PINBALL MACHINE

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I made some cute decorations for the outside. A panel with the name and a badge to be attached to the walls. 
CNCed title sign
Waterjet Spaceship badge for outside decoration
CNCing the title sign
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Writing:  You’ll work on a dialogue exercise, in which you fictionalize two relatives with distinctive speech patterns… and then put these characters in a situation that comes with built-in tension:  a wedding, a funeral, a birth, a graduation, a sporting event, etc.
Think about where the mid-point of this is (or would be, if you wrote more than 5-8 pages.)
 
 
ACT 1
 
Scene 1
 
SETTING:
A 1940s divorce court. The stage is level with the audience, as if they are actually in the court proceedings. In front of the audience is a meter high fence which extends down the sides of the stage. It is wooden with vertical supports. Above the fence is a second story with the same type of fence overlooking the stage. There are high wooden struts and columns supporting the balustrades. In the center is an oversized wooden desk flanked by doors and flags.  
 

AT RISE:
A judge is situated behind the desk. In front are the two couples spread evenly in a semicircle around the judge: BELLE-ANN, TEDDY, BEA and CARL. BELLE-ANN is dressed in a tiered yellow ball-gown. She is a famous actress and is treating the divorce like another promo-show. She speaks in light southern lilt. TEDDY is in long pants, suspenders, a button up shirt and a flat cap. He is the epitome of nonchalant. He speaks with a New York accent. BEA is plain and dowdy. She looks tired and speaks in a way that you can tell she is not well educated, but she is smarter than people give her credit for. CARL is portly and pasty. He is constantly sweating and seems a little bit out of the proceedings at all times. He is very dumb, but thinks he is much smarter than his wife, BEA. There are court room attendees planted throughout the audience and along the sides of the room behind the balustrades.

 
 
BELLE-ANN
(with a slow Louisianan drawl)
A Monday morning. Now let me think about it what do ah do on a Monday morning. Well, first things first ah have to be up and down at the motion picture studio to get my hair and make done all big. Y’all know about my latest release.
(She smiles a soft but winning smile at the crowd to subtle looks of idolisation, lust and admiration.)
 
BELLE-ANN (CONT’D)
Well, I’m getting ahead of my horses. I spend the rest of the day filming chase scenes where I get trussed up in the woods.
(winks at the audience seductively)
 
BELLE-ANN (CONT’D)
And, of course, Teddy saves me before it’s all too late. I go back to the makeup tent and then it’s time to go home.

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Image description
This task was to write a scene which ends halfway through the story at a moment of time described by a picture.
​
ACT 1
 
Scene 1
 
SETTING:
The stage is set with two scraggly trees on either side. There is a small mound of dirt and grass with some toys littered around in the center of downstage. The backdrop has a full scale child’s drawing of a house made on thin paper.
 

AT RISE:
A young girl, MARCIE, sits on stage cross legged with a red shirt on. She’s proudly playing with some sand toys. She thinks that since she is going to school now, she knows everything. MARCIE is not nasty, just precocious.

 
 
MARCIE
My mommy says I shouldn’t put my fingers in my mouth when I’m playing in the garden. She says a lot of things. I just tell her I really like the way the worms feel on my gums.
(MARCIE grins a big grin and it is obvious she has recently lost some teeth)
 
MARCIE (CONT’D)
She didn’t like that very much, I had to sit there for a whole hour while she went on and on about how she thought it was just dirt that I was eating and how she doesn’t understand why I don’t go and play with other kids instead of the creepy crawlies that live around the garden. What she doesn’t understand is that they aren’t all crawlies. Worms are the coolest; they slither and dig and can escape almost anywhere. Except my mouth.
 
Slaters are my second favourite. I recently learnt that word… slaters. They’re little bugs that are made up of a ton of little grey sections. When I come near them, they roll up into a little ball so they can’t be hurt.
 
(MARCIE gets up and walks towards the audience. She sticks her hands in her pockets and then gestures grandly to the world.)

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A, carrying a box of track shoes, approaches B.

B (of the box):  What's that?

A: It's my past - I want you to keep it.

B: Your past? Why can't it be your future?

A: I'm just not as fit anymore. I can't train with the good athletes, but I'm too good for the bad athletes. I have a masochistic love for the drills and pain from early morning workouts, but no longer have a drive to achieve. Plus, I've already gotten into college.

B: You got into college? So thats all it was for? What about the pages of words on how you love the feeling of pushing yourself and achieving things you never thought was possible.

