The Hobbit Underside Tour | Episode 5

Jersey Jack Pinball·video·7m 57s·analyzed·Jan 28, 2017

Analysis

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TL;DR

JJP's detailed technical underside tour of The Hobbit playfield architecture and mechanics.

Summary

Butch Peel from Jersey Jack Pinball provides a detailed technical tour of The Hobbit playfield underside, explaining the lighting architecture (RGB center inserts with white general illumination perimeter), the extensive coil system (22 coils for 11 drop targets), magnet mechanisms, motor for Smaug, and various switch types (micro switches, leaf switches, optos). The video emphasizes the complexity and novelty of the drop target system as a patented JJP feature.

Key Claims

The Hobbit has 11 drop targets requiring 22 coils total (one to kick up, one to knock down each)
high confidence · Butch Peel directly counts and explains the drop target/coil system in detail
The drop target control system is a patented JJP feature
high confidence · Butch Peel states: 'we patented that it's a great great feature in this game'
The Hobbit uses more coils than The Wizard of Oz
high confidence · Butch Peel directly compares: 'more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit'
The Hobbit lighting system is split between RGB LEDs (center inserts) and white-only GI LEDs (perimeter), on separate controllers and voltages
high confidence · Butch Peel explains the dual lighting architecture in detail during underside tour
Smaug motor is mounted underneath the playfield with only the bottom motor shaft visible; the toy sits almost entirely above the playfield
high confidence · Butch Peel shows and describes Smaug motor location: 'three screws right there he comes completely out the top of the play field'

Notable Quotes

“there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit because we've got to set drop targets and knock drop targets down”
Butch Peel@ 2:08 — Direct mechanical comparison between two modern JJP titles; highlights complexity
“we patented that it's a great great feature in this game and I love drop targets personally so I'm all for those”
Butch Peel@ 3:24 — Indicates JJP's confidence in proprietary drop target tech; reveals designer passion for the feature
“all the color in the center of the Playfield white around the edges and that gives the whole Playfield a lot brighter look”
Butch Peel@ 2:00 — Explains the design rationale for hybrid RGB/GI lighting strategy for visual clarity
“the only thing you see here is the bottom of his motor sticking out from underneath the play field three screws right there he comes completely out the top of the play field”
Butch Peel@ 4:31 — Demonstrates engineering approach to integrating large toy while maintaining playfield real estate
“we're intentionally staying at a very high level on this overview I want to tell you in great detail about all the coils in the game how they all work how the switches and everything is wired together”
Butch Peel@ 7:11 — Signals intent to produce deeper technical content in future episodes; sets expectations for series scope

Entities

Butch Peelperson Jersey Jack Pinballcompany The HobbitgameThe Wizard of OzgameSmaugproduct

Signals

?
design_innovation: JJP's patented individual drop target control system allowing independent lift and knock-down via dual coils per target, enabling complex choreography and 'card shuffle' effects
high · Butch Peel demonstrates 11 drop targets (3+3+5+3+3+5 layout) each requiring 2 coils, explicitly calling it patented and comparing favorably to WoZ
?
technology_signal: Hybrid dual-system RGB/GI lighting with separate controllers, voltages, and circuits; RGB center inserts on single circuit board, white GI around perimeter
high · Detailed explanation of RGB LED boards for center inserts, separate white LED GI system, acrylic rods with single white LED, and separate controller/voltage infrastructure
?
design_philosophy: The Hobbit exhibits extremely high mechanical complexity and density compared to prior JJP title (WoZ); more coils, multiple switch types (micro, leaf, opto), magnet systems, and large toy integration
high · Butch Peel highlights 22 coils vs. WoZ comparison, describes 11 drop targets, 2 magnets, 4 rollovers, slingshot switches, numerous optos for ramps and drop targets
?
product_concern: Tour implies acknowledgment of potential maintenance/troubleshooting complexity; future episodes planned to cover diagnostics, problem identification, and repair procedures
medium · Butch Peel states: 'show you some more in-depth information about this let you be able to see when problems are coming see when you when you have a problem how to fix it how to get it working again'
?
design_innovation: Extensive use of opto (infrared optical) switches throughout playfield; U-shaped optos on drop targets detect position; paired optos on ramp sides detect ball passage and routing

