19 replies to this topic

[geoffa]

Greetings,

 

I have a cabinet that I built and has been working great. I Moved recently and now I am having an issue I am hoping someone can help me resolve.

 

I can power on my machine and PinballX starts up and sends images to the PinDMDv3 screen. Then after about a minute or two, of cycling through available games, the DMD reverts to the Firmware screen then stays on that, as if it has been disconnected from the system.

 

If i then start a game that uses a DMD i get the PinDMDv3 not found error in windows. I can clear the error and the game will play, minus the DMD.

 

If i start a game that does not use the DMD, that game will play.

 

If I start a game before this happens the DMD (and game) work as expected. 

 

I have reinstalled the PinDMD drivers, reinstalled PinballX and reinstalled VPX and vPinmame, and the issue does not go away.

 

Like I said, this used to work great, until I moved. The only other change was I added the game SpaceTrain which would not use the DMD at all. I tried to get that to work, and after that is when i started to notice this behavior; so maybe I inadvertently changed something? I have since removed this game. 

 

I uploaded two pictures to show what the DMD is displaying after it "disconnects" from PinballX. The first picture is also seen at power up of the cab and then when it "disconnects", and the second screen cycles through the primary colors after this "disconnect" occurs.

 

Thanks in advance for any direction on this.

Geoff   IMG_5841 2.jpg   200.86KB   0 downloads  IMG_5842.jpg   140.32KB   0 downloads

[wiesshund]

Well, maybe dumb idea, but can you hook the pindmd3 up to like a laptop temporarily, just to see if it does the disconnect thing?
It would at least rule out the pindmd3 itself maybe?

 

Could it be a bad USB connection/cable?

Edited by wiesshund, 24 August 2020 - 06:53 PM.

[Thalamus]

Wiesshund has a valid suggestion. Mine is to also upgrade your firmware, not that it is the problem here though.

[Noah Fentz]

It sounds like a power continuity issue. Check your connections on both ends and check to see if any pins are pushed out of the headers.

If that doesn't work, email me at VirtuaPin, and we'll investigate further.

Thank you.

[geoffa]

thanks I will check the connections again. I did check to see if they were loose before posting, but i will check the pins. Very much appreciate all of the suggestions.

[geoffa]

Good Morning,

I have been wrestling with this last night and this morning. I reset all of the connections for power and USB. It worked for about ten minutes and then the DMD was dark. Powering off and back on the cab did not fix the problem.

 

I reset the connections again and the DMD worked. I played a few games let it rotate via PinballX and it lasted about 15 to 20 minutes before it went back to the firmware screen.

 

I replaced the USB cable reset the power connection again and just let it run PinballX. after 5 minutes or so it was back to the firmware screen. 

So is this an issue with PinballX or did the DMD get damaged in the move?

 

Again, I appreciate all of your help on this.

Geoff

[geoffa]

to help further troubleshoot sometimes the log file from pinballx looks like the attached file pinDMD_log.txt, but sometimes it looks like pinDMD_log_success.txt. Ultimately the end result is the same, disconnection after a short period of time.

 

Thanks,

Geoff

Attached Files

•  pinDMD_log.txt   220bytes   14 downloads
•  pinDMD_log_success.txt   189bytes   12 downloads

[Thalamus]

If I where you. I would try next to ignore any software like pbx or vp for that matter. I would go to pindmd.com - press the folder icon near the pindmd3, go to utils and download pinDMDconfig.exe. Put that in its own folder - like c:\temp along side with pindmd.dll. Reboot your machine and try to run pindmdconfig before starting pbx any other software. I believe you have a power related issue, but, before contacting Noah, see if this utility is able to stay connected to your hardware.

[geoffa]

Ok I already have that utility so I will try that. Thank you very much for the suggestion and help!

 

As a side note, as long as I play VP games, the DMD works. It is when I let PBX "idle" that I lose connection to the DMD.

 

I will report my findings with pindmdconfig after an appropriate amount of time or failure.

[geoffa]

Good afternoon,

Here are the results

I started the cab and ran just pindmdconfig. it ran for about an hour before the DMD "disconnected". I rechecked every connection decided to disconnect the two cab fans (as they were sharing the same connection back to the power supply) and re-started the cab with just pindmdconfig

 

It ran  (remained connected to the DMD) until I shut it off after about three or 4 hours.

