[PLUGIN] LCD/LED Plugin 2.86

[headkaze]

Save button has always been there. Sounds like your resolution is too low to see it or something.

What you can try is right-clicking on the titlebar and selecting Move from the menu. You can then use your cursor keys to move the window around. When you see the "save" button in view left click to stop the window from moving and then click on save.

[kezza]

its strange, yes i did mean save and exit. ahhh im not 100% sure on how to do a log file, and its only going to show a log of my setting with say not led button input setting and the dude and chick turned on! like i was saying the box that holds the settings is full its not cut off, i will try and change res, i hate doing cause if its a res my arcade screen cant handle its a nightmare! lol

i will do a log file if it helps! thanks

kezza

[Necromancyr]

Need a bit of help and found a bug (prob. already found, but...this is a long thread).

First, the bug - if you go into profile editor and select a system, the options for that system (check marks) come up right. If you go to a second system after that, it just retains the first systems checks but still toggles things based on the second systems settings (i.e., even if a check is shown, selecting it and turning it into an unselected box changes the value to true). I can elaborate on this if needed and unknown (which I doubt).

Second, how the heck can I get the plugin to do the following (not clear on what state vs. always on does and which I should be using and that could be causing me to not be able to do this):

- In MAME list, show buttons for a particular game. (Working)

- In NES/Atari (i.e., individual emulator lists) just show the buttons for that particular emulator since they never change.

- Buttons for the system/game lighted up when in game for both mame games (working fine now) and emulators (default for the system is fine)

I thought I could just set a default for the systems and it should be good...but doesn't seem to be working that way.

Also, my optimal setup would be GameEx controls in most of GameEx, game controls in the 'game info/start' screen in gameex, then system/game controls in the game themselves. Is this possible? (I'm guessing not now)

[Necromancyr]

Ok, narrowed this down a bit to a few things that are occuring and I think I understand why, but don't know if one of the options in the plugin would let me do it the way I want. Note that I'm only using 'state' - nothing is set as always on.

What I would like to occur is the following:

- In GameEx menus (Non-ROM Lists): Light GameEx Profile

- In Emulator Menus (i.e., GameLists): Light Game (MAME) or Console (NES, Atari - setup via a profile)) Controls

Current Issue with this:

- GameEx profile is always on in emu lists - making certain buttons always be lit even when in an emu list.

- The above COULD be a result of, when switching profiles, LEDs not being toggled to an off state.

- I'm using a PAC Drive, so the item above could be due to the way that requires things discretely turned off.

Other Bugs:

- In 2.87 of the plugin, the editor issue I noted above definitely exists - if a profile exists for something, it's selected and then another profile is selected the UI doesn't update.

Any suggestions on getting this to work would be great...as it is, only option is to have no gameex profile and nothing lit when in 'general'/non-Gamelist menus. Few other details that might be useful - I'm using custom menus and individual layouts for emulators and modules...not sure if that effects state calls or however the plugin is hooked into GameEx.

[Necromancyr]

(lil' bump) Anyone? I think what I'm trying to do would be common...maybe. And the bug seems fairly big - is it a Win7 64 thing, a me thing, etc?

[Necromancyr]

Ok...last bump and check. I've got this working near 100% with LEDBlinky, but the controls for GameEx aren't appearing correctly...

[helpman]

Hi there!

I just ordered a PACdrive LED interface to control my control panel's leds... I never did something like this, but I hope it's not too difficult

I don't even know if this plugin already comes bundled with gameex or if I need to download it somewhere, I couldn't find any download links on headsoft's website.

What would I like to do with it?

1- light up buttons that have any function assigned within gameex menu.

2- light up in patterns for attract mode while gameex screensaver is running.

3- do the same when a game is not being played or there're no credits.

4- light up 1 player when there's 1 credit for the game

5- light up 2 player when there're more than 1 credit for the game

6- light only the buttons used for each game when the game is loaded and there're any credit or while you're playing

7-for console games, light the buttons used to emulate console's controls only.

8- always light up the "shift" button on the control panel.

would this be possible? I have no idea. But I hope so! *feels excited*

[Adultery]

I can't answer these, but I are correct in that the plugin is already bundled in with GameEx. Digging around might answer some of these questions. I don't have this feature so I'm not all that familiar with what is or isn't possible.

