BETABRITE SCROLL SIGN IN ARCADE OS

[Netcat]

Arcade OS supports serial devices but is hardcoded to 8N1

Is anyone here capable of modifyin the source code (Which is readily available) to modify serial settings to 7E1 (which is necessary for Betabrite 1040)

If you can help please please let me know.

Kindest Regards.

Tony@780tech.com
http://www.780tech.com/betabrite

[MustardTent]

NetCat, excellent job with with Alpha protocol stuff.  I actually tried to run your "betagen" program, but no luck.  I'm running win 2k.  It kept complaining about the LCD directory already existing, even though it didn't.  But, I tried the files you put on your site and they worked like a charm.  And, I'm not sure about your betabrite, but mine supports the standard 9600/8/n/1.  Probably doesn't matter much since we're only sending text, but possibly useful in the future.

Anyway, I'm willling to port your stuff to c.  I'll poke through your code tomorrow during lunch.

Again, great job on the Alpha protocol.  I've been meaning to do this for like a year, but I just never could get myself to read through the protocol document.

[Netcat]

I understand my sign cannot be changed but I would be interested in knowing by what means you change yours to 8n1??

Software or hardware

You flater me.

Altough I agree I did a good job with the protocol stuff I must confess I cheated. I really dont understand the protocol, I am however hardheaded &  resourcefull at capturing output  and sending to files, I am also decent at Qbasic so therefore I developen an app taht would open output files scan thru the characters and figure out the ASCII values.


regards.
tony

[MustardTent]

Didn't require anything special from me.  Just set COM1 to 9600/8/n/1.  What model do you have?  Mine is a 213c.  I'll check my manual if it'll help you at all.

[mccoy178]

I have that same model.  It's ggrrrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaattttt!

[Netcat]

I believe it is a 1040

comes set to 4800 7e1

TO the best of my knowledge it cannot be changed thriu software and it has no dip switches or jumopers

[Silver]

Hi,

Nice one for putting together some info on the betabrites.

I've used your info and the source of your quickbasic program to release a new beta of LCDgen. You can get it here:

http://www.silverfoxy.plus.com/LCDGen.html

There is now a (hopefully) working option for Betabrite in the LCD drop down list. One for dynamic, one for static. I've used the same ASCII set you used in your program so it should work - again I can't test it, so let me know if it helps.

I know a lot of the betabrite boards store text in ram and then can display it in various ways - not sure if you guys want this for the game controls etc... Also at the moment I'm not checking for length - I don't know how many characters BBrites display in one go, or if they auto-scroll etc... The more I know the more options I can add to the program, if you like....

At least let me know I've got the basic bit right....

[MustardTent]

Silver, your betabrite version of lcdgen works just fine.  However, your installer is still a big buggy.  Keeps saying needed files are not present, would you like to reboot?  Luckily, you've helped me before, so I could just run the newest executable without performing a base install.

One thing though, the controls are not being shown on the led screen.  I did point lcdgen to a valid controls.xml file.  Maybe I did something wrong, but I double checked all of the checkboxes.

Oh by the way, I configured lcdgen to produce "dynamic" text.

[MustardTent]

Just tried static too.  Names work just fine, but no dice on the controls.

[Silver]

Hi,

Installer - man I've been meaning to lose that completely. Think I will just stick the VB6 runtime files and a link to the msxml installer up there. I've tried about 50 times to create a good installer with VB6 enterprise, but it only ever seems to work on the system its created on....

lost my thread in my previous post - meant to mention that I was not included any control info until I knew the basic bit worked - which it does 

I can get it to include control data - but whats the best method - just tag it on after the name? Will BB scroll this automatically? How do they treat 'return's' (Ascii 13 or 10)? If you guys let me know what works well I can stick it in....

[Netcat]

Silver YOU RULE!!

I agree however the installer doesnt quite work.

Also

In my humble opinion, adding controller info to the LED sign really clutters it, can we have an option or checkbox that allows (name and description) or (Name, description controller info)

Thanks Dude.

You're the best

[Netcat]

One more thing.

I am sure we are going to be getting this running with ArcadeOS and not Just MameWah.

my next step with my program weas to enable it to generate either

A. The mameWah 5000+ Files

OR

B. the One ArcadeOS file > LIST.LCD

Any chance I could persuade you to make LCDGen compatible with MAmeWah AND ArcadeOS?

