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How to configure FAST Pinball COM ports

Related Config File Sections:

This guide explains how to configure MPF to work with a FAST Pinball controller. It applies to all three of their models---the Core, Nano, and WPC controllers.

This guide applies to the FAST Nano with MPF <= 0.56.0

If you're using a FAST Neuron or Retro controller, follow the newer information on the FAST Pinball website about using MPF with FAST hardware

1. Configure your hardware platform for FAST

To use MPF with a FAST, you need to configure your platform as fast in your machine-wide config file, like this:

hardware:
  platform: fast

fast:
  driverboards: fast

You also need to configure the driverboards: entry for what kind of driver boards you're controlling.

Use driverboards: fast if you're using FAST I/O boards (like the 3208, 0804, etc.), or use driverboards: wpc if you're using an existing WPC or Snux System 11 driver board.

2. Find the FAST COM ports

Even though the FAST Nano controller is a USB device, it uses "virtual" COM ports to communicate with the host computer running MPF. On your computer, if you look at your list of ports and then connect and power on your FAST controller, you will see 4 new ports appear. The exact names and numbers of these ports will vary depending on your computer, what other devices you have, and which port you plug the FAST controller into, but the order of which ports do what is the same everywhere:

  • First (lowest numbered) port: (available for your own custom use)
  • Second: NET processor (the main processor)
  • Third: RGB LED processor
  • Fourth: Unused (available for your own custom use)

You need to tell MPF which ports are used for the FAST Controller, and the first step to doing that is to figure out what the port names are on your system:

Finding the COM ports on Windows

On Windows, it's easiest to use the Device Manager. Right-click on the Start button (or whatever it's called now) and choose "Device Manager" from the popup menu.

Then expand the "Ports (COM & LPT)" menu section to see which ports the FAST Controller is using. The easiest way to do this is to open the Device Manager to that section, then plug your FAST Controller in (or power it on) and just see which four port names appear.

The port names will start with "COM" and then be a number, and there will be four consecutive numbers to represent the four FAST ports.

Finding the COM ports on Max or Linux

On Mac or Linux, it's easiest to find the port numbers via the terminal window (or console window). To do that, open a new window and run the following command:

ls /dev/tty*

This will list all the devices whose names begin with "tty".

The four FAST ports will have the name that starts with "tty.usbserial-", then a number, then a letter A-D. (The number will be different on every system.) The port ending with the "A" is the first port, the "B" is the second, etc.

For example, the four FAST ports might be something like on MAC:

/dev/tty.usbserial-141A
/dev/tty.usbserial-141B
/dev/tty.usbserial-141C
/dev/tty.usbserial-141D

On linux it would look like this:

/dev/ttyUSB0
/dev/ttyUSB1
/dev/ttyUSB2
/dev/ttyUSB3

If you have multiple FAST devices they will enumerate more or less randomly dependent on the order they are plugged in. Unfortunately, the USB devices do not contain any serial number. However, we can pin them based on the USB port they are plugged into. On linux this can be achieved using a UDEV rules such as this:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6011", ENV{ID_PATH_TAG}=="pci-0000_00_14_0-usb-0_12_1_0", SYMLINK+="ttyDMD1"

The device will then be available as /dev/ttyDMD1. You can run the following command while plugging in the device to get the relevand ID_PATH_TAG (and also idVendor and idProduct in case they changed with other revisions):

udevadm monitor --property

3. Add the ports to your config file

Next you need to add the ports to your machine config file. To do this, create a new section called fast:, and then add a ports: setting under it.

Then if you have a FAST Core or WPC controller, enter the names of the first three ports. If you have a FAST Nano controller, enter the names of the middle two ports (the second and third, since the first isn't used on a Nano).

So an example for Windows might look like this:

fast:
    ports: com3, com4, com5

And an example for Mac or Linux might look like this:

fast:
   ports: /dev/tty.usbserial-141B, /dev/tty.usbserial-141C

Note that if you have a FAST Core controller but you're not actually using the hardware DMD, then you don't have to enter the first port in your config. (Same is true if you're not using the LED controller.) MPF queries each port in this list to find out what's actually on the other end and then sets itself up appropriately.

Note that if you're using a version of Windows before Windows 10 and you have COM port numbers greater than 9, you will have to enter the port names like this: \\.\COM10, \\.\COM11, \\.\COM12, etc. (It's a Windows thing. Google it for details.)

There are more settings in the fast: section of the machine config that we have not covered here, but the ports are the bare minimum you need to get up and running.

4. Configure your watch dog timeout

FAST Pinball controllers have the ability to use a watch dog timer. This is enabled by default with a timeout of 1 second. If you would like to disable this, or you'd like to change the timeout, you can do so in the fast: section of your machine-wide config.

fast:
   ports: com3, com4, com5  # or whatever your ports are
   watchdog: 1000

The watchdog: setting is the timeout in milliseconds. Use 0 to disable it.

Note that at this time, FAST Pinball controllers only use the watch dog for the NET processor (which controls stuff on the IO boards, like coils). The watch dog is not used for the DMD or LEDs.

What if it did not work?

Have a look at our FAST troubleshooting guide.

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