Serial Display (LCD & BetaBrite) Plug-in for MaLa V1.0 *Finished*

[loadman]

This Plug-in supports serial character LCD and BetaBrite displays. 

 You can use Silvers .LCD files or have it automatically do it.

[EDIT] V1.0 finished 27/1/07

Download from the MaLa Website :
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/plugins.html#SerialDisplay

More of my dribble is in the ' Read me' file.... 

Feel free to offer suggestions for the next version

Thanks.


http://www.seetron.com/bpp440_1.htm

[loadman]

[EDIT] Not a bad price here I found:
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=138440

[headkaze]

Nice work loadman

Sorry I don't use Mala or a Beta Brite to help test the plugin, but I'll give a bit of feedback anyway (I hope you don't mind)

Just a few things about the GUI. That gaudy yellow is terrible on the eyes, how about something a little milder Also the drop down lists for some reason I can only see an item when the mouse is over one otherwise they are invisible (like white text on a white background).

You might also want to check out .manifest files (even better manifest files embedded as a resource) so that you have the "XP look", you know those shiny buttons in the standard XP themes.

[loadman]

That gaudy yellow is terrible on the eyes, how about something a little milder  Also the drop down lists for some reason I can only see an item when the mouse is over one otherwise they are invisible (like white text on a white background).

Oh Yeah YUCK you are right.....

I just loaded here at work

It did not look like that @ home

Will fix that tonight

[headkaze]

What did you end up doing for a Delphi serial library? Did you end up finding a good free one?

[Q*bert]

Nice first shot with the beta!  Communications with the BetaBrite are perfect. 

I'm not sure what code is implemented, but all data seems be coming from MaLa and not the .lcd's.

Buttons display as "ButtonFire" and "Buttonnot used" rather than "1:Fire" or "Button1:Fire".

Oh yeah,  and what headkaze said about the interface! 

[loadman]

What did you end up doing for a Delphi serial library? Did you end up finding a good free one?

YEP   

I'm not sure what code is implemented, but all data seems be coming from MaLa and not the .lcd's.

Maybe it 's not reading your ini file and just reverting back to default settings.
Hmmm  PleaseTry launching MaLa Directly (not from a short-cut) so the working directory wil be right and let me know if you still have this problem please
EDIT- I may have fixed this. Download latest version

Buttons display as "ButtonFire" and "Buttonnot used" rather than "1:Fire" or "Button1:Fire".
Oh yeah,  and what headkaze said about the interface! 

Thanks! Will Fix ASAP
EDIT- I may have fixed these things too. Download latest version

In any case
Q1) What is your Preference for Control display for the BetaBrite?
Q2) How does it look on the betabrite as your scroll through the list?

[headkaze]

Hey loadman, you've got the XP theme buttons working, and the colour is better, but I'm still getting invisible text (white text on white background).

It's best you use the standard Window's colour scheme when using controls. Ie. For most controls the "Control" colour is the best to use. It should be the default colour when you draw a control on a form.

Attached is a screenshot of what I get here on two machines.

[loadman]

Hey loadman, you've got the XP theme buttons working, and the colour is better, but I'm still getting invisible text (white text on white background).

Ohh Crap. I'm not getting that effect on the PC here (it's black on white), But It did happen on the PC at work

Thanks for testing 

I don't have a "Control" colour I don't think so I don't know waht I did?

Anyway I changed the fields to grey on the 'basic setup tab', Is that better now?  If so I will change them all.  Cheers

[headkaze]

Hey loadman, I'm not sure how you would do it in the Delphi IDE form designer, but in Visual Studio when you select a colour from a control, you can use either Custom, Web or System colours.

The standard colour for a control is called "Control". If the colours are changed by a Theme then the colours are changed in all programs that use the System colours.

Attached is a pic of what I mean.

[loadman]

Hey loadman, I'm not sure how you would do it in the Delphi IDE form designer, but in Visual Studio when you select a colour from a control, you can use either Custom, Web or System colours.

The standard colour for a control is called "Control". If the colours are changed by a Theme then the colours are changed in all programs that use the System colours.

Attached is a pic of what I mean.

Count not find it but the grey one seems to work so I won't waste any more time on it right now. Will figure it out one day :-) ta

[Q*bert]

EDIT- I may have fixed this. Download latest version

I don't think the posted link is to the updated version as I downloaded and the file dates are unchanged (it doesn't behave differently either.)

Q1) What is your Preference for Control display for the BetaBrite?

It would be nice to control:
1) the information displayed.  Right now the game title, company, and year are displayed and really slow things down
2) the color and font of each section (e.g. the game title, controller type, buttons)
3) the way the information appears on the display (clear display first, scroll left to right, scroll up, etc.)
4) the ability to shorten the display of "Button 1:" to "1:" or "Btn 1:" since the BetaBrite can only display from 8 to 16 characters at once, depending on font size.

Bet your sorry you asked... 

Q2) How does it look on the betabrite as your scroll through the list?

The display changes quickly and displays the game title exactly as it is shown on the MaLa list.  It alternates between the name of the game, emulator, and game list.  I'll make a video and post a link to it when I get more time.

BTW, read your messages for more info.

[loadman]

I don't think the posted link is to the updated version as I downloaded and the file dates are unchanged (it doesn't behave differently either.)

It definitely is..  I can download it here at work.  It could be a local proxy at your end of the world caching things?
I added a 1c to the end of the file name to see if that helps? Try Now

Bet your sorry you asked...

 
Not at all.. Thanks 
 

[Q*bert]

Downloaded Serial1c.zip today.

I don't notice any difference, and it still isn't reading .lcd files upon game load.

[loadman]

Downloaded Serial1c.zip today.

I don't notice any difference, and it still isn't reading .lcd files upon game load.

That is so Freaky.

I'm getting it to do it here (It Loads LCD files (if found)  and this version also address the Control labeling issue you mentioned...... Only when launching a game of course 

What I will do when I get home from work is load it on a spare PC from the internet to see if something is wrong,

How it works is if it finds a *.lcd file (in the specified directory) with the name of the rom it will use that in preference to mala data.

Maybe I should post a video to show?  I dunno where to go from here 

[headkaze]

Downloaded Serial1c.zip today.

I don't notice any difference, and it still isn't reading .lcd files upon game load.

That is so Freaky.

I'm getting it to do it here (It Loads LCD files (if found)  and this version also address the Control labeling issue you mentioned...... Only when launching a game of course 

What I will do when I get home from work is load it on a spare PC from the internet to see if something is wrong,

How it works is if it finds a *.lcd file (in the specified directory) with the name of the rom it will use that in preference to mala data.

Maybe I should post a video to show?  I dunno where to go from here 

Perhaps a debug version that will output a MessageBox "Found [ROM].lcd file at location ...", or "Not Found [ROM].lcd file". Or maybe a version that outputs debug info to a log file or something?

[loadman]

Perhaps a debug version that will output a MessageBox "Found [ROM].lcd file at location ...", or "Not Found [ROM].lcd file".

Hey I was thinking the same thing on the way home...    That would be easy  I will do that later.  It's gotta be something simple

[youki]

Hey loadman, I'm not sure how you would do it in the Delphi IDE form designer, but in Visual Studio when you select a colour from a control, you can use either Custom, Web or System colours.

The standard colour for a control is called "Control". If the colours are changed by a Theme then the colours are changed in all programs that use the System colours.

Attached is a pic of what I mean.

