Gun solution for homebrew cabinets

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Lilwolf:
Oh... don't get so mind set.... there are tons of options... People usually just do what comes to mind because of the examples they have seen.

I have a joystick (can't remember the name) that was almost perfect. It used sonic. and had a item on the monitor (L shape on the left corner). It works great.... but.... it was a joystick, not a light gun. So you rotate it, not point it.... Just one example.

I think another solution would be having a light senser on the corners of the monitor... and shoot a laser from the gun at it. Then sense the light. With the right sensers... and a scattering laser, it should be doable.

How about any industrial or teaching solutions? Any light pens or pointable mice for presentations?

Arcades also don't use light the same way anymore. They are expensive... but that might be the quality (ie, if a company took the same technology, but scaled down the quality it might be very very playable and a HUGE price cut.). Anyone know the insides on how they do it now?

But saying there are only two solutions is pretty short sited.

GearHead:
How about there are only 2 "readily or commercially available options at the moment" ? Didn't mean to say that there weren't any other alternatives.

Light pens use similar technology as the Act Labs guns and the ones I've seen can only be used close to the monitor. This joystick you mention sounds interesting. Any additional information or pics available?

There are lots of possiblities - people keep talking about lasers but has anyone gotten something working yet? If you have please let us know. This site is in need of some "arcade gun" sites in the Controls section.

I've been looking at ultrasonic positioning using an E-Beam electronic whiteboard system but it'll have to wait until the school year ends.

Rasher2k:
Ultrasonic positioning you say? I've been thinking of something for a long time that sounds similar. Would something like this work?

You would need to place 3 sensor type things (the red markers) around the screen that would locate the guns position, and set the boundaries of the screen edges.

Then you would need a receiver type thing on the front end and back end of the gun (the yellow and green markers).

Upon firing the gun the sensors would triangulate the distance to the front and back of the gun, instantly calculate the line of sight and return a relative screen position for where you aimed. Easy.
[*]Would work on any type of screen.
[*]Calibration would be simple.
[*]No flashing.
[*]Any number of guns.
[*]Fully automatic fire.
[/list]
Quite simply put, everything you could ever want from a gun.

Now I don't exactly know how something like this would be built let alone how expensive (or accurate) it would be, but I'd sure like to build one if I could!
[/tr][/table]

1UP:

--- Quote from: GearHead on May 19, 2003, 01:23:48 am ---I'm working on hooking up my Operation Wolf gun. 1UP - I would love to see some more details and pics of how you setup your Terminator gun. How did you attach the pot(s) to the gun to get the up/down and left/right motion?

GearHead

--- End quote ---

Well, my gun setup is still kind of temporary. Here's a pic of the box I have the guns mounted on for now. Eventually I will make 2 separate platforms that bolt to the CP, which hold the guns about a foot farther back from the screen...

Below you can see how the wires connect to the 2 start buttons on the platform. Also note the holes in the bottom of the platform, which allow the rightmost set of joysticks on my CP to pass thru...

Next pic shows the Dual Strike board mounted inside the gun itself, with a couple drops of hot-glue. All soldered connections use hot-glue as strain relief. (make sure your connections are good and all inputs work properly before coating with glue--it's really hard to remove without a big mess!!)

THis image shows how the ribbon cable comes out from the DS board to connect to one of the pots. The pot connections are the same as in the DIAGRAM at my site, but you'll need to swap the red and black wire connections on the DS PCB for the Y-axis pot. This is because the gun uses a flipped Y-orientation (up=up, down=down) opposite from the yoke's orientation (up=down, down=up). Also, you can use either set of button connections (labeled as left grip thumb and trigger switches) for the trigger and rocket launcher buttons.

Hope this helps.

nighthawk2099:
Stupid question maybe, but, do these guns use a pot for up/down and another for left/right and then the trigger as button A and the button on side button B ?

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