I don't know enough about Cobra to know if it supports it. I assume so? It's no different than using a single wound flipper coil. Same principle. Strong stroke to get it to move, smaller duty cycle to keep it in place.

I wanted to reuse most of this existing harness, so I opted to replace the ugly, rusted metal strip sockets with custom made lamp boards.

20240323_114044 (resized).jpg

You always impress me with your ides and execution. What a great idea. Do you have a source for making these?
What is Pinball Hackers Collective?
Thx

Well, thank you. These were designed in EasyEda, a circuit design system, and the bare boards were made by JLCPCB, a circuit board fabrication company. I used the original wiring to design them, so that they would be compatible with High Speed games. If someone is restoring a High Speed, they could use these to replace old sockets. I'll be making another set to retrofit brighter lamps into my Escape from Hell homebrew, but that's likely going to be after Golden State Pinball Festival.

The Pinball Hackers Collective is a funny name a group of us gave ourselves. It's meant to be people who build games by hacking on existing systems, beyond just a retheme. This build, for example, started with a high speed playfield and harness, but has some new mechs, like a Gottlieb disappearing post, a ramp from No Good Gophers, some rails adapted from a Terminator 2, etc, all probably going into an old CftBL cabinet I have in storage.

Nice. Do you bring your custom games to GSPL?

Yes, there will be a homebrew section at Golden State again this year.

Sounds great. Looking forward to seeing those games as well as the other games.

I'm just starting down the path of creating a machine. Anyone have a link to some mpf groups?

[email protected] is good for questions and searching the archive has lots of info. Good luck.

The base of the new metal ramp fits as I expected. Now, to work on the sides and cutting this wireform to fit.

20240411_224444 (resized).jpg

20240412_073031 (resized).jpg

Got a couple tips to share with those who do not have access to a cnc, or a flat bed sander when doing your whitewood...

Powertec makes a 50" locking straight edge that is great for doing routing, cutting, laying out, etc. Easy amazon order, and won't break the bank like mostbstraight guides.
20240409_173347 (resized).jpg

Even works at angles with clamps, or the add on cleats.
20240409_173418 (resized).jpg

20240410_162556 (resized).jpg

Also when doing your inserts, if you'll take a finishing router with a 1/2" straight edge bit (cylindrical with a flat bottom), and set it to flush cut about a 1/16, or 1/32 above your wood.
(Make sure to test on scrap piece) you can slowly take off all the excess plastic on your inserts before sanding to cut down time, and to reduce divots, or low spots using a belt sander causes.
All you'll need is a random orbit sander starting with 80 grit, then a 320 grit to have them smooth as the surface wood in no time.
20240411_170635 (resized).jpg
This cut my sanding time down from 2 afternoons to just about an hour.

Hello everyone !
I have a very bad electric problem, I'm sharing it is someone can help with some ideas or things to check.
I recently added a satellite cobra board and a 24V power supply to use on a knocker, a shaker and a post-up.
When using the post up, I noticed a buzz on it, when I try to hold it a few seconds.
I was thinking it was a 50V-24V problem, because the post-up is supposed to work on 50V.

But I had terrible flash on LED.
All the led are wired to the original cobra, nothing on the satellite !
When I use the satellite with coils, I can see LED flashing (the led that are off)

Now when I use the shaker (only 500ms each time), I can spot LED flashing very briefly. It was probably there before trying the post-up but difficult to spot if you are not aware of the problem.
The shaker is directly wired to the satellite, does it need a diode ? Or something equivalent for motors ?

The power supply is a 24V 20A. https://www.pincab.eu/alimentations-electronique/376-alimentation-24-volts-20a-480w.html
Is it possible that the problem comes from the power supply ?

The LED are flashing because the 5V power supply and the 24V are plugged on the same power strip ?

Thank's if you have an idea !

Do you have a 48v ground running to the cobra board?

You can take the plug strip out of the equation. No reason that would backfeed with a proper ground.
Do you have your grounds all tied together, including the new power supply?
Also have you checked to see if it's a cable issue on that led?
Other thing I would try is moving that output for the new coils to see if that might resolve it.

As MrBigg said, it's almost certainly the grounds not being tied together.

Thank's for your help but I clearly don't understand.
I plugged the new 24V on another part of the house, so it's not on the same power strip, and same effect : led flashing, satellite led board going crazy.

