LEDBlinky V2 Support

[arzoo]

I was kinda annoyed that the "other emulator" features didn't work, so I spent some time reworking the code. It's actually a bit faster now and you can define LED controls and colors for each non-mame emulator or for each ROM. To achieve this, I had to add two new ini files; Controls_emu.ini and Colors_emu.ini. You'll need to configure the controls for each emulator manually, but there's no way around that.

I'm going to post this release along with all the prior patches as version 2.0.1. But before I do that, I'm hoping you guys will give it a test run. GG - I know you were working with other emulators - can you see if this feature works for you. Let me know if you have any questions on how to configure the two new ini files.

Thanks!

[Green Giant]

Hey, Great work getting out another version already.  I haven't had time to test it yet, but I wanted to let you know the previous patch for the second joystick worked great. 

I will get to testing this asap.

Thanks for all the updates.

[Green Giant]

Alright, just finished a preliminary test and everything seems to be working.

Configured the lights for nintendo, gameboy, and genesis.  They all worked correctly lighting up the individual colors like they should.

Only thing I saw weird was after I selected an emulator and it lit it up in the game selection, for example nes with two red buttons, it would then show these two buttons on the main menu screen.  The main menu is just for the various emulators.  Then if I went into mame and selected a game, it would light correctly.

Previously when I selected mame games and went back to the emulator select page, other games would not light up to the last used mame game.  This isn't really a big problem, but wanted to let you know how it was acting.

[arzoo]

Alright, just finished a preliminary test and everything seems to be working.

Configured the lights for nintendo, gameboy, and genesis.  They all worked correctly lighting up the individual colors like they should.

Only thing I saw weird was after I selected an emulator and it lit it up in the game selection, for example nes with two red buttons, it would then show these two buttons on the main menu screen.  The main menu is just for the various emulators.  Then if I went into mame and selected a game, it would light correctly.

Previously when I selected mame games and went back to the emulator select page, other games would not light up to the last used mame game.  This isn't really a big problem, but wanted to let you know how it was acting.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! I'm glad that all my recoding didn't break anything. 
 
I'll see if I can fix that odd behavior - It would help if you could run the MaLaEventLogger plugin so I can see what events are firing in what order. But no rush, I'm pretty busy this weekend and I'm sure you are also. Have a good one!

[arzoo]

Only thing I saw weird was after I selected an emulator and it lit it up in the game selection, for example nes with two red buttons, it would then show these two buttons on the main menu screen.  The main menu is just for the various emulators.  Then if I went into mame and selected a game, it would light correctly.

Previously when I selected mame games and went back to the emulator select page, other games would not light up to the last used mame game.  This isn't really a big problem, but wanted to let you know how it was acting.

Green Giant,
I'm confused, what do you mean by the "emulator select page"? When I configured MaLa for multiple emulators, I can switch between them using assigned keys or by right-click menu with the mouse, but there's no other page?

[Green Giant]

I have mala setup as a tree.  So this is the main menu layout.  Just with more emulators on mine.

Main Menu-
   -Sega Genesis
   -Nintendo
   -Mame
        -Fighting
        -Maze
        -Classics
    -Snes
    -etc.....

The thing I am seeing is when I select nintendo and check the game selection, it does the two buttons lit like it should.  Then when I go back the the main menu it lights up the names of the other emulators with the nintendo buttons like it should.  If I select sega and browse the game selection screen, it will light up three.

Previously whenever I go into mame and select a game and go back to look at other emulators, it would just be blank.  This isn't really a big problem and it could be that the ledblinky has to set the ledwiz to default lights so they stay lit while the emulator is playing, but that is a guess.

You probably won't see this at all since you don't have the mala tree in use.  And it doesn't mess up any mame lighting issues since when I go back into mame, it lights up each individual game like it should.  So if you are working on any new features put this debug at the bottom of the list.  If someone is actually bothered by this screwem.

[arzoo]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.    As you guessed, I'm not using a MaLa Tree - so I've never tested for that case. But I've been meaning to mess with that feature, so I'll get around to that eventually - and then I can get Blinky working correctly with Trees.    Tx.

[Green Giant]

The tree is really nice to use.  It lets you move up and down through the list with the select and exit buttons.  You won't have to use the left mouse click to open the options to switch.  The main reason I use it is to navigate through the thousands of mame games I have.

With the tree you can set up fighting games with different types like side scroll and versus fighting.  I also setup mine by year with every game over a two year period.

The best part is that it requires less configuration with layout naming since you can select the emulator, the layout, and the game list to go with it all manually.

