Startcom MALA plugin - add support for "other emulators"

[DaOld Man]

Quick update:
Loadman sent me some code for a config function for startcom.
I have incorporated that into startcom V4.2
I sent the code to Loadman for his evaluation, if it passes his inspection I will send it to my beta testers. (Thats you csa and richierich).

Im not sure whats going on with the ein errors, but Im sure we can get it ironed out.

Edit:
here's a screen shot of the startcom configure screen in mala's options:

[loadman]

I sent the code to Loadman for his evaluation, if it passes his inspection I will send it to my beta testers. (Thats you

Seems cool...

I love the logo's 

My only 'minor' suggestion is try to keep the config window the same size (or smaller) than mala's config window.

MaLa's window is deliberatley that size to cater for users with Loz Rez video monitors

[DaOld Man]

Alright.
Box resized.
Also added some help buttons.

Now on with the troubleshooting. I want to see some more videos of monitors turning...

[DaOld Man]

BTW, The mrotate2 icon on the startcom icon was created by csa3d.
The one Im using looks pretty bad.
He sent me some much better looking ones, but I cant find them.

Chris, do you still have one you can send me?

[csa3d]

BTW, The mrotate2 icon on the startcom icon was created by csa3d.
The one Im using looks pretty bad.
He sent me some much better looking ones, but I cant find them.

Chris, do you still have one you can send me?

I'll have to look around.  I think I located them over the weekend while doing some hard drive reconnaissance.  What size/format do you want them in.  That way there's not double recompression.

I've submitted the results for version 4.2 to your email.  Looks like we got another round to go still 

-csa

[Richie Rich]

OK I got Mala 1.62 installed and with Startcom 4.0 menu is now flipping with monitor rotation in vertical and horizontal perfectly. But I keep getting EInOutErrors at first mala start up after booting up machine and when I set any sound events.

I'm also getting a "Please check your mame configuration Mame executable not set or found ! mame XML file not set or found" message even after going in many times and setting those up again. Should I delete the mala.ini and set up everything again?

Oh and was there a startcom 4.2 I missed?

Startcom plugin is looking better !
Thanks again DaOld Man for all the work.


Video of Mame to Visual Pinball to Future Pinball.

[DaOld Man]

Looks good.
I emailed you V4.2, but since then I have been working on a few bugs that csa3d was having, so i now have V4.3.
I will email it to you shortly.

[Richie Rich]

Hi DaOld Man .

I've been trying Startcom 4.3 for the last three days and here are my results. When I first boot the cab and mala starts I get an "I/O error 103" then a "Startcom.ini not found !" then a "Exception Error in module startcom.mplugin at 000758FD." then finally I get a "Please check your mame coniguration mame executable not found! Mame XML file not set or found !" I then exit mala and restart mala and get no errors at all until I reboot the cab.

The good news is after going into mala the second time after a boot startcom 4.3 works great except for a slight menu lag in switching orientations after exiting a game.

I'm using mala 1.62g and when I remove startcom 4.3 from the plugins folder I don't get any errors on boot up.

Any Ideals ?

[csa3d]

I've been trying Startcom 4.3 for the last three days and here are my results. When I first boot the cab and mala starts I get an "I/O error 103" then a "Startcom.ini not found !" then a "Exception Error in module startcom.mplugin at 000758FD." then finally I get a "Please check your mame coniguration mame executable not found! Mame XML file not set or found !" I then exit mala and restart mala and get no errors at all until I reboot the cab.

This sounds a little more serious then my series of errors, but this is a 'known' issue with 4.3.  What is happening is that StartCom, at that time, has no .ini configuration file created.  Because it does not, it throws up an error dialog.  This error dialog forces Mala code to no longer have GUI control while StartCom creates a window.  This is what I'm guess is causing the I/O Error.  I truely believe all the I/O error stuff is caused by Mala wanting total control of every window created while it's running.  I had trouble with Randy T's KeyWizLoader.exe, Ultimarc's U360 uploader, and various other .bat files I was trying to call from Mala.. all ending in erratic behavior when flow control leaves Mala.