 

Next morning i started the cab with pinballx. it ran for about 10 minutes before the signal was lost to the DMD.

 

Shut down the cab. re-started with pindmdconfig. It ran for 3 hours before i shut it down, never losing contact with the DMD.

 

I re-connected the fans and restarted again with just pindmdconfig. It ran (stayed connected to the DMD) for another three hours.

 

I stopped pindmdconfig and started pinballx without a reboot or shutdown/restart. It ran (sent a signal to the DMD) for about two to three hours before the DMD "disconnected".

 

I shut it all down, started with pinballx it ran for about 20 minutes before the "disconnect" from the DMD.

 

Don't understand what all that means, but those are the results.

thanks for your time and help.

Geoff

[Thalamus]

I think you've done what you can in this case. I'm just as stumped as you are. I recommend getting in contact with seller/Noah next. Good luck.

[wiesshund]

Would the DMD be getting hotter when running stuff from a table or a front end?
(sorry i dont know anything about how they function or if that would be the case, so may be a stupid question)

 

Wondering if it is thermal related, perhaps a bad solder joint someplace?
Wonder if it runs longer if you shove a fan on it.

 

It's all i can think of being it runs longer just sitting idle connected to its config app, so i am thinking that maybe when it is working, it gets a lot warmer

maybe a loose joint expands and disconnects inside.

 

 

[geoffa]

So the DMD is not getting hotter and I tried a few more things and will try them again and post the results tomorrow for closure on this.

First off, when I am playing a VisualPinball game the DMD works fine, and I can change games to DMD and non-DMD using games with no issues.

 

The problems seem to be only when PinballX is running.

 

If i have PBX auto start at system start it usually will run for about 10 minutes or so before the DMD stops displaying the graphics from PBX and reverts to the picture on the right in my original post at the top. If I am playing games this does not happen until after i walk away.

 

Yesterday if i started the cab without auto starting PBX and then manually started PBX it ran for over an hour or two (not playing any games) before the DMD reverts back to the logo screen. If i try to play a DMD game at this time i get the pindmd v3 not found error. 

 

None of this ever happened until a week or two ago. The big change was moving and the movers were very harsh and my cab was not set up for how they tussled it. The second change was installing SpaceTrain and I was not getting any display on the DMD. I tried several things to get it to display but gave up trying. So one or both of those is probably what is causing this. I have removed SpaceTrain and reinstalled PBX VPX and the DMD drivers. 

 

Thanks again for your help, I was just reiterating for closure sake. I can still play and that is the most important thing. I just can't walk away for an hour or two and expect to be able to play without a power cycle of the system.

Geoff

[wiesshund]

Weird..
 

I mean, when you are running VPX, the only difference between playing and walking away, is of course button pressing.
I mean VPX does not have a sleep/attract mode that i am aware of.
Pinmame has a sleep when possible setting, but i think by default it is off, and would not think it would be the source of your issue anyways.

 

Hopefully Noah can shed some light on it?

[Thalamus]

I was under the assumption that it started failing after a while - when playing too ?! Well, the easiest test next is to change frontend. I run PinballY and it can read and understand your current xml so it is like a 20 minutes setup. It won't break your PBX. Give it a try, to at least see if it is really PBX related. Just install it to c:\pinbally or something.

 

Any anti virus running btw ?

[geoffa]

thanks for the suggestion, sorry for the misunderstanding.  No av is running. and it is a win7x64 OS.

I will download and install today.

[geoffa]

Greetings and here is my final post for this topic I hope.

 

For closure I just wanted again to thank you all for your help and suggestions. I believe you were correct that there was a loose connection. For the last two days i have not had any issues, so I am guessing i finally found the loose connection.

 

So if it was not that, I have no idea, but PinballX runs all day and does not disconnect from the DMD. 

 

I still plan on checking out PinballY.

 

Love your games and hobby, I appreciate all your time and effort.

Geoff

[updon719]

I once had the same issue the dmd would drop out I found that if I unplugged the plunger from the controller it wouldn't do it but it would with my plunger plugged in, it was an early Virtuapin version.  this would depend of course on what you have for a plunger controller setup. running a zebs now and haven't had a problem

Edited by updon719, 31 August 2020 - 07:13 PM.

[geoffa]

I have the VirtuaPin Digital Plunger kit

[updon719]

I have the VirtuaPin Digital Plunger kit

Unplug the plunger from the controller and test it to see what happens