Pin-Level - The Ultimate Tool For Your Pinball Machine!

Cooltoy·video·8m 57s·analyzed·Nov 26, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

Pin-Level tool review: digital level measuring pitch/tilt simultaneously for easier pinball machine leveling.

Summary

Cooltoy reviews the Pin-Level, a digital leveling tool designed to simplify the pinball machine leveling process. The device measures pitch and tilt simultaneously via LCD display and companion mobile app, eliminating the need for repeated crawling under machines. The review demonstrates the tool's functionality on a Rick and Morty machine and highlights its multi-machine data storage capability.

Key Claims

Pin-Level measures pitch and tilt simultaneously, unlike traditional levels
high confidence · Cooltoy demonstrating the device's primary feature and comparing it directly to their previous digital level that only measures one dimension at a time
Pin-Level comes with a companion app for iPhone and Android that provides live data via Bluetooth
high confidence · Cooltoy showing the app pairing with the device and displaying real-time pitch/tilt readings while underneath the machine
The device can save settings for up to 10 different games, including measurements with the glass on
high confidence · Cooltoy demonstrating the save functionality for Rick and Morty and Monopoly machines, showing stored settings of 14.8/0.1 and 13.5/6 respectively
Pin-Level requires soldering one wired connection for the inline fuse during assembly
high confidence · Cooltoy explaining assembly process: 'Had to solder one wired connection uh which is basically the inline fuse there. Very simple to do.'
The device is powered by four rechargeable AA batteries
high confidence · Cooltoy: 'Powered by four AA batteries inside. Uh they are rechargeable ones. I don't recommend throwing normal batteries in there'

Notable Quotes

“this is a painstaking process leveling your pinball machine. Uh it's a bit tiresome, cumbersome, uh painful in some cases.”
Cooltoy@ 0:18 — Establishes the pain point that Pin-Level solves for the pinball community
“it measures pitch and tilt simultaneously. Um, that is not the case with traditional levels and hence why we're all probably accustomed to crawling underneath our machine, making leveling adjustments, crawling back under it, looking, did we make enough changes? No. Crawl back under it and doing that over and over again.”
Cooltoy@ 1:40 — Clearly articulates the key innovation that differentiates Pin-Level from existing tools
“If you're an operator or somebody that has multiple games in your collection and you're tired of crawling under the machines, this is definitely a back saver and a neck saver for sure.”
Cooltoy@ 7:59 — Identifies target market (operators and multi-machine collectors) and emphasizes ergonomic benefit
“If you're, you know, a one or two machine guy, this is probably going to be a little too expensive for you and honestly, probably not necessary.”
Cooltoy@ 8:06 — Honest assessment of product fit and market segmentation
“you can save my settings with the glass on. That way, we don't have to relevel this every time we want to make adjustments.”
Cooltoy@ 6:44 — Highlights practical convenience feature that saves time on repeat maintenance

Entities

CooltoypersonSpooky PinballcompanyRick and MortygameMonopolygamePin-LevelproductPinsideorganization

Signals

?
technology_signal: Pin-Level represents a significant innovation in pinball maintenance tools, combining simultaneous pitch/tilt measurement with mobile app integration to streamline a traditionally tedious process.
high · Cooltoy explicitly contrasts Pin-Level's simultaneous measurement against traditional digital levels that require separate pitch and tilt measurements, demonstrating concrete workflow improvement.
?
product_concern: Pin-Level requires soldering skills for assembly, which may present a barrier to entry for some buyers despite being described as simple.
high · Cooltoy states: 'had to solder one wired connection uh which is basically the inline fuse there. Very simple to do. If you don't know how to solder and you own pinball machines, that's kind of uh counterintuitive'
?
product_strategy: Pin-Level targets operators and multi-machine collectors rather than casual one-to-two machine owners, reflecting clear market positioning based on price and value proposition.
high · Cooltoy explicitly states tool is too expensive and unnecessary for one-to-two machine owners but valuable for operators and large collectors.
?
operational_signal: Pin-Level addresses a known pain point in pinball machine maintenance: the repetitive and physically uncomfortable leveling process, particularly relevant for operators managing multiple machines.
high · Cooltoy describes traditional leveling as 'painstaking,' 'tiresome,' 'cumbersome,' and 'painful,' and notes this tool saves 'your poor back from crawling underneath that machine over and over and over again'