The good news is after going into mala the second time after a boot startcom 4.3 works great except for a slight menu lag in switching orientations after exiting a game.

Hmm... I haven't noticed this one.


My bugs for 4.3 include:

1.  When exiting a vertical game, the vertical menu is flip 180 degree upside down.  My monitor setup is 180 degrees backwards to start with, and I just rotate Mame and Mala the opposite direction from what is considered default, and that usually takes care of things.  Since 3.1 however, my vertical menu is always upside down.

2.  Stella Atari emulator will not gain "on top focus" if you choose the "Wait until Mrotate finishes" option from the config menu.  I think here again, the "wait" function is stealing control from Mala and Mala hates that, then thus, doesn't want to show you Stella, even though it's loaded, just buried underneath the front end causing you to force quit with the task manager.

3.  If you choose to show a custom fullscreen Launch image when starting a game, there is no way to force that image to stay on top until the mame game actually starts (thus, hiding the menu flip under it).  The menu always seems to hide the launch image just after it shows.  I think the order of events Mala core uses when menu flipping and displaying the launch image are ordered in such a way that you'll never truly be able to have the launch image fully hide what's going on with the front-end while the game is loading.

4.  Rotation speeds tend to have momentary 3x acceleration bursts as though a lot more volts just got sent... or something overrides the Pulse functionality of Mrotate and it goes full tilt.  This does not happen withing the Mame emulator, only when in "other emulators".

5. Regardless of which option I tell StartCom to rotate the Mala Menu (before game launch or after game launch), it only seems to want to rotate AFTER.

Version 4.3 and version 4.2 feel largely the same to me, while 4.2 feels more stable then 3.1 in regards to I/O errors, but 3.1 did not flip my menu constantly upside down when vertical.
Thanks for sharing your findings!  PS:  What brand video card are you using, ATI or NVidia?  I'm using an ATI 850-XL

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the testing and the feedback guys.
I will try to look into some of these problems tonight.
As for the screen upside down, since myself and richie are not seeing this, I would say your monitor is rotating backwards from ours.
I will see if I can add a "flip screen" option to startcom for users who rotate in that direction.

As for the motor speeding up, if you recall when you were testing mrotate2 for me, I noticed that sometimes when run from mala, mrotate2 would stutter, causing the pulse output to freeze either on or off for a second, causing the motor to either go full speed or turn off for that duration. Since richie and I are not using speed control, we never see that.
This was going on with the original startcom V1.0 that loadman wrote, so I really dont have an answer. (and I only saw this with mala, so maybe mala does have an issue with giving control to another program?)
Maybe when I finally incorporate the mrotate2 functions into the startcom plugin that will be fixed.

For now, I ask that you guys turn off "show warning messages" and "make activity logs" in mrotate2. Lets see if this makes any difference.
Thanks again..

[wolfsoft]

I am using a rotating screen too. It works via SCR LED on Keyboard.
I am using a exe file that can switch the SCR-LED
For vertical "rollen.exe an"
for horizontal "rollen.exe aus"

Please sent me the newest Startcom MaLa plugin for checking if I can use your plugin too?
Do I need a newer Version of Mala as 1.05?
I didn´t have a 1.06xx Version

Thanks
Klaus

[csa3d]

Do I need a newer Version of Mala as 1.05?
I didn´t have a 1.06xx Version

If you could, please test it out with Mala Beta 162g.  I believe there is some code dependency where you'll need to upgrade to try this out.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Please sent me the newest Startcom MaLa plugin for checking if I can use your plugin too?
Do I need a newer Version of Mala as 1.05?
I didn´t have a 1.06xx Version

Thanks
Klaus

Private message me you email address and I will send you the plugin.
Or you can download V3.1 from the malafe.net site.

