734 replies to this topic

[mjr]

Yes in PinballX you can use the LedWiz to flash lights and run toys for a set time .... but really what it is not doing is going into the random shuffle of tables every 45 seconds after it is idle for 2 minutes. They call it an attract mode. Has nothing to do with the LedWiz other than a plugin to run the lights when the attract mode starts.
No word from Tom over there yet but another admin thinks that it is seeing some kind of nudge reading and keeping the cab "active" so it never goes idle.

 

Hmm, that's probably something they're going to have to fix on their side, then.  I'm not sure how they work with *any* nudge devices if that's really the case, though, because all nudge devices just feed a steady stream of joystick data to Windows.  They never shut off.  A USB device has no idea what's going on on the Windows side, so it has no way to stop sending data when a program exits - there's no concept of "Windows program" in the USB protocol.

 

Oh, and I should point out that I've always run PBX on my own cab, so whatever's going on must not be a generic problem that affects all PBX x all KL25Z.

Edited by mjr, 04 May 2016 - 07:37 PM.

[Les73gTx]

Hmmmm ok well I was hoping that I was not the only one running into this but it seems that I am. So I will wait till I hear from Tom over there as to what the logs say is causing the issue.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[kruuth]

Silly question here, but did someone post the hires images of the black and white plunger to this thread or some place else?  I can't seem to find them now.

[gtxjoe]

Open VPX.  File->New Table.  Table->Image Manager.  Find "PlungerBlacktip" and "PlungerWhiteTip" and extract those to import into other tables

[Les73gTx]

Yes in PinballX you can use the LedWiz to flash lights and run toys for a set time .... but really what it is not doing is going into the random shuffle of tables every 45 seconds after it is idle for 2 minutes. They call it an attract mode. Has nothing to do with the LedWiz other than a plugin to run the lights when the attract mode starts.
No word from Tom over there yet but another admin thinks that it is seeing some kind of nudge reading and keeping the cab "active" so it never goes idle.

 
Hmm, that's probably something they're going to have to fix on their side, then.  I'm not sure how they work with *any* nudge devices if that's really the case, though, because all nudge devices just feed a steady stream of joystick data to Windows.  They never shut off.  A USB device has no idea what's going on on the Windows side, so it has no way to stop sending data when a program exits - there's no concept of "Windows program" in the USB protocol.
 
Oh, and I should point out that I've always run PBX on my own cab, so whatever's going on must not be a generic problem that affects all PBX x all KL25Z.

Ok I understand that in the computer environment the usb protocol is constantly sending data and windows is always doing something with it. What the hang up seems to be is that the Freescale board is sending something that is being considered as a key press and not letting the computer be idle. I was able to test this by setting Windows Screensaver to start in 2 minutes, leave the computer on the desktop ... with the Freescale board plugged in Screensaver will never start. If I unplug the board from the computer then the Windows Screensaver will start like it should. Is it windows is it pinballx? I don't know and that is why I am asking for help.
Right now you are both pointing fingers at each other and saying that it is "his fault" and there is no help as there is no log that can show that information, so I am told.
Frustrating but thanks for the effort.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[mjr]

Ok I understand that in the computer environment the usb protocol is constantly sending data and windows is always doing something with it. What the hang up seems to be is that the Freescale board is sending something that is being considered as a key press and not letting the computer be idle. I was able to test this by setting Windows Screensaver to start in 2 minutes, leave the computer on the desktop ... with the Freescale board plugged in Screensaver will never start. If I unplug the board from the computer then the Windows Screensaver will start like it should. Is it windows is it pinballx? I don't know and that is why I am asking for help.
Right now you are both pointing fingers at each other and saying that it is "his fault" and there is no help as there is no log that can show that information, so I am told.
Frustrating but thanks for the effort.

