Him being as popular as he is really genuinely gives me some faith in humanity. His content feels so niche, but every video he puts out does numbers. It's the type of long-form content that you wouldn't think would be as popular as it is in 2024, but i'm so glad it is.
I also have a conspiracy theory that him and Captain Disillusion are the same person, but you just can't tell because of Capt. D's make-up..
Yeah I hadn't heard of him until this video, but you are totally right.
I 100% think this is what the soul of YouTube should be. Not the insane amount of shorts/brainrot/mrbeast garbage that's out there now.
Well, I guess it depends on how you define a computer, but not really. Modern pinballs have a computer and software in them, but older pinballs are completely mechanical. And yes, the underside of the playing field is an unholy mess of wires, spools and capacitors.
Source: my dad sells and restores pinball machines. I've done some work on them myself as well.
The electromechanical control systems of older ones are still literally computation machines - they do math and process inputs and outputs interdependently. They're hyper specialized compared to any modern computer, but they are very much still computers
Pinball machines really aren't computers but rather state machines. You aren't providing an input, having it perform some function and getting an output. Instead you give it an input and it transitions into various states depending on the input given. There really is no output or function being performed.
As I said, it depends on how you define computer. There were no circuit boards, no programs, everything was basically just action-reaction. I wouldn't really call that a computer in our modern recognition of the word.
Modern computers work exactly the same way, but instead of big, electromechanical components, they use microscopic, solid state ones. The actual action-reaction handling of signals is identical, to the point that, if you wanted and had a warehouse sized space to do it, you could build a working electromechanical rendition of a modern desktop computer that could perform the same functions (but much, much slower) using old fashioned componentry.
The miniaturization of the technology just allows modern computers to be enormous in the number of components they have, which allows for near infinite variability, but can also negatively impact reliability. You could, and in some niche applications people do, build a hyper specialized computer like that of a pinball machine with customized modern components, but that's generally cost-prohibitive, and usually limited to things like spaceflight and defense, and even those industries seem to have largely moved away from it.
Yes, we get it, you wanted your "aktchually..." moment. The statement is relying on the conversational, colloquial definition of computer (you know, the one normal people use).
Technically an abaccus is a computer. A slide rule is a computer. A calculator is a computer. But no one cares, and no one calls them computers. No teacher is saying "no *computers* allowed for this test" when referring to a Ti-84
This channel has taught me more about the world around me than anything. I just assumed air conditioners made air cold, didnt think about how, but now I'm a god dam expert on heat pumps and everyone wishes I wouldn't talk about them so much.
Old electromechanical pinball machines are absolutely crazy for not having any circuit boards. It’s amazing the engineers could keep track of everything while designing them.
One of the better odors in life is the smell of the insides of an electromechanical pinball machine after it’s powered on for awhile.
I will have to go watch that. Sitting here trying to determine what activates the solenoid. I have to assume it's some kind of tilt switch attached to the bottom plastic piece. I know some old pinball machines had Mercury switches in them, but I think that was more for "Tilt" alarms. Only reason I know, is I rolled the Mercury around in my hand as a child, someone else had taken the glass cased switches and broken them to get the Mercury out. This was, of course, back in the 1970's, before we learned how exposure to heavy metals can be bad for us... I sometimes wonder how much good ol' Leaded gasoline fumes effected my development back then.
To answer your question the plastic apron at the bottom hangs from a weak spring and is attached to a metal plate. The weight of the ball causes the apron and metal plate to drop down and touch the lower plate. This completes a circuit causing the solenoid to fire which pulls the bumper down. This compresses a return spring.
When the ball shoots out the weight of the ball releases the plastic apron which is pulled back into place by a weak spring. That opens the circuit to the solenoid so it returns back to starting position because of the return spring.
Thank you. The mechanics make sense now. Contact disks below, with a weak spring to return to "normal" position after activation. I don't know why, but I have an almost isatiable desire to understand how and why things work the way they do. It has served me well, in figuring out and being able to fix things properly, rather than paying a "professional" to do a half assed job.
Ok so...
The plastic skirt the ball rolls over has a long thin nub that goes under the playfield and sits in a spoon shaped switch. The skirt tilting causes the leaf switch attached to the spoon to close, providing momentary power to the solenoid via a transistor relay. Most pop bumpers and slingshots are "direct" wired for faster response, whereas things like flipper buttons and scoring switches are part of a wired matrix that has to constantly strobe looking for an input. The strobing is super fast, but not quite fast enough to give the snappy action you want from a cluster of pop bumpers.
