LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2

[arzoo]

One more thing, is there any limitations on animation length? Max number of frames or total time?

The trial version is limited to 20 frames. No limitation for the registered version.

[chernandez]

Another quick questions I ordered another Pacled 64 for my cab, but ledblinky is not seeing it? My leds are working they go through the cycle when computer is turn on and keep running, but the mapping programs doesn't see them and also the led test program only see my 1st pacled64. Any ideas?
Thanks
Chris

[arzoo]

Another quick questions I ordered another Pacled 64 for my cab, but ledblinky is not seeing it? My leds are working they go through the cycle when computer is turn on and keep running, but the mapping programs doesn't see them and also the led test program only see my 1st pacled64. Any ideas?
Thanks
Chris

Chris - You'll need to use the ultimarc software to set the ID for the second controller as #2.

[chernandez]

Ok
Thanks again
Chris

[kronic24601]

Quick Question Arzoo.

When I load Hyperspin up, I have some on the controls set to "scroll up" and one to "scroll down". I set them correctly (I believe) in hyperspin, but for some reason one of the buttons won't light up. they will light up in the game itself, but not within the hyperspin program.

To be clear. Both player 1 and 2 have this feature. The only one that does light up is Player 2's "scroll up" ... which I think is set as the Left Ctrl button.

Is there something that I should be looking closer at, or something I should send you? (I'm running the most current ledblinky 5, but had the same problem with 4)

[arzoo]

Quick Question Arzoo.

When I load Hyperspin up, I have some on the controls set to "scroll up" and one to "scroll down". I set them correctly (I believe) in hyperspin, but for some reason one of the buttons won't light up. they will light up in the game itself, but not within the hyperspin program.

To be clear. Both player 1 and 2 have this feature. The only one that does light up is Player 2's "scroll up" ... which I think is set as the Left Ctrl button.

Is there something that I should be looking closer at, or something I should send you? (I'm running the most current ledblinky 5, but had the same problem with 4)

Check your DevicePortInputMap and see what input code you have assigned to the LED under that button. If it’s left or right shift, ctrl, or alt, then you should also assign the non-left/right version of that code. For example, use both KEYCODE_SHIFT and KEYCODE_LSHIFT. But if it’s not one of those keys, then you’ll need to turn on the debug and verbose options, run HS, then email me the debug.zip file and I’ll take a look.

[chernandez]

Arzoo,
Is it possible to run 2 different rgbs for one trackball? What I'm trying to do is run 2 leds at the same time for my only trackball to make it brighter.
Chris

[arzoo]

Arzoo,
Is it possible to run 2 different rgbs for one trackball? What I'm trying to do is run 2 leds at the same time for my only trackball to make it brighter.
Chris

Chris - the easiest thing to do is just wire each of the RGB wires to the same port on the controller. For example, use port 1 for both red wires, port 2 for the green wires, and port 3 for the blue wires. If you use separate ports for each RGB and you always want them to light up together, then you're just wasting ports which could be used for other LEDs. But if that's the way you already have it wired and want to keep it that way, then assign "TRACKBALL" to all the ports on the input map and that should light them up together.

[kronic24601]

Arzoo. Thanks for your help. It worked.

[scream1973]

Probably missing something stupid here.
Trying to get Mala setup with LedBlinky..
Generated my map to map 4 buttons to LED Wiz RGBs .

Setup Mala plugin and configured with the install guide ( unless i missed something stupid)
Nothing is getting lit at all
LEDblinky is active because its logging me going into all the various games being started.

[scream1973]

I got my initial issue resolved. Thanks arzoo

[arzoo]

just bump'n to get the thread back toward the top.

[skewba98z28]

Quick question.....

When I launch hyperspin LED blinky pops a box aswell saying what version, trial version, etc and speaks LEDblinky. This is all over top of my intro video. How can I disable this?

[arzoo]

Quick question.....

When I launch hyperspin LED blinky pops a box aswell saying what version, trial version, etc and speaks LEDblinky. This is all over top of my intro video. How can I disable this?

The splash screen is disabled in the registered version.

[skewba98z28]

Ah o.k. I'll be getting the full version soon 

[Harlemhero]

Can someone point me in the right direction in configuring LedBLinky to use without a frontend? Here is my situation on what I was trying to do.  Ok so i have my rgb leds and led-wiz under the trackball and my trackball doubles as a mouse.  Is there a way to map just my left click button and my right click button to light up my trackball?  Like if I left click the ball turns red and if I right click it would turn blue? and if both are pressed obviously it would be a purpleish hue.  Is this idea at all possible with the current build of LedBlinky? And if it is can someone assist me in making this happen?  Thanks for your time.

