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RFM Updates

Will it still be possible to do possible future updates using the original pinball2000 update/communication software?

Maybe I’m a little old fashioned, I have a trusty Dell D630 laptop I use for my updates, it has all the useful functionality, serial port, VGA output, PCMCIA slot and the best bit a proper bay floppy drive and running XP, use it daily for work to communicate with CNC machines, so good I have three of them, just don’t let it near the internet!

Great work Jim [emoji106][emoji41]

Chris.

think you missed the point. the whole idea of what he’s doing is so you can use a modern pc / laptop instead of having to dig out some old cruddy thing from you attic [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Not sure why you'd want to use the old buggy software thats locked to xp when there will be a new shiny updater program available that will run on any platform and also have lots of great new features.

physical xp machines wont run forever i'm afraid!!!

It’s really just to communicate with old machines that use old software for that purpose, my new laptop running Windows 10 won’t speak to the old girls. For the mean time until the oldies are phased out I’ll still be using the old brick. Always funny in the Middle East airports when you’re first asked to get your laptop out, the security staff snigger, once it boots XP they normally laugh out loud! But I can live with that.

More than happy to use your new software, always just thinking of options.

Great admiration for your work 👍

Chris.
 
Bingo! Deliberately bricked an update to make it unusable and the game boot from roms then ran my updater.

This is the first native update from a mac i think and also the first update ever not to use fupdate.exe :)

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It’s really just to communicate with old machines that use old software for that purpose, my new laptop running Windows 10 won’t speak to the old girls. For the mean time until the oldies are phased out I’ll still be using the old brick. Always funny in the Middle East airports when you’re first asked to get your laptop out, the security staff snigger, once it boots XP they normally laugh out loud! But I can live with that.

More than happy to use your new software, always just thinking of options.

Great admiration for your work 👍

Chris.
Windows 10 ?
When did that happen I thought we are still on Windows 8 !!
Anyway updated last night , super work Jim 👍
 
Windows 10 ?
When did that happen I thought we are still on Windows 8 !!
Anyway updated last night , super work Jim 👍

Thanks, glad you like the new update.

Regarding the new updater, one of the main reasons for doing this is so I can use my Mac and or linux natively and not touch windows!! nasty stuff!! :) Seriously though, making this application run across all 3 main os systems is the goal. I don't want to leave anyone out basically. You shouldn't have to worry about what operating system you choose to use in 2020, the app should just work! :)
 
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A new windows added to the updater program. Game Statistics and Info in 1 handy window.

Any suggestions on what you'd like to see in here?

Screenshot 2020-04-24 13.35.23.png
 
Hi Jim,
Is there not a way to have the complete list, and then enable a "tick box" to enable whatever the user fancies? so each users see only info they choose?
 
Not a game statistic but are you able to program it with an option to disable tilt when the coin door is open?

Oh and have the last score(s) displayed on powering up? I ask after I had @kevlar 's RFM crash on me after clocking up over 350M in a league game and no score was displayed once the game was rebooted.
 
A few pics of the wip for the stats window, now with an edit window and an a way to enable and disable what you see on the main window. The full list is selected at the start and you can turn off and back on what you want. There will also be a print out option.

Screenshot 2020-04-25 17.43.53.pngScreenshot 2020-04-25 17.44.15.png
 
Hi Jim was just thinking as there is two buttons on the side of the cabinet , could it be possible for these to be used as flipper buttons so one hand may be used to control the flippers ?
 
latest pic of the audits window dev. Anything selected as disabled is hidden form the output window, but is still there for re-enabling

Screenshot 2020-04-26 12.26.08.png
 
Couple of update pics for the main application.

When you load the app and its not connected to a game you get a list of all update packages in your local folder (or a remote drive) with the machine name and the version listed. (The original software was blank until you connected to something.)

Screenshot 2020-04-30 17.31.39.png

When you connect to a game the list of available updates changes to only show that games specific updates.

Screenshot 2020-04-30 17.32.52.png
 
Jim @myPinballs - I take it this is made for 'real' Pin2K computers? Will it run on pinbox to update on linux too?
Good work - I will be able to throw away my old windows 95 laptop and null serial cable soon then....
 
nice work Jim, one thing would be useful is a check box or option to send output to a log file in case it goes the way of the pear halfway through, or for instance you cannot connect because you've set the baud rate wrong. BTW is there no parity bit that needs setting for the rs232?
 