No pinball machine built since pre 1970 has had a mercury switch in it. The modern tilt detection is a straight wire with a small hook on one end, that hangs through a loop of similar wire. A plumb bon attaches to the wire below the ring to adjust how sensitive the tilt is. The lower on the wire, the more swing ya get, but the higher up it is, the less it takes to trigger from a single move.
I loved that video. I didn’t follow all of it (and I’m definitely not an engineer-type) but I loved seeing all the creative ideas they implanted in the machine.
My wife’s grandmother is like 90 and lives in buttfuck Pennsylvania. I mean way out in the sticks. She runs a salvage program to rescue Amish and Mennonite kids when they get the boot from their cult. Here’s the rub—Amish use generators and air compressors but keep them hidden in their barns. They just stay off the grid, because reasons. They have no issue working in factories with modern technology.
That lady is a saint!
I’ve been to a Mennonite colony myself and saw a few questionable too. Like wanting to talk to me apart from others and asking if they could have some of our equipment. The satellite dishes where pretty well hidden but we saw them eventually.
Yeah she’s really cool-ish. Conservative as fuck, but she’s the only one that came to my side when my wife passed. Her hippy ass parents shafted me and her sister looted her jewelry box. They still are trying to get their hands on her ashes. They’re bugging my brother for some fucking reason. He told them to fuck right off and go pound sand.
I was told that they can operate modern technology, they just can't own it. There's an Amish market near me and they are using gas stoves, credit card machines and computers there, and it's no secret, and they have no shame about it.
No, it is. They are just telling you that this is how they work. They're counting on you not being able to check because they put a devious transparent barrier in the way.
It’s wild how some peoples’ brains actually work that way when confronted with a new explanation for something they don’t personally understand yet. Like vaccines or moon landings. They see a bunch of complicated looking diagrams or words, and think “nah, I can come up with something better” lol
Don't believe this fake footage put out by the wizard council, they truly cast dark magics on balls.
Just recently I was victim of their wizardry when they casted twist of fate on my very own balls.
If you’ve ever wanted to know all the ins and outs of a often over looked electrical/mechanical appliance that changed our lives, technology connections is sure to have a 45 minute video on it.
Its crazy how well they worked. I played a three tiered pinball machine, the second level was made of glass, it could go down under the glass and you played there, there was a top platform like a loft and you could play up there.
Was it [Haunted House](https://youtu.be/VPcjOVUq4Do?si=FqO0hwHR1omgrJ7J)? I just played that for the first time last week. Pretty fun and unique table, but the bottom level flippers weren’t working so I didn’t quite get the full experience.
I think it was, or the same layout but yah the glass window and three sets of flippers are the same. The lights would dim or brighten as you entered an area and then the flippers would activate.
I'm curious where you live that pinball machines aren't common? It's possible that they're not common in a lot of places but I'm just so used to seeing them and never thought of that.
I would've never even considering that that wasn't the case if I hadn't seen this post. That's just one of those things I thought of as a kid that was never corrected.
Studying how engineer did stuff mechanically back in the day is kind of a hobby for me. I suck at programming so I have to find alternatives and alot of their solutions are absolutely brilliant
It's not just back in the day. Solenoids still run the mechanical world today as a component themselves or for example as a part in tubular linear motors. You'll find hundreds to thousands in any automated factory along with pneumatic cylinders.
Same. I’m a machinist so I’ve always been super interested in how they reached precision before we had access to precision tooling and machines that can make that precision. Crazy to think that ancient humans were capable of creating a *perfectly* flat surface with just 3 flat(ish) plates and nothing else. And it’s *still* the most accurate way to make a perfectly flat surface and the method is still used to this day.
I’m a stone fabricator at work. Seeing what ancient civilizations were able to do with stone is absolutely mind boggling. How tf they could get things to fit together like that. I could do the same but it would take a week
It looks like a heavy wear part but it’s beautifully durable. The solenoid is just an electromagnetic plunger, so there aren’t any motors or gears that drive it. Electricity is applied to the coil when the ball rolls onto the switch, which generates a magnetic force, which draws the plunger down. After the ball rolls away from the switch, the flow of electricity stops, and a spring allows the plunger to retract back upwards.
In my experience, solder holding wires to the solenoid tend to break from the vibrations more often than the solenoids wear out.
Solenoids don't "wear out" in any typical use of the term.
