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Author Topic: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2  (Read 552884 times)

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gumby510

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1400 on: December 05, 2017, 02:46:09 am »
I'm using MAMEUI64 as my front end. Can I just use this FE to work with LED blinky? I'm so lost trying to figure this all out lol.

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1401 on: December 05, 2017, 09:07:38 am »
I'm using MAMEUI64 as my front end. Can I just use this FE to work with LED blinky? I'm so lost trying to figure this all out lol.

Yes, there's a section in the Install/Config pdf that explains how; Running LEDBlinky in Stand-Alone (Command Line) Mode.

LEDBlinky can definitely be overwhelming at first. The support page has some good video tutorials. You can also post questions here or contact me via email.
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gumby510

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1402 on: December 07, 2017, 02:05:04 am »
I found a small section on how to set up using just mameui. I set up all the key codes and every color lights up. I start Led blinky with the run command and then start mame. Nothing is lighting up at all. I just want to have everything light up to one color. Is there an easy way to do that? I know I'm doing something wrong that should be simple to do.


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arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1403 on: December 07, 2017, 01:42:54 pm »
I found a small section on how to set up using just mameui. I set up all the key codes and every color lights up. I start Led blinky with the run command and then start mame. Nothing is lighting up at all. I just want to have everything light up to one color. Is there an easy way to do that? I know I'm doing something wrong that should be simple to do.

When using LEDBlinky with MAMEUI as the front-end, the MAME Output System must be working correctly. These support links should help:
http://ledblinky.net/Support.htm#MameUIConfig
http://ledblinky.net/Support.htm#MAMEOutputsProblem

But if all you want to do is light up your control panel with a static set of colors (not changing per game), you can use the LEDBlinky Animation Editor and create a single frame animation and then start the animation with
Code: [Select]
/ledblinky.exe <your animation>.lwax
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gumby510

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LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1404 on: December 08, 2017, 01:07:33 am »
I found a small section on how to set up using just mameui. I set up all the key codes and every color lights up. I start Led blinky with the run command and then start mame. Nothing is lighting up at all. I just want to have everything light up to one color. Is there an easy way to do that? I know I'm doing something wrong that should be simple to do.

When using LEDBlinky with MAMEUI as the front-end, the MAME Output System must be working correctly. These support links should help:
http://ledblinky.net/Support.htm#MameUIConfig
http://ledblinky.net/Support.htm#MAMEOutputsProblem

But if all you want to do is light up your control panel with a static set of colors (not changing per game), you can use the LEDBlinky Animation Editor and create a single frame animation and then start the animation with
Code: [Select]
/ledblinky.exe <your animation>.lwax

I Ran in the command prompt
c:\mame\ledblinky\ledblinky.exe greencp.lwax It only did one quick flash. How do I make it one single frame and not turn off? I edited an existing pattern and renamed it and messed with that but it's just flashing around. I just want them to turn on one color. Thanks for your help I mess around with it some more. After a bit more time I just took an existing pattern.lwax renamed it and edited it to all one color. In the animation editor hitting run animation works. I go to run it and it starts up then does one quick multi colored pattern and fades to off. Going to watch those tutorials for s third time tomorrow lol.


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« Last Edit: December 08, 2017, 03:26:32 am by gumby510 »

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1405 on: December 08, 2017, 09:15:06 am »
I Ran in the command prompt
c:\mame\ledblinky\ledblinky.exe greencp.lwax It only did one quick flash. How do I make it one single frame and not turn off? I edited an existing pattern and renamed it and messed with that but it's just flashing around. I just want them to turn on one color. Thanks for your help I mess around with it some more. After a bit more time I just took an existing pattern.lwax renamed it and edited it to all one color. In the animation editor hitting run animation works. I go to run it and it starts up then does one quick multi colored pattern and fades to off. Going to watch those tutorials for s third time tomorrow lol.

