MPF Hacking on Twitch

[jabdoa]

Hi friends,

as an experiment I will stream some MPF hacking on twitch tomorrow. Around 9pm GMT+1 (or 12am PST). https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa if anybody wants to join in. We can discuss features and hack some stuff together.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Ok I rechecked the time. 9pm local CEST (which is actually GMT+2 at the moment) is 2pm CST or 12pm PDT. Sorry for the confusion.

[jabdoa]

Will stream again Saturday 9pm CEST/GMT+2 (12pm PDT/PST; 2pm CST). Topic is Hacking the MPF Service mode. I will explain it a bit and we will add some features together. Input is welcome. Link to the stream is: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[Chris Weiss]

Any chance you can post recordings of the previous sessions?

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[jabdoa]

Unfortunately, I did not record it and only activated achiving on twitch afterwards. I will try to record the next session on Saturday. I want to do a series where I show and demo all the hardware which is supported by MPF (if I have it). I want to record those and later cut them into videos for the docs.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Yesterday recordings worked fine. 2h+ where we improve the service mode can be found here: https://m.twitch.tv/videos/982747984.

Jan

[Todd Legere]

Cool. Thanks for recording.

[jabdoa]

I will stream the Pin2dmd with MPF later at 4pm CEST (10am PDT/PST; 12pm CST). Show you the hardware and play around with it. You can ask questions if you want. https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

[jabdoa]

I uploaded the recording from PIN2DMD: https://youtu.be/Q5fH-Q2umV4.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Will stream tomorrow 9pm CEST/GMT+2 (12pm PDT/PST; 2pm CST). We will play with the Open Pinball Project Hardware and explain how it works. You can ask question and we can test stuff out together. Link to the stream is: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[Todd Legere]

Cool

Sent from my iPad

On Apr 13, 2021, at 6:57 PM, jabdoa <jan...@kantert.net> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpf-users/2053facb-828e-4267-a335-b39631eff88fn%40googlegroups.com.

[jabdoa]

Will stream about Serial LEDs and designing custom light boards on Saturday 9pm CEST/GMT+2 (12pm PDT/PST; 2pm CST). I prepared different serial LEDs (WS2811/WS2812/RGBW), custom boards and different controllers. You can ask question and we can test stuff out together. Link to the stream is: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

Everything is archived here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPXS1guuUIyC49ysa-nRuzg/featured

This weekend on Saturday 9pm CEST/GMT+2 (12pm PDT/PST; 2pm CST): How do servos work? How to control them? How to use them in a pinball with MPF? If you are interested please join: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

Will stream about the Multimorphic P3-Roc system today at 9pm CEST/GMT+2 (12pm PDT/PST; 2pm CST). In case anbody of you want to see it in action with MPF: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/

[jabdoa]

I will do a Q&A on Saturday on Twitch. The idea is to show some of the new MPF features and then answer questions. Guess we could even hack/improve small things together. We will probably just be a few guys. Time will be noon PST again.

Jan

[Todd Legere]

awesome. I will be there to check it out. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. Also I find it helpful that it is recorded so that I can go back over something I did not understand.

[jabdoa]

Today's stream is archived here: https://youtu.be/2rYxmdr3ZMU. Thanks for joining and asking to many questions!

Next week on Wednesday (again noon PST or 9pm GMT+2) I will demonstrate how to write unit/integration tests for your machine. Link will be: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Today, Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) I will stream about how to test your pinball machine with automated tests in MPF. Questions welcome! https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

[Greg Sealby]

Loved the machine testing one Jan.  Learnt a heap of new stuff.  Shame the timezones don't permit me to watch live.

[jabdoa]

Happy to hear that. Streaming for you and the US from Europe is tricky if you want to sleep at night ;-).

On Saturday I will stream about Steppers in Pinball.

Jan

[cobra18t]

Yes, this one was great. I tend to get very lazy about writing tests, which is foolish because it can save so much time in the end.

The time would be perfect for me, but lunchtime Wednesdays is time for playing Ultimate Frisbee! Maybe some Saturdays will work. Thanks for posting them on Youtube as well.

[Greg Sealby]

Anyone know if there is something additional you need to do to get tests to run (like must be attached to pinball controller hardware etc)  

After watching Jan's tutorial, I asserted to see if game was started:

self.assertTrue(self.machine.game)

I got this failure:

AssertionError: None is not true

On my laptop I usually use the -c switch to load a different "config.yaml".  Do I need to configure tests to use this config file and how do I do that if so?

Greg

[jabdoa]

I would try adding "-v" and check the log. Does you game have enough balls? Are there sufficient credits?