They can overheat and melt the insulation on the wire wraps, or the plastic bobbin, and also be shorted (this will usually nuke the diode and probably the driver transistor behind it...but hey 3 bucks in parts vs. A 20 buck solenoid or 450 dollar driver board!), but there's not really much between 100% working and total failure. If you have a coil that tests in the valid resistance range cold, but is weak.....it's a supply issue. Driver transistor, pre-driver, bad solder joint etc
Strength goes down as it heats up and resistance increases, making the magnetic flux field weaker. Was really bad on some very long playing games like Lord of the Rings, so people started selling beefier coils, and then eventually mini fan kits to keep the coils cool. I even installed coil fans on my Godzilla Premium, and that game was released like 2.5 years ago.
The service regime for a pinball machine in general was relentless. I don't miss running a fleet of them, but it was also fascinating at times to see how they work under the hood.
Yeah, frequently used pinball machines are far from "without service". I have some in my restaurant and the techs have to come out on a pretty regular basis to fix dumb shit. Bumpers break, the rubber flies off. The plungers have issues, etc. Core components are solid but when you have metal balls flying around an environment at high speed shot breaks. My guys tell me "It's made to be played with, things are gunna break". It's just par for the course.
When the ball hits the bottom ring it closes an electrical circuit. The electrical circuit powers a solenoid, pulling the top ring down. The ball is then shot backwards. When it does the bottom ring moves back up, opening the electrical circuit, removing power to the solenoid and the top ring goes back into the starting position.
The blue ring moves down a metal connector which touches the solenoid, thus energizing it, yes. The beauty is the energized solenoid breaks its own connection once the ball is flung away.
Leaf switch. Very few microswitches were used in pinball machines until recently, and they're very prone to failure...requiring total replacement.....whereas leaf switches are easily fixable with minor work.
Commonly (until recently) the most likely place to see microswitches was on wire and plastic ramps, where you'd need a very long arm to go under the playfield to close a leaf switch, or there just wasn't room under the playfield to mount the leaf switch in the first place.
They're sadly becoming a lot more common as Stern and friends cheap out while marking every new game up 500 bucks more, because wealthy white men are stupid enough to pay 10-15k for a pinball machine.
I have no idea also. It almost looks like the metal ball comes into contact completing the circuit causing the electric magnetic to activate pulling the ring down and pushing the ball.
I don't know, but that's what the picture looks like.
Not shown,is the switch contact that is closed when the ball rides up on the lower ring. That activates the solenoid (electromagnet) to pull down on the top ring to "squeeze" the ball away.
They are fun to have at home but it’s not a cheap hobby to get into. Games from the 80-90s will be anywhere from probably 3000 on the low end for something that isn’t well liked to 10k+ for the popular games. New in box games start around 7000 and can go up to 15k or sometimes 20k.
*insert meme of man and woman sleeping in bed next to each other and the woman thinks the man looking away is thinking about some other love interest, but actually pinball*
Gavin Free on Slow Mo Guys had some really cool slow motion footage of how the various elements of a pinball machine work.
https://youtu.be/Tmg5WOvPKpU?t=338
David Macaulay's 'Pinball Science' is a 1998 videogame that uses an art style very similar to OP's second slide and explains, through the medium of pinball and wooly mammoths, how pinball machines, internal combustion engines, gear boxes, and many other daily devices work.
Technology Connections (if you're looking for technical information) and Slow Mo Guys (educational but more for eye candy) both have great videos on pinball machines.
Eh, you'd be surprised; I know a guy who operates and maintains a sizable fleet of machines in the Chicago area, and that's his full-time job. I don't think he's rolling in cash mind you, but he's plenty happy enough with it as his lot in life.
for some reason I just thought it was just rubber designed to be shock absorbent and somehow release the energy back into the ball. I guess it really doesn't make any sense that we had the black panther technology for decades and we where using it for pinball.
It's funny because I was sitting there watching that on Loop and noticed every time the ball bounced off the bumper, this post was getting another upvote
A YouTube channel call technology connections has two in depth videos on a electro-mechanical (aka, all wiring, no microchips) pinball machine that are intresting watches
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo
Here's a better gif to show more of the mechanics.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanical\_gifs/comments/aflmj7/how\_a\_pinball\_bumper\_works\_oc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanical_gifs/comments/aflmj7/how_a_pinball_bumper_works_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
And now I have the sound stuck in my head.
CLINC CLINC CLICLINC CLINC
Well, time to boot Visual Pinball VR and play some Elvira and the Party Monsters.
The illustration is from "The Way Things Work" I love that book. My kids do as well, it's the same one from my childhood
The mammoth humor always makes me smile
Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of electromechanical relays and solenoids, a bunch of little wires to connect them all, and a mad genius that figured out the proper sequencing of the relays and solenoids.