[Richie Rich]

Hi csa3d

Thanks for the reply. The video card I'm presently using is a NVidia card but I am putting together a Pentium 4 with a ATI card.
Back to the Startcom plugin, I also had the the vertical menu flip 180 degree upside down when I went from mala 1.05 with startcom 3.1 to mala 1.62g and startcom 4.3 , I remember messing with the settings in mala and something I changed in the mala settings fixed it. but I can't remember which setting. Right now when I boot my cab I get all those warning messages I posted in my last post above, but what is wierd is that I only get those warning messages when the cab first boots when I restart mala after that I don't get any warning messages.

I wonder if there is a way a way to disable the mala warning messages.



 

[DaOld Man]

Just a quick update.
I have been working on startcom, but I am still seeing error 102 when mala is started without a startcom.ini file in \plugins folder.

I have added the ability to enter commands for wolfsoft (email sent).

In this version I have started on allowing startcom to do what mrotate2 does now, but it is a work in progress.

What happened to the post images option on here?

[csa3d]

Just a quick update.
I have been working on startcom, but I am still seeing error 102 when mala is started without a startcom.ini file in \plugins folder.

I have added the ability to enter commands for wolfsoft (email sent).

In this version I have started on allowing startcom to do what mrotate2 does now, but it is a work in progress.

What happened to the post images option on here?

I will test turning off all error reporting as suggested earlier and report back.  Hopefully that helps resolve something.  As for the postings, I think uploading to the forums is still broke.  Your only alternative at this time is to hotlink your images from another server using the

Code: [Select]

[img]www.mysite.com/theimage.jpg[/img]
-csa

[wolfsoft]

I have added the ability to enter commands for wolfsoft (email sent).

For a quick check I tried mala 1.05x.
But before turning of the screen mala shows a litte message box:
Rotvert=an

With an OK Butten
After the OK the screen rotates :-)

I don´t know if this is an issue of mala 1.05x?

Thanks DaOld Man

[Richie Rich]

wolfsoft

Try this newer beta version http://www.malafe.net/files/download/MaLa162g.zip

[DaOld Man]

I have added the ability to enter commands for wolfsoft (email sent).

For a quick check I tried mala 1.05x.
But before turning of the screen mala shows a litte message box:
Rotvert=an

With an OK Butten
After the OK the screen rotates :-)

I don´t know if this is an issue of mala 1.05x?

Thanks DaOld Man

I left some test aids turned on in the startcom, sorry about that.
Fixt version just emailed to you.

[csa3d]

I will test turning off all error reporting as suggested earlier and report back.  Hopefully that helps resolve something.

Ok, I have checked the arcade to make sure I had all debug logging turned off with Mrotate2 and Mala.  My findings do not appear different with the logs turned on or off, so I do not think that writing the information to an external file is adding to any of the aforementioned issues.

Thanks for working so hard on this software!  The rotating cab would be a lame duck without your efforts.

-csa

[loadman]

As long as you guys are having fun! 

[Haterot]

What are you guys doing to avoid the motor lurching or rotating at boot up?

On an unrelated note, is there an option or can there be one that would automatically send the monitor back to it's original orientation (horizontal) when you exit the emu and back to the FE?

[csa3d]

What are you guys doing to avoid the motor lurching or rotating at boot up?

Hey there.  I just re-uploaded the images associated with my rotation thread.  Read over the first three sections of this post, and hopefully that helps.  DaOldMan helped me through most of the electronics stuff, so much credit once again to him.

On an unrelated note, is there an option or can there be one that would automatically send the monitor back to it's original orientation (horizontal) when you exit the emu and back to the FE?

If I remember correctly, I just have a DOS command sent to MRotate2 to rotate horizontal as the exit command.  Mala has this option burried in one of the many tabs which I cannot remember which at this time.

