1 | P a g e

Pinball Electrical 101

I noticed there are a lot of questions on the Hyperspin forums when it comes to electrical and electronic wiring

of the gear that most people use for feedback and lights on their pinball cabinets. With the seed planted by

Dazz and with a LOT of help from Chriz99 I have done this booklet for a bit of an electrical guide to pinball

cabinets. I am Australian so I will be referring to electrical stuff from Australia – i.e. Main voltage 230 V AC and

some of the information here is based on my opinions. Opinions are just like a%&holes. Everyone has one.....

Disclaimer – I cannot be held responsible for the work that you produce or house fires, apocalypses, nuclear

explosions, or male pattern baldness started from anything suggested within this guide. There are some

examples of mains voltage wiring in this guide. If you are not sure of what you are doing, please I implore you

to get someone with the knowledge to check your wiring.

This is not a project for someone wiring mains voltage for the first time.

In the words of the great Dan Rutter “If you decide that I want you to open a microwave oven and start licking

the magnetron, please write a note explaining that you got the idea from Better Homes and Gardens magazine

before you start.”

2 | P a g e

Pinball Electrical 101 .............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Parts List .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

What to use and why .............................................................................................................................................................. 5

So let’s start with the basics – Wire size ..................................................................................................................... 5

Next Step – Fuses ........................................................................................................................................................ 6

12 Volt DC power supply ............................................................................................................................................. 6

Terminals ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Control – Relays .......................................................................................................................................................... 7

Flipper feedback – Contactors .................................................................................................................................... 8

Diodes ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Ipac keyboard encoder................................................................................................................................................ 8

Let there be Light – Cree LED’s ................................................................................................................................... 9

LEDwiz ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Speakers and Amplifiers ............................................................................................................................................ 11

Good Practices ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Electrical separation .................................................................................................................................................. 12

Stand offs and metal barriers. ................................................................................................................................. 13

Wiring diagrams and labelling ................................................................................................................................... 13

MAINS VOLTAGE CAN KILL .............................................................................................................................................. 14

Setting Up .............................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Cree LED’s.................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Contactors ................................................................................................................................................................. 16

................................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Flipper Buttons .......................................................................................................................................................... 17

Control Buttons ......................................................................................................................................................... 18

Time to put it all together ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

Let’s Start With the Easy Stuff ........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Push buttons ............................................................................................................................................................. 19

Mains Wiring ............................................................................................................................................................. 20

Power supply and fuses ............................................................................................................................................ 21

Multiple Power Supplies ........................................................................................................................................... 22

Relays ........................................................................................................................................................................ 23

Another version of the strobe ................................................................................................................................... 25

3 | P a g e

RGB Flipper Buttons .................................................................................................................................................. 25

Plumb bob tilt for nudging ........................................................................................................................................ 26

....................................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Mercury Switch for tilt .............................................................................................................................................. 26

Service buttons ......................................................................................................................................................... 26

LEDwiz ............................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Ipac .................................................................................................................................................................................... 29

Full Schematic ................................................................................................................................................................... 30

4 | P a g e

Parts List

The information and links below are just a reference to assist in finding the gear for a digital pinball and by no means a comprehensive list.

Item Stockist

Ledwiz Groovygamegear (USA/Global) Wolfsoft (Germany/Global)

Ipac Ultimarc (USA/Global) Ozstick (Australia/Global)

Cree LED’s (Part is MC-E) Cutter Electronics(Austalia/Global)

Contactors Wolfsoft (Germany/Global)

Shaker Motor/Dual H Bridge Wolfsoft (Germany/Global)

Buttons Virtuapin Button Kit (USA/Global) Wolfsoft (Germany/Global)

Mot-ion Adapter and Digital Plunger Virtuapin Button Kit (USA/Global)

General Electronics Digi-key (USA) Mouser (Australia Mouser (USA)

Rs-Australia (Australia)

Finder relay part numbers -

95.05 Base

44.62.9.012.0000 12 VDC coil 2 pole 10 Amp contacts

99.02.9.024.99 EMC suppression module

Here is a great thread on the Hyperspin forums for suppliers.

5 | P a g e

What to use and why

I want to start with an outline of what gear many of the guys from the Hyperspin forums have used in their cabinets and

if needed, the reason why that particular brand/style/size was chosen. Some is based on opinion but most from

experience or trial and error.