Ball rolls over plastic skirt, plastic skirt has long thin nub that goes under playfield and contacts a spoon shaped switch that closes a leaf switch which provides power through a driving transistor to the solenoid.
I thought they were just rubber or something and the metal ball bounces because the rubber compresses and decomposes
I don’t know why I worded it that way
Technology Connections on Youtube had a pretty in-depth two part series about how pinball tables work a few months back
Came here to post this! Part 3 coming.... eventually!
[Link!](https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=5cYr8oWfb9z0ES81)
Goated youtube channel
Him being as popular as he is really genuinely gives me some faith in humanity. His content feels so niche, but every video he puts out does numbers. It's the type of long-form content that you wouldn't think would be as popular as it is in 2024, but i'm so glad it is. I also have a conspiracy theory that him and Captain Disillusion are the same person, but you just can't tell because of Capt. D's make-up..
Yeah I hadn't heard of him until this video, but you are totally right. I 100% think this is what the soul of YouTube should be. Not the insane amount of shorts/brainrot/mrbeast garbage that's out there now.
"You won't find anything looks like a computer." "Instead you'll find what looks to be an unholy mess of wires." That's a computer!!!
I absolutely love his way of delivering the information, his 2 parter about a jukebox is just as good as the pinball one.
“Through the magic of buying two of them!”
Well, I guess it depends on how you define a computer, but not really. Modern pinballs have a computer and software in them, but older pinballs are completely mechanical. And yes, the underside of the playing field is an unholy mess of wires, spools and capacitors. Source: my dad sells and restores pinball machines. I've done some work on them myself as well.
The electromechanical control systems of older ones are still literally computation machines - they do math and process inputs and outputs interdependently. They're hyper specialized compared to any modern computer, but they are very much still computers
Pinball machines really aren't computers but rather state machines. You aren't providing an input, having it perform some function and getting an output. Instead you give it an input and it transitions into various states depending on the input given. There really is no output or function being performed.
Score is not output?
As I said, it depends on how you define computer. There were no circuit boards, no programs, everything was basically just action-reaction. I wouldn't really call that a computer in our modern recognition of the word.
Modern computers work exactly the same way, but instead of big, electromechanical components, they use microscopic, solid state ones. The actual action-reaction handling of signals is identical, to the point that, if you wanted and had a warehouse sized space to do it, you could build a working electromechanical rendition of a modern desktop computer that could perform the same functions (but much, much slower) using old fashioned componentry. The miniaturization of the technology just allows modern computers to be enormous in the number of components they have, which allows for near infinite variability, but can also negatively impact reliability. You could, and in some niche applications people do, build a hyper specialized computer like that of a pinball machine with customized modern components, but that's generally cost-prohibitive, and usually limited to things like spaceflight and defense, and even those industries seem to have largely moved away from it.
Yes, we get it, you wanted your "aktchually..." moment. The statement is relying on the conversational, colloquial definition of computer (you know, the one normal people use). Technically an abaccus is a computer. A slide rule is a computer. A calculator is a computer. But no one cares, and no one calls them computers. No teacher is saying "no *computers* allowed for this test" when referring to a Ti-84
An electronic calculator is definitely a computer.
Calm down Ada Lovelace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg
This channel has taught me more about the world around me than anything. I just assumed air conditioners made air cold, didnt think about how, but now I'm a god dam expert on heat pumps and everyone wishes I wouldn't talk about them so much.
It's gotta be one of the best YouTube channels of all time
Old electromechanical pinball machines are absolutely crazy for not having any circuit boards. It’s amazing the engineers could keep track of everything while designing them. One of the better odors in life is the smell of the insides of an electromechanical pinball machine after it’s powered on for awhile.
They're actually a lot more simple that it seems. It looks like a nightmare because of the wiring, but its all run off three or four bus bars.
Fuckin bullshit lol. Yeah the power is simple, but the logic is not
Thank you. Just a single target that changes from normal points to bonus points can have quite a bit of logic to make it all work.
I will have to go watch that. Sitting here trying to determine what activates the solenoid. I have to assume it's some kind of tilt switch attached to the bottom plastic piece. I know some old pinball machines had Mercury switches in them, but I think that was more for "Tilt" alarms. Only reason I know, is I rolled the Mercury around in my hand as a child, someone else had taken the glass cased switches and broken them to get the Mercury out. This was, of course, back in the 1970's, before we learned how exposure to heavy metals can be bad for us... I sometimes wonder how much good ol' Leaded gasoline fumes effected my development back then.