Count not find it but the grey one seems to work so I won't waste any more time on it right now. Will figure it out one day :-) ta

Hi Loadman,  i just read this post quickly , so i'm not sure i well understood your little pb a that level.

But if you want control color in Delphi follows the defined windows colors schema , you have to select your "control" on the Form .  Go on the "property" pannel ,  change the :  "Color" property.

In the dropdown list , don't select a given color like  clYellow, clGrey...   but instead select a color like :

clBtnFace  ,clBackground ,  clActiveBorder..etc....

If you select that, you control will have the color defined by the user in Windows.  It means if for instance you selected for your control the color "clBtnFace"  ,   if the user in windows control panel change the color affected to buttons in windows , you application will follow the change too.

I hope it helps.

[loadman]

Thanks Headkaze, Q*bert and youki.

Latest beta ready for testing 1d (see link @ the beginning of this thread)

I hope I fixed the .lcd reading bugs 

It now has prompts when you launch a game to show you what the plug-in is doing

I will remove these prompts when you are all happy

Thanks again for testing.   

[Q*bert]

  Works great!

No more problems finding .lcd files.

[loadman]

Works great!

No more problems finding .lcd files.

Kewl.. Thanks....

I would like it tested by persons with serial LCD's too.. Hopefully Circo and/or Silver can help me out there. 

Then I can release this baby as Version 1 and have it available on the MaLa website. Is there anything else essential it should have?

In Version 2 I plan to have more custom formatting options

[edit] Q*BERT: I will e-mail you the betabrite unit file so you can play with it, in case you wanted some changes before version 1 release

[Circo]

Finally have a day off, I am transferring my Mala set up to my cab tomorrow (sunday) and will give you feedback on the plug-in.  Looking forward to it!!! 

[Circo]

Can you out output to a beta brie and lcd at the same time???  I like the looks of those beta brites.

[loadman]

Can you out output to a beta brie and lcd at the same time???  I like the looks of those beta brites.

Not at the moment but that is possible. I would have to test that as obviously the displays would have to be on connected on separate com ports (as they use different formatting codes) so I'm not sure how fast the port switching would be? In any case it would only 'possibly' be a speed issue for updating the displays on the fly when scrolling through the list.. worst case scenario you might only be able to have one display do that part (no big deal).

If you get a betabrite and want that feature then you have just volunteered to beta test it for me   

[Circo]

I'm batting the idea around, I will let you know.

Edit:

I am looking at the new Beta Brite Prism dispay that hooks up via USB or serial.  Would usb make any difference?

http://www.betabrite.com/pdfs/1196650401BBPrism.pdf

[loadman]

I'm batting the idea around, I will let you know.

Edit:

I am looking at the new Beta Brite Prism dispay that hooks up via USB or serial.  Would usb make any difference?

http://www.betabrite.com/pdfs/1196650401BBPrism.pdf

HEY!  Less 'Batting' more 'testing' 

I dunno?

I assume the USB version makes a virtual COM port so you would communicate with it in much the same way 'otherwise' I would have another challenge.

Hey I am sure it's do-able just a matter of finding the most efficient way

[Circo]

Ok finally got Mala up and running on the cab and your plugin is great.

One big thing though:

Because I run multiple emulators I have my LCD files in different directories

Is there any way for the plugin to look for .lcd files in a directory with the same name as the emulator? 

IE:

LCD Directory = i:\lcd
Sub Directories:
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Daphne
Mame
Super Nintendo
Sega Genesis

etc:

If I have to throw them all into one directory sooner or later there are going to be the same file names for different systems.

And that "no lcd file found nag screen is just for testing purposes right? 

Seriously though, fantastic app!

[Circo]

One other idea!!

For a screensaver I have it cycle through all of my video previews.  Would it be possible for the plugin to display the system (from the directory) and the file name of the video minus the extension?

IE:

i:\previews\Super Nintendo\Super Mario Bros 3 (U).avi

Output to the display could be

Super Nintendo
Super Mario Bros 3 (U)

I am not sure how that would work with mame files because the have those stupid dos names.

What do you think?

[loadman]

Is there any way for the plugin to look for .lcd files in a directory with the same name as the emulator? 

Sure... as an option.. I will get on it now (Day Off- Monday in Australia)

And that "no lcd file found nag screen is just for testing purposes right? 

Ha Ha  Yes of course

Would it be possible for the plugin to display the system (from the directory) and the file name of the video minus the extension?

Great Idea...  Unfortunately that is not something I can implement right now as the video files or snaps mala chooses is not passed to the Plug-in.
I will ask Swindus for that ability. No harm to ask. So every time a new video or snap is chosen in the screensaver the data is passed to the Plug-ins

I can however have it display a custom screen when the screen saver starts. Would you like that for now?

[Circo]

Yeah that would be great.

Just realized that mala does not look into sub folders for video files so I just ate up 20gb for a screensaver folder.  Wonder how much I would have to donate to swindus to change that  (seriously, I'll pay!!)

Ok now that I am getting this part all worked out I am off to try the LED-Wiz plugin, from the looks of it I will be pulling up that thread in a few minutes.

[headkaze]

Not at the moment but that is possible. I would have to test that as obviously the displays would have to be on connected on separate com ports (as they use different formatting codes) so I'm not sure how fast the port switching would be? In any case it would only 'possibly' be a speed issue for updating the displays on the fly when scrolling through the list.. worst case scenario you might only be able to have one display do that part (no big deal).

There shouldn't be a speed issue using two COM ports open at once. I guess it depends on the COM library your using, if it supports sending to multiple ports at a time then it shouldn't be a problem.

I assume the USB version makes a virtual COM port so you would communicate with it in much the same way 'otherwise' I would have another challenge.

Yes, your right, the USB driver should create a virtual COM port that you can communicate with like a standard COM port. Depends on the driver supplied with the hardware though I guess, unless there is some generic driver that allows you to do it. With my Nokia phone, it was connected through USB but used standard serial communication using a virtual COM port, but again that was through the driver.

[loadman]

Just realized that mala does not look into sub folders for video files so I just ate up 20gb for a screensaver folder.  Wonder how much I would have to donate to swindus to change that  (seriously, I'll pay!!)

I'm sure it's more a matter of his time rether than money..he he

But at the risk of speaking on his behlaf I imagine that would be a straight forward addition to MaLa    

Send him a PM asking for it and make donation if ya want?  I have hit the Paypal button on the MaLa site more than once but I am a MaLa 'freak'

[loadman]

There shouldn't be a speed issue using two COM ports open at once. I guess it depends on the COM library your using, if it supports sending to multiple ports at a time then it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks headkaze
Will have to test....... later  . Not a high priority right now. I wasted enough just getting a decent free Delphi free serial interface.

Yes, your right, the USB driver should create a virtual COM port that you can communicate with like a standard COM port. Depends on the driver supplied with the hardware though I guess, unless there is some generic driver that allows you to do it. With my Nokia phone, it was connected through USB but used standard serial communication using a virtual COM port, but again that was through the driver.

Kewl yeah well it should be OK.  I would hate Circo to buy a USB BetaBrite then to find out later that I can't easily support it.

I would recommend he asks how the driver works before handing over CASH.

Unless someone reading this thread knows how the USB betabrite communicates (Virtual Com port?)

