I just realized I made a terrible mistake with the EZSolenoid board I just purchased. It has no inputs. I'm using all the IO for outputs to the driver. Now I will have to either use only two solenoids per board and cut the traces that lead to the others, or use the thru-holes of the ATTiny85 to send discreet signals from an external MCU. I'll probably go with the latter. Oh well. I should have thought it through more before sending the gerbers to OSHpark.
On a lighter note, I tested out an unidentified mechanism last night. I'm not sure what it is. It reminds me of an escapement. Escapements are the devices in side clocks that only allow one tooth of a gear to move at a given time. In my industry, industrial automation, we use them on conveyors to release a single part into a machine. This device reminds me more of those. But why would something like this be used in pinball? I have only two possibilities I can think of. One: To gather multiple balls and release them as multi-ball all at once. Possible, but what would the point be of closing off the lane while releasing the multi-ball? Or Two: Placing between two similar lanes and blocking one lane while allowing balls to roll through the other. No matter the purpose it was originally intended for, I don't know if, or what I might use it for on Stargate Command. If anyone has any thoughts on what it might be, please let me know.
The mechanism has a double coil like the flippers do for holding. I'm not sure what happened with the holding coil. I did have it working last night after recording the video, but I didn't actually change any wiring. It seemed to suddenly start working. I'm wondering if maybe the armature needs to be all the way in the solenoid before trying to switch on the holding coil. It would make sense. I will have to test this out later.
