Switch GP-Wiz49 modes using your computer!

[Toonces]

Ok, here are the files as promised. It is a simple combination of a DOS based program and a batch file wrapper to translate the command line used by the dos program into SetMode 1, Setmode 4, etc. I have been using it for a couple of  days without problems under Windows XP Home. There are 2 sets of files included in the archive. The main one, SetMode.bat is meant to be used with a relay board and provides straight logic that turns bits on in order to change modes. The second set, SetM_dir.bat is meant for a direct cable connection between the PC parallel port and the GP-Wiz49. It uses reverse logic by turning bits off to accomplish the mode changes. The setmode.com and setM_dir.com files in the archive are just compiled versions of the .bat files. You can use either the .bat or the .com. you don't need to use both. Wiring is simple and straight forward. All you need is an old printer cable or a DB25 connector and some CAT5 wire. I's about as simple as wiring a button

This set of instructions only supports switching 7 of the modes as 1 pin (bit 0) is needed for the Mode Switch button. If you want to switch all 8 modes it is possible using switching diodes or Shazaam! adapters from GGG. You would also need to modify the batch file. In my cab I chose to only switch 6 of the modes, leaving out 49 way progressive and 16 way.

FE Support for switching the GP-Wiz49 is comming. Check out the great FE GameEx at http://www.gameex.net/ Tons of features and easy to setup. I use 3 entries on my main menu to switch modes.  You can see that in the menu in the picture below.




OK, So where are the files? Here ya Go! Have fun. http://www.pachislofun.com/setmode/setmode.zip

OH! If you screw up your PC, GP-Wiz49, or anything else. It's not my fault. No warranty provided. it just works for me.

Toonces

[mahuti]

Sweet. Great job.

[Flinkly]

hmm...this wire goes here...ooops.  not that one.   and right there...and a bit more...done!  now to turn this dang thing on...smoke?  where is that coming from?


edit:  i'm using my great ability of short story writing to tell you that we need some pictures and layman terms.  i think i understand what your talking about (i think...), but some wont at all.  i know you already went to the trouble of making it, but now we need some diagrams, layman terms, and even some real life pictures.

oh, and thanks so much for this, you've answered the call of the BYOAC (not to be mistaken with the call of nature).  i think we all appreciate your dedication, skills, and hard work.  now if castro and minwah would jump on the bandwagon...maybe even )P(.

[Hoagie_one]

looks good so far.  I'm sure teh first few people who wire this up will add a bit to this to flesh it out for the rest of us

[nostrebor]

THANK YOU!

I too will need the idiot proof layman's instructions for this. I also wish that I had picked up a bunch of EBAY 49 ways when they were still cheap. I'm sure that they will get much more valuable now.

[Toonces]

Thank You all. I will try to put together a picutre. It's really much easier once you have the GP-Wiz49 sitting in front of you because it is labeled like it shows in the text. Those labels are for the solder and non-solder versions. I've not seen a Max version to know how they are laid out but I assume the labels are the same.

Toonces

[MrSaLTy]

Thanks toonces!! As a side note it may be helpfull to at least reference the other threads that started this for the people that are just stumbling onto this now.  Also the link to the relay board you are refering to.  I do not have time to find them right this sec as I have to run to work but if you have time that may help people understand the concept here.  I'll add them later when I get home if no one has the chance before then.

Again, thanks for your work on this bud!

[Toonces]

How's this for a diagram?



Downlaod it here if it doesn't look right. http://www.pachislofun.com/setmode/GP49Diag.gif

[Todd H]

Just a quick question Toonces...

How do the 49-ways feel with an N64 emulator like Project 64?  Does 49-way progressive or raw come close to the feel of the N64 analog stick?

[Toonces]

Just a quick question Toonces...

How do the 49-ways feel with an N64 emulator like Project 64?  Does 49-way progressive or raw come close to the feel of the N64 analog stick?

Sorry, I really don't know. I have an N64 to to USB adapter and have a real N64 controller plugged in.

[Flinkly]

ok, now i'm more confused.

[Toonces]

ok, now i'm more confused.  are the status register the led's you were talking about?  and what is the control register?  if us simpletons don't need to see it in order to wire up the interface, don't put it...

oh wait...is this that relay board you speak of?

and your S6 and S7 lines overlap...might want to adjust that for clarity.