[squirrellydw]

I am going to give your plugin a try, I think it might work better since I remap my buttons and have a 3 sided cocktail table.  I currently have the LEDwiz plugin installed, what do I need to do to install yours and not loose my current setting of the LEDwiz plugin in case I want to go back to it?  Also it will work with 3 LEDwiz's right?

Thanks

[arzoo]

I am going to give your plugin a try, I think it might work better since I remap my buttons and have a 3 sided cocktail table.  I currently have the LEDwiz plugin installed, what do I need to do to install yours and not loose my current setting of the LEDwiz plugin in case I want to go back to it?  Also it will work with 3 LEDwiz's right?

Thanks

Both the LEDwiz and LEDBlinky keep all their configuration files in separate folders, so there won't be any conflict keeping both installed. You'll just need to disable the plugin you're not using - what I do is change the extension from .mplugin to .mpluginx (or anything you wish).

No problem with 3 LED-Wiz's!

For your cocktail table, do you use separate MaLa controller sets for each side? I ask because I'd coded Blinky to switch sets when MaLa changes orientation but I couldn't seem to get MaLa to work that way. I configured 4 different layouts and assigned each to a different side of the screen - but the "flip" or "rotate" buttons didn't seem to do anything. The only way I could get the screen to switch was using the right-mouse menu. And then MaLa did not fire the "change orientation" event - I hope this is not a MaLa bug. Maybe you can help me understand how MaLa works with cocktail layouts so I can update LEDBlinky.

Thanks!

[squirrellydw]

I have Mala rotate based on the game when it ends so you don't have to move to select and new game.  I don't think I am using the controller sets, it wouldn't work the way I wanted it to or thought it should.  I think it's kind of hard to explain.  Maybe it I make a short video clip you can understand it better.  I will probably try to install it this weekend, maybe sooner.

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

Great program you've got there in LEDBlinky :-)

I've got a few problems and errors using it. I'm just preparing for my cabinet, and I've got two single LED's connected to my LEDWiz. One on port 16, and the other on port 32.

I've set up the input map as follows: P1B1 = port 16 KEYCODE_LCTRL, P1B2 = port 32 KEYCODE_LALT

I've also setup the mala and mame profiles accordingly, and left everything at default settings

First strange thing is that the test buttons don't seem to work in the Mame profile setup? No matter how hard I try, the test buttons will not light any LED's.

If I set LEDBlinky to light mala and mame controls, it lights the LEDs within mala no problem (animations work as well). But not within mame. So LEDBLinky is able to access and set my LEDWiz ok.

If I set LEDBlinky to just light mame controls, I get no LED's lit at all. I realised I hadn't setup the mame config directory in LEDBlinky, so set that to the Mame\cfg directory.

Now upon loading mala I get the following Exception:

     Exception EInOutError in Modul LEDBlinky.mplugin bei 0006A901

and it crashes mala, and no LEDBlinky.log file is generated either?

If I remove the Mame\cfg from LEDBlinky I can load mala, but get no LED's in MAME.

I'm running Windows Vista 32-bit if that's relevant

Please help  Let me know of anything you want me to do or run in order to help you find the problem.

Thanks,

Glenn

[Green Giant]

Are you using the very latest plugin update from this topic.  I think it is LEDBlinky_2_0_1_beta.zip at the top of this page.  Before the updates, many mame games wouldn't light at all.

On the test buttons, only one button can be set to show the test colors.  I think it might be mouse by default, at least that is what I use, but you will have to see.  Everyone won't light up individually.  Attached a picture of where it is.

Which version of mame are you running and which controls.ini file are you using.  Also, are you using the colors.ini file or just manually setting the colors?

On a side note, are you using the rgb drives or just single color leds?  You said two are connected, will you be using more in the future?

[GlennEdwards]

Hi GreenGiant,

Just to let you know that I'm using the latest plugin from this thread, 2.0.1 beta.

Regarding the test buttons I'm using the test led drop down from the left hand "single led" panel rather than the RGB panel, as my LED's are single. I've chosen the correct LED from the drop down that corresponds to how I setup the InputMap, and it doesn't light... but weirdly if I set LEDBlinky to light mala controls they do..

I'm using Mame 0.116, with version 0.111.2 of controls .ini Not using colors.ini as I'm using single LED's not RGB leds.

I do only have two LED's connected to my LEDWiz at the moment one on port 16, the other on port 32. Just testing at the moment. Will be ading many more LEDs once I get things up and running..

I'm wondering if Vista has anything to do with the problems I'm getting?

