iOS - Flipper goes dead after holding for too long

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

Yep. Happened within 2 minutes on Whirlwind.

Stuart one more thing, for me it's 95% a left flipper issue. Not sure about the op. For me it's almost always the left, in fact it might always be the left for me...

 

[shoemakesmusic]

I know it sounds crazy. But I also am absolutely 100% sure it is not due to my thumb coming off the phone. It's happened way too many times for it to be a fluke. And once it happens you can't use the flipper for another second or two. It completely goes dead no matter how many times you press it during that time.

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

Shoemaker, does your wife have a 5 or a 5c?

 

[Stuart Webster]

No luck so far. I'm curious, does the issue happen with Bluetooth turned off?

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

No luck so far. I'm curious, does the issue happen with Bluetooth turned off?

It could be a 5S/5C thing.

I just turned Bluetooth off, testing now.

 

[Stuart Webster]

It could be a 5S/5C thing.

I just turned Bluetooth off, testing now.

It's possible. No clue what would've changed between the 5 and the 5S/C. The UITouch API hasn't changed since 2010 as far as I'm aware.

Edit: Unfortunately we don't have any iPhone 5S/C's in the office. :/

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

Ok. Here's a great way to get the bug consistently.

Hold down the flippers a lot. Especially during multiball. Eventually they will go dead with your thumb still firmly pressing down. So Who Dunnit, multiball, play the game normally but hold down the flippers whenever you can.

I'm going to try to film this later today.

Also Stuart just tested, still get the bug even with Bluetooth off.

It's possible. No clue what would've changed between the 5 and the 5S/C. The UITouch API hasn't changed since 2010 as far as I'm aware.

Edit: Unfortunately we don't have any iPhone 5S/C's in the office. :/

I think that with the 5S at least, latency regarding button presses was reduced. Not sure if that applies to the 5C as well. Not sure if that's the issue. Who knows.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

My wife has a 5 just like mine. Haven't tried with bluetooth on/off. I'll give it a shot.

I just saw that Stuart tested with bluetooth. So I guess that's not it either. I'm really glad I'm not the only one experiencing this. Any other ways that I can test this just let me know. Airplane mode maybe?

 

[Stuart Webster]

Hm... When did the issue first start happening?

 

[shoemakesmusic]

I just tested something I hadn't thought of before - same result. I plunged the ball in Whirlwind. Cradled with right flipper. The flipper did not go dead after several seconds. I post transferred to the left flipper. Cradled that ball. 10 seconds or so later the bug happens. I had never actually tried it in a non multiball mode but it looks like it only happens on the left flipper, at least in WW. And typically when I play WW in multiball I will cradle balls with the left flipper and shoot the ramp with the right flipper and that is when the bug would always pop up. But now I see that it doesn't matter when you do it because I tried with the very first ball.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

Hm... When did the issue first start happening?

I downloaded TPA probably 2 months ago. I want to say that since the very beginning of that time it has happened to me. It only happened a couple of times for awhile so I thought it was something I did. But now I know that it can easily be replicated.

 

[Stuart Webster]

Ok. Here's a great way to get the bug consistently.

Hold down the flippers a lot. Especially during multiball. Eventually they will go dead with your thumb still firmly pressing down. So Who Dunnit, multiball, play the game normally but hold down the flippers whenever you can.

I'm going to try to film this later today.

Also Stuart just tested, still get the bug even with Bluetooth off.



I think that with the 5S at least, latency regarding button presses was reduced. Not sure if that applies to the 5C as well. Not sure if that's the issue. Who knows.

I just tested something I hadn't thought of before - same result. I plunged the ball in Whirlwind. Cradled with right flipper. The flipper did not go dead after several seconds. I post transferred to the left flipper. Cradled that ball. 10 seconds or so later the bug happens. I had never actually tried it in a non multiball mode but it looks like it only happens on the left flipper, at least in WW. And typically when I play WW in multiball I will cradle balls with the left flipper and shoot the ramp with the right flipper and that is when the bug would always pop up. But now I see that it doesn't matter when you do it because I tried with the very first ball.

I've tried following these instructions several times with no success in reproducing the bug. @_@

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

I've tried following these instructions several times with no success in reproducing the bug. @_@

Did you use a 5C/S?

Shoemaker, did your wife have a 5C or regular 5?

I just find it hard to believe we would be unlucky enough to have 4 devices that all happened to have the same issue.

Stuart, did you play for 15-20 min session? Sometimes it takes a bit for the bug to show up.

It's not in our heads because what shoemaker describes is exactly what I experience.

 

[Stuart Webster]

My longest session was around 25 minutes on an iPhone 5. We don't have an iPhone 5S or 5C in-house to test, unfortunately. If the issue is hardware related, that makes it incredibly difficult to resolve. I've been browsing the iOS developer forum and there doesn't seem to be any posts related to the issue.

I'm pretty stumped by this one.

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

My longest session was around 25 minutes on an iPhone 5. We don't have an iPhone 5S or 5C in-house to test, unfortunately. If the issue is hardware related, that makes it incredibly difficult to resolve. I've been browsing the iOS developer forum and there doesn't seem to be any posts related to the issue.

I'm pretty stumped by this one.

I'll play other games on my phone and see if any of them do the same thing.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

We both have regular iPhone 5

 

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

I play in vertical orientation, not sure if that matters.

Also not sure if this was mentioned, if the input drops and you keep your finger held down, the flipper will stay down as long as you're still holding down.

It's also pretty much a sure thing to experience it for me during Who Dunnit multiball.

I've pretty much said all I can about it. If anyone is reading this forum, experienced this bug but isn't a member, please take a few minutes to register and join the conversation. It'll help us get it solved if more people talk about their experience and perhaps how it's possibly triggered.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

I feel the same way, Lizard. Not sure what else can be said. Please, if you are experiencing this problem, respond with a post. I also always play in vertical orientation.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

I did another test with Whirlwind. This time I cradled the ball in the right flipper, and also held down the left flipper. So both flippers are up at this point. The bug happens and it actually killed BOTH flippers. However, as I mentioned before, if I just hold down the right flipper the bug does not happen.

 

[shoemakesmusic]

Interesting finding: I was doing some more testing because let's face it, it's Friday and I don't feel like working. I started going through the pins that I have bought one by one. Here was my sequence: I plunge the ball. Trap it as soon as possible with either flipper, and then press and hold both flippers. The bug happened every time. This was true for AFM, BS, BK2000, BR, BoPB, CC, Centaur. I stopped there because I thought that this was a good find. It was completely repeatable. Not so fast. I shut down TPA completely. Restarted. Opened Whirlwind. NO BUG! I went back to AFM. NO BUG. I shut down TPA. Restarted. Still no bug. I thought I was on to something with being able to repeat it the same way every table but I guess not. But it does seem like that if the bug is happening, then it's happening on every table. If the bug is not happening, then all tables are good. I'm trying to find some rhyme or reason to this thing to help out. I'll report back.