Arduino Pinball Controller

0

#751 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from slochar:
For your linked example do you cancel the 3 second thing for the shooter lane switch if someone manages to not get the switch activated

No, the exception code does rely on the switch to work properly. It would be very simple to cancel the timer also when a playfield switch is activated or do 3 attempts at max, but I wanted to keep it simple as it was meant as an example. Still works great though.

Quoted from slochar:
For small patches hooking in is ok but for large wholesale changes nothing beats having the whole thing laid out in source

Yeah, if the changes are too severe than it's better to write a new code, but sometimes it's just some details that need to be changed to make a game better.

0

2

#752 2 years ago

JAB

jabdoa

Inactive member

7y 46,050 448

Quoted from gorgar007:
I'm excited for a clean slate.. assuming the framework is intuitive enough and all of the game mechanics are easy enough to access. Could be fun!

There are basically two frameworks: Either low-level on the arduino. Or a high level framework with runs on a separate PC or RPi: https://missionpinball.org/ or https://docs.missionpinball.org/

0

#753 2 years ago

WJE

gorgar007

Pinhead Mods

Saginaw, MI

11y 64,800 456 4 12

While I learn about APC, I've been trying to rip the audio files from Transporter. Had limited success with the M1 path.. couldn't find any of the voices, just music. Just found all of the voices with pinmame, success!

0

#754 2 years ago

WJE

gorgar007

Pinhead Mods

Saginaw, MI

11y 64,800 456 4 12

AmokSolderer - is there a way to easily switch your Rollergames MPF demo to mirror what you're sending to the hardware segment display, to the virtual segment display?

0

2

#755 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

I guess jabdoa is better suited to answer that question.
My humble MPF skills were barely enough to make that Rollergames demo work.

0

#756 2 years ago

MPL

ThatOneDude

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 82,550 2,607 4 1

I might have a v2.4 and a v3 board for sale soon. It is coming in as a trade from someone who bought one of the previous boards from me. I think that the v2.4 build was started, then he bought the v3 board and then ran out of time. So, it should have all of the parts for the 2.4 build, which would include the parts needed for the v3. You could order the v3 through hole parts and build both. Or, I could sell them separate. Anyway, PM me if interested. I'm still waiting for the trade to finalize.

0

#757 2 years ago

???

HighVoltage

DMCS Pinball

8y 92,550 3,487

Quoted from ThatOneDude:
I might have a v2.4 and a v3 board for sale soon. It is coming in as a trade from someone who bought one of the previous boards from me. I think that the v2.4 build was started, then he bought the v3 board and then ran out of time. So, it should have all of the parts for the 2.4 build, which would include the parts needed for the v3. You could order the v3 through hole parts and build both. Or, I could sell them separate. Anyway, PM me if interested. I'm still waiting for the trade to finalize.

I have an extra set of the v3 through hole parts if someone doesn't want to go through the trouble of getting them all themselves, which I had to go to multiple vendors to do. I ended up with the extra set as one of the V3 boards I ordered had manufacturing defect.

Actually, PM'd you, I would take the V3 board then I can make a complete kit for someone with the through hole parts I have.

0

1

#758 2 years ago

JAB

jabdoa

Inactive member

7y 46,050 448

Quoted from gorgar007:
//<![CDATA[
window.__mirage2 = {petok:"67a1fefee14988c66325738f0b0557658a9f734f-1633778177-1800"};
//]]>

AmokSolderer - is there a way to easily switch your Rollergames MPF demo to mirror what you're sending to the hardware segment display, to the virtual segment display?

Have look at virtual_segment_displays in the MPF docs. That should do what you want. They recently gained more features in dev (future 0.56) but basic functionality should be in 0.55 already.