[arzoo]

Can someone point me in the right direction in configuring LedBLinky to use without a frontend? Here is my situation on what I was trying to do.  Ok so i have my rgb leds and led-wiz under the trackball and my trackball doubles as a mouse.  Is there a way to map just my left click button and my right click button to light up my trackball?  Like if I left click the ball turns red and if I right click it would turn blue? and if both are pressed obviously it would be a purpleish hue.  Is this idea at all possible with the current build of LedBlinky? And if it is can someone assist me in making this happen?  Thanks for your time.

LEDBlinky really isn't designed to respond to keyboard events (although it does have a few features that do). As I recall, someone else coded a simple app that lit the buttons as they were pressed - try searching the forums (I did a quick search but could not find it - sorry).

It still might be possible to use LEDBlinky - you could create a single frame animation for each button color, then use something like AutoHotKey to send the LEDBlinky commands to start each animation when the button is pressed. I'm just not sure if the response would be too slow.

[HaRuMaN]

Hey, can LEDBlinky work off the line-in or microphone of a computer?  Used as a standalone, to react to music via line-in or ambient sound (from mic)?

[arzoo]

Hey, can LEDBlinky work off the line-in or microphone of a computer?  Used as a standalone, to react to music via line-in or ambient sound (from mic)?

Yes - using the audio animation feature.

[HaRuMaN]

Hey, can LEDBlinky work off the line-in or microphone of a computer?  Used as a standalone, to react to music via line-in or ambient sound (from mic)?

Yes - using the audio animation feature.

Excellent.  I thought it could, but just wanted to make sure.  I may have an interesting project coming up then.   

[yotsuya]

Build Your Own DJ Booth.

[hogcia]

Hi, I am using LedBlinky 5.0 with hyperspin emu. I am running it all on windows xp sp3. I have a two player setup with 6 buttons for each player and 2 joysticks.

When I load the emu the lights work fine. When I select a mame game, the leds  corresponding to that game will light up.

The ONLY problem I am having is that when I play games that require all six buttons to light up like killer instinct, the last 2 buttons (4 & 6) for player 2 ONLY, will NOT light up. The buttons will light up while im in the hyperspin menu, but not in the game. If I disable ledbliky and leave all leds on, the 4 & 6 will work fine. 

I was reading on some issues similar to what I have hear on this forum, but they seem somewhat different. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

-Alex

[arzoo]

Hi, I am using LedBlinky 5.0 with hyperspin emu. I am running it all on windows xp sp3. I have a two player setup with 6 buttons for each player and 2 joysticks.

When I load the emu the lights work fine. When I select a mame game, the leds  corresponding to that game will light up.

The ONLY problem I am having is that when I play games that require all six buttons to light up like killer instinct, the last 2 buttons (4 & 6) for player 2 ONLY, will NOT light up. The buttons will light up while im in the hyperspin menu, but not in the game. If I disable ledbliky and leave all leds on, the 4 & 6 will work fine. 

I was reading on some issues similar to what I have hear on this forum, but they seem somewhat different. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

-Alex

Please check out this section of the LEDBlinky support page and see if it solves your problem.

[Encryptor]

Hi, I am using LedBlinky 5.0 with hyperspin emu. I am running it all on windows xp sp3. I have a two player setup with 6 buttons for each player and 2 joysticks.

When I load the emu the lights work fine. When I select a mame game, the leds  corresponding to that game will light up.

The ONLY problem I am having is that when I play games that require all six buttons to light up like killer instinct, the last 2 buttons (4 & 6) for player 2 ONLY, will NOT light up. The buttons will light up while im in the hyperspin menu, but not in the game. If I disable ledbliky and leave all leds on, the 4 & 6 will work fine. 

I was reading on some issues similar to what I have hear on this forum, but they seem somewhat different. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

-Alex

That's a unique avatar you have. Someone else here used to have the same one.

[Green Giant]

Long time no see.  Finally getting a chance to get back in after crazy job stuff over the last 2 years.

Nice to see that ledblinky is going strong and already on version 5.  I think I am still rolling with V3.0 beta.  What kind of new toys have you added since the old days?

[arzoo]

Long time no see.  Finally getting a chance to get back in after crazy job stuff over the last 2 years.

Nice to see that ledblinky is going strong and already on version 5.  I think I am still rolling with V3.0 beta.  What kind of new toys have you added since the old days?