I'm sorry I probably didn't understand something basic.
Grounds tied together ?
The grounds are plugged from each power supply to the power strip.
I need something else ?
Like a wire running from power supply to power supply ?

edit : basic notion but i'm lost....
You mean I need to wire the 3 "V-" from my power supply together ?
And then what, where this ground wire is supposed to go ?
I'll try to find (and understand) some information on pinbal makers...

edit 2: problem not solved, but I forgot to wire the "V-" power supply together.
Like here from pinball makers Solenoid-wiring (resized).png

So now it's done but no change...

edit 3 :
I have things to try.
- change the diode on the post-up (maybe I have cut it during soldering ??)
- get rid of the 24V and plug my 48V on the satellite. I supposed my 48V can power 2 boards ? (and lower everything on MPF)
- Add a diode on the shaker, even if it's not the problem

Just before exploding everything, trying to understand with a drawing.

Actually, I have this (I connected the "V-" after your help):
CobraPinConnectionDiagram_actual (resized).jpg

Do you think I can try this ?
CobraPinConnectionDiagram_before_exploding (resized).jpg

Yes, you need a ground wire from each power supply to each other power supply on the secondary side (low voltage side)
You also need a ground wire from each on primary side (110/220) to ensure they are are also tied together.
Do not mix these two together though, and keep primary side, and secondary side of you power supplies separate.

Anytime you have multiple power supplies, and even cards, transformers, relays, etc, they should share a common ground on the secondary side.
Here's an example....

Screenshot_20240416_064655_Google (resized).jpg

You should be good if you connected all your grounds together like that drawing you did.
Remember, you can't have too much ground

I would remove the new items individually, and see which of the new things are causing this. Once you narrow that down, then you can proceed with a better solution.
My guess is shaker motor because it's a spinning actual motor than can create feedback.
Underpowered motors also create a larger amperage draw when turning on, and can possibly creating a frequency issue on your lines.
Coils allow more forgiveness being under powered, but motors do not like that, and it will also shorten their life span.

I already wired everything like my drawing, after your answer this morning, but nothing change.
So I will explore your other ideas !
Thank's for taking time to help me !

I think I don't understand this part....
I don't spot the difference on the schematic you posted...

I didn't put a wire between cobra-GND and the satellite-GND....
Dumb question : are all the GND on these boards eligible ?

With a drawing : do I need to do something like this ?
CobraPinConnectionDiagram_GND (resized).jpg

All grounds MUST MUST tie together.
A lack of a ground can cause all kinds of issues. Feedback, glitches, and a ground searching for somewhere else to go. Like a diode, a switch, a motor.
You have to have a continual loop on your grounds my friend to prevent ghosts

If you look at the picture, under the two big power supplies, I have the output ground from each tied together in that terminal block, to which all other DC grounds feed into.

20220116_110832 (resized).jpg

You can test continuity with a multimeter. You don't need to connect the grounds on the cobra itself, it should already be connected. But since the 24V powersupply goes not directly into the cobra, this is the ground you will need to connect with the others.
so when you make that connection in your first drawing it should connect all grounds.
do you have a multimeter? It is a good way to tell if there is a ground thats not connected.

Hmm or could it me like my servo jumping problem...
when i pressed the flipperbutton, sometimes a servo would move. What i think helped was: making a more direct gnd connection and making sure the high voltage cables are not close to the servo cable.
So in your case the led cables.

Ok, i'll see if it's touching something but from memory it doesn't....
Thank's everyone for trying to help me ! Still stuck...

- Re-wire "GND" : no change
- Put a diode on the shaker : no change
- Change the 24V and wire the 48V on the satellite : no change

The fact that the post-up is buzzing can't be a clue ?

Still need to test with the multimeter (I need another hand).

Gasp !

Hm i don't know but does the uppost have an old singlewound coil like from an em machine? Or is it new? I am not an expert but when i first used old em coils on deep blue rage, there was buzzing, but that was alright because of the coils. But in that case take a look at this to prevent something burning. Look at single wound coils.
https://missionpinball.org/mechs/coils/dual_vs_single_wound/

Hope i understood your problem correctly.

Ha just thought of something. You could try to plug the satelite into a different usb port of the pc.
(i don't have a reasonable explanation for that, just had an experience once, where an usb port caused problems, where a different didn't. There a usb busses on a pc, some ports might do something a little bit different.)

Yes it's a brand new single coil, but I think I made the correct configuration, multiple try to have something really low to maintain.
I tried to maintain the knocker (new single coil as well), same result : the knocker is buzzing and led and satellite start "flashing"...

I just tried...
Bad luck, same result, thank's for the idea !

Raaaaah !

Hm ok

So MrBigg was right, it was a problem with those led.
It was a connection between 2 led strip.
I was lazy at this time, and I just wired the "information" wire, no connection between GND or power.

Thank's everyone for your help !
I now have a better GND system, with all the power supply tied together, so it's a good thing, it will probably prevent others problems.