4 PLAYER RACING CAB – LED Outputs/ MameHooker/ OutputBlaster/ Physical RPM Tacho

[Pstylz]

Yeah this is pretty awesome to get all these race leader lights working!

SF Rush, Rush the Rock and Rush 2049 work great with the race leader light. The problem with Rush (my favorite racing game) is that the LAN version only works for 15 to 99% of the way through a race before it crashes one of the players games. The other issue is that Windows 10 cannot programmatically enable and disable the TAP VPN (needed to play the Rushes and California Speed currently) since Microsoft has not added the ability and turning the tap adapter on manually loses network for the other lan games. I started looking into programs that can do gui mouse clicks (literally programmatically clicking on parts of the screen and mimicking what you do with your mouse) but I gave up hoping a Mame dev would fix the Rush LAN at some point. That or Cruis’n USA would be my two favorite games that need to be linkable.

Shame the LAN is not stable yet - I loved playing these games in the arcade and really want them on my cabinets.
Regarding programs/macro creators to automate turning on/off TAP VPN adapter, have you had a look at Pulover's Macro Creator?: https://www.macrocreator.com/
It's pretty good at picking up mouse clicks/movements etc and creating Macro's and exporting to AHK.

[Pstylz]

Oh wow this is so impressive!

I am glad to find some more people doing the race leader lights. I just got my led strip (ws2812b) programmed to an Arduino nano. I have it so 61x makes it all green, 51x all blue, 41x all red, 31x rainbow, 21x dancing green, etc. That way each player and even game is easily configurable in the mamehooker ini and you just change the value sent. My test of San Francisco Rush the Rock had the race leader light come on right away. I can send the code here soon if you want to rule out an Arduino code issue or a hardware issue for why your race leader light has a small delay. It took me a while to get it programmed and thankfully gpt4 was very helpful.

What games are you using with race leader lights?

So it turns out, because I am independently connecting the LED strips to different GPIO pins on the ESP32, the data voltage for each pin output was too low (sometimes as low as 1.9 volts) so the data line could not send/hold the colours.
I got around this by purchasing a QuinLED-Dig-Octa System Brainboard and now all LED strips work as expected    https://quinled.info/quinled-dig-octa-brainboard-32-8l/

So I'm controlling all LED strips (currently 5) via WLED and selecting the colours/effects using a JSON API command.  The WLED JSON API is instant and works really well.    (although teaching myself how to write JSON using curl.exe for Windows has been a little challenging  )
For Example,
RACE LEADER LAMPS:  I'm using MAMEHOOKER to send a ON/OFF (1/0) to an AHK script which sends a WLED JSON API command to turn ON/OFF the LED strip and set the colour to White.

Once a Game is selected in BigBox, my GameStart AHK script identifies the player and the game and sends a colour or effect to each particular cabinet's LED strips on game start.
For example, Sega Racing Classic:
Player 1 is RED
Player 2 is BLUE
Player 3 is YELLOW
Player 4 is GREEN
Later down the track, I'll add a few LED strips around the speakers which will be sound reactive also.
I've got lots of playing around to do with WLED   

[blastone]

Your project looks amazing! I'm doing something similar as well... my image is attached.

I was going to ask you how you got your steering wheel cutout so nice... I'm about to embark on that phase myself next.

When it comes to the decals I can probably help out as well I'll be making a set for mine eventually so can extend to fit yours easily enough

Did you end up hooking the VR buttons to the right lights as well?

[Fursphere]

I was going to ask you how you got your steering wheel cutout so nice... I'm about to embark on that phase myself next.

Not sure how the OP did it, but search Amazon or Google for a tool called a "Contour Gauge".  Makes copying contours pretty easy.  Cheap too.

[Pstylz]

Your project looks amazing! I'm doing something similar as well... my image is attached.

I was going to ask you how you got your steering wheel cutout so nice... I'm about to embark on that phase myself next.

When it comes to the decals I can probably help out as well I'll be making a set for mine eventually so can extend to fit yours easily enough

Did you end up hooking the VR buttons to the right lights as well?

G'day mate,
Sorry for the delay - been a hectic month (year actually) 
Thanks buddy.  I just keep chipping away when I get an opportunity between work, two kids and a wife 
Awesome work there mate!  There is something about the Daytona USA cabinet style that is so nostalgic to me!  Love it!

Regarding the steering wheel cut, my version 1 and 2 were completely by hand with a jigsaw but it just wasn't quite the finish I was looking for, so I took my design and re-imagined it in Fusion360 and then got it CNC cut. 
The CNC cut version really makes for a nice finish.