A bunch of additional hardware and FE support plus new features have been added - my favorite is the Audio Animations. Check it all out on the LEDBlinky web site.

[Necro]

Does the latest version still work properly with Maximus Arcade?  I can't seem to get the damn thing working at all.  I have it programmed and activating my LEDs via the test program and the animation program - but actual controls coming up via either the mame test program or Maximus Arcade isn't working at all.  :/

- Figured it out.  Basically, you need to activate LedBlinky for EACH emulator in Maximus.  Interesting.

[neohusky]

Hi all

Arzoo has a nice feature which allows lighting cabinet LEDs. This is done via some clever coding which allows LEDblinky to control and run 2 animations simultaneously on different controller boards. This feature is located under the misc tab.  Currently this feature is a little restricted as the cabinet LED option only allows a single animation file to be specified.  It would be great if this could be expanded to be made more consistent with the other FE animation options ie. Allow separate cabinet animations for: FE Start-Up, FE Active, FE List Change, FE Quit and of course during game play.

To date Arzoo has done a brilliant job with LED blinky and has put considerable time and effort into it. He's probably got plenty of planned features. I'd love to have this feature added so I'm just wondering how many other would find this feature expansion useful?

[Nephasth]

Hats off to you Arzoo! I am just barely getting my feet wet with LEDBlinky on my Two-Headed Beast and I am overjoyed! Absolutely amazing work with this, keep it up! A million thank yous for creating this!

[arzoo]

Appreciate the feedback - thanks!

[Nephasth]

I'm having a couple issues with LEDBlinky/Hyperspin. First, in LEDBlinky config, when I select a preprogrammed animation from a drop down menu and click on test, nothing happens, none of my LEDs light. Second, even though I have LEDBlinky config set to light Hyperspin's controls, no controls light in Hyperspin. However, while in Hyperspin, the game controls will preview for however long I have them set to be previewed, but it only does this after I move the wheel to a different game than Hyperspin started on. All my LEDs seem to be working just fine in MAME itself. When I close out of Hyperspin I get an error log. This log was taken from running Hyperspin, starting a MAME game, and exiting out of MAME then out of Hyperspin.

[10/16/2011 09:48:23] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\dir.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="dir.txt ddd eee fff
[10/16/2011 09:48:23] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\dir2xml.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="dir2xml.exe ddd eee f
[10/16/2011 09:48:24] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\goodgames.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="goodgames.xml ddd eee
[10/16/2011 09:48:30] Timeout waiting for Primary Instance Handle.
[10/16/2011 09:48:30] Event Dropped [2].

That's pretty much greek to me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[arzoo]

I'm having a couple issues with LEDBlinky/Hyperspin. First, in LEDBlinky config, when I select a preprogrammed animation from a drop down menu and click on test, nothing happens, none of my LEDs light. Second, even though I have LEDBlinky config set to light Hyperspin's controls, no controls light in Hyperspin. However, while in Hyperspin, the game controls will preview for however long I have them set to be previewed, but it only does this after I move the wheel to a different game than Hyperspin started on. All my LEDs seem to be working just fine in MAME itself. When I close out of Hyperspin I get an error log. This log was taken from running Hyperspin, starting a MAME game, and exiting out of MAME then out of Hyperspin.

[10/16/2011 09:48:23] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\dir.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="dir.txt ddd eee fff
[10/16/2011 09:48:23] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\dir2xml.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="dir2xml.exe ddd eee f
[10/16/2011 09:48:24] Error parsing MAME cfg file [C:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\cfg\goodgames.cfg]. A string literal was not closed.  Line: 2     <system name ="goodgames.xml ddd eee
[10/16/2011 09:48:30] Timeout waiting for Primary Instance Handle.
[10/16/2011 09:48:30] Event Dropped [2].

That's pretty much greek to me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Nephasth,
If you're using a PACLED64 as your LED controller then only the curtainclose animation will run - the others won't light up anything on the 64. I've posted a fix for this - you can download the latest update on the LEDBlinky.net site.

As for the other issues, it's hard for me to tell what's going on without additional information. Please enable the Debug.log and Verbose options (on the misc options tab), run HS and a couple mame games, then email me the debug.zip file, I'll take a look.

[Nephasth]

I am indeed running a couple PACLED64s and actually created and ran an animation successfully, which had me wondering why the others didn't work. I will fire her back up and get you the information you need. Thanks for your help!