[stigzler]

Hi there!

I just ordered a PACdrive LED interface to control my control panel's leds... I never did something like this, but I hope it's not too difficult

I don't even know if this plugin already comes bundled with gameex or if I need to download it somewhere, I couldn't find any download links on headsoft's website.

What would I like to do with it?

1- light up buttons that have any function assigned within gameex menu.

2- light up in patterns for attract mode while gameex screensaver is running.

3- do the same when a game is not being played or there're no credits.

4- light up 1 player when there's 1 credit for the game

5- light up 2 player when there're more than 1 credit for the game

6- light only the buttons used for each game when the game is loaded and there're any credit or while you're playing

7-for console games, light the buttons used to emulate console's controls only.

8- always light up the "shift" button on the control panel.

would this be possible? I have no idea. But I hope so! *feels excited*

Same setup in my rig - PacDrive. Go into plugin manager - the plugin is in there. Most of what yer after will be possible with the plugin - not sure about the 1/2player on number of coins, however.

Once I sorted one problem regarding some terminology (think may have posted this above somewhere) - all plain sailing. Powerful plugin letting you customize lights for individual systems etc. And really does spice up attract mode!

Good luck with setup, brother.

[helpman]

I just can't wait for pacdrive to arrive! it has to travel from UK to spain, so it'll take some days before I can put my hands on it plus I need to setup the new xpadder plugin version... it'll be fun

[u-man]

Can only agree with stigzler, it is bundled and you need just to activate it through the Plugin-Manager. Dont know if point 4 and 5 of your list will work, but the rest is possible to do. MAME is easy, as there are lists for lighting the right buttons for each game, but all other stuff needs to be done by yourself.

I hope you have LED light buttons, as in my case I was not aware of my buttons and realized way to late that they had lightbulbs . I needed a extra poweramp for them, as my pacdrive didnt had enough power (because USB 500ma only) to light them. The good thing is, my fingers will never be freezing while playing .

Its a nice thing and I never regret it to have. Ben aka headkaze did a awesome job with the LCD plugin and its funny to play with it.

[helpman]

Actually, there's a small problem with my buttons. They use leds, but 12v instead of 5v...

Anyway, on the website where I bought it, there was some instructions to use it with 12v led. As they are triggered by gnd, and not current supply, I just need to connect just gnd cables, and connect all power supplies to my 12v hard drive output (as they are connected now). that should do the trick

Maybe if I can't make 1player or 2player start depending on number of credits there can be a way to just light them while there're credit inside, no matter how many. or just leave them lit? anyway, it'll be FUN

[stigzler]

Same as my setup, helpman. Emailed provider - if I recall correctly, he said 12V is fine, as switch is through ground (was using 12V led strips). The thing I had to be careful of, however, was the total currents per line and also in total through the board. Something like .5A per channel or something.

Yer gonna post a vid, right, when you get it up and flashing?

[helpman]

I have 16 12v leds... I hope it'll be ok

of course I'll post a video and I'll have to register ledblinky to customize some lwax animations for attract mode

[helpman]

Well, I just received my pacdrive and after some wiring I had to try it

If I set any animation on gameex events, when I change the selected item sometimes it won't go back to the gameex default setting.

I mean, if my gameex setting is light up player1 start, player 2 start, pause button, player 1 buttons 1 and 2, and set any animation to run on gameex events, after the animation the lights keep displayed as the last frame of the animation, whatever state they were.

Besides that, would it be any way to run the "say-what-the-buttons-does" animation when gameex' paused, and not only when mame's paused?

And if running CPwizard, would it be any way to run that same option when the control panel is displayed through cpwizard?

[helpman]

I'm still waiting for paypal to approve my payment to ledblinky to create my own animations, but here it is

[helpman]

ok, some problems so far... I haven't tested for emulators other than mame, and for mame works fine.

I want to customize lwax animations to my cab's buttons setup, and I made a few animations using ledblinky's lwax editor.

If I use ledblinky's PACDRIVE layout, when I place the lwax files and try them on the lcd plugin... nothing. the animation won't run.

If I use a general layout to create the animation... it doesn't work either.

