Have updates worked from USB?

With my BKSOR it was the strangest thing... reseated and switched ports countless times, reboots, it just finally worked eventually.

I know some people said it doesn’t matter what WiFi adapter you use but I don’t see how that can be right. Each WiFi chipset needs specific drivers and I doubt Stern has drivers to support them all.

I used this specific one and it works.

CanaKit Raspberry Pi WiFi Wireless Adapter / Dongle (802.11 n/g/b 150 Mbps) https://a.co/d/1TzBBGv

The Startech dongle pictured here was included in an IC kit from stern and it works too.

StarTech.com USB 150Mbps Mini Wireless N Network Adapter - 802.11n/g 1T1R Wi-Fi Adapter (USB150WN1X1) https://a.co/d/0PbGerC

9E82DFEE-8044-4BF3-9C79-5BF923D3D07F (resized).jpeg

Stern OS may not have drivers built in for the adapters you’re using and the generic ones don’t always work.

Whatever Stern recommends is what they have tested.

Does scanning the QR code on another machine work for anyone to setup a new game ?

I used this one.

TP-Link USB WiFi Adapter for PC(TL-WN725N), N150 Wireless Network Adapter for Desktop - Nano Size WiFi Dongle for Windows 11/10/7/8/8.1/XP/ Mac OS 10.9-10.15 Linux Kernel 2.6.18-4.4.3, 2.4GHz Only https://a.co/d/aRNMu0R

Intentionally deleted

I've set up all of our games this way. You don't have to scan the QR from another machine specifically. Connect your phone to the wifi network you want to use, then go to your phone's wifi settings, and there should be a place to generate a QR code for your network. Scan that QR with your game and it'll get all of the settings.

You can use a QR code to enter your WiFi network settings. Go to the network status screen on your working game and there will be a QR code on the left side. Take a picture of that code. Open the network setup screen on the new game and scan that QR code to configure WiFi on the new machine. You will still need to follow the other steps to setup IC but this gets around typing in your WiFi info on that terrible keyboard.

Yeah that’s where I was going wrong thought I had to scan the code with my phone

+1

The newer one of this, the AC600 that drwicket is trying to use, is both 2.4G and 5G and I think only 2.4G is supported by Insider Connected (the AC600 likely needs a different driver not in the Stern code versus what's in there to work with the 2.4G-only N150).

Just a guess.

these suck, I've had a few of them just die on me.

What's the reason for getting the SD cards? I mean, if I update a non-IC pin with new code (w/Home team) via USB, add the Wifi dongle, then do the QRC scanner trick, is that all that is needed to get the Home Team working on a non-IC pin?

When you use the QRC scanner located in another pin, does the RJ45 cable also power the QRC scanner (i.e. no power cable needed)? Looking at the IC kit on-line, I don't see a power cable.

My understanding is the microSD card is used as a temporary storage location to enable online updates.

The QR scanner connects to the machine via a standard Cat5 cable but power and data are shared on the connection (does not use normal Ethernet pin out or protocol).

OK, makes sense. Just looked at my GZ and it does have a SD memory card, whereas the other non-IC pins don't. Then I went back and looked at the IC kit from Stern and spotted the SD micro memory in the kit.

For clarity, all Spike 2 games use an SD card. It's where the majority of the game code is stored.
Insider connected uses a micro-SD card (in a completely different spot) but I'm not sure if it's all IC kits or only some of them.

It is in all of them. IC can't be initialized unless a working 16g or bigger microSD card is installed.

Yeah - I was referring to the micro SD, but I should have been more specific in my comment.

are they useing it for temp storage or swap file / both?

seems to just be a dependency check... because you can easily go back to NOT having the micro-SD card without having the reader.

does online updates work when you do that?
having an disk just as an dependency check seems odd.