I'd really really appreciate it, plus it save me a boatload of programming

[MustardTent]

Hi,

Installer - man I've been meaning to lose that completely. Think I will just stick the VB6 runtime files and a link to the msxml installer up there. I've tried about 50 times to create a good installer with VB6 enterprise, but it only ever seems to work on the system its created on....

lost my thread in my previous post - meant to mention that I was not included any control info until I knew the basic bit worked - which it does

I can get it to include control data - but whats the best method - just tag it on after the name? Will BB scroll this automatically? How do they treat 'return's' (Ascii 13 or 10)? If you guys let me know what works well I can stick it in....

Silver -- just did some testing.  The betabrite does not read the character \r (ascii 13) correctly, but it does recognize \n (ascii 10).  Also, really long words are automatically scrolled along the sign.  Multiple words are tokenized by spaces and displayed appropriately.

My vote is for support of controls info in the sign.  I know your program already supports this, but just wanted to let you know people want it.  I believe you already have a radio button to enable/disable, so I think we're all happy, eh netcat? 

Hope this helps, and also I hope it helps negate some of my previous laziness  .  If there's more testing you need done -- I'm your man.

[Silver]

I agree however the installer doesnt quite work.

Ok I've made one final attempt at a new install package. If this fails, I'll scrap it.

In my humble opinion, adding controller info to the LED sign really clutters it, can we have an option or checkbox that allows (name and description) or (Name, description controller info)

I wondered if it would... Also thought it might be distracting to have stuff scrolling all the time - but then it is an 'Arcade at home'....

By name and description I presume you mean game name + clone info? That's already taken care of (and the tick boxes for "remove clone info" should already work in the current beta).

my next step with my program weas to enable it to generate ...
B. the One ArcadeOS file > LIST.LCD

This should not be very hard to add - I'm currently not familiar with how ArcadeOS stores/expects to find the LCD info. Is it documented somewhere?

Silver -- just did some testing. The betabrite does not read the character \r (ascii 13) correctly, but it does recognize \n (ascii 10).

Excellent thanks...

My vote is for support of controls info in the sign. I know your program already supports this, but just wanted to let you know people want it.

No problem - is it best to have it all in one line seperated by spaces or does it display better if the controls are seperated by ascii(10)'s?
I should probably go read the BBrite protocol and see what kind of display trickery it can do here.....

[Silver]

Netcat - interested to know where you got the headers and enders you used in your qbasic program from.... you appear to use several "extended" asci characters (ie above ascii decimal 127) which technically fall outside the control codes of the alpha protocol (v1 of which betabrite uses). They can be used to display special characters, but you use them right at the start which would normally be where the betabrite would look for 5 NUL characters to lock up the baud rate...

Not too bothered as it obviously works as is, but just looking at the control codes for adding different display/wipe effects...

[mccoy178]

When I hit go after selecting my paths in LCD Gen 097.1 beta, I get an error screen that says:Run-time error '429':
                                    ActiveX component can't create object

Then it shuts down.  Any help?

[mccoy178]

So, if the installer for 97.1 doesn't work, and I need the support from .96 if I don't have it, and .96 isn't available, what do I do?  Be patient?!

[MustardTent]

My vote is for support of controls info in the sign. I know your program already supports this, but just wanted to let you know people want it.

No problem - is it best to have it all in one line seperated by spaces or does it display better if the controls are seperated by ascii(10)'s?
I should probably go read the BBrite protocol and see what kind of display trickery it can do here.....

It's probably best to separate the controls by '\n'.  Otherwise, the control data would probably scroll by a little to quickly.

[Silver]

So, if the installer for 97.1 doesn't work, and I need the support from .96 if I don't have it, and .96 isn't available, what do I do?  Be patient?!

damn sorry should not have shifted 0.96 - although not sure that worked.

Goto Mamewah's website, download and install the "system files" for it.

Then google for 'MsXml' and install the package with that name from MS. I think I used MsXml4.0 SP2 but there should be a 5.0 or something that will work fine. I can't update the website till later....

[mccoy178]

Thank you sir.  I'll put my best man on it!

[kenmelk]

OK forgive me here, but i do have a question.  What exactly will this program do?  I have been working for some time to create a scrolling marquee that when a game is selected will automatically scroll the title and manufacturer of that game.  Is this what you are trying to do?  Please forgive me as my way of programming is quite different then most, i go for the "KISS" method, Keep It Simple Stupid.

[Netcat]

Documentation on FOrmat supported by Arcadeos LIST.LCD

please reference file AOS_MAN.TXT than comes included with ArcadeOS

Thanks

[Silver]

OK forgive me here, but i do have a question.  What exactly will this program do?  I have been working for some time to create a scrolling marquee that when a game is selected will automatically scroll the title and manufacturer of that game.  Is this what you are trying to do?  Please forgive me as my way of programming is quite different then most, i go for the "KISS" method, Keep It Simple Stupid.

