xbox light guns working on a pc with arcade monitor

[northerngames]

 Hi I was thinking of light guns earlier today and I was wondering if anyone has or herd of using a xbox light gun on the pc by usb like the xbox controller does but be the xbox light gun instead and work with a arcade monitor I know it would not work with vga becuase it is different but since arcade monitors have light gun support is it possible to wire a xbox light gun usb like the xbox controller?

 For instance I cut my dongle off a origanal xbox controller and I soldered a male usb end to it and it now is plug and play usb to pc with the mod and the XBCD drivers if it does not work the same then what needs to be done does anyone know if it is a hardware issue or a software becuase it would be nice to get them going on a pc becuase it would be a nice cheap alternative to real arcade light guns or any other for that matter really.

if anyone has any tech. info on this please post them thank's.

[DarkBubble]

I'd wondered that myself, but I've not heard of any cases where it's been accomplished.  It might be a case where the light gun support was coded into the games, which would mean that the gun wouldn't be natively supported by the XBCD drivers on the PC and someone would have to do up new or updated drivers.  I can't find any info on it anywhere.  I've only seen Guncons being focused on, and if it were as simple as hacking the Xbox breakaway dongle, I'm sure that people would be all over it instead of buying Act Labs guns.

[northerngames]

exacatly it would be a nice easy cheap plug and play alternative by USB I am after some of the light guns and going to try it and see what happens with different types but I dont know if it would be the software or the drivers that would be the issue I assume since it plugs into the xbox controller port and they are ran by usb and the controller works great on a pc with the usb dongle so I assume that a lightgun would hook up and work the same as the controller so that would haopefully take care of the hardware issue's but the xbcd drivers would need to be changed over to the light gun specs for the software and drivers issue's but I think it is possible and worth trying to get the working it would nice to have a plug and play matching usb light guns for 30 or less also a variety of body style choice's or even gut one and stick the guts in a real arcade light gun housing.

[Howard_Casto]

Well, I can give you guys some very basic "duh" info on the xbox guns.  You know that extra wire that is on the xbox pads that is NOT usb?  That wire is used for lightguns.  So without advanced circuitry it'd be impossible to use a xbox gun on anything other than an xbox.  Sorry guys. 

Also you guys seem to mis-understand the "hard part" about interfacing guns.  The gun itself is easy, it's the video dongle that causes grief.  Xbox guns run at ntsc (or pal), and arcade monitors do not.  It'd be possible on that bit, but it'd require the same circuits required to get the guncons to work.

I hate sony, but if you are going to go the console gun route, they are the way to go.  Guncons are very very cheap (sometimes less than 30 even) and they work fairly well considering.  Unfortunately the act-labs guns are still the only pixel-perfect solution.

[northerngames]

 Insert Quote 
Well, I can give you guys some very basic "duh" info on the xbox guns.  You know that extra wire that is on the xbox pads that is NOT usb?  That wire is used for lightguns.  So without advanced circuitry it'd be impossible to use a xbox gun on anything other than an xbox.  Sorry guys.

yeah but dont the light guns have the same wire that comes from them and the circuitry inside of the gun itself? 

Also you guys seem to mis-understand the "hard part" about interfacing guns.  The gun itself is easy, it's the video dongle that causes grief.  Xbox guns run at ntsc (or pal), and arcade monitors do not.  It'd be possible on that bit, but it'd require the same circuits required to get the guncons to work.

what video dongle they would plug in usb?

I hate sony, but if you are going to go the console gun route, they are the way to go.  Guncons are very very cheap (sometimes less than 30 even) and they work fairly well considering.  Unfortunately the act-labs guns are still the only pixel-perfect solution.

so a sony guncon would work on a pc with a arcade monitor?

[Silver]

There are 2 fully working guncon2 gun drivers for windows, and at least one for linux.

They can be used with an arcade monitor. The guns actually expect a 15Khz video signal (PAL and NTSC are roughly 15Khz), so if you are using a 15Khz arcade monitor that would not be a problem.

There is also a cheapish infra-red based lightgun for pc/guncon2 - there is a 45 page thread on it here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=48982.0


Use the search function for more.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm gonna bypass requoting your reply (learn to use quotes )

1.  I don't think you follow.... USB has 4 wires, the guns have 5.  This means the guns are NOT usb, at least not fully.  The xbox uses some proprietary method to interface the guns, one that really isn't documented because, well there aren't many lightgun games for the xbox.

2.  Google how a lightgun works sometime.  The gun has to interface with the video signal, and by that I mean you must have a connector between the video out of the console/pc/whatever and the monitor.  In other words, it has to be hacked into your vga connector to work on your arcade monitor.  As sliver said, in the case of the arcade monitor it isn't going to be a huge deal, but it often requires a small, custom pcb and some fiddling.  Even after you get it as good as it'll do, the act-labs guns will be noticably more accurate.  Timing is the key for lightguns, so it's best to have one designed for the device in mind.

3.  Read Silver's post

[northerngames]

I see well it was worth the thought I guess to bad it would not be that easy lol.

[clanggedin]

FYI.. Dreamcast guns also accept the 15KHZ signal.

[ark_ader]

Do yourself afavour and get a LCD Topgun it works great.

[northerngames]

I was just wondering if it could be done and if so worth getting into was all.