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Author Topic: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2  (Read 552906 times)

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arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1840 on: January 19, 2022, 08:26:07 am »
Is it possible to clear the buttons with a command?

You could create a single-frame animation that just has all the LED ports off and then run that from a batch or script file. For example, if your animations is called alloff.lwax, the command would be:
<path>\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe "alloff.lwax S"
The "S" parameter is SingleLoop.

There's also a command (14) to control individual or multiple ports. The readme and Install and Config pdf document all the command line options.
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SuperMagoAlex

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1841 on: January 29, 2022, 05:32:35 pm »
Hi,
I'm using Maximus Arcade/Batch Files to run lot of arcade pc games (the loaders I'm using are Teknoparrot and JConfig and I make an .ahk file for each game). Is it possible to use Ledblinky with these games? I tried to use Controls Editor but no games appear in the "unknown games" list  :(
Thanks!

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1842 on: January 29, 2022, 06:39:42 pm »
Hi,
I'm using Maximus Arcade/Batch Files to run lot of arcade pc games (the loaders I'm using are Teknoparrot and JConfig and I make an .ahk file for each game). Is it possible to use Ledblinky with these games? I tried to use Controls Editor but no games appear in the "unknown games" list  :(
Thanks!

Yes, you'll just have to add the LEDBlinky GameStart command to your ahk scripts for each game;
Code: [Select]
LEDBlinky.exe <game> <emulator>After you do that, the new games will show up in the unknown games list and you can then configure the controls.
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SuperMagoAlex

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1843 on: January 31, 2022, 10:09:12 am »
Yes, you'll just have to add the LEDBlinky GameStart command to your ahk scripts for each game;
Code: [Select]
LEDBlinky.exe <game> <emulator>After you do that, the new games will show up in the unknown games list and you can then configure the controls.

Thx, I'll try!

zeorangr

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1844 on: February 10, 2022, 12:31:19 pm »
Hey All -

I'm running into a somewhat odd issue with LEDBlinky (and I suspect it's not actually LEDBlinky that has the issue, but something in windows, with how this is presenting) - basically, my buttons are all lighting correctly, and will flash each control as configured when a game loads, but there's no 'voice' - it's not speaking the button commands.

It was working up until a couple of days ago.  I'm not sure what's changed since then. 

I've tried changing the narrator voice in LEDBlinky config, but that doesn't seem to do anything.

I'm not really seeing anything that's standing out to me in the LEDBlinky debug.log on this - I'm not really seeing any differences in the logged output from before and after this stopped working.  It looks like LEDBlinky itself thinks it's handling the text-to-speech calls normally, from what I can tell.

I will note that if I go to windows settings and into the narrator options, testing there will produce the selected narrator's 'spoken voice' - just not when launching games from my frontend.


If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.
-z-

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1845 on: February 10, 2022, 01:54:04 pm »
Hey All -

I'm running into a somewhat odd issue with LEDBlinky (and I suspect it's not actually LEDBlinky that has the issue, but something in windows, with how this is presenting) - basically, my buttons are all lighting correctly, and will flash each control as configured when a game loads, but there's no 'voice' - it's not speaking the button commands.

It was working up until a couple of days ago.  I'm not sure what's changed since then. 

I've tried changing the narrator voice in LEDBlinky config, but that doesn't seem to do anything.

I'm not really seeing anything that's standing out to me in the LEDBlinky debug.log on this - I'm not really seeing any differences in the logged output from before and after this stopped working.  It looks like LEDBlinky itself thinks it's handling the text-to-speech calls normally, from what I can tell.

I will note that if I go to windows settings and into the narrator options, testing there will produce the selected narrator's 'spoken voice' - just not when launching games from my frontend.


If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Is the speech test button working from the LEDBlinky config app (Misc Options tab)?
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zeorangr

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1846 on: February 10, 2022, 03:10:20 pm »

Is the speech test button working from the LEDBlinky config app (Misc Options tab)?

Hi Arzoo -

No, none of the speech seems to be working from within LEDBlinky - hitting the 'test' button on any speech-related field in LEDBlinky Config (including within the misc options tab) acts like it's playing (the button greys out for a few seconds, then becomes selectable again).
« Last Edit: February 10, 2022, 03:25:14 pm by zeorangr »
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arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1847 on: February 10, 2022, 03:40:50 pm »

Is the speech test button working from the LEDBlinky config app (Misc Options tab)?