That's strange - the animation should keep running in a loop. Try turning off the "Use MAME to Trigger the Game Start/Stop Events" option (on the MAME tab). If that doesn't help, turn on the Debug Log option, run LEDBlinky from the command line to start the animation, then email me back the debug.ZIP file and I'll take a look.
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gumby510

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LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1406 on: December 08, 2017, 10:41:27 pm »
I Ran in the command prompt
c:\mame\ledblinky\ledblinky.exe greencp.lwax It only did one quick flash. How do I make it one single frame and not turn off? I edited an existing pattern and renamed it and messed with that but it's just flashing around. I just want them to turn on one color. Thanks for your help I mess around with it some more. After a bit more time I just took an existing pattern.lwax renamed it and edited it to all one color. In the animation editor hitting run animation works. I go to run it and it starts up then does one quick multi colored pattern and fades to off. Going to watch those tutorials for s third time tomorrow lol.

That's strange - the animation should keep running in a loop. Try turning off the "Use MAME to Trigger the Game Start/Stop Events" option (on the MAME tab). If that doesn't help, turn on the Debug Log option, run LEDBlinky from the command line to start the animation, then email me back the debug.ZIP file and I'll take a look.

Ok thank you that worked unchecking that. The one I made is not working right but that's on me trying to learn how to make a new animation. The one I edited works great thx. Now is there anyway to make this script run once I turn on the pc? Or do I run it every time in the cmd line? Also maybe setup a hot key with a program to press a button to make it run? Thanks again at least I'm getting there. Now to mess with the mame ui part. One other thing when I press any of the buttons they all flash for a second and then go back to solid green. Anyway to stop it from flashing on a button press?


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« Last Edit: December 08, 2017, 11:03:46 pm by gumby510 »

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1407 on: December 09, 2017, 11:28:09 am »
Ok thank you that worked unchecking that. The one I made is not working right but that's on me trying to learn how to make a new animation. The one I edited works great thx. Now is there anyway to make this script run once I turn on the pc? Or do I run it every time in the cmd line? Also maybe setup a hot key with a program to press a button to make it run? Thanks again at least I'm getting there. Now to mess with the mame ui part. One other thing when I press any of the buttons they all flash for a second and then go back to solid green. Anyway to stop it from flashing on a button press?

You can create a windows script or batch file with the LEDBlinky command and then put a shortcut to the script in your windows startup folder - that way it will run when the pc boots. Google should be able to help with this. As for the buttons flashing on key press, try setting the "Button Flash" option to "None" - it's on the "FE Options" tab.
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Johnisnotcool

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1408 on: December 11, 2017, 03:07:06 pm »
Quick question arzoo. I'm sorry if this has been asked but spend the last hour looking and couldn't find anything. I'm trying to get LEDBlinky to use voice to say "A Button." When I type this in Controls Editor it works fine. When I'm using launchbox and the game loads it comes out as "a button" instead of "A button."    .... I hope that makes sense very confusing to try and explain without being able to make the sounds lol.


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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1409 on: December 15, 2017, 04:01:09 pm »
Hi Arzoo,

I was hoping you could help with a settings question.  I am setting up winvice for Commodore 64.  The emulator itself only maps one button.  I have mapped about 8 other buttons but the mapping is all done through joytokey, not the emulator.  I set up the emulator in the controls editor which worms for the one button.  What settings can I use to light up all of the other buttons mapped through joytokey?

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1410 on: December 15, 2017, 04:46:34 pm »
Quick question arzoo. I'm sorry if this has been asked but spend the last hour looking and couldn't find anything. I'm trying to get LEDBlinky to use voice to say "A Button." When I type this in Controls Editor it works fine. When I'm using launchbox and the game loads it comes out as "a button" instead of "A button."    .... I hope that makes sense very confusing to try and explain without being able to make the sounds lol.

LEDBlinky uses the Windows TTS engine for the audio and there special tags you can add to alter hour is sounds. For example <spell>LED</spell> will speak L E D rather than LED. I know you can also change the pitch and speed. I'd give google a search.
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arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1411 on: December 15, 2017, 04:57:37 pm »
Hi Arzoo,

I was hoping you could help with a settings question.  I am setting up winvice for Commodore 64.  The emulator itself only maps one button.  I have mapped about 8 other buttons but the mapping is all done through joytokey, not the emulator.  I set up the emulator in the controls editor which worms for the one button.  What settings can I use to light up all of the other buttons mapped through joytokey?