Topics

Pinball machine maintenance and levelingprimaryTools and aftermarket accessories for pinballprimaryProduct design and functionalityprimaryOperator and collector ergonomicssecondaryMobile app integration with physical toolssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Cooltoy is enthusiastic about the Pin-Level's innovation and build quality, though provides balanced perspective noting it may not be necessary for casual collectors. Tone is favorable throughout with practical, honest assessment of use cases.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

So today, as you can see, I'm uh uncomfortably crammed underneath one of my latest pinball acquisitions. We got Rick and Morty pinball here from Spooky Pinball. But uh this is a process that you're probably all familiar with if you own multiple pinball machines, and it's a painstaking process leveling your pinball machine. Uh it's a bit tiresome, cumbersome, uh painful in some cases. But today we're going to be talking and uh looking at a product that's hopefully going to be making our lives a little bit easier when it comes to leveling our pinball machines. So yeah, this is uh the Pin Level. You can find this on Pinside. Comes in two different colors. got bright orange or a much more toned down gray. I went with bright orange cuz I figured it's less likely for me to lose if it stands out like a sore thumb. But got a nice little protective cover there. Um so you don't have to worry about throwing this in a toolbox or anything and it getting all messed up. Uh powered by four AA batteries inside. Uh they are rechargeable ones. I don't recommend throwing normal batteries in there, but as you can see, we got an active LCD display. Uh we got some toggle buttons, the power there. We also have these really cool little fold out legs that you can use to kind of center this in between your slingshots, which is really great. But most amazing part about this is that it measures pitch and tilt simultaneously. Um, that is not the case with traditional levels and hence why we're all probably accustomed to crawling underneath our machine, making leveling adjustments, crawling back under it, looking, did we make enough changes? No. Crawl back under it and doing that over and over again. Thankfully, you can kind of do this one and done by measuring pitch and tilt simultaneously. Also, some nice little non-slip rubber feet there. So, once you put it on the playfield, you don't have to worry about it sliding down. But, uh, it works great. What I've been traditionally using to level my pinball machines, a little digital level here. It's got a bubble here up top, magnet on the bottom, uh, gives me a digital readout of pitch and tilt, but it doesn't do it simultaneously. I have to do one or the other. So, I'd traditionally, you know, put it there on my machine, hopefully it doesn't slide down, cuz there's no rubber feet or anything like that. Uh, look at it, say, "Okay, I'm going to measure my pitch." So, I'd crawl underneath, make my adjustments, crawl back out, look at it, go, "Oh, okay. I I made enough adjustments. Okay, good to go." Uh, and then I'd have to turn it and go do it all over again for my tilt side to side, left and right. Crawl underneath the machine, make my adjustments, come back out, look at it. Did I make enough adjustments? No. crawl back underneath the machine. You get the idea. So, there was some slight assembly required when I first got this. Had to take the front panel off, held on by six screws. Very easy to do. Take the front panel off and had to solder one wired connection uh which is basically the inline fuse there. Very simple to do. If you don't know how to solder and you own pinball machines, that's kind of uh counterintuitive because at some point you will need to solder something if you own a pinball machine. But if you're not comfortable soldering, uh just be fair warned. You will have to solder one connection on there. It also has another connection where you just literally plug it in. It's existing. You don't have to wire it or anything. You just literally push the connection together, put your batteries inside, and then the thing is ready to go. There's also a nice companion app out there for iPhones or Android um that you can get the actual live data of your pitch and tilt while you're underneath the machine. So, you don't have to go up and down, up and down, you know, under the machine trying to check things. You put this on the machine, check it, and then you look at the live, you know, data on your phone to make sure you're making enough adjustments, and then you only have to crawl under the machine once, which is great. So, let's go ahead and get