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Buddabing's LED controller
scooter:
2, 1b, 2b
Couldn't you just make this a standalone program and have the FE call it before launching the game? I think some of the popular FEs already support this anyway (running a program before launching).
Buddabing:
--- Quote from: gork on April 20, 2005, 02:23:48 am ---I am very curious how you guys are designing the circuit. IMO It would be a little shortsighted to pursue a parallel port based control design for a production device, especially when building an alternative interface is very easy.
--- End quote ---
The parallel interface consists of a 7405 inverter, a couple of pull-up resistors, and a .1 uf cap. It can't get much easier than that.
What alternative interface are you referring to? USB?
--- Quote ---The TLC5920 LED driver From TI has a 16 bit and 8 bit shift register internally so it can drive 128 LED's on its own, which isn't too bad for a $3 part. You could couple one (or more) of these with something like the Atmel AT90S and some simple power circuitry to build a 128-LED driver for an insanely reasonable parts cost. For small applications, power could be taken from the USB also, making using this for something like a 2p control panel even less expensive.
--- End quote ---
I looked at a few of the TLC59xx data sheets. It's very interesting and you could definitely build a LED controller from them. The only problem is that these chips are all QFP packaging, which I am not equipped to deal with.
--- Quote ---I have been looking at building a large LED matrix controller for a different project recently and this type of design is probably what my approach will be. If you guys are willing to share any details about your design approach, I would be interested.
BTW you could probably mark me down for one anyway, as no matter how you design it, if it works and you take the time to write support for it into MAME, then I'd probably be all about it :)
--- End quote ---
Having a matrix design allows larger number of LEDs. But, you have to worry about making sure all the LEDs have enough power, and you have to have a PIC in there to drive them. I chose a simpler design, which I believe will ultimately be cheaper, easier to use, more expandable, and more reliable.
In fact, with a bit of hacking, up to eight of these 40-LED boards can be daisy-chained together and all run from the same parallel interface. I don't recommend this,
Shooter:
Im interested in the following:
1 1a 2b
nonfatnonfat:
It looks like you've put in a ton of work into this project. Thanks for all the updates.
This is what I'm interested in.
2. I'll buy it if it's not too expensive.
1b. Controller capable of controlling 40 LEDs
2a. Wire harness, LEDs, circuit board
Lilwolf:
btw, instead of creating a version of mame for each version...
why not just create a middleware piece?
IE
updateLED mame.exe pacman
This would find the take the second input and setup the leds... Then it would launch the 1st with all parameters?
Or something similar.
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