bought an illuminated trackball..what can i do with it?

[severdhed]

hey guys, i bought a utrak with the pearl ball and the RGB LED kit for it.  for right now i plan on just making it light up blue...but i see that ultimarc and groovygamegear sell LED controller devices.  i would like to do something cool with this in the future, but i'm just not sure what these things are capable of...here is what i had in mind.

Can I make the trackball light up only when a trackball game is launched in mame?
can i make it change colors based on which player's turn it is? (can i do this for all games, or just trackball games, or both?)

i bought two novagem buttons to try out as well, they are going to be for pause and exit (i got the button inserts), so i dont really need them to flash or anything, but if they look nice, i thought about getting some for the start buttons.  can i do similar things with those?  for instance make player 1's start button light up when it is their turn, or something like that? 

i know this is just stupid meaningless stuff..but it may be cool to add a little flair to the control panel.  i dont think i want to replace the main buttons with light ups, because i have read too many posts where people dont like the feel of them as much..but i figure for admin and start buttons, they would be fine.

is it worth spending the money on one of these controllers?

also, i noticed that most of the trackball lighting options are RGB...which is cool, but my control panel is going to have a blue and yellow theme..and unless I am missing something, i dont think you can mix yellow with any combo of RGB, so, can you get Yellow LEDs?   i have seen some that are amber, which is a little too orange for my taste...i'd like to be able to make my trackball blue for player 1 and yellow for player 2.  but i need some nice bright yellow LEDs that would compare to the brightness of the RGB unit from ultimarc...any ideas?

[arzoo]

hey guys, i bought a utrak with the pearl ball and the RGB LED kit for it.  for right now i plan on just making it light up blue...but i see that ultimarc and groovygamegear sell LED controller devices.  i would like to do something cool with this in the future, but i'm just not sure what these things are capable of...here is what i had in mind.

Can I make the trackball light up only when a trackball game is launched in mame?

yes

can i make it change colors based on which player's turn it is? (can i do this for all games, or just trackball games, or both?)

No - there's no way to detect when players switch. Unless maybe if you created a custom version of mame (like PowerMame) - but that's a huge can of worms!

i bought two novagem buttons to try out as well, they are going to be for pause and exit (i got the button inserts), so i dont really need them to flash or anything, but if they look nice, i thought about getting some for the start buttons.  can i do similar things with those?  for instance make player 1's start button light up when it is their turn, or something like that?

Again, no. But you can do other cool things like light up the correct start buttons depending on how many players a game allows, or flash the coin buttons when credits are available (this only works for limited mame games).

i know this is just stupid meaningless stuff..but it may be cool to add a little flair to the control panel.  i dont think i want to replace the main buttons with light ups, because i have read too many posts where people dont like the feel of them as much..but i figure for admin and start buttons, they would be fine.

The GGG Electric Ice buttons have the same shape as any standard concave button. Some have complained that the spring feel is different, but this can be adjusted. Personally, I think the visual effect is worth it!

is it worth spending the money on one of these controllers?

IMO, yes.

also, i noticed that most of the trackball lighting options are RGB...which is cool, but my control panel is going to have a blue and yellow theme..and unless I am missing something, i dont think you can mix yellow with any combo of RGB, so, can you get Yellow LEDs?

Red + Green = Yellow

   i have seen some that are amber, which is a little too orange for my taste...i'd like to be able to make my trackball blue for player 1 and yellow for player 2.

You could have the trackball constantly fade/transition between yellow and blue - that would be cool!

  but i need some nice bright yellow LEDs that would compare to the brightness of the RGB unit from ultimarc...any ideas?

[Visitor Q]

You can make it light up!

[fatfingers]

Something like this?



 

[severdhed]

cool..thanks guys.  i figure it will probably be a while before i can do this, considering that i just dropped about $450 on controls in the last few months..there is a wife factor here that needs to be dealt with.  i am planning on gutting my cabinet and fixing up the sides once it gets warm out here in a few months.  the cabinet is all black right now..there was once some side art on it, but someone painted over it...i'd like to remove that and repaint the cabinet...maybe add some color, and perhaps some colored tmolding instead of black..so when i do that, i'll maybe order the LED interface

[Rusty Shackelford]

While we are on this subject is it possible to have a trackball flash to the beat of music played through the cab?

[drventure]

I like the idea of the trackball lighting up for those games that use it.

It would be quite slick to have illuminated buttons, where only the buttons used for a particular game would like when you started that game, It'd require some setup, but I suspect that would be possible as well.

But lighting buttons based on the current player's turn, yeah, Can't imagine an easy way to do that one.

[arzoo]

While we are on this subject is it possible to have a trackball flash to the beat of music played through the cab?

Randy from GGG has an application to do this - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=69607.0

Unfortunately it can't be integrated with any other LED software.

[arzoo]

I like the idea of the trackball lighting up for those games that use it.

It would be quite slick to have illuminated buttons, where only the buttons used for a particular game would like when you started that game, It'd require some setup, but I suspect that would be possible as well.

LEDBlinky