Basically all my program (LCDgen) does it create a load of text files named romname.lcd which contain the game name and control info for the game (so 1942, Button1: Fire, Button2: Bomb etc....). It uses the ControlsDat project for all the control info, only creates files for the roms you own, and tries to squeeze the info so that it fits on a small LCD. It also adds control characters (often hidden ASCII text) that send instructions to the LCD, such as clear the screen, scroll the game name if its too long (if the LCD supports this) change the font etc....

These lcd files are supported by Mamewah, which will send it out to a com port of your choice so that it displays the info of the game you choose to play on your LCD. You can use almost any other FE by using a batch file which copys the right text file out to the com port as well on game launch.

It originally only supported PJRC LCD's, althougth it also supports a BPP440 and now ongoing BetaBrite scrolling marquee support. Its very easy for me to add new LCD's/scrolling things so long as the control characters are documented. At the moment I have not used anything with USB/parallel port connections, but thats simply because I have not come across any.

Do you have a scrolling marquee? At the moment it does not show manufacturer info but its an easy change to make.

If this becomes popular a lot of FE's might start doing this on there own - they all do a lot of the hard work anyway which is gathering all the info about all the games together. I know Mala does it, but it appears it supports 1 usb lcd controller at the mo - I don't know much about it.

[mccoy178]

Silver, God love ya.  My beta brite software was sending messages that I had typed to the sign.  Once I ran this program, the name of the game took the texts' spot, but had the effects.    Pretty neat!  I think I will put a bunch of blank lines in the beta brite software with effects and have it so it carries through onto the text.  When will the controls part be ready?  I'm in love with this.  I would like the info to scroll while I play if possible.  Also, is there anyway to do an attract mode?  What about other emu's?  Just wondering
mccoy178

For the rest of the world looking at this:
I have a beta brite 213c I bought from sams club that is in the marquee of my cab:
www.ohiostate.photosite.com
This was the easiest thing yet to set up on my cab.  I spent all weekend with the J5viewer, and this took all of 5 minutes.  Silver has the gift.

[Silver]

It's probably best to separate the controls by '\n'.  Otherwise, the control data would probably scroll by a little to quickly.

Ok - just 'cos I'm lazy (and the alpha protocol is a 15meg pdf text file!) what does the \n do?

Once I get some control info going for Betabrite owners it would be good if people could have a play with various effects (if you know how) to see what looks best as I'll be doing this blind....

all this makes me want to get my hands on a betabrite myself......

[mccoy178]

Okay,
two things:
1) Even after I exit the game, the name keeps showing up in the marquee.  When a new game is selected, the name changes.  Even after I exit mamewah, the name continues to show every so often.

2) Leaving spaces and adding effects in the beta brite software worked!  Looks neat as the game appears a different way everytime. I don't want to talk about it! ( I see how much nicer your software is!)

[Netcat]

Thanks for all your Hard work Sylver.

I havent checked your latest version of LCDGen however For the Record my STATIC output Prefix is flawed.

According to the BASIC Prog I stole the code from the first 20 characters should be CHR$(0) which are for autosensing

The code I provided originally workes ONLY when a message had already been sent SUCCESFULLY to the sign previously (Therefore Autosensing ALREADY took place)

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

[MustardTent]

Ok - just 'cos I'm lazy (and the alpha protocol is a 15meg pdf text file!) what does the \n do?

Once I get some control info going for Betabrite owners it would be good if people could have a play with various effects (if you know how) to see what looks best as I'll be doing this blind....

all this makes me want to get my hands on a betabrite myself......

The \n will make the betabrite display the data in two chunks.

[Silver]

Okay,
two things:
1) Even after I exit the game, the name keeps showing up in the marquee.  When a new game is selected, the name changes.  Even after I exit mamewah, the name continues to show every so often.

2) Leaving spaces and adding effects in the beta brite software worked!  Looks neat as the game appears a different way everytime. I don't want to talk about it! ( I see how much nicer your software is!)

Mamewah has an option in one of it's ini's for a "default" display - one that is shown while browsing the menus. With a basic LCD (which is the info which I provided to Minwah when he kindly added LCD support) this is easy - just stick some text in the ini and it will Display ("Welcome to Mamwah. Choose Game" or whatever). You would need to add the control characters for this to work right with a betabrite I think. Its probably easiest to add another lcd file (default.lcd) or whatever - as I imagine its a very easy job for Minwah to add. I will email and ask him.

re: your second point. I can add spaces/effects easily enough to my software. I also note that Betabrite protocol has a "random" control to make each text appear in a different manner....

