50 replies to this topic

[dramaone]

When i quit a pinballfx2 table back to pinballx or even if I quit pinballx the rgb's stay turned on.

 

Is this normal or is there a way to have them switch off as you exit a table?

 

cheers

[DDH69]

Its a bug in 5.20.  Some kind folks have tested a fix, I should have it released shortly.

[dramaone]

Great stuff! good to know.

 

On a similar note, in pinballfx2 games I have RGB's lighting and changing however they are constantly on changing from colour to colour.

Is this just how the tables light scripts have programmed? My naivety expected more incidental flashing/blinking of lights as objects on the table are hit or flippers are triggered.

Edited by dramaone, 09 October 2017 - 11:07 AM.

[DDH69]

RGB lighting does just that, change colour and stay illuminated.  Flashers, beacons, strobes, and solenoids trigger from actions (slingshots, bumpers, etc) on the table.

 

If you want more action during FX2 and not just lighting, then comment out the RGB= line in DOFLinx.INI and setup your undercab lighting devices as flashers.

[dramaone]

Arrh ok, im just confused! Its quite tough to use all the information available on forums and you tube and to then understand whats relevant is what is required

as much of has been superseded so quickly such is the advancements in what you guys are doing.

 

In my simple mind what I wanted was a simple rgb flasher unit as the head of playfield, and a few solenoids, a strobe and an led beacon.

My intention was to learn this with a mini pin and then progress to making a full sized all singing and dancing badboy.

I think I ive already dropped a klanger in purchasing a PACLED64 as it doesn't seem to be able to cope with a strobe as most are 12v but hey that's another problem!

 

 

I got some information from here and there is a video of his table running on this page.

https://klomp.de/ind...sher-led-ledwiz

 

I liked this as it clearly was not just rgb lights dancing to music.

 

Seeing and almost wanting the flashing and feedback as that video shown is quite different to what I'm getting at the moment with constant on RGB's

and im just wondering If i reached in at a more advanced stage that I require and probably need to better understand what direct output and doflinx deliver.

[DDH69]

Always happy to answer questions.  We all learn by reading, doing and asking.  So while you are doing all 3 in combination the help will keep coming.

 

Any output device, including a PACLed64 can power anything.  You may just need a few extra components that are minimal cost.  Share details of the strobe and your power source and we'll find a way.  In simple terms the PACLed64 output can drive a transistor to power a relay or MOSFET that drives your strobe.  My strobes run from a LEDWiz.

[dramaone]

I thought id cracked the first stage and then its confused me again.

So I initially said that i couldn't get rgb lights working straight from pinballfx2 and so i installed pinballx and all was working fine.

 

Ive since launched pinballfx2 direct from exe and actually lights works from there however with the addition of flippers triggering and cycling through colours which I wanted and like however when i run fx2 through pinballx flippers don't effect lights.

I was expecting either launch method to look at the same doflinx.ini? so any ideas on what is happening?

 

Thanks in advance

[DDH69]

I don't know, but have questions that might help us.

1. Do you have PinballX running any lighting effects? - perhaps PinballX is not closing the PACLed64 control.
2. When run through PinballX what lighting does happen?  Does it look like its still PinballX lighting?
3. Can you produce a DEBUG.LOG from DOFLinx? So delete the DOFLinx.LOG file, set DEBUG=1 in the DOFLinx.INI, run the scenario, post the DOFLinx.LOG

[dramaone]

 

I don't know, but have questions that might help us.

1. Do you have PinballX running any lighting effects? - perhaps PinballX is not closing the PACLed64 control.

Not that im aware of. Is that something that is setup in the PinballX settings exe? 

What i'm experiencing in terms of lighting using pinballX / pinballFX2 is what ive always had. 

It was only because I was looking at something and launched FX2 and noticed the addition of flipper triggering a light that made me question what is going on.

 

 

2.When run through PinballX what lighting does happen?  Does it look like its still PinballX lighting?

 

PinballX itself does not show any lights throughout menu's etc, lights only come on once a PinballFX2 game is launched through it.

