Daytona USA VR buttons / G27 arduino interface software (free)

[diego_au]

Hi there,

Long time reader, first time poster. I recently started my Daytona USA cabinet build. My thoughts were to rip out all of the original guts such as screen, wheel, pedals, boards etc and replace them with an LCD screen, Logitech setup and PC. This would allow for easier maintenance and to use the cabinet for other games. Working through this, I started to put together a solution for the VR buttons based on the Arduino Mega Board. A lot of what I put together was thanks to people on this board, so I wanted to contribute back.

For those building a cabinet with similar configuration I have written software that will control the lighting and switches of the VR buttons. As an added bonus the software also activates the LED Gear Shift lights on the G27.

At a high level the solution is as follows:

I have replaced the VR bulbs with 5v white LEDs. The LEDs and switches on the VR buttons connect to an Arduino Mega board. The software I have written extracts values directly from the Daytona working ram to control the flashing of the VR buttons and also for the shift leds on the G27.

Unfortunately because I need to acquire the G27 to set the LED's on the G27 it is not compatible with the built in M2 emulator Force Feedback setting. My thoughts are to simulate the forces directly from my program by reading values from ram or the other option maybe to write a proxy dll, which I am not keen to do.

Futures would be to also include the speedometer and use the Arduino to light up a 3 digit 7 segment, which should be easy to do.

If you are interested in the software let me know

P.S. I also have a prototype working for Daytona 2 on supermodel3

pics attached!

[ant2]

Sounds awesome. Once you figure out a way of not sacrificinv the force feedback let me know as I'd love to set this up on my rig.

[Howard_Casto]

Are you acquiring in exclusive or non-exclusive mode?  It makes a difference. 

[diego_au]

Hi Howard,

Thanks for your reply. The wheel is acquired in exclusive mode as I need to use the Escape method to send the rpm information to the LEDs. I have some basic forces and can see a couple of values in the working ram that may allow me to simulate force feedback.

Fingers crossed..

I'm writing my program in managed c# so do not want to go down the dinput proxy dll path... unless you have any suggestions

Thanks again!

[Howard_Casto]

Did you also add the background flag?  Mamehooker manages to manipulate a joystick and still allow mame to read it, so it should be possible.

[diego_au]

Hi Howard,

Yes the setcooperativelevel is set to background and exclusive . M2 emulator can still read, the only problem is that it will stop providing force feedback as soon as I send through the Escape method to light up the LEDs on the G27. So the problem is more the fact that i cannot use M2 Emulator's force feedback and my program's Escape method at the same time. I'm going down writing my on FF effects first and see how that turns out.

Thanks again for your reply!

[diego_au]

ok. quick update.

I've got force feedback simulated when hitting a wall and a car.. will continue to work through it. Will share a beta shortly if anyone is interested and has a G27 and Arduino Mega board.. The shift lights are cool!