Car RamRod

1
Car RamRod

• Bringing Pinball Into the Future!

Brian Arment, Ryan Hunter, Aaron Shoaf
2
Williams Touchdown

• Originally Produced November of 1967
• Electromechanical
• Solenoid and relay driven
• No solid-state devices
• Not in working order

3
Original Internals
Relays and solenoids controlling game play
Relays and solenoids controlling scoring
4
Inspiration

• Newer machines use solid state devices such as
  those in the more modern machine at right.
• We will not be mimicking the design but will use
  the same basic idea in modernizing our old
  machine.

5
Outline

• Micro-Controller and Board
• Driver/Step-up Board
• Playfield Interaction
• A/V Controller
• Display
• Audio

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Overview
User Input
Driver Board
Micro-controller
Playfield
25 Vac
6 Vac
A/V Controller
Display
Power Supply
5 VDC
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User Input

• Two Flipper Buttons
• Start
• Coin or Manual Operation
• MC 14043 Quad SR Latch De-bouncing

RF
LF
SB
CR
MC 14043
4 line bus to MCU
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Micro-Controller

• MC68HC11
• Handles interrupts for input from sensors on
  playfield and users.
• Controls light patterns, scoring, A/V state,
  game play options, game play state
• Handles control of driver board for fail-safe
  solenoid operation.

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Micro-Controller
Game Option Switches
MC68HC11
EPROM
Sensory Input
RAM
Driver Board
A/V Controller
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Driver Board

• Provides Necessary current and voltage for
  devices like
• Solenoids (flippers, pop-bumpers, kickers)
• Lamps (in playfield and lightbox)
• Nearly everything on the playboard uses it
• It is controlled directly by the MPU via logic
  level voltages

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Driver Board

• Needs and Complications
• Needs to step up from 3.3-5v DC to 6 or 24v
  rectified AC
• Make sure the flipper transistors used can handle
  up to 8 amps each
• Need to control around 15-20 different lamp
  circuits
• The pop-bumpers and kickout solenoids each need
  up to 3 amps.

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Driver Board
Logic-level input from MPU
Pull up resistors and latches
6/24V AC
Smaller BJTs (300 mA) for the lamps
Larger BJTs (3-8 amps) for the coils
To Solenoids
To Lamps
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Playfield (visible)

• A few stipulations for the upper playfield
• Want to keep the functionality as close to the
  original game as possible
• Want it to play a bit faster than the original
  (incline needs to be steeper)
• Possibly implement larger flippers
• Need to replace all rubber, lights
• Need to touch up paint and polish the board

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Playfield (underneath)

• A few stipulations for the lower playfield
• All the displayed electromechanical relays are
  replaced by solid state via the fore-mentioned
  driver board
• All aluminum wiring is removed and replaced with
  18-20 gauge copper wiring
• All contact switches are cleaned

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A/V Controller

• Contains two separate controllers
• DAC
• Has a file select input with data fed from the
  MPU
• Has internal storage of uncompressed WAVE or PCM
  files.
• DVC
• Reads the current score and points from data
  register
• Writes to individual LED panels

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A/V Controller
Current Score
Display Controller/Decoder -Probably an FPGA
-Could also be a ROM -Can display customs
graphics
Score Display
Points Display
LED Bar Graph
Play Select
Audio Controller -Several sound bits stored
in flash memory -A programmable ROM
selects the correct track -D/A converter
outputs RCA
Speaker System
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Display

• Since this is a restoration, try to keep the
  scoreboard looking the same
• Replace analog score and point tumblers with
  individual dot-matrix digital displays
• Replace mechanical football wheel with LED bar
  graph
• Use analog lamps for ball in play section

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Audio

• Two 4 inch car speakers
• Powered subwoofer
• Run off of A/V controller
• Speaker receives line level signal from A/V
  controller

A/V Controller
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Schedule
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Division of Labor

• Aaron Driver Board, Power Supply, MPU, Display,
  A/V controller, RAM
• Brian MPU board, A/V controller, Flash Memory,
  RAM, Line Bus (controllers), EPROM
• Ryan MPU, EPROM, Flash Memory, RAM, Display,
  Driver Board, Power Supply
• All Playfield - wiring, refurbishing, testing

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Risks and Contingency Plan

• A/V controller
• Implement set of beeps and bells for audio and
  toned down preprogrammed display art.
• Cosmetic restoration
• User Options
• 3 or 5 ball play
• coins / credit
• Free play
• Multi-ball

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Questions?
Ask them meow!