I'm currently only running x3 RGB LED so its nothing over complex.

As I mentioned before lights do often stay once a game has exited bgame back to PinballX menu and even when pinballX is closed ( i know you are aware of this bug)

 

Pinballfx games show a variety of colours that seem to be game specific however flippers seem to have minimal if any impact on lighting.

When I run PinballFX2 direct from its exe there is the obvious inclusion of flippers changing the colours per trigger of the central placed LED.

 

3.Can you produce a DEBUG.LOG from DOFLinx? So delete the DOFLinx.LOG file, set DEBUG=1 in the DOFLinx.INI, run the scenario, post the DOFLinx.LOG

 

Will do this once I finish work.

 

Thanks

 

[dramaone2]

Ive tweaked a few things inc the pinballx settings and its now working!   So thankyou

 

I'm happy with things at the moment and am just waiting for my relay board to arrive to install the solenoids.

Out of interest could i run my strobe and beacon from that too to save me building a booster for PACled64?

[DDH69]

Yes

[dramaone]

Cool. I ordered a Sodial usb relay board a while back by mistake thinking it was a sainsmart and am just waiting for it to turn up

https://www.amazon.c...0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Looks pretty much identical to sainsmart but not sure if it will link the same with the software.

We will see.

 

Thanks again for your help

[DDH69]

Looking at the spec it has a FTDI chip, so once you install the drivers for it there is a real possibility it will work.  I have been told of other (non SainSmart) boards using FTDI chips that get detected, not sure how well they work.  It will be interesting to find out.

[dramaone]

I thought the same, for £8.50 I thought it was worth a look rather than re ordering a sainsmart, shame the delivery time is so long!

Edited by dramaone, 12 October 2017 - 12:30 PM.

[dramaone2]

Relay board arrived today and installed.

 

Log file detects the sodial board as a sainsmart so £8.50 well spent but i get an error message about ports needing to 1-8 so I updated settings using the dofconfig tool to generate a new file

and within the rar download is directoutputconfig20 and directoutputconfig40 files.

With just the pacled64 I changed the directconfig20 to directconfig and had the doflinx ini look for that.

 

but here I decided to have the doflinx ini look at both directconfig20 and 40.

 

On Doflinx launch if debug is active I get message saying "no globalconfig" however if I turn debug off Pinballfx2 launches and I have lights and I can hear my relay board clicking with the flippers.

So im assuming all is ok but just wondering about that debug error?

 

On another note the lights now turn off on pinballX exit, so that bug as vanished for me. Maybe because pacled64 has moved to device 2? just trying to think of changes

 

Rgds

Edited by dramaone2, 12 October 2017 - 09:04 PM.

[DDH69]

Glad to hear that the board is working.

 

The no GlobalConfig message is fine.  It just means you haven't setup the DIRECTPOUTPUTGLOBAL= parameter..  You don't need this unless you have addressable LEDs, so leave it as it is.

 

As per the guide, DOFLinx only reads the colours from the DirectOutputConfigxx.ini file.  So you can point it to any one of those files.  Not a good idea to have more than one DIRECTOUTPUTCONFIG= parameter line in your DOFLinx.ini file, essentially you are trying to load the colours twice which can cause problems.

[dramaone2]

Understood. Thanks

 

Just installing the solenoids - exciting !

[dramaone2]

Ok,

solenoids working on flippers - check   working off a usb relay board

strobe is set to a port on the relay board too.

 

RGBs flashers from PACled64.

 

I'm making progress but really struggling to understand how to make my RGB's flashers instead of RGB's undercab lights.

Ive used config tool to set them as a 3 flasher set but i get nothing from them.

Also how do I get the strobe to trigger from gameplay.

 

 

Rgds

[Outhere]

If you have this DEBUG=1 in your DOFLinx.INI file It brings up a Debug window than you can right the Debug window and get test window..

Post your DOFLinx.INI file

[dramaone2]

ok

Edited by dramaone2, 13 October 2017 - 08:52 PM.