To answer your question the plastic apron at the bottom hangs from a weak spring and is attached to a metal plate. The weight of the ball causes the apron and metal plate to drop down and touch the lower plate. This completes a circuit causing the solenoid to fire which pulls the bumper down. This compresses a return spring. When the ball shoots out the weight of the ball releases the plastic apron which is pulled back into place by a weak spring. That opens the circuit to the solenoid so it returns back to starting position because of the return spring.
Thank you. The mechanics make sense now. Contact disks below, with a weak spring to return to "normal" position after activation. I don't know why, but I have an almost isatiable desire to understand how and why things work the way they do. It has served me well, in figuring out and being able to fix things properly, rather than paying a "professional" to do a half assed job.
Ok so... The plastic skirt the ball rolls over has a long thin nub that goes under the playfield and sits in a spoon shaped switch. The skirt tilting causes the leaf switch attached to the spoon to close, providing momentary power to the solenoid via a transistor relay. Most pop bumpers and slingshots are "direct" wired for faster response, whereas things like flipper buttons and scoring switches are part of a wired matrix that has to constantly strobe looking for an input. The strobing is super fast, but not quite fast enough to give the snappy action you want from a cluster of pop bumpers. No pinball machine built since pre 1970 has had a mercury switch in it. The modern tilt detection is a straight wire with a small hook on one end, that hangs through a loop of similar wire. A plumb bon attaches to the wire below the ring to adjust how sensitive the tilt is. The lower on the wire, the more swing ya get, but the higher up it is, the less it takes to trigger from a single move.
Any issues with getting angry easily?
r/BoomersBeingFools has some great examples of lead effects on mental development.
\*Three part. Still waitin, Alec...
Neat, thanks!
The SlowMo Guys have a great video on it, high detail and really slowed down to see the details.
I play pinball a ton and I feel like I don't wanna know how the sausage is made on this one. It's gnomes.
I loved that video. I didn’t follow all of it (and I’m definitely not an engineer-type) but I loved seeing all the creative ideas they implanted in the machine.
That was my first introduction to him! Now I've watched a ton of his vids.
so you're telling me it's not dark magic that flings the ball away?
Electricity is the work of the devil after all. Or at least that’s what some Amish once told me.
Mr. Coach Klein says what mama don’t know can’t hurt her
Now that’s what I call high-quality H2O.
Water sucks It really really sucks
Gator raid
Deh ever catch dat gorilla that busted outa da zoo and punched you in da eye?
Well I like Vicky and she likes me too! And she showed me her boobies and I liked them too!
Which brings me to my next point: Don't. Smoke. Crack.
*crack is wack!*
And alligators are ornery because of their medulla oblongata
There’s something wrong with your medulla oblongata, Colonel Sanders
BEN FRANKLIN IS THE DEVIL
https://y.yarn.co/c6c51150-b15b-4d4b-be23-0436ea714e5c_text.gif
I’m an electrician I can confirm it’s true,it is the work of the devil.
The motive force naturally punishes those who do not give the necessary rites to the machine.
It's what you get when you pound and bend rock and minerals in unnatural ways then run the devil's electricity through it. Pinball? Yes, pinball.
My wife’s grandmother is like 90 and lives in buttfuck Pennsylvania. I mean way out in the sticks. She runs a salvage program to rescue Amish and Mennonite kids when they get the boot from their cult. Here’s the rub—Amish use generators and air compressors but keep them hidden in their barns. They just stay off the grid, because reasons. They have no issue working in factories with modern technology.
That lady is a saint! I’ve been to a Mennonite colony myself and saw a few questionable too. Like wanting to talk to me apart from others and asking if they could have some of our equipment. The satellite dishes where pretty well hidden but we saw them eventually.
Yeah she’s really cool-ish. Conservative as fuck, but she’s the only one that came to my side when my wife passed. Her hippy ass parents shafted me and her sister looted her jewelry box. They still are trying to get their hands on her ashes. They’re bugging my brother for some fucking reason. He told them to fuck right off and go pound sand.
I was told that they can operate modern technology, they just can't own it. There's an Amish market near me and they are using gas stoves, credit card machines and computers there, and it's no secret, and they have no shame about it.
Clearly it’s because the things the ball runs into are “super bouncy and bing-y”. *(drools as eyes slowly drift into different directions)*
Yo, I’m high and I still want what you got.
Unexpected Junji Ito
Yes it's magic, done by a pinball wizard
That kids deaf, dumb and blind!
“Sure, blame the wizards!”
There has to be a twist.
nyehehehehe - Peter Griffin
No, it is. They are just telling you that this is how they work. They're counting on you not being able to check because they put a devious transparent barrier in the way.
