If you look closely at the pinball machine game TURCK Adventures, you can see the machine is controlled completely by TURCK I/O, connectors and cables.
Getting people to stop in your booth at a trade show can be challenging. That’s why at major shows that only happen every three years, such as CONEXPO/CONAGG and IFPE, most exhibitors really pull out all the stops to attract attention. TURCK is no different—the company’s featured item was a retro pinball machine, which was completely gutted and outfitted with all TURCK parts.
TURCK purchased the non-working Genie #435 pinball machine and stripped it down to the bare bones. Getting it operational again was simple—take everything but the original sound card and speaker out (keeping that helped preserve the vintage sound) and replace all the operational controls and functions with TURCK connectivity solutions.
Called TURCK Adventures, the game is controlled by a BL67 Programmable Gateway with Ethernet and a DeviceNet subnet. As part of this control, the BL67 has a total of 23 cards, including:
• 64 digital inputs, for playfield buttons and switches
• 72 digital outputs, for playfield lights, solenoids and flippers
• 2 analog inputs, for inclination to level the machine
• 1 RFID A, with function block for login to activate the machine
• 1 serial card
All connectivity, including connectors and cables, are TURCK brands as well. These connectivity solutions tie the I/O points to the BL67 as well as Ethernet.
The machine also features:
• Lower display light control via the DeviceNet subnet, with upper display light control Ethernet
• Sensors in place of whisker switches for ball detection
• Software programming by CoDeSys
• Coding automation to preserve original scoring and play
I’ve never been much of an arcade game nut, but it was still fun to play the game. My score wasn’t too high but I did learn something about TURCK’s products and had fun while doing so! That can’t be beat.
Turck Inc.
www.turck-usa.com
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