Hope it helps.
-csa

[csa3d]

DaOldMan:

I was looking at the cab tonight, and it appears that when you add another emulator to Mala's list or mess with refreshing new gamelists, I am getting the dreaded input output error.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Haterot, I used opto isolators on my circuit, but the way csa3d did his is much cleaner.
Richierich used another add on PCI printer port card, he said the outputs dont go high on that card at boot up. I havent tried it, but it may be the easiest way to go.

Csa3d: I have the I/O error narrowed down, but I have had a very long week at work so I havent had much chance to delve into it it.
Do you still get the I/O error after you restart mala?

[csa3d]

I have the I/O error narrowed down, but I have had a very long week at work so I haven't had much chance to delve into it it.
Do you still get the I/O error after you restart mala?

No rush.  Just documenting as things come up.  The weird part about that input/output error is that I wasn't even using Mala for FE use at that moment, but rather in the configuration options dialog setting up new things.  I suppose various events cause Mala to iterate through the plugin code

Those errors go away if you restart Mala.  They are event triggered, so if you find out which event is causing them to appear.  Just don't repeat the event, and you'll never see them.

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Ok, I think I got the I/O error fixed in V5.2. Email sent to you CSa3d.

(Fingers crossed and praying out loud.)

As all of you have probably figured out by now, im new to delphi. VB6 is my cup of bitter tea, but I am slowly learning.
The I/O bug was appearing when startcom was checking to see if the file startcom.ini existed or not.
In VB6 the "If fileexists" statement is pretty straight forward, but in Delphi I guess it is not.

Anyhow, I will quit whining for now (right to whine is still reserved though.)

On with the show.

If anyone else wants to beta test V5.2, drop me a PM. (Include yor email addie please.)

Once I get all the little bugs worked out I plan to go on to startcom reading and writing directly to the printer port, making mrotate2 not needed for Mala.

Those option screens are killers. You got to hand it to Loadman and the others creating all this stuff.
Hats off to you guys.
 

[Richie Rich]

Haterot,  I used a parallel card purchased from pc club to solve that problem and it works perfectly.When the cab boots with the parallel card all outputs go high effectively putting the h-bridge I made go into brake mode. If you are using an h-bridge that has braking when both inputs go high this will work.

DaOld Man, Sorry if a went a little bit off subject. Thank You for all the work you have put into startcom.I would probally be using a switch to rotate my monitor if it wasn't for startcom.

[Haterot]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am testing the system (AND IT WORKS WHOOT!) on an old laptop, I did the steps you listed csa3d but my values came out differently. I'm not so worried about this because I took daOld man's advice from a few weeks ago and purchased a parallel port card from newegg (hopefully it will be here today or monday.)

RR I am using the Secret Motor H bridge so i think thqat will go into brake mode when all is high. .

I am using Hyperspin as the frontend, and i think it allows for a command to be sent on emu launch and end I think I'll see if i can get it working smoothly and report back. not that i don't like MALA, just have a lot invested in Hyperspin already.

[DaOld Man]

The way that I and csa3d wired our drives allows the limit switches to "turn off" the  input to the drive. So if the printer port output sticks high for whatever reason, the motor wont run past the limit switch.
This is probably the safest way to do it, but the drawback is the monitor turning when the computer boots up.
Since one of the limits is made, when the monitor is fully horizontal or fully vertical, you will have one drive input connected to the printer port and one not connected.
When all printer port outputs go high, the motor will turn until both limit switches are not made, thus giving the monitor a jerk on bootup.
The way I fixed this was to pick out a printer port output that would open the paths to both drive inputs. When mrotate2 runs, it sets all outputs low, so then the "kill function" is disabled.
On the secret motor drive, you could do this like CSA3d did his, using three transistors.
The limit switches make the needed inputs to the printer port, but also kill the motor rotation, even if the printer port output stays high, but if all outputs are high, then both rotations are killed.
I'm sure there are other ways to do this.

Also on a side note, I have seen different computers act differently on bootup with the printer port.
You can use a DVM like csa3d did, and maybe find two outputs that dont go high on bootup.
I made a "printer port tester box" with 8 leds and 5 switches to use in my development of mrotate2, and a few more programs using the printer port for I/O.

