Pac-Drive in-game question

[moose]

I want to be able to activate lights once I've chosen a game, and then deactivate them when I press the esc to quit out. I don't want anything super-fancy, just On in the game and Off in the frontend. Can someone point me in the direction of the easiest way to do this?
TIA!

[arzoo]

Which FE?

[Ginsu Victim]

Install a frontend like Mala, or Mamewah with LEDblinky and set it up.

[moose]

Can the effect of activating a single light be accomplished with a simple jpac?

[arzoo]

I don't think so.

[AndyWarne]

The effect of lighting the button when its pressed can be done without any controller, if that is what you mean.
Andy

[Ginsu Victim]

Sounds like he wants the buttons for the game being played to light up, then go off when he returns to the frontend. Not light up when pressed.

LEDblinky can handle that, as can Mala (to my knowledge).

[moose]

I'm currently using atomicfe. I haven't poked at mala much but it sounds more appealing all the time. I just wish I didn't have to get an extra piece of hardware to do lights Would an ipac do it?

[Ginsu Victim]

No, you need a Pac-drive or LEDwiz.

[moose]

Hm. any benefits one way or the other ? voltage limitations?

[Franco B]

EDIT: Damn, you must have modified your post as I was replying and now my answer is completely wrong  See my post below for the answer to your modified post.

No, you need one or the other for your application. They are both lighting/output controllers. The Pac-Drive is made by Ultimarc and the LED-Wiz is made by Groovy Game Gear. Both controllers have their pro's and con's.

[arzoo]

Hm. any benefits one way or the other ? voltage limitations?

The LED-Wiz has variable intensity levels (pro) but costs more (con). The PAC-Drive can only turn the LEDs on or off (con?) but costs less (pro).

By the way, LEDBlinky has a plugin for AtomicFE.

[Franco B]

Hm. any benefits one way or the other ? voltage limitations?

The LED-Wiz has variable intensity levels (pro) but costs more (con). The PAC-Drive can only turn the LEDs on or off (con?) but costs less (pro).

Also the LED-Wiz has 32 outputs where as the Pac Drive has 16.

As for voltage, the LED-Wiz can only handle 5v devices (con) where as the Pac Drive can handle devices up to 48v using an external power supply (pro).

Personally im using both LED-Wiz's and a Pac Drive. Im using 3 LED-Wiz's to control most of my LEDs and im using a Pac Drive to control some cold cathods and some scrolling LED fans.

[RandyT]

As for voltage, the LED-Wiz can only handle 5v devices...

I don't want to sidetrack the discussion, but I need to make a quick clarification on that one.  The 5v limit was a "soft" one.  The drivers on the LED-Wiz will handle up to 50v at 500ma per output.  The latest LED-Wiz boards also allow for a separate connection to each of the internal diodes of the driver chips.  This means that the LED-Wiz can handle up to 4 different voltages, even while driving inductive loads.

RandyT

[Ginsu Victim]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Franco B]

As for voltage, the LED-Wiz can only handle 5v devices...

I don't want to sidetrack the discussion, but I need to make a quick clarification on that one.  The 5v limit was a "soft" one.  The drivers on the LED-Wiz will handle up to 50v at 500ma per output.  The latest LED-Wiz boards also allow for a separate connection to each of the internal diodes of the driver chips.  This means that the LED-Wiz can handle up to 4 different voltages, even while driving inductive loads.

RandyT

Wow, thanks for that. I would have gotten a 4th LED Wiz, if I had know that. Heck I may get one anyway. Is it ok to use cold cathodes at various intensities?

[RandyT]

Is it ok to use cold cathodes at various intensities?

I doubt that it would be a good idea to try modulating the inverters. 

RandyT

[moose]

So LEDWiz has an atomicfe plugin, that's good for me 'cuz mala's giving me headaches. And I'll be able to configure it to turn on at the start of a game (no keypressings) and off at the end? Is it a real chore or fairly straightforward?

[arzoo]

So LEDWiz has an atomicfe plugin, that's good for me 'cuz mala's giving me headaches. And I'll be able to configure it to turn on at the start of a game (no keypressings) and off at the end? Is it a real chore or fairly straightforward?

Yes - LEDBlinky will turn on the buttons used for each game and then off when you quit the game, but this only works for MAME. For other emulators, you'll need to manually configure which buttons should light up.

As for how straightforward it is to configure LEDBlinky - you'll probably get a different answer from each user . Basically you need to do two things - First define how your LED's are wired to the LED controller (which ports) and what Keycode is assigned to each (this is your DevicePortInput map). Second you'll use the config app to choose which options you want to use (game start, speech, animations, etc.). I tried to provide extensive documentation and you can always ask questions on this forum.

[TheShanMan]

No, you need a Pac-drive or LEDwiz.

Wrong. An IPAC is supposedly able to do it as a caps/scroll/num lock led. How well it can do it I don't know - never tried.

[thatitalian]

and some scrolling LED fans.

You got those fans then!

