Wireless node boards · Cloud software · Homebrew pinball

A single and affordable solution for your pinball homebrew project

XPF brings together everything a homebrew pinball builder needs: one node board, repeated across the machine and linked by a wireless mesh, software to run your own rules, integrated tools to develop and debug them, and a live simulator that runs straight in your browser.

Try the live simulator Explore the hardware
  • 1board type for the whole machine (multimedia aside)
  • <5 msnetwork latency
  • 16nodes max per machine
Homebrew pinball playfield driven by XPF node boards

One platform, four building blocks

Everything is designed to work together, so you never have to glue two unrelated systems into one machine.

Hardware solution

One node board, repeated as many times as your playfield needs. Each board drives 4 coils and reads 8 switches, right where they sit.

See the board

Software solution

Drive your pinball with your own rules. Write them as readable code or wire them visually — the engine does the timing for you.

See the rule engine

Integrated tools

Develop and debug your rules with a timeline debugger, live signal traces, a precise history of which rule triggered which event, and hot reload.

See the toolset

Live browser simulator

Play your machine before a single wire is cut. The simulator runs the real rule engine on a physics playfield, right in your browser.

Open the simulator

Hardware

One board, repeated across the machine

There is only one node board to learn, to stock and to replace. You place as many as your playfield needs, chain them for power, and they talk to each other wirelessly all on their own. One of the boards sits at the centre of the star and runs the rules — and it is exactly the same board as all the others. A separate multimedia node handles sound, light shows and the display.

Star of five identical node boards, 48 V and 5 V leaving the centre board in four directions

  • Short wiring, less noise

    Each mesh node board sits next to the coils and switches it handles. Coil power no longer floods the cabinet: the topology stays clean and easy to wire.

  • Wireless star, wired power

    The boards talk to each other over their own Wi-Fi mesh within a 5 ms budget, in a star centred on one of them — there is no separate controller board. Only the 48 V and 5 V rails are daisy-chained from board to board.

  • Add only what you need

    Start with two nodes for a simple playfield and grow to a full machine — up to 16 nodes — by plugging in one more board.

  • Diagnostics on the board

    Twenty LEDs show power on each link, which coil is actually firing and which switch is closed — before you open any software.

XPF node board, top view

The node board

A compact board built around common, easy-to-source parts and standard hobby connectors.

Coils
4 inputs / outputs · 5–8 A peak · 10–150 ms pulses
Switches
8 filtered inputs · locking JST cables
LEDs
16 controllable LEDs
Network
ESP32-C3 · wireless mesh
Power
48 V and 5 V daisy-chained board to board
Diagnostics
20 on-board LEDs · power, coils, switches
Safety
Coils held off at boot · max on-time per output

Software

Drive your pinball with your own rules

Modes, multiball, jackpots, bonus counting, attract mode: describe what should happen and the engine handles the rest — pulse widths, debouncing, ball tracking and score bookkeeping.

Rule editor with code and a visual rule graph

  • AI or visual graph

    The same rule can be written with AI or wired graphically — both views stay in sync and produce the same machine.

  • Hot reload

    Save a rule file and the running machine picks it up within a few seconds, without restarting the pinball.

  • Safe by construction

    Coil pulse limits, thermal budgets and stuck-switch handling are enforced by the engine, not by your rule code.

  • Assets included

    Sound, display animations and lamp shows are first-class objects you can trigger from any rule.

  • Built-in animation editor

    Author your display without leaving the browser: DMD, LCD and Gottlieb System 1 & 80 formats, text, images, animated images, video and sound, with over thirty ready-made transitions.

    See the multimedia composer

Multimedia

Compose your display like a video editor

Text, images, animated images, video and sound land on a multi-track timeline with a playhead, clips you drag and a live preview of the real display. Build a jackpot animation, an attract loop or a mode intro the same way you would cut a video — then fire it from a rule with a single line.

Multimedia composer with a media bin, a dot-matrix preview monitor and a timeline of text, video, image and sound tracks

A timeline you already know

Tracks, clips and a playhead. Drop an asset on the timeline, drag its edges to set the timing, add keyframes for opacity, position or scale, and scrub through the result.

Every asset on one timeline

Text, images, animated images, video and sound, layered on as many tracks as you need and synchronised to the frame — a sound effect can land exactly on the flash it belongs to.

Over thirty transitions

Cross dissolve, pixel wipe, split flap, slides, sparkle bursts and more. Drop one between two clips, set its duration, and the engine renders it on the display for you.

Frame-accurate preview

The preview monitor shows exactly what the display will show, at its real resolution and colour depth. What you compose in the browser is what the machine plays.

One line in your rules

Every sequence is an object your rules can call. The engine takes care of queueing, priority and interrupting a show that is already running.

on JACKPOT_LIT → play("jackpot.seq")

LCD, DMD and Gottlieb displays

Compose once and target an LCD backbox screen, a dot-matrix display, or the original Gottlieb System 1 and System 80 displays (sys1, 80 and 80A) — the composer knows the format of each one.

Tools

Integrated tools to develop and debug your rules

Pinball bugs hide in milliseconds. XPF records every switch, coil and lamp event on the machine so you can scrub back through them and see exactly what your rules did.

Timeline debugger with signal traces

Timeline debugger

Every signal on one time axis: switch edges, coil pulses, lamp PWM, score events and state transitions.

Rule & event history

A precise log of the game: every event, and the exact rule that fired it. Follow a score or a coil pulse back to the shot that caused it.

