got tired of waiting for machine time. Got these bad boys at auction. Just arrived today

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Artwork is starting to come together

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Pinmonk,

Is that the Christmas edition?

I’m a glutton for punishment so I’ll keep posting.
2 of 3 diverters done
Scoop machined.... I’ll post pics of it assembled later

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scoop assembled

Yeah I know, some of the screws are too long. I used what I had lying around. Will swap out later.

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I have been hesitant to make the playfield because I wasn't sure if my pop bumper design would work or not.

Well today I tested it and it works !!!!!

The design is 2" diameter pop bumpers instead of the normal 3". That way I can fit more in the same space.

When researching pop bumpers I thought they were over complicated with adjusting the spoon and all....
So I thought I'd take a stab at something that has been working perfectly for 50 years.

The ball is the switch. That is to say the ball closes the circuit that tells the machine when to activate the coil to bring the ring down.

The body of the pop bumper is polycarbonate .
From under the playfield I will light it with an RGB LED and hopefully the whole thing will glow whatever the LED is programmed.

Attached are some pics.

I cannot wait to cut the playfield now.

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Pinballwil,

Most of what I've made is aluminum.
Steel is 2.5 X heavier than aluminum.
The mechs really aren't that heavy.

I suspect the playfield will be only slightly heavier than average.
But that is because of # of mechs not weight of them.

If it does warp... I will use some metal rails to pull it straight.

Pinstein,

The right ramp is meant to feed the upper flipper. (position/length may need tuning)

There are ball gates below the mid ramp and right ramp. So complete orbit shots will only be available in certain modes.

So combos will be 1,2,3,1,2,3...... as long as you can keep them going. With orbits and behind the right flipper shots mixed in.

At 3 “fang it” will light up
At 5 “thunder up”
At 7 “witness”
(Will need tuning)

At any point you can cash out the combo by hitting a scoop

At that point a Different video will play depending on the Level of the combo

At 10 or 15 or so (it’ll need dialing in)
It’ll show Nux mouthing “witness me” and crashing into/blocking the canyon

When you get the combo record for the machine truck horn will sound

There are going to be four Nixie tubes in the apron. 2 will be a hurry up timer and the other 2 will count the combo

There will be other uses for the nixies in other modes too.

I think an aluminum ball would feel all wrong, dent/distort easily, and magnets wouldn’t work. This game has magnet so let’s lay that to rest.

The pop bumper upper and lower rings are actually 304 stainless steel.

As far as aluminum mechs go, they don’t need to stay perfectly round, and are an order of magnitude stronger than wood.

I think a steel ball will ding and dent aluminum mechs, but if wood rails can hold up .... I’ll take my chances

I’m pretty sure the square newton ball thing on Metallica premium behind the hammer is aluminum . It definitely gets banged up but works fine.

Gornkleschintzer,

Yes the pops wouldn’t work and the magnet wouldn’t work with a ceramic ball.

Concerned Pinsiders,
I promise to remake the mechs with steel if they fall apart.

A lot of homebrews are R&Ded with cardboard and poster board.

I think aluminum is a step up.

Orbit clamps done

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Got the ramps back from welding awhile ago. I went with 20 gauge and if I could do it over would do 18 or 16.

I’ll just consider these R&D and if the geometry is good , redo them then.

Everything is a lot bigger IRL than what I think it will be drawn up in CAD.

I’m kinda on the fence if I should polish all the metal parts shiny and chrome , or leave them more rugged and apocalypse

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Zitt,

Time will tell. This is the mech I’m most worried about . I did all I could Think of design wise .
I made the upper ring with a parabolic shape to hopefully get better contact.

If they work poor, I might try having them silver plated.

I hope it just works.
If it works good I have some design Ideas for rollovers w/o switches.
Just strips of metal in pockets on the playfield.

MD_Pinball_Dude,

I'm using Fast Pinball so 12v for switches.

