490 replies to this topic

[psmiraglia]

Mjr, I’m open to help troubleshooting, but I’m not a fan of installers. If you have new files in a zip package, and specific instructions, I’ll be glad to give it another try.

[mjr]

Mjr, I’m open to help troubleshooting, but I’m not a fan of installers. If you have new files in a zip package, and specific instructions, I’ll be glad to give it another try.

 

I understand the aversion to installers, but in this case I'd ask you to make an exception and try it.   I'm afraid I don't have a new ZIP file for you to try, because I don't have anything new to try in the DLLs themselves - as far as I can test them myself, that part is all working.  So this seems like it must be a configuration issue.  The point of trying the Setup installer is that it's less error-prone than the manual setup procedure. 

 

If you're worried about malware or something like that, you can build it yourself from the source - it's all checked into my github fork.  If you're worried about registry cruft or something along those lines, I can assure that the Setup is just doing automatically what you'd otherwise have to do manually, so the net effect on your system is the same either way.

[psmiraglia]

I aprreciate the effort, but I have to pass. I'have the setup ready to try again in a few days once I get a sense if it is just me or a general issue.

 

I'm done with installers for VP. The last two I used, a table and PUP, broke UltraDMD and my DMD in every other emulator respectively and then had to invest more time troubleshooting and fencing arguments from the authors telling me how wrong I was when I installed things in the first place :-) Going manual...

 

on a separate note, thank you for keeping our software updated.

[TerryRed]

I aprreciate the effort, but I have to pass. I'have the setup ready to try again in a few days once I get a sense if it is just me or a general issue.

 

I'm done with installers for VP. The last two I used, a table and PUP, broke UltraDMD and my DMD in every other emulator respectively and then had to invest more time troubleshooting and fencing arguments from the authors telling me how wrong I was when I installed things in the first place :-) Going manual...

 

on a separate note, thank you for keeping our software updated.

 

I certainly understand not liking installers....I don't like them either. As far as PuP installer is concerned...you "don't" have to install it over your setup...simply install to a temp location and copy the files manually if you prefer.

 

In terms of DOF...it couldn't be easier to backup before installing....simply copy your entire DirectOutput folder somewhere else as a backup...  if things go bad...then just remove the new DirectOutput with problems and replace it with your backup.

 

@mjr

 

I will get around to trying this out... I don't have Pro Pinball, but I do have Led-Wiz, and a Teensy and DOFLinx all working with Pinball X.

[psmiraglia]

mjr, i ran the installer in a VM to assess what it did, then i ran it on my setup. still shows issues with pbx (did not test other systems). here are the dof logs before, during and after (revertd to working version) as well as the install log.

 

before: https://pastebin.com/ddsG9EUA

running new version: https://pastebin.com/TbKmdwPn

after reverting (had to trim similar entries): https://pastebin.com/bkcjZmr0

install log: https://pastebin.com/CYiZJF1E

[senseless]

Thanks for this DOF installer/update! Much appreciated .

[JPmini]

Thanks for this wonderful all in one installer solution! I can confirm the SainSmart autoconfig works for me. I did the upgrade last week, and yesterday was the first time running with 8 solenoids and the difference is like day and night, absolutely wonderful, worth the money and effort for sure. Only working for me in all Visual Pinball exes, but I can't seem to figure out why I can't get my solenoids to fire in Future Pinball. Pretty sure I have set up everything correctly using this guide http://www.vpforums....showtopic=36184 and the latest version of DOFLinx (6.20).

[Outhere]

The best thing to do is start a new post here

http://www.vpforums....p?showforum=106

And referencing that guide ......, In your DOFLinx.ini file set this to one DEBUG=1 clear the log try running a game ones then post your DOFLinx.ini and DOFLinx.log

Edited by Outhere, 12 February 2018 - 02:41 PM.

[mjr]

mjr, i ran the installer in a VM to assess what it did, then i ran it on my setup. still shows issues with pbx (did not test other systems). here are the dof logs before, during and after (revertd to working version) as well as the install log.

 

before: https://pastebin.com/ddsG9EUA

running new version: https://pastebin.com/TbKmdwPn

after reverting (had to trim similar entries): https://pastebin.com/bkcjZmr0

install log: https://pastebin.com/CYiZJF1E

 

Thanks for trying it.  So, the interesting bit here is that DOF appears to be loading successfully in all cases.  You're getting a bunch of parsing errors for the .ini files (the same errors appear in all versions), but DOF ignores those and carries on with its business.  It seems that it's not DOF that's having the problem - it's something in one of the wrapper layers. 

 

One more test that might be interesting to run would be to fire up PBX (with the new DOF version installed) and let it just sit there for five or ten minutes.  Then check what the DOF log says.  The thing I want to know is if DOF keeps running the whole time or gets shut down immediately.  If you were already doing that and these logs reflect several minutes of PBX run time, that would answer the question, but I'm assuming that you just fired up PBX for long enough to see that DOF wasn't loading and shut it right back down.

 

Other than that I'm not sure where to look next - I'll have to look at the DOF PBX plugin code and see if there's any more tracing I can add there to narrow it down.

[mjr]

@psmiraglia - new version for you to try.

