MPF controls a pinball machine by interfacing to a modern pinball control system. (See the /start/index for details.) MPF itself is hardware-independent, meaning that MPF (and the configs and code you build) runs on a normal/embedded PC <computer/index> and can work with lots of different kinds of control systems and hardware devices.
Not only does this give you a choice of what type of pinball control hardware you want to use, it also means that you have the flexibility to change your hardware at any time without having to change any game code. You could even release a game code update that works on multiple platforms—all with the same code!
Here's a demo video of us switching out a P-ROC controller for a FAST controller in 3 minutes and running the same game code on both:
_Zw_cHw2CXY
It's possible to mix-and-match multiple types of hardware in a single MPF machine config. For example, you could combine the SmartMatrix RGB DMD with a FAST Core controller, or a FadeCandy LED controller with a P-ROC, etc. (You can even mix-and-match platforms within the same type of device, meaning you could have some LEDs attached to a FAST Pinball controller and others attached to a FadeCandy. See the platform guide for details.)
MPF currently supports the following hardware control systems. We are always adding more, so if there's a hardware device that you'd like to use that we don't support, let us know. (Or better yet, write your own interface to it and submit a pull request to the MPF codebase!)
Also see our guide on voltages found in a pinball machine <voltages_and_power/index>.
Here's a list of all the different types of control systems and hardware that MPF currently supports. If there's a type of hardware you'd like us to support that you don't see on this list, please post a message to the MPF Users Google Group and we'll go from there.
You'll need to pick one of these three as the main interface between MPF and your pinball machine.
FAST Pinball <fast/index>- Core Controller, Nano Controller, WPC Controller
- 0804, 1616, 3208 I/O Boards
- Servo controller daughter board
- Power Filter Driver Board coin-door interconnect
- Plasma & LED mono DMDs (Core & WPC controllers)
- FAST RGB LED-based DMD
Multimorphic <multimorphic/index>- P-ROC with PDB driver boards (PD-16, PD-8x8, PD-LED)
- P-ROC in all supported existing machines (Williams, Stern, etc.)
- P3-ROC with PDB driver boards (PD-16, SW-16, PD-LED)
- Plasma & LED mono DMDs (P-ROC)
- Accelerometer-based tilt (P3-ROC)
- I2C slave boards (see below for which I2C boards are supported) (P3-ROC)
- Alphanumeric displays via aux port (P-Roc)
Open Pinball Project (OPP) controllers <opp/index>- Gen 2 OPP hardware, with many combinations of wing boards for drivers, switches, switch matrix, LEDs & incandescent lights
CobraPin Pinball Controller <opp/cobrapin/index>
Stern SPIKE / SPIKE 2 machines <spike/index>- New in MPF 0.33
- A computer running MPF can directly connect to a SPIKE machine with a simple "USB to serial" converter which you plug into the SPIKE main board.
LISY <lisy/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- Gottlieb System 1 (LISY1)
- Gottlieb System 80 (LISY80)
- Bally and Stern Games manufactured from 1977 to 1985 (LISY35) New in MPF 0.53
- Segment displays
- External sounds
- Switches, rules and coils
- Lights and enable triggers
Penny K Pinball PKONE Platform <pkone/index>- Nano Controller
- PKONE Extension (switches, coils, rules, servos)
- PKONE Lightshow (simple LEDs, WS281x RGB/RGBW LEDs)
Arduino Pinball Controller (APC) <apc/index>- New in MPF 0.53
- System 3 to System 11c
- Segment displays
- External sounds
- Switches, rules and coils
- Lights and enable triggers
Virtual (software-only) controllers <virtual/index>- MPF includes virtual hardware interfaces you can use to run MPF when it's not connected to physical hardware. (This is good for working on your game when you're not around your machine, or if you don't have real hardware yet.)
- You can also integrate MPF with a
Virtual Pinball (VPX) <virtual/virtual_pinball_vpx>table to play your game with simulated hardware. - The
MPF Monitor </tools/monitor/index>is a graphical tool you can also use to visually interact with MPF which is especially useful if you're not using MPF with physical hardware.
