Aimtrak Lightgun wtf?

[Dal1980]

Hi

This is my second post tonight (sorry for spamming but thought I'd start a second thread due to the information on Aimtrak not being very good and hopefully this proves useful for future readers).

I'm running Windows 10 (originally the cab was shipped with XP Pro SP2). The Aimtrak gun has never really worked that great on XP with the gun just giving up at random point including the last level of a game I was playing :/

Since upgrading to windows 10 and this being my setup I thought I'd make sure that everything was done right from the start.. ha! 

Calibration issues caused me consistent headaches as I tried to calibrate after installing AimTrak V2.0 software. Mouse pointers kept flashing at me and causing me to be stuck in repetitive loops. Tip: If you alt-tab your programs and focus back on the Aimtrak program then just point randomly at the screen this should release the calibration. Rinse and repeat until you break free.

Anyway, managed to eventually calibrate it (distance may play a big role here as I went even further back from the bar sensor than I thought I'd need to). Seemed pretty accurate until it just decided to stop working again.

I thought about upgrading my firmware and since it said it was 9.14 I googled it and found that 9.17 may be the most up to date version according to https://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html. Unfortunately the link just seems to show me raw information so after a little bit of research I saved this raw file as a .ufw inside c:\Program Files(x86)\AimTrak folder. I then clicked "Upgrade Firmware" on the "Change Device ID"  tab and clicked the "OK" button. This then gave me a message about waiting 20 seconds which disconnected the device and reconnected it (presumably as an unknown device). The dialogue then closed and a new program launched called Ultimarc Firmware Upgrader. The red message at the bottom of this application window tells me that their is no device detected or upgrade completed. I click the Select Firmware File which gives me an error about "No Device Detected". There isn't anything more I can do at this point other than close the program and complain about it on message boards lol   

As far as light guns go this seems to be mainstream but from what I've read recently there is a darker side to these units.

Does anyone have any advice on fixing them, possible problems or suggestions on alternative light guns too?

[GeoMan]

Contact Andy at http://ultimarc.com/ about your problem. You may have installed incorrect firmware and need to revert to a previous firmware version.

[Dal1980]

Ok, I'll try that thanks GeoMan


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[TapeWormInYourGut]

yeah I am pretty sure that the second number is the hardware version. So you can only install firmware that ends with .14, and I think you installed the wrong version as mentioned.

As for your original problem, make sure that the adhesive on the lens of the aimtrak has not smudged. If the lens moved or fell off at any time then this may have happened. I had to clean the center of mine due to that problem. Also, you are supposed to bend the LEDs so that they point towards the aimtrak. Not sure if you tried that but FYI. Finally, try disabling the auto-gain and instead set it yourself. I disabled both the tilt and auto-gain.

Also note that you should calibrate in the aspect ratio that you will be playing. So if the game is 4:3 then you should calibrate with your desktop set in a 4:3 resolution.

[CandyCabs]

Thanks for the info so far guys - I'm an experienced cabinet builder but always seem to struggle to get these guns working properly. One thing I have learned over many frustrating hours of "tweaking" is to make sure the sensor bar is pointing down slightly, not up. Not sure why but this seems to make calibration slightly easier. Other than that it seems that these things are a pig to get running correctly. Any further tips / advice would be greatly appreciated.