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Author Topic: GUN4IR - The Ultimate 4 Points Lightgun System  (Read 390983 times)

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Howard_Casto

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #40 on: October 29, 2019, 01:55:25 pm »
I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm with Zebra on this one.... you can find cheap parts anywhere... in some areas of the globe it might take a lot of effort to do so, but Japan.... nah. 

JayBee

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #41 on: October 29, 2019, 09:52:14 pm »

That's why I gave you a link to someone selling one with cheap international shipping. Just because you looked once and found one that was expensive, it doesn't mean they all are. But I get it, you can't afford one. No matter what the price.

On the continuous duty solenoid, as I said, search eBay for "pull solenoid continuous" and you'll see there are lots of options:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Pull+solenoid+continuous&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=Guncon

Or don't. Whatever.
Oh I see! My bad, I guess I didn't search well enough  ::)
I will check that then and see what I can get.
Just in case, do you know what are those gun solenoids specs (voltage, current...)?

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm with Zebra on this one.... you can find cheap parts anywhere... in some areas of the globe it might take a lot of effort to do so, but Japan.... nah. 
If you know any shop (local or online) that sell this kind of part in Japan, I am very curious to know  ;)

Here are the info I could get after all the search I did in Japan, including asking to so many retro shops in Akihabara or other places, and asking the arcade centers themselves:
There were no consumer lightgun with recoil, or too rare to be found at a correct price.
For the real arcade stuff, there are no consumer shop selling lightgun parts (they only sell arcade sticks and machines).
From what the guys in the arcade centers told me, those guns are bought and maintained directly by the brand making them, and are not available to consumers.
But of course, again, it's possible that I missed something, if that's the case please correct me ;)
« Last Edit: October 29, 2019, 10:12:06 pm by JayBee »

Zebra

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #42 on: October 30, 2019, 12:51:26 pm »
I'm sure there are large arcades with machines that are owned by the brand but that won't be the case with a lot of smaller arcades running older games that Namco and Sega etc no longer support.

These old arcade cabs are getting thrown in dumpsters in Japan, just like they are here in the States and in Europe. Seeing stuff like this breaks my heart:





They don't even attempt to find a home for all those candy cabs that we sell our kidneys to get here. The solenoids in those gun survivor 2 guns they were throwing away are excellent BTW.

They used to maintain a list of Japanese arcade PCB stores over on the shmups forum which shows there are plenty of places for consumers to buy old arcade parts there. My ability to search them was always limited by my lack of Japanese language skills though.

As a general point, all those 3rd party ps1 and PS2 recoil guns were made in Asia. A lot of the ones here were originally ordered online from stores in Hong Kong like Play Asia. I am positive that the same stores we buy from in HK and mainland China would also have shipped to Japan. I wouldn't assume there are none to be found locally.

People travel to Japan from all over the world to buy video games and peripherals. We think of it as a video game Mecca. You guys have lots of stuff we've never even seen (like the original Famicom recoil machine gun). I'd keep an eye on local video game stores who sell older used consoles.

Also, Suzo Happ, one of the two large arcade parts suppliers here, have a store in Hong Kong to support customers across Asia. There is also another store in HK called Happ that sells arcade parts but they have nothing to do with each other.

These guys (also in HK) can often get used arcade parts. Ask them if they can track you down a cheap Time Crisis solenoid replacement. The Chinese knock-off Time Crisis guns are usually a lot cheaper and have a stronger solenoid.

https://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/shooting_parts.html


Solenoid specs like voltage and amps won't help. Most arcade solenoids use 12v or 24v PSUs but so do a bunch of momentary solenoids that are not suitable for continuous duty. I would use the largest continuous duty tubular solenoid you can fit in your shell. The power supply only matters in terms of matching it to the specific solenoids ratings.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #43 on: October 30, 2019, 02:25:23 pm »
I'm sure there are large arcades with machines that are owned by the brand but that won't be the case with a lot of smaller arcades running older games that Namco and Sega etc no longer support.

These old arcade cabs are getting thrown in dumpsters in Japan, just like they are here in the States and in Europe. Seeing stuff like this breaks my heart:





They don't even attempt to find a home for all those candy cabs that we sell our kidneys to get here. The solenoids in those gun survivor 2 guns they were throwing away are excellent BTW.

They used to maintain a list of Japanese arcade PCB stores over on the shmups forum which shows there are plenty of places for consumers to buy old arcade parts there. My ability to search them was always limited by my lack of Japanese language skills though.

As a general point, all those 3rd party ps1 and PS2 recoil guns were made in Asia. A lot of the ones here were originally ordered online from stores in Hong Kong like Play Asia. I am positive that the same stores we buy from in HK and mainland China would also have shipped to Japan. I wouldn't assume there are none to be found locally.

People travel to Japan from all over the world to buy video games and peripherals. We think of it as a video game Mecca. You guys have lots of stuff we've never even seen (like the original Famicom recoil machine gun). I'd keep an eye on local video game stores who sell older used consoles.

Also, Suzo Happ, one of the two large arcade parts suppliers here, have a store in Hong Kong to support customers across Asia. There is also another store in HK called Happ that sells arcade parts but they have nothing to do with each other.

These guys (also in HK) can often get used arcade parts. Ask them if they can track you down a cheap Time Crisis solenoid replacement. The Chinese knock-off Time Crisis guns are usually a lot cheaper and have a stronger solenoid.

https://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/shooting_parts.html


Solenoid specs like voltage and amps won't help. Most arcade solenoids use 12v or 24v PSUs but so do a bunch of momentary solenoids that are not suitable for continuous duty. I would use the largest continuous duty tubular solenoid you can fit in your shell. The power supply only matters in terms of matching it to the specific solenoids ratings.
That's a lot of info, thanks! :D
Actually the problem in japan is that companies are overly protective of their own brand and products, even 20years old products, and don't allow other companies to sell part for their products. They still continue to support them, it's still a real business here. For arcade boards it's a little different because they use some standard like jamma supposed to make them compatible with everything, and so be used/bought and installed by anyone. Which is not the case for lightgun cabinet that are fully patented by the brand.
I'm working for big game companies, it always shock me to see how overprotective they are with their products and the way they make money with them.

That's why you have more chance to find stuff in China, were the laws on copyright and all are pretty much absent.

For the lightgun search, I spent two weeks searching in so many locals or more specialised shop everywhere, in the popular places as well as obscure places, I could only find the usual cheap guncon/Virtua gun. When I asked the seller, they told me to contact the brands directly.

So yeah maybe I will try check the Chinese route.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #44 on: October 30, 2019, 03:18:24 pm »

Zebra

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #45 on: October 30, 2019, 09:02:16 pm »
There is no copyright laws protecting light guns or solenoids. A lot of arcade light gun cabs have the guns replaced with Happ or Betson light guns as the tech is generic. Any decent arcade owner would be capable of switching out the light guns to replace old expensive oem guns with new generic ones.

I am no expert on Japanese law but I would be very surprised if there was any law that prevented arcade owners selling old cabs and parts they no longer use to whoever they like.

There is also no reason why manufacturers would be protective of gun hardware but not their PCBs. I think you've been misinformed. If an arcade owner sells or breaks a pcb, they will part out the rest of the cab and sell parts to whoever. It's always been that way, even when arcades were at their peak in the 80's and 90's.

If I put a search in Google, in English, for "used arcade parts Tokyo Japan", I get multiple results for stores selling used arcade parts....

https://www.google.com/search?q=used%20arcade%20parts%20tokyo%20japan&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS844US844&oq=used+arcade+parts+tokyo+japan&aqs=chrome..69i57.11966j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=35700934,139771333,185&tbm=lcl&rldimm=1791196374969552662&phdesc=8DEOZzsG28M&ved=2ahUKEwi457fwqMXlAhUFj1kKHR6ZDUIQvS4wAnoECAoQOQ&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:10&rlst=f#rlfi=hd:;si:7617596130752392823,y,pC1rO5bV5SY;mv:[[35.713045099999995,139.776682],[35.5164013,139.68927209999998]]
« Last Edit: October 30, 2019, 09:17:56 pm by Zebra »

JayBee

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #46 on: October 30, 2019, 10:56:48 pm »
There is no copyright laws protecting light guns or solenoids. A lot of arcade light gun cabs have the guns replaced with Happ or Betson light guns as the tech is generic. Any decent arcade owner would be capable of switching out the light guns to replace old expensive oem guns with new generic ones.

I am no expert on Japanese law but I would be very surprised if there was any law that prevented arcade owners selling old cabs and parts they no longer use to whoever they like.

There is also no reason why manufacturers would be protective of gun hardware but not their PCBs. I think you've been misinformed. If an arcade owner sells or breaks a pcb, they will part out the rest of the cab and sell parts to whoever. It's always been that way, even when arcades were at their peak in the 80's and 90's.

If I put a search in Google, in English, for "used arcade parts Tokyo Japan", I get multiple results for stores selling used arcade parts....

https://www.google.com/search?q=used%20arcade%20parts%20tokyo%20japan&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS844US844&oq=used+arcade+parts+tokyo+japan&aqs=chrome..69i57.11966j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=35700934,139771333,185&tbm=lcl&rldimm=1791196374969552662&phdesc=8DEOZzsG28M&ved=2ahUKEwi457fwqMXlAhUFj1kKHR6ZDUIQvS4wAnoECAoQOQ&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:10&rlst=f#rlfi=hd:;si:7617596130752392823,y,pC1rO5bV5SY;mv:[[35.713045099999995,139.776682],[35.5164013,139.68927209999998]]
I know those shops very well, I've been to each of them many times. Out of the shop your search shows, only one (BEEP) actually sells some arcade part (but very few), and of course no lightgun parts. They are all consumer retrogame shops, not arcade part shop (which are two different things).
For info, the 2 biggest arcade parts shop in town (for both consumers and professionals) are:
Mak Japan http://www.mak-jp.com/
Tops https://www.tops-game.jp
In those you might be able to buy full lightgun cabinets, but no parts.
You can also find most official store of each arcade parts brand in Rakuten online (Sanwa, Seimitsu...).

I've been living here for 10+ years, been to thousands of retrogame/arcade/electronic shops all over Tokyo. I even know the more obscure ones that sell chinese/US parts or cheaper used parts.
Believe me or not it's up to you, just saying in japan as a consumer you can't easily get any proprietary tech like lightgun gun parts. There are compatible tech made by other brands outside of japan. Not here.
The only reason you can get arcade motherboards is because it's not fully proprietary, most use and have to comply to the JAMMA standard. Same for arcade sticks, that use kind of standardized buttons, connectors and sticks.
No matter if it's a law or not, it's the general practice to support your own product as long as it sells and make money, even 20 years later. (just look at nintendo that only recently drop the support of their famicom) And when the support is still active, doing your own support for those products, especially with cheaper alternative, is a big no no. I've never ever seen a lightgun arcade machine with unofficial parts here.
And yes, all that applies only to japan.

But again, you are welcome to prove me wrong, and find a Japanese store that actually sell those parts. I would honestly prefer being wrong than struggling so much to find good parts.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #47 on: October 31, 2019, 01:51:03 pm »
The existence of stores just shows that a consumer arcade market exists and that there is somewhere for those stores to buy parts for the cabs they refurbish. I.e. it’s not an impossible quest.

A lot of the old arcade companies aren’t even in business anymore or no longer make arcade games so they won’t be supporting their products, or any other. Owners of retro arcades must have somewhere to buy replacement parts and trade with each other. You are better placed to find it than me. There are plenty of arcades closing down in Japan too. I’d want to find out where all those cabs go to die and maybe make a trip to one of those arcade graveyards. Old Time Crisis cabs don’t evaporate and most are no longer in arcades, so they must be somewhere.

These are old products now from the crt era. I’m not sure I could find a retail store that sells light guns here either. When I want stuff like that, I search the internet, regularly check eBay for a deal and put wanted ads on Craigslist and sites like this. It sometimes takes a while but I usually find what I’m looking for eventually. It’s a global world and a global internet. Most of the resources available to me are available to you too.

Solenoids and light gun shells are small enough to ship at affordable prices from most countries. You’ll find one eventually. Did you look at that avenger pro recoil gun I sent you the link for? I haven’t used that particular model myself so I don’t know if the recoil mechanism uses a motor or solenoid but it looks the part in this video and is cheap enough to take a chance on maybe:


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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #48 on: October 31, 2019, 07:27:43 pm »
Sooooo.... after doing a tiny bit of research... i found out that the nintendo Switch has got a pretty sweet ir camera.
It apparently outputs an actual image through SPI. and not i2c as the wiimote does.
https://www.techinsights.com/blog/nintendo-switch-teardown
The reason i got entrigued, was the fact that you can buy the camera seperately for about half the price of the DFRobot cam.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32933494037.html

Surely i dont have the skill to program something to actually process the image data,
but i was thinking that you'd probably be able to track the heat of the screen itself.

Another way you could probably make some sweet lightguns would be from the switch joycon itself.
using Joy-con toolkit https://gbatemp.net/threads/tool-joy-con-toolkit.478560/
This could make it possible to have them running via bluetooth. I am aware that the wiimote does aswell,
though it certainly is larger.

