Adding a connector to the Act-Labs gun cable

[Chris]

There has been some talk before about the size of the hole needed to install an Act-Labs lightgun into a cabinet, due to the fact that the gun cable is hardwired to the control box, as seen below:



In order to reduce the size of the hole, and to make the gun removable in case I needed to move the cabinet, I modified my gun to have a connector for the gun cable.

In case anyone else is interested in doing the same thing, here's what I discovered:

- The gun cable is an 8-conductor shielded cable.  Thus, I crimped an RJ-45 (network) connector on the gun side, and an RJ-45 keystone jack on the control box side.  This jack is mounted through the overhang beneath the control panel.

- Although the gun is now removable, it still needs to be plugged in for normal operation, as when the gun is not plugged in, the control box goes into calibration mode and the screen whites out.

When the gun is plugged in, it works completely normally.  Note that this will almost certainly void the gun's warranty!

--Chris

[JLR2000]

Sounds great Chris.....did you do anything or to secure the cable to prevent an overexcited player from ripping the cord+plug out of the network jack?  I'd think you would want something to prevent damage like this....

[ripzone]

I think you can use this:



http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/optical/95094000.htm

[Chris]

Sounds great Chris.....did you do anything or to secure the cable to prevent an overexcited player from ripping the cord+plug out of the network jack?  I'd think you would want something to prevent damage like this....

I put a strain relief on the connector; in addition, I mounted the keystone in such a way that its mount flexes when the cord is pulled.... it wasn't intentional, but it does absorb a lot of shock.  It could still no doubt be damaged by an overexcited player... of course, you have the same problem without the modification.  

A real game would have a heavy rubber or steel hose; Happs has them, but they're meant to connect to their gun shells.

[rampy]

Sounds great Chris.....did you do anything or to secure the cable to prevent an overexcited player from ripping the cord+plug out of the network jack?  I'd think you would want something to prevent damage like this....

Since it's home use you shouldn't have to worry about the local houligans beating on the game for beatings sake... and if someone was that overzealous, you should revoke either their mame cab privledges or their light gun privs =)

i.e. modify the behaviour not the mounting =)
(or modify their face if they break your cabinet)

rampy

PS i'm only half serious

[Brax]

I hope act labs adds a quick disconnect in their final product. It's going to be a problem for everyone who installs this in a cabinet.

[Chris]

Yes... it'd be nice if they'd fix the calibration switch to be normally open instead of normally closed, too, so a disconnected gun doesn't turn the screen white.  I'm still trying to decide if I should build some sort of inverter to reerse this behavior, or a dongle to put in place of the gun in case I need to run with the gun disconnected, or just live with always needing the gun plugged in.

--Chris

[Lilwolf]

This would be GREAT... but not enought of a feature that I would buy another gun...

what would would be any way to get a second gun to work... Even if it's just a way to hack it with a special version of mame (analog mame) and windows 98.... which currently works, but the guns, when trigger pressed at the same time, will produce two shots from one player.  (I'm assuming this is because they both store the screen location for the shot in the same memory location).  

Any chance for a hack??

[SirPoonga]

The gun is hardwired into the box?

Hmm, that does pose a problem.  Otherwise I;d just say mount it om the side of you cabinet or something.

[u_rebelscum]

what would would be any way to get a second gun to work... Even if it's just a way to hack it with a special version of mame (analog mame) and windows 98.... which currently works, but the guns, when trigger pressed at the same time, will produce two shots from one player.  (I'm assuming this is because they both store the screen location for the shot in the same memory location).  

Been seeing this assumption a couple times.  It's sort of right.  I tried quickly explaining this once deep in a thread IIRC; let me try a more in depth explaination.

Mame's lightgun input screen location reads are through win32 api.  Win32 api only has one mouse (the system mouse), so there is only one screen location at a given instant.  All mice, trackballs, and lightguns change this data.  This is a windows "feature".  This is why mame/analog+ shoot at one screen location when two lightguns' triggers are pulled at the same time.

Mame's other mouse input reads are from directX directInput api.  This has mouse info for the system mouse and each usb mouse in winMe/9x.  These reads are of the mouse and lightgun buttons, and the mouse (but not lightgun) movements.  This is how analog+ can have two usb trackballs at the same time, and how the lightgun triggers register separately.

So it's not the lightgun drivers storing the screen location in the same memory spot, mame is reading from win32 api's one system mouse location.  

FWIW: Mame is using win32 api as a hack to read lightgun locations because directInput gives different screen location (absolute mouse location) info depending on with version of windows is used (some versions get only "garbage" according to source code comments).
If I could somehow get the lightgun data through directInput instead of win32 api, you could use two lightguns just like trackballs (ie: same winMe/9x limit).  WIP