[Circo]

It works with usb and serial so it is really not an issue loadman.  Don't sweat it

[loadman]

Because I run multiple emulators I have my LCD files in different directories
Is there any way for the plug-in to look for .lcd files in a directory with the same name as the emulator? 
IE:
LCD Directory = i:\lcd
Sub Directories:
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Daphne
Mame
Super Nintendo
Sega Genesis
etc:
If I have to throw them all into one directory sooner or later there are going to be the same file names for different systems.

Done, sub dirs are now an option (see download link at the top of thread)

And that "no lcd file found nag screen is just for testing purposes right? 

Done You now have that as an 'option'

* Also added basic custom text options for
- MaLa Start
- Screen Saver

Let me know if there any problems please... Thanks

[Circo]

Damn your quick, I'll try it out tomorrow.  Thanks loadman!

[loadman]

Damn your quick, I'll try it out tomorrow.  Thanks loadman!

Kewl.. It would be great if you could post a pic and/or movie of your cab with LedWiz/ LCD combo in action 

[Circo]

Damn your quick, I'll try it out tomorrow.  Thanks loadman!

Kewl.. It would be great if you could post a pic and/or movie of your cab with LedWiz/ LCD combo in action 

I am working on the led-wiz tonight so once it is all working I will get something up.  I was going to just order the standard beta brite but the prism was only $50 bucks at sam's club. I should have it in about a week or so.  It says USB on the specs from sams club but the betabrite web site says that it is busb or serial, I will let you know once it arrives.  That and a couple of top gun's are my xmas present from the wife.  I am going to be so suprised!!!

[Circo]

Note: the custom message displays the text is white on white.

Otherwise, it's perfect.  Great work loadman, thanks

Now get started on that dual lcd display!!!

[loadman]

Note: the custom message displays the text is white on white.
Otherwise, it's perfect.  Great work loadman, thanks

Fixed Text !!

Now get started on that dual lcd display!!!

Sounds like a weekend job   

[later edit]  Quick testing on the coms I succeeded in sending data to com ports from 1 - 9 (inclusive) simultaneously  :-) .. So driving a LCD and a Betabrite looks like a future option   

[Circo]

Yeah, will have it soon!

[loadman]

It just occurred to me...

Did anybody realise that to get the LCD to update on 'On the fly' as you scroll through the list, you need to have the following set in MaLa?

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59376.msg585671#msg585671

It can possibly slow down scrolling if you have a lot of Plug-ins though

Just try it......

[Circo]

Yes, very cool feature!  I like that it doesn't load the lcd file on the fly but shows:

Emulator
Game List
Game Name

Very nice! 

[loadman]

Yes, very cool feature!  I like that it doesn't load the lcd file on the fly but shows:
Emulator
Game List
Game Name
Very nice! 

.....Yeah  .. It would be 'too Slow' Loading LCD's files 'On the Fly'

FYI Dual Hardware version beta nearly finished  . 

I wish a had a betabrite  ... well not really. It would look silly on my Cocktail cab 

FYI
'mccoy178' Did a great job mounting a BetaBrite. I asked 'mccoy178' to test my Plug-in (Here's hoping )

[loadman]

Update: Today I decided to separate the LCD and Betabrite setup a bit more. 

So now you will have a choice of setting up
1) Serial LCD
2) Betabrite
3) Both

...I was going to make it open-ended but that would cause me some unnecessary work.

Unless some-one can 'quickly' tell me that they have a great need for two LCD's or two Betabrites...  I would not have thought so.

[Susi2005]

Hi loadman,
I tested your Plug In. Good job, but I have no 20x4 or 40x4 display.   
My display was a serial NEC FC20X2JA with 20x2 characters.

Do you support such a display in the next version?

Thanks for your Help.

[loadman]

Hi loadman,
I tested your Plug In. Good job, but I have no 20x4 or 40x4 display.   
My display was a serial NEC FC20X2JA with 20x2 characters.

Do you support such a display in the next version?

Thanks for your Help.

Sure 

Note:

Silvers .LCD files does not support that small display

But I can try and fit some MaLa data on it

FYI this is actually a VFD (not that the comms are much different)

[Circo]

I was so excited today, was going to try your new plug in, but..........

I was restoring my arcade cabs pc today (nasty virus killed it) and I was waiting for my sam's club order for my new beta brite display.  I must have missed the ups guy because I thought it never came.  Then I went outside and as I was coming back in, behind the door, woohoo a big brown box.  Grabbed it up and ran into the house, ripped it open like a kid on christmas morning and there it was a brand new beta brite box.  Opened her up, hmm no seal, ok wait a minute, remote.. check, power supply.. check, hmm there should be a sign in here.... nope.  Damn thing was stolen out of the box.  So in the morning I am going to have a fun conversation with sam's club.

 

btw, it is usb only, will it work?

[headkaze]

I was so excited today, was going to try your new plug in, but..........

I was restoring my arcade cabs pc today (nasty virus killed it) and I was waiting for my sam's club order for my new beta brite display.  I must have missed the ups guy because I thought it never came.  Then I went outside and as I was coming back in, behind the door, woohoo a big brown box.  Grabbed it up and ran into the house, ripped it open like a kid on christmas morning and there it was a brand new beta brite box.  Opened her up, hmm no seal, ok wait a minute, remote.. check, power supply.. check, hmm there should be a sign in here.... nope.  Damn thing was stolen out of the box.  So in the morning I am going to have a fun conversation with sam's club.

 

btw, it is usb only, will it work?

That's bad news. Hope you can sort it out and get it back.

USB should be fine, did you get any software with it?

[Circo]

Yeah but I am leaving it all sealed in case they give me any problems, doubt I will since it is sam's club though.  I will find out in a few hours I guess.

[loadman]

Oh my gosh, Virus?? Ahh Do you surf the net on your cab?

How does a betabrite get stolen ?  Crazy stuff.

Kick some Butt!

btw, it is usb only, will it work?

It will work if it maps as a virtual serial port.

If not I will have to try and find a solution as this is a 'Serial display Plug-in' so it may need a diffrent interface.. Anyway

when you get it loaded I will get you to look in the device manager to see if it looks anything like my com5 (see pic attached)

[Lilwolf]

btw, these are cool!  I like that they are almost the right size to replace a marquee!

the question... for the color one (betabrite) can you display images?  or just text?

I'm wondering if you could convert the original marquee images to something similar?  Or possible make your own with icons + image title or something?

anyway, very very cool!

[loadman]

btw, these are cool!  I like that they are almost the right size to replace a marquee!

the question... for the color one (betabrite) can you display images?  or just text?

I'm wondering if you could convert the original marquee images to something similar?  Or possible make your own with icons + image title or something?

anyway, very very cool!

I don't own one... But from what I can tell there are some built in graphics  on some models. Not sure if you can make custom stuff? I vaguely remember someone doing something cool like that on a high end display?  You need to search I guess

Either way my plug 'at the moment' just does text with color and transition options for your basic betabrite.   

[headkaze]

btw, these are cool!  I like that they are almost the right size to replace a marquee!

the question... for the color one (betabrite) can you display images?  or just text?

I'm wondering if you could convert the original marquee images to something similar?  Or possible make your own with icons + image title or something?

anyway, very very cool!

I don't own one... But from what I can tell there are some built in graphics  on some models. Not sure if you can make custom stuff? I vaguely remember someone doing something cool like that on a high end display?  You need to search I guess

Either way my plug 'at the moment' just does text with color and transition options for your basic betabrite.   

I do know someone who has a beta brite which can play gif animations. Looks bloody cool. You can use a program called ImageMagick to convert all the Mame marquee's to graphics for the BetaBrite. Unfortunately they don't look that great, some of them look okay though. I have a post with the command line you need to convert them all to the right format...