Let's say for example your CP has a button, say P1B1, and that button is wired to joystick 1 button 1 which is then converted to A (via joytokey). The emulator is configured to use A for that button. In the LEDBlinky controls editor you need to set the input code for P1B1 to KEYCODE_A for that emulator's default controls or the game specific controls. Then LEDBlinky will light up the LED controller port that's assigned to KEYCODE_A. Hope this makes sense.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1412 on: December 16, 2017, 01:27:07 am »
Thanks, yes it makes sense but that is the problem.  This emulator only has one programmable button called "fire".  That one will light up.  The other "buttons" are simply keyboard keys and are not mappable in the emulator, they are just used as is.  So for instance I can use joytokey to map Button 2 to "q" but the letter is just passed as "q" in the emulator and not remapped again in the emulator.  The use of keyboard stokes is done within the games and not the emulator itself.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1413 on: December 16, 2017, 09:05:00 am »
Thanks, yes it makes sense but that is the problem.  This emulator only has one programmable button called "fire".  That one will light up.  The other "buttons" are simply keyboard keys and are not mappable in the emulator, they are just used as is.  So for instance I can use joytokey to map Button 2 to "q" but the letter is just passed as "q" in the emulator and not remapped again in the emulator.  The use of keyboard stokes is done within the games and not the emulator itself.

For lighting up the buttons, it doesn't matter that the emulator isn't using the inputs. If you add them to the default controls for the emulator (via Controls Editor), and the associated input codes map to the correct LED ports, then the buttons will light up. Basically you're telling LEDBlinky that the buttons are used by the emulator even though the emulator doesn't use them.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1414 on: December 16, 2017, 07:44:02 pm »
Ah, I see, I think I am squared away now.  I just need to ignore whatever joytokey or the emulator are doing and solely focus on what key code is assigned in the LEDBlinky Input Map.

Curious, what is the point of the keycode assignment?  Is it only for MAME?

Thanks again for your helpful advice, arzoo.  Fine product and great customer support!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1415 on: December 16, 2017, 08:35:52 pm »
Ah, I see, I think I am squared away now.  I just need to ignore whatever joytokey or the emulator are doing and solely focus on what key code is assigned in the LEDBlinky Input Map.

Curious, what is the point of the keycode assignment?  Is it only for MAME?

Thanks again for your helpful advice, arzoo.  Fine product and great customer support!

Well normally you would match the input codes used by the emulator so that the correct button light up. But in your case you wanted extra buttons to light up. As for mame, the input codes are pre-defined from the mame .cfg files, so it's not necessary to use the controls editor unless you want to override the colors or voice commands.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1416 on: December 21, 2017, 08:20:32 pm »
LED Blinky doesn't seem to want to boot.  I have tried everything I can think of.  I have manually started the program then run hyperspin.  I set it to enabled in HyperHQ.  I don't get the nag screen or anything.  It just does absolutely nothing at all times even when its running in the background.

Any idea why?


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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1417 on: December 21, 2017, 10:58:28 pm »
LED Blinky doesn't seem to want to boot.  I have tried everything I can think of.  I have manually started the program then run hyperspin.  I set it to enabled in HyperHQ.  I don't get the nag screen or anything.  It just does absolutely nothing at all times even when its running in the background.

Any idea why?

Enable the Debug Log option (Misc Options tab), run HS and then check the debug.log file for any errors. If you email me the debug.ZIP I'll take a look also.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1418 on: December 22, 2017, 03:04:41 pm »
LED Blinky doesn't seem to want to boot.  I have tried everything I can think of.  I have manually started the program then run hyperspin.  I set it to enabled in HyperHQ.  I don't get the nag screen or anything.  It just does absolutely nothing at all times even when its running in the background.

Any idea why?