So let’s start with the basics – Wire size

Wire size selection is based on two factors. Current drawn

through the wire and voltage insulation required. For most tasks

inside a pinball cabinet, wire AWG25 or 0.5mm flexible wire is fine.

It is good for approx. 3 amps and most of the stuff used in a pinball

cabinet is well under 3 amps. For mains voltage wiring, 1.5 mm2

flex should be used. Because there will be some Mains Voltage

cabling in your cabinet, the safest practice, (And law in Australia

for electricians), is to have insulation on all wires to the highest

rated voltage in the cabinet. So make sure the cable you are using

for everything, even the stuff you’re using for 12 volts DC, is

rated to a minimum of 230 V ac. You may find places cheaper

where you are but try an electrical wholesaler for your wire.

When it comes to choosing wire colours, I cannot emphasise enough to buy a few different colours and set yourself a

code for what the wire is for. For example –

Red – 12 Volt DC from power supply

Black – Ground from power supply

Brown – 240 AC from mains

Blue – Neutral AC from mains

Purple – Outputs from LEDwiz

Use as many colours as you want, but wiring your whole cabinet in one colour is asking for disaster and will make fault

finding very difficult.

6 | P a g e

Next Step – Fuses

Fuses are used primarily for stopping the magic smoke that makes everything electrical and electronic work, stay inside the components. There are a million different types of fuses and holders and it can be a bit daunting to the inexperienced on what to select. A quote from a Jaycar primer “Fuses are possibly the most misunderstood components in electronics, and often regarded as a nuisance. In fact they play a very important role as a safety valve in many circuits, protecting both the equipment from costly damage and the user from serious injury or possible loss of life.” For a pinball, I recommend either M205 or 3AG Glass fuses. They are cheap and easy to replace. As for holders, it is

totally a personal preference. A quick Google search will show the different types available.

Fuse size selection is to protect the cable from burning out or to stop a short circuit damaging components. I will go into

more detail of fuse selection later.

12 Volt DC power supply

A lot of the components we are using in our cabinets are going to be

12 volt DC or 24 volt DC. This is for a lot of reasons that I am not going

to delve into here, but because DC mains to the house went out a few

years ago, we have to use a power supply to convert the incoming

mains voltage from 230 Volt AC to 12 Volt DC. There are many types’

available and varying qualities. In my trade I have had to use a lot of brands and types and personally recommend the

MEANWELL brand. They are reliable, have inbuilt short circuit, over current and thermal overload protection as well as

good quality components. Either the DIN rail mount or the enclosed types are the best option. Once again, an electrical

wholesaler is a good place to source these. The amperage size you will need will once again be dependent on what gear

you will be running off it. If you only have a few LED’s and a couple of contactors, you will not need a massive power

supply, but if you have a setup like Chriz99, you will need an appropriate size power supply to drive it all. You can never

have too much power, but not enough will have all your bling turning off.

Aside from a dedicated power supply, there is the option of using an old ATX power supply for the job. There are a few

cautions that need to be heeded, but Gstav has given a link and a few points on what to watch for.

7 | P a g e

Terminals

There is going to be a lot of gear powered from the power supply, and 40 wires jammed into one terminal might work

for a little while, eventually it will fail. The best way is to pick a distribution method for your wires.

FOR ALL MAINS WIRING, ENSURE THAT THE CONNECTION METHOD THAT YOU

USE IS RATED FOR THE VOLTAGE AND CURRENT THAT YOU WILL BE USING.

The white terminal strip shown above is rated at 400 volts (ratings are based on maximum voltage that the insulation

between two terminals will remain insulated from each other) but the tag strip above it obviously is not and would be

dangerous to use at mains voltage as the terminals are exposed and could be unintentionally contacted. I personally will

be using terminal strips in the bottom left image as it is what I am used to using but it again, comes back to personal

preference.

Control – Relays

Relays are used when you need to control a large current load with a low current signal.

A good article on relays and why they are used is here, but basically we are using relays in our

pinball cabinets because the LEDwiz outputs are good for 500ma and some of our loads will be

larger than that. If a large load is connected directly to the LEDwiz, it will let the magic smoke

escape and give a great little pyrotechnics show.

I have used a LOT of relays at work and quite simply, Finder relays are the only

way to go. The 95 series base and 44 series relay are great for the job with the great quality components

and are available from Wolfsoft here or once again the electrical wholesalers.

