New Product: RGB-Drive

[RandyT]

Available Now....

Another GroovyGameGear innovation!

The RGB-Drive

[quarterback]

Randy make kool stuf!

[Comp1demon]

Please Post more pics?  WIll this work with the LED WIZ I just bought?

Thanks,
C1D

[RandyT]

WIll this work with the LED WIZ I just bought?

Absolutely


RandyT

[Todesengel]

Can you please show us how it mounts up?

[Tiger-Heli]

Can you please show us how it mounts up?

Yes, that's what I wanted to see too!!!

Awesome Randy - Between this, the LED-Wiz, and the Electric Ice Pushbuttons, you've got a one-stop shop for lighted cab hardware!!!

Thanks for all the hard work and innovation!!!

[zaphod]

Great work, Randy.  Hopefully I will get some time down the road to update my controller with some of these nice products you have been churning out.   

[Deefish]

Uuuggggg! Damnit Randy, why didnt you have this when I ordered my Blue Ice buttons last week!! Stop coming out with all this cool easy to use bling bling for cabinets!!

You are the devil!

deefish

[nostrebor]

You are the devil!

deefish

LOL!

I keep thinking that Randy will stop with the new goodies, then I can order some stuff. So far he hasn't stopped.

[pointdablame]

wow.... Randy....wow.

You are coming out with a TON of awesome stuff lately.  Thanks for all your efforts.

[Major Rock Hardy]

Randy-

have you thought about doing Electric ICE leafswitch buttons?

you got PM

Rock

[BASSOFeeSH]

How useful would this be with Happ Competition pushbuttons?

[pointdablame]

How useful would this be with Happ Competition pushbuttons?

You could drill a hole in the Competition buttons and they would illuminate slightly, but you wouldn't get any color out of it other than the color of the button itself. (or maybe a very slight variation such as a blue LED in a white button may looks slightly blue)

Really though.. they won't be much use.  You want to use this with Randy's Electric ICE buttons or the Happ Translucents.

[brian23]

Does it come with thorough instructions?

[SirPoonga]

You are coming out with a TON of awesome stuff lately.  Thanks for all your efforts.

Heh, this is why I haven't bought my ledwiz yet.  Been waiting to see what else he comes out with.
It's like as soon as I am ready to order a new product comes out that I will have to consider.

[pointdablame]

You are coming out with a TON of awesome stuff lately.  Thanks for all your efforts.

Heh, this is why I haven't bought my ledwiz yet.  Been waiting to see what else he comes out with.
It's like as soon as I am ready to order a new product comes out that I will have to consider.

yeah me too.  Well that and the fact that I just dropped $500 on books for this semester 

I already want a OptiWiz, and at least a few buttons to compare to the translucents.... and I'll have to get a LED Wiz eventually....

Randy.. can I just forward my next paycheck to you? 

[ChadTower]

The more things like this come out, the more tempted I am to update my original cabs with them... a Space Duel with lit buttons would rock.

[SirPoonga]

That's why I say a cabinet is never done. New products will always come out.

[Timoe]

I would also like to see pics of the Led mounted to the Button with the Wiring Harness.

And maybe a little demo video?

And then I'm going to need one of each of these new items including the Optiwiz

ooh, what about an OptiKeyWiz combo so it could all be connected with a single USB cable?

Keep it up Randy.

[Comp1demon]

I hear that... I need to see how all this works since I userstand what it does but am too much of a newb to figure out how it works and want to buy it.

Please give us the LED for Dummies tour.

Thanks,
C1D

[RandyT]

Here's a pic that should give an idea as to where this is installed:

Can't get much cleaner than that


If you want to see a simple video of the unit cycling through Red Green and Blue in an Electric ICE

[F1r3f1ght3r]

Brilliant!

[Timoe]

I'm at about $108 right now.  I think I'll save my allowance and wait til the optiwiz is out of beta to bring it closer to the $200 range. 

At this point I'm almost hoping GGG doesn't come out with more gear.

[Tiger-Heli]

Sweet!!!!! - Too bad I'm not independently wealthy . . .

[Grasshopper]

Very cool.

Is it possible with those RGB LEDs to activate more than one colour at the same time? For example if you switched on red and green would the button light up yellow?

[MYX]

Symmetry in video. Zoomed in blurry with slow motion pull out slow turn slow motion push in to blurry zoom.
Good products and academy award winning movies. What a guy.   