A: Cliches, all of them

B: hm

A: Yeah. And now what's left. I have run in a circle for years to only realised I don't care enough. I don't care to be the best I can be when that means sacrificing the good times that I see so many others having. I could just grow up and have an easy job, make some money and go home. When all of your life has been about achieving a single goal, when you get there it just isn't quite as sweet. For me, the next step I would have to take would be to be the best. I would have to spend hours every week isolated and in pain, for what? The chance that I might be good enough to do it for even more hours. And yet, at least then I would have a goal. At least then I would feel something apart from insignificance. 

B: Blissful ignorance, huh.

A: The curse of the successful. Brittney and her shaved head. Hah. Funny that. Even as I was saying the words I wanted to follow up with "well at least she has fame". Nah. The grass is always greener, but how do you reconcile that when your grass is already brown. 

B: Blissful ignorance
​
A: Yeah, or blissful deniability. Suppressing the feelings no matter how. Psht. I'm not a drug addict but excuses and potential sure are fun.
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I spent a lot of the semester working on the electrical components that use solenoids. This was very exciting because it is the main part of the pinball machine. That being said, I am still finding it difficult to generate the appropriate amount of force (130N) to hit the ball. My next step is to work with transformers and relays to help with increased voltage.

I also worked with improving the aesthetics of the pinball machine. There is now a second story (with lights which glow once a certain score is reached) and a habitrail. 

​Next semester I want to integrate all the components and add a belt to return the ball to the start when it goes out.
Second "plinko" level
Angled view of machine
Full machine
Habitrail start
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To make the habitrails I got 5mm rods and bent them. This was very effective, but ensuring the templates were to scale was harder than expected and involved using the grid in the screenshot as a calibration square. This was done in 3D with two 2D templates.
Bending habitrail
Bent rod and template
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I experimented with making the plunger to shoot the ball at the beginning. This was done by threading a steel and attaching a comfortable rubber stopper.

I also worked on integrating the solenoids into my bumpers, slingshots and flipper. I experimented with various solenoids and even made a higher fidelity version with copper wire.

To activate the bumper the arduino must detect contact between the ball and the bumper. To do this I created an open circuit with an exposed side on the ramp of the bumper and one on the face of the pinball machine. This means when the ball rolls over the ramp it will complete the circuit, activate the bumper and get shot away. I experimented with thin copper sheets, copper tape and AlFoil. AlFoil was the best because it was easily moldable, cheap and did not short circuit with itself like the copper tape did.

The various progressions of my design of solenoids and solenoid activated components is at this link. 
Image description
Threaded rod with grip
Bumper solenoid mockup
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After a couple worries about breakages on the axle of the flipper, I redesigned it to use off-the-shelf components. I used a threaded insert for plastic and a bolt as the axle. This bolt fit very easily and smoothly through my bearing. Another advantage of using the bolt is that I can adjust the flippers' height off the board by screwing the bolt in more or less.  

Additionally, for storage it is much simpler to remove the bolt and take the flipper off to avoid damage.

In future I want to use imperial bolts with a hex head. This means the attachment to the rest of the flipper mechanism can just be the negative to the hex head and the connection between those two parts can be simplified. 
First flipper design with weak axle
Flipper design with bolt axle
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Throughout the semester I spent time taking the code I had previously created and forming an electrical harness for easy debugging on the back. A big problem that occurred was my joints breaking at the protoboard connection. To compensate I added stress relief to the joints.

Additionally, I spent time manufacturing the machine into a higher fidelity prototype. This involved lasercutting the base (mdf with an acrylic cover), adding legs and creating components which effectively fit in the holes. 

The component designs were increased to have more high fidelity models which also accounted for the connections each component would need to have to the board. 
Electrical harness
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This semester I have created a prototype of a pinball machine with the components 3D printed and working electronics for the main components. 

In the future I would like to manufacture the components out of appropriate heavy duty materials: acrylic and plywood for the base; delrin and rubber for the slingshots and bumpers and flippers; aluminium tubing for the habitrail. I would also like to improve my code with switch statements and shift registers. Finally, to manufacture the individual parts, I need to make the CAD reflect the tools I will use to manufacture each part. For example, I will use a 3 axis CNC for the flippers but my current design has overhangs. Therefore it must be divided into three components with mates. 

Front View

Top View

Back View

Alanna Manfredini

A blog of my progress and process of making a Pinball Machine