Enable the Debug Log option (Misc Options tab), run HS and then check the debug.log file for any errors. If you email me the debug.ZIP I'll take a look also.

Thanks Arzoo.. I actually have it enabled already and the only entries in there show no errors.

And I just realized WHY it wasn't working.  HyperHQ keeps crashing if I enter a file browser to select LEDBlinky path so I did it manually in the settings.ini, but I directed it straight to LEDBlinky.exe not the PATH to LEDBlinky.  Just tried it again and it works great!

Thanks

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1419 on: December 31, 2017, 10:01:17 pm »
Greetings all! Just getting back into MAME and finished my build and install. I am using a mameroom 2P control panel and LaunchBox (I am new to launchbox previously having used only HyperSpin). I have an ultimarc UIO controller with Trackball and Spinner and am using LEDBlinky. All my buttons are RGB LEDs and I have 3 joysticks (2 8-way HAPP competitions [not LED] and 1 dedicated 4-way RGB LED joystick).

I am pretty sure I have it "working" (of course it's a lot of little details to dial in) and I have created the lighting map and such. When I launch Mortal Kombat, for example, the proper 1P and 2P and start/coin buttons light up and are the correct color. But here's my question (and I apologize if this has been answered somewhere already!!): As the UIO doesn't have enough switch pins for all the buttons/switches on the control panel I have some buttons/switches that are physically wired together. A good example would be P1B1 (L.Cntrl), P1B2 (L. Alt), and P1B3 (Space). Since this control panel has dedicated Asteroids and Missile command buttons it means that when I launch Mortal Kombat it not only lights up the P1 punch block and kick buttons (blue, white, red) but it lights up the three dedicated buttons for Asteroids (hyperspace, thrust, fire) at the top of the control panel as well as the three dedicated buttons for Missile Command (Alpha, Delta, Omega) in the lower middle of the control panel in blue, white and red.

So what do I need to do to make it so that in mortal kombat these other buttons which are physically wired together and mapped to the same keycode do *NOT* light up? In the original generation of the LEDBlinky map I named these things all differently (I think you have to otherwise LEDBlinky will not allow you to do it) so hyperspace is labeled hyperspace in ledblinky--not P1B3. And of course it has it's own RGB LED wiring--that is not shared. Conversely, when playing Asteroids I would not want the P1B1 to light up (next to the 8-way joystick)--I would only want the Asteroids' dedicated Fire button to light up. And in missile command I only want the 3 base buttons (labeled Alpha, Delta, Omega in LEDBlinky) to light up, not the three up in the dedicated Asteroids section (labeled Thrust, Fire, Hyperspace in LEDBlinky) or the three in the 8-way joystick area (labeled P1B1, P1B2, P1B3 in LEDBlinky).

Thanks!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1420 on: January 01, 2018, 06:41:34 pm »
Greetings all! Just getting back into MAME and finished my build and install. I am using a mameroom 2P control panel and LaunchBox (I am new to launchbox previously having used only HyperSpin). I have an ultimarc UIO controller with Trackball and Spinner and am using LEDBlinky. All my buttons are RGB LEDs and I have 3 joysticks (2 8-way HAPP competitions [not LED] and 1 dedicated 4-way RGB LED joystick).

I am pretty sure I have it "working" (of course it's a lot of little details to dial in) and I have created the lighting map and such. When I launch Mortal Kombat, for example, the proper 1P and 2P and start/coin buttons light up and are the correct color. But here's my question (and I apologize if this has been answered somewhere already!!): As the UIO doesn't have enough switch pins for all the buttons/switches on the control panel I have some buttons/switches that are physically wired together. A good example would be P1B1 (L.Cntrl), P1B2 (L. Alt), and P1B3 (Space). Since this control panel has dedicated Asteroids and Missile command buttons it means that when I launch Mortal Kombat it not only lights up the P1 punch block and kick buttons (blue, white, red) but it lights up the three dedicated buttons for Asteroids (hyperspace, thrust, fire) at the top of the control panel as well as the three dedicated buttons for Missile Command (Alpha, Delta, Omega) in the lower middle of the control panel in blue, white and red.

