Buddabing's LED controller

[gl.tter]

I have an [older (2003-ish)] I-PAC which has the LED outputs for the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock. I have a temp LED wired up to Caps Lock (using Oscars LED Driver for super-bright LEDs - http://www.oscarcontrols.com/led/). Works nicely in Pac-Man, but I really want to add it to other games.

Cool.

[HoopstarsGarage]

Just in case you guys think that this isn't been watched with great interest, I just wanted to say that this is a FANTASTIC project..!!

Awesome project indeed[/b]

[Buddabing]

Just in case you guys think that this isn't been watched with great interest, I just wanted to say that this is a FANTASTIC project..!!

Awesome project indeed[/b]

Thank you.

There hasn't been an update on this project lately for two reasons. First was GameCab's unfortunate incident with his disk drive. The second is that I'm working on porting BuddaMAME to 0.96 and integrating gl.tter's code into it. Then I have to write a DLL to interface the LED controller.

Buddabing

[AmericanDemon]

I cant wait. 

[EndTwist]

I have to say, gl.tter's code is very, very nicely done. I got a sneak preview of it (and implemented it into my customized version of MAME) and it is too damn cool to play with.

Oh, and please, don't bother gl.tter about getting the source / etc. It will be released eventually.

[gl.tter]

Quick update, I've got the input controller signals mostly working.

I'm stuck on a cocktail mode related problem right now though - see this thread.
(solved)

[gl.tter]

BTW, if somebody really wants to see the source right now, PM me with your email address.  It's slowly settling down, but things are still subject to change.

[Gamecab]

Just in case you guys think that this isn't been watched with great interest, I just wanted to say that this is a FANTASTIC project..!!

Awesome project indeed[/b]

Thank you.

There hasn't been an update on this project lately for two reasons. First was GameCab's unfortunate incident with his disk drive. The second is that I'm working on porting BuddaMAME to 0.96 and integrating gl.tter's code into it. Then I have to write a DLL to interface the LED controller.

Buddabing

Hey Guys,

I'm still waiting on my Hard Drive to ship  (You have got to love some Ebay sellers).........
So,  If anyone has a Western Digital 80Gig drive (Part Number WD800BB-00CAA1) and would like to sell it then please feel free to contact me cruvola@gamecab.com.  The drive was manufactured in 2002-2003.

Other than what I mentioend above, I'm still testing out and troubleshooting the Prototype board and hope to have some of the results real soon.

Thanks
Charlie

[gl.tter]

Do the Volume Up / Down controls (as set in 'Other Controls') work for anybody?  They don't seem to do anything here.

[RetroBorg]

Buddabing, gl.tter, Gamecab,

Great project put me down for 1b and 2a.

Turns out the Cheat engine is a great way to find game ram addresses to generate custom signals from - I found the lives and credit counters in about 20 seconds each!

[HoopstarsGarage]

On a side note, I got my "free" MAX6956ANI samples today from Maxim..

They sent me two which is pretty cool because now I can implement this project on my current (WIP) cab and my next project..

[Ted_Striker]

On a side note, I got my "free" MAX6956ANI samples today from Maxim..

They sent me two which is pretty cool because now I can implement this project on my current (WIP) cab and my next project..

You got free samples from MAXIM?  Wow how'd you do it?  I read that magazine all the time.  I would love for them to send some "free samples" over to my house.   

They could help me work on my next cabinet of course

http://www.maximonline.com/girls_of_maxim/

[Franco]

Excellent work guys! Sooo cant aford it but am soooo gonna have one! [Must.....Have.......Flashing......Lights......Cant......Resist] 

Put me down for 1b, 2a.

This project and the translucent button proj that is underway are gonna go together superbly, cant wait!

[Gamecab]

I Have GREAT NEWS!!!  I have recovered ALL of the data from my old Hard Drive!!  Of all people: My mom has a "800 Giggawatt floppy disk" (as she calls it) and it happened to be an exact match to my hard drive that died.  I swapped the boards and have backed everything up to my network storage hard drives.  It's going to take a day to sort out all of the files but i'm just glad the information is back.