Jan

0

2

#759 2 years ago

DRC

drConti

Pinside apprentice

Lanzo Torinese

3y 17,650 17 14 6

Hi at all!
I write from Italy. First at all, really good job for all the work. I have ordered 5 pcb from JLCPCB for play with this board.
At moment I have Comet (Sys9), Rollergames (Sys11c) and a Firepower II (Sys7) theorically compatible with this system.
Firepower II now have original CPU with problem, but I try to solve it.
But this system it's very interesting, and if I can do some test on my pinball or help to implements something it's a pleasure for me.
I'm HW/FW developer so, I am not a beginner but not too experienced

I will keep you updated when the circuits arrive.

Byeeeee

0

#760 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

So you were able to get 5 completely SMD populated boards? Seems to get increasingly difficult as lots of components are currently running out of stock.

Quoted from drConti:
At moment I have Comet (Sys9), Rollergames (Sys11c) and a Firepower II (Sys7) theorically compatible with this system.

For the Rollergames there's still an unsolved PinMame issue which has been discussed before:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/arduino-pinball-controller/page/13#post-6186276

When using PinMame the music does only work correctly during test mode. This means one has to write some PinMame exception which tracks the status of the game and decides which music command to execute and which to ignore. Currently I don't have the time to do it, so if you want to start digging into the APC world then this could be a good first task. An example for using PinMame exceptions can be found here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/arduino-pinball-controller/page/15#post-6504949

But there's also some good news about the Rollergames as I have already extracted most of the sound and music files. That means if you come to the point of wanting to try and make this machine work with the APC and PinMame, just send me a PM and I'll send the audio files to you.

Have fun

0

1

#761 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from drConti:
Firepower II now have original CPU with problem, but I try to solve it.

BTW, you can replace your faulty System 7 CPU with minimum effort. The APC 3 boards can control a Sys7 audio board directly. That means you don't have to bother with extracting audio files. All you need is a simple ribbon cable as it is shown here:

https://github.com/AmokSolderer/APC/blob/master/DOC/HowToStart.md#system-7-audio-cable

0

#762 2 years ago

DRC

drConti

Pinside apprentice

Lanzo Torinese

3y 17,650 17 14 6

Thanks for your reply. Tomorrow the board will arrive
Not all components solder, some missing and I need to take it from Mouser etc etc.
All passive are already solder

Now firepower 2 works good like Rollergames and Comet, but I want try your board. About Rollergames need to find time but..Why not??
I need to lear all the installation step, have some trubble about somethink, see soon!

Bye
Enrico

0

#763 2 years ago

DRC

drConti

Pinside apprentice

Lanzo Torinese

3y 17,650 17 14 6

First question is about 16 segment display.
I have made myself display board for Williams System 7. I have buyed PN OPD-S8023LA-BW (from TME). It's a 0.8'' 7 segment.
I have wrong something because 7 digit of 0.8'' are too big and the first and last digits come out a little from the glass window.

- If I want product Sys7Alpha what is PN of 16 segment display? Where I can find it?
- For my display board, I only find 0.6'' or 0.8'', but nothing 0.7'' (that I think it's more similar to original) where I can find it?

Thanks!

firepower2 (resized).jpg

0

#764 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from drConti:
For my display board, I only find 0.6'' or 0.8'', but nothing 0.7'' (that I think it's more similar to original) where I can find it?

0.8" is the correct character height. But as you've mentioned, the package of these displays is usually too wide for pinball machines.

For my Sys7Alpha I took PSA08-11RT displays from Kingbright and removed 1mm or so from the right side of the package until they fit in the display board. You can do this easily with a bench- or belt-grinder.

0

#765 2 years ago

JDM

polishedball

Pinside member

4y 45,050 364 8 14

EDIT: might be OK (please read next paragraph) Looking for some help, I have used some UNO boards in the past but just with single sketches. I am not sure how to load up all the different sketches it looked like it wanted to put them in a folder, any quick direction? or link. Thanks working thru some basic and solving errors on my part.

