autofire_coils:

Config file section

Valid in machine config files	YES
Valid in mode config files	NO

The autofire_coils: section of your config file contains all the settings for the coils which you would like to fire automatically based on a switch activation in a pinball machine.

Here’s an example:

switches:
   s_left_sling:
      number: 1
   s_right_sling:
      number: 2
coils:
   c_left_sling:
      number: 1
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms
   c_right_sling:
      number: 2
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms

autofire_coils:
    left_sling:
        coil: c_left_sling
        switch: s_left_sling
    right_sling:
        coil: c_right_sling
        switch: s_right_sling

This example is tested to be valid MPF config. However, it is not integration tested.

switches:
   s_left_sling:
      number: 1
   s_right_sling:
      number: 2
coils:
   c_left_sling:
      number: 1
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms
   c_right_sling:
      number: 2
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms

autofire_coils:
    left_sling:
        coil: c_left_sling
        switch: s_left_sling
    right_sling:
        coil: c_right_sling
        switch: s_right_sling

Note that autofire coils in MPF are 1-to-1 in terms of coils-to- switches, so a single entry is for one switch to control one coil. On some platforms, you can have two switches control a single coil (or two coils controlled by a single switch), but to do that you would create two separate autofire_coils: entries with one coil and one switch each. (And again, that’s platform-specific. Check your hardware platform documentation for details.)

If you’re wiring your slingshots and you want two switches to control a single coil, on nearly 100% of pinball machines in the world, those two switches are wired together and use a single input, so the hardware sees them as a single switch. (Just be sure to wire them in parallel, not series, so that either switch closing causes the hardware to see the switch activation.) The top-level setting is the name you can refer to this autofire coil as, such as left_sling: or right_sling: in the example above.

Then each entry has the following required and optional settings:

Required settings

The following sections are required in the autofire_coils: section of your config:

<name>:

The name of the ball device. (left_sling and right_sling in the example config above.)

The rest of the settings here apply to individual ball devices (and are indented under them).

coil:

Single value, type: string name of a coils: device.

The name of the coil you want to fire. (Actually, perhaps we should phrase it as the name of the coil you want to change the state on, because you can also use these autofire coil rules to cause coils to stop firing based on a switch change.)

switch:

Single value, type: string name of a switches: device.

Optional settings

The following sections are optional in the autofire_coils: section of your config. (If you don’t include them, the default will be used).

coil_overwrite:

One or more sub-entries, each in the format of type: str:str. Default: None

You can overwrite recycle, pulse_ms, pulse_power or hold_power of the coil for this device.

This is an example:

switches:
   s_left_sling:
      number: 1
coils:
   c_left_sling:
      number: 1
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms

autofire_coils:
    stronger_left_sling:
        coil: c_left_sling
        switch: s_left_sling
        coil_overwrite:
           pulse_ms: 20ms

This example is tested to be valid MPF config. However, it is not integration tested.

switches:
   s_left_sling:
      number: 1
coils:
   c_left_sling:
      number: 1
      default_pulse_ms: 10ms

autofire_coils:
    stronger_left_sling:
        coil: c_left_sling
        switch: s_left_sling
        coil_overwrite:
           pulse_ms: 20ms

In this example we increase pulse_ms of the slingshot. If you define multiple versions of a autofire_coil (here slingshot) make sure that you only enable one of them at a time.

debug:

Single value, type: boolean (Yes/No or True/False). Default: False

See the documentation on the debug setting for details.

disable_events:

List of one or more events (with optional delay timings), in the device control events format.

Default: ball_ending, service_mode_entered (Note that if you add an entry here, it will replace the default. So if you also want the default value(s) to apply, add them too.)

Disables this autofire coil by clearing the hardware rule from the pinball controller hardware.

enable_events:

List of one or more events (with optional delay timings), in the device control events format.

Default: ball_started (Note that if you add an entry here, it will replace the default. So if you also want the default value(s) to apply, add them too.)

Enables this autofire coil by writing the hardware rule to the pinball controller hardware.

label:

Single value, type: string. Default: %

The plain-English name for this device that will show up in operator menus and trouble reports.

reverse_switch:

Single value, type: boolean (Yes/No or True/False). Default: False

Boolean which controls whether this autofire device fires when the switch is active or inactive. The default behavior is that the coil is fired when the switch goes to an active state. If you want to reverse that, so the coil fires when the switch goes to inactive, then set this to False. (This is what you would use if you have an opto.) Default is False.

switch_overwrite:

One or more sub-entries, each in the format of type: str:str. Default: None

You can overwrite the debounce setting of your switch in this device.

tags:

List of one (or more) values, each is a type: string. Default: None

Special / reserved tags for autofire coils: None

See the documentation on tags for details.

ball_search_order:

Numeric value, default is 100

A relative value which controls the order individual devices are pulsed when ball search is running. Lower numbers are checked first. Set to 0 if you do not want this device to be included in the ball search. See the Ball Search documentation for details.

playfield:

The name of the playfield that this autofire device is on. The default setting is “playfield”, so you only have to change this value if you have more than one playfield and you’re managing them separately.