[Franco B]

[offtopic] Yup Ill post them in my next PA update when I finally get this artwork sorted  [/offtopic]

[Ginsu Victim]

No, you need a Pac-drive or LEDwiz.

Wrong. An IPAC is supposedly able to do it as a caps/scroll/num lock led. How well it can do it I don't know - never tried.

He asked about using an Ipac to CONTROL the lights for showing which buttons a game uses, which it CAN'T DO.

You are the one who is WRONG. 

[TheShanMan]

He asked about using an Ipac to CONTROL the lights for showing which buttons a game uses, which it CAN'T DO.

You are the one who is WRONG. 

Seems to me that you misunderstood his desire, at least according to this question:

Can the effect of activating a single light be accomplished with a simple jpac?

Looks like he just wants to do a single light, not light up whichever buttons a game uses.

 

[Ginsu Victim]

Well, when he goes and changes his question halfway through...

Yeah, I didn't see him shift the objective.

[thatitalian]

[offtopic] Yup Ill post them in my next PA update when I finally get this artwork sorted  [/offtopic]

[offtopic] Don't talk to me about artwork! I have spent the last 2 months trying to get it perfect! [/offtopic]

[moose]

So LEDWiz has an atomicfe plugin, that's good for me 'cuz mala's giving me headaches. And I'll be able to configure it to turn on at the start of a game (no keypressings) and off at the end? Is it a real chore or fairly straightforward?

Yes - LEDBlinky will turn on the buttons used for each game and then off when you quit the game, but this only works for MAME. For other emulators, you'll need to manually configure which buttons should light up.

As for how straightforward it is to configure LEDBlinky - you'll probably get a different answer from each user . Basically you need to do two things - First define how your LED's are wired to the LED controller (which ports) and what Keycode is assigned to each (this is your DevicePortInput map). Second you'll use the config app to choose which options you want to use (game start, speech, animations, etc.). I tried to provide extensive documentation and you can always ask questions on this forum.

Does the light I want to go on have to be attached to a button? I want a seperate, independent light activating, no button involved.

[Ginsu Victim]

No, it doesn't have even have to be on a control panel. The light is a separate entity.

[moose]

Cool, I'll give it a try, thanks all!

[moose]

Well I got it putting out the default +5v but I can't get it set up for +12v. Any suggestions?

[Ginsu Victim]

You have to run an external 12v source.

[moose]

I've got the power supply from my pc available, as well as the original cab power supply. I just don't know how they set up the board(ledwiz) to allow for higher voltages.

[Ginsu Victim]

LEDwiz? I can't tell you anything about that. I thought we were still talking about the Pacdrive.

[moose]

I went with the LEDWiz 'cuz it has support in the front end I'm  using right now.

[Franco B]

It does help if you read the documentation

I assume you have the LED Wiz v2? I only have the v1 but Ive just had a look at the v2 PDF for you.

As Randy said the LED Wiz v2 can handle loads upto 50v. The 32 outputs are split into four banks (1-8, 9-16, 17-24 and 25-32) and you can supply a different (or the same) voltage to each bank.



All you need to do is supply each bank with 12v from your PSU etc. This is assumming you are using all 32 outputs, e.g. if you are only using <16 LEDs just supply 12v to the first two banks and use outputs 1-16

[moose]

The way I read that diagram was that the +12v and ground from the ledwiz plugged to the pc power supply. But then what does the ground from the led itself plug to?

I have just one light I'm trying to activate.
I have ledwiz v3.
I plugged the board into the USB and configured it in atomic fe.
I have my light attached to USB +5v and output #1.
I test with my multimeter between the +5v and output 1 and get between 4v & 5v.

Just attaching the +12v to the Bank Voltage Select isn't giving me what I want, and attaching a black ground from the pc ps didn't help either. I'm just not understanding -exactly- what I'm supposed to do, and the diagram here isn't very clear for me. Attaching the +12v and the ground to the pc ps seems pretty apparent, but then how does the light attach?

[loadman]

No, you need a Pac-drive or LEDwiz.

Wrong. An IPAC is supposedly able to do it as a caps/scroll/num lock led. How well it can do it I don't know - never tried.

I think the only 'gotcha' is you can't load much on it as the power comes from the motherboard.

[Franco B]

Ok, connect the PSU yellow 12v cable to the bank voltage selector and the black ground cable to the external ground terminal.

You also need to run a wire from the same bank voltage select terminal to every LEDs anode. To do this I would run a single wire from the bank voltage selector to something like a busbar or linked terminal strip and then run a wires from the busbar/terminal strip to each LED. This will mean the LEDs are connected in parallel and you wont have to try and terminate a load of wires in the bank voltage selector terminal. (you will just have two wires, the 12v from the PSU and the wire going to the busbar/terminal strip.)

You then connect the cathode of each LED to the individual outputs on the LED wiz.

[moose]

That's the ticket! Works perfectly now, thanks ^^

[Franco B]

Ahh good, I had my fingers crossed!