Building a counter

[lukewells]

Hello Pachipeeps

I'm new here and I am a big collector of video games and pinballs. (39 machines)

I recently got my first pachinko, which was great fun for an hour, now I am bored.

I am a game player so I need objectives.

I want to build a counter that has various gameplay modes such as see how many balls you can win in 5mins, how many balls you can win from shooting 100 balls etc)

I'm good with hardware and software, but I have little knowledge of pachinkos and how they work so thats where you guys could help me out please.

1) I need to count balls shot

2) I need to count balls won

3) I need to switch on / off the ball firing mechanism at start and end of game


Now 1 & 2 is where i need the help.

3 I have some ideas of my own. For example
- relay to cut off card reader ready signal in dongle is one way
- relay to activate the "stop firing" switch on the ball firing handle
- relay to cut power to ball firing computer bit (though that one might generate an error code?)


I have seen the pachicounter and it looks like a cool bit of kit, but I want to build my own as it doesnt do exactly what i want it to do.

I notice the pachicounter uses optical sensors of some sort?

I personally would rather hook into some signals somewhere in the machine then add sensors.

Is there a switch or sensor that detects a ball fired? Is there a signal between the cpu board and the ball firing board that pulses it to fire? Any other ideas where i can grab a signal?

Is there a signal I can grab on the payout mech? I took it apart today and found that there are 2 ball paths through it and on each ball path there is a small black sensor of some sort with a square hole that the ball passes through. anyone know how to interface with these?

Failing any suggestions for the above where can I get some sensors like the pachicounter ones?

Thanks in advance for any help