Troubleshooting Fadecandy

If you got problems with your hardware platform we first recommend to read our troubleshooting guide. Here are some hardware platform specific steps:

Enable Debugging

If you got problems with your platform try to enable debug first. As described in the general debugging section of our troubleshooting guide this is done by adding debug: true to your fadecandy config section:

fadecandy:
  debug: true

This will add a lot more debugging and might slow down MPF a bit. We recommend to disable/remove it after finishing debugging.

Flickering Lights after a few Restarts

At some point fadecandy might exhibit erratic behavior or flickering lights after a few restarts of MPF. This usually can be fixed by power cycling the fadecandy (i.e. unplug it from USB and plug it in again). We created a bug report in the fadecandy repository for this case. We suspect a race which triggers some data corruption in the fadecandy firmware. If you are an embedded engineer or know anybody who could help to fix this issue please let us know. Nevertheless, we have never seen this outside of debugging sessions where we restart MPF frequently so it manageable once you know what it is.

Your hardware is not working at all

If your hardware is not working at all make sure that you removed the options -X, -x and --vpx from your mpf both or mpf game command line. Those options will overwrite the settings in your hardware section and MPF will not even try to connect to your hardware. If you got config errors we suggest you add -X to figure things out without interfacing real hardware all the time. Just keep that option in mind.

Another stupid thing to check: Is your hardware connected to your PC? We know it is stupid but a loose USB connector has happened to most of us.

On Linux you might want to run the command lsusb which should show both of your micro controllers connected. You should see two lines similar to

Bus 002 Device 014: ID 0483:5740 STMicroelectronics Virtual COM Port
Bus 002 Device 015: ID 0483:5740 STMicroelectronics Virtual COM Port

If you are unsure about the output, run the command once with your controllers connected and once without. If there is no difference, then for sure the USB device is not properly connected.

If you got problems with some switches also add debug: true to those as it will give to more insights into the intentions of those devices. Same will work for flippers, coils, lights, servos, steppers and more. See general debugging section for details.

Run MPF with verbose flag

See general debugging section for details. TLDR: run mpf both -t -v -V.

Report Your Issue and Ask For Help

If you cannot find the issue yourself please prepare some information about your issue according to our troubleshooting guide and ask in our forum.

Consider Improving the Documentation

Did you solve your issue but found that some relevant information in the documentation is missing or should be linked/located elsewhere? Either tell us in the forum or consider improving the documentation yourself to save future users some troubles the same way others saved you some troubles by writing this documentation.

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