Sorry it's more confusing. There's really nothing to it. Wire pins 2 through 9 on the parallel port to the GP-Wiz49 board. Pin 2 is bit 0. Wire it to Mode Select. Wire pins 3-9 to modes 1-7 or whichever modes you want to do. As far as the diagram goes, graphics are not my strong point so I grabbed a graphic of the parallel port and drew lines. I didn't put anything there that wasn't on the graphic to begin with. There are no LEDs involved. Just 8 wires. The batch file and control programs only control the data bits.

Maybe someone with some graphic skills can help out and draw a better picture.

The Relay board is wired in exactly the same manner only instead of going to the GP-Wiz 49, you wire pins 2 through 9 to relays 1-8. Then you wire up the relays to the GP-Wiz49 as if they were dedicated buttons. There are some pictures of the relay board installed in my cabinet here:

http://www.pachislofun.com/cyberlead/

Take a look at the pictures named relay_board.

I hope that helps.

Toonces

[Toonces]

ok, I made a little more generic graphic. I hope this one helps. It just shows the DB25 connector and the name of the pin on the GP-Wiz49 to connect it to rather than by pin designation.



Downloadable here: http://www.pachislofun.com/setmode/DB25_connections.jpg

Hope that helps clear things up.

Toonces

[Toonces]

Ok, for the relay board. I bought mine from Hobby Engineering. http://www.hobbyengineering.com/SectionEK.html#IX1268

They were a couple dollars more than the place listed in the readme file but had more shipping options than just UPS ground. They also have it in Kit, Assembled and in an alternate assembled configuration with a case. All are listed on that page. If you decide to use the relay board as I did, you will need either a straight through DB25 M-F cable or you can contruct one yourself. If you make one yourself, you only need to connect pins 2 through 9 on both ends. pin 2 to 2, pin 3 to 3, etc. You will need to supply the relay board with +12VDC. Either through a universal power adapter or as I did by using the +12VDC already available in my cab. There are connections for both types of hookups on the relay board. Connecting the Relay Board to the GP-Wiz49 is exactly like connecting regular arcade buttons. You use a common ground running from the GPWiz49 to the relay board terminals marked with a C (Common). Then wire the Mode Switch on the GP-Wiz49 to Relay #1 NO (Normally Open) terminal. Then wire each of the mode buttons in the same manner to relays #2-8. You will end up with 1 mode left over that does not go to a relay! On my setup that mode is 16 Way. I chose to leave it out because it was a last minute mode that Randy through in at someone's request to try to make 720 (I think it was 720) to be more playable. It's not based on a real arcade control (although it might be usable on a Colecovision emulator??).

You can also choose to leave other modes out but the batch files assume that the modes are in the order specified on the sheet that comes with the GP-Wiz49 and that relay 3 is 8 way mode. If you leave out another mode, say 49 way progressive, you will have to either skip relay #2 (easiest) or move things around in the batch file so the modes line up with the relays you wired to. It goes right on up the line from Mode 1 on Relay #2 to Mode 7 on Relay #8.

I think most of the questions with the instructions in the file are due to not having a GP-Wiz49 in front of you. If you were to read the instructions while holding the GPWiz49, you would see how the board is marked and the rather cryptic looking Upper B, etc would actually make sense

Hopefully, soon, someone with some graphics ability will step up and make some better diagrams than I can. It would also be cool if someone that can program would create a better program than a DOS program with a batch file shell. There are a lot of possibilities for other things as the parallel port is also capable of feeding information back to the computer as well. The programs in the .zip are strictly output to only the data bits though so it would have to be written with more capabilities in mind. During my research I ran across hundreds and hundreds of pages of programming examples, DLLs to work with XP, and lots of sample applications but only this DOS one was capable of taking input on the commandline and setting bits on the parallel port. Everything else assumed you wanted a windows interface to do the switching. As long as an FE author or anyone else who might come up with a better solution gives the ability to set the mode via commandline, most FE's should be able to support automatic switching using the info in controls.ini.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit and doesn't overwhelm anyone.