Thanks
Charlie

[JODY]

Kick the tires and light the fires big daddy! 

[gl.tter]

If this guy could be contacted I'm sure he could add to this project, apparently Dr Romz has found an automated way to detect the required code.

Thanks for the pointer.  I've just spoken with him and he's been giving me great pointers on credits counters - turns out some games use more complex ways of storing the credits than just a simple number.

He did manage to automate detection and found counters for thousands of games.  His approach to start button flashing is slightly different though so I'll have to see how best to implement it.

[UndeadMeat]

Wow, you guys rock! Combining this with Shawnzilla's translucent microswitch buttons is going to be too awesome. Damn the expense! I like the pretty lights!

1. I'm buying it, no matter what!
1a. Controller capable of controlling 20 LEDs
2a. Wire harness, LEDs, circuit board

-UndeadMeat

[Tiger-Heli]

Okay, I played MrDo in BuddaMAME 0.96 over the weekend.  Nice Blinky start Lights.  Good job!!!

Question 1 - When Two credits are added - the LED's flash in SEQUENCE.  I fired up Asteroids and they flashed ALTERNATELY.  (But in Centipede, they flash in Sequence).  Does anyone know of a way to set this to one of the other?  And/or does anyone know which one is correct for the actual machine?

Question 2 - I am having a hard time seeing how to make this work or how to set it up.  Specifially how to enable/disable functions on a per-game basis.

From the files, I see keybled.cfg which only contains the following two uncommented lines:

PL1_START_LIGHT->0
PL2_START_LIGHT->1

And Mrdo.dat which contains the following lines:

0:E006:COPY : 0:CREDITS

0:E097:COPY : 0:PL1_LIVES
0:E11C:COPY : 0:PL2_LIVES

0:E000:<=   :60:ATTRACT_MODE:1
0:E000:>    :60:ATTRACT_MODE:0


0:E1AF:!=   :LAST:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY:1
0:E1AF:==   :LAST:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY:0

0:E1B0:==   :03:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY_LETTER:0
0:E1B0:==   :00:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY_LETTER:1
0:E1B0:==   :01:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY_LETTER:2
0:E1B0:==   :02:HIGHSCORE_ENTRY_LETTER:3

0:E1CC:ISSET :80:MRDO_BALLREADY:1
0:E1CC:NOTSET:80:MRDO_BALLREADY:0

0:E30F:>     :  20:MRDO_DIAMOND:1
0:E30F:==    :  20:MRDO_DIAMOND:0


0:E1E6:>     :LAST:MRDO_BALL_ANIMATION:1 // exploding
0:E1E6:<     :LAST:MRDO_BALL_ANIMATION:2 // returning
0:E1E6:>=    :  2B:MRDO_BALL_ANIMATION:0 // animation off
0:E1E6:==    :  03:MRDO_BALL_ANIMATION:0 // animation off

But none of the values in mrdo.dat seem to match the variables in keybled.cfg . . .

And there is a commented reference to (see 'lights\docs\Inbuilts.txt'), but I don't see any docs files anywhere.

Could someone point me in the right direction?

[Buddabing]

Okay, I played MrDo in BuddaMAME 0.96 over the weekend.

[gl.tter]

Okay, I played MrDo in BuddaMAME 0.96 over the weekend.

[gl.tter]

Do the Volume Up / Down controls (as set in 'Other Controls') work for anybody?

[RetroBorg]

I'm looking to include Dr.Romz' excellent credits counter database, which should eliminate the need for a CREDIT signal completely for over 3000 games!

I'm glad you contacting Dr.Romz' paid off, 3000 games is a lot of hard work.

BTW, in my version of mrdo.dat, I also map the MRDO_BALL_READY signal to the Scroll Lock LED to demo a watchpoint generated signal.

[Franco]

There are so many possibilities with this bit of kit, I cant wait!!

I remember talk of multicolur LEDs, did it get decided whether or not these would be able to be used/controlled?

[dphirschler]

Asteroids P1 and P2 lights flash alternately.


Darryl

[Franco]

Just a thought ive had.