Hi Arzoo -

No, none of the speech seems to be working from within LEDBlinky - hitting the 'test' button on any speech-related field in LEDBlinky Config (including within the misc options tab) acts like it's playing (the button greys out for a few seconds, then becomes selectable again).

Definitely sounds Windows related. Did you upgrade or run in any Windows updates recently? Maybe check your Windows Update history.
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zeorangr

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1848 on: February 19, 2022, 01:33:43 am »
Definitely windows related.  I tried running a system restore, going back a couple of weeks, and the voices 'magically' started working again after that for about a day, then stopped again - I think it was some windows update that was breaking it, but I didn't get a chance to chase it further - I took a pretty nasty power hit and had to replace the motherboard in that machine... which leads me to my next issue.

I think I may have messed up without realizing it – I am running LEDBlinky from a folder off my main launchbox build folder, and I’ve been doing some testing and work on the build (artwork / images / scripts) on several different PCs (even though I only have ONE cabinet that actually uses the LEDBlinky functionality) simply by copying the launchbox folder. 

After getting my arcade PC rebuilt and getting everything transferred over this afternoon, I’m now getting a ‘trial’ version of LEDBlinky.  The debug log is indicating that I have a registered copy, but I’ve exceeded my maximum number of PCs, which is entirely likely with how I’ve been just moving the folder around (and having multiple instances of LEDBlinky with it).

How can I fix this so that LEDBlinky works with all functionality on my cabinet?  Is there a way to 'de-register' PCs that aren't actually using LEDBlinky?  Do I need to buy another license?
-z-

zeorangr

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1849 on: February 19, 2022, 11:16:17 am »
I went ahead and just bought another license - I'll be more careful with moving it around this time.
-z-

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.0
« Reply #1850 on: February 19, 2022, 01:23:17 pm »
I went ahead and just bought another license - I'll be more careful with moving it around this time.
:cheers:
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1851 on: April 16, 2022, 01:19:19 pm »
Installed version 8.2 this morning. Unfortunately the program will not load. It starts and then immediately stops. I had to go back to version 8.1.1. After doing that the program works just fine. Anyone else having this issue with 8.2? Im on windows 10 home.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1852 on: April 24, 2022, 05:08:30 am »
Installed version 8.2 this morning. Unfortunately the program will not load. It starts and then immediately stops. I had to go back to version 8.1.1. After doing that the program works just fine. Anyone else having this issue with 8.2? Im on windows 10 home.

Same here unfortunately. After starting Launchbox, LedBlinky starts and terminates. It seems, that according to the log file it receives a FE_QUIT message and stops.
V8.1.0.1 works flawlessly.

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1853 on: April 24, 2022, 09:28:01 am »
Installed version 8.2 this morning. Unfortunately the program will not load. It starts and then immediately stops. I had to go back to version 8.1.1. After doing that the program works just fine. Anyone else having this issue with 8.2? Im on windows 10 home.

Same here unfortunately. After starting Launchbox, LedBlinky starts and terminates. It seems, that according to the log file it receives a FE_QUIT message and stops.
V8.1.0.1 works flawlessly.

Could one or both of you re-upgrade to 8.2, turn on the Debug Log option, then email me the debug.zip and/or debug.log file. I'd like to figure this out. Thanks!
« Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 09:30:25 am by arzoo »
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Ginsonic

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1854 on: April 24, 2022, 12:56:00 pm »
Could one or both of you re-upgrade to 8.2, turn on the Debug Log option, then email me the debug.zip and/or debug.log file. I'd like to figure this out. Thanks!
Hi Arzoo, Yes of course, I will do it tomorrow!

Ginsonic

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1855 on: April 25, 2022, 06:12:44 am »
Email to LEDBlinky support address sent!

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1856 on: April 26, 2022, 09:31:16 pm »
Installed version 8.2 this morning. Unfortunately the program will not load. It starts and then immediately stops. I had to go back to version 8.1.1. After doing that the program works just fine. Anyone else having this issue with 8.2? Im on windows 10 home.

Same here unfortunately. After starting Launchbox, LedBlinky starts and terminates. It seems, that according to the log file it receives a FE_QUIT message and stops.
V8.1.0.1 works flawlessly.

