3.2 - How does tilt work, anyway? (Playing Pinball)
Description
This article is from the General Pinball FAQ, by Keith Johnson keefer@access.digex.net with numerous contributions by others.
3.2 - How does tilt work, anyway? (Playing Pinball)
The main tilt sensor that you are probably familiar with (the one that gives
you warnings and ends your ball if you move the game too much to the side or
back and forth) is a ring on the side of the cabinet. In the middle of the
ring is a rod that hangs above. Attached to the bottom of the rod is a
weight (which can be adjusted in height). The end result is a pendulum that
swings about as the machine gets moved. When the bob (or the rod if the bob
is missing for some reason) touches the ring, you set off the tilt sensor for
a warning or a tilt. Most games give you 2 warnings before actually tilting
(which basically means you lose your ball - the flippers go dead, nothing
else registers a hit, and you lose any bonus you had). Data East games only
default to 1 warning at the moment. There are other tilt switches, too. One
is a ball on a shallow rail to detect if the game is being picked up at the
front end or not. This may or may not immediately tilt your ball, or worse
slam tilt your game.
*** ROUGH ASCII DRAWING ALERT! ***
|
|
|
|
| <-------- metal rod
|
|
|
-
/ \
| |
/ \
---+-----+--- <- ring
/ \
| | <---- pendulum bob
/ \
---------
|
|
"Side view of a tilt mechanism"
The lower the bob is on the rod, the less sensitive the game is. The higher
up, the more sensitive, since the edge of the bob will getting closer and
closer to the ring (due to the slope of the bob).
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