8 | P a g e

These units as pointed out by Chriz99 have diode module (pictured below) so while no extra diode is needed, I still

recommend to put one on the contactors and gear motor.

Relays have basically 3 specifications, coil voltage, internal contact amperage and the number of ‘poles’. We need a 12

volt DC coil (or 5 volt if you have a 5 volt power supply), and the contact amperage needs to be larger than the load we

are connecting to it. Both the 55 series and the 95/44 series are good for about 10Amp at 250 Volts which should be

more than enough for any load we are connecting. The number of poles refers to how many ‘internal switches’ the relay

has.

Flipper feedback – Contactors

Contactors are basically just a relay with a larger coil and higher rated

contacts. They are normally used for controlling 3 phase mains power

for things like roller doors, large motors on machinery, etc, but we just

want the nice ‘thump’ they produce when the coil is energized and the

contacts pull in. The most recommend one for our use is the Siemens

contactors with a 12 volt dc coil available again at wolfsoft or an

electrical wholesaler, but basically any contactor with a 12 volt DC coil will do the trick. I am going to be using the CA7

Sprecher + Schuh for personal preference and they are just plain cheaper in Australia.

Diodes

When using relays or contactors, we are connecting what is classified as an inductive load

to the LEDwiz. The reason we need a diode is as follows –

Current flowing through a relay coil creates a magnetic field which collapses suddenly when the

current is switched off. The sudden collapse of the magnetic field induces a brief high voltage across

the relay coil which is very likely to damage transistors and ICs. The protection diode allows the induced voltage to drive a brief

current through the coil (and diode) so the magnetic field dies away quickly rather than instantly. This prevents the induced voltage

becoming high enough to cause damage to transistors and ICs.

What this means is that we need to use a diode across the coil on our relay / contactors to protect the LEDwiz from the

high voltage produced from the coil when it is switched off. A signal diode 1N4148 or 1N4007 is fine for this job and

cheap from any electronics store.

The diode needs to be wired reverse across the coil as shown here.

Ipac keyboard encoder

Buttons. Without flipper buttons, a nice big digital pinball cabinet would lose the whole

immersion factor pretty quick and we will also need some buttons for controlling Hyperspin,

but we need to make these buttons emulate a key press on a keyboard. There are ways to

hack a keyboard, but the best way to go is with an Ipac keyboard emulator. Other inputs can

also be connected to the Ipac like plumb bob tilt switches, mercury switches and pinball

service buttons. More on that later.

9 | P a g e

Let there be Light – Cree LED’s

LED’s are almost needed for a DIY pinball project as much as the flipper buttons.

To do the Cree’s it will help to have some basic electronic skills and be able to wave a

soldering iron around a little. An LED is a Light Emitting Diode that creates light when

the specified voltage is across the anode and cathode with the correct polarity, but the

current must be limited through the circuit or you will end up with a Non Light

Emitting Diode or as they more commonly known, a Friode.

Once again in the words of Dan Rutter – “If you overdrive an LED brutally, it'll still end up as a friode, but it will in the

interim briefly function as an SED, or Smoke Emitting Diode.”

With most things electronic, when electricity is changed from an electrical signal to another thing; light, motion, etc,

some of the power is wasted as heat. LED’s, especially high powered ones like the Cree’s, have a problem of the hotter

they get, the lower their resistance becomes, which in turn allows the LED to dissipate more power, which lowers their

resistance and the cycle continues creating what is known as thermal runaway. The LED will become a SED pretty quick if

this is not controlled.

A heat sink is needed for a Cree LED to dissipate the heat. There are many different types, here’s a link to the ones

available from Wolfsoft and the ones I am using from Element14.

A series resistor is needed to control the current allowed to pass through the LED. To calculate the size resistor needed,

you need to know a few things

Supply voltage

LED forward voltage

LED forward current

And this LED Calculator web site

Most of us will be using 12 Volts DC from our power supply and where you bought your Cree LED’s from should have a

link to the datasheet for the other two details. For the Crees that I am using from Cutter electronics, the datasheet

specifies that maximum forward current is 700 mA and forward voltage is; Red – 2.2 VDC, Green – 3.4 VDC and Blue - 3.2

VDC.

700 mA is too much for our LEDwiz which only allows 500 mA per output so we can reduce this to 450 mA forward

current and use 5 Watt, 22 Ohm resistors.

If you want to drive you LEDs at their full 700 mA, you need to use either a relay or an optocoupler, but I will not be

going into that here.