 

ZIP: mjrnet.org/pinscape/downloads/DirectOutput-mjr-20180213.zip

MSI: mjrnet.org/pinscape/downloads/DirectOutput-mjr-20180213.msi

 

I still don't have any idea what's wrong, so I haven't actually found anything to fix.  This attempt is purely for diagnostics; it adds some more logging to the mysterious point of failure in the DOF PBX plugin.  So you'll want to check your PinballX\Plugins\DirectOutput PinballX Plugin.log file after running.  You should see two new things there: first, the top line should identify itself with the build date (should be 2018-02-13), to confirm that the right plugin is indeed running; second, it should now show the contents of the mystery exception it was reporting before, so we can see what's actually going wrong, or at least get some more detail about where it's going wrong.

[DJRobX]

Thanks for taking this on mjr.  Sorely needed for sure.

 

I sent you a pull request to merge some PacLed64 fixes that address a flickering problem.  JesperPark wanted my PWM fix but also needed this bit for his system to work properly.   I decompiled his DLL to find the new rate limiting logic.    I believe it was an uncommitted change from SwissLizard but I could be wrong.   I don't have a way to test this myself, but the resulting build did work for him. 

[mjr]

I sent you a pull request to merge some PacLed64 fixes that address a flickering problem.  JesperPark wanted my PWM fix but also needed this bit for his system to work properly.   I decompiled his DLL to find the new rate limiting logic.    I believe it was an uncommitted change from SwissLizard but I could be wrong.   I don't have a way to test this myself, but the resulting build did work for him. 

 

Thanks - I'll merge that into my fork and publish the update when I've got it integrated.

 

[Edit]

Okay, done - the merge is in github and the builds are on the release page: mjrnet.org/pinscape/dll-updates.html

Edited by mjr, 14 February 2018 - 01:03 AM.

[jesperpark]

Thanks MJR and DJRobX, I kept forgetting to mention this issue I had.  I will try this out in the next day or so and let you know results.  It seemed to be a Pac64led combined with Windows 10 issue, that a usb hub "fix" would not solve

[psmiraglia]

alright. tried the new build. dof works in pbx, but only my pacled. my teensy does not fire. and i get some random solenoids fire, something i fixed a while back with the build shared by jesperpark. reverting to old version mmmkes both my pacled and teensy fire.

 

log: https://pastebin.com/ZrneH1CT

[mjr]

alright. tried the new build. dof works in pbx, but only my pacled. my teensy does not fire. and i get some random solenoids fire, something i fixed a while back with the build shared by jesperpark. reverting to old version mmmkes both my pacled and teensy fire.

 

log: https://pastebin.com/ZrneH1CT

 

Well, that's progress, at least.   And also pretty mysterious that it should suddenly start working, because I didn't change anything in the DLLs other than adding the new logging.  You've clearly got some kind of configuration issue going on.  It would be good to get to the bottom of it because it's going to come back at some point if you get this working and don't understand what's causing it.

 

I notice that your log file says that zero devices are being loaded from cabinet.xml.  That would explain why the addressable strips aren't working, as those require cabinet.xml data to work.  I also noticed that your "old config" log file was loading the Teensy data, so that's where to look.

 

Any chance that with all of this experimentation that you're just not restoring all of your old config files when trying the new version?  Like, maybe you're renaming your old DOF folder to save it, installing the new stuff in a newly created directory, and not copying over all of your old config files to the new setup?

[psmiraglia]

I started by creating a copy of my dof folder (inc doflinx), then installed dof and new doflinx over the old folder. And since ten I rename .old and .new the whole older to Test back and forth... Im pretty confident this is a good way to Test. I also rename .old and .new both the pbx dll as well as dofslave.exe all config files are exact match and I have not touched them, other than enabling debugging for doflinx, sine the process started. At this time Id like to see what others are experiencing with both pbx and pinpro. I dont have to rush the upgrade... plus I think I need the Modifications I got from jesperpark to be merged in.

[psmiraglia]

What I wonder now is if I have a folder shortcut that follows the .old folder every time I rename... hmm... I may look into this. All config are 100% equal though

[mjr]

@psmiraglia - since the problem seems to be in cabinet.xml, I added some more instrumentation to help you see what's going on there.  This build should copy the entire contents of the cabinet.xml it's reading into the log, so that you can see exactly what DOF thinks it's initializing with.  Hopefully that'll either clear this up or point to the next bizarre mystery...

 

ZIP:  http://mjrnet.org/pi...jr-20180216.zip

MSI: http://mjrnet.org/pi...jr-20180216.msi

[psmiraglia]

@mjr with this new set, PBX fires both my pacled and teensy, but now vpx does not fire the teensy any longer.

 

these are the logs for pbx and the ones for vpx when working well and when not

 

https://mega.nz/#!FUlnASCJ!QAYHdXGXxGZ3AnmlYySbOr1DHUXGDzulhTHUY-nWaEE

 

 

have not tested doflinx or pinballpro

[mjr]

@mjr with this new set, PBX fires both my pacled and teensy, but now vpx does not fire the teensy any longer.

 

these are the logs for pbx and the ones for vpx when working well and when not

 

https://mega.nz/#!FUlnASCJ!QAYHdXGXxGZ3AnmlYySbOr1DHUXGDzulhTHUY-nWaEE

 

 

have not tested doflinx or pinballpro

 

I'm afraid I can't seem unpack your rar - if you could re-upload as flat files I'll take a look.

 

I just want to reiterate again that I'm not changing anything in these builds other than instrumentation.  So it's extremely mystifying to get these reports that "this works and this doesn't" on every new build, when nothing is changing in the actual code!  

 

And that goes double for doflinkx/pinballpro - I'm not touching anything there, so in principle there's really no point in even trying again, but given that things keep changing in the other stuff you try, might as well...