I thought I'd document the destruction and rebuild of my Brunswick Aspen. Since it's completely dead (other than one light circuit) I don't have much to lose.

My plan is to start with getting the flippers to fire, as a pinball with no flippers is just plinko.

I have all of Ken Layton's switch matrix write ups, and the Arduino code from the Briarwood version that WillBot redid.

If I (with my 10 year old) can get it going, we're going to scrub it down and repaint it all into a personalized table documenting my poor life choices

20211018_082540 (resized).jpg

Update: got the flippers/slingshots/pop bumper to fire.
Ball return is still dead for the moment.

I had to replace a bridge rectifier and then I promptly broke the on/off switch.

Got my kid to replace the toggle switch. We put it in upside down oh well!

Got a Mega2560 in the mail today, so now we can start doing real damage.

20211025_212953 (resized).jpg

20211026_143859 (resized).jpg

Ok. Got some relays, as my computer/robotics geek friends said that was the way to go to wire the Mega to the solonoids. The ball return solonoid would fire and get stuck energized while I ran the sketch.

I got mad. Ripped the relay out. Got some spade connectors, and now I have a functioning ball return, albeit with no scoring, sounds, or lights.

Regardless, it's not Plinko anymore.
Progress.

I realize that I'm talking to myself, and I'm 100% ok with that.

Today I figured out why I couldn't get the relay to work (forgot to put the jumper between vcc and jdvcc. I still have ZERO idea why I need to do that, but it seems crucial, and it all works now, so who am I to question it.

After I got that to work, I managed to wire up the rollover switch from the ball return to the Arduino. Using the 'Button' sketch, I was able to get the rollover to tell the Arduino to switch the relay to fire the solenoid. I think my next task is going to be to get lights to turn on from the targets. That seems doable with the button sketch as well (with a little tweaking).

This feels like a huge accomplishment for me.

There are wires everywhere, and it's all held together with alligator clips.

Today's progress:
6/8 bonus lights are hooked to the relays and can be controlled. I had a problem with the polarity being reversed, but flipping the spade connectors corrected it, once I troubleshot it.
I either totally schmucked both of the 7 segment LED displays I bought while soldering in the headers (highly likely) or got bad ones (less likely, but still possible), so I have some new ones on order (good thing they are cheap!).
I think my next step is to solder some leaders onto the switch wires so I can hook them to the Arduino.
I've got some perfboard on the way so I can play around with a board to run switches through.
For general illumination, I'm going to use some individually addressable LEDs.

20211110_202044 (resized).jpg

Deeeeesssssttttrrrrooooyyy

20211111_150425 (resized).jpg

Update: I figured out the 8 segment display. Also, no more snowflakes.

no more snowflakes (resized).jpg