Betabrite/Alpha LED Protocol?

[Chazz]

This is kinda off topic, but I know some people here are doing some work with the Betabrite LED signs.

I was wondering if anyone knew how to send a GIF to the sign with a batch file, or copy a text file to the sign to load the GIF.

What I'd like is to have the game info displayed using the LED Plug in when the game is started, but load a GIF when back at the menu (a Game Over, or Select Game GIF).

Thanks!

~ Chazz

[headkaze]

Didn't we work this out already in this thread?

If you want it to show a "Select Game" or "Game Over" gif at the end of a game use the LaunchAfter feature of GameEx..

LaunchAfter=copy /b C:\MAME\lcd\SelectGame.lcd com1:

or

LaunchAfter=copy /b C:\MAME\lcd\GameOver.lcd com1:

I believe the software that comes with the BetaBrite can convert a gif to the lcd format right?

[Chazz]

Didn't we work this out already in this thread?

If you want it to show a "Select Game" or "Game Over" gif at the end of a game use the LaunchAfter feature of GameEx..

LaunchAfter=copy /b C:\MAME\lcd\SelectGame.lcd com1:

or

LaunchAfter=copy /b C:\MAME\lcd\GameOver.lcd com1:

I believe the software that comes with the BetaBrite can convert a gif to the lcd format right?

All that works great for sending the pre-made .LCD files that were generated, I guess I'm just looking to get fancy now.

I can make my own .LCD for the Prolite sign, but I have no idea what I'm doing with the BetaBrite protocol (all that ascii stuff??).

I have an Alpha 4120 sign, which is compatible with the BetaBrite sign, but I have no idea how to load a GIF to the sign with a .LCD file.

I have my two signs working great. When playing a game the top sign shows the name of the game, and the bottom sign shows the controls. When I return to the menu I'd like the top sign to say Game Over (that works now), and I'd like the bottom sign to load one of my arcade graphics.

Thanks for putting up with me HeadKaze!!

[headkaze]

Hey no problem Chazz, I'm actually really interested in this sort of stuff. I'm not sure exactly what your asking. Do you need a program written or something? If you can show me the format of the lcd file I can see how hard it would be to write a program to convert a gif to it. How do you send gif's to the BetaBrite now? Is there software that can do it?

[Chazz]

Hey no problem Chazz, I'm actually really interested in this sort of stuff. I'm not sure exactly what your asking. Do you need a program written or something? If you can show me the format of the lcd file I can see how hard it would be to write a program to convert a gif to it. How do you send gif's to the BetaBrite now? Is there software that can do it?

Hey Headkaze,

With the help you gave me in the other thread I have both signs working perfectly with the .LCD files. My next step was to try to use my GIFs at the GameEx menu, and the LCD files when the game is running.

Right now I just have a GAMEOVER.LCD file that displays a simple Game Over text, but I'd rather be able to run a random GIF than just the basic text.

I tried looking at the .LCD files, but had no idea what did what:

?00AAoMario Bros.
2-way Joystick (Horizontal)1:Jump

I couldn't figure anything out from the files, and I tried reading the manual, but I didn't even have a clue as to how to write the ASCII.

I was able to use the software the Alpha sign comes with to send message to the sign to save the output to a file. I can now use this text file to load the GIF which is working great.

So now I can load LCD files, AND I can load a GIF... but now I run into my next problem.

With a GIF loaded, when you run a game the LCD file loads, but it doesn't look like it's unloading the GIF. It only loads half the text, then shows the GIF again.

Thanks again Headkaze for listening to my ramblings.

[headkaze]

I'm thinking that perhaps it's only showing half of the text because it's not finished sending the gif file or something? I'm not entirely sure.

You can take a look at the Wait.exe program which will allow you to wait for a certain amount of time in a batch file. http://www.afreego.com/Categories/Utilitie...tion/006450.php

I'm not sure what you mean by "unloading the gif". Perhaps there is an error during sending the gif, or not all of the file is being sent. Can you open a command prompt and run the command that you do from GameEx and does that work?

[Chazz]

Well I've made some major progress. It seems as that although the Betabrite will work with the Alpha sign, it doesn't seem to work 100%. I have a Qbasic program to generate my .LCD files and I use the following to setup the file for the sign:

]!Z00]"AB]1942 (set 1)]$

I've also been trying to get the plug-in to work, but I'm getting this error: