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| Lichtknarre: Unmodified Wii remote as a sight accurate Lightgun using 2/4 LEDs |
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| Howard_Casto:
I did but I'm still not following some of it. Is the ub400 dongle good or not? The author seems to think so, but your responses seem to contradict that and then you say he fixed some things and it's working but it is a little unclear if you are referring to your built-in dongle or the suggested one that eventually works without issue. I mean my new pc doesn't have built in bluetooth so I might as well order the suggested one, but it'd be nice to get a list of "what you need" a little more concrete so others can follow along. Anything concrete on the wide angle lenses? Product link? I just don't know where to start in regard to that. I'm assuming something similar to those clip on lenses you can get for cell phones but I'm not sure. In regards to the leds themselves I think I can design something to clip them into that wouldn't add to their footprint. Perhaps a disc with some lines printed on it to aid in alignment. It looks like you seem to think a standard 6.5v power supply is good for the leds but if we can get a system down to 3.3v 300ma (unlikely I know) then it could just be plugged into the usb port in the back of most modern flat screens and make the setup far less complicated, especially for non-permanent setups. Probably not worth the effort, but this seems like the first sub $100 method of getting an ir gun where you don't have to build it from scratch. The closer we can get it to turn key, the better. Regardless, I'll order some stuff tonight. Going to get those leds on the slow boat from China but I'll catch up eventually. |
| Howard_Casto:
I bought the leds badmouth suggested. I also bought these lenses to play around with: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804461463984.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.4.9b611802HOwesz&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US The fact that they come with the little clip to screw into means I can just tack them in place until I can determine if they are actually viable. Now to order a bluetooth adapter. |
| RandyT:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on December 14, 2022, 10:16:50 pm ---Is the ub400 dongle good or not? The author seems to think so, but your responses seem to contradict that and then you say he fixed some things and it's working but it is a little unclear if you are referring to your built-in dongle or the suggested one that eventually works without issue. --- End quote --- After some testing, my conclusion is that the built-in BT in my particular system didn't cause the software to behave any differently than the CSR 4.0 dongles I already had, or the UB400 (same CSR 4.0 tech) I purchased later. But how well the internal BT works may vary across systems, as there are multiple different chipsets and the tech could be old and not fully compatible. I tried an old laptop, and while the software worked, the updates were so slow it would be unusable. Fusselkroete is currently looking at certain aspects of the software to see why it breaks on one of my systems. He has already sent me a test version which disabled some things and it worked 100% better on that system, so he knows what's causing it and is now trying to figure out why. On my 37" CRT with a quad-core, the normal release version works fine. At least in my case, a $5 CSR 4.0 BT dongle works, so there's little reason not to get one. Many probably already have one laying around nowadays. But the software is free and available, so I recommend just testing the built-in BT and only try buying a dongle if the software isn't working correctly. --- Quote ---Anything concrete on the wide angle lenses? --- End quote --- Not at this point. I bought one like you described, but I have no idea how much they vary across vendors, or whether it's even optimal for this. One thing I can just about guarantee is that it will not perform as well as it could, if strapped to the front of a controller. The distance between the camera and first lens should be as small as possible to prevent vignetting of the final image. Focus could be affected as well, but that's probably not the biggest concern with this type of camera. Oh, and center alignment is SUPER important. While the camera MAY be in the exact center of that little window, it doesn't need to be to perform correctly as it's designed. If it isn't, and this is what the mount is based upon, then it won't be correct so that stuff needs to be verified. While not certain, I do believe that Fusselkroete will eventually need to add lens compensation to the 4-point tracking in order to make it perfect. With a cheap "fish-eye" lens, the image will elongate at greater levels the further from center it is. This would have implications for accuracy, so should be accounted for. Without one, at least with a 4:3 monitor, I don't find myself needing to stand further back than I would normally with an actual lightgun. Then again, I'm not a "screen basher" when I play. :) --- Quote ---In regards to the leds themselves I think I can design something to clip them into that wouldn't add to their footprint. Perhaps a disc with some lines printed on it to aid in alignment. --- End quote --- You certainly can, but it would really only be for cosmetics. Some good, strong double-sticky on the back would be good for mounting as well, with the larger surface area. Personally, I wasn't concerned with that, as both monitors have dark bezels and are in very poorly lit environments. The black, cloth gaffers tape I found a long time ago at the dollar store worked perfectly. (I really wish I bought a case of the stuff...makes duct tape look like the junk that it is.) --- Quote ---It looks like you seem to think a standard 6.5v power supply is good for the leds but if we can get a system down to 3.3v 300ma (unlikely I know) then it could just be plugged into the usb port in the back of most modern flat screens and make the setup far less complicated, especially for non-permanent setups. --- End quote --- Unfortunately, it's not possible without giving up a lot. The Wii could get away with cheap, low output LEDs because there were only two LEDs (well, clusters, but they were at different angles) and they were positioned a lot closer together. That means you could be a lot closer to them so the output could be lower. That said, the Lichtknarre software allows the use of a Wii bar with the correct plug-in, so you may be able to go that route if you are willing to sacrifice accuracy. But I had no interest in doing that. If you want the best results, it takes a bit more effort. And more importantly, if you go with the 6.5v supply, make sure it's a GOOD one (i.e. well-regulated at that voltage and with more than enough current delivery) AND you use an appropriate resistor AND the wire gauge is sufficient to carry away some heat (or use heatsinks for the LEDs). Otherwise, I wouldn't even attempt it as you'll risk your LEDs and maybe even whatever is around them. Play safe. |