So what do I need to do to make it so that in mortal kombat these other buttons which are physically wired together and mapped to the same keycode do *NOT* light up? In the original generation of the LEDBlinky map I named these things all differently (I think you have to otherwise LEDBlinky will not allow you to do it) so hyperspace is labeled hyperspace in ledblinky--not P1B3. And of course it has it's own RGB LED wiring--that is not shared. Conversely, when playing Asteroids I would not want the P1B1 to light up (next to the 8-way joystick)--I would only want the Asteroids' dedicated Fire button to light up. And in missile command I only want the 3 base buttons (labeled Alpha, Delta, Omega in LEDBlinky) to light up, not the three up in the dedicated Asteroids section (labeled Thrust, Fire, Hyperspace in LEDBlinky) or the three in the 8-way joystick area (labeled P1B1, P1B2, P1B3 in LEDBlinky).

Thanks!

The port labels don't have any affect on which LEDs light up for each game - it's the input codes that are important. So you would be correct labeling the primary button P1B1 and the dedicated Asteroid button as Hyperspace (or whatever you wish). But the issue as you've figured out is that with the same input code for both sets of RGB ports, both LEDs will light up.

Unfortunately there's really no simple solution. You could purchase a second keyboard encoder so you can use unique input codes for every button. Or maybe it's possible to dynamically program the UIO and change the assigned input codes when certain games (like Asteroids) are launched - then in the LEDBlinky Input Map you can assign unique input codes for each button and have the keyboard encoder (UIO) change on the fly. Other than that, I don't know what to suggest - LEDBlinky responds to the input codes and if more than one button shares the same input code then they all light up.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2018, 07:13:06 pm by arzoo »
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1421 on: January 02, 2018, 12:54:36 pm »
I'm using the latest versions of HyperSpin, RocketLauncher, and LedBlinky, and I'm using an Ultimarc I-Pac Ultimate.  Everything is working fine, EXCEPT if I turn on audio animation in LedBlinky.  It will work fine for several minutes, and then it appears to crash the I-Pac and the I-Pac will no longer function.  I have physically open up my CP and unplug the USB cable and RGB power cables and reboot my computer for things to start working again.  If I set Game Play animation to nothing, everything works fine. 

Any thoughts?  I tried searching for this problem and saw that some people had similiar problems in earlier versions of LedBlinky but those were supposedly resolved.  Well I've got the problem with the latest version and I'm disappointed that I can't use the audio animation without locking up the I-Pac after a few minutes.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1422 on: January 03, 2018, 01:23:14 pm »
I'm using the latest versions of HyperSpin, RocketLauncher, and LedBlinky, and I'm using an Ultimarc I-Pac Ultimate.  Everything is working fine, EXCEPT if I turn on audio animation in LedBlinky.  It will work fine for several minutes, and then it appears to crash the I-Pac and the I-Pac will no longer function.  I have physically open up my CP and unplug the USB cable and RGB power cables and reboot my computer for things to start working again.  If I set Game Play animation to nothing, everything works fine. 

Any thoughts?  I tried searching for this problem and saw that some people had similiar problems in earlier versions of LedBlinky but those were supposedly resolved.  Well I've got the problem with the latest version and I'm disappointed that I can't use the audio animation without locking up the I-Pac after a few minutes.