Randy,
this would mean that wach light would eat up 3 channels of the LED wiz, yes?

[Tiger-Heli]

Very cool.

Is it possible with those RGB LEDs to activate more than one colour at the same time? For example if you switched on red and green would the button light up yellow?

Yes, well not more than one color at the same time, but I think RandyT at one time said there were like 50,000 shades by varying the RGB intensity.

[RandyT]

Very cool.

Is it possible with those RGB LEDs to activate more than one colour at the same time? For example if you switched on red and green would the button light up yellow?

Yes, well not more than one color at the same time, but I think RandyT at one time said there were like 50,000 shades by varying the RGB intensity.

Actually, with 48 intensity levels, the number is something like 48^3, which is 110,592.  Of course, LED brightness isn't linear and one probably can't perceive the differences in a number of them, but that's the theoretical number.

All I know is that if you want a reddish-orange or a teal or a lime-green button, you can do it.

Symmetry in video. Zoomed in blurry with slow motion pull out slow turn slow motion push in to blurry zoom.
Good products and academy award winning movies. What a guy.   

You liked that, huh?   

this would mean that each light would eat up 3 channels of the LED wiz, yes?

Correct.  However, with careful planning you can do the color changing on the important ones.  I would say that would be the first four of each player should be unique and that would use 24 inputs.  The remaining buttons could be a fixed color and shared, so that would take another 3 or so for 27 inputs.  5 left, so one for each player start, and you could share the remaining 3 for the Joystick directionals or dedicate them to a knocker or other devices.

At least that's what I'll be doing (if I can ever find the time)

RandyT

*edit*

Forgot to mention....if you don't need all three colors, you don't have to connect them.  Suppose you wanted a particular button to be any shade achievable with only the Red and Blue colors.  This would get you the two primaries and about 2000 shades of red purple and blue.

[Grasshopper]

So just to clarify, the intensity of each of the three primary colours can be changed independently of each other?

If you mix primary colours (assuming it's possible) does the LED become brighter than when only a single primary colour is lit?

Also, can you confirm that a convincing yellow can be produced by the LED? The reason I ask is because yellow is a colour used by several types of console controller for labelling buttons.

Thanks in advance.

[RandyT]

So just to clarify, the intensity of each of the three primary colours can be changed independently of each other?

Yes.

If you mix primary colours (assuming it's possible) does the LED become brighter than when only a single primary colour is lit?

Yes.  All three colors full on are the brightest, and comes out as a tinted white.  You will need to experiment to find the shade you like.

Also, can you confirm that a convincing yellow can be produced by the LED? The reason I ask is because yellow is a colour used by several types of console controller for labelling buttons.

I can easily set up a color that is unmistakable as a nice, warm yellow.

I'd post a picture, but the camera is not doing the color justice.

RandyT

[RobotronNut]

How does it look with Happ translucents? I'd love to see a short video or even still images.

[southpaw13]

Ok, back to a simple question...  If I buy one of these with the LED and ribbon cable attached, how do I get it to work like the video?

Thanks...

[Tiger-Heli]

Ok, back to a simple question...  If I buy one of these with the LED and ribbon cable attached, how do I get it to work like the video?

Thanks...

Buy the LED-WIZ and Electric-Ice button along with it . . . Figure out how to program it.

[southpaw13]

I was hoping that it was sort of like the joystick, just give it power and watch it color change...

[pointdablame]

I was hoping that it was sort of like the joystick, just give it power and watch it color change...

Nope, you'll have to tell the LED what color to change to, at least as far as I can tell.  You can probably get them to light without anything though, but it'd likely be lit at full intensity.

[Todesengel]

Is it possible to make a smoother transition between the colors? Like a fade in and fade out kinda way? Instead of instantanous change?

[MYX]

Randy,
What is the mcd of the LED?

What does the other end of the ribbon look like? Is it just an end of a cable that we need to strip and connect  to the LW or is it terminated to pins or something?


Gha, this brings up all sorts of ideas. If MikeQ is on I have some questions.
You could actually have your fire button be red, and smart bombs be green and and and...

This does raise the questions about a higher channel LEDWiz? Sorry Randy, still wont let ya sleep.
Most folks are having 6 and 7 buttons per player (on 2 player CPs) This would mean 18 or 21 channles per player meaning 36 or 42 channles total. Then there is the player 1 and 2 buttons.