Jan

[jabdoa]

Today, Saturday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) I will stream about stepper in pinball with MPF. What are steppers? How do steppers work? How to I connect and use steppers? Tune in at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

Tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) I will stream about how to structure your modes in MPF. I know that this sometimes causes frustration for new designers. If you are interested: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

[jabdoa]

Will stream about Segment Displays in the Mission #Pinball Framework today (Saturday) at noon PST (9pm GMT+2). This will be fun! Please join at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

[jabdoa]

Tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) I will stream about how to implement new hardware platforms in MPF. If you ever wondered how we abstract hardware or wanted to add support for your own boards this is for you! https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa

[Todd Legere]

Awesome, this might help in converting my Close Encounters of a Third Kind hybrid. It uses an Arduino Mega (as the master) and raspberry pi running python2. That environment has 3 unique devices working in harmony. There is a b64 hat on an arduino uno that talks to the switch matrix then feeds the arduino mega for switch events, another uno that controls the bally lamp driver, a teensy that controls the dmd, and a mega that controls the traffic and send the media(Score/sounds) to the raspberry pi.

Yup this should be interesting to spawn some new ideas. Maybe I will do a youtube to talk to the flow and concept and post. I would really like to spawn something to integrate to mpf using the mega or something more powerfull.

[jabdoa]

Did you ever wonder how to use state machines in pinball to implement game logic? Tomorrow, Saturday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) I will explain finite automatons and how you can use them in your MPF game. Tune in at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

[jabdoa]

How to control magnets in you #pinball machine using MPF? Tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) we will look into the software and hardware side of magnets. Tune in at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

[jabdoa]

Ever wondered how to persist game state between balls for multiple players in MPF? Next Stream on Saturday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) we will talk about player and machine variables and how to use them. Join in at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

[Greg Sealby]

Loving these Twitch streams Jan.  Shame I can't watch them live.  Any chance you could add a segment in an upcoming one to setup the Intellisense in Visual Studio Code?

[jabdoa]

Thanks :-). Yeah I can do a stream on setting up the language server in vscode (or pycharm/intellij or emacs). I will put that on my list for the next few streams. Other wishes on my list:

- light_display_player aka using your playfield as display

- how and when to add custom code to your machine

- how to create light shows with show creator?

- mpf service mode, mpf service and mpf hardware scan

Tomorrow, Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) we will cover how and when to write custom code in your pinball machine. Which opportunities and pitfall exist? Join the stream at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

 

Jan

[jabdoa]

Next stream will live coding again. Adding placeholders for time with atum and maybe fixing some bugs afterwards. Tune in, Saturday at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

Wednesday, at noon PST (9pm GMT+2) we will investigate how to use your pinball playfield as display and render awesome lightshows. If you enjoy colorful flashing light join at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

The stream today (at noon PST or 9pm GMT+2) will be about the perfect IDE or game development setup for the Mission Pinball Framework. We will cover python development and game development. Questions always welcome! Join in at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[jabdoa]

On Wednesday (at noon PST or 9pm GMT+2), we will go through the MPF tutorial together on stream. You can probably watch me fail a few time ;-): https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/. If you missed the previous videos you can watch them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPXS1guuUIyC49ysa-nRuzg.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Tomorrow, Sunday, at noon PST or 9pm GMT+2, I will talk about how to contribute to the MPF documentation. If you ever wanted to improve your favorite pinball framework join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

How to develop and test pinball games without (physical) hardware? We will look at the MPF Monitor and play a machine virtually. Join the stream on Wednesday at noon PST or 9pm GMT+2 at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

On Saturday at 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we will look at the FAST pinball system and play around with it. What do you need to build a machine and how does it work? Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[Steve Trischetta]

Jan,

  I see that some of your earlier videos are not listed when I go to  https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa. Is there another spot where I can view them?  I'm interested in the video on magnets.

Thanks,

Steve

[Ryan]

Hey Steve,

If not on his twitch channel, have you looked on his youtube channel?

Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPXS1guuUIyC49ysa-nRuzg

Thanks

[jabdoa]

Everything should be on YouTube (after 24h delay). Twitch only keeps videos for 14 days (or 90 days if you have a lot of followers and viewers). For that reason I export videos to YouTube, cut them a bit and add time markers. Still need 100 followers on YouTube so I can choose a nice short URL (instead of the long https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPXS1guuUIyC49ysa-nRuzg).

Jan

[jabdoa]

How to use a Raspberry Pi as port expander in your custom pinball machine? Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we will look into using switches, coils, servos and I2C on the Pi. Tune in at: https://twitch.tv/jabdoa

Jan

[Todd Legere]

Very cool using Raspberry pi as a port expander. Can it do an i2c 4x20 lcd display for debugging and diagnostics? Many possibilities

I can't always make it in time for your live broadcast and really appreciate the  recordings being available. 