Probably not - it's unclear if it's just a scratch disk or actually used in someway as the sandbox for online processes. But if you assume it's more than just a scratch drive, it makes a lot more sense in why it would be a dependency... that has low value to make optional. Just stop startup if your dependency is missing instead of trying to support a scenario you have no interest in and is not really needed. (you can disable IC all together if you somehow didn't have the MicroSD in).

With games like rush having images of 10+gigs... storage is no longer trivial

I could be wrong, but I think the new code is temporarily stored on the microSD card when you are updating via the internet.

I ended up ordering the Star tech one listed above and it worked. Got home team setup now going to order 2 more for my other machines.

So what times zone is stern working with on this software?

If I want to run H-Scores from 7pm-10pm Eastern time, what time do I need to tell the software?

Thanks

I have a Batman 66 that I’m trying to install insider on. I’ve got the ethernet splitter, but I do not know how to configure it. When I plug it into either port of node eight, and then plug in the insider to one side of the split and the cable I took out of node 8 into the other (no matter which port on node 8 I used), I get node board failures, no matter which way I configure it. Help! Assuming this has to be laid out pretty clearly in the Batman apron instructions for insider, but I didn’t buy that because I don’t want to get rid of the LE apron, using a coin door mount. Any help appreciated!

Your splitter should have 1 input, 2 outputs (its not ethernet.. just a RJ-45 splitter.. but regardless)

Just take the RJ-45 going into the coin door node board, remove it, plug into the input side of your splitter. Then plug rj-45 cables into the two outputs.. run one back to the coin door board, one to the QR reader node board.

You can do the same thing with Node 8 if you cared, but coin door board is closer to where you want anyways.

As long as you are using straight through cables and the right kind of splitter, its kinda hard to mess up.

I did this on the node 8 board (both RJ45 ports), and it didn’t work (gave me different node board errors). I’m wondering if my node boards are wired together differently (or if it would even matter), or if somehow I picked up a crossover cable for my extra( which I didn’t even think existed anymore!). If it’s as simple as this (and I’m glad to know it’s supposed to be) it should have already worked. I’ll try using the coin door board and change out Ethernet cables as well.

Do you have a topper? If not, just buy a long cat5 cable and run it to he scanner from them empty node port in the backbox. If you bought the coin door mount from me, this is covered in the instructions and the provided cable is long enough to do the job.

Have to ask the obvious question... You didn't accidently plug Node 8 into the other pin's CPU, right? You need to plug the OCR scanner (either by using the female-to-female adaptor or just plug into the OCR itself) into the other pin's CPU.

I've got a topper. it works if I unplug the topper and plug it in (just no topper!)

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, I'm just trying to use one machine, BM66. I've installed Insider on 5 other Sterns I own, and there was an empty (or terminated) RJ45 on Node 8, plugged in, and it worked fine. On BM66, on node 8 they are both full, one goes to what looks like the center of the playfield, another goes all the way up to the backbox and is plugged into the main board, one of the 3 RJ45 receptors at the bottom (CPU I think is what it would be called).

Topper board has an extra port that is open, I hadn't seen that before, plugged in there and it all works fine, so no splitting needed. I'll still try to figure out why splitting wasn't working, as I'd rather be plugged into the coin door board vs topper long run.

Make sure you were plugging your splitter in so the input side is coming from the 'upstream' daisy chain leading back to the CPU. You can connect to either jack on node 8, you just have to be aware of which is acting as in and out.. so you continue the chain successfully.

The two RJ-45 jacks on node 8 are the same... but it's the sequence of the daisy chain of boards that matters. You can easily tell which is which by simply unplugging one and seeing if that board goes offline, or if its the next board downstream that goes offline. If you unplug the jack and node 8 is reported missing by the game, that's the 'in' feed to the board. All of this is moot when you use the coindoor board because the coindoor board only has an input and no daisy chain ability.

Just unplug input to coindoor, insert into 1:2 splitter input.. connect one output back to coindoor board. If coindoor board doesn't come up, your splitter or inbetween cable is of the wrong type.