CRAP! it is going to be wiring trama. Post  Tramatic Stress Disorder from the LEDs alone. They will come with white jackets on and make me point at the doll or something.   

[MYX]

Is it possible to make a smoother transition between the colors? Like a fade in and fade out kinda way? Instead of instantanous change?

You should be able to set the LED you want to one of the pulse modes with a long hold time.  This is an automatic raising and lowering feature. This should allow smoother changes.

Can anyone vouch for this?

[edge]

This does raise the questions about a higher channel LEDWiz? Sorry Randy, still wont let ya sleep.
Most folks are having 6 and 7 buttons per player (on 2 player CPs) This would mean 18 or 21 channles per player meaning 36 or 42 channles total. Then there is the player 1 and 2 buttons.

Randy,
Great product!  brings up soooooo many options.

Question for you:  I have a 2 player, 6 button layout, with P1/P2 starts/coins, joystick directionals, etc.  I would like to individually identify ALL the buttons on my CP.  So if I end up with 25 buttons in total (for example), that would require 100 LEDWiz inputs (for full RB control), right?

In the original LEDWiz thread, you mentioned that it might be possible to have multiple LEDWiz's on on PC, all with different device IDs (as you do with GPWiz).  Then split up the lighting controls, with 1 LEDWiz per player, then 1 for misc stuff?

Or would a monster LEDWiz (with 100 inputs) be the way to go?

MikeQ,
Would having multiple LEDWiz greatly increase the complexity of your DLL?

thanks.

[RandyT]

Question for you:  I have a 2 player, 6 button layout, with P1/P2 starts/coins, joystick directionals, etc.  I would like to individually identify ALL the buttons on my CP.  So if I end up with 25 buttons in total (for example), that would require 100 LEDWiz inputs (for full RB control), right?

That would require a lot.  Probably not 100, but at least 85.  The real question is whether or not you would find it necessary have full color control on all buttons.  Of course, if one wanted that, then one wants what one wants .

In the original LEDWiz thread, you mentioned that it might be possible to have multiple LEDWiz's on on PC, all with different device IDs (as you do with GPWiz).  Then split up the lighting controls, with 1 LEDWiz per player, then 1 for misc stuff?

This could certainly be done.  I will start looking at what this would entail very shortly.  In theory, it's just a matter of giving each LED-Wiz it's own ID number, assigning a handle to each one and adding commands to to talk to them.  Reality, on the other hand, might have something else in store.

MikeQ has really gone to the mat for the LED-Wiz though, even making it hot-pluggable!  Maybe if he gets bored someone will be able to convince him to expand his excellent DLL for multiple units.   But I'll give the OCX a crack as well.

RandyT

[mahuti]

Got mine yesterday and installed them into the Electric-Ice pushbuttons and Led-wiz last night. First impressions;

The leds are very bright.
They can indeed produce a very wide range of colors, excellent red, yellow, orange, blue, purple. The greens are very good as well, but definitely the weakest compared to the other colors achievable with this setup. The nice thing is that with the RGBs, you can get very specific on yoru colors... do you want a WARM green, or a COOL one? Greenish yellow, or reddish yellow? You can even get a pretty convincing white.

One thing I did notice... when I was programming up some lighting sequences, and going for some custom colors, I noticed that the colors were visually different on different buttons, even though the values were the same. I guess I'd just have to chalk it up to slight differences in the leds themselves. Really though, I was trying to make white, and it's VERY obvious when you mixed the colors wrong with white. With most anything else, it wouldn't be noticeable.

Also noticed some vagaries with the Led-wiz software itself... but it's beta... better than I expected really.

All in all, a very successful installation. they lit up on the first try!! (too bad I somehow managed to turn off my trackball & spinner during the process :/ )

One nice thing of note, the 5volt wires were indicated with a bit of color at the end. After I cut them down, though, that coloring was lost. It's not hard to figure  out which is which later if you don't keep track while cutting it.

[MYX]

Sorry, Randy when you get a minute.

Randy,
What is the mcd of the LED?

What does the other end of the ribbon look like? Is it just an end of a cable that we need to strip and connect  to the LW or is it terminated to pins or something?

Are the r g & b components the same mcd?

