fischertechnik community forum

Hi everyone, (Deutsche Übersetzung unten) So here it is: After more than four months designing, building and coding, dozens of failed attempts and tests, meters and meters of wire, solder and double sided tape and a couple of smoked modules... my fischertechnik-based pinball table! Overall view 3-2....

Hi Karl,

Looks great, congratulations!

@Rudi,

Thanks! I'll just be careful not to take so many months to publish the video of my next model!

Best,

Rubem

Hi everyone,

After all these months I have finally published the video of the bridge model on YouTube! Here is the link: https://youtu.be/xd23-nzO0bA

Enjoy,

Rubem

Hi Frans,

Looks nice as always, your detailed photos with labels are always a pleasure to look at. I look forward to the finished model (or models)!

Best regards

Rubem

Hi again, So in the end I've purchased a very cheap (about €4.30) DFPlayer clone and, after some code tweaks, finally my project can enjoy any number of high quality sounds with a decent volume. That's bye-bye for the ft sound modules, unfortunately. The DFPlayer comes with a SD card slot, USB pins ...

Hi MoG, You could open the sensor and have a look at the PCB inside. It may carry a vendor name or the like. Good idea. Actually I already kinda tried to pry it open but it doesn't come off that easily ;) I don't want to break anything... I don't really know if there is some method to safely open th...

Hello Frank, I am curious about your pinball machine, when it is finished. Then please post a photo here. Sure. There are still quite a few things remaining, it's a very complex project. I'll certainly create a new topic about it (with pictures, of course) when it's finished. Thanks for your interes...

Hi Frank, Rubem, why do you need color detection in a pinball game ? Are there any colored balls No, not really. I use regular 12.7 mm steel balls that are identical to the ones that come with the Electropneumatics kit. The color sensors (which are in fact luminosity sensors) are used only to detect...

Hi Holger, Hallo... There are rules for toys, that they are not to much loud fore the childrens ears. Of course, that makes sense. I think that the only way ist, to make a amplify load file and then transfer it to the module. Or modify it, like a extern booster with the signal from the sorce. Hehe, ...

Hi Stefan and Holger, Hmmm... Okay, so if you are both recommending alternatives I must conclude that these problems are inherent to the original ft modules. Anyway, if there are any tricks that can be used to improve their sound I'd still like to know, I'm not sure I'll change them at this point. T...

Hi everyone, I'm starting to use the Sound+Lights-Module for my pinball project, but there are three problems with it: - The sound quality is too bad. - The sound volume is too low. - There is a very audible "click" when the sound finishes playing. Do you guys have any experience with it? I know @Di...

Hi Frank, Thanks for your suggestion. I can't say much about this particular sensor because unfortunately I don't have one. I do have an APDS-9960: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/apds-9960-rgb-and-gesture-sensor-hookup-guide. It is an ambient light and RGB sensor with gesture and motion sensin...

Hi again, No ideas about this sensor yet? Well, I decided to make some quick tests with the two different sensors and got some interesting results. Here is my test setup, where you can already see a few parts of the pinball table I'm building: test setup.jpg The sensors are driven by a 9 V power sou...

Hi all, I already had an ft color sensor and I ordered a second one from the same seller. This seller has semi-new fischertechnik parts from old schools stock, but she doesn't know much about the parts themselves. I noticed that the LED and the phototransistor/photodiode look different from what the...

Hi all, @Geometer, I never saw the NL Club article, but your description was clear enough. My caliper shows that the outside diameter of a standard 3 mm washer is exactly 7 mm, so I ended up with this: Hub and washer.jpg This is really a great idea, it can't slip this way. Another anti-slip option w...

Hi, A STEM company called Edventures sells some custom kits that include fischertechnik components, and they include an interesting pair of ball casters: RiQ kit.png The BOM states it includes "high quality swivels with steel balls" under the "fischertechnik" header. I'm not aware of these parts, ar...

Hi,

Wow! Really looks beautiful, great work! Looks perfectly retro to my eyes. Maybe our nice friends at ft take some ideas from this thread... Some old-fashioned stickers with the original logo would really be a great (and inexpensive) addition to any retro kit!

Warmest regards,

Rube,

Hello Holger, I'm glad you found the SVG useful. But please check again, there are no embedded JPEGs on this file whatsoever, it's 100% vector-based. As for the double-grouping, that's what Affinity Designer does when exporting. I would have also exported the logo as EPS and without the "R" mark rig...

Hello again, I'm back with a follow-up: I've given up on pneumatics for my pinball project. :o I've replaced the valves and cylinders with push-pull 6V solenoids (model JF-0530B) controlled by a simple Arduino program. The solenoids are very compact (the body measures 30 x 15 x 14 mm, so they fit pe...