BTW im not trying to make a point or anything, just sharing what i found interesting.

Also, i just bought another Konami hyper blaster in darkblue, so i have 2 for my homebuilt arcade. which i will design a pcb to mount the wiimote camera, will probably share it on github when im done.
This will be a replacement for the DFRobot camera as mentioned before.


JayBee

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #49 on: October 31, 2019, 09:34:06 pm »
The existence of stores just shows that a consumer arcade market exists and that there is somewhere for those stores to buy parts for the cabs they refurbish. I.e. it’s not an impossible quest.

A lot of the old arcade companies aren’t even in business anymore or no longer make arcade games so they won’t be supporting their products, or any other. Owners of retro arcades must have somewhere to buy replacement parts and trade with each other. You are better placed to find it than me. There are plenty of arcades closing down in Japan too. I’d want to find out where all those cabs go to die and maybe make a trip to one of those arcade graveyards. Old Time Crisis cabs don’t evaporate and most are no longer in arcades, so they must be somewhere.

These are old products now from the crt era. I’m not sure I could find a retail store that sells light guns here either. When I want stuff like that, I search the internet, regularly check eBay for a deal and put wanted ads on Craigslist and sites like this. It sometimes takes a while but I usually find what I’m looking for eventually. It’s a global world and a global internet. Most of the resources available to me are available to you too.

Solenoids and light gun shells are small enough to ship at affordable prices from most countries. You’ll find one eventually. Did you look at that avenger pro recoil gun I sent you the link for? I haven’t used that particular model myself so I don’t know if the recoil mechanism uses a motor or solenoid but it looks the part in this video and is cheap enough to take a chance on maybe:


Not saying this market doesn't exist, far from it. Just saying that for different reasons they don't sell lightguns.
If you need a proof, just compare the result you get in eBay when searching for lightgun, and the results you get when searching (in Japanese) on Yahoo auction (equivalent to eBay here). eBay has waaaayyy more options and models available.
But whatever, let's not fight about that, I am grateful you showed me the eBay stuff and the right solenoids I should try  ;)
I just bought the silver avenger pro from the link you sent me earlier. It seems cool since it has both PSX and Saturn compatibility. I will tell you how it is once I receive it.

Sooooo.... after doing a tiny bit of research... i found out that the nintendo Switch has got a pretty sweet ir camera.
It apparently outputs an actual image through SPI. and not i2c as the wiimote does.
https://www.techinsights.com/blog/nintendo-switch-teardown
The reason i got entrigued, was the fact that you can buy the camera seperately for about half the price of the DFRobot cam.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32933494037.html

Surely i dont have the skill to program something to actually process the image data,
but i was thinking that you'd probably be able to track the heat of the screen itself.

Another way you could probably make some sweet lightguns would be from the switch joycon itself.
using Joy-con toolkit https://gbatemp.net/threads/tool-joy-con-toolkit.478560/
This could make it possible to have them running via bluetooth. I am aware that the wiimote does aswell,
though it certainly is larger.

BTW im not trying to make a point or anything, just sharing what i found interesting.

Also, i just bought another Konami hyper blaster in darkblue, so i have 2 for my homebuilt arcade. which i will design a pcb to mount the wiimote camera, will probably share it on github when im done.
This will be a replacement for the DFRobot camera as mentioned before.


Dude that's very interesting research you are doing there  :lol
Do you know how long is the joycon IR cam range is?
I thought that it's only for close range use, but I don't know.
Actually the main reason why I stick with the DFRobot cam is that it's capable to keep track of the 4 points very well, meaning that as long as each of them stay in range, they keep the same position in the buffer.
It makes everything way easier, faster and stable to use, since I have to figure out which point they are only once each time they are detected.

Mysli0210

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #50 on: October 31, 2019, 10:31:13 pm »

Dude that's very interesting research you are doing there  :lol
Do you know how long is the joycon IR cam range is?
I thought that it's only for close range use, but I don't know.
Actually the main reason why I stick with the DFRobot cam is that it's capable to keep track of the 4 points very well, meaning that as long as each of them stay in range, they keep the same position in the buffer.
It makes everything way easier, faster and stable to use, since I have to figure out which point they are only once each time they are detected.
[/quote]
Thanks  :cheers:
I dont have any clue, didnt go that deep into it, but my main idea from it was just track the hot square that is the monitor.
Ofcourse! and there's nothing wrong with that! :D
But if the wiimote cam is indeed the same. why not make it cheaper... for me its necessary as my wallet is pretty much empty atm...
Aaaaand i wanted to learn how to design a PCB as i actually have a crapton of requests for PCB and mechatronics designs.

I did design the board tonight, and will probably release it on github on tuesday, as i have to get my design checked at the hackerspace :D

Stay Tuned!

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #51 on: October 31, 2019, 11:01:57 pm »
The IR functionality is nearly identical to the wiimote because they included it for backwards compatibility.  As for some of the IR heat detection functionality they've been using it for, I think that's fairly short range.  Also lcd/led tvs don't put off a great amount of heat so I doubt they'd show up anyway.   

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #52 on: November 01, 2019, 02:38:30 am »

Thanks  :cheers:
I dont have any clue, didnt go that deep into it, but my main idea from it was just track the hot square that is the monitor.
Ofcourse! and there's nothing wrong with that! :D
But if the wiimote cam is indeed the same. why not make it cheaper... for me its necessary as my wallet is pretty much empty atm...
Aaaaand i wanted to learn how to design a PCB as i actually have a crapton of requests for PCB and mechatronics designs.

I did design the board tonight, and will probably release it on github on tuesday, as i have to get my design checked at the hackerspace :D

Stay Tuned!
Wait, you're telling me the Wiimote sensor can also be used with serial (SDA&SCL), and keeps track of the IR Points? I though it was only the DFRobot cam that had some extra components on their PCB for that :lol
It's interesting for me too since I do have some broken wiimote motherboards around, I could use them to do some extra stuff.
I also wonder how much it would cost to do a custom PCB for the wiimote sensor?

The IR functionality is nearly identical to the wiimote because they included it for backwards compatibility.  As for some of the IR heat detection functionality they've been using it for, I think that's fairly short range.  Also lcd/led tvs don't put off a great amount of heat so I doubt they'd show up anyway.   
Backwards compatibility, on the switch? Did I miss some info on that? ???
The IR sensor also has an IR led to light up objects and reflectors and measure distances (like in nintendo labo), but I didn't see any instance where it was used from long range.
If it works for detecting shapes, we could also put some reflective tape around the screen and add a good powerful IR led under the sensor in the lightgun cannon? Not sure it would work, it's just an idea  :P

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #53 on: November 01, 2019, 01:32:20 pm »
It's very hard to judge cameras (of any sort) by the specs alone. Just like with displays, the specs of the most expensive ones can often look similar to the cheapest. One of the most important aspects of cameras in terms of both price and performance is the lens quality and size. It effects how much light can pass, the angles it can see and the level of detail it can capture. All things that really matter with an IR gun camera.