For spotting a cross-over RJ-45 cable.. just look at the colored wires in the jack ends. Should be same color order on both ends.

Figured it out.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLWK6SV
This splitter does not work. It wouldn't even work just inline (with one device plugged in).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069LVUPS
This one worked with one device, but not the second, because wait for it, bad ethernet cable (not even crossover just bad) on the second device. Ugh.

I'm good to go, should have tried that from the beginning. But I learned something!

Glad you got it working. I was just double checking that you were connecting things correctly.

Greatly appreciate the help!

Yeah - thats not what you want. Poorly labeled, but that is a device to put two ethernet feeds on the same 4 pair wire and then break them back out. So you could for instance get two ethernet feeds using the same installed wall jack.

What is needed is just a physical 1 to 2 outlet tap. Like our old phone days… just using rj45s instead of rj11

Glad you got it figured out!

So if you have pin w/o the lockdown bar button (imdn pro) and did the 'scanner not needed for every pin', trick...how do you add a 2nd player. Holding both flippers doesn't seem to work.

Figured it out...Press both buttons. Don't hold, just press.

I have several coin door kits that came back from powder coating with some cosmetic blemishes. I am selling the for half of the normal price. If you have any questions, please PM me directly.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1295-gotfrogs/07114-insider-connected-qr-code-reader-coin-door-mount-blemish

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Great product by the way!

99A1D493-AB1A-441C-885A-E605363442E9 (resized).jpeg

Yeah the coin door mount is the way to go. I have them on all four of my IC games. Unfortunately with the new home team, I only needed one! Oh well, at least IC came with 3 of the 4 and I only bought a kit for LZ. I'll be giving that reader from LZ to a friend and he can spend the $20 on a wifi dongle and micro SD card.

Edit: Appears I spoke too quickly. It wants the QR reader installed to maintain net functions...

I saw a post showing how to share and it basically looked like just splitting the IC to all the different machines. If this is the case and all machines are on, what happens when you go and scan? Or do you just use Home Team and it’s just plugged in so the Wi-Fi works?

Yeah this is not splitting, it's a new software feature. Basically you go in to the net settings and scan someone in to the "Home Team". Once that happens all of the machines at your house/location will add that player to the home team and they can log in by just holding the left flipper down for two seconds and choosing their user name. So basically you only need a scanner on one machine and once you are on your own home team you will never need to use a QR code again in your own house. The other machines will still need wifi to be connected to the IC server in the cloud and an SD to download new software on.

Copy that. I thought the Wi-Fi wouldn’t work without an IC connection.

You have to setup IC once on the machine without a QR reader and after you do that, you won't need the reader ever again as long as you just use your home team.

I did this with my JP and just ran a network cable from the QR reader to an empty port on JP, setup IC connect with the QR reader in GZ, powered it off and hooked the QR reader back up to GZ, powered on JP and it could connect online and I have home team working on it.

Anyone get full achievements on a game yet? Some are pretty tough.

It won't.. the change is the game allows you to 'log in' without having the scanner connected at the time via home team.

So you connect a reader+MicroSD+wifi... setup IC on that game... then afterwards, the reader doesn't need to be connected for the IC and home team functionality to keep working. So basically you only need the reader for first time setup.

We'll have to see if Stern lets this unofficial method to keep working as it does right now.

Can you do Wi-Fi updates without the IC hardware (after it’s been used to setup once)?

I don't think there have been any updates since the hometeam stuff was added to figure that out. I've added home team to all three of my stern machines after buying one kit and then a couple extra memory cards and network nubs from Amazon. I don't even have a QR reader installed in my machine currently, I just left it separate in case I buy another Stern or something. I took a short video kind of showing the home team stuff in action + the fact that I don't have a QR reader hooked up.

Someone could try by just doing the software check page...

I don't have a game setup this way so I don't know - but my speculation would be 'yes, it would work' considering the other checks are passing in this state right now.