[RamjetR]

LEDBlinky really isn't designed to respond to keyboard events (although it does have a few features that do). As I recall, someone else coded a simple app that lit the buttons as they were pressed - try searching the forums (I did a quick search but could not find it - sorry).

It still might be possible to use LEDBlinky - you could create a single frame animation for each button color, then use something like AutoHotKey to send the LEDBlinky commands to start each animation when the button is pressed. I'm just not sure if the response would be too slow.

Hi Arzoo.... I'm using Autohotkey for a Pacdrive for basic keyboard/joystick/inputcontroller toggling of lights etc... basic script since its the first I've every written. So if it's usefull to anyone, feel free to play with it and pm me back with any changes you make which may be useful to me also hahaha...

Anywho, I'm using LEDBlinky 5.0.0.1 for an audio animation on my Sega Touring Car DX cabinet.
 
 


 
On PC launch it just runs the LEDBLiny.exe <audio animation> command and it just works. No problems there, looks great too I might add.
I use the below Autohotkey script to keep the 4 VR buttons lit and react to my pressing of the buttons (which are actually connected to a hacked gamepad)

The problem now comes where I want to run multiple animations.

Here's what I'm trying to acheive:

* Footwell RGB LED strip mapped to 3 Pacdrive outputs to continue audio animation at all times regardless of any front end or PC game running.

* 4 VR button LEDs to be lit and controlled by my AutoHotKey script (as I can directly control each pin directly with the PadDrive.dll call)

* The Rear mounted brakelight is driven from the Autohotkey script that monitors the brake pedal axis and just enables the pacdrive LED port for the brakelight.

* The new feature I want to add is a set of Red/Blue Police lights on the top of the cabinet to run through a sequence of police light flashes. I'm going to trigger the lights from either a button press or if I can make it work, from detecting which car I'm using in NFS:Hot Pursuit


Where I seem to fall down is, the LEDBlinky animation seems to write 0 to all none lit LEDs regardless if they are mapped to an output. This means that even though I don't have those pins mapped in LEDBlinky, the LED's controlled by Autohotkey also flicker OFF with the Audio Animation even though I'm trying to hold them on

So, is it possible to either isolate LEDBlinky from using/writing to Pacdrive outputs that aren't mapped in LEDBlinky so that I can manually override and control those LED's I want....
....or is it possible to run multiple animations at the same time? i.e. Audio Animation for the footwell LEDs and a different animation for the police LEDs (triggered by calling LEDBlinky.exe from a autohotkey script) at the same time.

If you notice, the VR buttons are normally statically ON by the AutoHotKey script I use. But the dance with the music as it appears the Audio animation is telling them to turn off but Autohotkey is trying to keep them on.

Any idea's?

Oh and here's my test code for my AutoHotKey script... have a play with it

Code: [Select]

#SingleInstance Force
#Persistent
#NoEnv
SetWorkingDir, %A_ScriptDir%


; Uses of the PacDrive.dll
; First, Load the Library with DllCall("LoadLibrary", "str", "PacDrive.dll")
; Then Initialize the PacDrive with DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacInitialize")
; To set the LEDs as a whole use DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDStates",Int,0,UShort,0)   -  Note (integer, pacdrive ID, short integer, decimal value for LEDs)
; To set induvidual LEDs, use DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,0,Int,1)   -  Note (integer, pacdrive ID, integer, pin0, integer, 1 means ON)
;
; This program, loads the PacDrive.dll (which should be in the same folder as the AHK file you ran) and initializes it.
; Then it will refresh the LED output status for Pin 0 -3 (ie the first 4 LED ports on the PacDrive) after reading what the status of the joystick buttons are
;
; For this program, I used a basic gamepad and wired the buttons to some Arcade LED buttons on my Sega Touring Car Arcade to simulate the Sega VR Buttons.
; My Buttons from left to right are, RED, YELLOW, GREEN and BLUE. It just so happened as I wired them that RED = Joy6, Yellow = Joy8, Green = Joy5 and Blue = Joy7
; Every 100ms the ChangeLED routine is called from the settimer command and it reads a Joy button, checks to see if it's (D) Down and if so, sets the LED port pin
; to (1) ON. If it is not Down, then it sets the LED port to (0) OFF.
;
; So, in the routine for checking the Joy Buttons, I can also trigger a Keystroke send too. So if you want to reconfigure a Joypad button to a Keystroke... thats's
; where you would put it.
; Also have the PACdrive.dll in the same folder you execute the ahk file from.... otherwise it won't find it to launch.