Jim @myPinballs - I take it this is made for 'real' Pin2K computers? Will it run on pinbox to update on linux too?
Good work - I will be able to throw away my old windows 95 laptop and null serial cable soon then....

This is of course for real computers with a serial port, but i may look at ways to make pinbox updating easier to. The way pinbox works as its an emulation is different so the std serial update wont work.

The application itself will run on any platform (mac, windows, linux, rpi) so you can update your real computer from any laptop or computer you choose.
 
nice work Jim, one thing would be useful is a check box or option to send output to a log file in case it goes the way of the pear halfway through, or for instance you cannot connect because you've set the baud rate wrong. BTW is there no parity bit that needs setting for the rs232?

Not really needed as if the update fails the pinball 2000 computer handles it and disables the corrupt flash update so you can try again. There is a progress bar on the app that moves as the packets are sent and the status info will tell you which part of the update you are on etc. ie the update is multiple files packaged together. Serial setup is handled internally so you only have the baud rate option as a change. Nothing else needs messing with.
 
Some new pics of the first pinbox connection and update options.

There is now a slide button to select original or pinbox hardware and some new options in the preferences window. When you select pinbox the connection options change on the main window but you still connect via the same buttons as with original hardware. Pinbox updates should be pretty quick as we are using a different update method here.

Screenshot 2020-05-06 18.50.29.png
 
Update on the new pinball 2000 update app. I've been spending along time working out the best way to allow and facilitate the inclusion of pinbox/nucore into the app. Surfice to say that the emulator was not meant to allow updates to the game code, so i've had to think a lot about the best way to do this and also the best way to allow multiple os systems to work with it.

Annoyingly pinbox and nucore didnt seem to implement the com1 serial comms or the ability to talk to the internal fupdate process, so i had to start from scratch again...

I now present to you a working gui update process for pinbox. :)

Some screenshots of the folder being updated remotely.

Originally included rfm update folder. With actually 2 lots of update files some of which won't do anything!

Screenshot 2020-05-22 17.27.18.png

Application first checks that it can connect to the pinbox machine (using the settings entered in its preference pane) then clears that lot out

Screenshot 2020-05-22 17.27.24.png

Then updates the selected new files.

Screenshot 2020-05-22 18.57.01.png

The process for the end user is the same selection process as with original hardware. Under the hood its totally different, but thats for me to worry about of course!!

Also the update process for pinbox is about 50-60 times faster. The whole update takes about 10-15 seconds

Reboot the machine and you get an updated pinbox running v2.21 :)

Screenshot 2020-05-22 19.45.05.pngScreenshot 2020-05-22 19.44.28.png
 
Well, lockdown is good for some things! My new pinball 2000 updater program Version 1.0 is now completed and about to go to my beta testers :)

Some pics of what you have to look forward to. Will run on any modern os, mac, linux or windows. I'm going ot be asking for a small fee (around £20) for access to the features with this program. All proceeds will go back into the dev fund pot for more rfm features.

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If anyone wants leads to use with the new update system, i will be providing sets to having worked out the best ones for reliable updates. Still working out costs but hopeful around £25 plus postage each.
 
Update lead sets are now available. The recommended ones for the upcoming software updater release. £28 plus shipping. Includes leads for original and pinbox updating
 
Update on RFM code. There will be another update out soon v2.22. This is a smaller 'bug' fix update that will fix a few of the minor bugs reported to me over the last few months. As you can image as extended play occurs i can build up a better picture of any bugs or items that need a tweak, though my beta testers always do a great job. The main issue fixed is detailed below.

Issue: a ball draining at mode completion instead of locking behind the up post caused the game to fail to eject a ball to continue play. After a ball search the ball was ended before issuing a new ball and incrementing the ball in play count.

Reason: During our updates of the game code, work was done to improve the auto launching of the ball from the trough on ball saves to speed up play, add additional audio and avoid having to manually press the launch button unnecessarily. An older ball save class was still in use for the scene completion processes and not linking correctly to the updated ball save classes.

New updated process: If a ball drains in this manner after a scene completes the ball saved message will appear, any ball save speech calls will be ignored so game completion speech continues, then once the new scene starts a ball will be ejected from the trough and auto launched into play. Nice and seamless :)
 
Hi,
Thanks for all the work you've done and all awesome features you add to.
I've been following you since I owned my RFM (a few months) I can't wait to test your upgrade software, I'm still in v1.1. Could I upgrade to v1.5 first before upgrading to v2.2? I would like to be able to see what's new and take my time to explore the game.
 
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