Heres a pic of it:

[Haterot]

Well after doing some work on the cab sides todday I went inside to find that mr mailman had brought me my new Rosewill Parallel card, 
Installed it and have booted many times with no lurching or stray signals sent to the H motor! very cool. I may need to tweak with mrotate or my switch placement as the rotating stops a little "off center"

Do you guys have physical stops built into your rotating plate? I was thinking of placing an L bracket at the 0 and 90 degree marks so the monitor can't go any further.

[DaOld Man]

I do have mechanical stops on mine. I set the limit switches to stop it just before it hits the mechanical stop. This way if the screen goes too far vertical or horizontal I know there is a problem with the limit switches.

Plus it will keep from wrapping the monitor cables if something goes wrong.

[Richie Rich]

OK I have been testing Startcom v5.2 and it looks like all the errors are gone and rotation works perfect in MAME and other emulators. Great work DaOld Man!

[Haterot]

Well i tried to set up my system that I am going to put into the cab so I could test mrotate with Hyperspin, but ran into a probelm with the video card (a GeF 9400 GT) As soon as I install the nVidia drivers the CPU usage shoots to 90% and stays there. pretty much rendering the system slow as all get out. Ive reinstalled the OS 4 times, (used XP, SP1, 2 and 3, tried Win7 RC2) and same thing, all is well until the drivers. at a loss. So I guess I'll go downstairs and work on the cabinet.   

[DaOld Man]

OK I have been testing Startcom v5.2 and it looks like all the errors are gone and rotation works perfect in MAME and other emulators. Great work DaOld Man!

Thats great news!
Now I am working on a new plugin that will do what startcom and mrotate2 does.
Im calling it MalaRotate, so as not to be confused with Mrotate (which BTW, stands for Monitor Rotate).
If anyone wants startcom V5.2, just drop me a line.

I could use a snazzy icon for the MalaRotate, if anyone wants to donate their time.
Also, when Im ready, i will be asking for beta testers.

[DaOld Man]

Well i tried to set up my system that I am going to put into the cab so I could test mrotate with Hyperspin, but ran into a probelm with the video card (a GeF 9400 GT) As soon as I install the nVidia drivers the CPU usage shoots to 90% and stays there. pretty much rendering the system slow as all get out. Ive reinstalled the OS 4 times, (used XP, SP1, 2 and 3, tried Win7 RC2) and same thing, all is well until the drivers. at a loss. So I guess I'll go downstairs and work on the cabinet.   

That really sucks man.
Have you tried downloading the latest drivers for the card?

[Haterot]

Well i tried to set up my system that I am going to put into the cab so I could test mrotate with Hyperspin, but ran into a probelm with the video card (a GeF 9400 GT) As soon as I install the nVidia drivers the CPU usage shoots to 90% and stays there. pretty much rendering the system slow as all get out. Ive reinstalled the OS 4 times, (used XP, SP1, 2 and 3, tried Win7 RC2) and same thing, all is well until the drivers. at a loss. So I guess I'll go downstairs and work on the cabinet.   

That really sucks man.
Have you tried downloading the latest drivers for the card?

Oh yeah definitely. Its a fresh install latest drivers (both 32 and 64) everytime I install nvidia drivers from 170 to 185 (the latest) the CPU pegs to 90%. I ran process Explorer and the Hardware Interrupts are what is causing the overload. spent all day looking into it to no avail. most people who have this problem have it due to a DMA/PIO bug but not I, I gotta be different, unique and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- outta luck. Even swapped the video card from my main rig same prob. i think the mobo or the PCIe slot may be the culprit, who knows.

[csa3d]

Ok, I think I got the I/O error fixed in V5.2. Email sent to you CSa3d.

(Fingers crossed and praying out loud.)

