blinkenlights:

This is a config file reference. Click for instructions.

This page is reference material which explains every setting and option for this section of an MPF yaml config file. See the instructions for config files for formatting and other details. See our guide to config file examples for more examples of real configs in action.

Valid in
machine config files	YES
mode config files	NO

The blinkenlights: section of your config file is used to define lights on your pinball machine that can be shared by multiple different modes at the same time. Blinkenlights work best with RGB LEDs, because each mode that uses a blinkenlight can specify a color that the blinkenlight should flash for that mode. The blinkenlight will then flash each of its colors in a cycle according to a given schedule.

Here's an example section:

#! lights:
#!   l_left_ramp_arrow:
#!     channels:
#!       red:
#!         number: 1
#!       green:
#!         number: 2
#!       blue:
#!         number: 3
#!   l_right_ramp_arrow:
#!     channels:
#!       red:
#!         number: 4
#!       green:
#!         number: 5
#!       blue:
#!         number: 6
blinkenlights:
  blinkenlight_1:
    color_duration: 1s
    off_when_multiple: false
    light: l_left_ramp_arrow
    priority: 1000
  blinkenlight_2:
    cycle_duration: 1s
    off_when_multiple: false
    light: l_right_ramp_arrow
    priority: 1000

With the above configuration, two blinkenlights are configured: blinkenlight_1 and blinkenlight_2. You can then use a blinkenlight_player to add or remove colors to these blinkenlights from within your modes.

The options are as follows:

Optional settings

The following sections are optional in the blinkenlights: section of your config. (If you don't include them, the default will be used).

color_duration:

Single value, type: time string (ms) (Instructions for entering time strings). Defaults to empty.

Either color_duration or cycle_duration (see below) must be specified for each blinkenlight, but not both.

This specifies the amount of time that each of the blinkenlight's colors will be turned on. For example, if this value is 1s, then each of the blinkenlight's colors will be on for 1 second.

The more colors that are added to the blinkenlight when color_duration is specified, the longer it will take to cycle through all the colors. If you want the blinkenlight's cycle to always last the same amount of time regardless of how many colors the blinkenlight has, then use cycle_duration instead (see below).

cycle_duration:

Single value, type: time string (ms) (Instructions for entering time strings). Defaults to empty.

Either cycle_duration or color_duration (see above) must be specified for each blinkenlight, but not both.

This specifies the length of one cycle of the blinkenlight. The blinkenlight will show all of its colors in one cycle. This includes the "off" color at the end of the cycle, if applicable (see off_when_multiple below). For example, if this value is 1s, and the blinkenlight has 2 colors in its list, and off_when_multiple is false, then each color will be displayed for 0.5 seconds. If off_when_multiple is true, then the "off" color will count as a color in the blinkenlight's cycle, and so the each color will only be displayed for 1/3 of a second.

The more colors that are added to the blinkenlight when cycle_duration is specified, the shorter each color will be displayed. If you want each color to be displayed for a certain length of time regardless of the number of colors, then use color_duration instead (see above).

light:

Single value, type: string name of a lights: device. Defaults to empty.

This is the name of the light which this blinkenlight controls.

off_when_multiple:

Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false

This specifies whether or not to include an "off" color at the end of each cycle when the blinkenlight has more than one color in its list.

For example, if the blinkenlight has 2 colors (red and green) and off_when_multiple is False (the default value), then the cycles will be red, green, red, green. However, if off_when_multiple is True, then the cycles will be red, green, off, red, green, off. The "off" color in this case is treated as another color for the purposes of the color_duration and cycle_duration settings above.

A blinkenlight that only has 1 color in its list will be off at the end of its cycle, regardless of whether off_when_multiple is True or False. For example, the cycles of a blinkenlight that has 1 color (red) will be red, off, red, off.

priority:

Single value, type: integer. Default: 0

The priority of the blinkenlight. If there is a show that uses this blinkenlight's light, and the show and the blinkenlight are happening at the same time, then the light will be controlled by whichever one has the highest priority.

console_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the console log for this device.

debug:

Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false

Set this to true to see additional debug output. This might impact the performance of MPF.

file_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the file log for this device.

label:

Single value, type: string. Default: %

Name of this device in service mode.

tags:

List of one (or more) values, each is a type: string. Defaults to empty.

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