I tested functionality with a fluke voltmeter set to continuity.
I put my leads from on the lower ring and the bottom of the "piston"
there was beep the instant the ball made contact with the rings.

The Fluke uses a 9v battery so 12v should work even better.

CraigC,

yes I want to do a better job directing the right ramp exit at the upper flipper

I don't have a lot of height to play with because I'm going under the right ramp.

I'm afraid if I go too close balls will hit the ramp coming out of the plunger lane.

Perhaps I should re route it like in this pic

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Slowly making progress.

Made the backwood and some lane guides today.

Feels good to see stuff designed in solid works IRL.

If I could do this over I’d use all off the shelf parts since it’s my first pin.

But all the custom stuff is done (Other than playfield) so I’m excited . Gonna try to CNC the playfield next weekend.

I’m sure a lot of people were rolling their eyes when I said 9 months to complete this.... And I’m right there with them now.
A custom pin is no joke. Totally worth it though..... I hope

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Vireland,

I actually love this idea. If I can’t make the geometry work and have to redo the ramp (as you can see it’s already made) I will do it this way.

With the ramp jumping the return wire it’ll go to the upper flipper regardless. And you’ll only get credit for the shot if you make the jump. I wish you said this a month ago before I made the ramp.

Got the lids done on 2 of the diverters.
Been trying to plan a way for a switch before the diverter for ramp confirm in my head for a little bit . Worked out nicely.

Got frustrated trying to draw stuff up in cad ... so just started bending wires around . For some stuff that is definitely the way to go.

Added some inserts on the back wood above the citadel pipes.

Just 1 diverter And playfield away from being done with the machining.

....then the real work starts

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Vireland,

A bit of thought went into this. I do use an opto pair on the diverter mech to confirm a ball lock at the citadel pipes.

I changed the scoop to have a ball in the bank to send while waiting for a ball to come in the subway
(less idle time waiting for a ball you can't see moving)

I needed to add a switch before the diverter and after a point of no return.
See attached pic

I can't have an opto pair above and below in this area because directly below is a subway.

Also it's wider in this area so the ball won't get stuck.
The GT 45 degree wall makes it so the ball will roll down toward the citadel pipe even if stopped
If this wall were straight a ball that just makes the ramp would get stuck.

Side to side there ain't much room.

I realize this thing is WAY over engineered ... but I had a vision for Citadel multi ball and I stuck with it.
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Vireland,

Let me get this right....

I post a mech I designed and made from scratch that does the following :

Directs ball from ramp to pipe behind back wood

Diverts ball to subway

Holds ball for ball lock

Confirms hold with opto pair

Confirms ramp with switch.

You reply that I should have used Optos for ramp confirm

I reply with a detailed post on why I didn’t use optos.

You reply I should use a spinner opto.

Touché

Designed the apron today and ordered from oshcut. We'll see how it turns out.

I was hoping to cut the playfield this weekend but couldn't get router time. I have the program ready to go though.

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Jakusu,

I can’t say enough how impressed I am with your Mad Max. Someday I hope to have my pin beside yours at a show.

Plastics done....well they still need art

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I’m used to inputs and outputs for PLCs.
In the pinball world it’s switches and coils.
Maybe this is too in the weeds to post
But I’ll do it anyways. Here is where we stand with I/O now, hopefully it doesn’t have to change much

MMFR I/O

Fast Pinball I/O Borads
board 0 32-08 (1st board in loop)
board 1 16-16 (2nd board in loop)
board 2 32-08 (3rd board in loop)
board 3 08-04 (4th board in loop)

Lower playfield
32-08 (1st I/O board after fast controller #0)
(32 inputs 8 outputs)
inputs/switches
0-0 Left flipper button
0-1 Right flipper button
0-2 upper flipper button
0-3 Nate Lower scoop opto1(eject position)
0-4 Nate Lower scoop opto2(stored position)
0-5 Target between Nux and lower Scoop "Mothers Milk"
0-6 Barry opto (top)
0-7 Larry opto (bottom)