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=2295&st=0

[youki]

I think the resolution of the BetaBrite is 80x27 (or 17?)  , it is too poor to have a good result with marquee unfortunnaly.  But for some Icons , i think we could  manage to do something  nice. 

[headkaze]

I think the resolution of the BetaBrite is 80x27 (or 17?)  , it is too poor to have a good result with marquee unfortunnaly.  But for some Icons , i think we could  manage to do something  nice. 

The ones that allow gif animations are 120x16

[Circo]

That is the one that I got the beta brite prism, graphics would be cool.

On another note, I had mentioned a problem in the led-wiz thread that when using .lnk files (Shortcuts for pc games) that Mala wouldn't load up the led wiz lights.  Well it also has the same problems with .lcd files.  It must be something in Mala itself, it works with every other type of extension I can think of.  Any ideas why this would be?  .lnk files work much better than batch files because you dont have to worry about how long directory names or file names are.

[loadman]

btw, these are cool!  I like that they are almost the right size to replace a marquee!
the question... for the color one (betabrite) can you display images?  or just text?

...Ahh this is where I saw it (LED Marquee)

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=41500.msg489829#msg489829

Well it also has the same problems with .lcd files

I understand the .lnk problem to launch PC games
Sorry... I'm a bit slow today.  What exactly are you doing with the .lcd files?

[Circo]

Well it also has the same problems with .lcd files

I understand the .lnk problem to launch PC games
Sorry... I'm a bit slow today.  What exactly are you doing with the .lcd files?
[/quote]

the .lcd files are like an instruction sheet for the game. 



Just like i did with mame, I would like to do with the different pc games.  Mostly I have pinball, casino, and reflexive arcade/popcap games.  They take up a large portion of the play time and it is wierd that they are the only ones that mala seems to have a problem with.  It loads the games just fine but will not call up Led-wiz, or LCD displays.  It's really weird as I havent had that problem with any other kind of file.  If I use a bat file everything works great, but that is a huge pain for 200 games.  I just wonder if there is some setting or workaround for this?

[Circo]

I do know someone who has a beta brite which can play gif animations. Looks bloody cool. You can use a program called ImageMagick to convert all the Mame marquee's to graphics for the BetaBrite. Unfortunately they don't look that great, some of them look okay though. I have a post with the command line you need to convert them all to the right format...

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=2295&st=0

I wonder if you just cropped out the title part of the marquee how it would look, I'll try it when I finally get mine replaced from sam's club, hopefully that's not an if.

[loadman]

Well it also has the same problems with .lcd files

I understand the .lnk problem to launch PC games
Sorry... I'm a bit slow today.  What exactly are you doing with the .lcd files?

the .lcd files are like an instruction sheet for the game. 

Just like i did with mame, I would like to do with the different pc games.  Mostly I have pinball, casino, and reflexive arcade/popcap games.  They take up a large portion of the play time and it is weird that they are the only ones that mala seems to have a problem with.  It loads the games just fine but will not call up Led-wiz, or LCD displays.  It's really weird as I haven't had that problem with any other kind of file.  If I use a bat file everything works great, but that is a huge pain for 200 games.  I just wonder if there is some setting or workaround for this?

Sorry Circo, As soon as I got in the car to go to work I 'clicked' to what you meant....

Yes I will have a look.

The Plug-in relies on Mala passing the ROM name over.  Then the Led-wiz Plug-in can load the LEds or Serial display can load the .lcd file

I guess MalA is not passing names of .lnk files as 'pseudo' rom names to the plug-ins... (best guess)

I will check tomorrow

[swindus]

Loadman is right. MaLa extracts the executable and the working dir from the lnk file. So the rom name passed by MaLa is the name of the executable of the lnk file. You can also enable and watch the MaLa log file to get more information about the used rom name when starting a game.

[Circo]

Loadman is right. MaLa extracts the executable and the working dir from the lnk file. So the rom name passed by MaLa is the name of the executable of the lnk file. You can also enable and watch the MaLa log file to get more information about the used rom name when starting a game.

Ok so as long as I name the .lcd file or led-wiz config as the actual executable then all should work, will give it a go and report back.  Thanks guys!

[Circo]

Well the .lnk files that I was testing with have the same exact file name as the .exe files.  Tried turning on the log, but for the life of me can't find the log file. (Stupid me probably just need to do some research)  Anyway I will keep trying to figure this one out and report back.

Secondly, spoke to Sam's Club Corporate today and they are going to overnight me a new beta brite prism.  Since it is coming I cracked open the software and I am not sure if this is accurate but it gave me a message "Sign not connected com 255"  It's usb but does that mean it's going to use com port 255?  Like I said before I will have more info when that sign actually gets here.

[loadman]

Well the .lnk files that I was testing with have the same exact file name as the .exe files.  Tried turning on the log, but for the life of me can't find the log file. (Stupid me probably just need to do some research)  Anyway I will keep trying to figure this one out and report back

Circo:
You can see what LCD file my Plug-in is looking for by enabling 'Enable directory messages' on the set-up prog

Loadman is right. MaLa extracts the executable and the working dir from the lnk file. So the rom name passed by MaLa is the name of the executable of the lnk file. You can also enable and watch the MaLa log file to get more information about the used rom name when starting a game.

Ah Ha..  It is indeed. 
Thanks SWINDUS   
 The other games just pass the name of the rom to the plug-in, but when .lnk are launched MaLa passes a full path as well'
eg:
Rom name: C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball\PINBALL.EXE
which ideally should be
Rom name: PINBALL
.. like the others.

My Plug-in looks for a LCD file in the specified directory or a sub directory (with the same name as the emulator) so I don't really need or want this full path

Swindus, Can this be altered in MaLa or do you know Delphi method to strip the other data from this string? 

I guess as a 'workaround' I could use the 'Game Name' rather than the rom name when .lks extensions are used....  What you think?

[headkaze]

Check out ExtractFileName.

Code: [Select]

OFileName := ExtractFileName(OrigFileName);
OFileName := OFileName.SubString(1, OFileName.Pos(".") - 1);

[loadman]

Check out ExtractFileName.

Code: [Select]

OFileName := ExtractFileName(OrigFileName);
OFileName := OFileName.SubString(1, OFileName.Pos(".") - 1);

Cool if Swindus does not want to change what MaLa spits out when launching .lnk files I will either.
1) Use that method you just gave me a link to, when .lnk files are used
2) Use the game name (not rom name) when .lnk files are used

[swindus]

I put it on my TODO list.

[Circo]

btw, it is usb only, will it work?

It will work if it maps as a virtual serial port.

If not I will have to try and find a solution as this is a 'Serial display Plug-in' so it may need a diffrent interface.. Anyway

when you get it loaded I will get you to look in the device manager to see if it looks anything like my com5 (see pic attached)

Well bad news nothing under com ports it shows up under:

Universal serial Bus Controllers
   |
   ---- USB Bulk Device

Under com ports there is nothing but the com1 that I have active for my LCD display.

Damn!

Good news is at least I finally recieved it.

What other information will you need? 

And BTW have I mentioned how much I appreciate your efforts with all this stuff?   

Thank you so much!

[loadman]

OK?  So what model do you have??? In a earlier post you suggested you had the
http://www.betabrite.com/pdfs/1196650401BBPrism.pdf
which can do both USB and Serial.

Is it possbile that it can handle serial but the cable was not supplied?

