Confusion about ledwiz.cfg and individual .lsq files

[Circo]

I have been trying to get this to work for a couple of days now, and it is finally time to ask for help.  I am trying to configure my LED-WIZ to work with powermame and I am not having much luck.  My problem is with the in-game controls part.

My ledwiz.cfg file is like this:

1 48 KEYCODE_7
4 48 KEYCODE_H
7 48 KEYCODE_9
10 48 KEYCODE_0
13 48 KEYCODE_Z
16 48 KEYCODE_X
19 48 KEYCODE_LSHIFT
22 48 KEYCODE_LMOUSE
23 48 KEYCODE_L
24 48 KEYCODE_RMOUSE
30 48 KEYCODE_TRACKBALL

For some reason it doesn

[Fat-Johnny]

I'll give it a shot.

1) From the looks of your ledwiz.cfg, you have the RGB led's hooke up to 123 and 456 and 789 etc..  So with this .cfg file, you just wanna get the red's working, just so you can see SOMETHING....correct??   If that's the case, it looks OK so far.

2) What version of Powermame are you using?  Powermame32 or commandline Powermame?

3) If using commandline MAME, check in you root MAME folder for mame.ini.  Make sure that the following stuff is in mame.ini   Also, try messing with the settings for attract, events, and controls.  Try different combinations of these three.
pause_message   "test"
ledwiz_timeout   60
ledwiz_attract      1
ledwiz_events      1
ledwiz_controls   1
gpwiz49      0
gpwiz49stick      0

4) If using Powermame32, go to general ame options, and check the PowerMAME tab.  Make sure the options for controls, events, and attract are checked there.

5)  Are you using a USB hub??  I had an issue with using a hub.....my buttins would light in attract mode, and they would make the event flashesm but they would not light up in-game (controls).  Disconnect the hub, and go right to the PC's mobo.

6) If using commandline Powermame, try using Powermame32 as well.  This really helped me figur out what was going on w/ my setup.

7) It sounds obvious (duh), but make sure that your keycodes are set up yo the right keystrokes within mame itself.  I had this happen to me.  I had my ledwiz.cfg set to light P1 buttons 1, 2, and 3:
1 48 KEYCODE_7
4 48 KEYCODE_H
7 48 KEYCODE_9

but within MAME, I had P1_button1 as "D", P1_button2 as "L_SHIFT", and button3 as "R_CTRL".  No wonder they werent lighting up!!

Try some of this stuff, and lemme know what you see.  I just went through these pains myself, and it is pretty fresh in my mind.  Another tip is to start small.  Just program your ledwiz.cfg file to light the three P1 buttons (single color) at first.  Get that working, then add the rest of your CP's buttons.  Get that working, then add multiple colors.  Get that working, then add the individual gamename.lq files.

Give it a whirl, and report your findings here.
Good luck,
FJ

[Circo]

5)  Are you using a USB hub??  I had an issue with using a hub.....my buttins would light in attract mode, and they would make the event flashesm but they would not light up in-game (controls).  Disconnect the hub, and go right to the PC's mobo.


Give it a whirl, and report your findings here.
Good luck,
FJ

Thanks for your detailed response.  I believe I have it figured out, but I am a little concerned by my findings.  I am hooked up directly to the usb port on the mobo.  What happens is that when I go into the game the attract mode works fine and when I insert a coin it will do the coin event.  If I insert enough coins every once in awhile the controls will light up, but if I get them to come on the next coin event they usually shut off again.  It is almost as if powermame is shooting a real quick signal to the led-wiz and it is missing it.  If I do not have the coin event on it does not work at all.  I think that is because after each coin event powermame resends the information for the controls.  I have tried every usb port on the computer and it does not improve.   

Luckily this is not my arcade computer, I was working on this in my office so hopefully when I hook it up to the arcade cab it will work fine. 

Is it possible that this is a bug in powermame? 

Anyway I will post an update if I can get it working better. 

Here is what I am going to try in order.

1. Better USB Cable
3. New Computer
2. USB 2.0 PCI Card
4. Direct 5V Power to LED-WIZ

If that doesn't work I will just hope that powermame 1.5 fixes the problem.  While I am at it I would just like to say curses to powermame for making me feel obligated to spend all of this money just to make my cab all flashy.. Curses!!!! 

Forgot to ask: Are the .lsq files wrote just like the ledwiz.cfg file?  Thanks

[Fat-Johnny]

Is it possible that this is a bug in powermame? 