[jabdoa]

Guess those i2c displays would work. Might be worth to support them in MPF.

Jan

[jabdoa]

Tomorrow, Saturday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, I will explain how ball devices and ball tracking works in the Mission Pinball Framework. Which tricks exist to improve reliability? Check in at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

On Wednesday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we will talk about how to wire switches, coils and lights in pinball (all common types). We will also cover electronics basics, ground and appliance classes. Basically, everything you should know when building a pinball machine. Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

On Wednesday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, I will explain how to debug your pinball machine in a python debugger using pycharm. If you always wanted to dig deep into bugs or want to understand the inner workings of MPF join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[Todd Legere]

Awesome recording on the Cobrapin board. Great to see it in action and an explaination of the details. Now I have a better understanding for mine when it arrives (hopefully soon). Neat that there is yellow leds on the output coil ports (helpful in debugging). The 16 segment display looks cool too.

[jabdoa]

On Saturday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, I will explain how events work in the mission pinball framework. We will look into posting events, event handlers, blocking events and more. Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

On Wednesday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we will explore how ball locks and multiballs interact in your favourite pinball framework. If you are interested in ball stealing and physical locks join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

How do coins and credits work in pinball? On Wednesday (tomorrow), 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we investigate how this works in the mission pinball framework. How do coin and bill validators work? Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/. 

[David]

Thanks for doing these Jan, the live timing of twitch doesn't work well for me so I catch them on Utube later.

One thing perhaps you could cover in credits is how to set free play.   In my config I have

modes:          #priority
  - base        #120
  - btree       #125
  - chic        #130
  - inlanes     #200
  - wdrops      #150
  - rdrops      #160
  - bullseye    #170
  #- credits    # enable this for coin play

<snip a lot of other stuff>

credits:
  max_credits: 12
  free_play: false    # Changing this makes no difference to free_play / credit. 
                                 # Disable the credit mode in modes: section above to enable free play

but as my comment says it seems the free_play setting set to a value true doesn't change anything if I have the credit mode enabled.

Thanks, David.

On 28/07/2021 8:17 am, jabdoa wrote:

How do coins and credits work in pinball? On Wednesday (tomorrow), 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we investigate how this works in the mission pinball framework. How do coin and bill validators work? Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/. 

Virus-free. www.avg.com

[jabdoa]

On Saturday (tomorrow), 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we talk about shows in MPF. How to orchestrate lights, sounds, slides, widgets and more in your pinball? Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

On Wednesday, 1pm PST or 10pm GMT+2, we will implement stacked indicators together. Ever wanted to have multiple modes running and have them share inserts? We will (hopefully) make it happen during the stream: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[David]

Thanks Jan for the explanation and detail you gave in the twitch.   I should have been using an event  [enable_freeplay | enable_credit_play | toggle_credit_play] to change free_play setting.

I also now see that if I delete the game\data\machine_vars.yaml before starting mpf then whatever free_play setting I have in the config section takes effect.   If I don't delete the machine_vars file then the first used free_play setting is used.

Thank you.

[jabdoa]

Stream is canceled today. Will be off for a few weeks. See you soon guys!

[Todd Legere]

Once again, thank you for spending your time to share your knowledge. while I may not be able to always catch the live stream I do watch the recorded version.

One unfortunate part is if you watch the recorded version there are TOO MANY COMMERCIAL INTERUPTIONS. First commercial (there are three of them, then 5 mins later 2 more, then more & more).

URRRRRRG.

Guess I need to catch the live version and avoid the many anoying interuptions.

Really enjoy all of the recording, very helpful. From the last one I watch the explaination of the jitter helps.

One item I am trying to understand and diagnose is debug messaging logging impact to the mpf server. Today I am having some is one or two switches that sporatically miss the ball rolling over the switch.

Need to learn if this is a messaging, loop speed, or simply a switch issue that needs adjustment. To my knowledge I really can't do much on the debounce of individual roll over switches.

[jabdoa]

I can check if I can disable ads. There are a few very confusing settings. This is quite annoying and also only makes cents. Not sure if I made a full dollar with ads yet - probably not ;-)

Jan

[jabdoa]

Tomorrow, I will be hacking service mode to also support segment displays. Currently, it has slides which work for well for DMDs. They work on LCDs but only use very few space of the screen. I plan to separate slides from service mode and implement three sets of slides for segment displays, DMDs and LCDs. Way forward we could change high score mode, tilt mode and bonus mode the same way to gain optimal experience for all kinds of machines. Will start at around 2pm PDT or 10pm GMT+1. Join at: https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/.

[jabdoa]

Will stream about designing and producing light boards for your pinball at 1pm PST (10pm CET/9pm GMT) today. We go through design, layout, part selection, PCB production and assembly! https://www.twitch.tv/jabdoa/