Does this picture look setup correct, I was able to get it to compile verify and upload like this, should I be all set?
Also if someone is looking for a V3 board (sale pending)with the surface mount components (no thru hole), I have an extra.
Complete (resized).JPG

0

#766 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Looks OK and when everything compiles/uploads without errors then there's no need to worry.

0

#767 2 years ago

JDM

polishedball

Pinside member

4y 45,050 364 8 14

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
Looks OK and when everything compiles/uploads without errors then there's no need to worry.

Thanks, I did some readback in this thread and you did detail how to get it all set with the files in the same folder. It was some trial and error for me as the compiler wanted to put them in separate folders if opened individually.

0

#768 2 years ago

BRI

tmator

Pinside member

Castres

3y 24,900 22 3

Hi, is someone use APC on Data East pinball ?

0

1

#769 2 years ago

???

HighVoltage

DMCS Pinball

8y 92,550 3,487

-SOLD-

For sale, assembled APC board. Here it is installed in machine and going through init sequence.

APC-Install (resized).jpg
APC-Init1 (resized).jpg
APC-Init2 (resized).jpg
APC-Init3 (resized).jpg

Post last edited 2 years ago.

0

#770 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

Got my APC board assembled and hit a snag - I don't have a playfield-to-backbox wiring harness for System 7/9. While I figure that one out I'll see where I can get with Data East.

Keying of the connectors for DE should be identical to System 11, correct?

0

1

#771 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from RatShack:
Keying of the connectors for DE should be identical to System 11, correct?

Yes, that's correct. Even the connector numbers seem to match except that the DE ones have CN as prefix.

I spotted one inconsistency at CN17 in the DE manuals. In the schematics it looks like pin 9 has +12V, but in the board overview it's marked as NC (see picture). The APC uses this 12V for it's audio amplifier, so if your boards stays silent you should check this first.

DE (resized).png

0

#772 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
Yes, that's correct. Even the connector numbers seem to match except that the DE ones have CN as prefix.
I spotted one inconsistency at CN17 in the DE manuals. In the schematics it looks like pin 9 has +12V, but in the board overview it's marked as NC (see picture). The APC uses this 12V for it's audio amplifier, so if your boards stays silent you should check this first.
[quoted image]

Thanks for the insight! I have not stuffed the audio circuit yet but I'll keep that in mind if I need it.

0

#773 2 years ago

SJH

Zigzagzag

Pinside+ Frequent

Stavanger

4y 71,300 840 20 12

AmokSolderer : I cannot seem to get the Gerber files to work at PCBWAY - they complain :

The file can not be opened, please upload Gerber files in fomat of RS-274x.

What can I do to remedy this ?

JLCPCB is out of stock on several components ...

0

#774 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

I don't know much about Gerber. From what I found in the internet it seems like RS-274x is the standard Gerber format, so I'd expect the files to be OK.
However, I remember that JLCPCB wanted the files to have Protel filename extensions and according to this page

https://www.pcbway.com/blog/help_center/Gerber_File_Extention_from_Different_Software.html

PCBWAY wants the standard names. So may be you just have to rename the files.

0

#775 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

Unexpectedly picked up a Millionaire! Going to use it to test out my APC board with onboard LISY.

The APC code supports the system 11 background sound board, correct? The on-board wav files are just needed for the MPU based sound channel?

If I can use the APC code to control a sound board then that will be very helpful in developing a new board.

0

#776 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from RatShack:
The APC code supports the system 11 background sound board, correct?

The initial plan was to support those Sys11 machines having all sound stuff on an external audio board, so just the late 11B and 11C ones. This was because with two different boards one would need an analog mixer to combine the audio signals and I just wanted to avoid this.

From the shots done with my logic analyzer the digital protocol between CPU and audio board looked simple enough to implement some code which I thought would do the job.
However, in the end the old audio board refused to react and I was lacking the motivation to go much deeper.

