Thomas Fulenwider's CobraPin Controller Harnesses Two STM32s to Drive Your Pinball Machine

Engineer Thomas Fulenwider has launched a crowdfunding campaign to manufacture the CobraPin, a Mission Pinball Framework-compatible Open Pinball Project controller powered by a pair of STM32 boards.

"I have been repairing and restoring pinball machines for many years, but decided it was time to start designing my own machines," Fulenwider explains. "The first step was to design control electronics and use them in an old machine (1985 Gottlieb Tag Team) to test it out. The result is the CobraPin board! You too can use this board to control a pinball machine. The game logic can be programmed using the Mission Pinball Framework (MPF). MPF already supports the Open Pinball Project (OPP) upon which CobraPin is based."

"The Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) is a free open source software framework that allows people to write their own programs or rules for a pinball machine. Using the framework is much easier than programming a whole machine from scratch — even I can do it! CobraPin is designed for use with MPF and the pin numbering silkscreened on the board is even in the format that MPF expects."

Built around the Open Pinball Project firmware, itself developed via crowdfunding, the CobraPin boasts 24 high-power outputs with indicator LED for debugging, supports 512 WS2812 RGB LEDs across two strings, offers 38 direct switch inputs or 22 direct inputs plus an 8x8 matrix covering 64 additional inputs, and offers fusing and power filtering to protect the pinball machine.

What CobraPin doesn't offer is anything in the way of display or audio functionality. "CobraPin is hosted by a computer running Mission Pinball Framework (MPF)," Fulenwider notes. "That computer also handles sound and video output through MPF. So your scores and animations can be displayed on a monitor and your sound effects play through the computer. CobraPin doesn't need to do anything with sound or video."

The CobraPin is now up on Kickstarter, starting at $165 for a version without or $175 for a version with bundled mating connectors and crimps. Both are expected to begin shipping in May this year.