Could one or both of you re-upgrade to 8.2, turn on the Debug Log option, then email me the debug.zip and/or debug.log file. I'd like to figure this out. Thanks!

This has been fixed in the latest release; v8.2.0.3
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Ginsonic

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1857 on: April 27, 2022, 05:16:48 am »
This has been fixed in the latest release; v8.2.0.3

Bugfix confirmed, thanks Arzoo!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1858 on: May 02, 2022, 05:20:05 am »
Hi, this is my first post I can't seem to find my answer so I decided to ask. I'm in the process of building an arcade cabinet with RGB buttons. I just ordered 2 PACled64s and all I want to know is if I'm able to fade the buttons on one at a time after starting a game from Hyperspin using Led Blinky. All the videos I've seen the button lights come on immediately with no fade effect when you launch the game. All the fade animations are only during the start of the FE or when exiting but never in game. Would I need the LEDWIZ instead for fading button option? This is the effect I would like to achieve   clarification on this would be appreciated, thank you

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1859 on: May 03, 2022, 10:03:46 am »
Did my best to check the thread before posting but didn't see what I was encountering. 

Just completed the configuration wizard - I'm using IPAC I/O's with RBG buttons.  When I attempt to use LED Blinky Output Test I get an error No LED Blinky Controllers configured.  When I enter the Input Map Software i see both of my controllers with all the buttons mapped.

I'm using Launch Box/BB and activated LED Blinky in the application.  When start up LB or BB the buttons begin to light up but then stop.  A handful remain white and I get this message: Unable to set SAPI parameters. OLE error 80045039.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

arzoo

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1860 on: May 03, 2022, 10:28:53 am »
Hi, this is my first post I can't seem to find my answer so I decided to ask. I'm in the process of building an arcade cabinet with RGB buttons. I just ordered 2 PACled64s and all I want to know is if I'm able to fade the buttons on one at a time after starting a game from Hyperspin using Led Blinky. All the videos I've seen the button lights come on immediately with no fade effect when you launch the game. All the fade animations are only during the start of the FE or when exiting but never in game. Would I need the LEDWIZ instead for fading button option?

The LEDWiz does have built-in fade capability but all the buttons would fade together. The only way you could achieve the sequenced fading (with LEDWiz or Ultimarc) would be to create a custom animation for every game. Depending on how many games you want to do this for, it could be very time consuming.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1861 on: May 03, 2022, 10:36:26 am »
Did my best to check the thread before posting but didn't see what I was encountering. 

Just completed the configuration wizard - I'm using IPAC I/O's with RBG buttons.  When I attempt to use LED Blinky Output Test I get an error No LED Blinky Controllers configured.  When I enter the Input Map Software i see both of my controllers with all the buttons mapped.

I'm using Launch Box/BB and activated LED Blinky in the application.  When start up LB or BB the buttons begin to light up but then stop.  A handful remain white and I get this message: Unable to set SAPI parameters. OLE error 80045039.

The LEDBlinky Output Test app is used for testing when LEDBlinky is configured to send signals to another device (which I'm guessing you are not doing); so don't worry about that. You can use the SimpleLEDTest app to determine if all your LEDs are wired correctly. As for the SAPI error, that would be something to do with Windows speech-to-text functionality (used by LEDBlinky to speak commands). If you turn on the Debug Log option (Misc Options tab on LEDBlinkyConfig), run your FE and a few games, then email me back the debug.zip and/or debug.log file I'll take a look.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1862 on: May 03, 2022, 12:01:52 pm »
Did my best to check the thread before posting but didn't see what I was encountering. 

Just completed the configuration wizard - I'm using IPAC I/O's with RBG buttons.  When I attempt to use LED Blinky Output Test I get an error No LED Blinky Controllers configured.  When I enter the Input Map Software i see both of my controllers with all the buttons mapped.

I'm using Launch Box/BB and activated LED Blinky in the application.  When start up LB or BB the buttons begin to light up but then stop.  A handful remain white and I get this message: Unable to set SAPI parameters. OLE error 80045039.

