975 replies to this topic

[JLPicard001]

What would cause a KL25Z/Pinscape freshly installed into a cabinet to continuously pull back the game plunger over and over and after a short time auto launch the ball?  My buddy has a self-made cabinet running 9.95 with one of the IPac's installed for his buttons, and he had it working fine, but he wanted nudge.  I suggested he add a KL25Z and do a pinscape install, but for some odd reason on some of his 9.95 games it's auto-launching the ball, but not on every game.  HOOK was the table we were using as a test since it auto-launches on that game for him every time.  While the ball is in play you can see the plunger continuously trying to plunge.

EDIT: After consulting the 'bible': Pinscape Controller Build Guide V2, as suggested we went to "Set up USB game controllers" in Windows 7 and after selecting the Pinscape Controller Properties, then TEST tab we found that for some reason our -KL25Z is causing the Z Axis cursor to bounce all over the dang place, with no movement of the cabinet at all.  9.95 has Z axis controlling the Plunger in Global Options, KEYS.

Edited by JLPicard001, 05 May 2019 - 12:08 AM.

[mjr]

What would cause a KL25Z/Pinscape freshly installed into a cabinet to continuously pull back the game plunger over and over and after a short time auto launch the ball?  My buddy has a self-made cabinet running 9.95 with one of the IPac's installed for his buttons, and he had it working fine, but he wanted nudge.  I suggested he add a KL25Z and do a pinscape install, but for some odd reason on some of his 9.95 games it's auto-launching the ball, but not on every game.  HOOK was the table we were using as a test since it auto-launches on that game for him every time.  While the ball is in play you can see the plunger continuously trying to plunge.

EDIT: After consulting the 'bible': Pinscape Controller Build Guide V2, as suggested we went to "Set up USB game controllers" in Windows 7 and after selecting the Pinscape Controller Properties, then TEST tab we found that for some reason our -KL25Z is causing the Z Axis cursor to bounce all over the dang place, with no movement of the cabinet at all.  9.95 has Z axis controlling the Plunger in Global Options, KEYS.

 

Does he have any physical plunger connected?  It sounds like he doesn't, so if that's the case, all he needs to do is go into the config tool and set the plunger sensor type to "None".  The problem is probably that the software *thinks* there's a sensor attached, so it's trying to read the port that the sensor is meant to be attached to and getting a lot of electrical noise instead of a valid signal, causing the random motion in the simulated plunger.

[JLPicard001]

Right on MJ. Pinscape defaulted with an entry there thanks again!

[sppooky]

HI I had a working Standalone Pinscape connected to a mosfet board controlling 4 LED buttons via DOF. Whilst testing the DOF button outputs I found out one of the LED lights wasn't coming on so, for that button, I stupidly swapped the 2x LED button microswitch switch cables around whilst the Pinscape board was still connected. Now all I get is a steady Blue LED light on the Pinscape board and the pinscape config tool is saying there is no 'Pinscape Board' connected.

 

I believe this board to now be completely dead and have ordered a replacement board. Just wanted to check if this is correct assumption?

[mjr]

I believe this board to now be completely dead and have ordered a replacement board. Just wanted to check if this is correct assumption?

 

That's what I'd guess.  You're probably right that something got fried when you were switching wires around, since the KL25Z doesn't have any protection on the GPIO pins from stray voltages.  Those pins are wired straight into the CPU, so applying anything more than 3.3V to those pins can damage the CPU core.  

 

But there are a couple of things you could try just to make sure:

 

- Try disconnecting everything else (the MOSFET boards, any button inputs, etc) from the KL25Z and just plugging it in to USB.  That might be worth trying to make sure it's really the KL25Z itself that's the problem and not something else that's attached.

 

- Do you keep both USB ports on the KL25Z plugged in to the PC, or do you just use one cable?  If you don't have the programming port connected routinely, it might be worth plugging that in to see if the KL25Z virtual thumb drive shows up.  If so, you can try reinstalling the firmware and see if that resets the board.

[sppooky]

Ended up with a replacement board. Got a different issue now. Got 4 led buttons connected to 4 pinscape pwm ports via a 4 port mosfet board. Prob not needed but Tthre is a resistor between the mosfet connections and pinscape. When I go into the config tool, outputs, and drag the pwm port scroll bar to the right the led for each mosfet port turns red - however the button leds dont come on. Any ideas what could be the issue. When I had the previous Pinscape board in the button LED lights came on - now only the Mosfet board LED lights are coming on.

Edited by sppooky, 15 May 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[sppooky]

Hi is it possible to wire 5050 undercab led strip directly to standalone kl25 board using a mini led amplifier?

[mjr]

Hi is it possible to wire 5050 undercab led strip directly to standalone kl25 board using a mini led amplifier?

 

I'm not sure, and I guess it would depend on the amplifier.  Can you do a little testing with a voltmeter and a test circuit?