I dunno....you wont tell me what version Powermame you are trying to use, nor will you say if you are using commandline powermame or Powermame32.  There HAVE been bugs in these first few versions (since PowerMAME IS in it's infancy).  Try using version 104.1.2 (latest ver. available on the website) and try using both commandline and 32, and see if you get the same behavior with both.

Forgot to ask: Are the .lsq files wrote just like the ledwiz.cfg file?  Thanks

No.  .lsq files merely reference .lwa files.  .lwa files are generated by using LumeAura.  You can take a a look inside and edit them by using notepad or wordpad.

FJ

[Circo]

Oh sorry I am using the latest version of both powermame and powermame32.  I am at work, so I do not have the version number, but I redownloaded both last night just to make sure that I was using the newest version.  I am having the same issue with both. 

I realize that powermame is in it's infancy and even still it is very nice and I look forward to what it will eventually evolve into.

[MikeQ]

Oh sorry I am using the latest version of both powermame and powermame32.  I am at work, so I do not have the version number, but I redownloaded both last night just to make sure that I was using the newest version.  I am having the same issue with both. 

I realize that powermame is in it's infancy and even still it is very nice and I look forward to what it will eventually evolve into.

What speed is the computer your running?  I've only seen problems as you describe when running through a hub on one of my systems.  I reported to RandyT.  It is only happens once it a while.

Are you using the default coin event that comes with PowerMAME?  If so, it is a very fast lighting sequence.  Your computer may not be fast enough to handle the short time fires that happen with this sequence.  You might try changing the sequence.

Keep in mind too that it is difficult (impossible) for me to test PowerMAME on all the configurations out there.  It is likely their will be bugs simply because people aren't running the same configuration that I am and on my system, I don't see the problem.

[Circo]

The Good News is that I got it working, but I had to switch computers.    Luckily the computer that it works on is my Arcade Cab Computer.   Although I could never get it working on my main system.

Specs

AMD Athlon X2 4200+
1 GB DDR
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard

I tried swapping USB cables and even inserting a secondary USB2.0 PCI Card.  Never had any luck 

The system that it is working on:

Intel 3.0GHz P4 HT
512MB DDR
ASUS Motherboard

I am not sure if it is just a glitch with the LED-WIZ or not but at least it works on the computer that I need it to work on.

Thanks for all of your help.

[MikeQ]

The fact that the problem also presents itself when using a HUB makes me think that it is a hardware timing issue.   It could also be a power issue if the hub is running a lot of devices.  This is the first case I've seen this happen without a hub though.

I have an AMD Althlon64 X2 4800 at work.  I'll give it a try sometime this week to see what happens.

The computer I have that I see the problem with is an older Dell 2.6ghz.  However, I only see the problem when I'm using a hub.

[Circo]

I even tried disconnecting all of the other usb devices, but it did not affect it.

[MikeQ]

I ran home at lunch and grabbed my LEDWiz and breadboard.  I tried PowerMAME on my work Athlon64 X2 4800 and see exactly the problem you describe.

This at least gives me something to work with.  I'll probably take the machine home on a weekend and see if I can find a workaround for the problem.

[Circo]

At least I know it's not because I have a bad LED-WIZ.  Thanks for your help.

[2600]

Couple of  things that stand out that I would check are:

Does this only happen on OHCI USB controllers?

You said the default coin event is fast.  How fast are we talking about in ms?

As for the hubs, Are they 1.1 hubs or 2.0 hubs?
I'd ask what the other devices were on the hubs, but since it happens without other devices on may be moot.

[MikeQ]

I solved this mystery today.  It appears to be a timing related issue and talking to the LEDWiz with sequential commands really fast throws it off.  I found that applying a small delay after any LWZ-PBA command solves the problem.  The controls lighting is the only place that this doesn't happen.  The LWA sequences apply the "duration" to each command so the problem doesn't exist when running an LWA.  Controls lighting however is generating a sequence on the fly and sends commands as fast as they are generated.  The controls lighting only does a LWZ-PBA in order to reset any intensities that were previously set so a 10ms pause at the initiation of the sequence won't be a problem.

I'm not sure why hubs and certain computers show this problem while others never do.  I'm sure it has something to do with different USB implementations though.

[CatttDaddy]

Hey guys
I was wondering if this was fixed? I have PM 105 but I still have this problem... I was wondering if there is any way to fix the control panel issue or is there some way I can go in and fix it myself?