Sent.  Thank you.
The LEDBlinky Output Test app is used for testing when LEDBlinky is configured to send signals to another device (which I'm guessing you are not doing); so don't worry about that. You can use the SimpleLEDTest app to determine if all your LEDs are wired correctly. As for the SAPI error, that would be something to do with Windows speech-to-text functionality (used by LEDBlinky to speak commands). If you turn on the Debug Log option (Misc Options tab on LEDBlinkyConfig), run your FE and a few games, then email me back the debug.zip and/or debug.log file I'll take a look.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1863 on: May 05, 2022, 01:59:51 pm »
Hello,

I was absent from the LEDBlinky-Universe for a few years, but now it was time to upgrade one of my led cabs to new hardware & software.
Running on CoinOps Player 3 now, Arcade only build.

Everything is working as inteded but the LEDBlinky 8.2.3 (downloaded yesterday) seems to have an issue.

Working:
- Setting up LEDBlinky 8.2, all LEDs are working and mapped correct
- Passing over the games filename from CoinOps to LEDBlinky is working (could verify in the log).
- Lighting up the correct LEDs for all games found in CONTROLS.INI (lastest controls.ini in use)

Not working:
- Lighting up the LEDs for all games NOT found in CONTROLS.INI, but found in MAME.XML


Some more details (was analyzing this issue for hours and tried everything I could imagine):
- Tried different MAME.XML versions from different systems (0.179, 0.196) -> No luck
- Tried chaning the Encoding of the MAME.XML from UTF-8 to ANSI (found this as a hint in the web) -> No luck
- Tried chaning the Encoding of LEDBlinkys Minimized-MAME.XML from UTF-8 to ANSI -> No luck
- Added full file permissions to MAME.XML, since Windows 10 could prevent the reading -> No luck
- Checked the LEDBLinks-Startup logfile and there are about 13k games and 17k cloned loaded from the MINIMIZED-MAME-XML -> Seems no issue with reading games at least...
- Added a buch of MAME.XML-only games to the CONTROLS.INI by hand -> Working, so the issue seems to be with the MAME.XML

My questions:
- Anyone encounted this before? Any Ideas?
- Could there be an issue with finding the correct Buttoncount from MAME.XML?
- Is LEDBlinky capable or reading UTF-8 XML-files? The autogenerated Minimized-Mame-XML is UTF-8 by default, maybe this is a Win10 behaviour?

This is a typical entry from my minimized-Mame.XML:
Code: [Select]
<machine name="10yard" sourcefile="m58.cpp">
<description>10-Yard Fight (World, set 1)</description>
<input players="2" coins="2">
<control type="joy" player="1" buttons="2" ways="8"/>
<control type="joy" player="2" buttons="2" ways="8"/>
</input></machine>

Thanks for your help. And please keep up the great work!
Duglim
« Last Edit: May 05, 2022, 02:12:12 pm by Duglim »

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1864 on: May 17, 2022, 11:23:32 pm »
What is necessary to run LED Blinky?

Even if I go to the manufacturers sites - that LED Blinky lists on https://www.ledblinky.net/ledblinky.htm ;  the schematics are very basic to non-existent.

So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB arcade Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC as well as have their input recognized; what is needed?

An LED controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?

Or is a control interface such as one of those Ipacs necessary?

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1865 on: May 18, 2022, 12:44:30 am »
Sounds like you want to do something like this, right?
Quote
LEDBlinky can light the active game controls and at the same time use the non-active controls for an animation. In this video, the controls for Asteroids are lit up and the other non-active buttons are synced to the game's audio using an Audio Animation.


So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB arcade Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC as well as have their input recognized; what is needed?
There are two separate parts to what you are describing.
- LED controller for LED outputs.
- Encoder for game control inputs.

An LED controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?
That is the LED controller part.

Once you configure the LEDBlinky software properly, LEDBlinky will send commands to the LED controller for the lighting/animation of the LEDs.

Q: How do you configure LEDBlinky to do that?
A: Off the top of my head, I'm not sure.  Consult the LEDBlinky documentation or Arzoo.

Or is a control interface such as one of those Ipacs necessary?
The IPac is the encoder part.
- An encoder translates button presses into the keystrokes, gamepad button presses, or mouse button clicks that you use to play a game.
- It can also translate spinner or trackball inputs into mouse movements for games that use those types of controls.

The LED controller, LED wiring, and LED circuits are separate from the encoder, encoder wiring, button microswitches, and spinner/trackball mouse input circuits.
- For example, even though there is an LED and a microswitch in an RGB LED arcade button, there is no electrical connection between that LED and microswitch.