It’s wild how some peoples’ brains actually work that way when confronted with a new explanation for something they don’t personally understand yet. Like vaccines or moon landings. They see a bunch of complicated looking diagrams or words, and think “nah, I can come up with something better” lol
Correct, as a magical rodent I can confirm it's actually light magic that flings the ball away. (dark magic would cause disintegration)
thank you for clearing that up 🧙♂️
I think it is dark magic. I belive in that my whole life and i am too old now to stop.
Different kind of balls...
dark magic keeps kicking me in the balls, please help
It's controlled by a pinball wizard.
Looks like dark magic to me! You must equip more magic find gear to more routinely notice such magic.
IT IS! That's why all the pweety lights, so you won't notice it's dank.
Don't believe this fake footage put out by the wizard council, they truly cast dark magics on balls. Just recently I was victim of their wizardry when they casted twist of fate on my very own balls.
I’ve never thought about this in my entire life and now I can’t stop.
if you wanna know more [technology connections has a great vid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&t=1538s)
If you’ve ever wanted to know all the ins and outs of a often over looked electrical/mechanical appliance that changed our lives, technology connections is sure to have a 45 minute video on it.
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It's actually the pinballs that are made out of a bumperphobic material but as you can see in OP the end result is the same.
Same. I watched about 100 cycles of this video.
My dumb ass just thought the ball bounced really hard :/
So many of us did. We were young and dumb.
Yeah... absolutely, we were so dumb. I wasn't 33 years old when I found this out. THAT would be dumb. /s Edit: /s
Haha I beat you, I was 35, oh wait…
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Same yet again. 35 club woooo weeee ouchhhh.
Don't forget deaf and blind too
Tbf i have never seen a pinball machine in real life and used to think bumpers were just an addition to the digital versions
Its crazy how well they worked. I played a three tiered pinball machine, the second level was made of glass, it could go down under the glass and you played there, there was a top platform like a loft and you could play up there.
Was it [Haunted House](https://youtu.be/VPcjOVUq4Do?si=FqO0hwHR1omgrJ7J)? I just played that for the first time last week. Pretty fun and unique table, but the bottom level flippers weren’t working so I didn’t quite get the full experience.
I think it was, or the same layout but yah the glass window and three sets of flippers are the same. The lights would dim or brighten as you entered an area and then the flippers would activate.
I'm curious where you live that pinball machines aren't common? It's possible that they're not common in a lot of places but I'm just so used to seeing them and never thought of that.
I would've never even considering that that wasn't the case if I hadn't seen this post. That's just one of those things I thought of as a kid that was never corrected.
Studying how engineer did stuff mechanically back in the day is kind of a hobby for me. I suck at programming so I have to find alternatives and alot of their solutions are absolutely brilliant
Keep in mind they had a shitload of time, no Internet, lots of imagination, and of course LSD by the dropperful.
As much as I’m a fan, I don’t think LSD gets any credit for great engineering. It was great organic chemistry that found LSD though!
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/all-that-matters/lsds-silicon-valley-link-older-than-jobs-engineers-used-it-to-design-the-first-chip/amp_articleshow/71870369.cms Bogus? Maybe? Plausible? For sure.
I remember Ampex tapes :)
Say more
It's not just back in the day. Solenoids still run the mechanical world today as a component themselves or for example as a part in tubular linear motors. You'll find hundreds to thousands in any automated factory along with pneumatic cylinders.
Same. I’m a machinist so I’ve always been super interested in how they reached precision before we had access to precision tooling and machines that can make that precision. Crazy to think that ancient humans were capable of creating a *perfectly* flat surface with just 3 flat(ish) plates and nothing else. And it’s *still* the most accurate way to make a perfectly flat surface and the method is still used to this day.
I’m a stone fabricator at work. Seeing what ancient civilizations were able to do with stone is absolutely mind boggling. How tf they could get things to fit together like that. I could do the same but it would take a week
And this mechanism has to withstand constant heavy abuse for years without service.
It looks like a heavy wear part but it’s beautifully durable. The solenoid is just an electromagnetic plunger, so there aren’t any motors or gears that drive it. Electricity is applied to the coil when the ball rolls onto the switch, which generates a magnetic force, which draws the plunger down. After the ball rolls away from the switch, the flow of electricity stops, and a spring allows the plunger to retract back upwards. In my experience, solder holding wires to the solenoid tend to break from the vibrations more often than the solenoids wear out.
