Pick a pin, any pin...

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I've recently moved over to the AMF 90XL at the new centre I'm working in, having come from a Brunswick centre. There's obviously lots of differences, but basicly they all have to do the same job.

The one feature I feel I'm miss though is the ability to set up spares and splits automatically for our league bowlers during practice. I know that some of them miss it too when they visit from other centres.

The only way I can see of doing it would be to change the index cam on the distributor, putting in one with a different pattern printed on it. Does such a thing exist out there, different cams for different pin spotting set ups?

[8270king Tech of the Year 2009 Find all posts View Profile Close 8270king]

Re: Pick a pin, any pin...

You cousin is in Texas.

He will hopefully respond.

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[triac Members Find all posts View Profile Close triac]

Re: Pick a pin, any pin...

The biggest problem with your idea is that you would have to change the cam and pinion for every possible combination for that machine. This would take at least 5 minutes to do every time for every machine. Plus the 9 pin would have to be included in every combination to spot the pins. In addition, you would need a bazillion cams and pinions for every machine for every combo.

The only other way I see your idea to work is that you would need a computerized distributor with a DID interface and something to turn on and off the PW since its delivery is constant. Also it would have to actuate the bin switch to spot.


The idea that I came up with a long time ago (cant find the post) is to have all the respot cells driven individually by something like solenoids or servos. This setup would have to interface with the scoring, the bowlers consol and chassis logic.

The way it works is that the bowler pushes the combination they want. The machine cycles and respot cells for the desired combo would be the only ones that would close and the rest of the pins would be swept away. Then the machine would be put on 2nd ball.

By interfacing my idea with the scoring, only those pins that are read would need the corresponding RSC's to close, saving wear and tear on the RSC and driving components.

Triac

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Re: Pick a pin, any pin...

Thanks triac, your idea sounds similar to the brunswick method, where they use a solenoid and a couple of switches attached directly to the cups, and hooked up to the scoring.

Basicly, a switch tells you when the pin is loaded into the cup, and 2 levers close around the neck of the pin, then the table spots the pins for the first cycle and the solenoid opens the levers on the requested cups, taking the remaining pins back up.

Ofcourse I've now learnt that pins being left in the cups on the XL style table is not a very good idea.

I hadn't really thought that it would necessary to change the pinion aswell. I was thinking that the pattern on the cam could be altered alone and still keep everything in sync. Ideally then you could have a cam with pattern inserts, which could be swapped around for different set ups.

Still, that wouldn't solve the problem with the bin switch if the 9 pin wasn't selected. Also it wouldn't be tied into the scoring, which is a much better solution.

Lots to think about!