Scott

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1866 on: May 18, 2022, 07:47:40 am »
Not working:
- Lighting up the LEDs for all games NOT found in CONTROLS.INI, but found in MAME.XML


Some more details (was analyzing this issue for hours and tried everything I could imagine):
- Tried different MAME.XML versions from different systems (0.179, 0.196) -> No luck
- Tried chaning the Encoding of the MAME.XML from UTF-8 to ANSI (found this as a hint in the web) -> No luck
- Tried chaning the Encoding of LEDBlinkys Minimized-MAME.XML from UTF-8 to ANSI -> No luck
- Added full file permissions to MAME.XML, since Windows 10 could prevent the reading -> No luck
- Checked the LEDBLinks-Startup logfile and there are about 13k games and 17k cloned loaded from the MINIMIZED-MAME-XML -> Seems no issue with reading games at least...
- Added a buch of MAME.XML-only games to the CONTROLS.INI by hand -> Working, so the issue seems to be with the MAME.XML

My questions:
- Anyone encounted this before? Any Ideas?
- Could there be an issue with finding the correct Buttoncount from MAME.XML?
- Is LEDBlinky capable or reading UTF-8 XML-files? The autogenerated Minimized-Mame-XML is UTF-8 by default, maybe this is a Win10 behaviour?

This is a typical entry from my minimized-Mame.XML:
Code: [Select]
<machine name="10yard" sourcefile="m58.cpp">
<description>10-Yard Fight (World, set 1)</description>
<input players="2" coins="2">
<control type="joy" player="1" buttons="2" ways="8"/>
<control type="joy" player="2" buttons="2" ways="8"/>
</input></machine>

Thanks for your help. And please keep up the great work!
Duglim

Hi, please email me your debug.zip and/or debug.log files and I'll take a look.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1867 on: May 18, 2022, 07:57:40 am »
What is necessary to run LED Blinky?

Even if I go to the manufacturers sites - that LED Blinky lists on https://www.ledblinky.net/ledblinky.htm ;  the schematics are very basic to non-existent.

So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB arcade Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC as well as have their input recognized; what is needed?

An LED controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?

Or is a control interface such as one of those Ipacs necessary?

Scott, thanks for helping out here with Temp123's questions.

All I'll add is it seems like this may be your first arcade build and I would suggest reading some of the other threads in this forum or other resources around the web on building mame systems. Then after you have your control panel wired up and working, and your front-end and emulation software installed and configured, you can circle back to getting LEDBlinky configured.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1868 on: May 18, 2022, 12:00:59 pm »


The LED controller, are separate from the encoder,


Scott

Then why does this device make it seem like they aren't separate? This is where the confusion stems from...

https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac-ultimate-i-o/




Your front-end and emulation software installed and configured...

OK, but if the game is more PC based and not using a front-end and not using an emulator, does LED Blinky have the means to be sound reactive outside of MAME or an emulator or front end?

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1869 on: May 18, 2022, 03:38:39 pm »
The LED controller, are separate from the encoder,
Scott
Then why does this device make it seem like they aren't separate? This is where the confusion stems from...
https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac-ultimate-i-o/
The Ultimate I/O is a combined board that can handle both the keyboard encoding and the LED outputs. Andy at Ultimarc can answer any questions specific to the hardware.

Your front-end and emulation software installed and configured...

OK, but if the game is more PC based and not using a front-end and not using an emulator, does LED Blinky have the means to be sound reactive outside of MAME or an emulator or front end?
If you're not using any front-end software and you're not using mame, then you would have to manually send commands to LEDBlinky (using a script or batch file). For example;
<path>\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe <game> <system>
You would pass the actual game name and system name as parameters. The LEDBlinky docs have a section listing all the command line options. And lastly, you would use the LEDBlinky Controls Editor to configure the specific buttons, colors, and voice commands for each game and/or system. The editor has an import unknown games option which can help with new games.

And yes, if you don't want any game specific buttons to light up, you can just use LEDBlinky to respond to game sounds.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2022, 03:44:09 pm by arzoo »
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1870 on: May 18, 2022, 03:39:35 pm »
The LED controller, are separate from the encoder,
Then why does this device make it seem like they aren't separate? This is where the confusion stems from...

https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac-ultimate-i-o/
In the case of that Ult. I/O board (and the LED-Wiz+GP), the encoder and LED controller are on one PCB and they share the USB connection, but the software configuration and wiring you need to do are the same as if they were on separate PCBs.

