Fun With Pinball
Switches and Electric Current
Early pinball machines were entirely mechanical games, powered only by gravity, springs and plungers pushed by the players to move the ball around the playfield. In the 1930s, simple electrical devices like light bulbs and kickers were added to pinball machines. Eventually, electrical devices were used to manipulate the ball, keep score, make sounds and define the rules of the game. These games are known as electromechanical pinball machines.
Electric current allows precise control of the various devices by turning them on and off at the appropriate times. When electric current flows through a device it delivers the energy that the device needs to do the work it was designed to do (e.g. turn on a light bulb, pull in a plunger, turn a motor, etc.). Switches are used to control when electric current is allowed to flow through each device in an electromechanical pinball machine.
Controlling electric current
Electric current only flows through a circuit if it can flow through a loop. In other words, electric current only flows if there is a path that leads from a starting point in a circuit through a loop in the circuit and back to the starting point. A switch is a simple device that controls whether or not electric current can flow through it. An example would be a flashlight with just a battery, a switch and a light bulb:
Flash light offOpen circuit, no current flows
Flash light onClosed circuit, current flows
When the switch is open (as shown on the left) electric current cannot flow completely around the circuit because it cannot pass through the switch. Only when the switch is closed (as shown on the right) can electric current flow completely around the circuit and light the bulb. On a flashlight, the switch tells the circuit that someone pushed the button so it's time to turn on the bulb.
Types of switches in electromechanical pinball machines
Switches used in pinball machines are often made with two or more stiff metal blades held apart by a small stack of insulators. Near the end of each blade is a contact where the electric current passes from one blade to another when the contacts touch each other. Switches are opened and closed mechanically by the player, or the ball, or by various devices in the game like relays.
Normally open switchNo current can flow through the switch
Normally closed switchCurrent can flow through the switch
Two switchesA make/break switch and a normally closed switch
These photos show:
- a normally open switch mounted below the playfield.
- a normally closed switch mounted to a pop bumper.
- a switch stack mounted to a stepper where the lower switch is normally closed, and the upper switch with three blades is called a make/break switch. In a make/break switch the middle blade switches back and forth between touching the two outer blades. It behaves like a normally open switch and a normally closed switch combined into one switch.
Switches control the pinball machine
In a pinball machine, switches tell the circuits most of what they need to know about what is going on in the game. Switches are mounted on the playfield to detect when the ball hits each target, behind the flipper buttons to know when to fire the flippers, and on most of the hidden devices to tell the circuits what else is going on in the game. In each case, the switch allows electric current to flow, or stops it from flowing, so the relevant circuit can do, or stop doing something. For example when a target on the playfield is hit, the switch behind it closes briefly which allows electric current to flow through the circuits that add a point to the score reel. The video below demonstrates a few different switches.
Find patent information about switch stacks on the Patents page, and more background information about other pinball machine devices is on the Things to Learn page.