As discussed it will be awesome to have default and custom light sequences. I assume these would be easy to set up for an event such as a set period of inactivity etc.

It would also be cool to be able to set the next sequence by using the I-Pac shift function. This could be used to set the next squence used at the set period or to set one off instantly.

A red Knightrider sweeping fade would look just toooo cool

[gl.tter]

I'm glad you contacting Dr.Romz' paid off, 3000 games is a lot of hard work.

Yes, nice guy too.

[gl.tter]

I remember talk of multicolur LEDs, did it get decided whether or not these would be able to be used/controlled?

That's up to the light driver writers.

Asteroids P1 and P2 lights flash alternately.

OK, I'll make it an option (in the .dat file).

As discussed it will be awesome to have default and custom light sequences. I assume these would be easy to set up for an event such as a set period of inactivity etc.

It would also be cool to be able to set the next sequence by using the I-Pac shift function. This could be used to set the next squence used at the set period or to set one off instantly.

Again, up to the driver, but possible in theory.

A red Knightrider sweeping fade would look just toooo cool

[gl.tter]

I really like this feature, though some people will say that you don't look at the buttons when you play, but I still
think it's cool.

[JODY]

Speaking of which, are there any programmers out there willing to go through the game driver files, and replacing the set_led_status() calls with LSE signals?

[RetroBorg]

BTW, the signals don't have to be restricted to lights.

[Troz]

I don't know about adding it to Visual Pinmame.  It's been done before with Q*Bert and a special build of mame as can be seen here.

[RetroBorg]

I don't know about adding it to Visual Pinmame.

[gl.tter]

If you're talking about a global replace there are IDE's to take care of that.

[gl.tter]

So would it be possible to put one of those pinball hammers that make that noise when you get a free game into your cabinet and have that trigger off if you get a free game in Visual Pinmame or I think I read somewhere here that Q*Bert used one them aswell.

Yes, as long as you can find the address in memory that triggers this, just create a signal for it with a watchpoint file, and then trigger the circuit in some way (eg. via the keyboard LEDs).

I don't know about adding it to Visual Pinmame.

[Chris]

So would it be possible to put one of those pinball hammers that make that noise when you get a free game into your cabinet and have that trigger off if you get a free game in Visual Pinmame or I think I read somewhere here that Q*Bert used one them aswell.

Yes, as long as you can find the address in memory that triggers this, just create a signal for it with a watchpoint file, and then trigger the circuit in some way (eg. via the keyboard LEDs).

The problem is many recent machines don't have a knocker; they make the sound electronically.

We shouldn't have to actually modify PinMAME, though: tables are controlled through VBScript, so as long as VBScript can talk to the singal engine, all that needs to be changed is the script.  This will also give knocker access to any VP table, not just those dependent on PinMAME.  Theoretically, you could use that engine to drive solenoids and lamps on a real pinball table, using a PC running VPinMAME and/or VP....

--Chris

[gl.tter]

The problem is many recent machines don't have a knocker; they make the sound electronically.

Oh really?

[Chris]

Right, that should work in theory (not familiar with VBScript).

[screaming]

Pardon the newb question, but in order to hook up LEDs to this board will I need the resistors too (a la shawnzilla's offering) or will the board take care of all this?

-Steve

[Buddabing]

Pardon the newb question, but in order to hook up LEDs to this board will I need the resistors too (a la shawnzilla's offering) or will the board take care of all this?

-Steve

No resistors will be required. The board will put out 24 mA max per LED.

[Tiger-Heli]

Pardon the newb question, but in order to hook up LEDs to this board will I need the resistors too (a la shawnzilla's offering) or will the board take care of all this?

-Steve

No resistors will be required. The board will put out 24 mA max per LED.

Are you sure???

Most LED's operate off of 2.1 V.  The ones that are labelled for 12V operation have internal resistors to allow them to handle that voltage.  With an I-PAC or Hagstrom, you have to add a resistor to allow the 2.1V Led to work at 5 V.

Are you saying your controller will output at 2.1V?  Will it be selectable for other voltage outputs?