autofire_coils:
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 autofire_coils: section of your config file contains all the settings for the coils which you would like to fire automatically based on a switch activation in a pinball machine.
Here's an example:
switches:
s_left_sling:
number: 1
s_right_sling:
number: 2
coils:
c_left_sling:
number: 1
default_pulse_ms: 10ms
c_right_sling:
number: 2
default_pulse_ms: 10ms
autofire_coils:
left_sling:
coil: c_left_sling
switch: s_left_sling
right_sling:
coil: c_right_sling
switch: s_right_sling
Note that autofire coils in MPF are 1-to-1 in terms of coils-to-switches, so a single entry is for one switch to control one coil. On some platforms, you can have two switches control a single coil (or two coils controlled by a single switch), but to do that you would create two separate autofire_coils: entries with one coil and one switch each. (And again, that's platform-specific. Check your hardware platform documentation for details.)
If you're wiring your slingshots and you want two switches to control a
single coil, on nearly 100% of pinball machines in the world, those two
switches are wired together and use a single input, so the hardware sees
them as a single switch. (Just be sure to wire them in parallel, not
series, so that either switch closing causes the hardware to see the
switch activation.) The top-level setting is the name you can refer to
this autofire coil as, such as left_sling: or right_sling: in the
example above.
Then each entry has the following required and optional settings:
Required settings
The following sections are required in the autofire_coils: section of
your config:
coil:
Single value, type: string name of a coils: device. Defaults to empty.
The name of the coil you want to fire. (Actually, perhaps we should phrase it as the name of the coil you want to change the state on, because you can also use these autofire coil rules to cause coils to stop firing based on a switch change.)
switch:
Single value, type: string name of a switches: device. Defaults to empty.
The name of the switch which will trigger the autofire coil. More
precisely, this switch is used together with the coil in the hardware
rules which will instruct your pinball hardware to pulse the coil.
Optional settings
The following sections are optional in the autofire_coils: section of
your config. (If you don't include them, the default will be used).
ball_search_order:
Single value, type: integer. Default: 100
A relative value which controls the order individual devices are pulsed
when ball search is running. Lower numbers are checked first. Set to 0
if you do not want this device to be included in the ball search. See
the Ball Search
documentation for details.
coil_overwrite:
Single value, type: coil_overwrites:. Defaults to empty.
You can overwrite recycle, pulse_ms, pulse_power or hold_power
of the coil for this device.
This is an example:
switches:
s_left_sling:
number: 1
coils:
c_left_sling:
number: 1
default_pulse_ms: 10ms
autofire_coils:
stronger_left_sling:
coil: c_left_sling
switch: s_left_sling
coil_overwrite:
pulse_ms: 20ms
In this example we increase pulse_ms of the slingshot. If you define
multiple versions of a autofire_coil (here slingshot) make sure that you
only enable one of them at a time.
coil_pulse_delay:
Single value, type: time string (ms)
(Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0
This setting will delay the pulse of your coil by a certain
milliseconds after your switch has activated. Please note that this
has to be supported in your hardware platform and not all platforms do
that.
disable_events:
List of one (or more) device control events
(Instructions for entering device control events). Default: ball_will_end, service_mode_entered
Disables this autofire coil by clearing the hardware rule from the pinball controller hardware.
enable_events:
List of one (or more) device control events
(Instructions for entering device control events). Default: ball_started
Enables this autofire coil by writing the hardware rule to the pinball controller hardware.
playfield:
Single value, type: string name of a
playfields: device. Default:
playfield
The name of the playfield that this autofire device is on. The default setting is "playfield", so you only have to change this value if you have more than one playfield and you're managing them separately.
reverse_switch:
Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false
Boolean which controls whether this autofire device fires when the switch is active or inactive. The default behavior is that the coil is fired when the switch goes to an active state. If you want to reverse that, so the coil fires when the switch goes to inactive, then set this to False. (This is what you would use if you have an opto.) Default is False.
switch_overwrite:
One or more sub-entries. Each in the format of string : string
You can overwrite the debounce setting of your switch in this device.
timeout_disable_time:
Single value, type: time string (ms)
(Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0
To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings)
you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than
timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil)
are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for
timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.
timeout_max_hits:
Single value, type: integer. Default: 0
To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings)
you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than
timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil)
are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for
timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.
timeout_watch_time:
Single value, type: time string (ms)
(Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0
To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings)
you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than
timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil)
are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for
timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.
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
See the documentation on the debug setting for details.
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: %
The plain-English name for this device that will show up in operator menus and trouble reports.
tags:
List of one (or more) values, each is a type: string. Defaults to
empty.
Special / reserved tags for autofire coils: None
See the documentation on tags for details.
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