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:06

[Applause] [Music] hi Butch peel with Jersey Jack pinball again in this video we're going to tour the underside of The Hobbit Playfield I've got a game here with The Hobbit Playfield pulled up against the back box and on the side over here I've got a rotisserie device set up with a hobbit fully populated Hobbit Playfield that we can reference back and forth and remember everything in these videos are with the players perspective in mind so so this is the bottom of the Playfield and the top of the Playfield kind of messes it up when we tip it up like that so let's take a look under the Playfield first the pops out of you here is all the wiring boy that's a lot of wiring a lot of big mechanisms here a lot of things going on under this Playfield as uh you notice the first thing of course that comes to your eye is the lighting you got a color lights in the center of the Playfield and you got white lights going around the outside the white lights are the general illumination lights and on Hobbit that's a separate system so those are run off of a different uh controller and voltage so General illumination have white LEDs that do not change color all of the inserts on the center have RGB LEDs that we can make any color we like so when we look on the upper portion of the Playfield to show what that looks like down here at the bottom here are three acrylic rods that go up through the Playfield they have a single white LED behind them that we can control the intensity on and so we can turn those up and down make them blink on and off do all those sorts of things but they don't change color and so on under all the Plastics on the Playfield are those General illumination bolts in the center of the Playfield all of the inserts those are going to be RGB LEDs so every one of these is on a a big board here if I look back onto the main Playfield here this board here has this giant printed circuit board has all of these inserts on it so every one of those has an RGB LED associated with it so we can keep track of the locks and all those types of things change color so all the color in the center of the Playfield white around the Ed edges and that gives the whole Playfield a lot brighter look so next thing we see on here is a lot of coils there's a whole lot of coils more coils even than on The Wizard of Oz used in The Hobbit because we've got to set drop targets and knock drop targets down each one of those drop targets is going to take two coils now so the coils are these big drum looking things here under the Playfield every one of these is going to kick and do something on top of the Playfield make the ball move really fast they're very powerful they're going to do some really really cool things with the ball on the Playfield surface some of them are going to push things up out of the surface some of them are going to reset drop targets some of them are going to kick flippers so this motion right here under the Playfield kicking this coil is going to cause this

2:48

motion so each one of these drop targets there's three here there's three here there's five here go back to the main Playfield over here there's three on this side there's three on this side and there's five across the middle up here so those 11 drop targets take 22 coils to control so every one of those drop targets has to have a single coil to kick it up and a single coil to knock it back down again so that we can individually control those and kick them up and down and walk them around the Playfield and reset them like your shuffling cards just real fast motion very cool feature again that we patented that it's a great great feature in this game and I love drop targets personally so I'm all for those so kind of a special sort of coil is a magnet we have two of those in The Hobbit game they're up here at the very top they're mounted to the same bracket and they actually have a big screw on the end of them cu the pole in that magnet goes up through the Playfield surface so that magnet can grab the ball when it comes around and drop it into either a hobbit hole on this side or drop it into the pop bumpers on this side so what that looks like over here on this play field you have the magnet here way up at the top here that drops the ball grabs it on an orbit shot drops it into the pop bumpers and then one through here that grabs it when it comes by here and drops it into this Hobbit Hole down here so it can come up one of the vertical up kickers so Motors in this game there's one big motor to talk about that's the one for smouth so this small little square motor here is all you see of smog underneath the Playfield so what do you see above the Playfield this giant Beast that spins around and talks to you and all this thing he's virtually all above the Playfield the only thing you see here is the bottom of his motor sticking out from underneath the play field three screws right there he comes completely out the top of the play field so next up is switches if you look through this this massive wiring and and mechanical Mayhem here you can see a switch here every once in a while most of them around the edges if you look at these switches here on the edge When A ball rolls over these they have they're a micro switch they stick up through a slot in the Playfield surface when the ball rolls over that it depresses that and makes the micro switch click and that's all that it takes to register a switch those on the Playfield look like these two little Rings sticking up through these slots right here all the ball does roll over one of those and it knows it made one of those switches another type of switch under the Playfield are Leaf switches a good example of those on the Hobbit are these four rollovers here in the center those are the rollover buttons in the center for lock and that's where you see above the Playfield are these four rollover buttons and they're clear so they have an RGB LED behind them and we can light them in whatever color we want too so all you see those those uh buttons sticking up over the Playfield very much like The Wizard of Oz with the characters and the Toto in the in the outlane same sort of of of feature there but now what happens the ball rolls over that and it it makes the uh metal contacts of the switch come together and makes it contact so another another leaf type of switch would be our our slingshots they're up here alongside the the slingshot coil they show really well over here you got these two switches one bottom one top that come together when the ball hits the the sling forces them together and tells the slingshot to kick the ball away from there so the last type of switch underneath the Playfield are optos there's a lot of optos in The Hobbit game because every single one of these drop targets has its own opto associated with it an opto is an infrared Optical switch has a transmitter on one side a receiver on the other side anything that breaks that beam in between there makes the switch so in the case of an opto on these drop targets we use a U-shaped opto so the transmitter and receiver are here and opposite one another we have a fin on the back of the drop Target when the drop Target raises up it breaks that beam and tells the the game that the drop Target is in the up position when it falls it knows the beam is open and it knows the drop target has been knocked down a great example of optos in The Hobbit is the ramps the steel ramps have holes cut in them on either side and they have a pair of optos a transmitter a receiver so you have an optical infrared switch here the transmitter and receiver going back and forth when the ball goes in between it knows that that beam has been broken and can tell you that the ball went up this side of the ramp and there's also a setup back here for making it all the way around that ramp same thing on this side so there's opos all over on this Playfield surface also so we're intentionally staying at a very high level on this overview I want to tell you in great detail about all the coils in the game how they all work how the switches and everything is wired together all the all the RGB LEDs and the GI system we're not going to go too far into that in these videos we're going to do that in videos down the road and show you some more in-depth information about this let you be able to see when problems are coming see when you when you have a problem how to fix it how to get it working again and keep your game running tiptop shape speaking of a game running in tiptop shape get out there and play it challenge somebody to a game of [Music]