12 replies to this topic

[jfatica]

Hi, looking for some support on getting the Virtuapin V4 plunger board working in VPX.  It uses a ESP32-S2 microcontroller. If anyone has used this board or kit, can you provide some feedback?

 

Board is installed and wired up to plunger and buttons.  Configuration utility detects the board, plunger can be calibrated, and button presses register on the test screen.  Everything appears to be working properly from that standpoint.

 

When trying VPX, none of the buttons work.  I assumed the board would work like a regular keyboard encoder, meaning I could open Notepad and press some buttons and see the corresponding mapping on the screen, but that is not working either.  How does the board interface with windows keyboards?  

 

Note: checked the gamepad config in Windows just in case, but there are no controllers listed there.

 

Thanks,

 

 

[csdf28]

I don't have that specific model but I do have a plunger from Zebs, who I think is the OEM for the Virtuapin v4.  On my version, you can set the plunger to either gamepad (for Future Pinball) or keyboard (for VPX) mode.  Perhaps yours is currently set to gamepad mode?

[jfatica]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I got it figured out, turns out it was a driver issue with Windows 11.  I had to manually select a generic USB driver for the device.  The Virtuapin driver did not work.

 

Can't post an image, but I took a screenshot of the driver https://ibb.co/k6F7mC5

[jfatica]

I'm still having issues with this board.  It seemingly randomly disconnects and does not register any key or button presses.  If I unplug the USB cord and replug, it begins working again.  Disconnects are fairly frequent, but only occur when loading Pinup Popper or a VPX table.  It never happens during a game.  I can play a game for 30 minutes and have no disconnect, but then load another table and it stops working.  Sometimes I hear the Windows USB disconnect noise and sometimes I don't.  It does not show any disconnected items in device manager, and I still see the Virtuapin board in "Devices and Printers" under Control Panel.

 

I've tried a variety of different things to solve this; different USB ports on motherboard, running the USB cable outside of the cabinet, disconnecting Wemos board, USB hub, short and long USB cables.. nothing seems to make a difference.

 

I updated the board to the latest firmware, but that didn't change anything either.  I cleaned up the drivers in Windows and reinstalled the board fresh after the firmware update.

 

I guess my next step is to try and use the board in a completely different PC to see if it is a Windows or configuration issue.

 

I read some posts that recommended ferrite cores for the USB cables, but I don't want to spend money on those if it won't solve the issue.  I figured running the USB cable outside of the cabinet would achieve the same effect?

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[humunut]

You didn't mention any DOF toys that could be creating electrical noise. So maybe you have a weak power supply that has occasional voltage dips? Don't know why that would only happen when loading Pinup Popper or a VPX table tho.

[jfatica]

No additional toys besides the addressable LEDS.

 

I wiped the hard drive and started everything from scratch.  Still getting random disconnects, but now they are occasionally happening during a game.  Seem to be unrelated to DOF, but who knows.

 

Sometimes see the error "Device descriptor request failed" in device manager, but sometimes not.

 

I'm about done with this board.   Will this plunger work with a regular KL25Z?

[humunut]

If you haven't tried already, disconnect the LEDs and see if that makes a difference. A weak or underpowered power supply could also cause problems.

 

Also try disconnecting the plunger, if possible, using the Launch button instead. If the problem goes away, then you know it has to do with the plunger sensor. In that case, you may want to look into using a potentiometer instead. That's what I had to do with my VirtuaPin v3 kit, as I could not use the provided VCNL4010 proximity sensor without getting random USB disconnects.

Edited by humunut, 23 September 2024 - 04:56 PM.

[Noah Fentz]

I'm still having issues with this board.  It seemingly randomly disconnects and does not register any key or button presses.  If I unplug the USB cord and replug, it begins working again.  Disconnects are fairly frequent, but only occur when loading Pinup Popper or a VPX table.  It never happens during a game.  I can play a game for 30 minutes and have no disconnect, but then load another table and it stops working.  Sometimes I hear the Windows USB disconnect noise and sometimes I don't.  It does not show any disconnected items in device manager, and I still see the Virtuapin board in "Devices and Printers" under Control Panel.

 

I've tried a variety of different things to solve this; different USB ports on motherboard, running the USB cable outside of the cabinet, disconnecting Wemos board, USB hub, short and long USB cables.. nothing seems to make a difference.

 

I updated the board to the latest firmware, but that didn't change anything either.  I cleaned up the drivers in Windows and reinstalled the board fresh after the firmware update.

 

I guess my next step is to try and use the board in a completely different PC to see if it is a Windows or configuration issue.

 

I read some posts that recommended ferrite cores for the USB cables, but I don't want to spend money on those if it won't solve the issue.  I figured running the USB cable outside of the cabinet would achieve the same effect?

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

It sounds like a COM port conflict. I'm not 100% versed in PUP, but if it's opening COM ports, as I've been told it does, it may be opening the same COM port the kit is using, disconnecting it.

 

Can you assign COM ports in the PUP software to prevent this?

