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Pinball Electrical 101


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I am going to check my house for secrect cameras cause I was only tinkering with a web page for it on the weekend Pixel! Wasn't think about a blogger site, but after checking out yours again, you have certainl planted the seed. :top:

Great, if i can help out just let me know !!

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Well my first day back at work and I was a busy boy. :D

I took up Pixels advice and have started a blog so the link on the first post now takes you there.

Dont expect it to be anywhere near as extensive as Pixels but I will see if I can drag some feedback out of the people that use the guide.

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guys, another question on the electric side, testing my basic electric knowledge.

I found me a psu that has seperate circuits... 1x +3.5V, 1x +5V, 4x +12V

I can use 2x +12V for all in and outputs, leaving me 2x +12V.

Now... if I put those in parallel on a terminal, should mean I also have +24V right??

Could be use for all other stuff that is using 24V?

just to be sure this is correct ;-)

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guys, another question on the electric side, testing my basic electric knowledge.

I found me a psu that has seperate circuits... 1x +3.5V, 1x +5V, 4x +12V

I can use 2x +12V for all in and outputs, leaving me 2x +12V.

Now... if I put those in parallel on a terminal, should mean I also have +24V right??

Could be use for all other stuff that is using 24V?

just to be sure this is correct ;-)

I would say: NO !

You need +12 and -12 together to make 24. Two times +12v is just 12v.

But to be sure, measure it !

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Pixel is right. But you have actually stated in your question why it wont become 24 volts.

When you wire any same voltage DC in Parallel, it will have the sum of both amperage available i.e. 2 x 10 amp rails in parallel will have 20 amp output.

When you wire any DC voltage in series , it will have the sum of thier volatges on thier output. i.e. Picture tells a better story here -

2x6VoltSeries.gif

Now while this works great with batteries, I dont think it will work with an ATX power supply.

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Anyway...back on topic.

The guide is coming along nicely. As someone who is spending more time getting their head around everything it is certainly a valuable reference.

The schematic is a brilliant touch showing how everything interconnects and communicates with LEDWIZ and the IPAC.

The only suggestions i've got for further enhancement would be to continue expansion on detail of the toys (contractors,knocker,wiper etc). Additional details for the newbie that would be useful would be their role in the grand scheme of things and maybe comments on positioning (eg contactor locations) and maybe include some install photo examples.

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The only suggestions i've got for further enhancement would be to continue expansion on detail of the toys (contractors,knocker,wiper etc). Additional details for the newbie that would be useful would be their role in the grand scheme of things and maybe comments on positioning (eg contactor locations) and maybe include some install photo examples.

:five:

+1

very good idea ;-)

help on nudging tools and what could be best to use would be very usefull too...

Edited by Shibbynator
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help on nudging tools and what could be best to use would be very usefull too...

Problem with nuding tools is that there is so many differnt types - mercury switch, plumb bob switch, Mot-tion board, Inverted gamepad...... etc

I have not tried a lot of these options so I certainly would not be able to say which was best. That is up to the individual, rather than my unproven opinion. In the end I decided to put in the plumb bob and merc switch wiring details, as the gamepad idea needs to have Gstav's threads read to understand how it works and config and the Mot-ion board is supported over at VPF, so I wouldn't want to step on Noahs toes.

I can probably add the links to the gamepad and Mot-ion threads if you think they may help?

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I agree! Rather than suggesting the best option I think references and links to the different options would benefit ppl in allowing them to pick a solution that best suits their budget,needs and capabilities. With permission of the appropriate forum 'experts' photos of installs would be great.

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indeed can follow this idea...

maybe it's a good idea if there is a solution that somebody has used that is not giving good results that those people give this feedback to prevent other people installing it wrongly??

giving budget ideas on each solution would indeed be helpfull too...

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ok guys another question.

I see a lot of pc psu's. Why not using one of these power outs of 12V for feeding ledwiz, ipac and all the other stuff?

most still have other psu's for feeding the tools? if this psu is strong enough, you should expect it to be able to be used for everything...

has this a reason why it's seperate??

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The idea is to protect your PC from damage should anything go wrong with your toys. A 12v power supply really isn't that expensive, and it may end up saving you a lot of money should something happen.

If you don't want to buy one, you could make your own out of an old PC power supply. I actually did that, because I ended up frying my first one when I accidentally wired it up to the 24v bank on my ledwiz. :banghead:

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ok guys another question.

I see a lot of pc psu's. Why not using one of these power outs of 12V for feeding ledwiz, ipac and all the other stuff?

most still have other psu's for feeding the tools? if this psu is strong enough, you should expect it to be able to be used for everything...

has this a reason why it's seperate??

It's strong enough for buttons, LED strobes, flashers and contactors, but when you run a gear motor and / or shaker it gets toasted. (speaking out of experience hehe)

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I personally wouldn't like to use the PSU connected to my PC for my toys. Some of the toys we use and Numiah pointed out can have some large current draw which would put a lot of strain on the PSU 12 volt rail, let alone some inductive loads that may give high voltage spikes back to the PSU and the rest of your PC.

But if you have a spare ATX power supply that you would like to use - here is the link on how to go about it.

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