The reason why I ask this is that I will probably go with color with the top 3 buttons on each side and the lower button on my CP so I can mimic asteroids and defender stuff. most of the pre 90's games only used a couple of buttons so I will aim mostly towards them and just put blue in the rest. I want to batch the blue light level with the blue in the RGB Drive. I guess I could just resister them to match or have the LW controll the brightness. I am glad that this stuff came out before I bought everything. This has caused considerable rethinking.

[MikeQ]

Question for you:  I have a 2 player, 6 button layout, with P1/P2 starts/coins, joystick directionals, etc.  I would like to individually identify ALL the buttons on my CP.  So if I end up with 25 buttons in total (for example), that would require 100 LEDWiz inputs (for full RB control), right?

That would require a lot.  Probably not 100, but at least 85.  The real question is whether or not you would find it necessary have full color control on all buttons.  Of course, if one wanted that, then one wants what one wants .

In the original LEDWiz thread, you mentioned that it might be possible to have multiple LEDWiz's on on PC, all with different device IDs (as you do with GPWiz).  Then split up the lighting controls, with 1 LEDWiz per player, then 1 for misc stuff?

This could certainly be done.  I will start looking at what this would entail very shortly.  In theory, it's just a matter of giving each LED-Wiz it's own ID number, assigning a handle to each one and adding commands to to talk to them.  Reality, on the other hand, might have something else in store.

MikeQ has really gone to the mat for the LED-Wiz though, even making it hot-pluggable!  Maybe if he gets bored someone will be able to convince him to expand his excellent DLL for multiple units.   But I'll give the OCX a crack as well.

RandyT

Trying to catch up on these threads. 

It should be relatively easy to support for multiple LEDWiz.   One small problem (not a big deal) is that the DLL interface will change.  Anyone who has written software to use the old DLL will have to change their code for the new DLL or just keep using the old one.  I plan to make some changes anyway to support multiple processes, threads, programs being able to all talk to the LEDWiz at the same time.  When I make these changes, I can add support for extra devices.  Any idea what timeframe your looking at for this Randy?  Looks like I'll need another LEDwiz after all.


With a custom kernel driver, I bet you could use the LEDWiz as is without having a different product ID.

[gduprey]

Howdy,

For those interested, also check out the www.rgbled.org site

It's a RGBLED controller project.  There are currently two different boards -- a 13 RGBLED board and a 3 RGBLED board.  The boards can each have their own unique IDs so they can all be daisy chained together allowing over 2,000 RGBLEDs to be controlled (or 6,000 regular LEDs).

In addition to setting each LED to one of 16.7 million possible colors, you can tell it to do "animations" -- that is color transitions of your choice.  That could be a slow pulsing of a color, or a slow wash between two, three or more different colors (or fast wash or "absolute" steps instead of washes).  Timing of the color effects can be set from 1/.100 of a second to 254 seconds in 1/100 increments (each LED can have it's own animations and time bases).  You can pre-program the controller and store the settings in it so it'll light up with the colors/animations you choose at power up.  You can also control it real time via serial or USB (via a USB to serial converter).  You only need one serial port/USB adapter to control up to 254 boards.

This is an "open source" project -- all the source code for the firmware and PC board CAD files are available for download.  Prototype houses will be able to create the boards for you (for the small RGBLED controller, you can wire it up with radio shack parts (except the PIC chip -- get that online almost anywhere).  Once I'm finished with a few things, I will be making the boards available for folks who don't want to fabricate them (bare, with a pre-programmed PIC chip or fully built).  That announcement will probably come in about 2-3 weeks.

The larger board even has automatic current limiting onboard, so you don't have to fuss with calculating LED resistor values -- it will auto-adjust to insure each LED is getting it's full current (for super high power LEDs, you can gang outputs together, allowing a board to drive from 10ma per color to 260ma per color).  There is also a power driver board design to allow driving lots of  LEDs or high power LEDs easily.

In terms of control software, it's very, very easy to control and refitting it into a front end would be pretty easy.  For example, sending a command like #000200FF00FF would change LED #0 on board #0 to magenta (1st two bytes are the board ID #0 (could also be FF to address all boards), next two the command 02 - set color), next are the LED #0 (FF again being a broadcast for all LEDs) and the rest is the RGB code for magenta (FF00FF or R=255,G=0,B=255).  Follow it with a CR (carriage return) and that's it.

