Vision-first pinball modernization

pinball.cv

A non-invasive edge and cloud platform for physical pinball machines: Raspberry Pi 5 OCR, QR onboarding, playfield messaging, resilient local leaderboards, and paid global competition without cabinet switch wiring.

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500 active edge connections target
0 mechanical cabinet integrations
2 leaderboard scopes per score
V1 platform

Built for the operator, the maintainer, and the machine.

pinball.cv keeps the cabinet untouched. The edge device watches native video, recognizes Stern Pinball Insider Connected usernames, and only records games linked to a recognized player profile.

Raspberry Pi 5 edge mod

Boot authentication, visual username detection, score capture, local caching, and fail-safe playfield display output all run at the machine.

Operator dashboard

Mobile-first QR claiming, fleet management, custom welcome messages, subscription access, and device-level leaderboard visibility.

Admin authority

Maintainers can manage users, devices, payment records, subscription levels, custom messages, and OCR username moderation.

Playfield monitor Welcome to Smith Pinball Arcade
Edge loop

Track only the games that can be trusted.

Authenticate on boot

Registered devices connect to the cloud. Unassigned devices display a QR code generated from the Wi-Fi adapter MAC address.

Detect Stern username

OCR watches the native cabinet video and arms tracking only after a recognized Insider Connected username appears.

Submit composite score

Final score payloads are authenticated by the registered device identity and the OCR-extracted player username.

Degrade gracefully offline

When cloud connectivity drops, local messages and device leaderboards continue without exposing OS or API error screens.

Dashboards

Fleet management and score operations in one surface.

Operators get the tools they use every week. Admins get absolute control for support, billing audits, moderation, and device recovery.

Operator fleet
Godzilla ProOnline - paid tier
Jaws PremiumOffline - free fallback
Foo Fighters LEReady to claim
Tracked games1,284
Local rank#1
Uptime99.2%
1LUNA_SPIN842,901,220
2JET_BUMP731,004,880
3ORBIT_7685,553,140
Subscription model

Free fallback by default. Paid network features through Stripe.

Billing stays centralized through Link by Stripe while the product remains viable on low-cost VPS infrastructure, managed PostgreSQL or edge-replicated SQLite, and Cloudflare Free Tier.

Free tier

Included with registered hardware and resilient during network interruptions.

  • Basic telemetry
  • Custom playfield welcome message
  • Local device leaderboard
  • Offline cached state

Paid tier

Network-wide competition and premium operator value for active locations.

  • Global pinball.cv leaderboards
  • Advanced machine analytics
  • Premium dynamic playfield video
  • Subscription management through Link by Stripe
Delivery plan

A nine-week path from hardware proof to admin control.

The milestones keep the riskiest pieces early: video capture, OCR reliability, conditional tracking, QR onboarding, and load testing for 500 simulated devices.

Weeks 1-4

Hardware PoC and onboarding

  • Pi 5 video passthrough and boot authentication
  • Stern username OCR training
  • Mobile QR claiming flow
Weeks 5-7

Cloud core and billing

  • Device claiming backend
  • Stripe Link subscription checkout
  • Local and global leaderboard APIs
Weeks 8-9

Admin and resilience

  • Offline fallback routines
  • Universal admin CRUD
  • 500-device API load testing

Ready for a pilot location?

Bring one machine, one Raspberry Pi 5, and one secondary playfield monitor. The V1 scope is built around proving reliable OCR, QR onboarding, and conditional score capture before scaling the fleet.

Start a pilot