How to ouput signals on mame for a ticket dispencer

[abispac]

Basically what i want to do, its build a lotto fun dedicated cab and hook a ticket dispenser, but I'm really lost on how to do that, at first i saw mamehooker, but i think that's for leds only, not for tickets.So I'm asking for some help in here to see ii can achieve something, Any help its appreciated, thanks

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

As long as your ticket dispenser only expects a 'pulse', then the output of mamehooker should work just fine. Someone is using the same software to drive 'kicker solenoids' over in a Q*Bert thread.

[abispac]

i still have not look at this , but i wonder, mamehooker outputs only leds on lotto fun , i dont see how to hook mamehooker to output the ticket dispencer...

[Howard_Casto]

i still have not look at this , but i wonder, mamehooker outputs only leds on lotto fun , i dont see how to hook mamehooker to output the ticket dispencer...

Mamehooker doesn't output ANYTHING... it interfaces to what MAME outputs.  So if a ticket output isn't found by mamehooker then it doesn't exist in the mame driver. 

Also the whole "mamehooker only works on leds" comment is a little dis-heartening. 

you might want to check the about page.   

http://dragonking.arcadecontrols.com/static.php?page=aboutmamehooker

[Kevin Mullins]

Whaaaaaat ?!? ... Mamehooker doesn't put out ?

 

We actually briefly touched on this subject about Lotto Fun in this thread http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=100427.0 (somewhere down in there anyways)

Basically MAME has an "LED" output for that game, so that "output" can be used for whatever you want basically, including a ticket dispenser pulse of sorts. Doesn't matter that they call it an LED output.... an output is an output. I hadn't messed it it any myself, but certainly seems feasible with Mamehooker.

[Howard_Casto]

Just tried that game.  Boy whoever hooked it up in the driver sure was sloppy.  Not only is it set to an led, but it's set to "led2" instead of "led0". 

The output macro system in mame is so frikkin easy to set labels (literally one line of code) that this is a little sad.  Looks like it flashes the proper amount of tickets though.  I would say to use the parallel port for somethign this simple, but that whole "active high on boot" deal is going to spit out half a roll of tickets on startup.  The keyboard led might be a good bet if the ticket dispensor is all one wants to hook up.  It'll take a bit of circuitry to ramp up the voltage though. 

[Kevin Mullins]

It'll take a bit of circuitry to ramp up the voltage though. 

Why ramp up the voltage ?
Most ticket dispensers have an external power source constantly fed and a pulse triggers the circuitry on the dispenser to kick in the motor.

Or do you think the keyboard led pulse would be too weak even for that?

[Howard_Casto]

It'll take a bit of circuitry to ramp up the voltage though. 

Why ramp up the voltage ?
Most ticket dispensers have an external power source constantly fed and a pulse triggers the circuitry on the dispenser to kick in the motor.

Or do you think the keyboard led pulse would be too weak even for that?

Well I'm not particularly familair with ticket dispensors, but usually arcade tech needs a 5v signal to trigger anything.  Keyboard leds put out around 1.5 volts.  That doesn't mean it won't work though, it just might not.

[Kevin Mullins]

Well I'm not particularly familair with ticket dispensors, but usually arcade tech needs a 5v signal to trigger anything.  Keyboard leds put out around 1.5 volts.  That doesn't mean it won't work though, it just might not.

Ah, good point.
I don't recall off hand what the typical dispenser pulse voltage is really. I'd have to check that out on an original boardset and ticket dispenser I have around here somewhere. (not anytime soon though)
But I see what ya mean.

[abispac]

thanks guys, anything i can do so we can get this working?
And Howard , what did you mean by   the whole "active high on boot" ?

[Howard_Casto]

Well modern parallel ports essentially turn all the output pins on during bootup and I think windows does this as well.  They would be stuck in an "on" state for several seconds.  That's ok for lights, but not for motors and especially not for something spitting out tickets. 

You can get it working easily once you figure out the hardware interface you are going to use.  Bind a command to "led2" in mamehooker for that game and it should work just fine. 

[abispac]

Well modern parallel ports essentially turn all the output pins on during bootup and I think windows does this as well.  They would be stuck in an "on" state for several seconds.  That's ok for lights, but not for motors and especially not for something spitting out tickets. 

You can get it working easily once you figure out the hardware interface you are going to use.  Bind a command to "led2" in mamehooker for that game and it should work just fine. 

I think im goin to study mamehooker and do a few trys before i start buggin you with some stupid questions, ill post results as soon as i get som, thanks howard.

[abispac]

Im trying mamehooker on my keyboard with settings:
for lottofun
[General]
MameStart=
MameStop=
StateChange=
[Output]
Orientation(\\.\DISPLAY1)=
led2=kbd 1 1

But i only get the keyboard too light the numlock led but i does not turn the led on and off as its supost to do.
Do i have the right settings or im doing it wrong? thanks

[Howard_Casto]

You need to read the entire readme. 

Look at your script... it's setting the led to on (1) instead of the current state.  (%s%)

you want

kbd 1 %s%

[abispac]

Thanks Casto, i reed the readme file, over and over, but maybe because english its my first lenguage, i dont fully understand'it, i do my best, or maybe this amme hooker its way over of what i can understand. Thanks