If DllCall("LoadLibrary", "str", "PacDrive.dll")
  If DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacInitialize")
   DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDStates",Int,0,UShort,0) "`n`nError: " ErrorLevel
 Else
  ExitApp
  SetTimer, ChangeLED, 50
Return


ChangeLED:

GetKeyState, state, 1joy6 ;Red Button
if state = D
{
DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,0,Int,1)
}
else
{DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,0,Int,0)
}

GetKeyState, state, 1joy8 ;Yellow Button
if state = D
{
DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,1,Int,1)
}
else
{DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,1,Int,0)
}

GetKeyState, state, 1joy5 ;Green Button
if state = D
{
DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,2,Int,1)
}
else
{
DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,2,Int,0)
}

GetKeyState, state, 1joy7 ;Blue Button
if state = D
{
DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,3,Int,1)
}
else
{DllCall("PacDrive.dll\PacSetLEDState",Int,0,Int,3,Int,0)
}

return







[RamjetR]

I thought I should explain my problem a little clearer after proof reading what I'd written.

I have a single PacDrive... only 3 pins are connected for the RGB strip for the dancing Footwell Lighting.
The rest of the LED ports I wish to drive either independantly or run a second animation sequence for the police lights whilst maintaining the music lights.

The AutoHotkey script keeps the LED's on for the VR buttons till I press them, then i can do anything with them for a simple flash in the hotkey script or simple go out. This is scripted and works well on it's own

The brakelight was pretty well explained in the last post. This is scripted and also works perfectly on it's own

When the LEDBlinky Audio animation is running however. The animation appears to address the LED output states on a whole for the device rather than just addressing the pins it was setup for?

For example, here is my Police light test LWAX.

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- (31B6905D01F51AFC4BC12516CF56C6DF02DAB185) -->
<!-- File created by LEDBlinkyAnimationEditor.exe -->
<!-- DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE MANUALLY -->
<LEDAnimation>
<Frame Number="1" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="2" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="3" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="4" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="5" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="6" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="7" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="8" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="9" Duration="50">
</Frame>
<Frame Number="10" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="11" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="12" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="13" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="14" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="15" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="16" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="17" Duration="50">
<State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>
</Frame>
<Frame Number="18" Duration="50">
</Frame>
</LEDAnimation>

The code shows that the entire 16 ports are given either a 1 or a 0 for their states. Regardless if I need unallocated pins assigned a state or not. What this does it override for a very brief moment, the status of the LED's being controlled and set by the AutoHotKey script. So my Always ON VR buttons now flicker as does my Brakelight when I'm braking (It's kinda cool to see in action even though the flickering to the sound is distracting)

I can make a small sequence in AutoHotKey without any issues at all, and I have the same police sequence already scripted. But the Audio animation addresses the entire Pacdrive and I can't seem to stop it? I looooove the audio animation and I really wish to keep it. But I'm not sure how I can use the LEDBlinky animations whilst still be able to access unallocated LED ports from LEDBlinky?

LEDBlinky must use the DLL Call to set all the outputs in one go, rather than changing only the outputs that need to be changed?

<Frame Number="1" Duration="50">
      <State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0"/>

Would changing the animation to look like

<Frame Number="1" Duration="50">
      <State Device="PACDrive" Id="1" Value=" , , , 1, , , , , , , , , , , , "/>

... make any difference and stop it setting all the other outputs to 0? or is the State Device command the reference to the command to drive all the outputs?

I rarely use MAME on this machine as you can see it's quite dedicated to PC racing and a bit of Model 2 and Model 3 arcade fun too. Thats why since I'm not using any front end, I'm finding I'm having to write a psuedo mini front end in AutoHotkey myself to control LEDBlinky and LED's for PC games.

Thanks for any advice anyone can shed on my enquiry?

[arzoo]

LEDBlinky must use the DLL Call to set all the outputs in one go, rather than changing only the outputs that need to be changed?

You are correct, for efficiency, LEDBlinky addresses the ports all at one time. But I think there is a way we can make this work. LEDBlinky has the option to light up game specific buttons and flash all the unused buttons to the audio animation. Here's the steps you can try;

1) Using the Controls Editor, create a bogus emulator - call it Sega (or anything you want).
2) Configure the emulator default controls - add all the buttons (ports) that are used by the game. These are the static LEDs that you want the audio animation to ignore. Make sure they are set as "Always On"
3) Using the LEDBlinky Config app, set the Game Play animation to Audio.
4) Start LEDBlinky with this command; ledblinky.exe "driving" "sega"
The first parameter "driving" is the rom and since it does not exist, the default emulator controls will be used. The second parameter "sega" is the important one - it must match the name you gave to the emulator in the controls editor.