I'm writing my own MAME front end right now that "knows" what buttons are needed for each game and lights only the
right ones (with their "original" colors) for each game.  It's pretty specific to my use, but I'll eventually release it in case anyone wants it.

FYI

Gerry

[mahuti]

annnnnndddd..... back to the thread.

Make a new topic next time :p

[gduprey]

annnnnndddd..... back to the thread.

Make a new topic next time :p

Not sure if that was directed at my post -- my apologies -- I thought it was reasonably relavant to the thread.

Gerry

[BASSOFeeSH]

Off-topic, but didn't you write DVArchive?  Probably the only reason I still have my 4040 ReplayTV!

[RayB]

So, umm, how dark must the room be in order for these lit buttons to be considered "practical"?

[RandyT]

So, umm, how dark must the room be in order for these lit buttons to be considered "practical"?

"Not"


RandyT

[mahuti]

In a normally lit room, they're still brightly colored.

[gduprey]

Off-topic, but didn't you write DVArchive?  Probably the only reason I still have my 4040 ReplayTV!

Yep -- that's me :-)

Gerry

[mahuti]

GDuprey... you've got some pretty important info there.

You should post it in the main forum... that's all I'm sayin. It's relevant to LEDs, but disparate enough that it could use its own topic. Didn't mean to harsh your mellow.

[gduprey]

OK -- sorry for the mis-post.  When the website and materials are ready, I'll post a new thread.

Thanks,

Gerry

[KillerArcades]

multiple LED.WIZ's would be the way to go for me as well, I need about 40 RGB buttons controlled, so, that's around 120 outputs, right?

RandyT, yuDAman! you can do it!! I know you can!

[KillerArcades]

Hey, this isn't the first thread where i've found someone mentioning HAPP translucent buttons... I've never seen them on their site, so do these really exist...? Or am I just blind?

[RandyT]

Hey, this isn't the first thread where i've found someone mentioning HAPP translucent buttons... I've never seen them on their site, so do these really exist...? Or am I just blind?

Happ will special order them from IL if you buy a quantity.  I don't know if they are actually carrying stock at this point.

The clear ones would probably work with the RGB-Drive

[quarterback]

Hey, this isn't the first thread where i've found someone mentioning HAPP translucent buttons... I've never seen them on their site, so do these really exist...? Or am I just blind?

Shawnzilla's site:
http://www.fxbuttons.com/

Or PM ponyboy.  He was carrying them at some point.

[gduprey]

The only thing on the FXButtons (I have some of the clear ones) is while I like them, they are almost too translucent -- bordering on transparent.  As a result, if you put an LED in the bottom of them, the button gets some of the light, but most of it goes right through the top.  This sounds OK, but the result is the button looks, well, clear, as opposed to whatever color you are shooting for.  I'm trying some of the Electric ICE buttons because I think the "milky" plastic will "light up" with the chosen color more completely.

Gerry

[KillerArcades]

The only thing on the FXButtons (I have some of the clear ones) is while I like them, they are almost too translucent ...

Yeah, if the LED is shooting straight up, I could see, that. However, if you look at Knievel's Neon mame, he's using some clear WICO's and they look great (at least in his blue) and I think it's because he focusing the color perpendicularly or IOW, straight into the plastic sides of the buttons, and not just straight up (you could lose a retina if you did that on some clear buttons, I reckon' ).

I've ordered some clear ones and will test them out with various setups and colors and post the results, because this is one of the big decisions I'm still trying to make. The Electric ice buttons seem to spread the color excellently (though the plunger tops get a bit more "bright/white"), but the FX 'clear' buttons have a much more "gem/glassy" feel to them that I prefer, but as mentioned, I need to see how the color mixing works with RGB LED's.

I'll post my results here once I get the lights.

[Grasshopper]

The only thing on the FXButtons (I have some of the clear ones) is while I like them, they are almost too translucent -- bordering on transparent.  As a result, if you put an LED in the bottom of them, the button gets some of the light, but most of it goes right through the top.  This sounds OK, but the result is the button looks, well, clear, as opposed to whatever color you are shooting for.  I'm trying some of the Electric ICE buttons because I think the "milky" plastic will "light up" with the chosen color more completely.

Gerry

That's a pity. The FXButtons seem more retro to me.