If your motivation was just to make your Millionaire work then I'd recommend to let the APC play the music. It needs some sound file preparation, but it's not a big deal as you can read here:

https://github.com/AmokSolderer/APC/blob/master/DOC/PinMame_howto.md#doing-music-exceptions-for-system11-machines

Quoted from RatShack:
If I can use the APC code to control a sound board then that will be very helpful in developing a new board.

What kind of board do you want to develop, a new audio board or a controller?

The problem with the Sys11 audio boards was that I didn't know what control signals they wanted to see and I was lacking the patience to try it out. On the other hand the HW extensions interface of the APC is quite flexible in generating control signals. The corresponding command is called WriteToHwExt and you can find a short description at the end of the APC_SW_reference.

0

#777 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
The initial plan was to support those Sys11 machines having all sound stuff on an external audio board, so just the late 11B and 11C ones. This was because with two different boards one would need an analog mixer to combine the audio signals and I just wanted to avoid this.
From the shots done with my logic analyzer the digital protocol between CPU and audio board looked simple enough to implement some code which I thought would do the job.
However, in the end the old audio board refused to react and I was lacking the motivation to go much deeper.
If your motivation was just to make your Millionaire work then I'd recommend to let the APC play the music. It needs some sound file preparation, but it's not a big deal as you can read here:
https://github.com/AmokSolderer/APC/blob/master/DOC/PinMame_howto.md#doing-music-exceptions-for-system11-machines

What kind of board do you want to develop, a new audio board or a controller?
The problem with the Sys11 audio boards was that I didn't know what control signals they wanted to see and I was lacking the patience to try it out. On the other hand the HW extensions interface of the APC is quite flexible in generating control signals. The corresponding command is called WriteToHwExt and you can find a short description at the end of the APC_SW_reference.

Millionaire with an APC is just for testing. The APC board will be used with Batman, but all I have for that so far is the APC and playfield.

New audio board, mostly to gain experience with the interfacing & protocol.

0

#778 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from RatShack:
The APC board will be used with Batman,

Is Batman still compatible to System11?

Quoted from RatShack:
New audio board, mostly to gain experience with the interfacing & protocol.

That should work quite well with the APC. It's probably an overkill though, because you can use a cheap Arduino UNO and some lines of code to generate all kinds of control sequences as well.

0

#779 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
Is Batman still compatible to System11?

Batman is a Data East v3 MPU game, so it's mostly compatible to System 11. Appears I need to make an adapter for the special solenoid connector.

This is for a homebrew game so only need switches, lamps, and coils. No DMD or sound card. I am not attempting to run Batman in an existing System 11 cabinet.

From another thread:

Quoted from kbliznick:
Short answer is no they are not interchangeable.
Long answer is you can put a rev 3 de board into a system 11c but you would have to swap the outputs for 4 of the special solenoid outputs. Earlier rev de board special solenoid outputs won't work as they were not CPU controlled.
Can't use the de board in the 11-11b games because its missing the CPU mounted sound.
Conversely you can use a system 11-11c in any rev de if you swap the same special solenoid outputs AND special solenoid switch inputs plus put in a larger ram chip.

0

#780 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Not sure whether Lisy is supporting any Data East machines yet. Even though it is basically Sys11 it still might need some tweaking to make it work. But bontango usually can fix this quite fast.

0

#781 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
Not sure whether Lisy is supporting any Data East machines yet. Even though it is basically Sys11 it still might need some tweaking to make it work. But bontango usually can fix this quite fast.

Good to know. I'll be using the APC with MPF via USB control, but I'll test LISY at some point.

Would be more interested in running emulated code if the PinMAME windows build had the LISY option. Been saying I'll look into it for 2 years, maybe I will after the holidays

0

#782 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from RatShack:
maybe I will after the holidays

Well it's the right time for new year's resolutions, isn't it?
OK, here's mine: next year I'm going to fix the playfield of my F-14

0

#783 2 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

Hi, does anyone have a spare v3 board they would sell and ship to me in the UK? Ideally with at least the SMD components on?