10 | P a g e

LEDwiz

So everyone is going to have a different set up so please ignore the precise numbering of

where things are connected to the LEDwiz as this can be configured to suit your setup. This

thread is a discussion of a LEDwiz default configuration and has some great info and

utilities. I highly recommend reading the thread and seeing what is possible. I will be going

with Chriz99 LEDwiz setup as below.

The numbers in the two shades of grey on the left are the LEDwiz terminal numbers and the two shades of grey

represent the different grouped outputs.The details on the right are a long description of the output.

11 | P a g e

The LED wiz instructions are here.

In the instructions it states “The output drivers used with the LED-Wiz+GP™are technically capable of handling up to 50v at 500ma per output.

However, as the LED-Wiz+GP is not designed to handle the maximums possible as a result of driving every output at its fullest potential, it is ultimately up to the user to decide what is and when deciding how to use the LED-Wiz in their application.”

So maximum 500 mA output per output but not all on at once. This is why Chriz99 configuration has spread all the

different items across the LEDwiz so that no one driver is over loaded. If you are going to do a different configuration,

total load on each bank needs to be considered.

The driver chips can get hot so it’s recommended to put some heatsinks onto the

chips (the four identical chips on the board)

Speakers and Amplifiers

I am just going to touch on the sound side of things as I could write another 30 pages worth of useless information on

the subject!

The main things to watch are

impedance ratings of the speakers and amplifier to make sure they match, and

power rating of both speakers and amplifier

The first one is pretty straight forward; i.e 4 ohm, 8 ohm, etc and to ensure they match unless you know what you are

doing. Power ratings can be misleading, as the ratings can have different meanings. 70 watts RMS and 70 watts peak

power are not the same thing and you could end up damaging the amp or burn out a speaker if not carefully taken into

consideration.

12 | P a g e

Good Practices There a few things to go through with how things should come together to make life easier now and in the

future.

Electrical separation

With any electrical cabling, wires generate an EMF or electromagnetic field around the wire. This can ‘induce’

voltage into other wires and anything conductive running nearby, even with the correct rated insulation on your

wires. The best practice for installation is to segregate, as much as possible, all mains wiring away from the 12

volt cabling. Rule of thumb (and Australian standard when wiring cable lower than mains volatage) is a spacing

distance of 50mm or 2 inches.

Keep all electrical wiring away from – speaker cables, your PC (Especially if it is not in a case), network cables

and all monitor cables as much as practicable. Too close to speaker cables will induce a hum and too close to

monitors can induce interference.

Try to keep you wiring as neat as possible. Wire looming is an art form but it’s amazing what can be done with

a packet of cable ties. Also consider using what is known as slotted trunking. It keeps everything super neat

and adds more insulation. Also great for fault finding because it means you don’t have to cut the million cable

ties you just put on to trace a wire. Another method that is common is to twist the wires together. This can be

even done using a drill but putting the group of wires into the chuck and running the drill until the twist is

reasonably tight. This will make securing cables easier and the whole job a lot neater. The down side is that if

you have a fault, it’s hard to separate your cables to find the problem.

I will be using and recommend using

bootlace ferrules but they may not be

worth the added expense for most.

They stop any faults caused by stray

strands of wire finding their way to a

spot they shouldn’t be.

13 | P a g e

Stand offs and metal barriers.

Mounting of you Ipac, LEDwiz, resistor bank for you LEDs, etc can be done one of two

ways. Most people are mounting them straight onto the timber frame. This is fine as

obviously timber is non-conductive. I prefer to mount all my gear onto a grounded metal

sheet with standoffs for the sheet and for the gear. This is done for two reasons. I can

mount my gear knowing that there will be no stray induction because any EMF will be

blocked by the grounded sheet and it gives me another shielded path to run my cables.

To mount your Ipac and Ledwiz, you can use either nylon or metal standoffs. Google

will show you what types are available and once again it is personal preference. If

you’re mounting them onto the timber frame of your cabinet, the type pictured are the

easiest to use.

Wiring diagrams and labelling

So you have done your cabinet. You are marvelling at the brilliant neat job you have done. There are a

thousand wires running everywhere and you know, almost without looking, what each and every one of them

does. See how you go two weeks from now, or two months maybe, but two years when that first fault rears its

ugly head? Not a hope you will remember why the little purple wire was wrapped around that ferrite iron core

then attached to the antenna on your roof. But enough of my

woes, I seriously recommend that you number your terminals

and make yourself a bit of a wiring map.

