Recent Posts

Sounds like you want to do something like this, right?

LEDBlinky can light the active game controls and at the same time use the non-active controls for an animation. In this video, the controls for Asteroids are lit up and the other non-active buttons are synced to the game's audio using an Audio Animation.

So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB arcade Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC as well as have their input recognized; what is needed?

There are two separate parts to what you are describing.
- LED controller for LED outputs.
- Encoder for game control inputs.

An LED controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?

That is the LED controller part.

Once you configure the LEDBlinky software properly, LEDBlinky will send commands to the LED controller for the lighting/animation of the LEDs.

Q: How do you configure LEDBlinky to do that?
A: Off the top of my head, I'm not sure.  Consult the LEDBlinky documentation or Arzoo.

Or is a control interface such as one of those Ipacs necessary?

The IPac is the encoder part.
- An encoder translates button presses into the keystrokes, gamepad button presses, or mouse button clicks that you use to play a game.
- It can also translate spinner or trackball inputs into mouse movements for games that use those types of controls.

The LED controller, LED wiring, and LED circuits are separate from the encoder, encoder wiring, button microswitches, and spinner/trackball mouse input circuits.
- For example, even though there is an LED and a microswitch in an RGB LED arcade button, there is no electrical connection between that LED and microswitch.


Scott

What is necessary to run LED Blinky?

Even if I go to the manufacturers sites - that LED Blinky lists on https://www.ledblinky.net/ledblinky.htm ;  the schematics are very basic to non-existent.

So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB arcade Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC as well as have their input recognized; what is needed?

An LED controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?

Or is a control interface such as one of those Ipacs necessary?

Have you looked in Arzoo's thread here in the Software sub-forum?
- He's the author of LEDBlinky.

Someone said they can do the same thing with an Arduino board, but I'm not 100% what an Arduino board is or that I still wouldn't need a separate controller..

Arduino makes a variety of small, single-board, open-source computers that can handle a wide range of inputs, outputs, and computing tasks.

 

The RGB LEDs you're talking about have 3 channels per LED (red, green, and blue), with a current draw of up to 20mA per channel. ==> 60mA per LED.

Multiply that by the number of LEDs on your control panel and you'll quickly either run out of data pins if you use one pin per channel and/or you'll reach the limit of how much current the Arduino can supply.

To overcome those limits without using a dedicated LED controller board, many Arduino LED projects use addressable LEDs that are wired in series.
- For a project with a large number of these LEDs, you can use an external power supply instead of using 5v from the Arduino's USB to power the LEDs.  The Arduino would still provide the LED data commands.



Scott

Use mp3tag (free) to help curate the tags for your music collection

I can do that...  just get me some dimensions.   

So I need basically the simplest thing in the world printed.... more or less this design:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3223106

I had an outlet installed in my gameroom, but it's mounted to a brick wall that was covered with sheetrock.  (God bless the former owners)  So that means about 9/16" of electrical box is exposed between sheetrock and back of the outlet face plate.  (I was made aware of this before the electrician installed it and I told him to do it anyway)

All I need is a rectangular frame that lines up with the edges of my wall plate cover.  The edges have to be narrow because it needs to clear the mounting tabs of the outlet itself.  I made one out of wood but it was too thick and looked dumb.  Right now I've got it covered with a few wraps of black velcro tape.  Your eye passes over it, and it's better than exposed metal, but I'd like something more finished. 

That's a company that makes these rings, but I'd need three of them:

https://www.kyleswitchplates.com/depth-ring-wall-plate-extenders-1-gang/

And the pricing seems absurd.

Anyone?

So I found a solution to my problem, just putting it here in case anybody else has the same issue.

My solution was in RocketLauncherUI on Global -> Main Settings tab -> Mark 'Suspend Frontend' as true.

This fixed my issue across all my emulators.

hi Mike, sent you a PM about a week ago and haven't heard back. Could I get you to have a look at it and get back to me? Thanks!

Even if I go to the manufacturers sites - that LED Blinky lists on https://www.ledblinky.net/ledblinky.htm; the schematics are very basic to non-existent.

So, if I wanted to create a setup where the LED/RGB Buttons change colors/blink to the beat of the music on whatever game is on the PC - what is needed?

A controller such PacLED64, the buttons and wires that come with the buttons and LED Blinky, and that's it?

----------
Someone said they can do the same thing with an Arduino board, but I'm not 100% what an Arduino board is or that I still wouldn't need a separate controller..

if you go into the diagnostic menu and select "switch test", check to see that the gas pedal is at zero when it's released and goes to max when pressed down. (should be like 128 or something) make sure the pedal is returning properly. if it is, do a calibration on the wheel/pedal.

pretty sure the computer has to se the value go to ZERO, if it's stopping at 10 or something it wont register you've "released" it.