BAYFIELD – Pinball machines always fascinated Edward Herrera.
The Bayfield High School engineering student – who likes the sound of hitting the ball and watching it travel up and down the playfield – learned about the mechanisms involved from conversations with his father, Bill, who grew up playing pinball in Southern California during the 1980s.
“He used to play anywhere he could,” Herrera said. “He used to talk about how even in the local gas stations, they used to just have pinball machines that he would play every single time. Or (if) they had it in a restaurant, he would play there. … The main thing he likes is the competitiveness of it, getting up all those points.”
Bill always wanted a pinball machine of his own, inspiring Edward to construct one as part of his 2024-25 capstone project he plans to gift to his father upon completion.
For the design, Herrera said he’s leaning toward a theme highlighting Colorado’s two major interstates in I-25 and I-70, equipped with features like a “do not enter” sign and cones for the drop targets. He said the fact that the state has two major interstates that run end to end throughout interested him.
The capstone projects focus on mechanical and electrical engineering and allows students to dive into something that is of particular interest to them, all while navigating through potential time and resource constraints that may accompany taking on such projects.
Herrera wanted to dive deeper into learning about the sensors that come with a microcontroller and help build the machine, according to BHS engineering instructor Brian McDonagh.
“It captured his imagination,” McDonagh said. “Once he had an idea about the aesthetics and size, then he went ahead and started looking at how he might program it.”
Assessing things like how springs, motors, flippers and the bottom ramp angle on the pinball machine would work, Herrera spent time designing what it’d look like.
There was certainly some trial and error.
Herrera, who started building his pinball machine in August and expects to complete it this upcoming May, said the process itself is time-consuming because the modular design entails emphasizing each individual part, then repeatedly tweaking that design and testing those parts.
For example, he added the flippers at the bottom of the pinball machine – which is about 900 millimeters in length, 600 millimeters in width and 300-350 millimeters in height – and constantly repositions them upward or to the sides a bit so they fit correctly and that the ball’s path back down is not obstructed and eventually makes its way back to the return mechanism.
“I asked (my father) a lot about the flippers and how that should work,” he said.
Herrera said getting that ramp design just right was challenging.
“(The first design) would go a little bit higher, which led to a more flat angle that didn’t work. I tried an arc angle, and that didn’t work,” he said.
He also had make a hole in the bottom right corner to move that return mechanism – which he admitted was a bit “buggy” at first – down slightly, so that the ramp travels a bit more downward for the ball to return to its launch point. The ball would launch toward two drop targets in the upper left corner, scoring points for players.
“I think it took me about two weeks just to get this ramp working,” he said.
Herrera’s also adding some side guardrails to prevent the ball from getting lodged into gaps located in the bottom corners upon its descent.
Still, some of the design was done purposefully to offer players a challenge.
The gap between the flippers is a bit wider – enough for two pinballs to go through – to get players to react to hitting the ball more quickly, Herrera said.
The way his project is taking shape, Herrera is confident his father will be pleased with the end product.
“Given the circumstances, like the limitations I’m given, this will make him proud,” he said.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