Model # please

[Circo]

I have a betabrite prism that I got from sam's club but it must be a newer version because it only has a usb port, and the manual mentions nothing about serial.

here is a quick video of it running.  I need to get one up of the lcd panel too but you couln't see it in this clip so I cut it out.



Betabrite Prism
February 16th, 2006
PN 1196600101

http://www.ams-i.com/Media/1196600101.pdf

I guess it is the newer model, they didn't list the part number on samsclub so I though that it was the same thing.  Did I mention that the thing is friggin bright??? Blinding, way cool!

[loadman]

Model # please?

I need that detail so I can do some homework to see if any other coder has tacked writing a custom app for this if not you might consider swapping for a serial one. 

[Circo]

I believe that the PN is the model number.

[loadman]

I believe that the PN is the model number.

A ha..  You did a post edit on me to include it 

http://www.ams-i.com/Media/1196600101.pdf

Yep sure looks like USB only 

I had a quick 'google' and could not find a way of communication with this model other than the supplied software or remote control   

[headkaze]

I've done a bit of investigation into using a Prism to display MAME marquee's converted to gif format which the sign can read. It's quite confusing on a number of levels, but here are my conclusions.

The Prism is only a 80x7 LED display with 64 colours (although I can only count 26 in the software that comes with it). Converting marquees dosn't work on this size display, well it works they just look terrible.

I do believe you can get a BetaBrite classic with a 120x16 LED display with 4 colours (a user has created some animated marquee's by hand you can view here). Unfortunately only 4 colours means there are not enough colours to represent a marquee clearly (using batch conversion anyway).

If there was a 120x16 Prism with 64 colours then the marquee's would probably look okay. I have used ImageMagick to bulk convert the marquees to this size and colour palette but I don't think you can get Prism's in that size. Also the 120x16 BetaBrite seems to be a rare item, the standard sizes for BetaBrite Alpha seems to be 64x16x4, 64x24x4 and 64x32x4 (width x height x colours), and there are probably the same for a 120 width display, although I can find no info on the 120x16 display.

Conclusion: BetaBrites are not suited for Mame marquee's unless you hand make them using 4 colours with the hard to find 120x16 display.

Yep sure looks like USB only

So no virtual COM port software? That would suck. Running the Prism software I get an error message "Display not connected. COM 255", which seems to indicate that they run on virtual COM port 255 (you can have up to 256 virtual COM ports that act like standard serial COM ports). So I still think there must be a virtual COM driver that comes with these signs. I also found a hidden download area on the BetaBrite site that has an ActiveX control for Alpha signs here. Not sure if the USB communication is delt with by this control.

[Circo]

Yeah marquees would be a no go with this sign.  Nice thing is that it is the exact width of my cab.  I think the 120 would probably be a little to big for me. 
It would be just fine to display the game title or something on the display.  I made an attract mode as you can see part in the above video and the reults were pretty impressive.  I just have to be careful as the damn thing is blinding bright.

Loadman is there a way to add com port 255 to the plug-in to test?  I noticed that too when I had the software and no sign.  It's worth a try.

[headkaze]

Loadman is there a way to add com port 255 to the plug-in to test?  I noticed that too when I had the software and no sign.  It's worth a try.

That's an interesting point, the thing is, we are using standard serial communications which means we are using COM port 1-8 I think it is. You normall map a virtual port to a standard port using a driver.

Have you got your BetaBrite installed etc? Try going into Device Manager and look under ports. Quite often you can map any "standard port" to the virtual port.

[Circo]

There is no driver for it under ports the only thing that I see there is com1 which I use for my lcd display.  I have com2 and parallel turned off in the bios because I am not using them.  The only thing that was added to the device manager when I installed the betabrite was the bulk usb driver.  I was prowsing through the proerties of the device and couldn't find anything at first glance that referred to a communications port.

[loadman]

The current serial driver can only handle Com 1-9 and I don't want to change that as it took weeks to find a decent free serial driver for Delphi.

I was prowsing through the proerties of the device and couldn't find anything at first glance that referred to a communications port

Did you try hitting buttons like 'advanced' and having a look in there?

So if you can re-map the betabrite to one of those(1-9) 'we are in business 'otherwise it won't be included in this plug-in at this stage.

I'm not ruling out support for USB only Betatbrite's somewhere in the future as a separate Plug-in.  
[EDIT] I just sent a mail to the manufacture of this display asking for help 

Of course someone else who has the time and knowledge may of course like to take this on themselves? (you can make plug-in's using C++ too)  

 I mean MaLa Hardware is USB only as are the LedWiz,  and I can control them fine  . But the difference is I had demo software and documentation on how to control it from the manufacturers.

I really want to concentrate on releasing this Serial Display Plug-in as it is dragging on a bit long here  :-(

[Circo]

Not a biggie, I have some emails in to some 3rd party betabrite software company to see if it can send commands via command line or an external program, once I get the info I will post an update as well.  Or worse case scenario, I can get the right one and re sell this or something.

[Circo]

Of course someone else who has the time and knowledge may of course like to take this on themselves? (you can make plug-in's using C++ too) 

 

Whoa I just make videos, I have a hard time with batch files.  Woe me of little programming talent. 

The plug-in is great, I just bought the wrong thing.

[loadman]

Not a biggie, I have some emails in to some 3rd party betabrite software company to see if it can send commands via command line or an external program, once I get the info I will post an update as well.  Or worse case scenario, I can get the right one and re sell this or something.

Good Luck   

[Circo]

I just checked on ebay and it looks like I can snag a stadard old betabrite for around $80-$100 so why all the fuss.  I think I may use both 

Bid in, the wife is gonna kill me 

[loadman]

I just checked on ebay and it looks like I can snag a stadard old betabrite for around $80-$100 so why all the fuss.  I think I may use both 

Bid in, the wife is gonna kill me 

Kewl............Will try to release the next beta version 'this year'   

[Circo]

looks sweet! 

[Dariusz]

LoadMan,

The software looks intresting. I just quickly glanced through some of the post. I have to see if I can integrate LCD into my cabinet project.

I have a LCD of type I do not know if you support.

I have a 240x128 lcd using a Toshiba T6963c controller. Can the your software operate the controller?

Curious - On a large LCD of type 240 x 128 or similar, is it possible to display the joystick controllers which are available to the game on game launch and/or when displaying the game on the FE? ie. if you have a 8 w joystick, and 10 buttons cabinet setup, and say the game only uses 4w and 2 buttons, is is possible just to display the 4W options of the joystick, and the 2 buttons on the lcd, with the option of showing the button labels of the action (ie. Jump etc). The LCD display joystick setup would change for each game.

BTW Any recommendations on large LCD(s) with USB support (optional) and where to get them.

Keep up the good work, the project looks promising, especially with the Betabrite display. Great idea to use the displays as a Macquarie to display the game name during viewing game on the  FE or displaying the game during the period the game is launched.

Tx

Dariusz

[loadman]

Beta Version 1g now available   
- Added:
* Support for two displays (1xLCD & 1xBetaBrite)
* Basic Support for NEC FC20X2JA VFD (2x20)
- Other
* 'Work around' so that info is passed when lunching PC games via a shortcut (.lnk)
* Re-wrote config prog for aesthetic reasons.

