but if that's the case what do lines A-C do?
The boards are all generic right? I'm having a hard time figuring out what, if any, blink pattern these could create piggy-backed using 1997 tech.
Addressable LEDs before their time?
If they are all identical but do something different when placed in different positions, there must be some method for them to figure out where they are and what they need to output differently from the others.
I guess they wouldn't really need to know where they are. The gun could figure that out during calibration.
They would need to know to do something different than all the other boards.
Gotta be some type of communication. Maybe not data, but a pattern or amount of voltage or resistance.
EDIT:
I do believe the order of the sensors in the chain matters though. It starts one in from the bottom right of the screen then goes around clock wise ending on the bottom right.
So the main board knows what pattern the chain is laid out in...
Some variable is changing as you progress through the chain which affects the pattern.
At the edge of my skill level here, but that flip-flop chip twistedsymphony sounds like it has a clock that's variable based on the voltage of an input.
My work (at work) is piling up while I'm chewing on this.
I feel like if I could sit down and focus on it for an hour or two, I could figure it out.
The more I read up on this stuff, the more it sounds like the clock is jut there to synchronize stuff.
Are we sure that each board is flashing at a different rate?
Since the LEDs form a square, the gun could know where it was as long as a corner was in view.
Maybe any flashing is just for the sake of preventing IR light from other sources such as reflections from affecting it.
Even if that's not the case, maybe we could hack something together that uses a rectangular outline of IR LEDs and works as long as a corner is in view.