Ok, something must be wrong with the outputs. I changed the switch handler for switch 8 to pulse each solenoid:
void USB_SwitchHandler(byte Switch) {
byte i = 0;
switch (Switch) {
case 8: // high score reset
//digitalWrite(Blanking, LOW); // invoke the blanking
for(int i = 0; i < 24; i++) {
USB_FireSolenoid(255, i);
}
break;

I expect to see a flash on each solenoid output, and I still get nothing.
EDIt: Yeah, I see my stupid mistake. I reused i. Let me fix it. Still, the redefinition in the for loop should take precedence.

Great stuff!

Is PinMAME support still limited to the Raspberry PI build?

I pulled the lisy pinmame code and started working on a smartmatrix DMD connection. If I get it working well, I'll share the code.
In other news, I think my early damage might be hampering some of my work now, so I'm making 2 more boards and I'll check those. I gutted APC.ino to make a very simple solenoid activation, and none of it worked. Once I have another system built(without those oxidized SIP modules that caused me problems before), I'll be more sure of my testing. I'm almost done with the first step on the new boards, so I expect to be doing sound tests tonight.

For my work, a Pi is somewhat underpowered(even a Pi 4) compared to, say, an ITX board. When converting DMD frame information generated by pinmame into RGB information for Smartmatrix, for example, a Pi will lag where a cheap ITX will shine. Lisy uses the GPIO(and my previous DMD work did as well), but that doesn't have to be the case for all pinmame->APC connections.

My preferred system, based on my needs:
PC running pinmame or MPF
(USB)
|
|------> APC for playfield control
|------> Fadecandy for inserts
|------> Smartmatrix for RGB DMD

Indeed, I am typically atypical
I'll share my code shortly. I'm working on the Smartmatrix display first, but I plan on adding a direct connection to APC to pinmame, based on the lisy code(unless a simple way to use the existing code occurs to me).
My new APC builds are going nicely. I'm planning on going back over the first board and repairing once I have the new ones up.

Yeah, I have run into this.

I'm used to designing dedicated comm boards that run in the hundreds of MHz rates. We needed a quick and dirty test fixture to simulate and verify a 2KHz synchronous serial stream. Bought a PI-4 with LCD and 'Ziosk' type case. Thought this would be a piece of cake to design using their GPIO header into RS422 drivers/receivers. But at that whopping 2Khz rate - we find huge gaps where the Pi-4 couldn't keep up with generating the data stream (haven't even got to the verification side yet). The latencies have to do how they incorporated the GPIO and the operating system access to the GPIO.

IMHO it is mainly the OS, Linux is not a real time OS!
Thats the reason why I choosed PIC Controllers for the time critical section with LISY.

But you can patch the Kernel, have a look at: https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page

Correct. To get anything near a 2khz resolution on the gpio pins, you'd want to use RTLinux, a dedicated interrupt and direct memory writes to the GPIO regions

For Pinball 2000, I ended up doing the same thing. Though you can also program it bare metal on the pi using a bit of assembler and jump into C

I've done full pinball games using the RPi while also pushing out HD graphics. It can be done, but you have to optimize heavily. Generally full screen updates and long IO access times will kill you there.

I'm currently rewriting the core to Demolition Man 2000 to move it from a clunky PC under the cabinet to a raspberry pi.

If the PI is able to emulate the displays via HDMI that might be enough to get me interested in using one.

Windows PinMAME support for the USB control interface is very high on my list, let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Might try to hack something together.

Definitely the OS as well as the hardware interface drivers for the OS.
We started off with Raspbian which is a Linux based OS.
We know it is not an RTOS but we thought that 'surely, it can keep up with a slow 2K interface".... wrong.
We had been evaluating RTOS options - then the covid virus started and the whole project got sidelined for the time being.

We have used PICs in the past for home arrest system base units and they worked great. Didn't even consider them this time.
The home arrest project was an absolutely fun project. You could never predict how tricky and devious some of the home arrestees were.

You can run MPF-MC on a Pi. You'll run into I/O speed if you are pulling data from an SD card. If you are doing simple stuff, it should be fine. Look at the previous discussions on this thread to see more.

My projects are on a standstill for a moment. I have to get a Flintstones and Lost World Jurassic Park cleaned up for next month, so my attention is sapped.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean.