I havent checked your latest version of LCDGen however For the Record my STATIC output Prefix is flawed.

According to the BASIC Prog I stole the code from the first 20 characters should be CHR$(0) which are for autosensing

Ah good I'm glad you confirmed that I was getting very confused why it was working with what you provided as according to the protocol it really shouldn't. Anyway, It's only the first 5 characters accorded to the protocol.  I will try and base the next release off the protocol to see if that works ok.

[Silver]

The \n will make the betabrite display the data in two chunks.  One before the \n, and one after.  For example, if the data was "Road Blastersssssssssssssssssss", and the data had a \n between the two words, it would display "Road" in the middle of the sign, then the word "Blasterssssss" would appear at the right of the sign, and scroll left until the entire word has been displayed.

Without the \n, the sign would display "Road Blasters" all at once, and then refresh the sign with updated colors (or whatever) and the same text.

ok. Well I can get it to add \n when the text is over a certain length (and this can be optional). How many characters long are these betabrites?

Silver, I can provide you with mpgs of the sign in action during different configurations.

Could be cool for others to see (and me!). I'll stick'em on my website if you like....

[Silver]

Ok, new version is out. (0.97.2). Quite a lots changed so I expect there are some bugs.

I've rewritten the Betabrite stuff based on the alpha protocol - it should mean that there is no need for dynamic/static selecting. It will also kick out control info (8-way joystick) and button info to betabrites. These are all seperated by "\n" which I have to say does not seem to crop up in the alpha protocol, but seeing as its been reported here to work I've tried it.

I've also added a drop down list of all the betabrite fancy display modes I could find. I'm sure some of these will not work with some models - let me know how it goes. It defaults to the various/random option. The previous hardcoded one was the 2nd one in the list - just holding still.

I've also added an option for ArcadeOS support. This option is only available when using Betabrites, and is untested. It makes a right looking List.LCD file with all the info but arcadeOS does not allow unprintable ascii characters within the List.LCD file and has its own substitutions which I've used, but not tested at all. It will currently only ouput the "random" type display for text.

I've also made a couple of self-extracting archives for the VB6 runtime files and another for the MsXML files needed to run. HOPEFULLY they will work now I'm not relying on the self-packaging installer. Although I'm practically expecting this one to fail....

[mccoy178]

I tried the new version, and it shot "oooooooooooooooo" scrolling on the sign no matter what game.  A continuous line of those.

[MustardTent]

Silver, I'll test tonight.

I tried the new version, and it shot "oooooooooooooooo" scrolling on the sign no matter what game. A continuous line of those.

Could you explain a bit?  What settings did you use? It's possible that thiis isn't a problem, and you just picked that one game called "oooooooooooooooo"   

[Silver]

I tried the new version, and it shot "oooooooooooooooo" scrolling on the sign no matter what game.  A continuous line of those.

Confirmed bug, fix on the way.

Edit: Fixed, new version up without all the "ooooo"

[mccoy178]

Allright, here's is where I'm at:

1) Controls now show up

2) A Double name game does not show up together(i.e. golden tee 2k shows up as; (golden)  (tee 2k\ntrackball)  (\n1:\n2:\n)     - EDIT: where the smileys are, is where the 3?'s are supposed to be.

3) As I showed above, that \n is behind everything. 

4) Off the lcd part for a sec, it seems as though not very many games are getting their button controls read.  Is it just an uncomplete controls.dat or something?

[MustardTent]

mccoy,
 Let me know if i'm getting this right:

[mccoy178]

Answers:

1) I do have a 213c

2) I couldn't tell you on that one

I don't know why they are there, but they are.  I bought this sign in the first quarter of this year.  So, I would presume the firmware is fairly new.

[MustardTent]

When you first boot up the sign, the firmware version should flash briefly on the sign.

[mccoy178]

It says: 1036400ie

[Silver]

Ok bit of confusion about the whole "\n" thing.

Is it actually showing up in the sign? Would make sense as far as the protocol concerned, as it does not mention \n anywhere.

\n as one character? Not sure I follow - by definition \n is two ascii characters backslash and n. (ascii decimal 92 and 110)

unless you mean ^N which is one of the unprinatble control characters (ascii 14) and ^N is just a representation (its just 1 character).

Anyway - I have to say I'm very happy stuff is displaying. I can remove/change the /n really easily. although not till tomorrow.....