Powering off the LCD Topgun LEDs (for longevitiy)

[jelwell]

Has anyone figured out a way to easily turn the the LEDs on and off? The holster idea sounded nice, although I wouldn't be so confidant that my friends would put the guns back in the holster. *sigh* friends suck. I'd really like to see a frontend solution. Can I power up the LEDs using an Ipac and a command to the Ipac from MAMEWAH? I already setup MAMEWAH to run a batch file for Light Gun games (since I have to use a different MAME to support dual lightguns) - it would be pretty easy to send a command before starting a game and when finished.

Would turning the driver off be enough? I might be able to start and stop the driver service (assuming it's a service). All these ideas and my guns still haven't arrived!

My apologies if you think this shouldn't be it's own thread.
Joseph Elwell.

Well, I just had an idea as far as powering the strips on and off...  If you are going to have a holster mounted on the cab for the gun, why not hack a USB extension cable to where it's 5v lead goes to a microswitch's NC lead, and then mount it with some soft of lever inside the holster?  That way, when the gun is holstered the stands would be off, when you draw the gun they power up?

Now that one makes a lot of sense!   you could run a lever through the side of the cab that the gun or holster hooks onto for storage... with a microswitch on the inside of the cab. Neat!

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

Well, I just had an idea as far as powering the strips on and off...  If you are going to have a holster mounted on the cab for the gun, why not hack a USB extension cable to where it's 5v lead goes to a microswitch's NC lead, and then mount it with some soft of lever inside the holster?  That way, when the gun is holstered the stands would be off, when you draw the gun they power up?

Bingo ! Good thinking ! And I already said we needed something that would switch when "playing a light-gun game", not "playing a MAME light-gun game"

Now we need a holster. The HAPP/SUZO holsters are quite expensive and probably won't fit right with this gun because of the laser unit but not sure about that....also the metal doesn't make building a switch inside any easier. I was thinking about plastic hand-grip like things. The one's I know are not deep enough for a gun though.....at least I think...anyone got an idea ?

I'm sure it'd be easy enough to fabricate some sort of holster for the side...  Leather, plastic, sheetmetal, doesn't really have to be "form fitting".

As to the mechanism, was thinking on it, mounting the holster to some sort of rod that goes into the side of the CP or cab somewhere, having it extend to the inside of the cab and be on a pivot, and then a fixed lever coming off the rod that rests against a standard pushbutton.  As long as the holster is light enough, the spring pressure of the button could open the microswitch, and when the gun is put in it, the weight should cause it to pivot enough to push down on the button to shut the power off.

Once I get my guns (hopefully early next week) I'll see if I could CNC some holsters. Hacking a switch into a USB extension cable and hooking it up to the holster shouldn't be too much of a problem.

My only concern about this kind of a setup is; when the gun and led stands have no power going to them, won't Windows think they're unplugged? And then, when they receive power again (when the gun is removed from the holster), won't it take a few seconds for windows to recognize them fully? And then will you have to re-calibrate every time?

[Minwah]

I would just have a hidden toggle/rocker switch to cut the power to the LED's.  Simple & effective.

[Fozzy The Bear]

I would just have a hidden toggle/rocker switch to cut the power to the LED's.  Simple & effective.

That's exactly what I've done with mine.... They're no longer powered fron the gun lead, but directly from the PC's 5V power supply and there's a rocker on the side of my CP near the Pinball buttons

Best Regards
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[jcrouse]

I would just have a hidden toggle/rocker switch to cut the power to the LED's.  Simple & effective.

That's exactly what I've done with mine.... They're no longer powered fron the gun lead, but directly from the PC's 5V power supply and there's a rocker on the side of my CP near the Pinball buttons

Best Regards
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

That is my plan also.

John

[ErikRuud]

There is nothing really special about the LED stands.  Your PC doesn't even know they are there, except possibly as a power load on the USB bus.  Disabling the driver wouldn't affect the LED stands at all.  

The IPAC doesn't really have any I/O pins, except for the keyboard LED's and there isn't enough power available through those pins.  You could use additional circuitry to handle the power through a relay.

A better solution would be to use an I/O board.  The LEDWiz could be used or something like the Phidgets boards, their 0/0/4 would be ideal unless you really want a lot of output pins.

[darthbane2k]

Mine just stay on everytime the PC is powered up.

Is this REALLY a concern?
I dont my led stands crapping out on me six months down the line.