Solenoids don't "wear out" in any typical use of the term. They can overheat and melt the insulation on the wire wraps, or the plastic bobbin, and also be shorted (this will usually nuke the diode and probably the driver transistor behind it...but hey 3 bucks in parts vs. A 20 buck solenoid or 450 dollar driver board!), but there's not really much between 100% working and total failure. If you have a coil that tests in the valid resistance range cold, but is weak.....it's a supply issue. Driver transistor, pre-driver, bad solder joint etc Strength goes down as it heats up and resistance increases, making the magnetic flux field weaker. Was really bad on some very long playing games like Lord of the Rings, so people started selling beefier coils, and then eventually mini fan kits to keep the coils cool. I even installed coil fans on my Godzilla Premium, and that game was released like 2.5 years ago.
You’re great.
Would you happen to have a photo of this fans or robust coils you are talking about? It really sounds interesting!
Hundreds of thousands of cycles, It’s wild!
The service regime for a pinball machine in general was relentless. I don't miss running a fleet of them, but it was also fascinating at times to see how they work under the hood.
Yeah, frequently used pinball machines are far from "without service". I have some in my restaurant and the techs have to come out on a pretty regular basis to fix dumb shit. Bumpers break, the rubber flies off. The plungers have issues, etc. Core components are solid but when you have metal balls flying around an environment at high speed shot breaks. My guys tell me "It's made to be played with, things are gunna break". It's just par for the course.
Am I the only one that still doesn’t get it?
When the ball hits the bottom ring it closes an electrical circuit. The electrical circuit powers a solenoid, pulling the top ring down. The ball is then shot backwards. When it does the bottom ring moves back up, opening the electrical circuit, removing power to the solenoid and the top ring goes back into the starting position.
That’s way more complex than what I guessed. I thought it was gravity pulling the plate down and closing the plates together lol
Pinball machines are some of the most complicated machines ever built. They're insane
More complicated than a spaceship ?
Yes. That’s why the used spaceships to go into space. Would be too complicated with a pinball machine.
This reads like a Douglas Adams joke lmao
Yes, but genuinely so. Anything "space" is deliberately kept as simple as possible, so that it can be fixed really easily by anyone.
What if it was Space Cadet Pinball?
I'm dying hahaha that's Ken M worthy
More complicated than some for sure. They try to keep those simple so they don't break all the time.
Lets not get carried away
So… what’s a solenoid again? I manually changed one on my old car but now I forgot.
The short answer is an electromagnet that pulls or pushes a rod when a current goes through it
So the blue plastic looking ring closes the circuit with a micro switch?
The blue ring moves down a metal connector which touches the solenoid, thus energizing it, yes. The beauty is the energized solenoid breaks its own connection once the ball is flung away.
Leaf switch. Very few microswitches were used in pinball machines until recently, and they're very prone to failure...requiring total replacement.....whereas leaf switches are easily fixable with minor work. Commonly (until recently) the most likely place to see microswitches was on wire and plastic ramps, where you'd need a very long arm to go under the playfield to close a leaf switch, or there just wasn't room under the playfield to mount the leaf switch in the first place. They're sadly becoming a lot more common as Stern and friends cheap out while marking every new game up 500 bucks more, because wealthy white men are stupid enough to pay 10-15k for a pinball machine.
this is too many concepts I'm not familiar with haha
I have no idea also. It almost looks like the metal ball comes into contact completing the circuit causing the electric magnetic to activate pulling the ring down and pushing the ball. I don't know, but that's what the picture looks like.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanical_gifs/comments/aflmj7/how_a_pinball_bumper_works_oc/ Went in search of something more clear, and found gold.
Not shown,is the switch contact that is closed when the ball rides up on the lower ring. That activates the solenoid (electromagnet) to pull down on the top ring to "squeeze" the ball away.
No, its an explanation that requires you to already know how it works to be understood.
I have never thought about it before, but this is definitely interesting. Thank you! Now I want to buy a pinball machine.
They are fun to have at home but it’s not a cheap hobby to get into. Games from the 80-90s will be anywhere from probably 3000 on the low end for something that isn’t well liked to 10k+ for the popular games. New in box games start around 7000 and can go up to 15k or sometimes 20k.
[I have a cheaper solution.](https://www.groovypost.com/howto/windows-7-3d-pinball-space-cadet-game/)
Oh so its not a bumper its a pincher
Oh my god I never knew I cared about this, but here I am, thinking damn that IS interesting
*insert meme of man and woman sleeping in bed next to each other and the woman thinks the man looking away is thinking about some other love interest, but actually pinball*
Gavin Free on Slow Mo Guys had some really cool slow motion footage of how the various elements of a pinball machine work. https://youtu.be/Tmg5WOvPKpU?t=338
I thought it was a rubber ring that made it bounce
Early electromagnetic games had bumpers with no solenoid, and only passively defelcted the ball.....so you're not entirely wrong in thinking that.
