VPinmame triggering relays on Sainsmart

[pgheyd]

I’ve had an issue for quite some time with Sainsmart relays triggering in both pinballx and popper. Scrolling through my tables, some will turn on two channels of my 8 channel USB Sainsmart relay board.  After troubleshooting, I’ve found that it only does it on the tables when ROMs are loaded in the front ends.  If the front end tables are playing a DMD video, they don’t trigger solenoids.

Knowing this, I went to the setup.exe of VPinmame, and did a test of my ROMs. When I test a ROM (for example afm_113b), it immediately triggers two separate channels, and those associated solenoids turn on and stay on (until I use another application to turn them off).  Always the same two (relay 2 and 7).  I’ve updated Sainsmart drivers, moved to other USB ports, and am running all the latest versions of VPinmame, DOF, etc.

Its not an issue with DOF, as that all runs fine with every table. It has to be some conflict between VPinMame and the sainsmart board.   Any suggestions?  Thank you in advance.

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[NailBuster]

just to help you troubleshoot.  if you are certain that you have the problem with PinUP Popper browsing as well, then it has nothing to do with vpinmame and/or roms.

Popper doesn’t touch/use ROMS/vpinmame.  So it may be just your DOF setup/config on startup doing it.

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[pgheyd]

I just started to get popper working, as I thought it was PinballX causing the issue.  I’m pretty sure it triggered in popper as well… but all of my testing has really been from PinballX, and then VPinmame; so I can’t be 100% certain popper did it.

I just don’t understand why when opening a ROM from the Vpinmame setup.exe test would cause those two relays to trigger.  This is an issue for me, as if I forget they are stuck on and shutdown my system, the solenoids stay stuck on, and will burn out.  (I can smell them, and they get really hot, if they are left on.)

A solution for me I know is to disable all ROMs from launching in PinballX, and use videos instead.  (It’s just boring to have the same video or blank screen on the ROM when scrolling through).  Or I can completely go to Popper, but I’m having a lengthy time converting.

DOF works perfectly for every table I have (a couple hundred).  So, I’m sure the configs are right from that perspective.  And when launching a table, it works perfectly fine… those two solenoids do not trigger at start of a game through VPX.  They trigger when they are supposed to with the table running.

Is there something else from a DOF setup/config at startup that would cause that?

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[NailBuster]

a guess.  but maybe DOF or freezy/dmdext are auto ‘scanning’ ports and it hits the port with sainsmart and triggers something.

 

 

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

1 user thanked author for this post.

pgheyd

[pgheyd]

Maybe… any way to stop it from doing that?  Or see if it’s doing that?  Thanks.

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[pgheyd]

So, I launched test.bat from the dmdext… and lo and behold it triggered those same 2 relays/solenoids as well.  So likely something conflicting with freezys/dmdext??

And btw… from Popper… No, it doesn’t trigger from the front end scrolling through tables.  HOWEVER, it DOES enable those two relays after I close out of a table.  (I’ll launch a table no problem… play, close out… AND then it triggers them).

 

 

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[pgheyd]

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, as I got it working (I think… )  Here’s what I found out in testing tonight.  I modified the DmdDevice.ini file in the VPinMAME directory, by forcing the port to be COM3.  (before the port was blank).
<p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>[pindmd3]
; if false, doesn’t bother looking for a pinDMD3
enabled = true
;COM port, e.g. COM3
port = COM3</p>
That completely resolved the issue I was having in PinballX and with the setup.exe test in VpinMame.  Completely.

Running the test.bat in the dmdext still has the issue, and in the MS Dos command prompt window, it shows that it’s first checking Com Port 1 and has an error.
<p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:31.696 INFO | Launching console tool.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:31.968 INFO | PinDMDv1 device not found.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:31.981 INFO | PinDMDv2 device not found.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:31.981 INFO | Checking port COM1 for PinDMDv3…
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.060 ERROR | Error: The parameter is incorrect.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.060 INFO | Checking port COM8 for PinDMDv3…
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.177 INFO | Checking port COM3 for PinDMDv3…
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.281 INFO | Found PinDMDv3 device on COM3.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.281 DEBUG | Firmware: REV-vPin-01009
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.281 DEBUG | Resolution: 128×32
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.386 DEBUG | PIN2DMD device not found.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.386 INFO | Added PinDMDv3 renderer.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.429 INFO | Added VirtualDMD renderer.
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.429 INFO | Resizing virtual DMD to 128×32
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.429 INFO | Setting up Render Graph for 2 destination(s)
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.441 INFO | Connecting Image Source to PinDMD v3 (Bitmap => Rgb24)
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.458 INFO | Connecting Image Source to Dmd (Bitmap => Bitmap)
[1] 2019/04/08 21:55:32.458 INFO | Press CTRL+C to close.</p>
So, this would tell me that freezy’s dmdext is doing a scan on several ports, and is setting something on Com1, and ultimately sending a signal on to my sainsmart board.  I did update the dmddevice.ini file to match the other one as well… same error.

It then got me thinking on which tables rely on running dmdext… that would be the PROC tables.. i.e.  Cactus Canyon Continued… and sure enough I can hear it set those two relays immediately when launching the game (as it runs a dmdext script right away).  The table plays fine, and when I close that table, it must force release the relays.  Whew.

I also checked popper, and it works as is should now as well.  It no longer activates the relays when closing.

So… again thank you for pointing me to dig in deeper to the dmddevice.ini files and the freezy dmdext files.  I believe there is an issue with the dmdext functionality since it’s still doing this… but, at least the table that drives that closes the relays out.

You need to login in order to like this post: click here

[Author]

Posts