The PI probably doesn't have enough power for my MPF game, it uses a 1080p display and has a very large music library.

My hope here is since the PI is communicating using serial-over-USB that the code is easily adaptable to the Windows build. If there's a PinMAME repo with these changes I'd like to check it out.

Why not ditch the Pi for an ITX or micro ATX motherboard with a Debian install? No need to adapt to Windows at that point.

Yes, but I'm adapting to Linux at that point.

I'm a Windows developer by day so I already have the dev tools and frequently work with serial comms to hardware devices. I would rather contribute code to the project than adapt to a whole new OS.

My machine doubles as a virtual pin so I'd prefer to use the same software as my desktop.

I haven't looked at P-ROC protocol, if it's not too bad maybe it could be implemented on the APC, avoiding the need to modify PinMAME.

Hi Frank, could you suggest a through hole equivalent to the BSS123 ? I don't think I'm good enough to solder tiny surface mount components

Can the APC be used to drive the Gottlieb System 3's driver board (MA-1358)?. I am currently maintaining a Cue Ball Wizard, and it could be a nice opportunity to test the MPF on it, maybe on a Pi with a SmartMatrix DMD, if at all possible.
These Gottliebs are very solid machines, quality material, very hard to break if maintained properly. A weak point of most of them is the gameplay rules, which are generally too crude and not deep or "rewarding" to the player. Too much "generic stuff" between the titles. I think that's one of the reasons why Bally/Williams won in the DMD era, the games were simply better. But these System3s could get a lot better with new sets of rules. Plus they can easily be enhanced for stereo sound
So solenoid selection would be no problem I guess, as everything is driven by 74HC273s which could be selected from the Arduino, but as the lamp and switch matrix share the strobe signal, this section is not that trivial.
Anyone with experience on this?
TIA

Not familiar with the System 3 hardware design. You'd need to modify the APC board design and code to add support, but it should be possible with enough work. Everything boils down to binary inputs and outputs.

Anyone have an extra PCB they’d sell?

The main APC board.

for me the best would be something that is fully populated and working that could be ordered from pcbway or similar. The way pin2dmd works is great. You just select the board on their website and you drop in the BOM and they can sell it to you bareboard or fully populated and soldered ready to go. For me I would pay the extra for the ready to go option. I can solder but really don't have the time. I'd rather spend my time on the coding and leave all the soldering to the folks in China (or wherever)

I like assembly, so more through hole. Count me in on the next group of boards.

same for me ... and about the costs: it's sometimes even cheaper to get the full populated board from China then with buying the components and do the soldering yourself.

Of course with option 3 it is a lot of work todo for amoksolderer ...

I would prefer all of the smd parts to be on one side. I'm ambivalent about the ICs being smd or not, if I'm getting them prepopulated.

I mainly just want the latest version.. in whatever form

Whatever the popular group buy is i want in that list.

Generally anything less than ~50 or so units the fab will likely hand solder anyway. However I've recently had to convert most of my board designs to use SMD components just because of the availability (and often cost).

While this board was moderately difficult to put together (just from the time spent), it was a rather therapeutic break from programming for a change

I checked my parts racks, and I do have 4 blank v2.4 PCBs if anyone could use one.

What’s the big difference between 2.4 and this latest?

I'm just running on that paragraph as the main difference.

Getting close, thanks @compy!

F3CB63D6-7F5B-4A95-9E56-CA83120B5FB1 (resized).jpeg

Got audio and display going!
Great work AmokSolderer !

12F1FF58-9819-4B1F-B339-8BD8200B6C2E (resized).jpeg

This is fantastic! You worked fast

Can't wait to see what you cook up!

Target machine is this. But if you want someone to help test the sound overlay board shoot me a pm and I’ll do what i can.

83A7645B-45D4-431C-A2DB-E31D696175C4 (resized).jpeg

I DID IT...

The Gottlieb System 80B lamp board. I am never hand wiring a board this complex again.

Once I run jumpers between the sets of connectors it will have System 1 support as well.

20200612_042150 (resized).jpg

I implemented a routine to send the raw frame data of pinmame to my PIN2DMD. That way there is only the USB transfer to be handled by the Pi and the frame calculation is done by pin2dmd

Impressive prototype board! Nice!