I'm wondering whether they would work better if they were wrapped in metal foil before being screwed into the wood.

[SirPoonga]

I have two fxbuttons.  They look like happ concave buttons, just translucent.  I can't use them for the purpose I was going to use them for.  I will need to buy happ ones.  otherwise I like them.

[RobotronNut]

... the FX 'clear' buttons have a much more "gem/glassy" feel to them that I prefer, but as mentioned, I need to see how the color mixing works with RGB LED's.

i also prefer the "gem/glassy" look. my panel will spend a lot of time powered off, and i think the milky white look of the electric ice buttons is pretty drab when they're not powered on.

my preference would be transparent buttons in various colors, each with a white LED behind them. each button could only ever be one color, but intensity could be varied). to my eyes, they colored translucent buttons look very cool even with no light behind them.

[RandyT]

i also prefer the "gem/glassy" look. my panel will spend a lot of time powered off, and i think the milky white look of the electric ice buttons is pretty drab when they're not powered on.

I'm not sure where you guys got the idea that the Electric ICE

[mahuti]

Yeah, speaking of  which....

I used to just shut off the monitor & lights and junk and the cab would look dead (even with the PC still on)

Now my buttons are still going like mad even when the rest of the cab is dead.

Gonna have to do something about that.

[RobotronNut]

I'm not sure where you guys got the idea that the Electric ICE

[rugby1]

What does the other end of the ribbon look like? Is it just an end of a cable that we need to strip and connect  to the LW or is it terminated to pins or something?

I'm curious too.... Could we get a picture please?  I really just want my buttons to light up blue, don't need them to blink or anything fancy....   I don't know if these would be easier than to hook up or if it is easier to just wire up some plain LED's in parallel

[RandyT]

What does the other end of the ribbon look like? Is it just an end of a cable that we need to strip and connect  to the LW or is it terminated to pins or something?

I'm curious too.... Could we get a picture please?  I really just want my buttons to light up blue, don't need them to blink or anything fancy....   I don't know if these would be easier than to hook up or if it is easier to just wire up some plain LED's in parallel

The other end of the wire has the 5v line marked, but must be separated and stripped for connecting to whatever you want to connect it to.

For a single color, you could probably do as well just by soldering a resistor in-line and using heatshrink.

RandyT

[rugby1]

Thanks RandyT.... I'm gonna go with just wiring up plain LED's with proper resistor for now... maybe in the future order the LED Wiz and Lighting modules and make my buttons "fancy"

[MYX]

Hey Randy, sorry, again more questions. On the RGB Drive boards, is it just a surface trace at the solder points or is it a true barrel that runs through the board?

[RandyT]

Hey Randy, sorry, again more questions. On the RGB Drive boards, is it just a surface trace at the solder points or is it a true barrel that runs through the board?

Double sided boards with plated through holes.

RandyT

[Tiger-Heli]

Yeah, if the LED is shooting straight up, I could see, that. However, if you look at Knievel's Neon mame, he's using some clear WICO's and they look great (at least in his blue) and I think it's because he focusing the color perpendicularly or IOW, straight into the plastic sides of the buttons, and not just straight up (you could lose a retina if you did that on some clear buttons, I reckon' ).

Neon MAME is using Blue (not clear) translucent leaf switches. . .

[whatzcrackn]

what about dream arcade buttons?

[Hoopz]

Dream Aracde buttons are convex.  Randy's buttons are concave.

[whatzcrackn]

oh

[arzoo]

Has anybody tried these; http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/illuminatedbuttons.htm?

[quarterback]

Has anybody tried these; http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/illuminatedbuttons.htm?

Those are the same as the shawnzilla/fxbuttons.com/ponyboy/Happs/IL translucent pushbuttons.  A search for the word "translucent" and the author shawnzilla will provide hours of reading enjoyment.   

[pointdablame]

Has anybody tried these; http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/illuminatedbuttons.htm?

They look identical to the buttons that PonyBoy/Happ/Shawnzilla carry.  He's probably just a reseller.

[arzoo]

Those are the same as the shawnzilla/fxbuttons.com/ponyboy/Happs/IL translucent pushbuttons.  A search for the word "translucent" and the author shawnzilla will provide hours of reading enjoyment.   

Tell me about it! I want to light up the buttons on my panel and I'm trying to see what all the options are. I've been reading through the threads, but as you say, there tons of info out there!