There are labelling options available for each wire if you want to

go that far and personally, I think it’s a good idea. A colour

coded wiring system and labelled wires make fault finding a

breeze. Even if it’s written in permanent marker below the

terminal what the wire is for.

Take your time and plan your layout so you don’t have to re - run cables. You won’t believe how many

terminations there are in a pinball cabinet, especially if you are putting in all the toys that a lot of us do.

Planning, planning, planning.

So this tutorial thus far hasn’t put you off your project, and nor has the word ‘divorce’ getting bounced around a

bit more than usual. Kudos to you sir. The next section gets into the nitty gritty.

14 | P a g e

Once again, I must reiterate, if you are not confident in wiring mains voltage, find someone who knows what

they are doing or at least do a lot of research on the net to ensure your wiring is correct before powering. In

Australia, Electricians are known as slab men. Buy them a slab of beer and they will do almost anything. I

know this because I am one. And I love beer.

Pretty sure it works that way worldwide.

MAINS VOLTAGE CAN KILL

If you do not have a safety switch installed in your home

GET ONE

They save lives. Period.

Electrical safety rant over, let’s get on with the show.

At this point I am going to assume that your cabinet is built and that you’re ready to start.

15 | P a g e

Setting Up Cree LED’s

So the first thing we need to do with our LED’s is fix

them to the heat sink. This can be done a few ways

but I recommend using a thermal epoxy like this one.

This will ensure efficient thermal transfer from the

LED to the heat sink. To use the epoxy is pretty

simple. Mix equal parts of tube A and tube B, smear a

thin amount across the back of the LED and center

the chip on to the heat sink. Then fix, clamp, place

your favorite bible or dictionary ontop of the led

(with a little hole drilled in the book so that the lens

of the LED won’t be damaged :p) until set. I used

rubber bands as suggested by Shilmover and they

worked quite well.

The Cree LED’s are quite easy to wire if you are limiting the current to 450 mA by

using a 22 Ohm resistor as stated at the start. This is the pin out of the LED to

the breakout pad.

16 | P a g e

Resistors are 22 Ohm 5 Watt

Note : If using the same LEDwiz

configuration as the one stated earlier,

there is not enough connections left for

the white LED to be connected to the

LEDwiz. A suggestion from Chriz99 is

that he wired his in with the free game

knocker for a cool blinder effect. To do

this just wire the negative from the

white LED resistor to the knocker relay.

Diagram will be shown on the knocker

wiring diagram.

Contactors

The contactors are very straight forward to wire and I will show how to wire them latter on but there are two options

that you need to consider. Either drive the contactor directly from the pushbutton for your flippers or directly from the

LEDwiz output.

Both have their own pro’s and con’s-

Image and comments thanks to Chriz99

If you drive them directly via flipperbutton, you have some lag as the contactor

needs to close to send the input to the Ipac (that was the reason to use an

optocoupler board for this type of setup, to prevent the lag).

If you drive the contactors via LEDwiz and the

flipperbutton directly to Ipac, there is no more

lag, because your flipperbutton is directly

connected to the keyboard encoder = best

gameplay but gives the added bonus of having the

contactor not activating when you are scrolling

through Hyperpin.

17 | P a g e

For those not using the ledwiz, an optocoupler board is available from Wolfsoft to prevent lag.

Flipper Buttons

One suggestion that was posted by DedRok_V on the VPforums was absolute simplistic genius in my opinion. To locate

where to drill the holes for you flipper buttons, rest your hands on the side of your cabinet with the lockdown bar in

place and mark the spot where your finger rests. Now a lot of the time, this spot will be in a bad position as it will clash

with your monitor. Use the mark as a radius point and draw a circle on your side panel.

18 | P a g e

Control Buttons

You’re going to need some buttons on your cabinet for controlling Hyperpin and how many you use is up to you.

The following list seems pretty common

Start, Extra Ball, Exit Game, Pause/Genre, View Flyer and How to

Play.

To wire your back lights on these buttons you can either daisy chain all

the lights together as in the picture below back to your power supply via a

fuse, or wire all the buttons with 12 volt + and wire the ground wires from

each light back to the LEDwiz. The microswitches are the same with a

daisy chain from the ground on the Ipac to each common and another

individual wire from the normally open back to the Ipac inputs.