I've never used one these robot motion sense cameras but one of the biggest weaknesses with the Wii camera and sensor bar is the narrow sensing angles. It makes it so you have to stand unreasonably far back, even when using a smaller monitor. It would be interesting to see if that is any different with the robot cams. Being able to stand at arcade-like distances from the screen and aim with iron sights would be a huge step forward.









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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #54 on: November 01, 2019, 02:05:05 pm »
You didn't miss anything.  You know where they have been porting a bunch of wii u stuff over to the switch?  The wii u supports wiimotes just like the wii did.  Thus far they haven't ported anything that requires a wiimote ir sensor, but you know Nintendo.... they cram as many sensors in as possible just in case. 

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #55 on: November 01, 2019, 05:24:40 pm »
Wait, you're telling me the Wiimote sensor can also be used with serial (SDA&SCL), and keeps track of the IR Points? I though it was only the DFRobot cam that had some extra components on their PCB for that :lol
It's interesting for me too since I do have some broken wiimote motherboards around, I could use them to do some extra stuff.
I also wonder how much it would cost to do a custom PCB for the wiimote sensor?

Thats exactly what I'm telling you 8-)
The only needed components to get the wiimote camera to talk to the arduino is as follows:
A 3.3V regulator for the I2c pullup aswell as the Power.
A 20 to 25 MHz crystal oscillator (resonator wont do) for the camera clock
2 2.7k resistors
A 30 or 33k resistor to pull the camera #reset pin high
2 10nF capacitors for the crystal, which might not even be necessary
a 100uF capacitor for the 3.3v regulator
And a 4 pin connector if you dont fancy wires soldered directly to the pcb.

When my pcb design is confirmed to be correctly made i will order a bunch as you can get 5 50x50mm pcb's for 5$
In china however, they're smaller than that so by panelizing them i might be able to fit 3 or 4 boards within those 50x50mm.
So i will sell the ones i dont need for almost nothing if you're interested.


Also from judging the spec Sheet of the robot cam https://www.robotshop.com/en/ir-tracking-camera.html
And what people have found the wiimote camera to be, its pretty darn close.
http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=8255
keep in mind that some of them measure viewing angle from center to edge, whilst others do it from edge to edge.



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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #56 on: November 02, 2019, 02:37:56 pm »
You didn't miss anything.  You know where they have been porting a bunch of wii u stuff over to the switch?  The wii u supports wiimotes just like the wii did.  Thus far they haven't ported anything that requires a wiimote ir sensor, but you know Nintendo.... they cram as many sensors in as possible just in case.
Yeah but the architecture of the switch, along with all the hardware, including controllers, is massively different. I've been working on one of the first big N "ports" of the switch for while, and the dev team had to pretty much rewrite all the engine to make it run on it.
I might be wrong on that, but I was pretty sure the IR sensor was just a proximity IR cam along with an IR diode (the same way as the Microsoft Kinect, you can even find a toolkit online to test the cam), and it's on the bottom of the controller, so using it with a sensor bar wouldn't make much sense to me.

Thats exactly what I'm telling you 8-)
The only needed components to get the wiimote camera to talk to the arduino is as follows:
A 3.3V regulator for the I2c pullup aswell as the Power.
A 20 to 25 MHz crystal oscillator (resonator wont do) for the camera clock
2 2.7k resistors
A 30 or 33k resistor to pull the camera #reset pin high
2 10nF capacitors for the crystal, which might not even be necessary
a 100uF capacitor for the 3.3v regulator
And a 4 pin connector if you dont fancy wires soldered directly to the pcb.

When my pcb design is confirmed to be correctly made i will order a bunch as you can get 5 50x50mm pcb's for 5$
In china however, they're smaller than that so by panelizing them i might be able to fit 3 or 4 boards within those 50x50mm.
So i will sell the ones i dont need for almost nothing if you're interested.


Also from judging the spec Sheet of the robot cam https://www.robotshop.com/en/ir-tracking-camera.html
And what people have found the wiimote camera to be, its pretty darn close.
http://www.robotreviews.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=8255
keep in mind that some of them measure viewing angle from center to edge, whilst others do it from edge to edge.
That's really cool dude! Would you have a kind of schematics for that? Would love to test it :D
But you still have to analyse the signal, or it is sending you raw coordinates?
The thing with the DFRobot cam is that it's pretty much sending you the coordinates of the 4 detected IR point through serial, and it follows those points as long as they stay on range.
So for the sketches, it reduces greatly the arduino load and the sketch size, and in result reduces the latency.

For the sensor specs, on DFRobot website they basically link to the wii sensor wiki page, so I wouldn't be surprise if they are using the actual Wiimote sensor in it  :lol

Just in case, would you happen to know a bit about the Playstation 2 USB protocol? Since the sketch is quite stable now, I'm trying to add support to that :P

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #57 on: November 03, 2019, 03:17:26 pm »
If the DF robot can really is the exact same part as found in a Wii remote then I wonder why Nintendo chose to only use one sensor bar with just one point of reference. The DF Robot cam states it can track 4.

I guess the obvious answer is that they didn't intend to design it to be a light gun.


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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #58 on: November 03, 2019, 04:23:41 pm »

That's really cool dude! Would you have a kind of schematics for that? Would love to test it :D
But you still have to analyse the signal, or it is sending you raw coordinates?
The thing with the DFRobot cam is that it's pretty much sending you the coordinates of the 4 detected IR point through serial, and it follows those points as long as they stay on range.
So for the sketches, it reduces greatly the arduino load and the sketch size, and in result reduces the latency.

For the sensor specs, on DFRobot website they basically link to the wii sensor wiki page, so I wouldn't be surprise if they are using the actual Wiimote sensor in it  :lol

Just in case, would you happen to know a bit about the Playstation 2 USB protocol? Since the sketch is quite stable now, I'm trying to add support to that :P

 :banghead: hit reset after writing a long reply...

But I did make a schematic which I will provide when I get back from my gf in a couple of days.
As for the camera it talks the same language as the robot camera.
I know cause I used your 2 point sketch, with minor changes as I couldn't get axis reverse to work properly, so I changed the for loop to have #ifdef instead of if statements, which should run faster and compile smaller.
I also changed a couple of the constant integers into #define.
But that doesn't interfere with the dfrobot library protocol.

