# Episode 163 - The Shutter **Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2015-08-21 **Duration:** 11m 52s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-163-the-shutter --- ## Analysis Nicholas Backbone discusses the shutter mechanism in bingo pinball machines, explaining its construction, function, and common maintenance issues. The shutter is an MDF board that slides to cover trap holes and is controlled by a shutter motor with cams and switches. Key problems include switch damage during playfield lifting and misalignment during reassembly, which can cause balls to become magnetized. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] The shutter board covers all 25 holes in a 25-hole game and all 20 holes in a 20-hole game, with a separate ball return hole at the bottom — _Nicholas Backbone, explaining shutter design in bingo machines_ - [HIGH] When the ball gate opens during play, it triggers a switch that closes the shutter — _Nicholas Backbone, describing gameplay mechanics specific to bingo vs flipper EM games_ - [HIGH] Misaligning the shutter board guides can cause balls to sink lower on one side and become magnetized by metal underneath the playfield — _Nicholas Backbone, describing personal troubleshooting experience with magnetized bingo balls_ - [HIGH] Some bingo games allow players to drop trapped balls back into the trough and retry by pressing a button, with the shutter moving side-to-side to enable this — _Nicholas Backbone, discussing variant shutter mechanisms in some bingo games_ - [HIGH] The shutter motor contains several cams similar to control units or mixers, with switch states changing based on open/closed position — _Nicholas Backbone, technical explanation of shutter motor components_ ### Notable Quotes > "I find I do my best schematic reading after midnight. Not really." > — **Nicholas Backbone**, ~0:30 > _Self-deprecating humor about his troubleshooting process for the Nightclub machine_ > "The shutter is open and what it's doing, it's pressing against a relay inside. It's actually actuating the relay just by being in the open position. This tells the game that, in fact, the shutter is open and it blocks you from doing certain things that you shouldn't be able to do while the game is not actually in play." > — **Nicholas Backbone**, ~3:00 > _Key technical explanation of how the shutter controls game state through relay actuation_ > "I think that it would be considerable fun to be able to shoot most of a game and then realize that you're terrible, like I am, and then press a button and bring the balls back to you and try again." > — **Nicholas Backbone**, ~6:30 > _Commentary on the appeal of side-to-side movable shutter games that allow mid-game ball recovery_ > "I had the top guides only on one side. So it made it so that the ball would sink lower on one side, and it happened to be closer to all the metal, which sits underneath. And electricity ran through, and electricity can magnetize things." > — **Nicholas Backbone**, ~10:00 > _Root cause analysis of magnetized ball problem, demonstrating practical troubleshooting lesson_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Nicholas Backbone | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast, expert in bingo and EM pinball restoration and technical operation | | Tee'd Off | person | Co-host or recurring guest on For Amusement Only podcast | | Taylor | person | Podcaster who started This Flippin' Podcast with Tommy | | Tommy | person | Podcaster who started This Flippin' Podcast with Taylor | | Mark Cross | person | Referenced in podcast as someone who becomes cross-eyed during late-night activities | | Nightclub | game | Bingo pinball machine being restored by Nicholas Backbone; shutter motor controls circuits causing problems | | For Amusement Only | organization | Podcast focused on EM and bingo pinball, hosted by Nicholas Backbone | | This Flippin' Podcast | organization | New podcast started by Taylor and Tommy, promoted in this episode | | Bally | company | Pinball manufacturer that designed reinforcing brackets around shutter motor switches on their bingo machines | ### Topics - **Primary:** Shutter mechanism design and function, Bingo pinball machine construction, EM machine troubleshooting and repair, Shutter motor cams and switches, Common shutter maintenance problems - **Secondary:** Differences between bingo and flipper EM games, Ball magnetization issues ### Sentiment **Neutral** (0.5) — Technical educational content presented in a straightforward manner with light self-deprecating humor. Neutral tone focused on mechanical explanation rather than opinion or advocacy. Some enthusiasm when discussing variant shutter mechanisms that allow ball recovery. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Nicholas Backbone promotes fellow podcasters Taylor and Tommy's new podcast 'This Flippin' Podcast' during episode, indicating community support and cross-promotion within pinball podcast ecosystem (confidence: high) — Introduction and recommendation of 'This Flippin' Podcast' launched August 20, 2015 --- ## Transcript what's that sound it's for amusement only the em and bingo pinball podcast welcome back to for amusement only this is Nicholas Baldridge so before we get started tonight i wanted to give a shout out to some fellow podcasters taylor and tommy have started their own podcast called This Flippin' Podcast. Their initial episode is up as of today, August 20th, 2015. Definitely go check it out. So, last night after I recorded the podcast, I took a look at the schematic. I find I do my best schematic reading after midnight. Not really. So before I went cross-eyed and had to go to sleep, I did take a look, and actually the circuits which were causing me problems in the nightclub are pretty much all controlled from the shutter motor, as I speculated. so the good news is once I get a shutter motor in there and a shutter, the game is pretty much going to work after I get those switches cleaned and adjusted so I am pretty excited about that so for today's topic I wanted to talk a bit more about the construction of a bingo in general. So I've talked about the ball trough, extolled the virtues of the bingo ball trough. I've talked a bit about what's attached to the top side of the playfield. But