19 | P a g e

Time to put it all together

Let’s Start With the Easy Stuff

Push buttons

Though there are a few different types of switches, they are all wired the same.

Common, Normally Open (NO) and Normally Closed (NC) are the contacts on most

microswitches. Check your particular mircoswitch but all the ones that I have seen

are the same as shown in this pic. Common is the bottom pin, NO the next one up

and NC on the top. Again we need to wire from the ground connection on your IPAC

to all your button commons, then another wire from you normally open back to each

input on your Ipac.

Simple!

The type of connections on the microswitch above are call quick connect male spade lugs. The connectors for your wires

are often called Insulated Crimp Terminals. Logically, we need female to connect up to the male. (There are about a

million politically incorrect jokes that come to mind right now.....). They come in varying sizes for your cables and in two

types, insulated and uninsulated.

Red sheath 0.5-1.5 mm2

Blue sheath 1.5-2.5 mm2

Yellow sheath 2.5-6.5 mm2

The most practical way to do the commons on all of your buttons is with a daisy chain and the easiest way to daisy chain

wire (0.5 mm is more than enough for the Ipac, you could probably use angel hair if it was conductive but it’s just so

hard to get the crimps on. ) is to simply put two wires into one crimp as the pic above. Also you could choose to simply

solder the wires. Comes down to personal preference.

20 | P a g e

Mains Wiring

A lot of guys are using the ‘smart power boards’ in their cabinets and are having a lot of success. If you want to do it

yourself or just to consider another option, this is the way that I have wired the mains control side of my cabinet. This

may not work for everyone depending on the TV you have used on for your playfield as some TV’s don’t turn on

automatically.

Wiring up the mains in this method means that the only thing on standby is the PC when the switch rocker switch is on.

When you push the push button to start your PC, all the other components turn on and when you shut down your PC

everything else turns off automatically. Small amount of wiring and it makes things simple.

You may get a popping sound from your speakers depending on your system but this is normal.

Cable size for the PC switch cables can be as small as the ones supplied in your pc case but all other wiring should be 1.5

mm flexible cable 230 volt rated. It’s hard to see on my picture but I have used brown for the active mains cable, blue for

the neutral and green/yellow for earth. This is the colour standard for a mains voltage plug in appliance and good

practice.

The socket inlet is an IEC socket (which are available anywhere in the world as far as I know then just use a spare

computer lead with a plug that suits your country to plug into it) and the power points shown in my picture are

(Australian) DIN rail mounted power points, but any standard power point will work. Finder relay is the same as the ones

we are using for our other ancillary items with a 12 Volt DC coil that is powered from a molex plug straight from the PC

power supply via a fuse so that our PC power supply lives if we have a problem.

21 | P a g e

Power supply and fuses

The power supply I am using is a DIN rail mount, 10 Amp Meanwell unit DR-120-12.

Chriz99 has used the enclosed 12.5 Amp Meanwell unit SP-150-12. Both do the same job.

Now the fusing spiel. Fuses are used to protect both the wire and the object at the end of the wire from damage. They

are also used to protect things on the other side of the fuse from faults that happen downstream. For a simplified

example, from your nearest power station they have fuses (or circuit breakers to be factual but same principle) to

protect the generator from overload or short circuit from the wires to the switch yard. From the switch yard they have

fuses at the start of the wires to your street, from your street they have fuses to your house and your house has fuses

for your lights, and another from your power points and another from your hot water system.......

Each step is protected by a fuse at each change. In your pinball machine it should be similar. This is again a personal

preference to some extent as you can under protect but never over protect.

If you change wire size at all, make sure you protect the wire used with a fuse rated at or below the rating of the wire.

Again to quote a Jaycar primer, to select the correct fuse size –

“So the correct fuse rating is found by dividing the operating current level by 0.75 . e.g. in a circuit normally carrying 750mA, a 1A fuse would be used. When this derating is done, fuses will generally operate almost indefinitely in equipment running at room temperatures of 25°C or lower.” For the shaker, knocker and gear motor, a 10 amp slow blow fuse will be used. Slow blow fuses are used here because of

‘inrush current’. When a motor starts, it draws a lot of current for a short time and a fast blow fuse may blow although

there is no fault. For the LED’s and other lights, a 500 milliamp fast blow fuse and for the contactors, a 500 milliamp fast

blow fuse also.

That way if one thing dies I can fault find quickly and it won’t take the rest of the ship with it.

