Plungers & Ball Launch Devices

Related Config File Sections:

ball_devices:

A Plunger is a type of ball device. MPF supports mechanical (traditional "spring" plungers), coil-fired plungers, and combo auto/manual plungers.

Here are the options:

Since there are so many different options, you need to first identify which type of plunger or ball launch system your machine has. So look at the following pictures to match up what you have, and then follow the specific links to see how to configure MPF to use it in your machine.

Option 1: Spring plunger with ball switch

The most "traditional" style plunger is a spring-powered mechanical plunger lane. In modern machines, there's a switch at the bottom of the plunger lane which is activated by a ball sitting in the plunger lane waiting to be plunged.

Here's an example of this from a Pin*Bot machine:

If you have this type of spring-powered plunger with a switch that's active when a ball is sitting in it ready to be plunged, follow the Mechanical plunger with shooter lane switch guide to configure it in MPF.

Option 2: Spring plunger with no ball switch

Older pinball machines (typically those that only have one ball) have what appear to be traditional plungers like in Option 1, but if you look closely, you'll notice that there is no switch which is active when the ball is sitting in the plunger lane.

Here's an example of this from Gottlieb Big Shot:

If you have this type of spring-powered plunger with no switch that's active when a ball is sitting in it ready to be plunged, follow the Mechanical plunger with no switch guide to configure it in MPF.

Option 3: Combo spring plunger with coil-fired autolauncher

Many modern machines have a combination-style plunger which combines a mechanical spring-powered plunger with an autolauncher coil. These types of plungers allow game to decide whether the player should manually pull back on the plunger handle to launch the ball with spring power or whether the game should pulse a coil to eject the ball into play.

Here are two examples of slightly different versions of these, the left from a Stern Star Trek Premium, and the right from a Gottlieb Brooks 'n Dunn machine:

If you have this type of auto/manual combo plunger, follow the guide to configure it in MPF.

Option 4: Coil-fired plunger (no mechanical spring option)

The final plunger option is the fully automatic coil-fired option that has no mechanical spring-based option.

There are a few different physical forms of this. Here's a typical example from Judge Dredd where a coil shaft with a plastic tip is pulsed to launch the ball directly:

And here's an example from Williams Star Trek: The Next Generation which uses a catapult-style mechanism in order to launch the ball into play.

Note that both of these options are "identical" as far as MPF is concerned. They both have switches which are active when a ball is able to be launched, they both pulse coils to launch the ball, and neither one has a manual plunge option.

If you have this type of coil-powered plunger, follow the guide to configure it in MPF.

Related How To guides:

mechanical_with_switch mechanical_no_switch coil_fired auto_manual

Something missing or wrong? You can fix it!

This website is edited by people like you! Is something wrong or missing? Is something out of date, or can you explain it better?

Please help us! You can fix it yourself and be an official "open source" contributor!

It's easy! See our Beginner's guide to editing the docs.

Page navigation via the keyboard: < >

You can navigate this site via the keyboard. There are two modes:

General navigation, when search is not focused:

F , S , / : open search dialog
P , , : go to previous page
N , . : go to next page

While using the search function:

Down , Up : select next / previous result
Esc , Tab : close search
Enter : go to highlighted page in the results