to leveling. Uh, I have yet to level Rick and Morty here, so this will be a first time experience, and we're going to see how well it works. All right, so we turned it on. As you can see, it's got pitch and tilt, and it's going all over the place because I'm obviously not holding it on a level surface. Uh, but we're going to ideally place it in between our slingshots. Uh Rick and Morty is a little bit eccentric because we don't have two slingshots. We've got a bumper and a slingshot. So this may be a little bit of an oddball case here, but we'll go ahead and open these. And yeah, I can already tell I might have to do some slight adjustments just because of the layout of Rick and Morty, but okay. All right, so it says I'm at a pitch of 7/6.9. You know, a little bit of wiggle room of 0.1. Um and my tilt is 1.2. So yeah, I'm definitely off side to side. go ahead and open up our little companion app here via Bluetooth. And there it matches what we're seeing on the pin level itself. So, I'm going to crawl underneath the machine, make my adjustments with this in hand, and then I'll be able to literally in live real time uh level this machine. All right. So, after only crawling under the machine one time and making my adjustments, uh you can see we're pretty much there. I've got it where I I think I want it. Um my tilt obviously, like I said, it's going just a little bit. Um that's, you know, within the tolerance zone, but I got my pitch about 6.8 and my tilt side to side. We're pretty squared away. I said using the companion app here. It's live feed. You can see it's accurate going back and forth to the data. Uh very handy. This is a free download and this app wasn't made specifically for this, but it works great. it just communicates via Bluetooth uh between the two. So, you don't have to have a Wi-Fi connection or anything like that. So, if you're out there in the field, you can have an old cell phone that you don't even necessarily use anymore. Uh you know, pair it with that pin level there and you're good to go. Great thing about this is it saves the data and information for multiple games here. So, when I'm ready, go ahead and hit select. See the games select again. So, it defaulted to BB. It gives me a two-letter acronym for each game. So Rick and Morty, I'm just going to put RM. Uh, but I'm going to come down my down arrow button, select, confirm my settings, go up to the name. Now I've got two alphabetical characters that I can change. And we're good. Home games. So, I've got Rick and Morty on there, and I've already went ahead and did my Monopoly as well, which is great. Put the glass back on. Show you one of the better features of this pin level is that I can save my settings with the glass on. That way, we don't have to relevel this every time we want to make adjustments. You know, we throw this back on the glass and say, "Okay, yeah, our pitch is good, our tilt is good, and everything like that." You can save I think up to 10 games in this and it saves that information until you go there and clear it or readjust it. So if you got multiple games, this is great for you. But can hit the select button. Go games. So we got Rick and Morty already. But what you would do, you'd come down here and hit select. See your pitch and tilt settings with the glass on. You would confirm it and then you would calibrate. Good. You're just going to save it and done. So now every time I've got Rick and Morty, you can see my ideal settings with the glass are 14.8 and 0.1. So go there and uh show you Monopoly in there as well. So Monopoly, I've got 13.5 and 6 with the glass on. Very impressive build quality and everything on this 3D printed case, but I mean this thing is sturdy. Uh nice bolts, uh functional toggle buttons, very straightforward, easy to understand. Uh, I like that we can save multiple machines. So, if you're an operator or somebody that has multiple games in your collection and you're tired of crawling under the machines, this is definitely a back saver and a neck saver for sure. If you're, you know, a one or two machine guy, this is probably going to be a little too expensive for you and honestly, probably not necessary. But if you're an operator or somebody has a large collection of pinball machines, then yeah, definitely get something like this because it'll save you time, it'll save you energy, and it'll save your poor back from crawling underneath that machine over and over and over again trying to level your machine. So, got to hand it to them. Very good stuff. Like I said, if you're interested, I'll put the Pinside store link down in the video description box below. But guys, let me know your thoughts and opinions of this pin level.