[mahuti]

The RGB-Drive, Electric-Ice, Led-Wiz is probably the most expensive solution (initially and from a cash perspective) But you can have them installed and running all kinds of fancy stuff in minutes. If your time is worth nothing... go with one of the other solutions. I can tell you that the GGG led stuff is fantastic. Well worth the price, (imho).

[shawnzilla]

Has anybody tried these; http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/illuminatedbuttons.htm?

They look identical to the buttons that PonyBoy/Happ/Shawnzilla carry.  He's probably just a reseller.

Gremlinsolutions handles all of the UK button orders for me.

[shawnzilla]

Yep, between RandyT, Myself, Ponyboy, Bob Roberts (Translucent Leaf Switch Buttons), etc... There's a good variety of buttons to light up now.

I must give props to RandyT, talk about a plug-and-play solution! 

[mahuti]

just to clarify, no disrespect to the other button guys. I like the variety... and I do like the idea of havign colred buttons even when the lights are off.

[arzoo]

The RGB-Drive, Electric-Ice, Led-Wiz is probably the most expensive solution (initially and from a cash perspective) But you can have them installed and running all kinds of fancy stuff in minutes. If your time is worth nothing... go with one of the other solutions. I can tell you that the GGG led stuff is fantastic. Well worth the price, (imho).

I'm willing to spend the $$ on the Electric-Ice with the RGB-Drive, but here's my concern; even if I only want to light the buttons one color, I still need to use 3 inputs per button which limits the number of buttons I can uniquely control with the LEDWiz. Ideally I'd like to uniquely control 16 buttons with two colors (say red and blue). I don't think a single LEDWiz can handle that. Or am I missing something?

[RandyT]

I'm willing to spend the $$ on the Electric-Ice with the RGB-Drive, but here's my concern; even if I only want to light the buttons one color, I still need to use 3 inputs per button which limits the number of buttons I can uniquely control with the LEDWiz. Ideally I'd like to uniquely control 16 buttons with two colors (say red and blue). I don't think a single LEDWiz can handle that. Or am I missing something?

Actually, you can do exactly that.  16x2 equals 32, which just happens to be the number of outputs on the LED-Wiz.

And you won't just have 2 colors.  Theoretically, it'll be more like 2304 colors (limited by the 2 colors you select.)

MikeQ already has a DLL for up to 16 LED-Wiz's. A simple app using this DLL affords possibilities of up to 170 individually controlled RGB LEDs, but that's a lot of wires and LED-Wiz's!

RandyT

[mahuti]

if you wanted, you could use one wire per rgb-drive.... for 32 separate leds. If you only used 1 of the wires per rgb-drive, you'd only have a choice of intensity variations of red, blue, green... if you wire up 2 of the wires, then you have choices of variations of red-blue, blue-green, red-green, on a given button.

[Toonces]

The RGB-Drive, Electric-Ice, Led-Wiz is probably the most expensive solution (initially and from a cash perspective) But you can have them installed and running all kinds of fancy stuff in minutes. If your time is worth nothing... go with one of the other solutions. I can tell you that the GGG led stuff is fantastic. Well worth the price, (imho).

I think the nicest thing is that it doesn't have to be the most expensive solution though. While the ready to plug and play solution (just from the button/led/wiring side) is $6.49 per button you can definately benefit from buying the bare board and button and doing some of the work and still end up with a much easier and clean install. I have some of the translucent buttons and used some for a QIX Mini that has the marquee below the control panel so the florescent light illuminates them and they look great. I wasn't really satisfied with my efforts to use LEDs with them though (I don't have the patience to locate and drill rings to hold the LEDs). The LEDs lit the ceiling better than the rest of the button when used from the bottom.