For the encoder part of the PCB, you still have to configure the front end, games, emulators, and maybe the encoder (you may not want to use some of the MAME default "modifier" keystrokes  ;) ) plus you have to wire the switches/spinner/trackball to the encoder part of the board as you would with a standalone encoder like an IPac2 or GP-Wiz40.

For the LED controller part of the PCB, you still have to configure the front end and LEDBlinky plus you have to wire the LEDs to the LED controller part of the board as you would with a standalone LED Controller like a PacLED64 or an LED-Wiz.

Like Arzoo suggested, you may want to start by getting the front end, games, and encoder part up and running before you work on the LEDs and LEDBlinky part.


Scott

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1871 on: May 25, 2022, 05:53:34 pm »
Hi, I'm using LEDBlinky with Maximus Arcade, is it possible to blink the leds to the rhythm of the Maximus ambience mp3?

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1872 on: May 25, 2022, 11:05:52 pm »
Hi, I'm using LEDBlinky with Maximus Arcade, is it possible to blink the leds to the rhythm of the Maximus ambience mp3?
Yes, using an audio animation when the FE (Maximus Arcade) is active would most likely do what you want.
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1873 on: June 12, 2022, 06:29:31 pm »
So, always on the bleeding edge of cabinet technologies, I have just started using LEDBlinky. I like it!

However, I have found a very odd bug, that seems to be exacerbated by a bug in MAME (.219) (or maybe it is an expected behavior, but can't imagine).

My first encounter with the issue was running Tron. The software got everything right, except for "Aim Left" and "Aim Right", which blinked the P1 joystick for one (don't remember which) and *every unassigned button* for the other. Tried some others with dials and got similar results.

So it turned out that I had set dial inc/dec to None in my ctrlr file. I switched that to unassigned keys that don't exist on the CP and... One of the bad results went away. So I dug into the controls.ini (or whatever it is called) and found that one of the "Aim" mappings was using something called "DIAL_EXT".

This also came as quite a surprise, as I have tested my setup with hundreds of odd games that use various analog controls and the suffix "EXT" has never come up. Google seems to know little about it as well. Is this a relic of some sort?

So added this to ctrlr:

<port type="P1_DIAL_EXT">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    MOUSECODE_XAXIS OR JOYCODE_1_YAXIS
                </newseq>
      <newseq type="increment">
                    KEYCODE_7PAD
                </newseq>
                <newseq type="decrement">
                    KEYCODE_9PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>

...for only one reason: to stop this software from announcing/blinking a single incorrect "Aim" control (I don't use 7 or 9 on keypad for anything).

And that would have been the end of that, except for a bizarre bug in MAME (or at least I have to assume it is unintended behavior). Dials and pedals (and possibly paddles) inc/dec just don't take for some games unless they are defined in the volatile game-specific cfg files; putting the same in the stable ctrlr file does absolutely nothing (whether game-specific or not).

I have a theory that these troublesome games (e.g. Caliber 50) do some remapping of their own internally and fail to account for some inputs defined in the ctrlr file. For example, this Caliber 50 thing, barring a game-specific cfg, insists on using X and Z for P1 dial inc/dec. Why would that be?

Likely because the internal default for these is left/right and those are also the internal default for joystick left/right. This game has both a joystick and a dial (or a rotary joystick or whatever), so it changes dial inc/dec to X and Z for player 1. In doing so, it steps on the configured ctrlr inputs (which were initially None and then changed to unassigned keys). Have found that racing games with pedals run into the same issue and fail in the same way, again requiring use of volatile cfg files for inc/dec.

Posting this, as I found the combination of these two bugs maddening and could not find any documentation or forum posts that helped.

The LEDBlinky part of the solution appears to be to assign anything unused to unused keys (not None) and to make sure this DIAL_EXT thing is defined in the ctrlr file (possibly PADDLE_EXT too) and it may need to go in cfg files for some odd games.