#--Edit - found one!--#

0

#784 2 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

AmokSolderer , jabdoa , bontango

I'm finally (again) coming back to my F14 and am switching over completely to MPF / APC. I have a question on my RGB lamps and am trying to work out the best way to set it up.

At the moment, all of the GI and around 12 insert lamps in my F14 (the clear ones) have RGB LEDs connected to a Fadecandy. The remaining insert lamps are on the regular lamp matrix. So far I've been running MPF from a host machine which also runs the fadecandy server and so the "hybrid" of lamp matrix and Fadecandy is fine.

My question is how to best to bring pinmame into the system and drive these LEDs (just to a single colour). I know that Lisy has some Fadecandy compatibility, but the Fadecandy board is connected to my host computer, not to Lisy. If I connect the Fadecandy board direct to Lisy, then MPF/APC won't be able to find it. If I connect the Lisy board to my host computer over USB (or WiFi, but horrible latency I guess) will it be able to find the fadecandy server there somehow?

I know the APC has an option via the HW interface to control these LEDs (instead of Fadecandy) but at the moment the APC software is only thinking "all LED" or "all matrix" and from the MPF side there would be no colour control anyway (unless I've misread things).

Suggestions welcome. I don't want to make work for people, so trying to think about the best way to do this with what is currently available.

0

1

#785 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

The APC-GTB prototype game "Rock Lives!" is nominated for favorite homebrew of the year in the TWIPY awards!

To my knowledge it is the only APC-based game on the list. For me it's proven to be a viable low-cost alternative to a P-ROC with the added benefits of being open source, and was a major part of achieving a working game. Couldn't have done it without the excellent work on the APC, MPF, and LISY projects.

0

#786 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from Snux:
but at the moment the APC software is only thinking "all LED" or "all matrix" and from the MPF side there would be no colour control anyway

That's true for the moment, but removing this "all LED" or "no LED" limit should be a quick fix. It would require a rework of the driver of the LED_exp board to get more flexible commands to control the LEDs.
Adding color control for MPF would be more effort as it would mean to implement the 'Fade modern light' command of the Lisy interface

https://docs.missionpinball.org/en/latest/hardware/lisy/protocol.html#fade-modern-light-0x0d

which would mean to change the SW of the LED_exp board also.

However, I have this on my list anyway, as the current LED implementation is a rather makeshift solution and I want to add some nice LED effects to my Black Knight. But before I start this I have to update my Black Knight and Pinbot SW.

So if you want to use the LED_exp board I could probably implement the LED commands on short notice. This would enable you to control your LEDs and the normal lamp matrix simultaneously, but the color control of the LEDs would be rudimentary.

Later we could implement more sophisticated color control features, like the 'Fade modern light' command to give MPF full control and also be able to add color effects as PinMameExceptions.

What do you think? At first it would mean that you have to get a LED_exp board.

Quoted from RatShack:
The APC-GTB prototype game "Rock Lives!" is nominated for favorite homebrew of the year in the TWIPY awards!

Great work. This shows what Lisy, MPF and the APC are capable of.
Do you have some additional project insights you're willing to share?

I'm asking, because I think the main task we have to do next is trying to establish an active community sharing ideas and supporting each other. Up to know the communication is mainly focused on me answering technical questions and helping with problems. This is OK for me, but only a part of the story. I'm good at this technical stuff, but I'm not the most imaginary one when it comes to rules and I'm just lacking the patience to do the due diligence like fine tuning a game until it is a great one.
A first step would be to know what other people are working on and how they're doing it. May be find others who are working on the same game.

I'm currently preparing some basic information about for my Black Knight SW

https://github.com/AmokSolderer/APC/blob/V00.23/DOC/BlackKnight.md

may be with a thread in a forum to discuss what could be improved and what additional rules would be fun to have.