As for the camera being the same didn't really surprise me during research.
The camera is apparently either developed and maybe made by a company called pixart, but it seems to be a pretty secretive company.

About the ps2 usb protocol I haven't got any clue.. But the documentation of the Linux ps2 devkit might be of use.?

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #59 on: November 03, 2019, 04:53:22 pm »
Is the PS2 USB protocol the sort of thing you can get from the EMS Topgun 3 drivers with it being another IR gun that works on the PS2 as a Guncon 2?

Also, the guy that wrote the Wingun drivers is a member here. Perhaps he has some insight into how the Guncon 2 hardware works.

One other place to look is the file labeled USB gun on PS2 guncon 2 game discs. I don't understand the code but my assumption is that this is the guncon 2 drivers that the PS2 uses.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2019, 04:56:53 pm by Zebra »

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #60 on: November 04, 2019, 02:05:25 am »

 :banghead: hit reset after writing a long reply...

But I did make a schematic which I will provide when I get back from my gf in a couple of days.
As for the camera it talks the same language as the robot camera.
I know cause I used your 2 point sketch, with minor changes as I couldn't get axis reverse to work properly, so I changed the for loop to have #ifdef instead of if statements, which should run faster and compile smaller.
I also changed a couple of the constant integers into #define.
But that doesn't interfere with the dfrobot library protocol.

As for the camera being the same didn't really surprise me during research.
The camera is apparently either developed and maybe made by a company called pixart, but it seems to be a pretty secretive company.

About the ps2 usb protocol I haven't got any clue.. But the documentation of the Linux ps2 devkit might be of use.?
Awesome, can't wait to see your schematic ;)
It's cool we can use old wiimote sensor instead.

Oh and don't throw away the wiimote rumble motors of the wiimote you salvaged parts from, you can actually use it to get rumble feedback with my sketch, for instance when reloading or firing offscreen :D
But I still need to figure out what voltage they are using to not fry them (I guessed 3V, but not sure).

For the sensor inversion, the problem is that DFRobot cam has both axises swapped and one inversed, because of some mistake they did, so I pretty much have to turn them 90° clockwise to make them work.
So it might be a bit different if using real wiimote sensor.

Yeah my 2 point code wasn't so great, it was my very first Arduino sketch  :lol. In the new 4 points one I'm using mostly define and cons, it's winning a lot of memory.
But I'm curious to know how you are using the #ifdef, it would be useful in my new sketch too if it can make it faster.
By the way, if you want to do some modifications to my 2 points sketch, feel free to submit them to my GitHub, I will sure update it and credit you.

If the DF robot can really is the exact same part as found in a Wii remote then I wonder why Nintendo chose to only use one sensor bar with just one point of reference. The DF Robot cam states it can track 4.

I guess the obvious answer is that they didn't intend to design it to be a light gun.

I guess they wanted to keep it simple for everyone to use, even everyone's grandma, while keeping it low cost for them?   :lol

Is the PS2 USB protocol the sort of thing you can get from the EMS Topgun 3 drivers with it being another IR gun that works on the PS2 as a Guncon 2?

Also, the guy that wrote the Wingun drivers is a member here. Perhaps he has some insight into how the Guncon 2 hardware works.

One other place to look is the file labeled USB gun on PS2 guncon 2 game discs. I don't understand the code but my assumption is that this is the guncon 2 drivers that the PS2 uses.
Oh yes I will try contacting the guy who did the wingun driver, he will probably have a good idea on how things work  ;D
« Last Edit: November 04, 2019, 02:19:58 am by JayBee »

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #61 on: November 04, 2019, 05:13:10 am »
Not really an answer to all of the above.. (quoting is hard on the phone)
BUT JUST GOT AN AWESOME IDEA!
What if we were to use the nunchuck for extra buttons for those controller which dont have a d-pad and such.
Got the idea from watching metal Jesus play with the gcon 2.
I think it would be possible to use the plug from the wiimote by desoldering it and making a custom pcb with ordinary pimheaders to attach to the pro-Micro... Or stm32 if i can get i2c working on it :-D


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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #62 on: November 04, 2019, 06:31:50 am »
Not really an answer to all of the above.. (quoting is hard on the phone)
BUT JUST GOT AN AWESOME IDEA!
What if we were to use the nunchuck for extra buttons for those controller which dont have a d-pad and such.
Got the idea from watching metal Jesus play with the gcon 2.
I think it would be possible to use the plug from the wiimote by desoldering it and making a custom pcb with ordinary pimheaders to attach to the pro-Micro... Or stm32 if i can get i2c working on it :-D
Yeah was thinking about that too, but decoding this communication protocol seems to be such a pain :lol
And to be honest there aren't many games that support guns with dpad and all.
The most convenient thing about it is being to scroll games menu with it.
I guess we could also bypass the nunchuck board entirely and connect the buttons directly to the cable, but we would then need a way to read the joystick 2 axises too.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #63 on: November 04, 2019, 07:10:18 am »
Well was gonna say that I would take a nunchuck apart. But then i found this https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/infusion/using-a-wii-nunchuk-with-arduino-597254
So it speaks i2c at 3.3v just as the camera, which means that it can actually share the i/o pins as they have different adresses.
Which is probably how the wiimote talks to it.
So it'd be super easy to implement :-D

Edit: btw reading 2 joystick axes (axis in plural ;-)) is super easy, just do 2 analog reads, as they are almost always constructed as potentiometers :-)
« Last Edit: November 04, 2019, 07:28:52 am by Mysli0210 »

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #64 on: November 04, 2019, 10:27:55 am »
Not really an answer to all of the above.. (quoting is hard on the phone)
BUT JUST GOT AN AWESOME IDEA!
What if we were to use the nunchuck for extra buttons for those controller which dont have a d-pad and such.
Got the idea from watching metal Jesus play with the gcon 2.
I think it would be possible to use the plug from the wiimote by desoldering it and making a custom pcb with ordinary pimheaders to attach to the pro-Micro... Or stm32 if i can get i2c working on it :-D
Yeah was thinking about that too, but decoding this communication protocol seems to be such a pain :lol
And to be honest there aren't many games that support guns with dpad and all.
The most convenient thing about it is being to scroll games menu with it.
I guess we could also bypass the nunchuck board entirely and connect the buttons directly to the cable, but we would then need a way to read the joystick 2 axises too.

That's what I thought when I made my Time Crisis arcade guns into Guncon 2's but it was a big mistake. It's true that only a few guncon 2 games use the D-pad but a good number use it to navigate through the options menu. It was really annoying to have to keep unplugging the gcon to switch between Virtua Cop 1 and 2 on the Elite edition disc and I couldn't even access the menu system on Guncom 2.

