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Original Arcade Cab Button Colors - Automatically Switching

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arzoo:
EddieArcadian,

Here's a bit more clarrification...

For the hardware you're going to need the GGG LED-Wiz as the LED controller. The LED-Wiz has 32 ports - each RGB LED requires 3 ports, so the max is 10 RGB buttons per LED-Wiz. So you'll need multiple LED-Wiz's to light more than 10 buttons. The Electric-Ice buttons are an all-in-one solution for RGB buttons - but they are a bit pricey. RGB LEDs with resistors can be purchased cheap off eBay, then you'll need clear buttons and some way to mount the LEDs. Also, the Electric-Ice are not clear, they're kind of a pearl color, so they diffuse the colors really nicely.

For the software, you have a few options depending on which FE you go with. Both MaLa and GameEx have multiple LED plugins (LEDBlinky, my software, is one of them). LEDBlinky also has a plugin for AtomicFE, and can generally be used with any FE. As for the button/color database, no need to worry about that, it's already been created by headkaze and has been integrated into his GameEx plugin and LEDBlinky.

As for the buttons dancing to music - there you have very limited options. The Luma-Audio software it your best (and possibly only) choice, but it's not integrated with any FE. Basically, it's just a stand-alone app.

Hope this helps!

TimmyB:
That is exactly how I have my cabinent setup.  Here is what I used to achieve this:

GGG Electric-Ice Buttons w/ RGB drives
LED Wiz - 3 of them for a 2 player cabinet with 8 buttons per player, track ball and admin buttons
GameEx front end
HeadKaze's LCD/LED plugin for GameEx

It reads a colors.ini config file, your own MAME CFG files to light up each button with the appropriate color.  Very slick.  The plugin has an "audio attract mode" where the LEDs dance to music, but I haven't personally played with that feature.

It is not a cheap feature to achieve, the LEDs and controllers are a bit pricey.  But it definately gives your cabinent some bling and goes along way in making the cabinent more user friendly.

EddieArcadian:
Thanks to everyone for the great info/details!

DaveMMR:

--- Quote from: TimmyB on July 07, 2008, 09:30:17 am ---That is exactly how I have my cabinent setup.  Here is what I used to achieve this:

It is not a cheap feature to achieve, the LEDs and controllers are a bit pricey.  But it definately gives your cabinent some bling and goes along way in making the cabinent more user friendly.

--- End quote ---

I went the route of implementing two LEDwizes, and 12 RGB Electric Ice buttons and Trackball and it added a couple of hundred dollars and a whole bunch of extra hours to my build.   But I'd do it all again in a second.  The "WOW" factor (not to mention the usefulness of only lighting "active" buttons) can't be beat.   ;D

ivwshane:
Damn, I don't think I bought enough for the setup I want:(

I have a total of 18 buttons and an electric ice track ball but I only have one LED-Wiz 32 and an LED-Wiz+GP 16.

I'll be short wont I? If I want a full color setup how many more of either lid-wiz's do I need?

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