Just for info, I'm loading Bubble Bobble in Mame. I get Mala LED's lit but no Mame LED's? And as I mentioned before if i put in the mame\cfg path i cannot load mala. mala crashes till i remove the mame\cfg path from LEDBLinky.

As a side note, I also cannot perform the test speech in the speech section of LEDBlinky. When I say test speech, I get a "divide by zero" error. My text-to-speech is OK in Vista, as I can goto the control panel and speech works fine from there.

Thanks,

Glenn

[Green Giant]

Sounds like a lot of potential problems.  I know when I was testing with arzoo it was all the rgb leds.  So it could be a single led bug.  Before he updated, I was only getting a few mame games to light correctly.

The last time I used vista was on the first beta release for testing, so I am not sure about it now.  Is there a reason you show vista over xp?  Is this for a cab or standalone control panel?

Also, you should think about getting the rgb electric ice buttons.  They are pricey but with this plugin working correctly, worth the money.  I was gonna upload some videos of it running on my cab later tonight so check it out in the project announcement section, Toxic Arcade.

I assume you are using the ledblinky plugin cause you have specific maps for different games like neogeo and possibly trackball?

[GlennEdwards]

Hiya GreenGiant,

Hopefully arzoo can shed some light on the problems..

I'm actually going to use XP in the cab, but whilst that's being built etc, I'm setting everything up on my main pc, which has Vista Ultimate on it. With Mame and all the other emulators I've got about 250Gb of roms etc..so wanted to get the config correct on my main PC first before copying over the the cab PC.

Yeah I've looked those Electric Ice buttons before and they're very good! Unfortunately I'd already bought a load of normal non-translucent buttons  I'll definitely check out the vid of your cab later.. as it might just tempt me to ditch my normal buttons for electric ice buttons

I'm mainly using the LEDBlinky plugin because it seems easier to use, it supports other emu configs, and also speech, which I like because it reads out the controls as it lights them..

Glenn

[arzoo]

GlennEdwards,
I'm sure the issue with mame has something to do with the configuration - but I'm concerned that blinky is crashing when you set the mame config folder. I'm guessing this has something to do with Vista (same goes for the speech problem), but unfortunately, I don't have a Vista box to test on. I'll do some google searches to see if the version of Delphi I'm compiling with has any problems with Vista. Do me a favor and zip up all the .ini files in the LEDBlinky folder and get them to me via a pm or just post them to this thread. Also, there's a "Enable Debug Log" checkbox on the Tools tab in the config app. Check that and run MaLa, then include the Debug.log with the other .ini files.

Thanks,
arzoo

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

I've found the cause of the test button in the Profile editors not working. That was me. For some reason I had a mix of files from LED BLinky 2.0.0 and 2.0.2 I don't know how that happend, but everything is now up to date, and the test buttons are working OK and lighting the LEDs.

Blinky is still crashing, and crashing mala when it starts if I have a mame\cfg present in the blinky config. Without the mame\cfg blinky will light mala controls, but with the mame\cfg just crashes.

I've attached the ini files from my blinky directory, a debug log with blinky set to light both mala and mame controls, and another log with blinky set to just light mame controls, with the mame\cfg present. I've also attached a copy of my cfg directory as well as it's small.

Speech is also still not working after I made sure everything is up to date..

Thanks,

Glenn

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

Also just wanted to let you know that I'm a fellow Delphi programmer (since Delphi 1 back in 1996), currently coding in C# .Net, and also Delphi 2007.

About 4 months ago I started writing my own LEDWiz program, in Delphi (using Randy's LEDWiz activex control),  to listen for windows mesages from Mame, read in controls.ini etc, and light up appropriate controls when a rom was loaded into mame, speak the controls using SAPI etc. It worked pretty well, but I abandoned it when I found that Mala had the LEDBlinky and LEDWiz plugins..

If there's anything that you need me to do from the coding side, or if you need to send me short snippets of code to run / debug, to see what's going wrong, then I'd be more than pleased to help.

Thanks,

Glenn

[Green Giant]

Glenn,

I just added videos to my project topic.  Scroll to the bottom to see how the led's light up per game and speak the game buttons.  Might tempt you into blowing more money.   

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67770.0

[arzoo]

Hi Arzoo,

Also just wanted to let you know that I'm a fellow Delphi programmer (since Delphi 1 back in 1996), currently coding in C# .Net, and also Delphi 2007.