 

If it is indeed a keyboard key, you should be able to see if with other apps.  Try this:  run Notepad, leave it sitting a while.  If there's some kind of printable key being pressed, it should show up as text entered in Notepad.  It could also be a non-printing key, like a Shift or Control key, so if you see nothing showing up in Notepad for a while, try going to the Start menu and type "on screen keyboard" into the search box.  That should find the Windows on-screen keyboard app; run it.  The SHIFT and CTRL and ALT keys light up on that display when you press them, so watch it a while and see if you see any keyboard activity there.  

 

I don't know if joystick buttons would prevent either the Windows screen-saver or PBX attract mode from kicking in, but you can check those with the "Set up USB Game Controllers" control panel.  If you open that to the properties page, it shows the 32 joystick buttons on screen, and the individual buttons will light up when pressed.  Watch it a while and see if any buttons are randomly lighting up when you're not touching anything.

 

Two questions on your config...

 

1.  Are you running the V2 software or the older software?  If you're running the V2 software, do you have any input buttons or the ZB Launch Ball feature configured to send keyboard keys?  If so, try changing all of those back to joystick buttons.

 

2.  Do you have any third-party software in your system that translates joystick buttons to keyboard keys, like x-padder?  Some people use that kind of thing so they can use joystick button input with the commercial pinball games that don't accept joystick input natively.  If you're running something like, you might try disabling or uninstalling it to see if that changes anything.

Edited by mjr, 14 May 2016 - 05:47 PM.

[Les73gTx]

Will get back to you tomorrow on this but thanks for the suggestions. ... out of town atm.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[Les73gTx]

 

Ok I understand that in the computer environment the usb protocol is constantly sending data and windows is always doing something with it. What the hang up seems to be is that the Freescale board is sending something that is being considered as a key press and not letting the computer be idle. I was able to test this by setting Windows Screensaver to start in 2 minutes, leave the computer on the desktop ... with the Freescale board plugged in Screensaver will never start. If I unplug the board from the computer then the Windows Screensaver will start like it should. Is it windows is it pinballx? I don't know and that is why I am asking for help.
Right now you are both pointing fingers at each other and saying that it is "his fault" and there is no help as there is no log that can show that information, so I am told.
Frustrating but thanks for the effort.

 

If it is indeed a keyboard key, you should be able to see if with other apps.  Try this:  run Notepad, leave it sitting a while.  If there's some kind of printable key being pressed, it should show up as text entered in Notepad.  It could also be a non-printing key, like a Shift or Control key, so if you see nothing showing up in Notepad for a while, try going to the Start menu and type "on screen keyboard" into the search box.  That should find the Windows on-screen keyboard app; run it.  The SHIFT and CTRL and ALT keys light up on that display when you press them, so watch it a while and see if you see any keyboard activity there.  

 

I don't know if joystick buttons would prevent either the Windows screen-saver or PBX attract mode from kicking in, but you can check those with the "Set up USB Game Controllers" control panel.  If you open that to the properties page, it shows the 32 joystick buttons on screen, and the individual buttons will light up when pressed.  Watch it a while and see if any buttons are randomly lighting up when you're not touching anything.

 

Two questions on your config...

 

1.  Are you running the V2 software or the older software?  If you're running the V2 software, do you have any input buttons or the ZB Launch Ball feature configured to send keyboard keys?  If so, try changing all of those back to joystick buttons.

 

2.  Do you have any third-party software in your system that translates joystick buttons to keyboard keys, like x-padder?  Some people use that kind of thing so they can use joystick button input with the commercial pinball games that don't accept joystick input natively.  If you're running something like, you might try disabling or uninstalling it to see if that changes anything.

 

 Been working on this a little for the last 2 nights and I think I have it fixed .... let me answer your questions first ....

 

 I am not sure on the Version of the software but the download date is 3-20-2016 as I had thought I read something posted about a update ... so I grabbed those files at that time. I have not configured any of the joystick buttons inside windows or pinballx when I originally installed pinballx 3 years ago I made sure to remove all input from the joystick input page in PinballX setup as it was suspected there could be a possible conflict if there were duplicate buttons assigned. I do not use the ZB ball launch feature ... until installing this I only used a launch ball button and had no physical nudge ability, I used the second flipper buttons for nudge. Now the second flipper buttons are set as magna-save buttons. 

