Mala LED Configuration - PLEASE HELP!!!

[OnezerO]

My Software/Hardware Setup:
I'm running Windows XP, DOS MAME v0.117, Mala V1.0 RC9 build [1.0.1.429], IPAC 4, Optipac and of course the Mala hardware.

I will be upgrading to the latest version of Mame and Mala very soon.  I will be replacing the two drives in my cabinet with a larger single drive, but I want to figure out the issues I am having with configuring the Mala LED's before I do so.

My Mala Setup:
Under the Mame Configuration - Additional tab: I am not referencing any path for a control.ini file.
Under the GUI - Options tab: I do have the LCD & LED checkbox checked in the Exception box at the bottom of the screen.
Under the Hardware - LED - Config tab: In the current config box I have assigned a label for each LED and I have tested each LED successfully (each one lights up when I click on its check box).  I only have the "Light button LED’s" check box checked and I am not referencing any path in the "LED game files" section.  The labels I have used for each LED are assigned sequentially at the moment with the exception for the buttons I want to use for Player 1 - Buttons 1 thru 5; such as in Asteroids.

My Control Panel Setup:
I have a large control panel setup which includes 5 joysticks (two of them are Raider Pro Flight Stick hacks - each one has two fire buttons at the top). One of the five joysticks is a dedicated 4 way joystick and the other two joysticks are 8 way, 4 way switchable joysticks.  I also have a spinner and a trackball.  The total number of buttons on my game panel including the 4 buttons from the two Raider Pro sticks is 24.  I have 5 of these buttons laid out in an Asteroid configuration.  I built my cabinet to have removable control panels and since I didn't want to have to replicate the admin buttons on my gaming control panels all of my admin buttons are built into my cabinet and are not removable.

I am only interested in configuring my control panel gaming buttons to appropriately light up when scrolling thru the games menu.  The admin buttons are either all on or all off and are not wired into my Mala hardware.  This goal at first thought seemed to be fairly simple and I am sure it is for most of you, but for some reason I am having problems getting this done.

My Current Situation:
As I mentioned before all of my gaming lights have been tested successfully.  To understand how the led configuration works in Mala, when I scroll thru the games menu I am only focusing on the 5 Asteroid configuration buttons which I have labeled in Mala as "1 Button 1" thru "1 Button 5".  As I scroll thru the games menu the gaming control panel LED's are lighting up and changing all over the place.  When I get to the Asteroid games I notice that only 4 of the five buttons are being lit up with the "1 button 1" LED being the only one not lighting up.  However as I continue scrolling down past the Asteroid games the "1 Button 1" LED does light up when I get to the "Astra SuperStars" game.  Now this is throwing my understanding of Mala way off.  When I scroll thru the Asteroids games only 4 buttons on the entire panel are lit except for the Player 1 button 1 LED.  On the Astra SuperStars games all five Asteroid configuration buttons are lit as well as a few others; as expected.  I am finding this to be very confusing and it makes me wonder if something is missing in the Asteroid games.

My Questions:
1. Can anyone offer me any suggestions on how to properly configure the LED’s in Mala or does anyone know of a sticky, a "how to" guide or any documentation on setting up the LED's in Mala?
2. How does the control.ini file affect the LED configuration in Mala?
3. In Mala, under the Hardware - LED - Config tab: What is the "LED games file" path used for?
4. Finally, If I have Player 1 Button 1 being used with one of my 5 Asteroid configuration buttons how would I get Player 1 Button 1 to light up a different button while at the same time not lighting up the Asteroid button; say for a fighting game?

I apologize for the long post, but I believe that more information is better than too little information.  Please let me know if I have left out any details which would prevent you from answering any of my questions.  Thank you in advance for any useful comments/guidance which you can provide.

[loadman]

1) No not really as it's very intuitive most people find.  I did right a guide on how to make your own attract mode animations as that is much more straight forward. Did you solder the mala hardware yourself or buy it pre-made?

2) MaLa uses controls.ini to determine what leds require lighting for each game. If not found I think it tries to extract what info it can from mame.xml

3) The Led Games file path is optional. I have not really used it.  If you want you can create a file for each game to override what the lighting settings are on a game by game process. It would be a painful process to create a file for every game so the idea here is jut to create a file for games where you want to override a few games. As I say I have not used that myself.

4) The way native support for mala hardware works is that it uses the same buttons sets for every game. Ege P1 B1 is the same for asteroids and a fighting game, it does not cater for completely different buttons sets for each game rather it simply just lights the LEDS required on a per game basis. EG Pacman and frogger = No Leds, Galaga = B1 only lit etc.

In general are you sure you have set up P1 B1 Correctly? It seems weird that it would be off and B2 nd B3 are lit ~~  Are you sure you have not accidentally allocated you Button 1 to Player 1 in error. If you did that would explain the odd behaviour as the P1 and P2 light differently depending on the type of game. I thing a 1 Player game = Player 1 Lit only. A Player 2 Game = Player 2 button lit only and a Player 2 (simultaneous) = Bothe P1 and P2 lit.

Anyway to expand on your last question, all is not lost. The Led-Blinky Plugin would be suited to your needs but at this stage does not support mala hardware but that may change if you ask Arzoo nicely     He has already made basic enquiries about supporting it

[OnezerO]

Hey Loadman, thanks for the great response.

To answer your questions, I purchased my Mala hardware pre-assembled.  I would have preferred to assemble it myself but the kits were not being offered anymore when I made my purchase.

I am pretty sure that I have P1 B1 setup correctly.  Asteroids has 5 player 1 buttons and all but P1 B1 lights up.  I have scrolled over some other games that have only 1 Player 1 Button and those games will light it up correctly, really weird stuff.  I am hoping that when I change over to my new hard drive and reinstall everything, with the latest versions, that this problem will be fixed.

Actually, I had originally asked Arzoo for help and he pointed me in your direction.  At the time he said that my inquiry was interesting in the sense that it made him wonder what would be involved to make the LED-Blinky plugin compatible with the Mala Hardware.  I am really excited to hear that he is pursuing this since the LED-Blinky plugin has some really cool features that I would like to take advantage of.

I think I am starting to wrap my head around all of this.  Let me see if I got this straight.  The newer versions of Mame are using XML .cfg files for button assignments now instead of using the older .ini files; however these files have no affect on the Mala LED's.  Is this correct?  Also, the following link: http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/mameguide/mamecontrolini.htm is strictly for button key assignments correct?  If I am right then this was a bit confusing for me since both Mame and Mala use a controls.ini file.

The controls.ini file you are mentioning is strictly for the Mala LED's.  Am I on the right track here?  If so then would you mind sharing with me a simple control.ini file that I can examine?

I believe that I will be using the Mala hardware exactly as you mentioned in your post.  I will have a general default LED configuration for my control panel and then I will need to have a few game specific files since my panel will use different buttons for the same P1 B1 as an example.  Also, I have LED's for each of my Joysticks and as you mentioned in your post these do not light up for games like Pacman and Frogger.

I know you mentioned you haven't really used the LED Games File path but I was wondering if you wouldn't happen to have a game specific file that you could also share with me?

Thanks again for your useful response.  I really appreciate your help.  I have been working on my cabinet in short burst, whenever I have time, for over two years now.  I have completely finished the woodwork several months ago and I just recently finished wiring up all of the electronics and now I am focusing on the software.  Once I get this Mala Hardware stuff figured out I plan on posting a few pics of my completed cabinet.

[loadman]

G'day. I e-mail you a controls.ini file. It's an old one so I'm sure you could get a newer one. Have Fun

I would not bother with a games file as that is a last resort in my opinion. It should work without it like mine has for years