Yeah I'm using a PACDRIVE + MameHooker which controls LEDs for:

• Start
• Coin
• View 1 (Red)
• View 2 (Blue)
• View 3 (Yellow)
• View 4 (Green)
• Vol Up
• Vol Down
• Brake Lights

How are you going with your Decals?  I've done a bit of playing around in photoshop, but it's difficult to find hi-res images from a game originally made in 1994 

[Pstylz]

I'm also finding it tricky to decide which colour to do the side panel?? 

Burnt Orange   OR   Candy Apple Red  ?

Don't forget to vote at the top of this thread!

[Fursphere]

If you figure out the color codes for the original cabinets, please pass them along!   Seems to be a tightly held secret.  lol

[Pstylz]

If you figure out the color codes for the original cabinets, please pass them along!   Seems to be a tightly held secret.  lol

Yep!  It is a tightly held secret lol!  As much as I have scoured the internet and forums, I can't get the answer!   

[Pstylz]

06/06/2023 - UPDATE
-------------------------------

Hey all 👋
Quick update - I've added a few hardware bits and pieces and have done a fair amount of work on the software.

I've recently added 4x sound reactive LED rings using QuinLED dig2go controllers (as demonstrated in the video and currently on PLAYER 1 only)

I use PLAYER1 to control and select the game for both cabinets via BIGBOX (rather than independent BIGBOX apps running on each machine) this way they sync up nicely when starting a game.
I also managed to get BIGBOX to send the game title from PLAYER 1 (when scrolling through the menu) to PLAYER 2 this means that I can control game selection via BIGBOX on PLAYER 1 and "sync" PLAYER 1 and PLAYER 2 Marquee Display and Main Display game artwork and videos 😍😍😍 it activates/updates relatively fast - more on this at a later date.

I'm working on the Artwork now (not my strong suit) but will hopefully figure it out soon.

When I have the artwork and they're ready for paint, I will do a tear down video and go through the build, the parts and the design process.

[Fursphere]

If you figure out the color codes for the original cabinets, please pass them along!   Seems to be a tightly held secret.  lol

Yep!  It is a tightly held secret lol!  As much as I have scoured the internet and forums, I can't get the answer!   

The seat number stickers probably have the right color 'red' on them.   You could order a set them use those to match the color.    The first link claims to be color matched against originals.

https://arcadeartrepro.com/product/daytona-usa-seat-numbers/
https://www.escapepodonline.com/products/daytona-usa-seat-decals

[blastone]

Heres a sidepanel I did in photoshop. All grids and logos are vector smart objects and the gradient is a layer so can scale as big as needed

[bkong]

Super impressed with this project, its all coming together beautifully. Always good to see left hand shifter from another Aussie.

Have you had any luck getting the tacho to work for many other classic arcade racers?

[Pstylz]

Heres a sidepanel I did in photoshop. All grids and logos are vector smart objects and the gradient is a layer so can scale as big as needed

Fantastic work mate!!    From the looks of your Photoshop file, you are far more experienced than I.

I too had a go at manipulating a hi-res image (see attached) and sourced some slightly different logo's than original - I also decided to remove some of the pink from the top and bottom of the checkered flag.
(The logo's are "movable" in the PSD file (attached) to help if you have curves in the side panels)

[Pstylz]

Super impressed with this project, its all coming together beautifully. Always good to see left hand shifter from another Aussie.

Have you had any luck getting the tacho to work for many other classic arcade racers?

Thanks mate!  Yep, shifter on the left 
Yes actually!  The Tacho output also now works with:

• Daytona Championship USA
• Sega Rally 3
• Outrun 2 SPX DX

I'm in the process of selling my home, so the project has had to go on hold for a little while, fingers crossed the house sells in the next month and then I can paint them, sticker them and showcase them 

[blastone]

Can't wait to see yours painted. I've started painting mine as well, its definitely a process

[blastone]

Also if you want to upscale those side images before printing this AI image upscaler is pretty astonishing
https://deep-image.ai/

[Pstylz]

Can't wait to see yours painted. I've started painting mine as well, its definitely a process

Good luck with painting mate! Definitely going to be a bit of a mission.

[Pstylz]

Also if you want to upscale those side images before printing this AI image upscaler is pretty astonishing
https://deep-image.ai/

Thanks for the tip! I'm looking forward to playing around with this!!