0-8 Nux target top
0-9 Nux target middle
0-10 Nux target bottom
0-11 NUX motor up switch
0-12 NUX motor down switch
0-13 Left outlane rollover "R"
0-14 Left inlane rollover "O"
0-15 small target between mid ramp and LL pop "Guzzoline"

0-16 opto trough jam
0-17 opto trough 1
0-18 trough 2 rollover
0-19 trough 3 rollover
0-20 trough 4 rollover
0-21 trough 5 rollover
0-22 trough 6 rollover
0-23 trough 7 rollover

0-24 trough 8 rollover
0-25 plunger lane rollover
0-26 Right inlane rollover "A"
0-27 Right outlane rollover "D"
0-27 Hidden rollover behind upper flipper
0-28 small target L of right ramp "Bullets"
0-29 small target R of right ramp "Aqua Cola"
0-30
0-31

Outputs/Coils
0-0 Left flipper coil
0-1 Right flipper coil
0-2 Upper flipper coil
0-3 trough eject coil
0-4 auto plunger coil
0-5 lower scoop eject coil
0-6 Lower scoop hold ball coil
0-7 Nux target motor

Mid to upper playfield
16-16 (2nd I/O board after fast controller #1)
(16 inputs 16 outputs)
inputs/switches
1-0 UR pop bumper switch
1-1 UL pop bumper switch
1-2 Mid pop bumper switch
1-3 LL pop bumper switch
1-4 LR pop bumper switch
1-5 Left slingshot
1-6 right slingshot
1-7 upper r slingshot

1-8 Target behind Magnet
1-9 Opto for magnet ball present
1-10 opto1 eject position upper scoop
1-11 Opto2 hold position upper scoop
1-12 Spinner Left
1-13 Spinner Right
1-14 Left upper scoop target (LOCK)
1-15 right upper scoop target (LOAD)

Outputs/Coils
1-0 UR pop bumper coil
1-1 UL pop bumper coil
1-2 Mid pop bumper coil
1-3 LL pop bumper coil
1-4 LR pop bumper coil
1-5 Left Slingshot
1-6 Right Slingshot
1-7 Upper R Slingshot

1-8 Magnet
1-9 Dissapearing plunger for NUX multi
1-10 Justin upper scoop eject ball
1-11 Justin upper scoop hold ball
1-12 Flasher 12v LEDs (pops and citadel pipes)
1-13 Flasher 12v LEDs (Squares under spinners)
1-14 Left Orbit ball gate
1-15 Right Orbit Ball gate

Upper playfield/backboard
32-08 (3rd I/O board after fast controller #2)
(32 inputs 8 outputs)
inputs/switches
2-0 opto Left citadel pipe ball lock(mid ramp)
2-1 switch mid ramp made
2-2 opto mid citadel pipe ball lock(Left/UF)
2-3 switch left ramp made (UF/mid citadel pipe)
2-4 opto right citadel pipe ball lock(right ramp)
2-5 switch right ramp made (r citadel pipe)
2-6 (reserved citadel ramp spinner)
2-7

2-8 Left orbit rollover
2-9 Newton ball rollover
2-10 Blood Bag trapped opto
2-11 upper lane "F"
2-12 upper lane "U"
2-13 upper lane "R"
2-14 upper lane "Y"
2-15 Right orbit rollover

2-16 Start key
2-17 co op/vs
2-18 orbit / ramp
2-19 pop /slingshot
2-20 spinners / targets
2-21 coin door open
2-22 (reserved)
2-23 (reserved)

2-24 (reserved)
2-25 (reserved)
2-26 (reserved)
2-27 (reserved)
2-28 (reserved)
2-29 (reserved)
2-30 (reserved)
2-31 (reserved)