Xpendable

There's really no difference between the audio animation and a standard animation except that the audio animation may be pushing more data to the hardware (UIO). Try testing with a non-audio animation and see if the problem occurs. I would also contact Andy at Ultimarc - in the past he's been able to help with this kind of issue.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1423 on: January 03, 2018, 05:41:14 pm »
I did actually already reach out to Andy.  He recommended against doing audio animations in general because of the performance impact to the computer and USB bus, but sent me some firmware to try.  I have not yet had a chance to update the firmware with what he sent.  I just got my board from Ultimarc less than a month ago so hopefully he didn't just send the same firmware that it already had.  I'm also curious about how the RGB control data is sent to the I-Pac and in what structure.  If he's concerned about performance impact to the computer, I'm sort of wondering how the data is being sent.  I may go download the sample programs he has on the developer page to see what they look like.  The data throughput for USB is actually pretty high... For comparison, I have some Light-O-Rama lighting controllers that are used for professional animated light shows, and I used to run those off this same computer.  You could daisy chain upwards of 240 units for control of upwards of 3840 channels all controlled from the same USB port.  Granted the data structure and frequency of data is going to be totally different than what LEDBlinky is doing... but I'd be interested to see the difference.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1424 on: January 03, 2018, 08:27:10 pm »
I did actually already reach out to Andy.  He recommended against doing audio animations in general because of the performance impact to the computer and USB bus, but sent me some firmware to try.  I have not yet had a chance to update the firmware with what he sent.  I just got my board from Ultimarc less than a month ago so hopefully he didn't just send the same firmware that it already had.  I'm also curious about how the RGB control data is sent to the I-Pac and in what structure.  If he's concerned about performance impact to the computer, I'm sort of wondering how the data is being sent.  I may go download the sample programs he has on the developer page to see what they look like.  The data throughput for USB is actually pretty high... For comparison, I have some Light-O-Rama lighting controllers that are used for professional animated light shows, and I used to run those off this same computer.  You could daisy chain upwards of 240 units for control of upwards of 3840 channels all controlled from the same USB port.  Granted the data structure and frequency of data is going to be totally different than what LEDBlinky is doing... but I'd be interested to see the difference.

Honestly I'm not sure anyone has ever reported an issue the same as what you're seeing (although my memory is not always perfect). Do you have another PC you could try - that might rule out the USB drivers and other PC hardware. You can copy the entire LEDBlinky folder to a USB drive and copy it over.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1425 on: January 04, 2018, 09:57:35 am »
I found several forum threads that described this exact issue in years past... I think somewhere between 2012-2014... I think Andy provided a firmware update back then that apparently solved the problem.  There was a link one of the forum threads to a YouTube video where somebody had captured the exact thing that was happening to me.

So the firmware version that Andy sent me the other day is 148.  My board was loaded with 144.  I updated it to 148 and tried audio animation for a short while and did not encounter a problem, but I also have not done enough testing yet in terms of length of gameplay or number of games tested.  I ran out of time last night to do much more than the brief test that I did.

I do have another computer I can test this with, but it would not be an apples to apples comparison.  The computer I'm using on my cab is an older 2.9 Ghz DuoCore and my other computer is quad core i7 with some heavy duty hardware.  I would not be surprised if I'm unable to recreate the problem on that computer.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1426 on: January 04, 2018, 10:25:28 am »
I found several forum threads that described this exact issue in years past... I think somewhere between 2012-2014... I think Andy provided a firmware update back then that apparently solved the problem.  There was a link one of the forum threads to a YouTube video where somebody had captured the exact thing that was happening to me.

So the firmware version that Andy sent me the other day is 148.  My board was loaded with 144.  I updated it to 148 and tried audio animation for a short while and did not encounter a problem, but I also have not done enough testing yet in terms of length of gameplay or number of games tested.  I ran out of time last night to do much more than the brief test that I did.

I do have another computer I can test this with, but it would not be an apples to apples comparison.  The computer I'm using on my cab is an older 2.9 Ghz DuoCore and my other computer is quad core i7 with some heavy duty hardware.  I would not be surprised if I'm unable to recreate the problem on that computer.