 I also use a iPac 2 keyboard emulator and have never run any additional software like xpadder as I had no need to use a game pad.

 

So ...  I stepped out of pinballX and was doing my testing in Windows only ... as it makes sense that if PinballX is seeing a non-idle state then so must windows. I followed some suggestions from this thread and from the guys over at PinballX, I think I have my problem .... bad driver install from the freescale board. I have removed all related drivers and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed the issue .... 

 I had the Game Pad Test window open in Window along with notepad and the onscreen keyboard. The only thing that was making anything happen was the x-y axis was always in motion. So my first thought was "this is the problem Great" .... but the problem would still happen (no windows screen saver and no pinballx attract mode AFTER the first game played) if I unplugged the freescale board while windows was running ..... only on a fresh boot without the board plugged in would I get a successful Windows screen saver and pinballx attract mode  ..... What still baffles me is the fact that PinballX will do attract mode for hours with no problem as long as I didn't play a game; while the board was plugged in. So I can only assume that the driver is getting hung up someplace after the card is accessed for data? .... I don't know.  I guess I will test for a bit longer and make sure my problem is solved ... I did have the problem also that sometimes on a boot up the device would not be recognized (red flashing led on freescale board) and I would have to unplug it and plug it back in to get the blue green LED flashing, but this was very random so I did not give it much thought until just now.

 I want to thank you for your time MJR and for a great product again .... Sorry that I was frustrated and took it out on here ... I really need a fresh perspective to make it through this one.  

[mjr]

Been working on this a little for the last 2 nights and I think I have it fixed .... 

 

So ...  I stepped out of pinballX and was doing my testing in Windows only ... as it makes sense that if PinballX is seeing a non-idle state then so must windows. I followed some suggestions from this thread and from the guys over at PinballX, I think I have my problem .... bad driver install from the freescale board. I have removed all related drivers and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed the issue .... 

 

Interesting!  Glad you found a solution.  Just out of curiosity, do you know exactly what the driver was that you removed?  Or the procedure you used to remove it?  I like to keep track of possible solutions in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.  I'm also curious exactly what was going on with it, in case whatever was happening was a symptom of a deeper problem that should be looked at.  

 

The Pinscape software doesn't have any drivers of its own, since it uses the built-in Windows HID (Human Interface Device) drivers.  You can't truly uninstall those, since they're embedded in Windows, but Device Manager does let you perform a step that it calls "uninstall" that deletes the registry data that connects a particular hardware device to the HID drivers.  Maybe you had some bad data in there that needed to be reset.  Anyway, if you remember the specifics of the steps you performed, I'd be interested in seeing if I can piece together more exactly what was going on.

 

 

I did have the problem also that sometimes on a boot up the device would not be recognized (red flashing led on freescale board) and I would have to unplug it and plug it back in to get the blue green LED flashing, but this was very random so I did not give it much thought until just now.

 

That could conceivably be related, especially since the driver reset seemed to help.  I've seen situations during debugging where a failed USB connection causes Windows to misinterpret some of the device descriptor data.  It's one of those rare and random problems that I don't know how to reproduce, so I don't have any idea what causes it or how to fix it, but maybe you were hit by something similar, and maybe the corrupted descriptor was somehow generating random keyboard input.

 

Hopefully the problem is solved and won't come back now!

[Gillen]

Anyone using Pinscape and KL25Z with Pinball FX2?

I recently bought a KL25X and it works awesome with Pinscape except I can't get nudge to work in a good way with x360ce. It's not sensitive at all when using analogue nudging and if I map axis to dpad it's super sensitive. Anyone who can show their setup?

 

Thanks you for the superb software Pinscape!

[Les73gTx]

 

Been working on this a little for the last 2 nights and I think I have it fixed .... 