Look to top of thread for download link

Dariusz:
What you descibe is a 'Graphic LCD' not a 'Character LCD' so it it not supported by this Plug-in 'sorry' nor do I know if anything does yet as that is a more complex animal.
I would say your best bet is looking a J5 (Jonnny5) as rumors have spread about future display support 
http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/johnny/

[Circo]

It will still be awile until I get to try this out to it's fullest.  Finally took back the betabrite prism and now I can't find a standard beta brite.  There was about 10 on ebay a week ago and now there are none.  So I will keep my eyes peeled and let you know when I finally get my hands on one. 

And a personal thanks to you loadman, for that .lnk file support.  Now only waiting on the LED-WIZ plug in to get updated. woohoo!

[headkaze]

Circo: Err you took back the betabrite prism? Did you consider a USB->COM port converter? Did you contact BetaBrite and ask them if you can do standard serial COM port communication with it? It would be really stupid if this sign would only work with the supplied software. Many people purchase LED signs so they can write their own software to control them.

Great work BTW loadman, the new version looks great!

P.S How different are the two BetaBrites you support? Do they use completely different protocols?

[loadman]

Great work BTW loadman, the new version looks great!

P.S How different are the two BetaBrites you support? Do they use completely different protocols?

Thanks Mr Headkaze, I appreciate your little tips you give. As always if I can help you with something let me know

It only supports one type of betabrite at the moment as that is the only model that I have been asked to support (other than the usb one). Anyway from the docs I have seen that protocol for betabrite models is very similar, the main difference is added transitions and some graphics.

The idea with this Plug-in is you can have one LCD and one BetaBrite
 

[Circo]

Circo: Err you took back the betabrite prism? Did you consider a USB->COM port converter? Did you contact BetaBrite and ask them if you can do standard serial COM port communication with it? It would be really stupid if this sign would only work with the supplied software. Many people purchase LED signs so they can write their own software to control them.

Great work BTW loadman, the new version looks great!

P.S How different are the two BetaBrites you support? Do they use completely different protocols?

I spoke with a few 3rd party vendors that write software for beta-brites and all I got was that they don't support it yet.   When I could just take it back and spend close to $100 less for one that would work now, it made the decision fairly easy.

[Susi2005]

Hi loadman,
i tested your new version 1g with my NEC FC20X2JA. It works but i have some wishes to you 

- some game with longer name as 20 character are continue in the second line, the better solution is that the name was scrolled only in the first line so that we can use the second line for other information

- the cursor is now visible (with a _  ) , its better when the cursor not visible (cursor of 14h)

That was only a short test, there I in the moment unfortunately the correct time. sorry

Yes the new version looks great !

[loadman]

Hi loadman,
i tested your new version 1g with my NEC FC20X2JA. It works but i have some wishes to you 

- some game with longer name as 20 character are continue in the second line, the better solution is that the name was scrolled only in the first line so that we can use the second line for other information

- the cursor is now visible (with a _  ) , its better when the cursor not visible (cursor of 14h)

That was only a short test, there I in the moment unfortunately the correct time. sorry

Yes the new version looks great !

No Worries...

I will Fix for next beta version   

[PileDriver]

Hi Loadman,
I have an older Betabrite and it uses com1 - E,7,2.
Can you make the port configureable?
I'm ready to test!
Thanks

[Havok]

I really love the idea of having a changing marquee that matches the original when the game is played, however resolution and cost are definite issues. Does anyone know of something that is about the same size as the betabrite, but has more color depth than the prism, something that could at least come close to rendering a decent marquee image?

[loadman]

Hi Loadman,
I have an older Betabrite and it uses com1 - E,7,2.
Can you make the port configureable?
I'm ready to test!
Thanks

Cool... What model is that?

You can change the Com ports already with the current version.

I will make the other protocol settings configurable too for the next beta version
 

[johnperkins21]

I really love the idea of having a changing marquee that matches the original when the game is played, however resolution and cost are definite issues. Does anyone know of something that is about the same size as the betabrite, but has more color depth than the prism, something that could at least come close to rendering a decent marquee image?

You're just slightly ahead of your time, but they are definitely working on it. Here's some info on OLEDs:
http://www.universaldisplay.com/tech.htm

Who knows when this will be commercially available at a good price? I'd say we're less than 5 years out, hopefully 2008 but I haven't been keeping up on too much at this year's CES.

[PileDriver]

Hi Loadman,
I have an older Betabrite and it uses com1 - E,7,2.
Can you make the port configureable?
I'm ready to test!
Thanks

Cool... What model is that?

You can change the Com ports already with the current version.

I will make the other protocol settings configurable too for the next beta version
 

When I fire it up it said it was an "1040-4402 EZII"
I can manually send silver's LCD files to it and it works so I'm sure it's just the com port settings.
Can you can just read the windows com settings as default?
What I mean is, if I select com1 it will use the windows setting for com1.
I hope that made some sense, I'm not a programmer. 
Thanks
 

[headkaze]

You're just slightly ahead of your time, but they are definitely working on it. Here's some info on OLEDs:
http://www.universaldisplay.com/tech.htm

Who knows when this will be commercially available at a good price? I'd say we're less than 5 years out, hopefully 2008 but I haven't been keeping up on too much at this year's CES.

I remember reading about OLED technology a long time ago and they were having problems with longevity in the screens. I also remember talk of being able to literally cut LCD screens to any size you want from sheets of cardboard like rolls of OLED screen. There have been some video cameras and devices that use OLED screens already. I guess when the price comes down, this will be the ultimate dynamic marquee for a cab.

[Havok]

I'd like to see a marquee sized version of these buttons:

[youki]

You're just slightly ahead of your time, but they are definitely working on it. Here's some info on OLEDs:
http://www.universaldisplay.com/tech.htm

Who knows when this will be commercially available at a good price? I'd say we're less than 5 years out, hopefully 2008 but I haven't been keeping up on too much at this year's CES.

I remember reading about OLED technology a long time ago and they were having problems with longevity in the screens. I also remember talk of being able to literally cut LCD screens to any size you want from sheets of cardboard like rolls of OLED screen. There have been some video cameras and devices that use OLED screens already. I guess when the price comes down, this will be the ultimate dynamic marquee for a cab.

You could imagine to cover our cab from that kind of screen. We could have dynamic marquee , but dynamic side art too!!!  ....  ok..i dream.. but...who knows... 

I look for a solution for Dynamic Marquee for years now...

[loadman]

When I fire it up it said it was an "1040-4402 EZII"
I can manually send silver's LCD files to it and it works so I'm sure it's just the com port settings.
Can you can just read the windows com settings as default?
What I mean is, if I select com1 it will use the windows setting for com1.
I hope that made some sense, I'm not a programmer. 
Thanks

That is good news...  I will spit out a new beta tomorrow

The windows settings won't help you, Be patient with me. Its school holidays in Australia and the Kids want Dad to get off the computer on his days off....

I will do this tomorrow  :-)

[johnperkins21]

You could imagine to cover our cab from that kind of screen. We could have dynamic marquee , but dynamic side art too!!!  ....  ok..i dream.. but...who knows... 

I look for a solution for Dynamic Marquee for years now...

You could do a dynamic marquee now using multiple TFT LCD screens. Just line up 3 of the 8" models and send 1/3 of the marquee to each one. I'm not saying it would be easy, but it's theoretically possible right now.

On pace with those buttons Havok linked to, I had thought it would be cool to put something like that above each one of my buttons under some plexi, so depending on the game they would light up with the actual button assignment. Say for instance you launch Street Fighter 2, then right above the top row of buttons you'd see the labels "light punch," "med. punch," and "fierce punch." I don't think it would need to be TFT for that, just a regular LCD or even a small betabrite or something that covers the whole top row. Definitely dreaming, but I think it would be awesome to have a dynamic control panel in that fashion.