[fhjui]

No, there is no assigning of COM-ports in PUP. I would check te windows event log for errors and port conflicts. Didn't know that PUP uses COM ports.

I would suggest to use another usb port and NOT connected to an usb hub.

I remember that MJR had to put a lot of effort into his software for preventing these lost connections. But nowadays with multiple installations there are no problems. Pinscape firmware has a feature for auto. reconnect

[jfatica]

Couldn't get it figured out.  I either have a faulty board or the firmware is just buggy.  Virtuapin support ghosted me, so I opted to swap it out for different board.

 

Installed the Pinone Mini board from Cleveland Software and I've had no problems whatsoever.  Same cabinet, same PC, same wiring.  The board stays connected and recognized, even through restarts.  It cooperates properly with Pinup Popper and the Wemos.  No disconnects or crashes so far after a few hours of testing.

 

The Pinone board is a little less user-friendly to wire up than the Virtuapin V4, but I'll definitely trade that for the stability that the Pinone board provides.  

[Auri]

I have had a variety of issues with this board, including the one you mentioned.  COM port assignment were switching on me, so have had to reset from the board and rescan ports frequently.   New firmware and software are now available for win 11 users.  I'm trying this out on a clean system now and ill let you know what happens.   It has definitely been flakey....   I might just try the pinone to save on frustration as well. Kinda ridiculous.

Edited by Auri, 12 October 2024 - 09:00 PM.

[rffaz]

It may be too late to respond to this challenge of frequent disconnect. Too long, however I had to downgrade from Windows 11 PRO to Windows 11 Home. (A real pain) And, I always downloaded current firmware. This eliminated a significant recurring challenge with disconnects. Is it perfect? No. And i have moved to a Rig-Master. Don't know how to connect the Virtuapin plunger to it yet. Paul at Virtuapin has been been absolutely super as a vendor. But. I needed to find  something the was reliable..

[zebulon]

Actually, what is happening when the controller 'changes com ports' is that something in the software setup in the cab has triggered the bootloader.

 

The controller uses a static VID, PID and Serial Number in the plunger firmware and because of these, after the initial discovery of the device on 1st connection to the system, Windows will always assign it to the same com port assignment going forward. 

It's why the plunger controller doesn't assign a new com port after a firmware update unless the serial number, VID or PID is changed in the new firmware prompting a reassignment.

 

Tripping into the bootloader requires hitting the existing, open com port with an attempt to open the already open port with a toggling of the DTR line and a communication rate greater than 1200baud.  Translated into simpler terms, if the port is already open by one piece of software and some other piece of software tries to open it, the board assumes that the bootloader is being requested (usually for a firmware upgrade) and switches accordingly.

 

When the bootloader starts, the com port number changes to the com port number assigned by Windows to the bootloader and ESP32 is displayed (usually with an exclamation mark.)  This is where the assumption has been made that the com port has changed, which is a correct assumption in that it has since something requested it.  Where the mistake is being made is assuming that because the exclamation mark has appeared, there is a need for a driver install where in fact there isn't.  The exclamation mark is indicating that no driver exists for the DFU (Direct Firmware Update) portion of the bootloader which is never going to be used anyway and therefore has no need to be installed.

 

What does happen is that people go looking for a driver and install it, and then find that the communication issues start occurring more frequently as they have installed a driver meant for Windows 7 which has a deprecated USB stack that is far away from the current one in Windows 10/11.  This creates new issues with the communication and further increases the frustration with the controller as once modified by the new driver, the USB stack becomes unstable and is a bear to uninstall.  There is no driver required for installation of the plunger in any version of Windows from Windows 8 on.

 

Ultimately, the issue that created this cycle has been created by something in the cabinet software configuration, usually a software initialized com port (since the hardware ports are assigned by Windows to avoid such conflicts) that has been assigned to the same port assignment as the plunger com port.  Tripping of the bootloader  occurs when that software port attempts to open in an effort to accomplish whatever it needs to do without any way of knowing that the hardware com port exists and is already in use.

 

This is why resetting the board makes the issue magically disappear. By the time the board resets, the software com port has given up on the communication attempt and the hardware port of the board has reconnected without issue and the conflict has gone away until the next time the cycle repeats.

 

Searching the ini files of the cabinet software usually reveals the location of the software com port responsible and it usually comes down to something like a DMD extension that has a software initialized com port on a system default assignment (COM3 for example) which is in conflict with the hardware assigned com port (if it too is assigned to COM3 by default.)

 

I've had one of these boards on the bench, connected to the development setup for over a year now.  It has been heavily abused both electronically and physically (amazing how many times you run into something while walking past it even though you know it is there), has been left connected for the entire time through power outages, computer sleep modes, system crashes, you name it.  It only ever exhibits the symptoms described by others under the circumstance explained above.

 

Edit**

 

As for the assertion earlier that someone was 'ghosted by support', I seem to recall replying to that email with a question and never receiving back a reply, but I guess that's just my faulty memory as I'm renowned for my poor customer service efforts.

Edited by zebulon, 12 March 2025 - 01:49 PM.