lol, I can never trust my memory! Glad the firmware upgrade seems to have solved the issue.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1427 on: January 05, 2018, 10:08:29 am »
Unfortunately it happened again.  I was playing Street Fighter III with my daughter when the I-Pac Ultimate I/O froze about 10 or 15 minutes into gameplay.  All the button colors froze and the CP no longer functioned.  MAME and HyperSpin were both still running as if nothing had happened.   I have a regular USB keyboard underneath in a keyboard drawer, so I pulled that out and was able to break out of MAME and shutdown HyperSpin.  I immediately heard the Windows "Dig!" "Dig!" "Dig!" default sound over and over again.  I opened up notepad and saw that the Ultimate I/O was sending the letter "k" over and over again in a continuous stream.  Rather then pulling USB power from the Ultimate I/O, decided to just try a reboot.  Upon reboot, the Ultimate I/O was still frozen and Windows threw up some kind of error about the driver.  I finally had to open up the CP and remove power from the Ultimate I/O so it would reset.  In the future, I think I'll try a shutdown instead of a reboot since that should kill power to the Ultimate I/O.  I've already informed Andy and he's given me a new firmware to try that I think is supposed to have a failsafe to keep it from sending a stuck key.  Have not had a chance to try this yet.  I should add that I currently have LEDBlinky to play FE animation (not audio) and left everything on over night, and the animation is still happily playing this morning.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1428 on: January 09, 2018, 08:16:15 pm »
Wow
Just want to give a big shout out to arzoo!!!
Thanks bud!!!!!!!!!!!
10 years and still active answering questions and such
My mame cab has been sitting in silence since my HD died about a year ago
Lucky I have a few dedicated cabs and pins to keep me occupied :-)
I have a new HD with Hyperspin waiting to be installed
I want to add LED's to my control panel buttons as well
Its just finding the time, kids, life, and responsibilities keep getting in the way
I'll be posting questions soon
Thanks again


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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1429 on: January 09, 2018, 09:27:12 pm »
Wow
Just want to give a big shout out to arzoo!!!
Thanks bud!!!!!!!!!!!
10 years and still active answering questions and such
My mame cab has been sitting in silence since my HD died about a year ago
Lucky I have a few dedicated cabs and pins to keep me occupied :-)
I have a new HD with Hyperspin waiting to be installed
I want to add LED's to my control panel buttons as well
Its just finding the time, kids, life, and responsibilities keep getting in the way
I'll be posting questions soon
Thanks again

Has it been that long! What pins?
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1430 on: January 10, 2018, 08:00:13 pm »
From left to right

Lord of the Rings
The Simpsons Party Pinball
AC/DC premium
Metallica premium
Stern Star Trek premium
Twilight Zone
Addams Family





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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1431 on: January 11, 2018, 08:16:32 am »
From left to right

Lord of the Rings
The Simpsons Party Pinball
AC/DC premium
Metallica premium
Stern Star Trek premium
Twilight Zone
Addams Family

Very nice collection!  :cheers:
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1432 on: March 07, 2018, 02:33:15 am »
Hi arzoo  and anyone else who may be able to help.  A few questions if I may:

Anyone running the following?
HyperSpin
HyperMarquee w/ EDS
Rocket Launcher
LEDBlinky

I’ve been running into issues with HyperSpin losing focus on game exit.  This is causing me to have to click on the screen to refocus HS.

also need help with LEDBlinky launching and running correctly thru EDS.  It launches and switches to the game on start but when exiting a game, LEDBlinky doesn’t seem to get triggered every time.  And LB remains active even when exiting HS back to desktop.

Last bu5 not least, multiple copies of the LB icon will remain in th3 system tray, every instance of it starting thru EDS.  If I simply mouse over, these icons will disappear.

Any help is appreciated!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1433 on: March 12, 2018, 09:31:38 am »
Hi arzoo  and anyone else who may be able to help.  A few questions if I may:

Anyone running the following?
HyperSpin
HyperMarquee w/ EDS
Rocket Launcher
LEDBlinky

I’ve been running into issues with HyperSpin losing focus on game exit.  This is causing me to have to click on the screen to refocus HS.

also need help with LEDBlinky launching and running correctly thru EDS.  It launches and switches to the game on start but when exiting a game, LEDBlinky doesn’t seem to get triggered every time.  And LB remains active even when exiting HS back to desktop.

Last bu5 not least, multiple copies of the LB icon will remain in th3 system tray, every instance of it starting thru EDS.  If I simply mouse over, these icons will disappear.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi,
Can't really help with Hyperspin or EDS issues - maybe post on the HS forum?

