Mala and Rotating Monitor Plugin.

[Richie Rich]

I'm looking for the mala rotating monitor plugin "mrotate" or "mrotate2" and wiring diagram for hooking up my limit switches and h-bridge to the parallel port.

I have sent weisshaupt a PM to beta test the mrotate2 mala plugin but I don't know if he still frequents this forum.

Link to my project: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90769.0

Richie Rich.

[Stormrider]

What is that plugin? a way to tell Mala when the monitor is H or when it's V? Is that possible? How? Anyway, in my setup what I do is to rotate my TV by hand. I don't like most rotating setups because they are bulky and the monitor is never down to the level of the control panel when in horizontal mode. In my setup, when I decided that I want to play vertical games, I wait for 5 minutes and then rotate it. It's heavy (28") but I already know the tricks for the operation. I've never had problems of magnetization with this method. I have a button in my CP to switch from horizontal to vertical in MaLa, with two different layouts.

[Richie Rich]

The plugin controls the motor on my rotating monitor via this mala plugin send signals through the parallel port to a h-bridge that controlls the rotation of the motor and I also have a set of limit switches to send a signal though the parallel port to tell the mala plugin what position the monitor is in.  Really cool when I  can get it all working, but I need the mala plugin first, I just can't find where to download the plugin.

I now Weisshaupt, DaOLd Man and csa3d have been working real hard on this plugin.

[loadman]

I am sure DaOLd will help- you 

[csa3d]

Yeah, if I were you I'd PM DaOldMan.  Last I heard he had made some updates to the plugin (Mrotate).  I have one remaining issue I need to work out with the rotation concerning "other emulators" other then Mame.. but have been super swamped lately and haven't even booted my cab in a few months now.  :[  I originally went with weisshaupts plugin but mrotate currently feels the best solution available.

When you pm him, tell him I said hi.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

I have uploaded a zipped copy of my program, mrotate2, and a zipped plugin for mala, written by Loadman. It is called startcom.

Check out this thread for the download links:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90769.0

Download both, unzip them. place the startcom in the mala plugins folder.
Put mrotate2 anywhere on the harddrive.
If you need some ocx files when you run mrotate2 (these are VB6 runtime files), just let me know. You will also need to place a copy of inpout32.dll in your windows/system32 folder. (free download off the web. I can give you the link if needed.)

When you run mrotate2, you can set up your inputs and outputs, you can also setup PWM speed control, if your drive is capable of it.
Just PM me if you need any help with mrotate2.


Hello Chris! (Im still waiting for the mrotate2 pdf file (hint hint).
I see where you are having trouble rotating the monitor with emulators other than Mame.
Mrotate2 should work with any plugin that can call it and pass a 0 or 90.
I know startcom is a plugin for mala that only works with mame.

I would like to finish up Mrotate2, (all it needs is some help files finished up), then I can package it and the VB6 run time files into an install program. I can also include loadmans startcom plugin and I think I can legally include the inpout32.dll file needed for printer port communications. (I will have to double check on that.)
Maybe I can post it in the software section where it can be easily found.

Loadman, how hard would it be to write mrotate2 plugins for other emulators?

[Richie Rich]

DaOld Man, Thank You!

I just hooked a printer cable to the parallel port and I am going to use pin 2 and 3 out to my h-bridge and pin 12 and 13 as the inputs from the limit switches, pins 12,13 and 4 are high when in windows and pin 3 is low.

Should I use a current limiting resistor of like 100 ohms from ground through the limit switches to pins 12 and 13?  and pin 3 is low and pin 4 is high normally should I use a pull down resistor for pin 4 so as not to confuse the h-bridge?

Sorry for all the questions but I don't want to wire things wrong, I know you can't load the parallel port with more than 24 mA, that's why I'm using the h-bridge to isolate the parallel port from the motor current.

Again, Thanks DaOld Man for all the work you have done on the mala plugin.

[DaOld Man]

I dont mind helping at all Richie Rich, but perhaps we should go back to your original thread in project Announcements, I dont want to load this forum about Mala down too much with non-mala related stuff.

But I will quickly answer these questions.

I too had a problem with the pin 4 staying high after boot up.
I also saw all pins going high, thats why i made a "kill circuit". (See my original thread.)
Anyway, it is a problem with windows. So you probably shouldnt use pin 4 (there are 5 more left).
You dont need to pull any outputs down with a resistor (pins 2 thru 9).

The inputs normally "float" high, so it is natural to see a positive voltage on them to ground.
You bring them to ground with the end-of-rotation limit switches.
About the 100 ohm resistor on the inputs, I originally thought they were necessary to limit current going through the inputs, but now I am not sure. I have seen others tie the input directly to ground with no problems. You can sure use the resistors if you want, but I would say it's safe not to. (But DO NOT connect any outputs directly to ground.)

Now about the mala plugin, Loadman wrote it, so I got to direct the thanks to him on that.
I wrote the mrotate2, which simply controls your motor drive.
Startcom, the mala plugin, only works within mala. It calls mrotate2, and passes a 0 for "move to horizontal" command and a 90 to "move to vertical" command.
Think of startcom as the master, and mrotate2 as the brain for your drive.
Mrotate2 can be called from anyone that can pass an argument.
It can be called from the dos box in Windows, and I even have two shortcuts on my desktop that can tell it to rotate.

The line commands are mrotate2.exe 0 and mrotate2.exe 90.
Hope this helps.