Act-Labs lightgun calibration

[GamingGreg]

I'm still having some issues with my lightguns, and it seems it has something to do with calibration.  I'm using an old Wells Gardner K4600 monitor with a ArcadeVGA card and a VGA cable hack to connect them (sync are separated).

After some trial and error, I was able to get a fair calibration after removing the monitor glass (actually lexan or plexiglass) and placing the gun really close to the monitor (about an inch away).

Anyway my question deals with how this calibration data is stored.  I'm assuming it's stored in the gun itself and not on the PC, as I've had to calibrate each gun separately.  Does the calibration data go away after you turn the PC off?  or is it there in some non-volitile RAM somehow?  Does anyone know? I sure would hate to have to remove the glass each time I start the PC up.

[Chris]

Might be a problem with the gun... I can calibrate both my guns with the glass on, a couple of inches from the glass.

You need to recalibrate every time you power up and every time you change resolutions.

--Chris

[Tiger-Heli]

Might be a problem with the gun... I can calibrate both my guns with the glass on, a couple of inches from the glass.

You need to recalibrate every time you power up and every time you change resolutions.

--Chris

Is this correct?

I understand about changing resolutions, but I would think that since they're USB, the calibration data would get saved.

Do you also have to re-calibrate if you unplug and re-connect them?

I'm making a desktop controller and didn't plan to have them always hooked up, but would rather not have to calibrate everytime I plug them in!

[Chris]

It really isn't that big a deal... it takes all of two seconds to calibrate the gun.  Hit the switch, wave it in front of the monitor, switch it back...

The real question is why can't you recalibrate without removing the glass.  Again, I wonder if it's a problem with the gun.

It might also be the monitor.  You're using a K4600?  Are you using the regular USB gun or the TV gun?  The problems may lie there.. I'm using a D9100, which is a regular VGA monitor, and I can calibrate from several inches away and shoot from about five feet away....

[Lilwolf]

I find that on my computer speed and my monitor (only 3 resolutions total) I find its easier to have HWStretching to 640x480 always.

one advantange... I don't have to recalibrate my act labs guns between games..

Its also nice... because loading seems a lot faster... but thats probably because of the lack of the monitor flitch..

[GamingGreg]

After playing around with things here and there over the past month,  I'm fairly convinced that there maybe something strange happening with my monitor.  It has a slight vertical shake that happens occasionally (more frequently before it warms up).  Oscar has given me a few suggestions as to where the possible problem might be (cold solder joints on the pins to the cards), but I haven't had time to implement them.  Another clue as to being the monitor is the fact that when I turn a gun into calibration mode, instead of seeing a completely white screen, the screen has some gradient ripples in it in the horizontal direction (more promiently on the left side of the screen).  I have to post a picture of it sometime so you know what I mean.  The ripples aren't there when playing games however. I don't know what is causing them.

I'm running my desktop and all the gun games at 640x480 with HWStretching on.  This seems to have been the best thus far.  The kids have never callibrated the gun after starting up, and it seems somewhat playable (but the guns have never been really accurate with my monitor, even with a somewhat good callibration).  Also, I am running the USB VGA guns, not the TV guns.  I was using Ultimarc's video amp with my ArcadeVGA card, but it was also causing some issues with the guns.  I removed the amp and used an old VGA cable (slightly hacked) to hook the monitor, and that's working fine now.

If I can't fix my monitor, I'm not sure what I'll do.  Replace it with another arcade monitor? or standard VGA monitor?  As much as I like my arcade monitor, I've been leaning towards a standard VGA monitor for a couple of reasons.  1) It would probably work better with the USB lightguns as that's what they were designed for, and 2) newer monitors can turn themselves off to prevent burn-in and save energy.  (I'm concerned about burn-in as our kids will often just leave a game "paused" for hours and the monitor never gets turned off, and due to some MAME issue, Windows XP will never start a screen saver when in this state)

Okay, enough of my ranting, but that's where I am today.

[Tiger-Heli]

Ok, I'm mainly concerned with the issues raised in this thread:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6288;start=msg45777

Specifically, I plan to use the Act-Labs PC guns with a PC monitor, but only plug the guns in right before playing MAME gun games at 640x480@85 Hz.

Do I need to worry about the monitor going blank when I unplug the guns?  I wouldn't think so, but now I'm worried!

Do I need to recalibrate each time I plug a gun or guns back in or re-start the PC?  I wouldn't think so, and I guess it's not THAT big a deal if I do, but a minor annoyance, nevertheless.

[GamingGreg]

Okay, here's a shot of the callibration screen.  Forgive the poor digital camera, but it should give you an idea.  You can see some vertical bars near the left.  Accuracy on the left also seems to be worse, maybe this is why.

When not in callibration mode the screen looks pretty normal (a bit dimmer since I removed the video amp, but still okay).

I guessing that whatever is causing this is also causing my accuracy issues.  Anyone concur?

[GamingGreg]

Ok, I'm mainly concerned with the issues raised in this thread:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6288;start=msg45777

Specifically, I plan to use the Act-Labs PC guns with a PC monitor, but only plug the guns in right before playing MAME gun games at 640x480@85 Hz.

Do I need to worry about the monitor going blank when I unplug the guns?  I wouldn't think so, but now I'm worried!

Do I need to recalibrate each time I plug a gun or guns back in or re-start the PC?  I wouldn't think so, and I guess it's not THAT big a deal if I do, but a minor annoyance, nevertheless.

Tiger-Heli,

See this thread at Act-Labs.  According to them you would have to recalibrate everytime the gun is plugged in or the computer is turned on.  As far as the monitor goes blank, that depends on whether the calibration switch is NO (normally open) or NC (normally closed).  If it's NC as that thread suggests then you'll need some sort of plug or something.

[Tiger-Heli]

Thanks for the help.  I watched KevSteele's video review again.  I was confused that since they advertised as usb, I thought that you just plugged the gun into the USB port when you wanted to use it.  I now see that the gun plugs into the pass-thru, which makes unplugging and plugging it back in less convenient.