What do you (all) think, would you see such a community as a benefit?

0

#787 2 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
What do you think? At first it would mean that you have to get a LED_exp board.

Actually first I have to build my APC board and get that working, I have one (2 actually) with SMD parts populated coming in the post this week

From my side absolutely no hurry with this, but I have a couple of comments.....
- Ideally pinmame on the Lisy should not care about what kind a specific lamp is. It just knows about the 64 lamps that can be on the matrix and will want to switch them on or off. It would be good if APC then takes care of handling an actual matrix lamp, or doing an LED instead. In this instance the LED I would think needs no colour control, just switch it on (white) or off. In the same way, if MPF "just" switches a lamp on or off without taking care of "nice" LED things, I would suggest it works the same way.
- I know the LED_exp board does the heaving lifting (I was running an Arduino for my RGBs before I moved to Fadecandy) but is there a risk that the Due onboard the APC is going to run out of bandwidth? All the support for Lisy / MPF etc is great, but is it eating into capacity (CPU or storage) for your original design of running games just with Arduino .ino code?

Quoted from RatShack:
The APC-GTB prototype game "Rock Lives!" is nominated for favorite homebrew of the year in the TWIPY awards!

RatShack Awesome! Is the MPF source for this published somewhere? I think folks looking to start the MPF/APC journey would appreciate taking a look at other code. I know the MPF docs could do with some extra examples (will do some when I have time).

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
What do you (all) think, would you see such a community as a benefit?

For people using the APC with MPF, I think the MPF documentation needs some improvement in terms of connecting them together (I'm planning to put some updates in for that). However once it's working, MPF is fairly platform independent so I think the existing Google Group for MPF is enough "community".
What is probably missing is some kind of forum for people that are using the APC natively, coding games "the .ino way". But I'm not sure how many people that is, so not sure if the effort is worth it. Maybe for now just start a new APC programming thread here and see how much it gets used? If lots of folks using it, maybe a new Google Group?

0

#788 2 years ago

JWR

Apex

Pinside member

Manitou Springs, CO

9y 44,050 442 11 16

Quoted from Snux:For people using the APC with MPF, I think the MPF documentation needs some improvement in terms of connecting them together (I'm planning to put some updates in for that).

I would appreciate this info. I have dabbled with a Fast board and getting that going was pretty easy. I second that the documentation on how to bridge mpf to the APC board is either over my head or skipped.

0

#789 2 years ago

MPL

ThatOneDude

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 82,550 2,607 4 1

Quoted from Apex:
I would appreciate this info. I have dabbled with a Fast board and getting that going was pretty easy. I second that the documentation on how to bridge mpf to the APC board is either over my head or skipped.

It's basically the same as any other MPF platform. You can see an example here: https://github.com/AmokSolderer/APC/tree/master/DOC/Software/MPF
I also had a basic config set up while I was last testing(before the unmentionable desoldering ruination which killed me). I'll post it shortly, once I get a chance to boot up my old laptop. I have since moved to a small Chromebox reinstalled with GalliumOS for control, so it doesn't have my old code.
EDIT:
I checked my old code. It's nothing very different from the one in Github. I would start there.
I'm about to start work on a High Speed rework with @cheddar, which will have new art, rules, a display, etc. Eventually, I have a fully populated F-14 that is begging to come back to life, preferably as a Top Gun rework(I use rework instead of retheme as it is more than just changing the theme out).

0

#790 2 years ago

DOG

RatShack

Pinside member

7y 57,650 782

My MPF code isn't public but I'm happy to share the code relevant to LISY/APC. This is all you need if you're using an APC board strictly as an IO controller.

#config_version=5

hardware:
# dev
# platform: virtual_pinball
# machine (APC)
platform: lisy

lisy:
connection: serial
port: com3
baud: 115200

0

#791 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from Snux:
It just knows about the 64 lamps that can be on the matrix and will want to switch them on or off.

