Pinbox Jr.

Description

The Pinbox Jr. is a basic prototype for a USB controller that is meant to give PC pinball games the feel of playing on a real pinball table. It does this by interfacing with the PC as a USB keyboard; the pinball buttons are mapped to various keys. The buttons implemented are the left and right bumpers, the start button, and a button for the plunger. The Pinbox Jr. uses the default key mapping from the game "Pinball Arcade" so it will work with this game simply by plugging it into the PC. The prototype of the Pinbox Jr. was developed on a Teensy 3.1 in order to take advantage of it's built in USB-HID functionality. Pinbox Jr. uses the built in composite keyboard/mouse/gamepad/serial descriptor provided with the Teensy.

Components

1 × Teensy 3.1 This controller was selected because of the built in USB-HID

2 × Small Momentary Push Button The little red ones on the front of the Pinbox Jr.

2 × Large Momentary Push Button The two larger ones on the side.

3 × Small Breadboard 2 general use small boards, 1 power rail board

1 × A Box The one used for the first Pinbox Jr. was an Adafruit shipping box!

Project Logs

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Tilt!
Loyal J • 10/03/2014 at 03:10 • 0 comments

The code has been updated to make use of the xyzometer! Right now it has been hooked up to the built in tap detection offered by the accelerometer. I'm not really sure how I like the feel when I'm playing the game.. but it works!. The code has been checked into the repo and is ready to upload to your arduino. Check it out!
Moar Parts! Moar Tilt!
Loyal J • 09/21/2014 at 03:38 • 0 comments

Just added some new parts to the Pinbox Jr. prototype. First, a new power rail breadboard to help handle all the ground connections... the little red breadboard wasn't going to cut it anymore. Second, the Pinbox now has it's own short USB cable that's always attached. Finally, and most importantly, Pinbox Jr. now has an accelerometer inside the box! There's no support for it yet in the code... but the intention is to use this to detect bumping which will then translate to in game tilt. What's a pinball game without tilt?

View all 2 project logs

Discussions

Loyal J wrote 09/21/2014 at 03:20

Hi Martin, thanks a lot for checking out the project! Randy and I talked about exactly that sort of thing.. Right now we're thinking a spring loaded rod and photo-interrupter. The button for the ball plunger is temporary until we get around to figuring out how to build something spring loaded.

Are you sure? yes | no

greenaum wrote 08/10/2015 at 17:03

Using 2 photo-interruptors a distance apart will allow you to measure the speed the rod is moving at. I don't know if the software would respond to that, but obviously the speed of the plunger is important in real pinball.

Are you sure? yes | no

Martin Ferreira wrote 09/20/2014 at 20:09

Nice project!! You could enhance it by instead putting a simple boton, you could make a stick that has a spring (Like original pinballs!!!), that controls the system that releases the ball. I mean it would make it more realistic. But your idea it's perfect!!

Are you sure? yes | no

Pinbox Jr.

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Tilt!

Moar Parts! Moar Tilt!

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