UPDATE: if I use the gameex highscore competition map, as it's setup as a different emulator (even being mame) the game's controls won't light up, not on the gameex menu, nor while in-game, it keeps the gameex interface ones as default.

would it be possible to make it recognise it's just mame and light up the game's controls?

[gStAv]

is there any updatet colors.ini fileas I saw that the one in the folder is 12 years old.

Anyone who have an updated/modifyed one? Love to have it!

Cheers

[gStAv]

Hi!

I don't know what have happend, but now when I browsing/plaing MAME games,

the buttons will not lite up anymore.

When I check the plugin I can see that the populated list of games is gone, Only have the default left.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zi0c9jmf443s8a/20150307_111841.jpg?dl=0

Can I re-install the plug-in or how can I fix this? Hope you guys can help

Cheers!

edit:

FIXED

I Re-entered all the dat/ini directories for MAME in the setup wizard with full directory instead of the /DAT one. now works again

[stigzler]

Having a few problems with this plugin. Not sure if it's because of a windows 10 upgrade or with new GameEx version. 

I only use this for the LED functions. So trying to turn off speech/samples etc. 

Problem being that the Save and Exit functions don't appear to be working properly - Exit doesn't close the confiig + if you exit via X it crashes the plugin manager (both the old and new version).

When restart it - any changes made haven't been saved. Realise you maybe a tad busy, headkaze, but this plugin is fundamental to my cab setup so hoping you can take a look. MS synth voice over my setup really isn't one of those things I can just ignore!

[DarkMeiun]

great plugin, any plans to make a framework or support module for addressable led strips like ws2812/b or support for the FastLED libraries or similar?

[Pure Arcade]

I'm trying to get this plugin configured for my system but it crashes whenever I hit "save" or "exit". This is from a copy downloaded through GameEx's setup wizard; it says version 2.90.

Here's the log info:

10/25/2016 4:44:44 PM: ERROR @ ThreadException (Program)
10/25/2016 4:44:44 PM: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
10/25/2016 4:44:44 PM:    at GameEx.ConfigIO.WriteConfig()
   at GameEx.frmConfig.SaveSettings()
   at GameEx.frmConfig.butExit_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
10/25/2016 4:44:44 PM: Shutdown.
10/25/2016 4:44:44 PM: Exiting.
 

Any ideas?

[Pure Arcade]

Fixed my own problem - the "Events" and "Profiles" directories hadn't been created, and the configuration wizard was crashing when it tried to write a file into them.

Now I'm on to actual not working. 

I have a PacLED 64 wired up with outputs 1-4 wired to start1 through start4, and output 5 wired to a trackball. I'd like to have all buttons lit up while in GameEx. So far I have:

Under "LED Input Map", I've set P1_START, P2_START, P3_START, P4_START, and P1_TRACKBALL to "Device" as PACDrive, IDs 1 to 5, "Single" 16, and the appropriate keycodes (1-4 and mouse commands).

but nothing happens - the LEDs don't light up under configuration and nothing happens in GameEx. I'm undoubtedly missing something - any pointers to a tutorial or walkthrough?

Also, random last question - does "PACDrive" work? Should I be looking for PacLED 64? All I have as options are LEDWiz and PACDrive.

[Duglim]

Answere to pure arcades question just before this Post would interest me as well, because I plan to buy a PacLed64 and have 18 RGB LEDs do the magic. Will this board work with the Plugin? 

Thx.

[Stu1983]

Hey guys, it's been a while, I've finally found some time to play on my arcade again, it had a faulty monitor which I've finally fixed last weekend.

I had been running MAME 145, last night I updated to 193 but now my LEDs aren't lighting for any MAME game.

I've done some digging and noticed that the plugin doesn't list any MAME games which pointed me to the MiniInfo.dat which, sure enough, is empty so I've pulled down a lot of older versions of MAME to test and it would appear after the MAME/MESS merger in 162 this plugin stopped being able to generate the MiniInfo.dat file.

I've taken a dat file from 161 and that has got me going again... though probably missing info for a lot of newer games.

Is there a known workaround? I've tried compiling MAME "arcade" subtarget version of 193 to remove MESS but that didn't work

Thanks