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:

coil:

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

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. Defaults to empty.

The name of the switch which will trigger the autofire coil. More precisely, this switch is used together with the coil in the hardware rules which will instruct your pinball hardware to pulse the coil.

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).

ball_search_order:

Single value, type: integer. Default: 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.

coil_overwrite:

Single value, type: coil_overwrites. Defaults to empty.

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.

coil_pulse_delay:

Single value, type: time string (ms) (Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0

This setting will delay the pulse of your coil by a certain milliseconds after your switch has activated. Please note that this has to be supported in your hardware platform and not all platforms do that.

disable_events:

List of one (or more) device control events (Instructions for entering device control events). Default: ball_will_end, service_mode_entered

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

enable_events:

List of one (or more) device control events (Instructions for entering device control events). Default: ball_started

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

playfield:

Single value, type: string name of a playfields device. Default: 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.

reverse_switch:

Single value, type: boolean (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 string : string

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

timeout_disable_time:

Single value, type: time string (ms) (Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0

To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings) you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil) are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.

timeout_max_hits:

Single value, type: integer. Default: 0

To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings) you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil) are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.

timeout_watch_time:

Single value, type: time string (ms) (Instructions for entering time strings). Default: 0

To prevent machine gunning of your autofire coils (i.e. pops or slings) you can define a windows timeout_watch_time. If more than timeout_max_hits hits to your switch (and thus responses by your coil) are seen by MPF it will disable the hardware rule for timeout_disable_time and reinstall it afterwards.

console_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the console log for this device.

debug:

Single value, type: boolean (true/false). Default: false

See the documentation on the debug setting for details.

file_log:

Single value, type: one of the following options: none, basic, full. Default: basic

Log level for the file log for this device.

label:

Single value, type: string. Default: %

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

tags:

List of one (or more) values, each is a type: string. Defaults to empty.

Special / reserved tags for autofire coils: None

See the documentation on tags for details.