Welp, I am still experiencing some issues, but at this time I cannot consistently reproduce what causes my problems.     I'll play with it some more another night and try to help narrow down what's going on.

I was pretty "IO Error Free" until I switched the settings in Mala's config dialog for Startcom from 2 - 2 to 1 - 1.  Previous versions of Startcom acted worse using 2 -2 then 1 -1, and I wasn't experiencing any issues IO Errors, so I decided to switch it for testing purposes.  Upon doing so, it was IO error hell, which forced a hard reboot to regain control.  I'm unsure what spawned this behavior, but I"m pretty sure it involved switching from mame vertical mode to Stella (atari) horizontal.

Issues still present in 5.2:

1.  Vertical lists are still incorrectly rotated upside down when returning to the menu.  It's clearly visible that the menu gets rotated twice.  The first rotation set's it proper, the second one flips it upside down incorrectly.  I'm wondering if this isn't due to loadman's fix where he moved some code around in something or another to help us try to fix the option of "wait until launch" or something.. I'll dig up that post in a bit to cross reference. 

EDIT:  It's either this post or this post I think..

Is it possible to add an orientation check in Startcom to query if the menu is actually ALL READY in the correct orientation before calling the menu rotation command?  This shouldn't slow down much, and might remove the issue.  Also remember that there's a checkbox in one of Mala's many tabs which makes makes Mala flip the screen the opposite of "normal direction" for those of us who accidentally installed their screen 'wrongly'.



2. Both options which change the emulator launch timing still have issues with the Stella Atari emulator.  I think this emulator is retarded like that, and unsure there's much you can do to fix that, though I encourage you to try

3.  The launch image still does not stay on top while the monitor is rotating and the Mala menu is flipping.  I'd really like to be able to hide all screen activity and shenanigans while the rotation happens.

4.  I started using LedBlinky's speak the controls options.  This functionality now messes with the timing of all system events.  Startcom doesn't get called until LedBlinky is done talking.  It would be ideal if the entire system behaived like so:

    a.) Select a game, any emulator
    b.) Display the launch image, do not let it go away until the emulator actually is loaded
    c.) Begin monitor rotation
    d.) Speak the LedBlinky controls while the screen is spinning (what else is there to do, let's overwhelm our guests with coolness here!)
    e.) Emulator has finally loaded
    f.) Remove the full screen launch image and release control to the emulator.

As all of you have probably figured out by now, im new to delphi. VB6 is my cup of bitter tea, but I am slowly learning.
The I/O bug was appearing when startcom was checking to see if the file startcom.ini existed or not.
In VB6 the "If fileexists" statement is pretty straight forward, but in Delphi I guess it is not.

No worries here!  It's not like you're being paid for your masterful code skills.. though I'm willing to send beer money 

Once I get all the little bugs worked out I plan to go on to startcom reading and writing directly to the printer port, making mrotate2 not needed for Mala.

Unfortunately, I think this is a major reason that I'm still seeing IOErrors.  More research will follow over the next few nights.  Thanks again for looking into this.

OH YEAH... what size and file format for the config images of the MRotate icon did you want?

-csa

[DaOld Man]

Ok, I am rotating counter clockwise horz to vert. I think RichieRich probably is too.
The setting you show on mine is not checked, which means the screen rotates counter clockwise on vertical.
I tried checking that setting and my screen still turns counter clockwise, so I think mala settings and startcom settings are fighting each other, with startcom winning, probably because it issues the command last.

I think I need to change the command to rotate counter clockwise.
I will probably add it as an option in startcom, only problem is I have to figure out what that command is.

Even with the settings you show, and with mame advance command of "on vertical -ror", my screen still rotates rol on vertical.

Seems like all the settings I play around with in mala, the screen still rotates ccw for vertical.
But even so, Im not seeing any of the errors you mention, but Im not using any other plugins.

About the icon, Im not sure, what is the common file format?

[DaOld Man]

Csa3d: I have made the screen flip opposite the way my does. Email sent, let me know how it works.