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Built-in Diagnostics?


viperrwk

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First post - long time pinball guy. Excited to work with PIN2DMD because of its open source nature. 

I have a display that I built myself including assembling the PIN2DMD blade. Everything *seems* to be working. I've loaded the PIN2DMD editor v2.1.0.0  and I loaded Malenko's colorization of SFII since I figured that would be a good example to study to help me learn colorizations. Unfortunately, what I have found is that the colors on the computer screen are not matching up  to the colors on the display itself. As an example, you can see on the computer screen in the first shot the blue in the bullseye but on the PIN2DMD it comes out green. I know when you first power it on it displays 15 colors and black but I don't know what colors it is supposed to display and I don't know if what is on my screen is correct. I have tried both the 2.39 and 2.41 firmware with no noticeable difference. So a question and a request. Can anyone confirm if my screen colors are correct? And the request: How about some simple built-in diagnostic to put up full screen color bars to allow a user to make sure the display is working 100%? Thanks for any replies. 

viperrwk

IMG_20171009_105718.jpg

IMG_20171009_111533.jpg

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you are not using RGB panels. Yours seem to be RBG. Use version 2.42, go into the onscreen menu - reset settings to default and chosse the color sequence that the output matches this pin2dmd logo

 DOF_banner.png.e78cecdc146255821728b4ce1

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Thank you for the reply lucky.

I changed the sequence to the one that I could most closely match to your screenshot.  It's not exact. The fifth color from the left in the screenshot is a light green then dark green. These two are reversed on my panels. The rest *seem* ok. I know part of what I'm seeing is comparing a screenshot to a panel and I also know there are variances in the panels themselves. However, when I go back into the editor and look at the bullseye again you can see the blue is there but the red and blue are reversed.  So at least the colors are correct but still are not in the right places.

viperrwk

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IMG_20171010_071838.jpg

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And to follow my own question. I loaded the project onto the SD card then played back the animation in the project and the colors were correct. So perhaps my color bars are ok (or close enough?) Maybe the editor needs an update to query the RGB sequence on the card before trying to display the live preview?

And I still think built-in diagnostics to the firmware would be a good thing that would help in testing the panels, sequencing the colors, etc.

viperrwk

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Your sequence looks good to me.

Live preview of the editor has two functions. 

1. Test the triggering and playback of  scenes with recordings  For that you always need to upload the project to the SD card. To do that either use the  upload function in the editor which copies the files to the SD through USB or export and copy the project with a SD card reader (quicker). Then either select a recording or a keyframe (which automatically selects a recording)

2. Optimize the colors of the palettes for scenes. For that select a scene.

I maybe add test screens to one of the next releases.

BTW I uploaded a new firmware today.

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9 hours ago, viperrwk said:

Thank you for the reply lucky.

I changed the sequence to the one that I could most closely match to your screenshot.  It's not exact. The fifth color from the left in the screenshot is a light green then dark green. These two are reversed on my panels. The rest *seem* ok. I know part of what I'm seeing is comparing a screenshot to a panel and I also know there are variances in the panels themselves. However, when I go back into the editor and look at the bullseye again you can see the blue is there but the red and blue are reversed.  So at least the colors are correct but still are not in the right places.

viperrwk

IMG_20171010_070414.jpg

IMG_20171010_071838.jpg

I believe what viper is trying to show here is that with what we believe to be the correct color sequence, the live preview is swapping red and blue. On the computer screen the inner circle is red and on the display it is blue. Or are you saying that what is shown on the led panels in live preview is not supposed to necessarily be what is on the computer screen?

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12 hours ago, tjc02002 said:

I believe what viper is trying to show here is that with what we believe to be the correct color sequence, the live preview is swapping red and blue. On the computer screen the inner circle is red and on the display it is blue. Or are you saying that what is shown on the led panels in live preview is not supposed to necessarily be what is on the computer screen?

correct ! It only needs to match when displaying scenes. For recordings the PC is taking the current palette to display. Pin2dmd might trigger a different palette or playback scenes from the project. When playing recordings the content is sent unmodified just like coming from pinmame or a real pinball machine. You can test your trigger points and check if the scenes are working as expected. That is why it is displayed correctly after he uploaded the project to the SD. 

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Thanks lucky.  Just to confirm:

19 hours ago, lucky1 said:

1. Test the triggering and playback of  scenes with recordings  For that you always need to upload the project to the SD card. To do that either use the  upload function in the editor which copies the files to the SD through USB or export and copy the project with a SD card reader (quicker). Then either select a recording or a keyframe (which automatically selects a recording)

This is working for me as I reported earlier which tells me I have the hardware set up and configured correctly.