I put all my recoil hardware and the guncon 2 PCB in a wooden box. I ended up adding all the guncon buttons (beside the trigger) to the box and I put a joystick on the other side. My pedal also attached to the box. I suggest you do the same. You need every guncon 2 button and the d-pad unless you only want to play the Time Crisis games.

Also, while you're looking at how to make the gun work on the PS2, there is a good number of rail shooters on the PS2 that currently have no gun support at all. They only allow you to use the analog stick. I am working on hooking up my positional arcade guns but you might be able to add an analog stick mode to your gun to make it work on games like Silent Scope, Combat Queen, Ghost Vibration and Operation Wolf (on the Taito legends disc).

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #65 on: November 04, 2019, 11:20:56 am »
Well was gonna say that I would take a nunchuck apart. But then i found this https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/infusion/using-a-wii-nunchuk-with-arduino-597254
So it speaks i2c at 3.3v just as the camera, which means that it can actually share the i/o pins as they have different adresses.
Which is probably how the wiimote talks to it.
So it'd be super easy to implement :-D

Edit: btw reading 2 joystick axes (axis in plural ;-)) is super easy, just do 2 analog reads, as they are almost always constructed as potentiometers :-)
Wow that guys already did all the hard work, with that we can actually do it easily. I have an old after market nunchuck somewhere, I will give it a try when I have more time.
You look like you know way more than me in electronic, would you like if I share the 4 leds sketch and schematics with you in private? I would really use some help on making it better, especially on the electronic side of things 😅

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #66 on: November 04, 2019, 12:56:10 pm »
This guy seems to have done a lot of the work with guncon protocols.

https://pyroesp.github.io/electronics/reverse%20engineering/playstation/2018/06/14/shooting-bad-guys-2.html

I found it while searching for a Guncon 3 pinout diagram. His project seems to be writing the code to use a wii remote as a guncon or guncon 2.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #67 on: November 04, 2019, 07:57:22 pm »
Not really an answer to all of the above.. (quoting is hard on the phone)
BUT JUST GOT AN AWESOME IDEA!
What if we were to use the nunchuck for extra buttons for those controller which dont have a d-pad and such.
Got the idea from watching metal Jesus play with the gcon 2.
I think it would be possible to use the plug from the wiimote by desoldering it and making a custom pcb with ordinary pimheaders to attach to the pro-Micro... Or stm32 if i can get i2c working on it :-D
Yeah was thinking about that too, but decoding this communication protocol seems to be such a pain :lol
And to be honest there aren't many games that support guns with dpad and all.
The most convenient thing about it is being to scroll games menu with it.
I guess we could also bypass the nunchuck board entirely and connect the buttons directly to the cable, but we would then need a way to read the joystick 2 axises too.

That's what I thought when I made my Time Crisis arcade guns into Guncon 2's but it was a big mistake. It's true that only a few guncon 2 games use the D-pad but a good number use it to navigate through the options menu. It was really annoying to have to keep unplugging the gcon to switch between Virtua Cop 1 and 2 on the Elite edition disc and I couldn't even access the menu system on Guncom 2.

I put all my recoil hardware and the guncon 2 PCB in a wooden box. I ended up adding all the guncon buttons (beside the trigger) to the box and I put a joystick on the other side. My pedal also attached to the box. I suggest you do the same. You need every guncon 2 button and the d-pad unless you only want to play the Time Crisis games.

Also, while you're looking at how to make the gun work on the PS2, there is a good number of rail shooters on the PS2 that currently have no gun support at all. They only allow you to use the analog stick. I am working on hooking up my positional arcade guns but you might be able to add an analog stick mode to your gun to make it work on games like Silent Scope, Combat Queen, Ghost Vibration and Operation Wolf (on the Taito legends disc).
What I did a while ago was to use an extra atmega Arduino I had (I buy them in pack), and put it inside an old arcade stick, to simulate a bunch of keyboard keys, which work in pretty much any app/emulator.
It's perfect to put on the table in front of me, acting like an arcade panel.
But I'm planning to do something even cooler for that (something with light buttons and mamehooker).

Beside VCop elite edition, which game uses the dpad for menu? You can also use a psx/ps2 gamepad for those tho.

Also, my lightgun firmware already has a joystick mode (hold A button + push calibration button).
But it's not relative motion, it's absolute. It will work only with games that use absolute motion. There is no way around that sadly.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #68 on: November 04, 2019, 10:14:30 pm »
JayBee, Can you add analog input feature on firmware? 2 axis are ok.

I have fixed analog arcade gun. I use it playing Let's go island, Terminator 2 arcade... etc.



It has two potentiometer, x-axis and y-axis. No pcb inside.

If analog inputs are supported, I can play both rail-shooter game which support analog gun and only support mouse input.

And that gun has built in solenoid, your firmware has solenoid  automatic recoil output, that make easy to setup. How great.

« Last Edit: November 04, 2019, 10:18:48 pm by hyo2012 »

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #69 on: November 05, 2019, 02:03:48 am »
JayBee, Can you add analog input feature on firmware? 2 axis are ok.

I have fixed analog arcade gun. I use it playing Let's go island, Terminator 2 arcade... etc.



It has two potentiometer, x-axis and y-axis. No pcb inside.

If analog inputs are supported, I can play both rail-shooter game which support analog gun and only support mouse input.

And that gun has built in solenoid, your firmware has solenoid  automatic recoil output, that make easy to setup. How great.
This kind of fixed gun tech has nothing to do with the IR cam tech we are using here, it would require a totally different firmware.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #70 on: November 05, 2019, 01:12:37 pm »

That's what I thought when I made my Time Crisis arcade guns into Guncon 2's but it was a big mistake. It's true that only a few guncon 2 games use the D-pad but a good number use it to navigate through the options menu. It was really annoying to have to keep unplugging the gcon to switch between Virtua Cop 1 and 2 on the Elite edition disc and I couldn't even access the menu system on Guncom 2.

I put all my recoil hardware and the guncon 2 PCB in a wooden box. I ended up adding all the guncon buttons (beside the trigger) to the box and I put a joystick on the other side. My pedal also attached to the box. I suggest you do the same. You need every guncon 2 button and the d-pad unless you only want to play the Time Crisis games.

Also, while you're looking at how to make the gun work on the PS2, there is a good number of rail shooters on the PS2 that currently have no gun support at all. They only allow you to use the analog stick. I am working on hooking up my positional arcade guns but you might be able to add an analog stick mode to your gun to make it work on games like Silent Scope, Combat Queen, Ghost Vibration and Operation Wolf (on the Taito legends disc).

