220 replies to this topic

[uberpinball]

I am having serious issues getting this to work properly :-(
 
I follow the papers when calibrating, but it ask me to tilt the cabinet, but that is not possible. It is way to heavy and I am afraid to do so. So i just shake the cabinet as hard as I can.
Is this why I can't get it to work? If, what should I do? I really don't feel like I should tilt my cabinet in all directions with 4 guys lifting it.
 
The problem is that the ball is acting strange, moving when I don't touch the cabinet and also loosing speed on the way "down".

I cover a better way to calibrate your board here...
http://www.vpforums....264#entry223124

It's a frustrating task which sometimes doesn't end with great results.

Edited by uberpinball, 07 May 2013 - 12:48 PM.

[hotdp]

I am having serious issues getting this to work properly :-(
 
I follow the papers when calibrating, but it ask me to tilt the cabinet, but that is not possible. It is way to heavy and I am afraid to do so. So i just shake the cabinet as hard as I can.
Is this why I can't get it to work? If, what should I do? I really don't feel like I should tilt my cabinet in all directions with 4 guys lifting it.
 
The problem is that the ball is acting strange, moving when I don't touch the cabinet and also loosing speed on the way "down".

I cover a better way to calibrate your board here...
http://www.vpforums....264#entry223124

It's a frustrating task which sometimes doesn't end with great results.

 

Thank you for your help.

I have tried and I think I am close. But have asked you a question in the other thread.

[klonoa]

Hello.
I am quite new into visual pinball, but software worked, and now I added my brand new motion plunger kit.
But I have problems:
First: after installing driver, and calibraring in the windows device manager, i tried to start some tanles in VP.
But now I get only error messages:line xx: object necessary:controller.
What happened? All my tables played well before. What is missing? Do I have to change in the script something?
I deleted some rows before, as the UVP instruction told me, and wrote "backglasserv" in. Is this the reason?

And: Congo is my only table that is still working. But: the plunger movers in the right corner, but the ball isnt. Why?
I read, that I have to activate mechanical plunger. Where? Somewhere in the script? Cant find an option for it in VP.

Please help me!
Pleeeaaaseee...
Thank you!

Edited by klonoa, 05 December 2013 - 09:23 PM.

[klonoa]

Edit:
The error message are because I deleted some lines in the script. But this was needed, as I understood, to get UVP working. Made I a mistake?
Is it possible to use the nanotech plunger kit and the UVP Backglass Serv together?
Please help me.

Thank you guys!

[DJRobX]

I have a mot-ion board with the nanotech plunger, and for the most part it works great.   I've gone through and added support to all my tables.    The only issue I have is that the center calibration for the nudging seems to drift, both the X and Y.   I suspect they change as the cab warms up.

 

Because of this I have to set the dead zone pretty high.   Otherwise I get balls pulling upward and to the left when I first start up the cab.  

 

Klonoa: Those sorts of errors don't have anything to do with the Nanotech kit.   I suggest posting the code that you altered in a different UVP specific topic.  You'll get the hang of it.    Took me a while at first, but now I'm to a point where I can add plunger support to just about any table in about 2 minutes, LOL. 

 

There's a topic here that explains adding plunger support:

 

http://www.vpforums....showtopic=19663

 

Unfortunately I've found almost no tables that support the plunger correctly without some sort of bugs.    There's usually one of the following conditions:

 

1) The table uses the built-in VP plunger.   It's usually a gray, ugly looking thing, but it moves smoothly with the Nanotech.    For these, there's two possible problems:

     a) The Enable Electromechanical Plunger option is disabled

     b) The Park position is set to .16, so the ball doesn't actually make contact.  Set it to 0.

 

You need to find the plunger in the VP editor (fastest way is to click the down arrow to the right of the "Sel.." button in the upper left and find "Plunger").   Click Options

to show the list of options for that object.