This is how it works at the moment. Neither MPF nor PinMame know about LEDs and stuff. For them it's just 64 lamps.
The problem with your setup is that you just want some lamps to be LEDs, so we must somehow tell the system which lamps are LEDs and which are not. I could come up with some fancy settings menu for that, but IMHO it would be the easiest to implement this as a PinMame exception (would also work for MPF then). I'd support you with this of course.

Quoted from Snux:
is there a risk that the Due onboard the APC is going to run out of bandwidth?

No, that's OK. For the APC the serial control mode is just another game and it's not eating any resources when not active (just a bit of program memory which the DUE has plenty of). Timing critical HW like these 2812 LED stripes are a different story, but as you said that's why the UNO is needed.

Quoted from Snux:
What is probably missing is some kind of forum for people that are using the APC natively, coding games "the .ino way".

Yes, but this is the really hard stuff. Most topics would probably be more basic.

Some examples of possible questions that I'd expect people to have:

- How to set up an APC system with PinMame for a specific machine?
- How to use a different display (e.g. alphanumeric displays in pre Sys11 machines?
- How to add a shaker motor and control it?
- How to add flashers to pre Sys11 games?

and so on.

So if some of you have questions like these, don't be shy and just ask them. If enough questions come up we still can think about moving to a different thread/forum and if not I've tried it at least.

0

#792 2 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
IMHO it would be the easiest to implement this as a PinMame exception (would also work for MPF then). I'd support you with this of course.

Yeah, I was reading about the pinmame exceptions stuff in your documentation, it's clever and as you suggest for my use case probably the best way forward.

I'll get my APC built over the next week or so and then probably put the LED_exp on a breadboard. Will keep you posted. Thanks so far!

But for the moment the LEDs are low priority - I need to spend time on the actual game code and rules, if a few inserts don't work for the moment that's no big deal

0

#793 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Quoted from ThatOneDude:
I'm about to start work on a High Speed rework with Cheddar, which will have new art, rules, a display, etc.

Would be great if you could post the progress either here or in a new thread. Doesn't have to be some detailed documentation, just some pics and the basics of what you're doing.

0

#794 2 years ago

MPL

ThatOneDude

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 82,550 2,607 4 1

OP
Quoted from AmokSolderer:
Would be great if you could post the progress either here or in a new thread. Doesn't have to be some detailed documentation, just some pics and the basics of what you're doing.

I'll start up a new thread and link it here.

0

#795 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

0

#796 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Looks like we have some PinMame trouble again.

I helped a friend to install the APC in his Riverboat Gambler and we got the board and Lisy/PinMame running. Everything worked well except of the roulette wheel in the backglass which doesn't turn.
It is has a stepper motor which is driven by a double H-bridge on an extra motor control board. The control inputs of this board are directly taken from 2 solenoid drivers (14 and 15) which means that the stepping pulses must be generated by these solenoid drivers. Therefore I'd expect the sol outputs to look like the green waveforms. However, the debug output from Lisy shows that PinMame just sets the solenoid drivers to high when the wheel is supposed to start spinning (red) and back to low when it should stop. This means that the motor does just one step instead of start turning.

Apparently the same wheel feature is also used in Jokerz! and Cyclone, so they should have the same problem.

Does anyone know whether this is a known PinMame issue or what might cause it?

Riverboat (resized).png

0

#797 2 years ago

OP

???

AmokSolderer

Pinside member

Solingen

5y 43,150 310

Update: According to bontango this might happen because in PinMame the status of the solenoids is being polled at a regular interval which might just not be short enough to drive a stepper motor.
That means we have to know the timing of the solenoid outputs. Of course we'd like to avoid having to switch the boards again, therefore I'd like to ask if one of you could measure it for us. So if you have a Riverboat Gambler, Jokerz! or Cyclone (and an Oscilloscope) I'd appreciate if you could post a shot of one of the corresponding solenoid outputs.