Well i think seeing as it would be so easy to implement it and totally omittable during the specific build.
We might aswell add the feature.
Now, you are totally right about the small number of titles supporting it. But the more it supports the better IMHO.

Wow that guys already did all the hard work, with that we can actually do it easily. I have an old after market nunchuck somewhere, I will give it a try when I have more time.
You look like you know way more than me in electronic, would you like if I share the 4 leds sketch and schematics with you in private? I would really use some help on making it better, especially on the electronic side of things 😅
My electronic knowlegde is pretty low... but i do spend a lot of time at the local hacker/makerspace, where i learn a lot from other makers.
However, yes i'd like that.
I put the schematic up on github, so feel free to update it with your ideas. I scaled the pcb as such that it should fit 4 boards within 50x50mm to make them super cheap to order.
There's only 2 things i think it could use is pads for different sized crystal oscillators and 4 more pins to pass the i2c bus for the nunchuck and whatever we may want to add in the future.
https://github.com/Mysli0210/Liightgun

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #71 on: November 05, 2019, 08:45:09 pm »
Well i think seeing as it would be so easy to implement it and totally omittable during the specific build.
We might aswell add the feature.
Now, you are totally right about the small number of titles supporting it. But the more it supports the better IMHO.
If you're talking about the joystick support, it's already fully supported in my firmware (the joystick mode I'm talking about in my post ;) ). But of course it will only work with games that use absolute joystick motion (one stick position = one position on screen), sadly there is no way to get a precise aiming with games that use relative motion (moving the cursor by holding one direction) due to the way they work.

My electronic knowlegde is pretty low... but i do spend a lot of time at the local hacker/makerspace, where i learn a lot from other makers.
However, yes i'd like that.
I put the schematic up on github, so feel free to update it with your ideas. I scaled the pcb as such that it should fit 4 boards within 50x50mm to make them super cheap to order.
There's only 2 things i think it could use is pads for different sized crystal oscillators and 4 more pins to pass the i2c bus for the nunchuck and whatever we may want to add in the future.
https://github.com/Mysli0210/Liightgun
Doesn't look that bad to me, but might be because I am terrible at it  :lol
I was wondering if it would be a good idea to merge your pcb with my solenoid/rumble circuit, and add GND soldering points for the buttons (the few GND on the arduino board aren't enough), it would make a great all in one solution :D

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #72 on: November 05, 2019, 09:51:21 pm »
If you're talking about the joystick support, it's already fully supported in my firmware (the joystick mode I'm talking about in my post ;) ). But of course it will only work with games that use absolute joystick motion (one stick position = one position on screen), sadly there is no way to get a precise aiming with games that use relative motion (moving the cursor by holding one direction) due to the way they work.
Not talking about the joystick mode, but rather making the joystick on the nunchuck, act as if were a d-pad like on the G-con2.
A few of the titles support it, but watch this instead to see what i mean https://youtu.be/dOSRxiLEVmI?t=226

Doesn't look that bad to me, but might be because I am terrible at it  :lol
I was wondering if it would be a good idea to merge your pcb with my solenoid/rumble circuit, and add GND soldering points for the buttons (the few GND on the arduino board aren't enough), it would make a great all in one solution :D
It could be added, but again i tried to keep it very small to make it super cheap to get made. but i could do a pcb for those functions.
I made the schematic for the board to hold the nunchuck connector, which in itself will be pretty small and only have an internal connector (optional), the nunchuck connector, 2 pullup resistors, a regulator and a cap.

Its not that i dislike your idea, but i think its better to have a few small pcb's rather than one big, seeing as it will then be easier to adapt to the specific gun.

Regarding the ground connections, you can scrape off some of the soldermask, both sides are grounded decently.
but a much more sane approach is daisychaining the ground from button to button. my konami gun was even wired that way from the factory.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #73 on: November 06, 2019, 01:33:28 am »
Not talking about the joystick mode, but rather making the joystick on the nunchuck, act as if were a d-pad like on the G-con2.
A few of the titles support it, but watch this instead to see what i mean https://youtu.be/dOSRxiLEVmI?t=226
Ah yes, you're right, it seems fairly easy to connect the nunchuck with the i2c connection. We can even find some arduino libraries online. I will definitely try it when I have a bit more time.

It could be added, but again i tried to keep it very small to make it super cheap to get made. but i could do a pcb for those functions.
I made the schematic for the board to hold the nunchuck connector, which in itself will be pretty small and only have an internal connector (optional), the nunchuck connector, 2 pullup resistors, a regulator and a cap.

Its not that i dislike your idea, but i think its better to have a few small pcb's rather than one big, seeing as it will then be easier to adapt to the specific gun.

Regarding the ground connections, you can scrape off some of the soldermask, both sides are grounded decently.
but a much more sane approach is daisychaining the ground from button to button. my konami gun was even wired that way from the factory.
Having small pcbs instead of one big is actually what I am doing in my guns, but despite being perfectly functional it looks very messy :lol
But I guess there is no way around it if we want to fit it in any gun model.

Daisy chaining is good, but when each point needs to be soldered somewhere (beside the GCon2 I completely replaced the guns original pcb, and they aren't arcade guns, just cheap PS2/Saturn guns), every time I have to add a ground (button or other) it gets complicated. I preferred making a small board where each ground is attached, even if it's a bit dirty.

I will send you the schematics too once I make them clean. What software are you using for your schematics?

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #74 on: November 06, 2019, 01:07:17 pm »
JayBee, Can you add analog input feature on firmware? 2 axis are ok.

I have fixed analog arcade gun. I use it playing Let's go island, Terminator 2 arcade... etc.



It has two potentiometer, x-axis and y-axis. No pcb inside.

If analog inputs are supported, I can play both rail-shooter game which support analog gun and only support mouse input.

And that gun has built in solenoid, your firmware has solenoid  automatic recoil output, that make easy to setup. How great.


You can just use an Apac for fixed positional arcade guns. That's what I use. One Apac can hook up two guns (to one USB port) and all the buttons.

I use a relay plus an Ne555 board to hook up the solenoid for full auto recoil. It's the easiest method by far.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #75 on: November 06, 2019, 01:19:22 pm »
JayBee, Can you add analog input feature on firmware? 2 axis are ok.

I have fixed analog arcade gun. I use it playing Let's go island, Terminator 2 arcade... etc.



It has two potentiometer, x-axis and y-axis. No pcb inside.

If analog inputs are supported, I can play both rail-shooter game which support analog gun and only support mouse input.

And that gun has built in solenoid, your firmware has solenoid  automatic recoil output, that make easy to setup. How great.
This kind of fixed gun tech has nothing to do with the IR cam tech we are using here, it would require a totally different firmware.