As for the LEDBlinky icons in the tray - It's normal for LEDBlinky to start a secondary instance and then immediately quit. The ghost icons would indicate that LEDBlinky was not closed cleanly. Could this be caused by EDS? Regardless, the icons in the tray should not cause any issues.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2018, 09:35:18 am by arzoo »
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1434 on: April 27, 2018, 09:46:06 am »
Hi arzoo,

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I can't light the right buttons in Launchbox for the Sammy_Atomiswave system. I haven't any problem in game, it's in demo mode it's not working. My other systems are OK. It seems it's not possible to troubleshoot this kind of problem with the LEDBlinkyTroubleshooter. What's should I do please?

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1435 on: April 27, 2018, 05:15:20 pm »
Hi arzoo,

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I can't light the right buttons in Launchbox for the Sammy_Atomiswave system. I haven't any problem in game, it's in demo mode it's not working. My other systems are OK. It seems it's not possible to troubleshoot this kind of problem with the LEDBlinkyTroubleshooter. What's should I do please?

It's lighting different buttons for the demo mode vs in game? Hmmm, I'm not sure how that's possible since it's basically executing the same code. Turn on the Debug Log option, run the game that's not lighting correctly, then email me the debug.zip file and I'll see if I can help.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1436 on: May 01, 2018, 08:26:39 pm »
Setting up Launchbox/Bigbox and just updated from mame 147 to 195.
Generated a mame.xml for use with LEDBlinky.... it's over 200 meg... previous one for 147 was still 133meg.
Can I generate a file based on the roms I actually have? I only have 200 so this should be a very small xml file if it can be done

The big problem with this is if I have LEDBlinky preload it then it throws my light timing off for the initial LB launch.
If I don't preload it the first time I select the MAME platform it must wait until then to load because my lighting is thrown off for a good 30 seconds at that point.
If I had an xml for only what I need it would probably be under 5 meg.

Is this an option? Can it be done? I've searched quite a bit and saw it mentioned but can't find any solutions.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1437 on: May 01, 2018, 11:19:10 pm »
Setting up Launchbox/Bigbox and just updated from mame 147 to 195.
Generated a mame.xml for use with LEDBlinky.... it's over 200 meg... previous one for 147 was still 133meg.
Can I generate a file based on the roms I actually have? I only have 200 so this should be a very small xml file if it can be done

The big problem with this is if I have LEDBlinky preload it then it throws my light timing off for the initial LB launch.
If I don't preload it the first time I select the MAME platform it must wait until then to load because my lighting is thrown off for a good 30 seconds at that point.
If I had an xml for only what I need it would probably be under 5 meg.

Is this an option? Can it be done? I've searched quite a bit and saw it mentioned but can't find any solutions.

I'm not sure if it's possible to custom build the mame.xml file but for LEDBlinky you can use one of the older versions. For example you could continue using your v.147 file. And if there are any newer games for which the controls don't light up correctly, you can add them via the Controls Editor.

On a side note, given how large the xml file has grown I may have to look into a faster xml parser.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1438 on: May 06, 2018, 07:37:54 pm »
I'm not sure if it's possible to custom build the mame.xml file but for LEDBlinky you can use one of the older versions. For example you could continue using your v.147 file. And if there are any newer games for which the controls don't light up correctly, you can add them via the Controls Editor.

On a side note, given how large the xml file has grown I may have to look into a faster xml parser.

Thanks for the reply, Arzoo.
I found a solution.... I used the 'RomLister' program. Probably haven't used this program in 7+ years... couldn't even remember what it was for.
Anyway it created an xml file for me based on my rom set.
1.2 meg!!!
I now have LED Blinky set to pre-load it for once, WooHoo!

Working great with the new file.

Thanks!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v6.4
« Reply #1439 on: May 14, 2018, 10:49:41 pm »
I would like to have a button (which launches the fe which happens to be gameex) to only be lit when the fe is not running..... how do you do this, if possible?