About 4 months ago I started writing my own LEDWiz program, in Delphi (using Randy's LEDWiz activex control),  to listen for windows mesages from Mame, read in controls.ini etc, and light up appropriate controls when a rom was loaded into mame, speak the controls using SAPI etc. It worked pretty well, but I abandoned it when I found that Mala had the LEDBlinky and LEDWiz plugins..

If there's anything that you need me to do from the coding side, or if you need to send me short snippets of code to run / debug, to see what's going wrong, then I'd be more than pleased to help.

Thanks,

Glenn

Glenn,
Back when I first started coding, there was no Delphi, just plain old Pascal.    I may take you up on your offer - I'd love to see the code you wrote that monitors windows messages from Mame. I've been thinking about enhancing blinky so that it speaks and blinks the game controls when you hit the Pause button in mame - kinda like J5.

Anyway, I'll send you a pm with a link to download a test version of blinky. I added an error trap around the code that reads the mame cfg files so that we can see the exact I/O error (hopefully).

[arzoo]

Glenn,

I just added videos to my project topic.  Scroll to the bottom to see how the led's light up per game and speak the game buttons.  Might tempt you into blowing more money.   

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67770.0

Your cab looks very cool! 
Nice videos!

[loadman]

Hi Arzoo,

Also just wanted to let you know that I'm a fellow Delphi programmer (since Delphi 1 back in 1996), currently coding in C# .Net, and also Delphi 2007.

About 4 months ago I started writing my own LEDWiz program, in Delphi (using Randy's LEDWiz activex control),  to listen for windows mesages from Mame, read in controls.ini etc, and light up appropriate controls when a rom was loaded into mame, speak the controls using SAPI etc. It worked pretty well, but I abandoned it when I found that Mala had the LEDBlinky and LEDWiz plugins..

If there's anything that you need me to do from the coding side, or if you need to send me short snippets of code to run / debug, to see what's going wrong, then I'd be more than pleased to help.

Thanks,

Glenn

Hey, I could sure use help too. I only started coding period a year ago with Delphi and that is just once a week.

Is that offer open to all MaLa plug-in dev's?   

[Green Giant]

Thanks, the videos would all be crap if it wasn't for your plugin, so thanks for all the help.

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

I've sent you a PM regarding the blinky test version As for my programming, I've been coding since way before Delphi 1 I meant that I've been using Delphi since version 1. Like yourself, before Delphi I was using Turbo Pascal. I've been programming really since I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (think they came out in the US as Timex) at about the age of 11... so about 22 years.

I'll dig out the code I wrote for listening to and responding to mame messages and send it on over

Loadman:> I'm happy to help out wherever needed, as like GreenGiant, our arcade cabs wouldn't look as good without these great mala plugins

Glenn

[arzoo]

As for my programming, I've been coding since way before Delphi 1 I meant that I've been using Delphi since version 1. Like yourself, before Delphi I was using Turbo Pascal. I've been programming really since I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (think they came out in the US as Timex) at about the age of 11... so about 22 years.

The first real programming I did was on an Apple IIe. I also recall my friend and I trying to write a copy/cracking program for his Commodore 64 

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

OK got the 2.0.0.6 test version of blinky now. It actually doesn't crash mala on startup anymore, and I can now get past the startup video, and into the mala menu, but upon starting a mame game, it crashes mala at that point instead..

I've attached the debug.log from blinky, and also the mala.exe.log and a screenshot of the error..

Regarding the speech problem and Vista if you want to send me a simple test app + code, maybe just a form with a single edit box, and a button that speaks whatever is in the edit box, and I can test that on Vista, and try and figure out what the problem is and fix it etc..

Thanks,

Glenn

[squirrellydw]

Hey Arzoo, your plugin works great for me, thanks.  I will let you know of any bugs I run into.  Thanks again for the great plugin.

[arzoo]

OK got the 2.0.0.6 test version of blinky now. It actually doesn't crash mala on startup anymore, and I can now get past the startup video, and into the mala menu, but upon starting a mame game, it crashes mala at that point instead..

Does it crash with all the voice features turned off? I'm trying to determine if this is a SAPI issue or something else. By the way, I've re-coded all the SAPI stuff for the next release  - hopefully it will work for you! But for now, lets just rule it out.

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

Sorry should have mentioned before, that I've got all the speech features turned off.. I turned those off when I realised that the speech preview in blinky didn't seem to work on Vista.

So we can safely rule out the current SAPI code as causing the crashing.. Hopefully the new SAPI code be OK (fingers crossed).