Also, grimwasere had an issue with a contactor coil that had failed and shorted out. The weakest link between the

power supply and the coil (now a short circuit) was the LEDwiz. It took out 3 of the 4 drivers on his LEDwiz board,

practically killing it. The question was raised if it is possible to install fuses on the negative wires? Because fuses work on

current, all current that flows through the positive, must pass through the negative to complete the circuit so fuses on

the LEDwiz outputs will work fine. 500 mA fuses will protect the LEDwiz and still run the contactors, Cree LED’s, relay’s

etc.

Never put fuses on the Neutral of mains voltage.

22 | P a g e

Multiple Power Supplies

Some people are using a single 12 volt power supply for everything, others are using an ATX power supply and using the

5 VDC and 12 VDC rails, while some are using two (or more) separate power supplies. This can cause issues with multiple

negatives and how to hook things up to the LEDwiz.

The correct way to connect multiple power supplies is to create what is known as a ‘star’ point.

This can be a bolt, a bridged terminal strip, basically anything that connects all the negatives together. No doubt you

have heard the negative referred to as a ‘common’ or ‘ground’.

Skipping all the technicalities, with the power supplies that we are using (if using the ones recommended) the negative

wire is electrically connected to earth, and there should be no difference in voltage between each negative. (Yes that is

skipping the tech. )

So you should run a decent gauge wire from each power supply to the star point and then run a wire from the star point

to all things that require a negative, if it’s being fed from the active on the power supply (LEDwiz, front control push

button lights, coin button lights, fans, etc) I have used a 12 and a 24 volt supply in my example but any DC voltage is the

same.

I sent LEDwiz techs an email regarding this. The response was -" This should be fine. However, when tying multiple

grounds from different supplies together, it's good practice to use a meter to make sure there is no potential between

any of the grounds you intend to tie together. Usually, you can check for continuity between all of them and they will

be common through the grounded mains plug. "

So it’s good practice to use a multimeter on DC volts and test between the negatives on each power supply. If you have

a more that a couple of volts, check you connections and test again. This can cause damage to components.

23 | P a g e

Relays for Knocker, shaker, wiper motor, strobe, beer fridge,

automatic blinds or anything else you want to hook up to your machine.

As stated earlier, relays are needed for anything that you want to control

via the LEDwiz that will draw more than 500 mA of current. Once again

they are very simple to wire once you know the basics. A relay is an

electromechanical switch. Put simply, putting the rated voltage across

the coil will magnetize the coil and pull the internal switch down. The

coil connections on most relays and contactors are A1 and A2.

Relays have normally two sets of contacts that can be connected by energizing / de-energizing the coil to the common

terminal. Normally Open (NO) and Normally Closed (NC). These set of internal contacts that are called ‘changeover’

contacts. It literally means what it is called. When power is applied to the coil, the internal contacts swap states.

The normally open becomes closed and the normally closed becomes open in reference to the common.

All relays have a simple 2 digit numbering system – XX for the contacts. The first digit is the pole number (internal set of

contacts) and the second number is what connection point identification in the set of contacts. 1 is common, 2 is

normally closed and 4 is normally open.

So contact 14 is pole 1, and the contact is normally open because the second number is a 4.

If you have a 4 pole relay, likewise contact 44 will be pole 4 and NO because it is X4.

We will be using the normally open contacts for all of our controls as we want the shaker, strobe, beer fridge, etc to turn

ON when we activate it.

Now that I have confused the situation beyond all reproach, let’s get back to the pictures.

I like pictures.

Ignore the 240 Volt coil in the picture and the model, it was all I had

in the truck but shows that the connections are still the same no

matter what relay you use.

Note the diode and the polarity. Silver band towards A1.

Now to add the blinder...

24 | P a g e

So the same relay as before but we are now using the second

set of poles.

Different supply voltages going to different loads and

completely electrically isolated from one another.

Again note the diode and the polarity. Silver band towards

A1.

All of the White LED’s can be joined and connected together.

(The negative wires after the resistor to the normally open

on the relay X4.)

The LEDwiz still only has the coil current passing through it.

So if you have a load that you want to drive at .2 millivolts, 5 volts, 70 volts or even mains voltage, connect the supply

wire to the common terminal and the load side to the normally open and you’re done.

Here are the connections for the 240 volt stroboscope.

Again the LEDwiz has only the coil current passing thought it.

Again please note the diode.

No mains earth or Neutral should be put through the relay.

