Author Topic: New Product: RGB-Drive (Read 34449 times)

mahuti · « **Reply #40 on:** January 24, 2006, 07:24:43 am »

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 · « **Reply #41 on:** January 24, 2006, 08:36:14 am »

Sorry, Randy when you get a minute.

Quote from: MYX on January 21, 2006, 10:13:18 pm

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 · « **Reply #42 on:** January 24, 2006, 09:17:10 am »

Quote from: RandyT on January 23, 2006, 11:28:37 pm

Quote from: edge on January 22, 2006, 11:10:33 am
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 .

Quote
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 · « **Reply #43 on:** January 24, 2006, 11:39:27 am »

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 · « **Reply #44 on:** January 24, 2006, 11:43:25 am »

annnnnndddd..... back to the thread.

Make a new topic next time :p

gduprey · « **Reply #45 on:** January 24, 2006, 11:45:42 am »

Quote from: mahuti on January 24, 2006, 11:43:25 am

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 · « **Reply #46 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:06:40 pm »

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

RayB · « **Reply #47 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:12:36 pm »

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

RandyT · « **Reply #48 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:24:10 pm »

Quote from: RayB on January 24, 2006, 01:12:36 pm

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

"Not"

RandyT

mahuti · « **Reply #49 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:31:21 pm »

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

gduprey · « **Reply #50 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:35:46 pm »

Quote from: BASSOFeeSH on January 24, 2006, 01:06:40 pm

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

Yep -- that's me :-)

Gerry

mahuti · « **Reply #51 on:** January 24, 2006, 01:43:05 pm »

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 · « **Reply #52 on:** January 24, 2006, 02:13:26 pm »

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

Thanks,

Gerry

KillerArcades · « **Reply #53 on:** January 24, 2006, 02:14:49 pm »

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 · « **Reply #54 on:** January 24, 2006, 02:16:28 pm »

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 · « **Reply #55 on:** January 24, 2006, 02:23:12 pm »

Quote from: SKondris on January 24, 2006, 02:16:28 pm

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 · « **Reply #56 on:** January 24, 2006, 02:39:59 pm »

Quote from: SKondris on January 24, 2006, 02:16:28 pm

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 · « **Reply #57 on:** January 24, 2006, 03:20:15 pm »

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 · « **Reply #58 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:03:30 am »

Quote from: gduprey on January 24, 2006, 03:20:15 pm

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 · « **Reply #59 on:** January 25, 2006, 04:29:27 pm »

Quote from: gduprey on January 24, 2006, 03:20:15 pm

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 · « **Reply #60 on:** January 25, 2006, 05:47:01 pm »

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 · « **Reply #61 on:** January 25, 2006, 06:35:05 pm »

Quote from: SKondris on January 25, 2006, 10:03:30 am

... 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 · « **Reply #62 on:** January 25, 2006, 07:21:21 pm »

Quote from: RobotronNut on January 25, 2006, 06:35:05 pm

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 · « **Reply #63 on:** January 25, 2006, 08:06:04 pm »

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 · « **Reply #64 on:** January 25, 2006, 09:32:35 pm »

Quote from: RandyT on January 25, 2006, 07:21:21 pm

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

rugby1 · « **Reply #65 on:** January 28, 2006, 12:28:34 am »

Quote from: MYX on January 21, 2006, 10:13:18 pm

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 · « **Reply #66 on:** January 28, 2006, 12:47:07 am »

Quote from: rugby1 on January 28, 2006, 12:28:34 am

Quote from: MYX on January 21, 2006, 10:13:18 pm
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 · « **Reply #67 on:** January 28, 2006, 12:51:00 am »

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 · « **Reply #68 on:** January 28, 2006, 01:41:02 am »

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 · « **Reply #69 on:** January 28, 2006, 02:02:13 am »

Quote from: MYX on January 28, 2006, 01:41:02 am

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 · « **Reply #70 on:** February 06, 2006, 11:04:01 am »

Quote from: SKondris on January 25, 2006, 10:03:30 am

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 · « **Reply #71 on:** February 06, 2006, 12:50:22 pm »

what about dream arcade buttons?

Hoopz · « **Reply #72 on:** February 06, 2006, 01:02:51 pm »

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

whatzcrackn · « **Reply #73 on:** February 06, 2006, 01:12:18 pm »

arzoo · « **Reply #74 on:** February 07, 2006, 03:55:48 pm »

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

quarterback · « **Reply #75 on:** February 07, 2006, 04:08:46 pm »

Quote from: arzoo on February 07, 2006, 03:55:48 pm

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 · « **Reply #76 on:** February 07, 2006, 04:09:21 pm »

Quote from: arzoo on February 07, 2006, 03:55:48 pm

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 · « **Reply #77 on:** February 07, 2006, 05:09:59 pm »

Quote from: quarterback on February 07, 2006, 04:08:46 pm

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 · « **Reply #78 on:** February 07, 2006, 05:14:39 pm »

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 · « **Reply #79 on:** February 07, 2006, 06:04:41 pm »

Quote from: pointdablame on February 07, 2006, 04:09:21 pm

Quote from: arzoo on February 07, 2006, 03:55:48 pm
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.


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