[loadman]

Hey guys,

Any Chance of starting a new thread for the Marquee discussion as this thread is getting too big already and it makes it hard for an idiot like me to follow all the posts for my plug-in

Thanks 

[loadman]

MaLa Serial Display Plug-In Beta 1h  now avaliable for download

Version 1h
- Added more Serial protocol options for Beta-Brite (Bits/Parity/StopBit)
- Added codes to hide cursor and scroll for NEC FC20X2JA VFD (2x20)

Look to top of thread for download link

[PileDriver]

Loadman,
We're 1 step closer.
The plug-in now sends the test messages to the betabrite. 
The button "Test LCD Files" opens the com but appears to try to send to the BPP-440 serial LCD not the betabrite. Also MALA doesn't send anything at all, It does find the LCD files.
Thanks,
Piledriver

[loadman]

Oppps My mistake. I forgot to change the LCD file code. I blame family distractions.  Real life got in the way again

MaLa Serial Display Plug-In Beta 1i   now avaliable for download

Version 1i
- Bug Fix for Beta-Brite

Look to top of thread for download link
 

[Susi2005]

MaLa Serial Display Plug-In Beta 1h  now avaliable for download

Version 1h
- Added more Serial protocol options for Beta-Brite (Bits/Parity/StopBit)
- Added codes to hide cursor and scroll for NEC FC20X2JA VFD (2x20)

Look to top of thread for download link

Hi loadman,
yes the code for hide cursor works, but the scroll code works not.
The start message "NEC....." comes good, but the game list is not really working.

When you choice a game, the display will show this name really short (1/2 sec.) an than was the whole display dark.
I mean - you can see the Text in a short flash (longer Names as 20 characters are continued in the second line.

Here a short video:
http://rapidshare.com/files/11859373/MOV00010.avi.html

[loadman]

MaLa Serial Display Plug-In Beta 1h  now avaliable for download

Version 1h
- Added more Serial protocol options for Beta-Brite (Bits/Parity/StopBit)
- Added codes to hide cursor and scroll for NEC FC20X2JA VFD (2x20)

Look to top of thread for download link

Hi loadman,
yes the code for hide cursor works, but the scroll code works not.
The start message "NEC....." comes good, but the game list is not really working.

When you choice a game, the display will show this name really short (1/2 sec.) an than was the whole display dark.
I mean - you can see the Text in a short flash (longer Names as 20 characters are continued in the second line.

Here a short video:
http://rapidshare.com/files/11859373/MOV00010.avi.html

OK I will take the NEC scroll character out. I thought it was too easy. :-)

I am not planning on having any scolling function until V2 as I need to work on the LedWiz Plug-in for a while...

For such a small display I will crop long filenames to 20 characters so it will not spill onto the 2nd line on your display type if you like

I will do this in the next beta version  :-)

Thanks

[Susi2005]

For such a small display I will crop long filenames to 20 characters so it will not spill onto the 2nd line on your display type if you like

I will do this in the next beta version  :-)

Thanks

Yes its OK for me. Thanks

[Red 5]

Is the CrystalFontz 634 supported in this?

I just version I and no joy with the SerialConfig.exe program.

No display

Thanks,
Jon

[loadman]

Is the CrystalFontz 634 supported in this?

I just version I and no joy with the SerialConfig.exe program.

No display

Thanks,
Jon

Not yet

[Red 5]

Is the CrystalFontz 634 supported in this?

I just version I and no joy with the SerialConfig.exe program.

No display

Thanks,
Jon

Not yet

Soon ? 

[loadman]

Is the CrystalFontz 634 supported in this?

I just version I and no joy with the SerialConfig.exe program.

No display

Thanks,
Jon

Not yet

Soon ? 

.. Well if you want LCD file support you will have to ask Silver
http://www.silverfoxy.f2s.com/LCDGen.html

I will add basic MaLa data support for CrystalFontz 634 in the next beta version ok?
I sent you a PM.

[loadman]

Version 1 Released
 

It should be posted on the MaLa website soon.

Feel free to keep sending me suggestions for the next version but I won't be working on this plug-in for a while. The next version will probably have more formatting/scrolling options for LCD displays when using MaLa data.

Any spare time I have for now will be spent helping Edge get V2 of the Led-Wiz finished.

Thanks

Simon

[swindus]

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/plugins.html#SerialDisplay

[Circo]

Loadman, I finally got my new (old) serial betabrite today and I have a day off tomorrow.  I will finally get a chance to test the dual display and will post back with results and hopefully pics.  Thanks again for all of your work on this.

[Circo]

After many delays and projects that the wife has me on for the new baby, I finally got it all set up and it works great! 

Couple of questions:

#1 I see in the setup that there are options to select what mala data is sent to the display but they are all grayed out.  Also the betabrite options such as color and time are greyed out as well.  Will these be activated on the next release?

#2 In V2 would it be hard to filter out the "not used" buttons from controls.ini? 
IE: Button 1: Fire, Button 2: Jump, Button 3: Not Used

After all was said and done it worked out perfectly that it didn't work with the prism.  Took that back and got my $200 then found the betabrite on ebay for $60.  The wife was much happier.

 

[loadman]

After many delays and projects that the wife has me on for the new baby, I finally got it all set up and it works great! 

 

Couple of questions:
#1 I see in the setup that there are options to select what mala data is sent to the display but they are all grayed out.  Also the betabrite options such as color and time are greyed out as well.  Will these be activated on the next release?

Yes I just put it there to show you what it was doing, I can make it configuarable for the next version

#2 In V2 would it be hard to filter out the "not used" buttons from controls.ini? 
IE: Button 1: Fire, Button 2: Jump, Button 3: Not Used

Sounds easy...  PM what you like ideally and what display it is for (LCD/Betabrite).

After all was said and done it worked out perfectly that it didn't work with the prism.  Took that back and got my $200 then found the betabrite on ebay for $60.  The wife was much happier.

Great news 

[edge]

Circo - would love to see some pics of the betabrite in action....

[loadman]

Circo - would love to see some pics of the betabrite in action....

He tells me that the beta-brite is not changing colors. 

I will change my code and then it will look good for a vid

[Circo]

I am charging my camera.....

[Circo]

Circo - would love to see some pics of the betabrite in action....

He tells me that the beta-brite is not changing colors. 

I will change my code and then it will look good for a vid

After the changes that you made so far this is the betabrite in action:

[loadman]

Looks nice...   

Shoud we change it to say B1:  or But1: to save space instead?

[Circo]

I think B1 would be a good idea!

[swindus]

Looks great!

[edge]

Nice demo, circo.  What is the width of the betabrite?  Did you uncase it?  I think I need to add one to my Golden Tee cab.

[Circo]

i am at work right now do I do not have the dimensions on me, but it is 100% intact and mounted directly to the top of my cab.  I had to bend the mounting brackets a bit to get it to fit but it was just about perfect.  I wll put up some pics with the lights on so that you can see exactlt how it is mounted.

[loadman]

i am at work right now do I do not have the dimensions on me, but it is 100% intact and mounted directly to the top of my cab.  I had to bend the mounting brackets a bit to get it to fit but it was just about perfect.  I wll put up some pics with the lights on so that you can see exactlt how it is mounted.

