6.8 - How do flippers work? (Pinball Technically Speaking)
Description
This article is from the General Pinball FAQ, by Keith Johnson keefer@access.digex.net with numerous contributions by others.
6.8 - How do flippers work? (Pinball Technically Speaking)
The flipper mechanisms differ from company to company - that's one of the
reasons why games from different manufacturers tend to have different "feels"
to them, and probably the biggest one.
Williams/Bally - On an older machine (pre-Addams Family), when you press the
flipper button, the current flows through only a portion of the flipper coil,
generating a high magnetic field that forces the flipper up with a lot of
power. When the flipper is all the way up, the end of stroke switch (EOSS)
opens, and the current now much flow through the entire coil. This creates a
lower magnetic field, which holds the flipper up without burning out the coil
(the high current would do this very quickly). A newer Williams/Bally
machine uses two coils, one for high power and the other for low power, and
uses the EOSS to switch off the high-power coil. If the EOSS breaks, the
flipper will operate on a timing setup similar to the Data East one (see
below). Williams calls this setup "FlipTronic II".
Data East - On a pre-Jurassic Park DE, there are two current inputs, one at
50 volts DC and the other at 8VDC, and no EOSS. When you press the flipper
button, the higher current activates to fire the flipper, and then a timer
will switch to the lower current to hold the flipper up. This setup is
called a "Solid State Flipper." A newer DE appears to use a setup similar to
the "old" Willaims/Bally flippers (any new info appreciated!).
Gottlieb - Gottliebs' use a single coil with an EOSS. There are three inputs
to the coil, with a diode across the outside two. The diode is there to help
the magnetic field that the coil produces collapse more quickly when the coil
is de-energized, thus saving wear and tear and decreasing the flipper reset
time.
Alvin G. - The coil is very similar to older Williams' games (around
Millionaire era). The mechanism is flipper/link assembly like Williams, but
the flipper pawl is like the new Gottliebs (two hex screws lock the flipper
shaft in place). This may actually be quite similar to the current Gottlieb
system.
-- Info originally appeared in Dave Hollinsworth's <ad836@osfn.rhilinet.gov>
Playingtips guide.
-- Thanks to John Gantert <gantertj@vitro.com> for information.
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