Super bright LED driver board for I-PAC

[Frostillicus]

thanks - I picked up 2 transistors already - they are rated for 40V for 'collector-emitter', 40v for collector-base, but 5V for emitter-base.  would this one work? It's pretty big(has a little heat sink connected to it).

So if I use a separate power supply, should I connect the cathodes to both the powersupply negative and the gnd on the IPAC?

[OSCAR]

Those transistors should work just fine.  I would connect the cathodes to the power supply ground, and only pull the signal connections from the I-PAC like I did on mine.

[Frostillicus]

Those transistors should work just fine.  I would connect the cathodes to the power supply ground, and only pull the signal connections from the I-PAC like I did on mine.

I just have one last question - doesn't there need to be some return connection to the IPAC ? wait ...here I drew this(it's sloppy) out for one of the circuits:

I know the symbols aren't right...but are the connections correct?

[OSCAR]

That looks fine to me.  The transistor is just looking for a signal on the base (it acts like a switch) so it will allow the current to flow from the emitter to the collector in the case of a PNP transistor.

[Frostillicus]

cool - I just don't want to fry anything $$$ like my ipac4  Thanks for the help

[Valence]

Read most of the thread and thought I would throw this in there. I was working on a way to light all my buttons depending on what was used in a specific game. Till I found out that no matter how bright the led was ( highest one I found was 12 candelars(sic)) It wasn't going to shine through.
But anyways. I found this company that sells kits really cheap (even cheaper if you just buy the chip ( 8$)) but it is an USB interface. Can R/W to 16 different inputs/outputs. Whats the best about this chip is that they have already written usb device drivers and have sample source code for VB and C and a bunch of others.

 Here is a link.
http://www.delcom-eng.com/products_USBIO.asp#USBIOKITS

I looked more at what the chip is capable of and it does alot of different things.

Could easily control 16 relays or lights or even read inputs. And it would get past the NT Kernal problems associated with just hacking a parallel or serial port.

[Carsten Carlos]

Cool. I paid for in fact pretty the same preprogrammed chip $35 here in Germany. They really rip you off here!  

[Homebrew]

Hey MannyTC, did you ever get those instructions from hagstrom?  If so do you think you could post them or email them to me?  I'm interested in getting this working on my
KE-72 as well.  Any help you could offer is greatly appreciated.  

-Kevin

[Sasquatch!]

Hey MannyTC, did you ever get those instructions from hagstrom?  If so do you think you could post them or email them to me?  I'm interested in getting this working on my
KE-72 as well.  Any help you could offer is greatly appreciated.

Got a whole thread on it here, my good man.  I haven't tried this yet though...still have to buy some LEDs.

[SirPoonga]

Here is a link.
http://www.delcom-eng.com/products_USBIO.asp#USBIOKITS

Hey kelsey.
qbert knocker, would take some money to get the development kit, but after that it'd be cheap


BTW, once I incorparate a commandline option (ini file too then) to enable the qbert knocker Robin (urebelscum) is willing to put the code into analog+ mame.

[OSCAR]

Hey kelsey.
qbert knocker, would take some money to get the development kit, but after that it'd be cheap

BTW, once I incorparate a commandline option (in file too then) to enable the qbert knocker Robin (urebelscum) is willing to put the code into analog+ mame.

That is pretty interesting.  To drive a solenoid would still require some extra electronics because according to the docs it looks like they only recommend about 25mA and a solenoid would draw quite a bit more than that I'd think.  But it's still something to consider...

[Carsten Carlos]

To drive a solenoid would still require some extra electronics because according to the docs it looks like they only recommend about 25mA and a solenoid would draw quite a bit more than that I'd think.  But it's still something to consider...

Well, we already have the circuit for this, haven't we?  

On my USB-interface I drive one relais, and also have two power transistors so I can draw 1A current each.

[OSCAR]

Well, we already have the circuit for this, haven't we?  

On my USB-interface I drive one relais, and also have two power transistors so I can draw 1A current each.

Yes, this is correct.  My point was that this USB device wouldn't be a totally out of the box solution for relays, extra components would need to be added.  It's not something that's hard to do, just something to be aware of.

[SirPoonga]

Well, we already have the circuit for this, haven't we?  

On my USB-interface I drive one relais, and also have two power transistors so I can draw 1A current each.

Yes, this is correct.  My point was that this USB device wouldn't be a totally out of the box solution for relays, extra components would need to be added.  It's not something that's hard to do, just something to be aware of.

well, I'm looking through the source and examples.  Might be possible to implement in mame.  really no good way to try other than having the hardware unfortunately.

BTW, hmmm, I have the complete infrastructure for adding the q*bert knocker.  Just need hardware and testing:)


Hey, goto the website, download the dos example (yeah, an oxymoron).  Read the txt file, WTF are the arguments?

I'm not sure how easy it would be to add something like that into mame.  It uses some ini files that I am not sure come with mingw.  I probably could work by kludging in the library and .h file.

[Howard_Casto]

I looked at the details of the "driver" and although it looks promising it's not exactly "usb friendly." What I mean is they didn't program the device in such a way that it was a joystick or a human interface device rather a generic i/o device (like a printer or scanner.)  What this means is every single app would have to be coded specifically for it.  While this would be ok if you just wanted to use it for mame, it's not a practical for other applications (like a generic force feedback board, which was what i was looking into it for)

Even though it claims to be geard towards people who don't want to have to write drivers, I think the driver they give you is too generic to be useful.  

If the chip was given a device designation (like printer, game device, human interface device) then you could easily enumerate it by figuring out which one it is on the list or allowing the user to select it.  As it doesn't do this you have to enumerate via wading through the registry, which is awful imho.  And I agree with sirp.... it's got hella scary dos calls.  


I'm not discouraging anyone from trying... I just wanted to point out that on the software end of things it's no walk in the park either.  In fact, it's brutal compared to connecting to most usb devices imho.  

[SirPoonga]

HC, I don't think you even need the driver really.  I compiled and ran the example software fine, just couldn't find the devise.

But yeah, custom hardware may need custom driver, it is not a HID anyway

[SirPeale]

This is nifty, so I'll bump it up for some views.

[brooksware2000]

Hey gang, I've been working on some microcontroller projects for programmable lamp drivers for the control panel and coin door. Example functions are:

1: Run a light sequence for the p1 - p4 buttons that changes from the sequence when pressed or when a coin-up associated with the button is entered.
2: Programmed sequence for the coin-door that changes when coins are dropped in.

If anyone wants to assist or be a tester for this then let me know. Also, I am welcoming suggestions for this project. I will be releasing it all to the board free of charge when it is complete. I will provide built boards/programmed chips probably at cost depending on how much it cost me to make them.

So, to all, I am asking for input on functionality you guys and gals would like to see.