On the MAME end, some games need cfg files for inc/dec, as MAME will ignore the same entries in ctrlr files. Anyone else notice this over the years? :)

And just what is this _EXT suffix anyway?! It can't exist just to affect LEDBlinky behavior, yet I've never needed it at all in ctrlr or cfg files. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment in that area.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1874 on: June 13, 2022, 01:09:31 am »
                    MOUSECODE_XAXIS OR JOYCODE_1_YAXIS

Typo: JOYCODE_1_XAXIS. But unrelated to the issues at hand.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1875 on: June 13, 2022, 01:33:10 am »
And just what is this _EXT suffix anyway?! It can't exist just to affect LEDBlinky behavior, yet I've never needed it at all in ctrlr or cfg files. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment in that area.

According to http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/easyemu/mameguidenew/mameguide-controlini.htm  _EXT means a reverse movement of a controller.

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1876 on: June 13, 2022, 02:23:28 am »
And just what is this _EXT suffix anyway?! It can't exist just to affect LEDBlinky behavior, yet I've never needed it at all in ctrlr or cfg files. Thanks in advance for any enlightenment in that area.

According to http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/easyemu/mameguidenew/mameguide-controlini.htm  _EXT means a reverse movement of a controller.

Aha. So presumably this applies only to the fallback inc/dec for dials, paddles, pedals, etc., as the analog mapping is by axis, which covers two directions. And IIRC, for example, in the controls file, Tron uses DIAL to define "Aim Left" and DIAL_EXT for "Aim Right".

Surely, in a perfect world, LEDBlinky would be able to look at this alone (from ctrlr file):

<port type="P1_DIAL">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    MOUSECODE_XAXIS OR JOYCODE_1_XAXIS
                </newseq>
      <newseq type="increment">
                    KEYCODE_7PAD
                </newseq>
                <newseq type="decrement">
                    KEYCODE_9PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>

...and figure out that both Aim Right and Aim Left are keys that are not assigned to any LEDs. But it apparently does not do that, instead requiring the addition of:

<port type="P1_DIAL_EXT">
                <newseq type="standard">
                    MOUSECODE_XAXIS OR JOYCODE_1_XAXIS
                </newseq>
      <newseq type="increment">
                    KEYCODE_7PAD
                </newseq>
                <newseq type="decrement">
                    KEYCODE_9PAD
                </newseq>
            </port>

...and that has no effect on MAME that I'm aware of. It's just redundant, but apparently required to prevent LEDBlinky from highlighting these "ghost" controls.

And, as mentioned, through no fault of LEDBlinky, putting the dial inc/dec stuff in the ctrlr file is not enough (at least not with MAME .219) for "problematic" games (e.g. those with joystick + dial). I believe LEDBlinky will respect ctrlr rules for those, but MAME surely doesn't, with the game "drivers" (or whatever the internal per game configuration is called) doing whatever they want, unless overridden in game-specific cfg files (which really sucks).

Thanks!

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1877 on: June 13, 2022, 03:22:47 am »
I'd say that's a wrap on my LEDBlinky experience. Everything seems to be working as expected with it. Was initially no picnic and took more than a few hours, but not bad considering the results.

Before taking the plunge on this thing, I had seen various vague complaints about it "lighting the wrong buttons for some games" and such and that it was "a pain" to set up. I'd say it's more difficult than it could have been, due to an awkward UI and too many apps to keep track of. And I wasn't enamored with the little icons on the taskbar at first either. They all look like colorful dots and shapes and meant nothing to me until I memorized their functions.

Best advice is the same as with any of these things. Study the INI or XML or whatever the often-awkward UIs spit out. Eventually you can stop using the UI and just copy and paste stuff around (or automate the generation with scripts). Definitely RTFM as well, as this has a decent one. Once over the hump with this thing, I've found it to be very predictable and the settings files look like a much easier way to program it, avoiding a lot of repetitive dialog manipulation.

HyperSpin integration seems to work perfectly and was just a couple of lines in an INI file (presumably HyperHQ or whatever has controls for this as well). MAME works great with it, apparently with or without a front end. And it looks like it is pretty easy to set up other emulators and their games.

As for MAME, I recommend using a ctrlr file and don't forget to tell LEDBlinky where it is. Not sure why it doesn't get that from the MAME INI. And make sure you cover everything in it. Don't leave anything open to defaults and do NOT use None, at least not for analog inc/dec sequences (use a key that is not assigned to anything on the CP instead). And, as mentioned, perhaps depending on the MAME version, some games require redundant entries in their cfg files for inc/dec as well. What is it with inc/dec? :)

Goes without saying it was well worth the $26 (US) and Arzoo was very responsive to questions by email (after all these years!) Thanks!

