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MPF config file reference: FAST Pinball LEDs

MPF 0.57 Configuration Reference for FAST Pinball Hardware

This page is parrt of the reference material for users of the Mission Pinball Framework and FAST Pinball hardware. If you're new to MPF and FAST, read the MPF + FAST overview first. If you are a programmer writing your own software, see our Developer's Reference Guide.

Note that this guide only applies to MPF 0.57. If you're using MPF 0.56 or older, then the FAST Pinball configuration section of the Mission Pinball website has everything you need.

This guide explains how to configure RGB LEDs connected to FAST Pinball Expansion Boards in MPF.

At this point, only RGB (3-element) LEDs are supported. RGBW (4-element) LEDs will be supported in the future (currently targeting Oct 2023).

LEDs connected to a Nano do not use this guide

Nano support is not yet added to MPF 0.57. This guide is for LEDs connected to Expansion Boards only. You can follow the instructions on the Mission Pinball website for configuring Nano-based LEDs for now.

LED numbering is pretty straightforward. Each LED is identified by the expansion board it's connected to, the port on that board, and the LED number in the chain.

The port numbers are the numbers printed on the board (1-4 for most boards, or 1-8 for the FP-EXP-0081). The LED number is that LED's positioning in the chain, starting with 1, up to a max of 32.

Expansion Board LED numbering in MPF 0.57
lights:
    shoot_again:
      number: playfield-1-1 #(1)!
    left_eye:
      number: topper-2-1 # (2)!
    right_eye:
      number: topper-2-2 # (3)!
  1. This LED is attached to the Expansion board you called "playfield" in the exp: section above, and this is Port 1, LED #1 in the chain.
  2. Expansion board you named "topper", LED Port 2, LED #1 in the chain.
  3. This is the next LED in the chain after the previous on, Expansion board "topper", LED Port 2.

The MPF channels: feature has not been tested with FAST LEDs on MPF 0.57. Maybe it works? Let us know! The start_channel: and previous: numbering styles have also not been tested yet.

All the other settings work as expected based on the MPF Lights documentation.

Documentation Feedback? Requests? Confused?

Hi! I'm Brian, and I'm responsible for the documentation at FAST Pinball. If you have any feedback, requests, corrections, ideas, or any other thoughts about the docs, please let me know!

You can email me at brian@fastpinball.com. I maintain this site in my spare time, so there might be a week or so delay if you email me.

If you have a more pressing need, reach out to us via Slack, or email Aaron Davis.

Thanks!

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