That's not 100% accurate. Most arcade IR gun I/O boards output as regular analog joysticks. In most cases you can use a positional gun instead of an IR gun with the same arcade PCB. The I/O boards just translate the positional data to the same 0-5v signal you would have got from a pot for the X and Y axis. The is a video on Youtube of some guy using a Taito positional gun in place of the IR gun on that Rambo arcade game.


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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #76 on: November 06, 2019, 03:01:38 pm »
Ah yes, you're right, it seems fairly easy to connect the nunchuck with the i2c connection. We can even find some arduino libraries online. I will definitely try it when I have a bit more time.

Cool!

Having small pcbs instead of one big is actually what I am doing in my guns, but despite being perfectly functional it looks very messy :lol
But I guess there is no way around it if we want to fit it in any gun model.

Daisy chaining is good, but when each point needs to be soldered somewhere (beside the GCon2 I completely replaced the guns original pcb, and they aren't arcade guns, just cheap PS2/Saturn guns), every time I have to add a ground (button or other) it gets complicated. I preferred making a small board where each ground is attached, even if it's a bit dirty.

I will send you the schematics too once I make them clean. What software are you using for your schematics?

I used KiCad to design the schematics.
yeah they need to be soldered somewhere, but most buttons do have 4 leads that are interconnected in pairs.
I really dont see how having a lot of ground wires going to one pcb and then to the arduino is less messy nor easier to deal with :)
(You should see the wiring of the joycons of my homebuilt arcade  ::))
But if its such a hassle for you, i would suggest using enamel wire (the type where you can melt the insulation) to just use one wire that is soldered to each button.

We could do something entirely else though.
To make a pcb for each guntype, which would be way more expensive, though super easy to install.

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #77 on: November 06, 2019, 08:44:09 pm »
This kind of fixed gun tech has nothing to do with the IR cam tech we are using here, it would require a totally different firmware.

That's not 100% accurate. Most arcade IR gun I/O boards output as regular analog joysticks. In most cases you can use a positional gun instead of an IR gun with the same arcade PCB. The I/O boards just translate the positional data to the same 0-5v signal you would have got from a pot for the X and Y axis. The is a video on Youtube of some guy using a Taito positional gun in place of the IR gun on that Rambo arcade game.
I'm not saying that's impossible, I'm just saying my setup isn't compatible with it nor will be, that's not the purpose of it at all.
It would require to do a special version that pretty much remove 90% or my code (IR detection and all), and change the rest significantly. So a brand new sketch...
And before you ask, no it's not possible to add it to this sketch, because 1. All the analog pins are already in use for something else and 2. The sketch is already taking more than 80% of the Arduino flash, and I want to add more functions in the future. ;)

Edit: By the way don't mix input and output. My sketch always had a joystick output, since the very first version  :lol
But it doesn't support joystick input that bypass the IR detection.
However anyone who want to have a special version for that is free to use my 2 IR points sketch, which should work fine after removing the IR detection code.
« Last Edit: November 06, 2019, 08:59:08 pm by JayBee »

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #78 on: November 06, 2019, 09:42:28 pm »
I used KiCad to design the schematics.
yeah they need to be soldered somewhere, but most buttons do have 4 leads that are interconnected in pairs.
I really dont see how having a lot of ground wires going to one pcb and then to the arduino is less messy nor easier to deal with :)
(You should see the wiring of the joycons of my homebuilt arcade  ::))
But if its such a hassle for you, i would suggest using enamel wire (the type where you can melt the insulation) to just use one wire that is soldered to each button.

We could do something entirely else though.
To make a pcb for each guntype, which would be way more expensive, though super easy to install.
None of the buttons in my guns have 4 leads, they aren't arcade guns.
My solution is sure not the best recommend one, but I did it to avoid touching the button boards and wires too much (I have no replacement if I damage them) or messing up with the button themselves. If I chain solder them and one point in the chain breaks or do wrong contact, it will be such a pain to troubleshoot.
I also have grounds for other things than buttons, like solenoid and rumble.

You can see pics of the inside of my guns to understand what I mean:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161192.0.html
They changed a lot since I took those pics, but you get the global idea.

Yeah we could do a different pcb for each, but like you said, it would be expensive, and not sure if it's worth it ;)

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Re: JayBee DIY 4 IR Led Lightgun System (no calibration needed)
« Reply #79 on: November 07, 2019, 07:24:09 pm »
None of the buttons in my guns have 4 leads, they aren't arcade guns.
My solution is sure not the best recommend one, but I did it to avoid touching the button boards and wires too much (I have no replacement if I damage them) or messing up with the button themselves. If I chain solder them and one point in the chain breaks or do wrong contact, it will be such a pain to troubleshoot.
I also have grounds for other things than buttons, like solenoid and rumble.

You can see pics of the inside of my guns to understand what I mean:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161192.0.html
They changed a lot since I took those pics, but you get the global idea.

Yeah we could do a different pcb for each, but like you said, it would be expensive, and not sure if it's worth it ;)

Well i cant really see whats going on behind that hot-snot glue (which you can remove with rubbing alcohol, if need be ;))
But the microswitch (the one you call arcade) is super easy to solder several wires onto, as it has got a hole in the lead which you can hook the end of the wire around before soldering... heck even after if you heat the solder up before.
BTW they are easily obtained, they go by the name 1c25, there are other types such as DB1, DB2 & DB3 but they have a different size, just if need be :D
and the pcb with the red button(s)? should be pretty easy to wire up with a common ground wire aswell.

Here's a couple of pics of my gun, which surely could use some tidying up.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-2D4oAQEHhFUM4F9ROmfW6oOpiYpz_iA
Though there are 2 wires connected on one pin of the trigger pcb, the rest are daisychained from there. Just as it was from the factory.

Also should you need spare pcb's, provide me with a drawing with measurements and holesizes.
and i'll design a new one for ya ;)
I could even make one that extends rearward which can hold the arduino, mosfet and all the supporting components.

You wouldnt happen to have a scanner and a ruler would you?
Cause if you lay the gun, or even guns on their (in)side next to the ruler and send me the picture i'll design it to work for that gun.
You'd ofcourse have to make sure that it is clean against the glass, so that there's no warping or out of focus places.
and i'll make it so you have several through-holes where you can attach the ground wires :D


EDIT:
@JayBee, if you wanted to have me take a look at your code, make a user on github and make a private repository for it and share it with me :D

EDIT2:
I dont think you should have the camera board act as the ground for the  solenoid as that could actually deprive the camera of power on activation (read. inrush current)
what you'd ought to have is a beefy capacitor, maybe even a super capacitor to conserve space right next to the mosfet.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2019, 07:33:16 pm by Mysli0210 »