 

2) The table uses the built-in VP plunger but it's hidden, and an animation is drawn instead of the ugly VP plunger.   The ball may actually launch with the Nanotech, but the animation doesn't work.  

    a) The initial fix is the same as #1 if the ball doesn't launch.

    b) Some code updates will be needed to fix the animation.   See the above referenced support topic.  

 

3) The table doesn't use a VP plunger at all.  

    a) You need to add a hidden plunger to the table.  You can either position it such that it launches the ball, or you can move it aside and let the scripted code launch it using some custom logic.    This topic and option is covered in the above mentioned thread.

    b) You need to apply the same sorts of code fixes needed by #2 to make the animation work.

 

4) The table actually has coded support for the Nanotech, but the ball doesn't launch!

    a) This is usually because the plunger object has a park position of .166.  Set it to 0.    Table author may have had an incorrectly calibrated plunger that goes negative at release (or mechanically bounces more than mine does )

Edited by DJRobX, 06 December 2013 - 04:08 AM.

[Robb]

Hi Everyone.

 

I'm trying to install the Mot-ion and plunger kit.  Plug in the usb cable and xp(SP3) is unable to locate the driver for it.

 

Any ideas on what to do next? 

 

Thanks in advance,

Robb

[Robb]

Further investigation Ninja Edit;

 

Okay so I got windows to make the "usb plugged in" noise once on the pinball cabinet.  Everything installed, but followed up with the "usb unplugged" noise.  I've tried 3 cables on 6 different usb ports.  And even tried it on a couple different computers.

 

I think I can safely say something is wrong with the board.

 

Any common weak points in the design that I can look at?  I'm wondering if it's something wrong with the usb connector on it since I was able to get it to connect once.  

 

I've already heated up the joints on the usb connector with no progress.  I'll try swapping it out with another lying around.  else, solder the wires from a usb cable directly to it.

 

Feel free to post up if you have any suggestions.

[koadic]

Unless you can find another usb gamepad and see if the same issues occur (the nanotech/pbwizard uses the built in default drivers), you're probably right in that it might be an issue with the board. Have you tried running it through a powered usb hub yet?

[Robb]

Yup.  Bad connector.  Soldered the usb cable wires directly to the board and it works fine.

[blur]

koadic here is an idea to solve calibration problems once and for all on all kinds of nudge devices, motion detector and stick based

 

VP has a zero point and if stick is not in zero point it does a nudge in proper direction

 

when zero point drifts - it nudges all the time - you have to set big dead zone - if you set big dead zone it's more difficult to nudge at all

 

so one solution would be to slowly over time adjust vp's zero position to current position of the nudge cursor on x and y axes, so if motion detector drifts a bit - our zero will follow and all will be ok - we just have to adjust zero slow enough so that it is not faster then real nudge motion but it is faster then the drift speed

 

another solution would be not to look at absolute cursor position but only delta from last measuring and based on that delta do nudge - so real zero position is irrelevant

 

 

same thing could be done with plungers - there are some motion sensors that don't always get same amount of movement when you slowly pull plunger and when you release it and it hits the ball quickly - so same as with nudge after some time - whatever position plunger is on - you consider that as zero - or you watch only delta all the time so zero position is irrelevant 

Edited by blur, 03 January 2014 - 02:51 AM.

[neohusky]

In another forum DJRpbX posted a solution using an external program he put together.

I ran it yesterday and after recalibration I didn't get any drift. I'll continue to run it over the next few days and weeks and see how it goes.

Maybe he can repost the software here.

I hacked up a DirectInput sample to do the above.    So far, it seems to be working, and I'm able to set a much smaller dead zone without worrying about it going out of wack.    Was pretty fun, the structures for getting and setting calibration data (DIPROPCAL) are barely documented. 
 
I've attached it, along with source, for anyone who wants to mess around with it.    Note that I did just enough to make it do what I needed to do and nothing more.   It's ugly, dirty, filthy, proof-of-concept quality code.    If someone wants to take this and make it into a more user-friendly package knock yourself out!
 