19 hours ago, lucky1 said:

2. Optimize the colors of the palettes for scenes. For that select a scene.

This is not working for me as you can see from the shot below. I selected the Barrel Kick Down Scene and you can see there is white where there is supposed to be blue, blue where there's supposed to be red and green where there's supposed to be brown. This tells me that the editor does not know the RGB sequence of the panel. It needs to either be a setting in the editor or have the editor poll the panel.

19 hours ago, lucky1 said:

BTW I uploaded a new firmware today.

I assume the new firmware will not address this issue.

Thanks again.

viperrwk 

IMG_20171011_065559.jpg

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One other point to make with these panels. After I upload the project through the editor, the display resets, shows the version of the firmware in color and then proceeds to this greyscale screen. Once I select the live preview checkbox the screen goes back to color and shows the correct colors during the playback of the recording.  Perhaps a diagnositic routine in the editor would also be warranted...

viperrwk

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O.K. there seem to  be a  issue with the editor and ColMask scene live preview.  This has nothing to do with the color sequence setting in the pin2dmd firmware.

The same happens when I use old RGB panels. To verify have a look at the replacement scenes (with the brush symbol) . These are displayed correctly. It seems that it doesn´t switch to the correct palette  before displaying colMask  scenes. You can verify when you temporarily switch to another palette and then back to the one that is assigned to the scene.  I will report to Steve. If you find other issues with the editor please open a issue here

https://github.com/sker65/go-dmd-clock/issues

Old panel with replacement scene in live preview (standard RGB sequence)

IMG_9356.thumb.JPG.5d96d6b58e7e3156d4265bebd48ca7f6.JPG

 

 

New panel with replacement scene in live preview. (RBG sequence)

 

 

IMG_9357.thumb.JPG.4e358bc855d88635b078c9c18bc0ed4f.JPG

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... but there is also something missing in the new firmware. Fullcolor animations (more than 16 colors) are not corrected in their RGB sequence.

Problem is that this data comes preprocessed from e.g. dmddevice.dll or is stored in the fsq files and only copied into display memory.
That would need different exports for different panels which I don´t like.  I think it would be better to do the final processing on the device.
I will also talk to Steve about that.

Good thing is that full color playback is currently not used by any table colorization, Only in video playback of pinballx, UltraDMD or boot.fsq

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OK I think I'm understanding the problem with the color mask - but there's also a problem with switching scenes and live preview as well. The combination has really confused me. But I believe I know how to work around to get what I need on the screen.

If you are switching scenes in the editor and have live preview turned on, it will usually not show the correct frame on live preview that you see in the editor unless you have also selected the palette for that scene and those scenes share that palette. Additionally, if you are switching between a scene you've colorized and a  replacement scene, the live preview will switch correctly to the replacement scene but it does not work going from a replacement scene to a colorized scene. In this instance you have to switch to another palette, then back to the pallet for that scene to get the live preview on the screen properly. Also, if you select two replacement scenes in a row, the second scene will not display correctly. You first have to select a colored scene then back to the new replacement scene.

Yes, it's all confusing. Yes the editor is buggy with live preview. Probably best not to use it until it is fixed.

viperrwk

 

 

 

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56 minutes ago, viperrwk said:

OK I think I'm understanding the problem with the color mask - but there's also a problem with switching scenes and live preview as well. The combination has really confused me. But I believe I know how to work around to get what I need on the screen.

If you are switching scenes in the editor and have live preview turned on, it will usually not show the correct frame on live preview that you see in the editor unless you have also selected the palette for that scene and those scenes share that palette. Additionally, if you are switching between a scene you've colorized and a  replacement scene, the live preview will switch correctly to the replacement scene but it does not work going from a replacement scene to a colorized scene. In this instance you have to switch to another palette, then back to the pallet for that scene to get the live preview on the screen properly. Also, if you select two replacement scenes in a row, the second scene will not display correctly. You first have to select a colored scene then back to the new replacement scene.

Yes, it's all confusing. Yes the editor is buggy with live preview. Probably best not to use it until it is fixed.

viperrwk

That is exactly what I tried to explain to you with

8 hours ago, lucky1 said:

It seems that it doesn´t switch to the correct palette  before displaying colMask  scenes.

But why not use the editor ? Live preview is normally only used at the end of the project to verify and fine tune.
Everthing else can be done without. Malenko is just finishing his 7th title and he did not even recognize this little  issue.

 

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