Sensor for Pinball Machine

1

Hi,

We will be making arduino based pinball machines with 110 year 7 students in 2019. Can anyone suggest the best sensor to use / way of detecting a collision?

Ta
Mark

2

Hi Mark,

I think that a good sensor might be a force sensor like this one:

This would change resistance when pressed or touched.
Another option might be a well positioned microswitch such as this:

This would be a bit easier to work with!

Let me know what you think!

3

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your reply. The switch is likely to work the best out of those two. We will see if we can design a simple way of incorporating it.

I was wondering if I could wrap a bumper in conductive thread and use an analog input to trigger lights when the resistance and hence the voltage at the pin dropped?

Ta
Mark

4

Hi Mark,

That’s an interesting idea! You could probably incorporate capacitive touch in some way:

5

Hi Stephen,

I was at a course yesterday with an expert in all things Arduino and robotics and he suggested using an accelerometer to detect movement / vibration. Do you think that would work? I was thinking that may be a problem if the player moves the pinball machine itself rather than the ball actually hitting the sensor?

Ta
Mark

6

You might want to look through the videos Ben Heck and his team made, where they designed a tiny pinball machine. There may be some useful information and tips you can glean from their build. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_DIaPgkDQ&list=PLwO8CTSLTkihDZlIL4i5JH_eaDMpXtiKT

2 Likes
7

Mark,

If you use an accelerometer it would not be able to tell the difference between a ball striking the sensor and a hand striking the machine, as both would induce acceleration on the sensor in basically the same way. I also think that is a pretty complex solution to a rather simple problem. While a pinball machine can be made with digital components such as that, you can very likely find a way to build one using only analog components just like they used to be made.

8

Thanks guys. That Ben Heck video was pretty awesome! I spoke with Graham today and he convinced me that the micro switch is the way to go. We will just design something to prevent it being damaged :slight_smile:

Ta

Mark

2 Likes