[Lilwolf]

it shouldn't be a real issue.  They expected them to run for 3 years if you had them on for 2 hours a day.  (that was it wasn't it??)

The trouble is if you have your cabinet on 24/7 that number goes down quickly.   

[Fozzy The Bear]

it shouldn't be a real issue.  They expected them to run for 3 years if you had them on for 2 hours a day.  (that was it wasn't it??)

It shouldn't be a real issue anyway... There's nothing special about them. Just a bunch of cheap IR LEDs it'd be very easy to wire some replacements if they do fail. With mine sitting on the 5V supply instead of the gun cable it's easy to turn them off and reduces the load on the USB Bus to the degree that the recoil never causes a problem.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Smog]

Where did I read of a microswitch connecte on NO (Normally Opened) in the gun's holster ?

[Flinkly]

someone mentioned that idea in the original thread early on, like page 12.  i'd rather have a toggle switch though instead of a cool switch that could malfunction.

[Level42]

How about an infrared bridge in the holster ? There would be a couple advantages: no mechanical clicks or having to push it into a certain position. However, of course there would need to be some interfacing (relay) to do. Also don't know if a infrared bridge with that wide space can be made ?

[aljupy]

It shouldn't be a real issue anyway... There's nothing special about them. Just a bunch of cheap IR LEDs it'd be very easy to wire some replacements if they do fail.

I

[Fozzy The Bear]

P.S. Let

[mccoy178]

Here's a thought from the original post.  What about the LEDWiz?  I know that it is supposed to be able to control a wide variety of things.  Seems like something that could be implemented in PowerMAME.  Any thoughts on this? 

IIRC, someone had brought the use of the LEDWiz up for use in QBert, so this sounds like a piece of cake.

[Level42]

It shouldn't be a real issue anyway... There's nothing special about them. Just a bunch of cheap IR LEDs it'd be very easy to wire some replacements if they do fail.

I

[Lilwolf]

btw, has anyone tried to use a seperate 5v power supply to supply 2 guns slide thingy and 1 led?  I would love to not use my computers power supply...

just not sure if any additional info is being sent to the led's.  I heard someone doing it for the sliders

[Fozzy The Bear]

just not sure if any additional info is being sent to the led's.  I heard someone doing it for the sliders

There is no info being set to or from the LEDs.... !!!!  They are JUST LED's...

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Flinkly]

as for sega light gun games, there are alot of them that used ir led's just like we are.  two for example are hotd2 and the second jurrassic park.  i've seen the led circuit boards for sale on ebay for cheap, maybe someone should check it out and start expiramenting.

while i'm thinking about it, does it matter where the led's are?  the gun calibrates to the screen, so you could place led's wherever you wanted and then calibrate, and it should work.  unless you moved them after calibration.  i'd still use more than five reference points, but you could even use more...unless there is more to it.

[Fozzy The Bear]

as for sega light gun games, there are alot of them that used ir led's just like we are.  two for example are hotd2 and the second jurrassic park.

HOTD2... Different versions released... The one I had to pieces on the bench at work last week uses optical guns. The projector version uses LEDs. They also differ from one side of the Atlantic to the other. 
AND the secondly:
1) Jurassic Park (SEGA) doesn't use light guns at all! it uses fixed analog Joysticks that are shaped like guns. The upright version just uses analog joysticks.

2) Jurassic Park 2 (The Lost World)  (SEGA) That you mention, Uses standard SEGA "Time Crisis" type Optical Guns... No LED's in it at all.

3) Jurassic Park 3 (KONAMI) Does use LED's but they work on an entirely different system to these EMS guns.  They run different frequencies of light from each LED Cluster. They can then work out not only where the gun is pointing, but also where the player is standing in relation to the LED's. Thus removing any calibration error as a result of players changing position.

while i'm thinking about it, does it matter where the led's are? 

No, as long as the gun can see all of the LEDs on both stands.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[aljupy]

You'll always need to include resistors to limit the current, no matter what voltage you run them on.

I

[Flinkly]

not to be a jerk fozzy, just to keep my reputation...

http://www.segaarcade.com/pdfs/lostworld/lw-bulletin2.pdf

it's a bulletin about the IR sensors and lists the games that use that type of gun, the first two being lost world and hotd2.  i only know about this kind of stuff cause i spent some time tracking down the gun shells to stick a lightgun in.

[BULL]

here

[aljupy]

here