Toonces

[Flinkly]

um, just a question, but i notice your running into a few problems trying to get the right info from controls.dat or ini or whatever it is.  why not make a simple gui program like the resolution tool that makes it's own mode.ini or something for the batch files to read from?  then the comp wouldn't have to search the files for the right info, and have to wade through it all everytime, it could just look it up in a list with the correct code.  the benifit of doing it like this is that it would give the user a really simple way of adjusting what modes you want.  also, couldn't you include all the modes if yo used the db25 connector without the relay board?  so is there a chance of two batch file versions?  and i notices that you talked about possibly frying the gp49 or the comp if you didn't use the relay board, is that still a forseeable problem?  cause my comp and the gp49 probably cost more than the relay board...

thanks for all the help with these things, and for taking it upon yourself to solve the communities problem, but don't think its over yet...

[Toonces]

um, just a question, but i notice your running into a few problems trying to get the right info from controls.dat or ini or whatever it is.  why not make a simple gui program like the resolution tool that makes it's own mode.ini or something for the batch files to read from?  then the comp wouldn't have to search the files for the right info, and have to wade through it all everytime, it could just look it up in a list with the correct code.  the benifit of doing it like this is that it would give the user a really simple way of adjusting what modes you want.  also, couldn't you include all the modes if yo used the db25 connector without the relay board?  so is there a chance of two batch file versions?  and i notices that you talked about possibly frying the gp49 or the comp if you didn't use the relay board, is that still a forseeable problem?  cause my comp and the gp49 probably cost more than the relay board...

thanks for all the help with these things, and for taking it upon yourself to solve the communities problem, but don't think its over yet...

The problems with controls.ini aren't really problems. As it is, it's still not difficult to select the right mode. The changes I am talking about in the other thread are more about consistency with how you treat controller info. The difference in parsing the file is not even measurable unless you go waaaay down on the time scale. Certainly nothing perceptable.

As far as making it easy on the user to adjust mode settings, that all depends on the FE authors. They are the ones actually implementing the parsing and how their FE's support the GP-Wiz49. I didn't write a program other than the batch files to control an existing DOS application simply because I don't program There are lots of great ideas like the one you have and it would be nice to see someone step up and write a program specifically for the GP-Wiz49. There are lots of things that could be done besides  just switching modes. If you look at my first attempt at a diagram, there are 2 registers that go unused. Some of those are inputs that could provide feedback back to the computer and let you get relly fancy. All of the windows gui programs I found for controling the parallel port would let you set and clear bits on the port and see the status registers, etc but none of them worked with sending a command line option like the DOS program does. In short, it's a beggining. It's only designed to overcome the one annoyance with the GP-Wiz49 of it not accepting mode change commands over USB and get the job done.

With RandyT's new version of the firmware for the GP-Wiz49 it is possible to switch all 8 modes either with or without the relay board. It's actually possible right now if you use the Shazaaam! adapters he sells or a couple of switching diodes for each of the lines. You would need 1 adapter or 2 diodes per line. It's not difficult to do, just a little more involved in the installation. Randy has posted the diagram in the GP-Wiz49 announcement thread. I will most likely release a new version of the batch files which supports the new firmware and/or using the existing firmware with diodes to switch all 8 modes.

If I knew then what I know now... I wouldn't have used the relay board. Not that it isn't nice to isolate the PC from the GP-Wiz49 but in reality, we are talking about logic level devices and people have been hooking them up to parallel ports for years. With the vast number of motherboards and configurations out there, I cannot say that every setup is going to be safe. There could be motherboards out there that have 25 pin serial ports that look exactly like the parallel port only using the male type connector on the computer. Someone could mistake that for a parallel port and buy the wrong DB25 connector or hack a cable they have lying around and plug it in. The serial port uses +12V vs. +5 for parallel and TTL logic chips. +12V is usually fatal for TTL logic level chips. It's unlikely but possible. I pretty much learned everything I know about parallel port interfacing in the last couple of days. I have read more than I care to and am ready to build a robot now Serioulsy, Robotics guys have been using the parallel port for a long long time.

Toonces

[Toonces]

Well, according to Randy's new post http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,32747.msg303058.html#msg303058 it looks like you won't have to hook up to the parallel port under Windows much longer Very Good News and leaves the parallel port for running other tasks like LCDs, etc.

I still plan on updating the batch files to support selection of all 8 modes in case anyone can use it. Using the batch files as a model, someone could get software switching under a non-windows OS working. That is providing they can't do the switching using USB.

Toonces