LED Buttons...

[kevinpo]

Hi all,

   I just purchased an Xtension Retro Edition Control Board With Spinner from Rec Room Masters. It comes with standard concave buttons. I had seen that they used to sell this control board with fully lit LED buttons which I really wanted so I called them. They said they switched to regular because the LED buttons were too stiff and a bit laggy. Maybe it was the brand? What are the best LED buttons and would they be comparable to standard buttons or would they hurt gameplay? I realize they're strictly bling but I love bling! 

[kevinpo]

Well I forgot to add something but can't find where to edit the post so I'll add this. This particular control board is recognized as a keyboard encoded controller. What sort of LED control board or program can I use that would be similar to LEDblinky so that I can program the buttons to light up in specific ways?

[JamesTKirk]

If you wanted to add simple single color LED buttons you could add an Ultimarc Pacdrive and connect it to Ultimarc Ultralux buttons. The pacdrive gets its power from its USB connection so wiring the buttons is pretty straight forward simple. I just added one to my old non-lit standup MAME cabinet and switched out the non LED buttons to LEDs to add the "bling" you are referring to. I use LEDBlinky to control the buttons. Works well.

[what2be]

Are you using the Ultralux buttons with the pacdrive? Have you noticed any problems with lag with the ultralux buttons? I have the single color ultralux and the RGB ultralux and the solid color seem fine but the RGB are stiffer for sure and im having problems with certain games, most notably track & field, which happens to be a great test for your buttons and their response time in relation to each other, as  you have to mash 2 buttons independently of each other to be successful in the game.   

[kevinpo]

That's a shame about the Ultralux RGB buttons being stiff- they look awesome. But I definitely would prefer performance over the WOW effect. Sounds like the solid color ones are the way to go if I'm going to "bling" my machine up. I just wonder if other brands of RGBs have the same stiff or squeaky problems.

[JamesTKirk]

I have two cabinets and one has the RGB Ultralux buttons everywhere. I have not noticed too much of a difference when using them in comparison to the solid color LED Ultimarc buttons however, I don't play games like track and field that take the kind of button precision you are wanting. My Ultimarc buttons don't squeak.

I have noticed that I do prefer the feel and gameplay of the non LED buttons from Ultimarc. They just seem like better quality when I mash 'em. Purely subjective tho. 

[yotsuya]

Track and Field really needs leaf buttons to play correctly.