I sent you a new version of the plug-in to your e-mail with the minor mods you requested...

Maybe update the video then? 

[Circo]

Ok here is the video of v4 of the plugin!!

[loadman]

Nice clapper on the video   

I felt like I was at my work (Television station)

After you play with it for a few weeks
Let me know what you do and don't like about the beta-brite Plugin
- Color
- Transitions
- Data

I will change for the next version where you will also get more custom options and scrolling on LCD for MaLa data

[cornishHen]

Will this work with parallel lcds or do you have to use the Mala Hardware/Led Wiz hack?

Thanks!

[loadman]

Will this work with parallel lcds or do you have to use the Mala Hardware/Led Wiz hack?

Thanks!

Mala Hardware/Led Wiz hack  ... Which gives you better options than my plug-in   

[Timoe]

Can it read text from a user defined location?

For example:  Say you want the betabrite to read through some instructions for menus after the Front End Loads.

Like "Select game with trackball"  "Press Menu Select button to Start Game", etc.



Here is a link to a thread in the HARDWARE section regarding the betabrite unit itself

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65493.msg659050#msg659050

[loadman]

Can it read text from a user defined location?
For example:  Say you want the betabrite to read through some instructions for menus after the Front End Loads.
Like "Select game with trackball"  "Press Menu Select button to Start Game", etc.

You can already have Custom Data displayed on MaLa Start- See Attached Pic

Is that the kind of thing you mean?  When else would you want Custom data?

[jace055]

I was wondering if you could answer a question for me.  I have built a cabinet of my own and I am to the point where I need to pick the color scheme.  I am going to include a beta brite as the marque but i wanted to know if this plugin could select what color the text is displayed in.  Every video and picture I've seen of the beta brite in action shows multipule colors.  I would want solid red on every screen to match the cabinet.  Is this possible within the plugin? or on the display itself somewhere? 

[loadman]

I was wondering if you could answer a question for me.  I have built a cabinet of my own and I am to the point where I need to pick the color scheme.  I am going to include a beta brite as the marque but i wanted to know if this plugin could select what color the text is displayed in.  Every video and picture I've seen of the beta brite in action shows multipule colors.  I would want solid red on every screen to match the cabinet.  Is this possible within the plugin? or on the display itself somewhere? 

The software driving the BetaBrite determines the Colour

Custom colour selection is not yet possible in my plug-in but it can easily be done for the BetaBrite.

 It was always planned for the next version.  I will push it up my 'To Do' List

[Dave_K.]

Wow, I can't believe I just found this.  I've had a betabrite 1040-4402 EZII for a couple years acting as a sign in my gameroom.  Only today did I stumble across loadman's plugin while trying out the Mala front end.

So I went to the electronics store to get the parts and make the serial cable (as described here http://wls.wwco.com/ledsigns/alpha/cable.html), hooked it up, and it works!  Unbelievable!  For those who have the same model betabrite as me, the com port settings need to be set to 4800,E,7,1 to work.

I'll post more feedback as soon I figure out the LCD files for custom msgs.

[jace055]

I just received 2 perfect  betabrites from ebay!    After 4 hours and no sleep I have one working great.  I am using silver's lcd files.

However,  I connot seem to get the plugin to save the congfig to only use the Mala data.  I fill in the bubble and hit save then I close the program and I get the "I hope you saved" bit but on next open, it hasn't changed.  The Game select menu is also greyed out.  I can't select any options on it at all.  Did I miss something?

[loadman]

I just received 2 perfect  betabrites from ebay!    After 4 hours and no sleep I have one working great.  I am using silver's lcd files.

However,  I connot seem to get the plugin to save the congfig to only use the Mala data.  I fill in the bubble and hit save then I close the program and I get the "I hope you saved" bit but on next open, it hasn't changed.  The Game select menu is also greyed out.  I can't select any options on it at all.  Did I miss something?

Nope....  You are the first one to notice      

They will be finished in the next version 

[jace055]

I don't know if anyone has told you this but...

YOU ROCK!!!   

This is a great plug in!!  Thanks!!

[loadman]

I don't know if anyone has told you this but...

YOU ROCK!!!   

This is a great plug in!!  Thanks!!

Kewl ...  I have your e-mail so I will post you a 1.5 Beta soon......ish   

[jace055]

I would be more than happy to test.

[loadman]

I would be more than happy to test.

Attached

Can you confirm that every betabrite screen is RED? 

I don't have one   

[jace055]

I have had a chance to test.

The original:  During mala game select the text is red and always scrolls left to right.  While in game the text is red and scrolls from down to up.  When using silver's lcd files, the "in game" screens are multiple colors with random swipes and fades.

new plugin:  During game select the color is red with random swipes and fades.  Some of the built in transitions do have color that comes through like the fireworks and the rainbow fade.  During the game, its red and still scrolls bottom to top.  Silver's files are multiple color with random transition. 

hope this helps!

[loadman]

I have had a chance to test.

The original:  During mala game select the text is red and always scrolls left to right.  While in game the text is red and scrolls from down to up.  When using silver's lcd files, the "in game" screens are multiple colors with random swipes and fades.

new plugin:  During game select the color is red with random swipes and fades.  Some of the built in transitions do have color that comes through like the fireworks and the rainbow fade.  During the game, its red and still scrolls bottom to top.  Silver's files are multiple color with random transition. 

hope this helps!

Thanks for the feedback. I will look at the settings for the 'MaLa Data'

FYI I have no cotrol over color and transitions when you are using Silver's LCD files as that is built in to the file when you create them using his software.

[roger]

I know this is an old thread, just in case this has not be resolved yet and someone out there is interested, I have come across some code for the BetaBrite Prism (USB) display that could be intergrated into the Plug-in for MaLa.

http://www.industrologic.com/prissoft.htm

Take a look at the example PRISMMES.BAS to see how to talk to the display. The key is betabriteusb.dll, which is a talks to the BulkUSB driver. The DLL exposes a few simple methods such as USBBULK_Open, USBBULK_Close, USBBULK_Write, which is all that is needed to talk to the Prism.

The protocol is the same as for the BetaBrite Classic (RS-232) displays. I have successfully written a small application that sends files from Silverfoxy's LCDGen to the display. The only problem with these files is that the message format used there cause a 3 second delay from when the data is sent to when the display shows it. According the PRISMMES.BAS example, this can be overcome by sending a somewhat more complicated message with an embedded string file. Perhaps Silverfoxy can update his software to incorporate that.

[loadman]

I know this is an old thread, just in case this has not be resolved yet and someone out there is interested, I have come across some code for the BetaBrite Prism (USB) display that could be intergrated into the Plug-in for MaLa.

Sure,

Someone want to lend me one to test it? 

[Eddie_Brock]

Sorry for the thread necromancy...

I just came across this plug-in and thought it was a cool idea, and would be a great addition to the cabinet.
I've looked online and through the thread, and I wasn't able to find an answer to this:

Is it possible to have an LED display show the current high-scores in games? Similar to how they work on a Pinball machine, however for all the games? Maybe just the most recent high-scores, something to that effect.

[loadman]

Sorry for the thread necromancy...

I just came across this plug-in and thought it was a cool idea, and would be a great addition to the cabinet.
I've looked online and through the thread, and I wasn't able to find an answer to this:

Is it possible to have an LED display show the current high-scores in games? Similar to how they work on a Pinball machine, however for all the games? Maybe just the most recent high-scores, something to that effect.

Not without a lot of work, so don't hold your breath