If I have one question left, which I haven't looked into, it's why there seems to be no fading going on with the animations, blinking, etc.? Am using the Ultimarc RGB buttons, trackball, etc. and the demo script in their app does some nice fading effects that I'd like to replicate in LEDBlinky if possible...

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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1878 on: June 13, 2022, 08:55:36 am »
If I have one question left, which I haven't looked into, it's why there seems to be no fading going on with the animations, blinking, etc.? Am using the Ultimarc RGB buttons, trackball, etc. and the demo script in their app does some nice fading effects that I'd like to replicate in LEDBlinky if possible...

Using the Animation Editor you can create fade and color transition effects.

I'd also like to mention that for mame, LEDBlinky uses a number of files (controls.ini, mame.xml, <rom>.cfg, ctrlr, etc) to determine which controls to light up and is only as accurate as the data in these files and the user configured input map. That being said, using the mame .cfg files (rather than hard-coding a ctrlr file) is the preferred method for using LEDBlinky. The .cfg files are updated by mame whenever a game's controls are modified (via mame's in-game menu) and this allows LEDBlinky to light the correct controls for each game. But glad you got it working with the ctrlr file!
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Re: LEDBlinky - Arcade LED Control software and Animation Editor - v8.2
« Reply #1879 on: June 13, 2022, 04:03:26 pm »
If I have one question left, which I haven't looked into, it's why there seems to be no fading going on with the animations, blinking, etc.? Am using the Ultimarc RGB buttons, trackball, etc. and the demo script in their app does some nice fading effects that I'd like to replicate in LEDBlinky if possible...

Using the Animation Editor you can create fade and color transition effects.

I'd also like to mention that for mame, LEDBlinky uses a number of files (controls.ini, mame.xml, <rom>.cfg, ctrlr, etc) to determine which controls to light up and is only as accurate as the data in these files and the user configured input map. That being said, using the mame .cfg files (rather than hard-coding a ctrlr file) is the preferred method for using LEDBlinky. The .cfg files are updated by mame whenever a game's controls are modified (via mame's in-game menu) and this allows LEDBlinky to light the correct controls for each game. But glad you got it working with the ctrlr file!

Animation editor is the next thing to try out. Glad to hear it has fading.

Yes, certainly LEDBlinky is GIGO, but I would differ on CFGs being preferred for anything. Those were always a disaster to edit, as MAME will rewrite them under some circumstances (e.g. starting up a game with the joystick unplugged will lose all joystick settings). Seems like an odd choice by MAME, but they apparently meant to do that.

I think they should just ignore (and perhaps *warn* about) mappings that don't make sense for the current environment, rather than wiping them out. I mean, if I plug the joystick (or gamepad or whatever) back in, things should go back to normal, rather than making me go back and set up the CFG again.

Also, they are not stable, due to Windows device enumeration. AIUI, that was the main reason for the invention of the ctrlr file.

I'd say you should modify game controls in the in-game menu as a last resort, typically to see what it generates and then copy that stuff to the ctrlr file. That file has a "default" section, which can be optionally followed by per-game sections. Here is a per-game excerpt from my ctrlr file:

<!-- Console has only one AD stick and no pedals, so barring gamepad use we need buttons to inc/dec the AD Stick Z axis (pedal in this game) -->

    <system name="propcycl">
       <input>
       <port type="P1_AD_STICK_Z">
                <newseq type="increment">
                    KEYCODE_LCONTROL
                </newseq>
                <newseq type="decrement">
                    KEYCODE_H
                </newseq>
            </port>
   </input>
    </system>

I haven't played around with this thing enough to say for sure, but LEDBlinky should certainly handle the above from the ctrlr file. If not, I'd have to generate redundant CFG files for every "system" (game) in the ctrlr file, which would be bad. Please let me know, as I probably won't get back to this thing until the weekend.

Thanks!

EDIT:
Aha, found the little icon to edit these posts. Wanted to add that the ctrlr "systems" may be per-game or they can cover multiple games. For example:

<system name="sf.c">
   <input>

What follows are sequences for all Street Fighter games. I wouldn't be too disappointed if LEDBlinky fails to decipher those, but it should definitely handle per game settings in the ctrlr file.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2022, 04:15:29 pm by djm468 »