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| boboli:
so just to clarify, with Mala hardware, I just plug led's into the unit (like an ipac) - no soldering or transistors to worry about? Why would I want RGB LED's - isn't color dictated by the color of the buttons, or would you use clear buttons and dictate colors with the RGB LED? |
| horseboy:
No offense here, but have you even tried searching for any of this info? :dunno |
| boboli:
yes, I have searched, have you? There are a million threads & a million posts, and it's quite overwhelming if you're just starting out. A lot of the threads are very technical, and I'm looking for very basic info that doesn't seem to be directly addressed anywhere else. |
| QuixoteQuest:
I've been hoping to find an easy how-to guide for installing the LED-Wiz. Lots of info out there scattered all over. Plus as a GameEx user I've been following headkaze's progress with excitement for what he's been putting together to deliver a cool FE implementation using the gear. My main fear is getting it powered correctly. GGG lists their RGB LEDs as 60ma each. 500ma max spec'd for each LED-Wiz board. So even if you have one LED feed going into each of the 32 ports, you're already at 640ma if all LEDs were firing at full capacity. SO how does one plan on what power the board is actually going to be using? Or does everyone just fire their boards with external power.? (And do people feed that off the PC power supply or with a a DC power supply?) If you use a power supply cord with an in-line fuse per GGG's recommendation, how do you plan what size of fuse is best, so it is neither too low rated nor too high rated? Can you gang up the same power feed when using multiple boards? It seems the installation is nearly as easy as doing the usual wiring a CP requires, especially if you buy GGG's products. The RGB LED boards are already loaded with capacitors, can come with the ribbon leads, and if you use the ICE buttons there is already a hole drilled to take the LED and each board snaps right in place. If you are comfortable stripping a ribbon it appears pretty easy to get these wired up. The thing that is more confusing is that GGG really hasn't seemed to integrate strong software support with their product yet, and the instructions are unclear (to me) about how to properly implement multiple boards. Therefore, as I'm a little confused about how multiple boards get used well, there is part of me who wants to do it all with one LED-Wiz. Certainly external power supply would be required in this case. But as long as I'm willing to have buttons (like the 1p and 2p 7-button clusters) behave and light the same as other buttons I probably could do it all with one board. My hunch is that some effects may not work well if I double up on the outputs, but other than that the LED-wiz sounds like it can handle it. I have 14 buttons (7 ea player), and a trackball that would be cool to RGB light. (I already have a lighted trackball, but am considering getting GGG's RGB trackball upgrade kit.) I wonder, though, if it'll look stupid not to go ahead and light all my other buttons like the 5 Asteroids buttons and 3 mouse buttons. And then there are the pinball buttons if I really wanted to bling it out. Since the ICE buttons are white when unlighted I'm thinking perhaps short of a few unlighted admin buttons that it'd look better to have all the panel done in ICE. I couldn't even do my whole panel in distinct RGB buttons, not even including the pinball buttons and admin buttons, without moving up to 3 LED-Wiz devices. Wow the price goes up when one does that. So it seems figuring out how to double up effectively is the most cost effective if I want a whole panel lighted in RGB. And I'd probably need two LED-Wiz boards no matter what I try to do. |
| loadman:
--- Quote from: boboli on January 26, 2007, 05:34:22 pm ---so just to clarify, with Mala hardware, I just plug led's into the unit (like an ipac) - no soldering or transistors to worry about? --- End quote --- Correct if you buy the pre-made kit.. USB Plug in. Then Plug the Leds into you Buttons (need a 8mm hole). To be fair it's more expensive as it's handmade but it is trully plug-n-play. It just works --- Quote ---Why would I want RGB LED's - isn't color dictated by the color of the buttons, or would you use clear buttons and dictate colors with the RGB LED? --- End quote --- Have a look a the GGG site. If you want to go that way you can buy these at extra cost. The buttons can change color if you want http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=238 |
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