| zeorangr:
Well, this definitely seems promising, and could potentially be a lot better than what I originally came up with for getting working lightguns on the cabinet. I initially bought a Sinden lightgun to check it out, but it didn't really work well with my cab, because when I tested it the Sinden software didn't play nicely with a rotated screen (I'm using a 50" TV in portrait orientation in my cabinet), and it throws the tracking off by 90 degrees (so moving the gun up and down moves the cursor left and right, and vice versa). I'm currently using two wii remotes in plastic gun shells as 'lightguns' on my cabinet, which are each connected via bluetooth to their own mayflash dolphinbar adapter on the mode 2 setting ('keyboard and mouse game mode'). For whatever reason, the tracking when trying to use either of the dolphinbar adapters (one at a time) as an IR source was kinda awful, so after testing it and noting that it worked WAY better than the dolphinbars did, I tucked both dolphinbar adapters inside the cabinet, then cut up an old spare original Wii sensor bar that I had laying around and mounted both of the 'LED Clusters' contained therein on my cabinet and wired them up to a little AC Adapter I had laying around so they're powered, and the wiimotes have something to 'see' and track. I edited some smaller (than the default) crosshairs and played around with the control sensitivity in MAME, and while I still have to rely on the crosshairs more than I'd like this setup works far better than I'd expected it to in MAME. I can only use a single gun in non-MAME stuff (likely because MAME utilizes RAW input so it can interact with them as distinct devices instead of just 'the mouse'), so for things like the recent House of the Dead Remake that was released on steam - it works ok, but is single-player only (because only one gun works). So looking for alternatives, I had just about decided to start looking at what it would take to scrounge up all the assorted parts to try and build a couple of Gun4IR guns when I stumbled on this thread. With the holidays basically here, I doubt I'll have a lot of free time to tinker with things in any meaningful way for at least a few weeks, but if I actually get some free time I may go ahead and try installing and configuring this on the cabinet and just see what all it can do. Until I can do that though, I have a couple of (possibly dumb) questions. 1. Assuming the game itself supports 2 players, would Lichtknarre provide the ability to use 2 'guns' in non-MAME lightgun games (like HOTD:R)? If not 'out of the box', then in conjunction with another tool like DEMULShooter or Troubleshooter (of which, the former I'd heard of but not researched, and the latter I'm just learning about in reading through the thread)? I'm seeing something about a vJoy plugin on the Lichtknarre webpage (and thanks to RandyT for sharing that!), and it looks like there are some instructions there, but I'm not sure how that would work - does it translate the x/y positioning from the wiimote to a virtual gamepad's analog stick and then pass that analog stick position value to the game? 2. What about other non-mame emulators - DEMUL, as an example (for HOTD2 / Sports Shooting / Clay Challenge / Other NAOMI or Atomiswave shooters) or for the few actual PC-based lightgun (or lightgun-esque) games? 3. Conversely, are there any (lightgun) games / emulators that are known that Lichtknarre does NOT work with that I might want to be aware of? 4. While I'm looking for more accuracy and will definitely go with a 4-position LED setup eventually if this works for me, would I be able to start using Lichtknarre with my existing LEDs and add more / reposition them later? (Based on what I'm reading here, it seems like there's an available plugin to use a standard sensor bar which should work with my current setup, but I wanted to confirm). 5. It's sounding like using Lichtknarre I won't need the dolphinbar adapters, and instead I can just use either the built-in bluetooth on the PC running my cabinet or I can get a cheap BT adapter to link the wiimotes with - just to confirm though, would both wiimotes be able to pair with a single bluetooth adapter and work simultaneously using Lichtknarre, or would I instead need a single BT adapter for each wii remote? 6. Having run into the issue with the Sinden, are there any known issues with using Lichtknarre with a portrait-oriented TV? Apologies if these are already answered elsewhere - I'm just really getting started seriously looking at this and it's looking pretty fantastic so far. I definitely have more reading to do. (edit - added question 6) |
| holmes:
Hi, I have been trying for a while to build gun4ir guns but I have not been so successfull because of my poor soldering capabilities. My "working" prototype generally freezes after a few minutes. So I am very interested in this thread and have done some tests. I used the LEDS I had prepared for the gun4irs, the 2 wiimotes I bought when I tried a dolphinbar and the BT device integrated to my motherboard. Notice the leds are not so powerful. Notice the quality of precision of the leds positionning I downloaded all the software. I positionned the leds with the LK_LED_PLACE tool and noticed I passed the Lichtknarrel step 3 without doing any adjustement. I did not try to use the offsets. I used vjoy and made some tests with the Lost world (Model 3) and Transformers:Human alliance. It worked reasonnably well for 2 players. I have however 3 questions: - I have nunchuks and they do not seem to be recognized (buttons not detected). Is it normal? - if using a gun-shaped wiimote holder, how to reload without having to use one of the top buttons (not convenient)? - I understood using a wide lens in front of the wiimote to shorten the usable distance should work. Am I correct? Thanks |
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