Playfield health

Coil on-time, switch bounce statistics and node link quality, monitored continuously while you play.

Record & replay

Capture a whole ball on the real machine and replay it against a modified rule set to check what changed.

Rule tests

Describe a shot sequence, state the expected score and mode, and re-run it after every change to your rules.

Wiring checker

Compare your playfield map against what the nodes actually report and catch a swapped connector in seconds.

Simulator

Your machine, live in the browser

The simulator runs the exact same rule engine as the hardware, on a physics playfield rendered in your browser. Design shots, tune scoring and finish your rules long before the cabinet is built.

Browser window running the XPF simulator
  • Same rule engine as the machine — no second implementation to maintain
  • Import your playfield map and shot geometry, or start from a template
  • Ball physics with adjustable flipper strength, slope and rubber bounce
  • Virtual nodes report the same events as real boards, including faults
  • Share a link — anyone can play your rules without installing anything
Launch the simulator Read the guide

Boards & cloud

Boards you buy, software you use for free

The node boards are built, tested and sold here. The software runs in the cloud and is free to use — nothing to install, nothing to compile, nothing to maintain on your side.

Boards ready to run

Assembled, flashed and tested before shipping. Set the node address on the DIP switch, plug in power, and it joins the mesh.

Free cloud software

Rule editor, debugger and simulator run in your browser at no cost. Your machines and rule sets stay in your account.

Nothing to install

No toolchain, no compiler, no driver. Any recent browser is enough to design, test and drive a machine.

Updates included

Firmware and cloud updates arrive together, so your boards and your rules always speak the same version.

Guides & wiring plans

Assembly guides, safety notes on high-voltage coils, wiring plans and a rule cookbook covering the classic pinball patterns.

Support from the makers

Questions about a shot, a coil that misbehaves or a stubborn rule go straight to the people who designed the boards.

Get started

From idea to playing machine

You can go through the first three steps tonight, without buying anything.

  1. 01

    Sketch your playfield

    Place your shots, targets and mechanisms on a template, or import an existing playfield map.

  2. 02

    Write your rules

    Start from the rule cookbook, then shape your own modes, scoring and multiball logic.

  3. 03

    Play it in the simulator

    Iterate until the game feels right. Everything you tune here carries over to the hardware unchanged.

  4. 04

    Build the machine

    Order one node board per group of coils, wire the playfield, and run the wiring checker.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The questions homebrew pinball builders ask us most often, about the boards, the rule software and the simulator.

What is the Extended Pinball Framework?

XPF is a complete platform for building a homebrew pinball machine: wireless node boards that drive the coils, switches and lamps on your playfield, plus free cloud software to write your game rules, debug them and play them in a browser simulator. Boards and software are designed together, so there is no integration work left to you.

Do I need a separate controller board?

No. Every board in an XPF machine is the same node board. The wireless star simply starts from one of them, and that board also runs your rules — there is no distinct controller or master unit to buy, stock or replace.

How many node boards does a pinball machine need?

Each node board drives 4 coils, reads 8 switches and controls 16 LEDs, so you add one board per group of playfield mechanisms. A simple table runs on two nodes; a full machine typically uses five or six. XPF supports up to 16 nodes per machine, plus a separate multimedia node for sound, light shows and the display.

Is the XPF software free?

Yes. The rule editor, the timeline debugger and the simulator run in the cloud and are free to use — you only pay for the node boards themselves. There is no licence, no subscription and no per-machine fee.

Is XPF open source?

No. XPF is not an open-source project: the boards are designed, built, tested and sold by us, and the software is offered free as a hosted cloud service rather than as source code. Firmware and cloud updates are released together, so your boards and your rules always speak the same version. One commitment we do make: if the XPF project ever stops, all the sources — firmware, cloud software and hardware design — are released publicly.

Can I write and test pinball rules without buying hardware?

Yes. The browser simulator runs the exact same rule engine as the hardware on a physics playfield, with virtual nodes that report the same events as real boards. You can sketch a playfield, write your rules and tune your scoring before ordering a single board — and everything you tune carries over to the machine unchanged.

What hardware do the node boards use?

Each node is built around an ESP32-C3 and joins a wireless mesh with a 5 ms latency budget. A board offers 4 coil outputs rated 5–8 A peak, 8 filtered switch inputs on locking JST cables, 16 controllable LEDs and 20 on-board diagnostic LEDs. Power is daisy-chained board to board on 48 V and 5 V rails.

Can I create the animations and sounds for my display?

Yes. XPF includes a multimedia composer that works like a video editor: text, images, animated images, video and sound are dropped on a multi-track timeline, cut and keyframed against a live preview of the real display, with more than thirty ready-made transitions. It targets LCD screens, dot-matrix displays and the original Gottlieb System 1 and System 80 displays (sys1, 80 and 80A), and every sequence you compose can be played from a rule with a single line.

Do I need to install any software or a toolchain?

No. There is no compiler, driver or toolchain to set up — any recent browser is enough to design a playfield, write rules, debug them and drive a real machine. Boards ship assembled, flashed and tested: set the node address on the DIP switch, plug in power, and the board joins the mesh.

Comparing XPF with the Mission Pinball Framework?

Tell us about your project

Building your first machine, porting an old cabinet, or running a workshop? Send us a note — we answer every message.

contact@extended-pinball-framework.com

Credits

Special thanks to

For the ideas, the testing and the countless hours spent on real machines — XPF would not be what it is without them.

  • Fabrizio
  • Nicolas
  • Ronald Kruzman
  • Ralf