Ok, for those of you interested in the 'how' of the LED controller:
David was kind enough to design two new PCBs for this 'hardware LED controller" I had in mind for this project. The one featured in the post above can controll 6 LEDs for pushbuttons.
The second PCB is very similar, except it can take 4 inputs to a single LED output. This is so that you can hook it up to a joystick (with a hollow shaft an an illuminated balltop) so that it lights up whenver you move it.
He's now selling them on his website for A$10 (
A$8 for the Joystick LED controller). Thats about 20c in USD at the moment right? When you compare that to alternatives (and the fact that this is a hardware-only solution, thus making it viable for genuine arcade gear) I reckon that's a pretty good deal.
In my clumsy way of explaining it, his PCB works by taking an input from the "positive" wire on your button microswitches/leaf switches. You then supply the board 5v from your Jamma or USB/Keyboard power source (whatever is controlling your buttons). When a power button is
not pressed, the PCB is sensing a drop in the voltage on that button, but when it is pushed, it senses the closed circuit (on the button) and in turn lights up the corresponding LED.
The board only requires one wire to come from the button/microswitch. The only condition is that the 'negative/ground' for all of your buttons is common (which is fine for Jamma and the controllers I've used in this thread, but some cheap hacks might have separate grounds for each button).
And now, some wiring instructions:
The purchase price includes some crimp connectors and a plug so that you can easily plug/unplug the wires from the controller. You don't need to solder, but I always do because I'm fussy.
Note: An interesting thing happened with the wireless Desktop Control Panel I posted about above. David designed this PCB for a FIVE VOLT DC input. It already includes in-line resistors so that you can put regular 3.3v LEDs in your buttons without any further modification. This PCB is designed so that the LEDS are usually OFF, and come ON when pushed.
Because I used mine in a
wireless controller, it runs on about 3.1v. The side effect was that I get that 'low glow' in the buttons when not pushed, then full power when pushed. This actually worked out exceptionally well for me as I happened to wire the PCB's power to the transmitter of the wireless controller, and accidentally got:
Controller is out of range = Power LED on, button lights OFF
Controller is within range of transmitter = Buttons 'glow'
Controller is in range and button is pushed = Button lights up to full brightness.
This is a cool 'accidental feature' if you happen to use this in a wireless (or below 5v) project, but its important to note that the original design (what you get with a 5v source) is:
Button pressed=LED ON
Button not pressed=LED OFF.