Outputs/coils
2-0 left citadel pipe/mid ramp appearing plunger coil
2-1 Mid ramp diverter coil
2-2 mid citadel pipe/L ramp appearing plunger coil
2-3 L ramp diverter
2-4 right citadel pipe/right ramp appearing plunger coil
2-5 R ramp diverter coil
2-6 appearing plunger to block orbit for fuel pod lock
2-7 Black light 12v LEDs

Cabinet
08-04 (4th I/O board after fast controller #3)
(8 inputs 4 outputs)

inputs/switches
3-0 coin 1 mech
3-1 coin 2 mech
3-2 add credit button
3-3 service mode button
3-4 volume up button
3-5 volume down
3-7 tilt
3-7 slam tilt

outputs/coils
3-0 shaker motor
3-1 (reserved)
3-2 air horn 12v
3-3 BackGlass LEDs 12v

Mbecker,

Yes single Wound coils and pwm for hold.
I’m playing around with the idea of turning hold off for multiball or
Limiting it to 2 or 3 seconds. We’ll see if that is a fun kill or not

If we need to go to dual and use eos we’ll have to add another board as there aren’t many spare coils/outputs

You can tell by the list there are three
Flipper buttons. Not having 2 flippers tied to one switch may help.

Finally got some machining time

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Apron cover arrived.

I’ll need to polish/brush it to get rid of the laser spatter but overall am really happy with it.

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Last diverter done... well minus flycutting the back off.

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Djshakes,
Yes I’m in Oceanside. Would love to come in last at your tourney. You’re definitely invited as soon as this sucker is flipping.

As far as 9 months goes... I thought it was a realistic goal when I set it. Still think it could’ve happened ... would do things differently for a first pin if I could do it over. Or maybe I wouldn’t .

So far this has been a blast and I would highly recommend doing a homebrew pin to anyone.

Alright, last diverter cover made
Optos and switches in.
I’m officially as far as I can get without cutting the damn playfield.
(Yeah yeah I know... I can do art and game code programming)
I have the playfield programmed too.

I might have to join a maker space for 1 day to get this done.

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Tiny black dog,

Thanks for the tips. I’m learning wood definitely cuts different than metal. I’ve done tons of plastic machining and was expecting wood to be similar. It’s not.

I’ve learned to open stuff up tolerance and size wise. The shit moves and then stuff doesn’t fit. Gotta make pockets and holes bigger than I’m used to.

Feeling bummed, machined the playfield on a neighbors cnc router. Not very accurate or consistent. Depths of insert pockets are all over the place. Sizes of pocket suck too. There’s a wood shop in town that has a nice rigid cnc router that’ll let me run my program. I knew I should’ve done it that way to begin with.

It looks rad though.... I’ll hang it up my garage.

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Any pinsiders in San Diego area with a decent cnc router wanna work with me on making a playfield?
Or does anyone know a good place to have a playfield made in the SD area?

I guess the maker space here shut down like 2 weeks ago

I emailed them, waiting on a reply back

All right , playfield routed .
Now on to the tough decisions, like what type of glue for the inserts. Where to put starburst or jewel or dimpled inserts.

It really feels good to have gotten this far.

I think the real work is gonna be code , video , sound and gui.

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Painting underside.
Most go grey... I went chrome

Still drying, you can tell I went heavy where the inserts are

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Making some progress.

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Newton captive ball worked out perfect.

This is for fuel pod multi ball

That is the point. Get a ball trapped there and the trough and auto plunger will shoot another ball into the playfield.
Then at any time you can slam the newton ball to get multiball.

Or do you mean drop into the The channel?
The slot is smaller than the ball so it can’t fall in. Plus I’ll put clear plastic over the top.

Good point,
I think it’ll be hard to actually get balls to go in here.
I actually have an up-post in the orbit path to make it easier in certain modes.
If it’s too easy , I’ll definitely use your suggestion

I’m getting excited to play this.

My plastics somehow got cut at the wrong size. I like how the apron turned out.
It’s made from SS with opaque white plastic under.