 

1.  The amplifier control inputs want a ground connection to turn ON, right?  Set up a test circuit like this:

 

GND ---- 100 ohm resistor ---*--- amp control input

 

Hook everything else up with power and verify that the strip is lighting up as you'd expect.  With the power on, measure the voltage between GND and the point I marked *.  If that's 3.3V or lower, good.  If it's higher than 3.3V, this won't work with the KL25Z because of its voltage limitations.

 

2.   In the same circuit, take out the resistor and connect your meter in current (amps) mode.  With the power on, see what the mA reading on the meter is (again making sure the lights are turning on as expected, so we're sure we're reading the right thing).  If it's less than 4mA, it's safe.  If it's more than 4mA, you try again with a resistor in the circuit to see if you can reduce the current but keep the lights on.

[mjr]

Ended up with a replacement board. Got a different issue now. Got 4 led buttons connected to 4 pinscape pwm ports via a 4 port mosfet board. Prob not needed but Tthre is a resistor between the mosfet connections and pinscape. When I go into the config tool, outputs, and drag the pwm port scroll bar to the right the led for each mosfet port turns red - however the button leds dont come on. Any ideas what could be the issue. When I had the previous Pinscape board in the button LED lights came on - now only the Mosfet board LED lights are coming on.

 

I'm assuming the port LEDs you're talking about are indicators meant to tell you that the ports are activated?  If so, I'd guess that whatever's wrong is in the connections to the button lights, since it sounds like the MOSFET boards are getting the "go" signal properly.

 

The extra resistors you added probably really are worthwhile, by the way.  Most of these commercial add-on boards are designed for Arduinos, which have higher power handling limits than the KL25Z.  You can always test with an ammeter to see what the boards will draw without the resistors.  Test without the KL25Z involved, and instead just connect the MOSFET control input to power or ground (whichever activates it) with an ammeter in between.  See what the ammeter reads for mA.  If it's less than 4mA, the resistors aren't needed.   If it's more than 4mA, you definitely want some resistors in there.  You can figure out the exact size of the resistor needed via Ohm's law or you can just experiment with adding resistors between the ammeter and control input until you get the current below 4mA (but also keeping the MOSFET activated).

[Moosebox]

Can this device overheat?

 

I ask because Windows no longer recognizes the device through the Joystick port, but it still works when connected to the Programming port. (tested on multiple machines)

 

When it wasn't detected by windows I picked it up it to see if the usb cable was loose, it was very hot to the touch. I also noticed that the device was still receiving power when my PC was off, maybe this is what was causing it to overheat.

 

I'm assuming the board is fried and I'll need to replace it, but if anyone has any tips to try and get it working again let me know. Like I mentioned, I've tested on multiple machines so I don't think it is a driver/PC issue. I've press the reset button 100 times... flashed the firmware again. The only thing left to try is the reload the bootloader, but I'm not sure this would fix it.

 

Thanks

Edited by Moosebox, 18 June 2019 - 01:05 PM.

[mjr]

Can this device overheat?

 

I ask because Windows no longer recognizes the device through the Joystick port, but it still works when connected to the Programming port. (tested on multiple machines)

 

When it wasn't detected by windows I picked it up it to see if the usb cable was loose, it was very hot to the touch.

 

Hot to the touch is definitely a bad sign for the KL25Z.  The board only uses a very small amount of power and won't heat up at all if it's working normally, no matter how long you leave it plugged in.  If it's getting hot, I'm afraid you must have a dead board.

 

 

I also noticed that the device was still receiving power when my PC was off, maybe this is what was causing it to overheat.

 

Yes, it receives power when the PC is off (because that's just what USB ports do), but no, that won't cause damage and won't cause it to overheat.

 

The thing that tends to kill KL25Z's is connecting GPIO pins (the external connector pins) to the wrong voltages.  All of the GPIO pins are wired directly into the CPU chip, which makes them really delicate.  If they're ever connected to anything over 3.3V, even momentarily, it can destroy the CPU and thus the whole board.  Any chance you ever might have had a loose connection that allowed a 5V or 12V wire to touch one of the GPIO pins at any point, or did so accidentally while working inside the cab with the power on?  That's the sort of thing that tends to harm these boards.  It's also always possible that you just got unlucky and have a defective one, although I expect they're like most electronics, that the defective ones tend to be DOA rather than manifesting a defect over time.

[Moosebox]

The thing that tends to kill KL25Z's is connecting GPIO pins (the external connector pins) to the wrong voltages.  All of the GPIO pins are wired directly into the CPU chip, which makes them really delicate.  If they're ever connected to anything over 3.3V, even momentarily, it can destroy the CPU and thus the whole board.  Any chance you ever might have had a loose connection that allowed a 5V or 12V wire to touch one of the GPIO pins at any point, or did so accidentally while working inside the cab with the power on?  That's the sort of thing that tends to harm these boards.  It's also always possible that you just got unlucky and have a defective one, although I expect they're like most electronics, that the defective ones tend to be DOA rather than manifesting a defect over time.

