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How to configure coils/drivers/magnets (Penny K Pinball PKONE)

Related Config File Sections:

To configure coils, drivers, motors, and/or magnets (basically anything connected to a PKONE Extension board's driver outputs) with Penny K Pinball hardware, you can follow the guides and instructions in the Coils (Solenoids) docs.

Warning

Please ensure that you have established common ground between logic and coil power before turning on high voltage on your coils (especially on homebrew machines). Ignoring this might lock on your coils, overheat them, burn down your house or kill you. We are serious, floating grounds are dangerous. If you are not an electrical engineer read the guide about voltages and power.

In a nutshell: You need to connect your logic ground (5V/12V) and your high voltage ground (48V or 80V). A power entry or power filter board is a convenient solution to solve this (and more) issues.

Always turn all PSUs off when connecting power or you might fry all boards at once. This is generally a good idea but even more important when connecting more than one power supply to a board.

IF YOU DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS WARNING MEANS STOP NOW AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT. OTHERWISE YOUR HARDWARE WILL LIKELY BURST INTO FLAMES AND YOU NEED TO WAIT A FEW DAYS FOR A REPLACEMENT OR EVEN WORSE IT MIGHT KILL YOU. IGNORING THIS IS THE MOST COMMON CAUSE FOR BROKEN DRIVER BOARDS.

There are a few things to know about controlling drivers and coils with PKONE hardware that are discussed here.

number:

When you're using PKONE Extension boards, drivers plug into individual Extension boards. Then the Extension boards are connected together in a chain to the controller.

image

The number: setting for each coil/driver is its board's Address ID number in the PKONE chain, then the dash, then the coil/driver output number (1-10).

coils:
  my_coil:
    number: 0-1    # Extension board with Address ID 0, coil/driver 1
  some_other_coil:
    number: 2-10    # Extension board with Address ID 2, coil/driver 10

Notes:

  • The PKONE Extension board Address ID switches can be set from 0 to 7.

Pulse Power

In the Coils (Solenoids) section of the documentation, we talked about how adjusting a coil's pulse time can affect its strength. Adjusting the coil's pulse times still assumes that 100% power will be applied to that coil during that pulse time.

Penny K Pinball PKONE controllers allow you to specify the power that's applied to the coil during the initial pulse time. This is similar to the Adjust coil hold power, except it applies to the initial pulse time instead of the extended hold time.

You can configure the pulse power by adding a default_pulse_power: setting to a coil definition and then specifying the power value from 0-1. (Like default_hold power, 0% to 100%)

For example, consider the following configuration:

coils:
  some_coil:
    number: 1-3
    default_pulse_ms: 30
    default_pulse_power: 0.5

When MPF sends this coil a pulse command, the coil will be fired for 30ms at 50% power. You can even combine default_pulse_power and default_hold_power, like this:

coils:
  some_coil:
    number: 1-3
    default_pulse_ms: 30
    default_pulse_power: 0.5
    default_hold_power: 0.25

In this case, if MPF enables this coil, the coil will be fired at 50% power for 30ms, then drop down to 25% power for the remainder of the time that it's on.

Setting Recycle Times

Penny K Pinball controllers allow you to precisely control the recycle time for coils or drivers.

A coil's recycle: setting is a boolean (True/False), which is set to False by default. When using Penny K Pinball hardware, if you set recycle: true, then the recycle time is automatically set to twice the coil's default_pulse_ms: setting. (e.g. a coil with a default_pulse_ms: 30 and recycle: true will have a 60ms recycle time).

With Penny K Pinball hardware, you can manually set a coil's recycle time by adding a recycle_ms: setting, like this:

coils:
  slingshot_r:
    number: 1-4
    default_pulse_ms: 30
    platform_settings:
      recycle_ms: 100

If you manually specify a recycle_ms value, then that's the value that's used and the coil's recycle: (true/false) setting is ignored.

What if it did not work?

Have a look at our PKONE troubleshooting guide.

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