I haven't really talked about what's underneath the playfield. So, what's underneath is actually fairly interesting. So, for tonight's, I'm going to be talking about the shutter, which I have probably glazed over a couple times in a couple different episodes, but let's talk about it in fine, minute detail tonight. the shutter is essentially the little piece of MDF that slides and covers part of the holes that the balls can fall into the trap holes in 25 hole game it got to cover all 25 of them in 20 hole game it covers all 20 of them But there is an extra hole down at the bottom called the ball return This goes directly back into the trough and will cause the game to feed it back up into the shooter lane. So the shutter board starts out in the closed position. As you approach a bingo, it's going to be closed. When you turn it on, it will remain closed as the game displays tilt. when you drop in your first quarter, nickel, dime, whatever denomination the game has, or you just flip the coin switch because you have the keys, what will happen first is that you will see the game resetting to the default position. The back glass will flash all the different positions in the same way that it does normally. and then you'll see the shutter motor kick in. You won't see the motor, of course. That's underneath the play field, but what you will see is the shutter board move and then all of the bingo balls will drop. What you're not seeing is actually fairly interesting. At this point in the game, the shutter is open and what it's doing, it's pressing against a relay inside. It's actually actuating the relay just by being in the open position. This tells the game that, in fact, the shutter is open and it blocks you from doing certain things that you shouldn't be able to do while the game is not actually in play. So, aside from that, you have the shutter motor, which actually moves this board. And it contains several cams, just like the control unit or the mixer. and the state of those switches is going to be different depending on if the shutter is open or closed. This again controls game state in a variety of ways, such as in my nightclub, where it's stopping many things from happening. So how does the shutter move? during gameplay. How does the game know that it needs to close the shutter? This is one of the interesting things about a bingo which is different from most flipper EM games. Not all, but most There is a switch inside the ball gate When the ball gate opens it changes the state of that switch And when the state of that switch is changed, it's going to close the shutter. It sends a signal to the shutter to close. Now, from outside appearances, it may seem like, and I've certainly made this mistake in my head that that switch also will step up the timer. That's not the case. It will, however, trip out any trip relay that's associated with a particular ball being shot. But we're not talking about that right now. We're talking about shutters. So you shoot your first ball, and because of that switch in the ball gate, the shutter moves back to a closed position. It will remain in that closed position until you press the red button to start a new game. Or, in some games, there's an ability to drop some of the trapped balls back into the trough and bring them back into play to allow you another attempt at getting the numbers that you actually want to make. In these games, the shutter is movable side to side. That's a pretty ingenious little mechanism, and I think it's really pretty neat looking underneath. I've never played one of these games, but I really would like to try, because I think that it would be considerable fun to be able to shoot most of a game and then realize that you're terrible, like I am, and then press a button and bring the balls back to you and try again. I think that that's pretty cool. So, other than that, there's really nothing else that the Shudder does. I will tell you some common problems with the shutter. Of course, there's the shutter motor cams and switches. When you lift the playfield, it's very easy for these switches to get caught. Bally built a little reinforcing bracket around it so that you wouldn't just completely destroy every switch attached to the shutter motor. but that's not going to stop you from doing some damage if you're not gentle when you move the playfield in and out of position and the reason why will become apparent in my next episode but for tonight just remember that Um the other problems with the shutter are that uh you can misalign the shutter board Uh if you take it apart to clean for example, when you reassemble, it's very important that all the pieces fit, uh, within the ball guides, or not ball guides, the shutter guides. There's these metal brackets which sit underneath the playfield or screwed to it, which allow the shutter board to move forth and back. If one of those is misaligned or worse, you don't actually put the shutter board in properly. Not that I've ever done that. Yes, I've actually done this. And what that does is it makes it so that it's very easy for the balls to become magnetized when they drop in a particular hole. I have had this happen, and it was incredibly infuriating, and I could not figure out why. And these are the magnet-resisting bingo pinballs, not the standard ones either, And so they were not cheap. And I really wanted to figure out what was causing the problem here because they shouldn't be able to be magnetized easily. So eventually I found out that I had the top guides only in on one side. So it made it so that the ball would sink lower on one side, and it happened to be closer to all the metal, which sits underneath. And electricity ran through, and electricity can magnetize things. So that's a good lesson to learn. Pay attention. But other than that, the shutter is pretty self-explanatory. where it either opens and lets the balls out, or it shuts and doesn't. So that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us in oh-so-many ways on Stitcher, Pocket Casts, iTunes, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can follow me on Instagram at nbaldrich. Or you can listen to us on our website, which is foramusementonly.libson.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 8e806cb5-64ee-4f7d-97f6-21fcf69ecd0e*