 

 

Yep, I think It is most likely dead, so I've purchased another one.

 

I only have switches and LEDs in my sysytem (LEDs are not connected to the board though), so a 12v wire from my LEDs could have touched part of the device at some point since I didn't have the wires tied down yet as I'm still in the build process. I'll definitely want to get the wires under control before I install the next kl25z. However the board didn't stop working while in use, it was on a fresh boot, so hard to say if it was accidentally fried, or just defective.

 

Lesson learned none-the-less (at least it isn't an expensive one).

Edited by Moosebox, 18 June 2019 - 06:35 PM.

[STV]

I "oopsie"d  a couple by dropping a screwdriver in a bad place while working on it hot.  That's when I started buying them a couple at a time..     "Good thing they're priced for experimentation" a wise man once said...  

[Dexjee]

one thing i have noticed lately is that when i´m holding for example one of the flipper buttons down for a longer time all inputs lock up and all i get is a clicking sound in windows 10 for any pinscape button press or keyboard press.

Only a complete reboot seems to fix this.

 

Anyone else experiencing this? Any way to fix it?

Edited by Dexjee, 03 August 2019 - 12:00 PM.

[LynnInDenver]

Check to make sure that Windows doesn't have keyboard assists like Sticky Keys set up under Ease of Access.

[Dexjee]

Check to make sure that Windows doesn't have keyboard assists like Sticky Keys set up under Ease of Access.

 

i dont have anything enabled in those settings.

[mjr]

one thing i have noticed lately is that when i´m holding for example one of the flipper buttons down for a longer time all inputs lock up and all i get is a clicking sound in windows 10 for any pinscape button press or keyboard press.

Only a complete reboot seems to fix this.

 

Anyone else experiencing this? Any way to fix it?

 

I'm sure there's a way to fix it, but the trick is to figure out what "it" is in this case.  

 

The "sticky keys" idea that LynnInDenver suggested would have been my first guess as well.  But it sounds like you've already double-checked that all of those control panel settings are disabled, so let's rule that out for now.

 

It almost has to be some kind of software interaction on the Windows side.  So the first thing I'd try would probably be to shut down all of the software I could possibly shut down.  Don't run VP, don't run your front end, don't run anything at all.  Kill any background programs you normally run.  Then, with just the Windows desktop running, try holding down the flipper key for a long time and see if the problem still happens.  If it does, see if you can spot any on-screen indicators, like around the taskbar or tray area, to see if anything's flashing at you or popping into life.  If you can't reproduce it with minimal software running, try launching VP and see if it comes back with just VP running.  Maybe try just the blank VP editor first, without even loading a game, and if that doesn't reproduce it, try loading a game.  Hopefully by process of elimination you can identify the culprit.

 

Another thing you can try, to attack it from a different angle, is to figure out what key you have mapped for the flipper button, and use your regular keyboard to press and hold the same key for a long time.  See if the same problem happens with a regular keyboard, other things being equal.  If it happens the same way with a keyboard, you can rule out anything related to Pinscape; it's just some keyboard/software interaction.  If you can't reproduce it with a regular keyboard, maybe it's something Pinscape is doing differently.  (But that's kind of unlikely, as Pinscape is just pretending to be a keyboard and joystick.)

Edited by mjr, 04 August 2019 - 04:44 AM.

[coreduo0099]

Question... I can't figure out what wires are used for PSU2_STATUS_SENSE and PSU2_STATUS_SET.  are they coming from the 2nd ATX power supply I use for my toys or somewhere else?  if so, which voltages/wires should be used fore each.

 

I have my IR circuit working and can control monitor power/on/off via command line but want to switch this to PC power=up, which triggers my 2nd ATX to power on as well.

 

Thanks

[mjr]

Question... I can't figure out what wires are used for PSU2_STATUS_SENSE and PSU2_STATUS_SET.  are they coming from the 2nd ATX power supply I use for my toys or somewhere else?  if so, which voltages/wires should be used fore each.

 

I assume you're not using the expansion boards.  If that's right, the place to look is here:

 

http://mjrnet.org/pi...de.php?sid=tvon

 

Scroll down to "Power sensing circuit" - that shows the little circuit you need to build, and has a list of where each wire connects right under the schematic.

[Polyphemus]

Hi,

 

I'm using the main expansion board, I wired a button to enable Night Mode. The button number is 25, which corresponds to digital 18, PTC17. When I test the button, I see when it is pressed, but it does not enable or disable Night Mode. Running Noghtmode.exe, I can enable and disable Night Mode.

 

What am I missing?