Summary:
 
1) Sample the joystick input once every 30 seconds
2) Record those samples for 10 seconds
3) If any movement during those 10 seconds is above a threshold (i.e., you're nudging), stop and wait for things to settle.
4) If you make it through 10 seconds, average the readings and set the new center.   Rinse, repeat.
 
It has a UI so you can sort of see what it's doing.   At startup and runs and minimizes into your tray (as to not mess with Hyperpin).    If you open it you can see the numeric readings of your X and Y axis.   If you watch it in the first 10 seconds you should see it center itself.
 
The configuration constants are currently:
 
#define SAMPLES_TO_TAKE (30 * 10) 
#define MAX_DEVIATION 200
#define DELAYTIME (30 * 10)
#define ADJUST_THRESHOLD 5
 
This does mean your calibrations need to be in the ballpark (idle values no more than +- 200)  in order for it to start working.    You could set higher deviations, but that means the centers could get temporarily corrupted by gentle nudging.     
 
I have not seen any performance impact from this.  Its calculations are very light.
 

[DJRobX]

Glad to hear it's useful for someone.   It's working great for me.   I check on it once in a while in DXTweak2 and it's behaving nicely now.

 

I did make a slight mod to the program since I posted it, I noticed FPLaunch was sometimes closing it down, so I made it ignore WM_Close.   

 

I've uploaded it to the Tutorials section for lack of a better place and lack of ability to make an attachment.

 

http://www.vpforums....s&showfile=8896

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[klonoa]

Hello.
I have a problem with my motion plunger kit: everytime when I start the computer, I have to do the calibration for this plunger.
Otherwise, the ball is always moving to one side.
At the calibration site I see, that the center cross isnt centered,and it is moving all the time a little bit.
What can I do?
I ve read some hints above,but dont understand.
I use win7 64bit.
Thank you,hp

[DJRobX]

Klonoa, You can try the program I wrote above, that's exactly the problem that it's designed to fix.

 

Just put JoystickCenter.exe in your startup folder.   It will run silently in the background, and automatically re-center the axes.

Edited by DJRobX, 10 January 2014 - 04:11 PM.

[klonoa]

Thank you DJRobX!

I will try this.

What about the Folder "Source"?

Where should I place it?

 

thx

[DJRobX]

You can delete the source folder if you don't need it.    I just provided it incase anyone wants to make changes to the program.

[pocketpal]

I am trying to figure out where I can mount the PCB in my mini-pin so that it properly detects nudges, yet is easily removable for (hopefully infrequent) calibration, but I am tight on space.  My question is:  how important is it that the PCB be mounted parallel to the ground?  Could it be mounted in a vertical position on the inside front of the cabinet, and calibrated with that as the zero point?

[klonoa]

Hi again. Joystick.center isnt working for me
It is tilting all the time my tables.
So I disabled the nudge function
But now I have another problem with my opto board: until now, I didnt use opto boards for my flippers.
But now I added this feature.
Works over a few seconds well, but then, the motion plunger disconnects
Have to plug out and in the cable, then It works again.
This happens at visual pinball and hyperpin. Only when I add the opto boards.
Has somebody tested this?
Is optp board working with this motionboard?
Really getting tired of this motion thing ...

[SpunkyBruiser]

Maybe this has been answered already but I am getting tired, aggravated and just want to go to bed. So I have been building my cab for a while now and came time for wiring it all up and making it happen and I seem to run into a crazy issue. I made my own mame arcade before so i know about switches and such but When I pull back the plunger too hard or my cab shakes too much, it restarts my PC. I am not sure if it was something I did, or what.. Anyone else have that issue? Pull back on the plunger too much and after the release your pc restarts?

 

 

[zebulon]

Sounds like a possible short in the controller is affecting the usb port.  That's just a shot in the dark though.  Try running it through a hub or a different usb port and see if it persists.