I'm pretty sure this should work although I don't have time right now to do a complete test. Give it a try and if you have any problems, turn on the debug and verbose options, and then email me the debug.zip file so I can see how it's all configured.

[headkaze]

PacDrive.dll keeps track of the LED states so you can use the following function to set the state of a single LED.

Code: [Select]

bool PacSetLEDState(int id, int port, bool state)
EDIT: What I've done is move the LED state data to a shared section. This might make it possible for a AutoHotkey script to work alongside LEDBlinky but I'm not entirely sure. You can try the new dll by downloading it from here

[Necro]

Arzoo, LEDBlinky doesn't seem to be picking up GameEx controls correctly - not sure if it's something to do with what controls are detected or if it's the way I have things setup.  Select and back work, as does volume down, but page up/page down light and neither does Volume up.  Kind of odd...

[RamjetR]

Oh my, I don't know what to say. Thankyou both Arzoo and Headkaze. Your ongoing dedication to the community amazes me!

Headkaze, do I use the new dll on LEDBlinky or AutoHotkey or both? At the moment AHK and LEDBlinky are launched from different folders using their own copy of the dll each. Reckon there would be an issue running a AHK script using the same DLL that LEDBlinky is also trying to use... actually I'll have a go and find out what happens....

Arzoo, I've literally only been using LEDBlinky in it's simplest form of launching an exe with an audio animation. So bare with me while I try to get to grips with the deeper functions of setting up an fake emu and so on... I'll get back to you with how I go on it. I thought perhaps if the LEDs were set to perminently on, then I'd also have the same issue of them staying on whilst I may wish to turn them off with the script. Like the Brakelight for example. Where it needs to be completely independant of any animation so that when the brake pedal is pressed, the AHK script can control the Pin on it's own. Anywho, I'll have a crack at that too and see how I go Thankyou for the advice  

Ramjet


******* Update *******

It appears I've had some success with this. I'm not sure what I've done just yet. 4 hours of buggering around with settings and basically creating a sequence script for AHK to flash the police lights in a basic 50ms ON/OFF Red-Blue (4 hours of flashing lights is enough to give anyone a headache). It's 12:10am here in Australia and the GF isn't happy because I've been up for hours playing Police Lights on the coffee table. So I should head off to bed, but I will definately share my settings here tomorrow (or probs weekend till I can play on it a bit more).

Mapping a fake Emulator and assigning Buttons to LED's, Always Active and OFF appears to turn them OFF (as you'd imagine) and the Audio Animation when launched from the exe parameter then ignores those ports used as buttons and told to be OFF. This seems to allow my AHK script then do what ever it wants with that LED pin whether it's Turn it ON and keep it lit, or flash when a button is pushed, or in my case... Switch on the Brakelight when the Z Axis of the Logitech G27 is pushed or Turn on a flashing Police light on the top of the cabinet when I'm playing as a cop in NFS: Hot Pursuit.

The TEST button for the audio animation in the LEDBlinkyConfig.exe will apply the LED sequence to the whole PacDrive regardless of what LED's are mapped where. BUT! if it is then launched via the command line (or parsed via a script) it takes notice of what LED's to ignore and leave them free for me to use. A Trick for the noobs there I reckon... since it caught me too

Now all I need to do is find a way to monitor the Police Lights ON/OFF memory location in NFS:HP and use that to trigger the Police Light sequence.

I'll be buying LEDBlinky. Top effort and exceptional support, I'm sold on that.

[arzoo]

I thought perhaps if the LEDs were set to perminently on, then I'd also have the same issue of them staying on whilst I may wish to turn them off with the script. Like the Brakelight for example. Where it needs to be completely independant of any animation so that when the brake pedal is pressed, the AHK script can control the Pin on it's own.

I thought about this a bit further and unfortunately I don't think my suggestion (fake emu) will work  . LEDBlinky keeps track of which ports are on or off based on its own control logic - but it does not expect any other controller to alter the port states. So even though my code can virtually lock a port to keep it's state, in reality it's still sending commands to those ports. In other words, it does not ignore the locked ports, just keeps them the same value.

The only other solution I can think of to achieve what you want, would be to use two PACDrives - one for the LEDs controlled by LEDBlinky and one for the LEDs controlled by your scripts.