Glenn

[squirrellydw]

I noticed something with the speech and flash plugin.  It only seems to flash and speak the first button. In 1942 it only say fire nothing about loop same with asteroids and there are other but thats all I can remember right now

[arzoo]

I noticed something with the speech and flash plugin.  It only seems to flash and speak the first button. In 1942 it only say fire nothing about loop same with asteroids and there are other but thats all I can remember right now

squirrelleydw,
Can you turn on the debug log (there's a checkbox on the Tools tab in the Config app) and post the log after running some of the games that don't work? Thanks.

[GlennEdwards]

Hi Arzoo,

That latest version you sent me has done the trick I must be the only LEDBlinky user not using RGB led`s

Fixing that bug has had another effect. Speech is working now when I load a game in mame. I`m guessing that because I couldn`t launch a game unless I turned off the option to light mame controls, that maybe LEDBlinky doesn`t speak the game name when mame controls aren`t lit? Could this be a change you could make, useful for other users I guess?

The speech preview still causes a divide zero, but speech works in mame now:) Sounds really good with Vista`s more human sounding voice, and AT&T`s Natural Voices which I have...

Got a suggestion for a new option in blinky. Could you allow attract mode animations (specific or random) when in mala, which i'd choose instead of "light mala controls", and "demo controls". Hope you don`t mind suggestions for new features?

I`ll get that code to you regarding using the mame windows messages. It`s very easy to use, although I`m not sure if it tells you if a user has paused mame. I`ll check that out for you. I n my code I was going to hook into the keyboard drivers, and check all keypresses in windows, so that I could pick up the mame pause.

Thanks for all your help Arzoo. You`ve created a great mala plugin, and my mame cab wouldn't be the same without it..

Glenn

[GlennEdwards]

arzoo,

just to clarify my suggestion above for a new feature. I meant "allow attract mode animations in mala whether the screen saver is active or not"

again thanks for all the help

Glenn

[arzoo]

Hi Arzoo,

That latest version you sent me has done the trick I must be the only LEDBlinky user not using RGB led`s

Excellent!

Fixing that bug has had another effect. Speech is working now when I load a game in mame. I`m guessing that because I couldn`t launch a game unless I turned off the option to light mame controls, that maybe LEDBlinky doesn`t speak the game name when mame controls aren`t lit? Could this be a change you could make, useful for other users I guess?

The name should speak whether controls are lit or not. The bug was just preventing the code from getting to that point.

The speech preview still causes a divide zero, but speech works in mame now:) Sounds really good with Vista`s more human sounding voice, and AT&T`s Natural Voices which I have...

I kinda like the Berzerk voice from XP! I'm pretty sure I know how to fix the speech preview error in the config app.

Got a suggestion for a new option in blinky. Could you allow attract mode animations (specific or random) when in mala, which i'd choose instead of "light mala controls", and "demo controls". Hope you don`t mind suggestions for new features?

Loadman and I are always looking for new ideas and suggestions! As for running an animation for the MaLa UI, it's an interesting idea  - but don't you think it might be distracting while you're scrolling through menus and games? Regardless, it wouldn't be hard to add.

I`ll get that code to you regarding using the mame windows messages. It`s very easy to use, although I`m not sure if it tells you if a user has paused mame. I`ll check that out for you. I n my code I was going to hook into the keyboard drivers, and check all keypresses in windows, so that I could pick up the mame pause.

Thanks for all your help Arzoo. You`ve created a great mala plugin, and my mame cab wouldn't be the same without it..

Glenn

Thanks! Glad it's working!

[squirrellydw]

Here is the debug log.  Just so you know not all these games I played have two or more buttons.  I am still testing out everything.  I also noticed that on some games the player two buttons don't always light up, like on Galaga.  I have that game setup in cocktail mode so the game flips for player two.

[arzoo]

Here is the debug log.  Just so you know not all these games I played have two or more buttons.  I am still testing out everything.  I also noticed that on some games the player two buttons don't always light up, like on Galaga.  I have that game setup in cocktail mode so the game flips for player two.

By setting Galaga in cocktail mode, blinky thinks it's a single player game. I've never tested with cocktail games - something I guess I need to do. 

Could you run one of the games that's not speaking all the buttons correctly, like 1942 and post that log?

Tx

[squirrellydw]

I will post this tomorrow.  Would MK work also?

[arzoo]

I will post this tomorrow.  Would MK work also?

Can you clarrify what's happening... Are all the correct buttons lighting up, then the first one blinks and speaks the function, and then the game just starts (without blinking and speaking the other buttons)? Or is it that only one of the games buttons is lit?

[squirrellydw]

they all light up correctly but only the first button is flashing and speaking.  I will post another log very soon.