3 comments on “Using Optos For Your Homebrew Pinball Machine

  1. Great info, Scott! Are the otpotransmitter and receiver the same ones used on the pinballlife scoop assemblies as well? It also might be helpful to add marking information for those assemblies (i.e. connection back from the schematics drawn to the E, C, A, and K on the assemblies). The first side I saw was A/K and I got confused what it was actually looking for. I’m just used to silk screen lines indicating cathode and I think others might be confused as well.

    But great info! I found this with a google search and I didn’t realize you had some of this design information on your site as well. I’ll have to look around more. Thanks!

  2. Thanks Scott, this is very helpful!

    The only question I have is how would you wire multiple optos?
    Say your pin had a total of 6 optos, would you connect them in parallel using a 5v supply (6 resistors in total), or in series with a 12v supply (1 resistor)?
    I used the LED series/parallel calculator to find the resistor values for each scenario, I’m just wondering whether one is preferable over the other?

    • Hey Aaron,
      For this, you would have 1 resistor per opto. You can use some online calculators to run multiple optos from 1 resistor, but that is just a design choice, but just be sure your resistor can handle the wattage that is required. 🙂 Hope that answers your question. Thank you,
      –Scott

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