Maybe I should do that for all the plastics

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Did some tuning and captive ball lock works good now. I’m happy with the way it turned out.
The rail is very slightly down hill.

Almost impossible to capture the ball without the up post ... up

2nd ball flows off nicely.

I have a hand scraped 10” level that is good to .0001” per foot. I think I can handle it.
Do machines like this one with it
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I can’t nudge it out and I can easily tilt pinball machines.

Here’s a close up of the mech.

The slot visible from the third pic is for an opto.

There’ll be a second opto just below the aluminum rail between the posts.

That way when you trap/capture a ball the machine will know to kick out another one.

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Motorized drop targets and custom scoop in.... barely

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It looked close in cad but not that close.
Whew

Got the first wire form roughed in... and I mean rough.

Hopefully I get better, can’t get worse.

Made a bunch of half round clips so I wouldn’t have to weld. Think I’ll weld anyways.
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Rail guide clip design 2.0

A little stronger and can bend slot at right height to bolt/fasten rails To playfield
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First ball rail guide done.
Harder than I thought, hopefully next 2 go better.

Clips worked out good, got it done w/o welding.

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2nd wire guide done.

I just kinda winged it and bent everything by hand. I had planned to make a couple of sets of soft jaws for my vise with different radii . Next time will definitely do that. My hands hurt and it could be better.

Mbecker, I kinda figured it would be a multiball in the bank for the next player if ball is lost with that mech locked. I think wonka has something similar.
All the programming I figured I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’ve been completely focused on mechanical. Now that I’m about done there I’m about to dive into mpf. Been learning python here and there when I have time.

My nephew is in charge of code and is pretty far along on that front.
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Btw, anyone who wants my solid models is welcome to them. I didn’t want to post/give them out until I made sure everything fit.

I used pinballlife.com parts almost exclusively. A lot of their parts are slightly different from wpc parts.

It was very tight to get their 8 ball trough and auto plunger to fit. So my playfield could be a good start for anyone looking to go that route.

DM me your email and I’ll send you the files. Does dxf work?

We’re using MPF. Hopefully won’t have to do too much python code.

The newton ball is the post so to speak.

Jabdoa,
Sweet. That sounds simple enough.

I really want to start flipping this thing.
My nephew lives in NV, and has the NUC that we are using to run this thing.
Don’t know when I can get him down to Oceanside because of this corona thing.
bummer.

3rd rail guide in.

Added a spinner to the left ramp.
Now each flipper has one.

I’m going to make a second scoop like the first.
That way one can hold a ball then when the other scoop is hit, it can be random which scoop the ball is coming out of.
Then for certain modes both scoops will hold a ball.

Then it’s time to make a subway.
Then wait patiently for quarantine to end.

First try on third rail guide looked like hammered puke.
Really tight turns , not so easy to bend by hand.
So I made a fixture/guide and it worked out good.

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I must be playing wrong, cause my back never hurts after .

Finished the second custom scoop.
would post a pic but it looks just like the other one.

On to subways, then learning arduino to program and run some Nixie tubes.

Just past gas town , take a left at bullet farm and head straight to nixie city

Made and installed the worlds shortest subway.
Just one more subway to go and this thing Is mechanically complete.
Well that and some plastics.

Been playing around with some ideas for SS covers over the plastics.
Still not sold on the idea.
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The ball travels about .5” plus it’s own size

Had a really tight fit spot for the subway.
Made this to squeeze the ball between 2 mechs into the back of the lower scoop.

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Better pic of subway end.
Barely fit between motorized drop targets and Nux multiball disappearing post

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A simple idea like “ I want Nixie tube hurry up timers” seems easy.
For me ... not so much.
Turns out I had to learn some:
c++ to program an arduino
Python to send serial commands from MPF to the Arduino
SPI protocol to send data from arduino to exixe nixie drivers.
Serial protocol to send data from computer to Arduino
Arduino ....

2 or 3 days going down the rabbit and I’ve come out the other side .
My head hurts.

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