 

So ...  I stepped out of pinballX and was doing my testing in Windows only ... as it makes sense that if PinballX is seeing a non-idle state then so must windows. I followed some suggestions from this thread and from the guys over at PinballX, I think I have my problem .... bad driver install from the freescale board. I have removed all related drivers and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed the issue .... 

 

Interesting!  Glad you found a solution.  Just out of curiosity, do you know exactly what the driver was that you removed?  Or the procedure you used to remove it?  I like to keep track of possible solutions in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.  I'm also curious exactly what was going on with it, in case whatever was happening was a symptom of a deeper problem that should be looked at.  

 

The Pinscape software doesn't have any drivers of its own, since it uses the built-in Windows HID (Human Interface Device) drivers.  You can't truly uninstall those, since they're embedded in Windows, but Device Manager does let you perform a step that it calls "uninstall" that deletes the registry data that connects a particular hardware device to the HID drivers.  Maybe you had some bad data in there that needed to be reset.  Anyway, if you remember the specifics of the steps you performed, I'd be interested in seeing if I can piece together more exactly what was going on.

 

 

I did have the problem also that sometimes on a boot up the device would not be recognized (red flashing led on freescale board) and I would have to unplug it and plug it back in to get the blue green LED flashing, but this was very random so I did not give it much thought until just now.

 

That could conceivably be related, especially since the driver reset seemed to help.  I've seen situations during debugging where a failed USB connection causes Windows to misinterpret some of the device descriptor data.  It's one of those rare and random problems that I don't know how to reproduce, so I don't have any idea what causes it or how to fix it, but maybe you were hit by something similar, and maybe the corrupted descriptor was somehow generating random keyboard input.

 

Hopefully the problem is solved and won't come back now!

 

 .... So sorry in the late reply .... 

 

 I did exactly as you said and uninstalled the specific device in the device manager ... noted what one was appearing when hot plugged into the system,..., I also removed all software and related downloaded material and then when through the complete setup guide again.

 Also to note here I did find a updated driver for my motherboard for the usb 3.0 hub ... but I did not have the freescale board plugged into the 3.0 usb at any time so I want to assume that the two were not related.

 So far the problem is solved and is playing very well. Thanks again for your support and hard work on this. 

[AndersE]

Hey mjr, i must applaud your excellent and easy programming/setup guide of the KL25Z. It was probably one of the most easy i have ever followed.

 

The only weirdness i had, was that the (not the green led) other led was flashing all different colors depending on how i held the device when powered.

I have no idea what it is. But it seems to work.

 

So far i only got the KL board, but i am waiting for a TSL sensor in the mail.

But i installed firmware and software so i could test it.

I must say the nudge sensor seems much better than Zeb's version. I am going for this one instead, because the plunger is not so good on zeb's. I have a bad habit of turning the

plunger before i shoot, and zeb's is connected with the plastic slider which means NO TURNING of shooter

And the accuracy is not enough for me.

Edited by AndersE, 03 June 2016 - 11:23 AM.

[mjr]

The only weirdness i had, was that the (not the green led) other led was flashing all different colors depending on how i held the device when powered.

I have no idea what it is. But it seems to work.

 

It sounds like it was running the demo program they install at the factory.  The demo does exactly what you observed - it lets you control the color of the LED using the accelerometer, so the color changes as you tilt the board in different directions.  Not very useful, just something to show that the board is working out of the box.

[TerryRed]

If my cabinet didn't have a combination of arcade and pinball, and I didn't already have two gamepads installed.... I definitely would have gone with your type of setup mjr!

 

Here is what I setup for my plunger working off of my xbox 360 gamepad. By using the two slider potentiometers, I was able to tweak the range of motion quite nicely for my particular setup.

 

[kiwiBri]

I just stumbled on this this build. Looks great. Will look into it, but maybe for a first timer its easier just to buy a kit (Zebs perhaps). 

[sliderpoint]

Well, this is labeled as a Do-it-yourself project.  So it would be easier to get a plug and play unit.   But I didn't find the soldering and software installs to be all that complicated and the instructions are pretty damn spot on and easy to follow.

