Hopping Mad Weekend

[Drunkenclam]

After a chaotic week playing with a 14' automated revolving door, I'm going to take it easy tomorrow and try to get the hopper done for my ball pump. ready to go in the cabinet. The motor and channel are in.
The first hopper was a complete failure. The balls bunched up instead of falling in to the channel down to the motor. I'm going to put fins in to make the balls form lines to go in to the feed channel. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

[Drunkenclam]

Heres a picture of the first hopper trail.
A complete failure. The balls jambed everywhere and failed to fall in to the channel down to the motor.



After attemps with fins and ramps. I studied the top hopper in the rear of my pachinko. And copied it the best I could using a single channel. Tweeking and adjusting the angles of the ramps.



Heres a video of it in action.

Ball lifter

I counted up the balls afterwards. Including all the ones I found on the floor the total was 266 balls in about 30 seconds.
Next stage is extended the tube and fit the switched.

But thats for next weekend. For tomorrow my time is taken up with she who must be obeyed

[luckydog]

thats about the farest i've seen anyone get building one that works

[rubberratt]

You look to be nearly there WELL DONE !

[Moparformances]

outstanding work

[pinball wizard]

awesome!

[hanabi]

Wow that works amazingly well

looking forward to seeing it all finished up

[MrGneiss]

Nice!!

[dattia]

Awesome!

"She who must be obeyed" ...LOVE THAT!

[monkeyboy]

Looks like you've cracked it to me.

Watching this makes me want to resurect my ball lifter project that was started around 17 months ago.

[Drunkenclam]

Except for the drive sprocket, All the parts are recycled too.
The aluminium came from the scrap bin from the company factory.
Took ages of trail and error, screw here, drill there. Then move it and try again. and again and again.
Go for it...

[pinball wizard]

if you can get all of the parts in quantity and for a reasonable price,you might consider building a bunch and selling them.

[Drunkenclam]

Today's work. Sorry no pictures till later.

Fitted light beams to the hopper. Did the wiring to the light beam controller and time delay relay. Bent and temporary fitted the 1/2 tube to the top cabinet feed hopper. Fitted the transformer and rectifer in the back of the cabinet.

Stuck some balls in the hopper...keep filling...keep filling.
Motor starts. and balls are raining from on high.

Need to fit brackets to hold the tube in place and tidy the wiring. Then I'll do some pics for you all, with a list of parts. Also need to bolt the whole motor and hopper to the cabinet as it does tend to move a bit.

[Drunkenclam]

Picture time




Did an hour of testing. today. Seems ok. Every so often a ball gets flung out of the feed channel due to the sprung steel under the gear. Will have to put a cover on it. Have to say its a bit noisy.

Now for the geeky bit.
Parts used...
1x 2Amp 12vdc power supply.
1x Optex OC-2 light barrier set
1x Omron H3RN-1
1x Motor/gearbox unit
Various pieces of Aluminum. Copper tubing.
1x Broken hacksaw blade

[kapsreiter]

and working without stuck problems

my concept is based on the same idea but i have problems
at the corner when there are to many balls
the balls block each other
the same with a big or a small hole

[dattia]

Maybe two rails to guide the balls to the hole...

[Drunkenclam]

It took me ages to get round that problem.

I studied the top hopper in the back of the machine and tried to dupliate that,
What you can't see in my picture is a second layer of aluminium plate under the first, so any balls that may jam can move freely and fall into the channel when there is space. if you can, try increasing the distance from the hopper down to the feed channel.

My problem was the motor turns to fast. so sometimes the balls don't have time to feed. But haven't found a good way of slowing it down yet.

[marietta_ken]

Try lowering your motor supply voltge -- maybe to 9V as a starting point. Motor speed should be proportional. You will lose some torque, but should have plenty to spare.

[kapsreiter]

i have also tuned my lifter proto

now i have a metal lane
with 2 contact plates and a timer
when a balls run over the lifter works fora about 30 seconds


YouTube - Pachinko lift proto

and i will move the balls to the top with a electrical isntallation pipesystem
very easy to connect together
hope my starwars darth vader with 2500 balls will come tomorrow
then i can install the lifter in the cabinet and will post pictures

[bfree]

Nice tinkering