ALWAYS switch the active (Brown wire) and never the blue or

green. Switching the Neutral without switching its corresponding

active at the same time is extremely dangerous and can lead to a

sudden case of death. The earth cable is there for your protection

and therefore must be connected and unswitched.

25 | P a g e

Another version of the strobe

Chris on his new cabinet has used the xm-l T6 Cree LEDs as his strobe.

Works brilliantly.

The unit on the left is an opto-

coupling relay and the unit in the

centre is a constant current power

supply. The constant current power

supply is used for LED’s, removing the

need for resistors in this circumstance

and Chris has wired the 3 LEDs in

series so he can still use the 12 volt

supply.

RGB Flipper Buttons

The RGB kit from Wolfsoft has preloaded resistors also, but is designed for 12 Volt supply. As you can see on the picture,

the black wire is for the 12 Volt active, and the red, green blue wires are to the LEDwiz.

The RGB-Drive from Groovy Game Gear come prewired unless you have chosen otherwise.

They also come preloaded with resistors for 5 Volt supply. The RGB array has a common anode

meaning they only need one active supply and the red, green and blue negative when

connected to ground will make the colour glow.

26 | P a g e

Plumb bob tilt for nudging

You no doubt have seen on the forums that some of the guys are using the tilt bobs for

nudge sensors. Thanks again to Chriz99 for the picture. Simply wire from your daisy chain

to the bottom part of the tilt bob bracket for you common and a wire back to your Ipac for

an input.

Mercury Switch for tilt

A mercury switch used as a nudge switch is easy to connect to

the ipac as well. One wire is the common and the other is the

normally open. You then just adjust your angle to get the

correct response to your nudge.

Service buttons

If your service buttons have pre wired switches, it should be pretty straight forward on how to wire them. Same as you

have done with you other push buttons, there will be one wire that is soldered from switch to switch for your common.

The other wires will be your inputs for you Ipac.

If they have not come wired things become a little more

difficult. From what I have been able to research, the buttons

used for service buttons (you could use any buttons really) are

Double Pole Double Throw or DPDT. Basically this is the same as

our relays. Double pole, or sets of switches and Double throw

means both sets of switches change state when the button is

pressed.

The pic shows a set of 4 DPDT switches and how they are to be

wired. Check the pins on your particular switch as the pinout

with a multimeter as it may be slightly different.

27 | P a g e

Dual H Bridge The shaker motor uses pulse wave modulation (PWM) to control the

speed, but the LEDwiz cannot drive the motor alone. Wolfsoft posted the

idea on his blog site here on how to use the PWM output of the LEDwiz

and connect it to a Dual H bridge to be able to control the RPM of the

motor.

A steady hand is required to solder on the 4th pin as shown in the picture

left which then connects to the dual H bridge. If you are not confident

with a soldering iron, you can purchase one already done from

Wolfsoft.de (I think he still offers this). Make sure that you put some

silicone or nonconductive adhesive to the solder join so no pressure is

placed directly onto the weld.

28 | P a g e

LEDwiz

This should give you a basic outline of how to connect up your bling to your LEDwiz. I have not connected all

devices (obviously) as the lines for the wires would be too complex to make out.

29 | P a g e

Ipac

A basic layout of how to connect your inputs to your IPAC. Again where you connect each device is up to you as you will

have to configure each input in the settings file. The Ipac needs no external power as it is powered by the 5 volts from

your pc via the PS2 cable.

30 | P a g e

Full Schematic Darkfall from the forums made this schematic for

his cabinet that covers basically all the toys that are

being controlled by the Ledwiz and Ipac and was

kind enough to allow me to add it to this guide.

Here is a link to the drawing for better detail.

31 | P a g e

Hope this has been some help to those going down the DIY pinball path.

I have done my best to explain the what’s, whys and how’s of the electrical side of a homemade digital pinball

with the same gear as I will be using, which is utilizing (ok. Blatantly plagiarizing! ) the ideas from Chriz99. If

some of the information is not clear or you need specifics in certain areas, Google is your friend. Most of the

terminology that I used is standard so a quick search in the area needed should deliver a plethora of

information.

If this is your first cabling project, my suggestion – Think smaller and work your way up to this project. Get hold

of a few electronic kits as these will teach you a lot of the skills needed to make a digital pinball, but again, ask

assistance from a professional with regards to mains wiring.

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me on the hyperspin or vp forums.

Good luck!