Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: darthbane2k on February 15, 2008, 11:28:28 am
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My LCD topgun has stopped working after a year of usage. Cursor no longer moves and there is no light on the gun. Have tried unplugging USB and replugging but no life The LED strip lights are still red though.
Any ideas? Anyone had similar problems? I dont know where to buy a replacment (am from UK).
Also what is the definitive driver to use these days for it? Its been a long time...
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Are you looking at your light bars through a CCD device, like a digital / video camera? It would not surprise me if the IR LED's were being over driven to improve performance, and that they have died, or dimmed to the point that the gun can no longer pick them up.
If it's just the LED's you may be able to replace them or build your own light bars.
RandyT
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Are you looking at your light bars through a CCD device, like a digital / video camera? It would not surprise me if the IR LED's were being over driven to improve performance, and that they have died, or dimmed to the point that the gun can no longer pick them up.
As bizarre as this sounds, would a Wii lightbar work? Each one comes with... ten LED's in two groups of five. Seems Nintendo had the same problem and rather than overdriving the LED's just pumped up the number of LED's to compensate.
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As bizarre as this sounds, would a Wii lightbar work? Each one comes with... ten LED's in two groups of five. Seems Nintendo had the same problem and rather than overdriving the LED's just pumped up the number of LED's to compensate.
The problem with the existing wii lightbar is that the wii has to be turned on before it gets power. People have made custom lightbars with the IR leds as randy suggested, or there are plenty of wireless solutions available. Funny as it sounds, people use candles instead of the sensor bar! While I'm sure it's not accurate enough for our needs, can be a pretty cool party trick.
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My LCD topgun has stopped working after a year of usage.
There are two likely causes..... One of them has already been mentioned.... ie the dead IR Leds. You can replace these. Buy the ones that are sold as IR LEDs for remote controls (TV Remote etc) they're the same thing. If you want to know if they are working, just point a video or digital stills camera at them. The CCD chip can see them on, where your eyes can't.
The second and most likely cause of the problem, is actually a break in the cable somewhere. The only way to find that out is to buz through the cable with a meter. In the arcade, we quite often find that we're replacing gun cables every six months or so, and that's on a heavy weight commercial cable.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
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I think the relative low running life time of those LED's was already discussed when the gun was new.
So did you have the LED bars powered on constantly for a year ? Or did they switch on with your cab ?
I guess the longest way to have these babies alive is by adding a switch to turn them on only when you play with the gun.....
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Another thought - did you use the recoil feature of the gun? I recall it being rather too violent for physical makeup of the gun (not to mention it overdrew current from the USB port). I left mine off, but it would surprise me if it has dislodged something inside the guns...
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Guys, the issue is with the gun and not the LED sensor bars, as I can see power is still being supplied to the bars by the red light, but the red light on the gun has gone - it is simply dead.
Recoil only ever worked for me one, when I first got the gun, after the one occasion when it worked it would make the gun lose responsiveness, so I switched it off (a shame really because I liked it), I have since used the gun without recoil flawlessly for over a year. And yes I use a mains powered USB hub.
I think I may have to buy a new gun - but from where? (im in the UK)
Also what is the latest reccomended driver for it... maybe I can get recoil working again.
Im doing my annual touchup on my cab so I need to get this resolved soon.
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I think I may have to buy a new gun - but from where? (im in the UK)
Direct from the manufacturer. That's how I got my guns..... They sell them direct. It's cheaper than anyone else has them listed for.
http://www.hkems.com/m_main.htm (http://www.hkems.com/m_main.htm)
Also... if you want to sell me your dead gun then please drop me a PM... I'll strip it for parts for another project I'm working on.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
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As bizarre as this sounds, would a Wii lightbar work? Each one comes with... ten LED's in two groups of five. Seems Nintendo had the same problem and rather than overdriving the LED's just pumped up the number of LED's to compensate.
The problem with the existing wii lightbar is that the wii has to be turned on before it gets power. People have made custom lightbars with the IR leds as randy suggested, or there are plenty of wireless solutions available. Funny as it sounds, people use candles instead of the sensor bar! While I'm sure it's not accurate enough for our needs, can be a pretty cool party trick.
I had to really struggle with a response to this. Partly because the OP clarified that it's the gun not the bar so there's no point going after the IR emitters. But it had more to do with just how... silly the response is.
Sure, you can blow $300 some odd dollars buying a Wii just to power a lightbar or one could simply make a trip down to Wally World, buy a $10 "sensor" bar, hack off the plug, wire it up to a 9V or higher source like a wall wart.
In all seriousness, I was thinking that the spacing on the Wii bar might be enough for the gun to register. Since I don't have the gun, I couldn't test it out for myself.
Back to the OP's problem. Maybe the cable on the gun has a short or a break somewhere?
I've heard of local people complaining the powered hub fails or "burns" out, but they never seem to want to give me the busted hub so I can see for myself. :dunno Seems like you've already ruled out the hub though.
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Thank you for the tip on buying them direct, at $35 I am going to buy two!
I have had their EMS USB II Adapter for over a year, and it works great for my wireless PS2 gamepads, and my two PS2 dance pads. I bought that from lit sang(RIP) for twice what they are selling it direct.