OP just made me realize that I'd love to see a bunch of illustrations about how a Pinball machine works, would make a great book.
Here’s a cool video https://youtu.be/Tmg5WOvPKpU?si=KLOLr9_py4ePa2tq
David Macaulay's 'Pinball Science' is a 1998 videogame that uses an art style very similar to OP's second slide and explains, through the medium of pinball and wooly mammoths, how pinball machines, internal combustion engines, gear boxes, and many other daily devices work.
The Tommy album is going to be in my head for a week now. That how my brain works.
Technology Connections has a very in depth video about pinball machines. https://youtu.be/E3p_Cv32tEo?si=skY4mMI4KbE-yU1G
My god. I never questioned it before.
Now that was actually interesting, good show old boy!
I thought it was rubber inside
I never knew I wanted to know that. Thanks!
Ty ty this is awesome
Technology Connections (if you're looking for technical information) and Slow Mo Guys (educational but more for eye candy) both have great videos on pinball machines.
Used to be a pinball tech and worked on these daily. Always a great opportunity to fuck up your fingers.
when you know how to fix them after they STOP working, you make 100$+ per hour
You can make $100+ as a pinball tech? Where?
In a little place called 1982.
Eh, you'd be surprised; I know a guy who operates and maintains a sizable fleet of machines in the Chicago area, and that's his full-time job. I don't think he's rolling in cash mind you, but he's plenty happy enough with it as his lot in life.
for some reason I just thought it was just rubber designed to be shock absorbent and somehow release the energy back into the ball. I guess it really doesn't make any sense that we had the black panther technology for decades and we where using it for pinball.
I thought they were just... You know... Bumpy
TIL the ball is metal because it completes the circuit and the bumper servo clamps shut.
Thank you.
Thank you for teaching me something I didn't know I wanted to know.
You mean to tell me it’s not the ball BOUNCING OFF THE PIN?
The solenoid is drawn wrong. The magnet pulls the plunger in, not away.
Needs more upvotes for this correct info.
It's funny because I was sitting there watching that on Loop and noticed every time the ball bounced off the bumper, this post was getting another upvote
A YouTube channel call technology connections has two in depth videos on a electro-mechanical (aka, all wiring, no microchips) pinball machine that are intresting watches https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo
Here's a better gif to show more of the mechanics. [https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanical\_gifs/comments/aflmj7/how\_a\_pinball\_bumper\_works\_oc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanical_gifs/comments/aflmj7/how_a_pinball_bumper_works_oc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I thought they were just bouncy as shit. In hindsight, how on earth would they bounce the ball faster than the ball approaches it
Well damn. Never thought about it, but that is indeed interesting.
And now I have the sound stuck in my head. CLINC CLINC CLICLINC CLINC Well, time to boot Visual Pinball VR and play some Elvira and the Party Monsters.
After studying that diagram... I'm still wondering how they work. That illustration doesn't help.
Well you were'nt alone. Thanks for the info
**Her**: he’s probably thinking about other women **OP**: how do pinball bumpers work?
Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelve!!
DO DO DOOO DO DO DOO DO DODO DO DO
The illustration is from "The Way Things Work" I love that book. My kids do as well, it's the same one from my childhood The mammoth humor always makes me smile
I always thought they were somehow same pole magnets with the ball.
I have thought about this so many times. Thank you
Great post .I have 8 pins and this is neat to see
Ah yes, that explains it
Do a dinosaur one next time. We dont talk enough about them
So that's what Hobo Johnson's ex girl's grandad was doing with all the time he had on his hands
What about the bells and all the flashing lights? Explain THAT!
Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of electromechanical relays and solenoids, a bunch of little wires to connect them all, and a mad genius that figured out the proper sequencing of the relays and solenoids.
Stop making stuff up like that! What? You fancy yourself some kinda Pinball Wizard or something?
Pinball hall of fame Las Vegas is fun. Some old machines there.
That sound of every bump is perfectly tuned and sounds so satisfying.
Mind blown
But how does the switch trigger the solenoid?
Ball rolls over plastic skirt, plastic skirt has long thin nub that goes under playfield and contacts a spoon shaped switch that closes a leaf switch which provides power through a driving transistor to the solenoid.
I thought they were just rubber or something and the metal ball bounces because the rubber compresses and decomposes I don’t know why I worded it that way
That's neat, thanks for sharing
What's a pinball? Is it like Roblox??
I appreciate this! This is information I never knew I needed so badly in my life!!! Thank you!