 

The software configuration for VP, FP etc have to be done for all of the different units out there, so that's not any different between the solutions.

 

-Mike

[Avi]

Hi.
and followed all this thread. translated into Spanish . since I am from Chile. and I want to create my cabinet from scratch. and I need your help .
the idea is to use pinballX and Pinball FX 2 .
that has led to the effects , contactors , push ball , contactors and vibrator.
all with lk25z .
steps need their connection diagrams.
for me here they speak in code. and I want to do this cabinet . to achieve a good tutorial from scratch in Spanish

Edited by Avi, 13 June 2016 - 03:29 AM.

[Avi]

Yes in PinballX you can use the LedWiz to flash lights and run toys for a set time .... but really what it is not doing is going into the random shuffle of tables every 45 seconds after it is idle for 2 minutes. They call it an attract mode. Has nothing to do with the LedWiz other than a plugin to run the lights when the attract mode starts.
No word from Tom over there yet but another admin thinks that it is seeing some kind of nudge reading and keeping the cab "active" so it never goes idle.

 
Hmm, that's probably something they're going to have to fix on their side, then.  I'm not sure how they work with *any* nudge devices if that's really the case, though, because all nudge devices just feed a steady stream of joystick data to Windows.  They never shut off.  A USB device has no idea what's going on on the Windows side, so it has no way to stop sending data when a program exits - there's no concept of "Windows program" in the USB protocol.
 
Oh, and I should point out that I've always run PBX on my own cab, so whatever's going on must not be a generic problem that affects all PBX x all KL25Z.

MJR hello . I am here as I mentioned
I need help. I want my own cabinet from scratch .
programs. pinballX and pinball fx 2 .
lk25z .
Funcines of lk25z . pull potentiometer 75 MM 10KA ball . contactor . LED . all effects are achieved with lk25z .
So bottom line is I want . if I can help with digraphs . and according to the diagram . I need the file to load in lk25z .
I need this ( picture ) .. but according to your project

http://i38.servimg.c...50/branch10.jpg

[ronaldvg]

I have a question which may already be answered but could not find it yet. I am finishing my build of my virtual pin and everything works great, except for one little thing. I use VPX only at the moment and when I start a table with the normal controller (vpinmame.controller I believe) the plunger works great in almost every table I tried.

 

When I change the controller to the B2S server, start the table and get into attract mode, the plunger still works perfectly but when I start a table the plunger does not work anymore and it only shoots the ball if I press on the plunger. I need to use B2S for my contactors to work through DOF. 

 

So everything works great except when using B2S. This happens in all the tables I tested (5). I use the optical sensor in my setup, calibration goes perfectly and I have almost perfect contrast. Hence it works very good without B2S ;-)

 

Any ideas ??

[mjr]

I have a question which may already be answered but could not find it yet. I am finishing my build of my virtual pin and everything works great, except for one little thing. I use VPX only at the moment and when I start a table with the normal controller (vpinmame.controller I believe) the plunger works great in almost every table I tried.

 

When I change the controller to the B2S server, start the table and get into attract mode, the plunger still works perfectly but when I start a table the plunger does not work anymore and it only shoots the ball if I press on the plunger. I need to use B2S for my contactors to work through DOF. 

 

So everything works great except when using B2S. This happens in all the tables I tested (5). I use the optical sensor in my setup, calibration goes perfectly and I have almost perfect contrast. Hence it works very good without B2S ;-)

 

Any ideas ??

 

Sounds like you have your "ZB Launch Ball" enabled on the wrong port.

 

Do you want to have ZB Launch enabled at all?  If not, run the Pinscape config tool, scroll down to the "ZB Launch Ball" section, and un-check the "enable" box.

 

If you want it enabled, you probably just have the wrong port configured in DOF.  Make sure that the "Output port number" shown in the config tool under the ZB Launch Ball section matches the port number in your DOF Config Tool "Port Assignments" page.