The following hardware devices can be combined with primary control sytstems to provide additional functionality.
Snux System 11 driver board <snux/index>- Supported in combination with the P-ROC or FAST WPC controller
- Supported for System 11, 11A, 11B, 11C
- Should work in Data East machines too, though it's never been tried
I2C Servo Controllers <i2c_servo/index>- Servos connected to I2C-based servo controllers
Fadecandy RGB LED controllers <fadecandy/index>- 512 RGB LEDs per Fadecandy
- Can connect multiple Fadecandys to support more LEDs
Pololu Maestro servo controllers <pololu_maestro/index>- Supports up to 24 servos per board
SmartMatrix RGB LED display controller <smartmatrix/index>- Supports a "real" color DMD made up of RGB LED matrix
RGB.DMD RGB LED display controller <eli_dmd/index>- Supports a "real" color DMD made up of RGB LED matrix
MyPinballs Segment Display Controller <mypinballs/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- Alphanumeric segment displays
- Also supports TNA Numeric Score Displays
Light Segment Displays <light_segment_displays/index>- Control segment displays via light outputs or driver on another platform
- BCD segment displays
- 7-segment displays
- Serial driven displays
- RGB segment displays
- Other formats and custom built displays
Trinamics StepRocker <trinamics/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- StepRocker stepper controller
Raspberry Pi <rpi/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- Local (MPF on the RPi) or remote via ethernet
- All inputs and outputs
- I2C and SPI
PIN2DMD RGB DMD <pin2dmd/index>- New in MPF 0.54
- 128x32 or 192x64 RGB LED DMD
- Connected via USB
Native I2C on Linux <smbus/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- I2C devices on any nativ I2C bus
MMA8451-based accelerometers <mma8451/index>- New in MPF 0.50
- Connected to I2C
Pololu Tic <pololu_tic/index>- New in MPF 0.52
- Stepper controller connected to USB
Open Sound Control (OSC) <osc/index>- Control lights via OSC (i.e. your DMX controller)
- Receive incoming switch changes (i.e. from your MIDI keyboard)
- Receive incoming events (i.e. from your MIDI keyboard)
- Send events to OSC (to generate sounds or trigger actions)
There is a hardware roadmap <roadmap> for other hardware which we want to support in the future.
Video on how platforms work internally and how to implement them:
PvQVoUzL8Cc
We have configuration guides which show you how to setup and use different types of pinball mechanisms with the various control systems and hardware that MPF supports:
FAST Pinball <fast/index> P-ROC/P3-ROC <multimorphic/index> Open Pinball Project (OPP) <opp/index> Stern SPIKE / SPIKE 2 <spike/index> LISY platform <lisy/index> Penny K Pinball PKONE Platform <pkone/index> Arduino Pinball Controller <apc/index> snux/index FadeCandy RGB LED controllers <fadecandy/index> i2c_servo/index Pololu Maestro <pololu_maestro/index> Pololu Tic <pololu_tic/index> SmartMatrix RGB DMD <smartmatrix/index> RGB.DMD <eli_dmd/index> PIN2DMD <pin2dmd/index> Raspberry Pi DMD <rpi_dmd/index> MyPinballs Segment Displays <mypinballs/index> Light Segment Displays <light_segment_displays/index> Trinamics StepRocker <trinamics/index> StepStick Steppers <stepstick/index> Computer Requirements <computer/index> Native I2C <smbus/index> Raspberry Pi <rpi/index> MMA8451-based accelerometer <mma8451/index> SPI Big Bang Switches <spi_bit_bang/index> Open Sound Control (OSC) <osc/index> Virtual Hardware <virtual/index> Existing Machines <existing_machines/index> Voltages and Power <voltages_and_power/index>
hw_rules numbers platform roadmap troubleshooting_hardware
i2c_platforms servo_platforms stepper_platforms segment_display_platforms dmd_platforms
segment_display_transitions