Anyways, with the Electric Ice buttons being about the same price as the Translucent $2.99 w/cherry vs. $2.74 (from ponyboy) and getting the bare RGB-Drive board for another $1.29 you can cut the cost and the RGB-Drive board is easier to solder and wire than directly on the LED leads. Not that it's difficult to solder the LED leads as much as it's time consuming.  Then there's the cost of the LEDs and resistors. Randy's price on those is good, especially considering his price includes labor to solder it all together for you but if you are really trying to cut costs while still maintaining the benefits of the RGB-Drive's simplified and cleaner wiring then here's where you can save some $$. I got 20 RGB LEDs (4 lead, common anode) from an eBay seller for $8 shipped. The Resistors were $1.49 from another eBay seller for 100 100/150 ohm 1/4w, 1% metal film (50 of each). I also chose to not get the cherry switches from Randy only because I have a bunch lying around (not to mention the buttons on my cab were fairly new) so that lowered my cost to $2.25 per button for a total cash outlay of $4.21 per button if I were to discard the left over LEDs and resistors ( divided the total cost by 14, the total number of buttons my cab has). I'll have 6 leftover LEDs to figure out where to put them in the cab or other project and a bunch of resistors too.  Overall this is a nice savings of $2.28 per button over the plug and play. It's great that Randy offers that option. He could have just as easily made it all up or nothing.

You get all the benefits of using the RGB-Drive (neat wiring, less time soldering) and at a cost at around the same price as rolling your own and you don't have to try to find the material for making a ring to hold the LED and the time involved in that.

BTW, if you want a good price on LEDs, email mckenkenken@gmail.com directly. Tell him what you want and you'll get a better price than he offers on eBay (mckenkenken). He also sells resistors and precut heatshrink too although I didn't buy them from him (don't need em!). For those in the US, he ships from the US so the wait time isn't weeks.

Of course you could use the RGB-Drive with the translucent buttons as well but it won't be much different in lighting as an led stuffed inside the button. You do get pretty colors on the ceiling though!

Just my .02,

Toonces

[Toonces]

The RGB-Drive, Electric-Ice, Led-Wiz is probably the most expensive solution (initially and from a cash perspective) But you can have them installed and running all kinds of fancy stuff in minutes. If your time is worth nothing... go with one of the other solutions. I can tell you that the GGG led stuff is fantastic. Well worth the price, (imho).

I'm willing to spend the $$ on the Electric-Ice with the RGB-Drive, but here's my concern; even if I only want to light the buttons one color, I still need to use 3 inputs per button which limits the number of buttons I can uniquely control with the LEDWiz. Ideally I'd like to uniquely control 16 buttons with two colors (say red and blue). I don't think a single LEDWiz can handle that. Or am I missing something?

You don't have to wire up all 3 inputs. You can wire 1, 2 or all 3. An RGB LED is essentially 3 LEDs in a single package. Just wire up the colors you want to use i.e. Red and Blue. Leave the 3rd input unwired and just run the ones you wired to the LEDWiz. 32 inputs is enough for 16 buttons with 2 colors all individually controlled.

Toonces

[arzoo]

Everyone, thanks for the info and clarification on how the RGB LEDs work. I'm convinced that the ICE w/RGB-Drive is the way to go. I gotta say, I've been a member of many on-line forum/communities and this is by far the most easy-going and information ready of them all!

[chris_lemasters]

Anyone have any experience yet with the RGB-Drive and the FXButtons buttons? 

Chris

[method]

The RGB-Drive, Electric-Ice, Led-Wiz is probably the most expensive solution (initially and from a cash perspective) But you can have them installed and running all kinds of fancy stuff in minutes. If your time is worth nothing... go with one of the other solutions. I can tell you that the GGG led stuff is fantastic. Well worth the price, (imho).

Yeah i was looking to pick up a set of this equipment and yeh it is pretty expensive, can anyone point me to some other possible products that'll do the same job. (Just standard LED lighting, nothin fancy).

[freddykreuger666]

call be an idiot , but im lost.
wot i want - 16 buttons to be lit
1) do i have to have the colours to "change" or cant u just have a consistent colour that slowly pulses or just stays the same colour. cos the quick flickering of them will get annoying, a slow pulse / constant + easily changeable colour would be good
2) to change the colours what would u need to do (software/hardware)? e.g go on ur computer and mess around with em?
3) what would i need to buy to get them to work
4) how much would it cost + ship to the uk?

thanks
hopefully shud buy some soon for my upcoming cab

[Kremmit]

call be an idiot , but im lost.

Hey, Be- you're an idiot.

1) wot u wan 2 du iz ez
2) u would need an LED-Wiz and u would go on ur computer and mess with em.
3) u would need an LED-Wiz and 16 of the RGB-Drive units this thread is discussing.
4) du ur own shopping, dood.

[Zakk]

Dammit, I lost the link for the AOL translator, and can't figure out what's being asked here.