12. I/O Controllers

This is an open source project that can handle all of the I/O controller functions with a single device. The main hardware required is a KL25Z, which is a $15 microcontroller that comes fully assembled and ready to use. By itself, the KL25Z can handle button input and nudging (it has an excellent built-in accelerometer). Plunger input and feedback device control require additional hardware that's described later in this Build Guide. The Pinscape software does just about everything the various single-function commercial devices do, with some added bells and whistles of its own. It includes fully assignable button inputs (using keyboard keys and/or joystick buttons), a "shift button" feature, LedWiz emulation for universal software compatibility, "night mode", high-precision nudge input, high-precision plunger input, and numerous other features. It's highly configurable via its setup program (which runs on Windows, and is free and open-source), and the firmware itself is open-source, so you're free to customize it if you need to do anything beyond what the configuration options allow, or if you want to add whole new features. The firmware includes built-in support for several types of plunger sensor technologies, so you have a choice of different plunger setups.

The standalone KL25Z can handle button, nudge, and plunger input with little more work than attaching wires. It gets a little more complicated if you want to use it with feedback devices, because it needs some additional electronics to do that, as explained in Pinscape Outputs Setup (Standalone KL25Z).

This is an extension of the basic Pinscape Controller project that adds a set of circuit boards, primarily to provide more feedback device outputs. The boards make it possible to control a much larger number of feedback devices than the KL25Z can control on its own. The boards also provide built-in handling for high-power devices, so that you can connect things like motors, solenoids, replay knockers, fans, and flashers without any additional booster circuits. The hardware design is open-source, so you can build everything yourself from components, which add up to about $100 for a full-featured build. You can also opt to build only sections of the boards if you only need a subset of the features, which reduces the cost accordingly.

This kit comes with the control board and plunger sensor that attaches to a standard pinball plunger (available separately for about $30). In addition to plunger input, Zeb's kit also handles nudging via an on-board accelerometer, and provides key encoding for up to 20 buttons (with fixed key mappings). Zeb's plunger gets the best user reviews of the commercial plunger options. It uses a high-precision sensor for the plunger that provides realistic plunger motion in the pinball simulation.

The VirtuaPin kit comes with a control board and plunger sensor, and optionally includes the physical plunger assembly. Like other commercial plunger kits, the VP kit is very easy to set up, with little assembly required beyond attaching the sensor to the plunger. The control board has an excellent on-board accelerometer for nudge sensing, and has wiring for up to 16 button inputs. Button inputs are hard-coded as joystick buttons and can't be assigned to keyboard keys. If you're picky about realism in the plunger, be aware that this kit uses an IR proximity sensor to detect plunger position, and these sensors have relatively poor distance resolution. Some users have reported that the plunger animation can be choppy.

The i-Pac devices are full-featured key encoders. Their target market is video game cabinet builders, but they work equally well for virtual pinball, since the needs are basically the same. Buttons are fully assignable (via a setup program on the PC) to keyboard keys and joystick buttons. The devices have a "shift button" feature that lets you assign two meanings to each physical button by holding down a designated shift button to activate the second meaning.

This is a hybrid of the i-Pac and PacLED devices that provides button input encoding and feedback device control. The key encoder features are just like the i-Pac devices, with 48 button inputs. The feedback output controller is designed specifically for attaching 32 small (20mA) RGB LEDs. For a virtual pinball cabinet, you'll want to attach other devices that require higher power, so you'll need external booster circuitry, such as Zeb's booster board. One warning: as of this writing, this device's output controller feature isn't as well supported in the standard virtual pinball software as the LedWiz and PacLed devices, so you might encounter some difficulty setting up the software to take advantage of it. The button input feature will work seamlessly, though.

The LedWiz was the first output controller widely adopted among virtual pinball cabinet builders, and as a result, it's the most universally supported option. This device is aimed at video game cabinet builders, so it was designed especially for controlling LEDs (thus the name), but it's not limited to LEDs. It can control just about any type of device. The caveat is that it has a low limit on how much current it can control per device (500mA), so you can't connect high-power devices directly. You can work around that by adding an external booster board to increase its power limits. That 500mA limit is adequate for most types of lights, including flasher LEDs and button lamps. A booster is needed for most mechanical devices, like knockers, motors, and solenoids.

This device is well supported by the newer open-source pinball software systems (including Visual Pinball and PinballX), but it's not as compatible with older systems like Future Pinball as the LedWiz is. It provides 64 outputs for small LEDs. Like the LedWiz, this device was designed for video game cabinet builders, but its power handling is even more limited and isn't sufficient for high-powered lights like flashers and strobes. So you'll need to combine this with a booster board for almost anything in a virtual pinball cabinet.

SainSmart makes USB-controlled relay board with 8 relay outputs. Software on the PC can send USB commands to turn attached devices on and off through relay switches. The relays can be used to control devices that use high power levels, so they're good for devices like solenoids, contactors, and replay knockers. However, these boards aren't a good choice for lighting devices, since relays on simple on/off switches and thus can't control brightness. For lights (especially flashers and button lights), you'll want to be able to control the intensity level of each output. The other slight disadvantage of relays is that they add a small lag time for switching devices on and off, which can make the device response slightly out of sync with the game action. Most people don't find this noticeable, though.

Warning! DOF is currently only compatible with the 8-relay Sainsmart boards. Sainsmart makes the boards in different sizes, from 4 to 16 channels, but DOF only works with the 8-relay version.

Warning! There seem to be some no-brand devices out there that look ridiculously similar to the Sainsmarts, with the same blue lays laid out the same way, but which aren't compatible at the software level. That means they won't work with the existing pinball software, unless you can do some additional programming to add support yourself. I'd avoid look-alike boards that aren't clearly branded as Sainsmart products.

This board lets boost the power from 16 outputs on an LedWiz or PacLed output controller. The booster board itself isn't an output controller, so you can't use it alone; it has to be used in conjunction with one of the output controllers. The booster board raises the power level on 16 of the output controller's ports to 6A, which is enough to control anything in a pin cab, including high-power devices like replay knockers, shaker motors, gear motors, fans, beacons, and solenoids. If you need more than 16 boosted ports, you can add more of these boards to boost an additional 16 ports per board.

These boards are similar to the SainSmart USB relay boards, but they're not controlled by USB. Instead, they're controlled by individual inputs to the relays. You can connect the relay control inputs to the output ports of an LedWiz or PacLed unit to boost the power handling capability of the controller via the relays. You can then attach a high-power device, such as a replay knocker or solenoid, to the relay. The controller unit will switch the relay on and off, and the relay will in turn switch your high-power device on and off. This is a simple way to boost the power handling of an LedWiz or PacLed unit. Note that the relay switching adds a small amount of lag time, which can make the feedback response slightly out of sync with the game action, although most people who have set these up don't find this to be noticeable.

These kits offer turnkey feedback setups that include not only the output controller device but also all of the feedback devices themselves, all fully assembled and wired. Everything comes pre-mounted to a couple of modular panels for easy installation in a cabinet.