The MPF Monitor

The MPF monitor is a graphical app that connects to a live running instance of MPF and shows the status of various devices. (LEDs, switches, ball locks, etc.) as well as a running list of recent MPF events. You can add a picture of your playfield and drag-and-drop devices to their proper locations so you can interact with your machine when you’re not near your physical machine and/or for developing your game. MPF Monitor is also great when you have more than one person working on your MPF code but your physical machine is at one person’s house. :)

The MPF Monitor can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It uses PyQt5 (Python bindings for Qt5) for its visual framework.

Here’s a screen shot of it in action:

Note

The MPF Monitor is not a full pinball simulation with physics or moving balls or anything. But it does enough that you can use it to do real work on a machine when that machine is not nearby.

../../_images/mpf-monitor.jpg

Features

  • Connects to a live running instance of MPF.

  • Automatically discovers all the pinball mechs and devices in the game.

  • Device state is updated in real time in the “Devices” window.

  • MPF events and their keyword arguments are posted in real time to “Events” window.

  • You can add a photo of your playfield and then drag-and-drop LEDs, lights, and switches from the device tree onto the playfield.

    • LEDs (circle icons) show their color in real time.
    • Lights (circle icons) show their brightness in real time between black and white.
    • Switches (square icons) show their state (green = active, black = inactive).
    • More device types will become “draggable” in the future.

  • Left-click on a switch to “tap” it (activate & release). Right-click on a switch to “toggle” it (change its state and hold it).

  • Devices added to the playfield image are saved & restored when you restart the monitor.

  • Window sizes, positions, and which windows are open are remembered and restored on next use.

  • You can start the monitor and leave it running, and it will automatically connect (and disconnect/reconnect) to MPF as MPF starts and stops.

Road Map Features

MPF Monitor is very rough at this point. (Really more of a proof-of-concept.) We plan to add more features, including:

  • More details for events, including listing registered handlers & making it so you can sort, search, and clear the list.
  • Adding all the “game logic” stuff, including modes, shots, shot groups, shot profiles, logic blocks, timers, ball locks, multiballs, achievements, etc.
  • Add shows (running shows, step they’re on, priority, etc.)
  • Add players information (show all player variables and their values)
  • A “snapshot” button that can dump the entire current state to a file for debugging later
  • Export position (x/y) settings of widgets back to the MPF config
  • Connect to MPF-MC to get information about slides, displays, widgets, etc.
  • Add color controls to the playfield image to set brightness and color saturation
  • Add buttons to enable/disable different types of devices (think of it like “layers” for the playfield image.
  • Show additional properties from the selected device (Click a device to see it’s full information.)
  • Change debug levels of various devices dynamically
  • Save the config / layout with a specified file name
  • Add multiple playfield views which could each have different devices
  • Set colors, shapes, rotation, & sizes of devices (so inserts can be the right shape). Allow configurable “off” colors which can include opacity and “glow” so inserts look like real lights.
  • Allow all devices to be added to the playfield image, with custom representation (diverters that animate, flippers that animate, etc.).
  • Device state change history that shows what properties changed and when.
  • Default (mostly blank) playfield image if no playfield image is specified
  • Configurable default options (folder location, playfield image name, etc.)