We offer by contract the following services:
  • Digital Electronics design for pinball and gaming machines
  • Low level software programming, in C for Arduino and Raspberry Pi environments
  • Project Management Services for software development in general
  • Project Management Services for hardware development in general

Please contact rolando.martin@martinpinball.com for more details or enter your inquiry in the CONTACT US section.

After our success at the Pinball Expo 2021, we have been re-organizing our offer of products.

Based on the Martin Architecture for Pinball Control (MAPIC), we offer several kinds of electronic products for the homebrewer and the manufacturer:

We have also in the roadmap for 2022 the following products based on cold cast epoxy technology to compete with expensive metal-based products:

  • Low-cost bumper infrastructure (Infrastructure – parts that go under the playfield)
  • Low-cost drop target mechanisms
  • Low-cost Ball locks and throughs
  • Hole mechanisms
  • Solenoids

MAPIC technology

The Martin Architecture for Pinball Control (MAPIC) succeeds in providing an affordable architecture for controlling complex pinball machines that is easy to understand, implement and program.

The architecture is based on a distributed and modular network of peripherals that control solenoids and RGB leds. Each peripheral board (RESCOs) is controlled by an Arduino-like board (currently based on Arduino Mini, but future versions would be based on ESP-32), that is easy to interface and program. Basic firmware is already provided for this board, so the brewer or manufacturer would no need to have he need to program the module.

The RESCO peripheral boards have the capacity to control up to four high current solenoids, and a chain of 2812b LED boards.  Each LED board is provided with a default of 3 LEDs 2812s, but more LEDs can be made available if necessary.

In addition to the 4 solenoids, the board also provides 4 pins to configure an I2C address to communicate with the hardware and event interface board (HEIB). The physical wiring for carrying the I2C signals is implemented using twisted pairs and RJ45 connectors for easy connectivity.

The RESCO also includes input pins, that are using as immediate control (such as auto-fire sensors) or can provide external indications to the firmware.

The HEIB also interfaces with RESIBs, that are just sets of 8 3-pin connectors carrying +5, GND and signal and are to be connected directed to the optical sensors used by the set-up.

A typical MAPIC implementation for a game control looks like this:

An implementation example

To understand what is achievable with his technology, we put together a capability demonstrator. In the pinball Expo 2021 in Chicago, we demonstrated a whole Black Knight 1980 constructed using 3D printed parts, cold cast epoxy, optical sensors, and the MAPIC Technology framework.

These are videos of the machine