Kodi won't gain focus

[scottacus]

I am trying to set up a jukebox player using Kodi and a Pandora add-on.  I can launch Kodi via PinballX but the focus never changes to Kodi and it sits behind the black "Launching" screen in PinballX.  Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?

log.txt

PinballX.ini

[RustyCardores]

Are you sure that your table path is correct?  "TablePath=C:\Kodi\Games\Kodi\Tables" looks a little odd? 

[scottacus]

Thanks for the reply, I did change the tables folder to Kodi/tables and the folder is empty but no luck.

I ran Windows Task Manger when PinballX was stuck in the "Loading" screen and Kodi was listed as running in the background.  Once I exited the Kodi "table", Kodi shut down.  The problem seems to be that Kodi doesn't want to run in the foreground when it is started by PinballX.   It will run in the foreground if started manually by its .exe.

[Carny_Priest]

I just have PinballX run a AutoHotkey script that launches Kodi. I do it this way so that I can run some Display Changer II instructions, Display Changer II is a little command line display management program, that will clone my backglass screen to show the same visualizations as the playfield screen. And the script will automatically navigate to my music folder. When I exit out of Kodi, Display Changer II will extend the desktop again to my backglass screen before returning focus to PinballX. It's pretty reliable for me.

http://12noon.com/?page_id=641

LaunchKodi.zip

[RustyCardores]

Sounds like it might be a good option Carny, as Scottacus is wanting the visualisations on both screens.  I've set mine up differently, with KODI running 100% on the backglass and a JukeBox slide show running on the playfield.  This meant I could call the KODI exe direct without additional scripts.

[scottacus]

Thanks Carny, Display Changer 2 is the software that I am using to clone the screens, great little program.  I picked up on that program from a old post on this forum that you took part in back in 2014.  

I don't know enough about Windows to figure out why PinballX would launch a program and have it run in the background but I will try using Autohotkey in hopes that it will launch Kodi and run it in the foreground.  Thanks!

[scottacus]

Carny, you get a "gold star" for today because you fixed my problem!

I made an AutoHotKey script using yours as a model and I was able to get PinballX to launch Kodi and give it the focus.  I tried the AutoHotKey script with and without "sleep, 1000" commands after launching the dc2.exe and the lack of a delay is what seems to be preventing Kodi from getting the focus.  I think I saw delay options for other systems (future pinball?, pinball arcade?) and I wonder if those delays were there for focus issues?  At any rate is sent a -temporary command before my -configure command in dc2 so when Kodi exits it sets the backbox back to extended from clone.  Very slick!  Now I need to send some additional key strokes to Kodi to navigate to Pandora automatically. 

Thanks Carney and Rusty!

[Carny_Priest]

Yeah, I believe all of the integrated systems, FP, VP, FX2, TPA have delays built in to deal with focus or menu selection issues. They appear to work for many people, but if not for you then you will have to use a custom system type and code a custom script.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RustyCardores]

On 10/28/2016 at 0:57 AM, scottacus said:

Now I need to send some additional key strokes to Kodi to navigate to Pandora automatically. 

Google "kodi autoexec.py" as you can tell KODI to start in an addon. 

[scottacus]

Thanks Rusty for the suggestion.  The autoexec.py (python script) is for starting up Spotify and I'm not sure that there is a script that could access to get Pandora to run (nothing that I can see to point to) so I made an AutoHotKey script to do the same thing.  I added a Pandora icon onto the front page of Kodi and sent two "down" commands followed by a "return" to start Pandora and then used some more commands to navigate to a good station and autostart it.  It works well so far.

My next project is to get the cab lighting working with the music.  MJR suggested Ledblinky so I'm going to start looking into that.

[RustyCardores]

autoexec.py can be used for other addons too, but no need now that you have it working.

re the cab lighting (and I know this is not what your thinking about, but I just find it really cool) is http://www.dreamscreentv.com/ Using addressable LEDs to follow & match the colour that is being displayed on the screen.

Imagine that chasing & matching the visualisations in real time.  Would be awesome!

EDIT: Oooooohhhh.... I just saw that it has a Music Mode that it creates from audio channels. Sweet!!

[scottacus]

You find the coolest stuff!  I wonder why the density of their addressable LEDs is so low?  The strips look like they are maybe 15 LED/m from what I can see in the photos of the product.  Most guys are using 60-144 LEDs per meter in their cabs so I would wonder if the dreamscreen could drive the LEDs in cabs since the addressing might not go high enough.  None-the-less, cool product.

[RustyCardores]

There are destructions online for DIY kits that allow higher lpm to be used.  From memory, I think they were being run off an Audrino ...or was it a Pi?  nah, Audrino I think. 

I'm going to chase that up, as I might build one for behind my BeerKeg MAME or race sim screen. 

 

EDIT: I just found the destructable and it would be cheaper to buy the one I linked.