[PLUGIN] LCD/LED Plugin 2.86

[popcorrin]

Hi Headkaze,

I recently added some lighted joys to my control panel. I have them hooked up and configured in the plugin. They light up when animations are run but they don't light for the games that they should. I looked at the profile editor for mame and browsed thru some of the games and I noticed that the joys are always set to false. I know I could go thru there manually but I was wondering if there was an easier way.

Thanks

[Tempest]

HK,

I'll try to be brief, but unfortunately one picture is worth a thousand words, and I don't think pictures will really help.

This is in reference to this part of a post I made above:

1. I am using the latest version, and the Gameex profile works as I expected.

However, when I go to set up another default profile (in my case Visual pinmame). When I first start to set up the profile, it is set the same as the Gameex default profile, no problem, I go ahead and set up the Visual Pinmame default profile, and click "save". As soon as I click on the arrow for the drop down systems menu, the Visual Pinmame profile reverts to the Gameex default profile. I've tried clicking on the first game in my Visual Pinmame list, and clicking on the events tab, and then going back to the profile editor tab, but no matter what I do, it reverts to the Gameex default profile. In regards to this, the Mame default profile "mimics" the Gameex default profile. If I add a button to the Gameex default profile, it is automatically added to the Mame default profile (except the color is white)

The profiles DO work correctly.

The confusion for me comes in the profile editor tab in the configuration program.

If I select Gameex, and edit the default profile, as I make my choices, the buttons that I am working on light up as I set them up, so if I set P1B1 to always active = true, it lights up white, and then changes color as I move the sliders. If I change my mind, I can set always active = false, and the light goes off. This is all as I expected it to be...

These follwing items are not as I expected, or consistent with the way the Gameex profile works:

1. When I go to set the default for an emulator, it starts out with the buttons set exactly as the default Gameex profile. If I uncheck P1B1, and set always active = false, the button stays lit. Also, if I check P1B2, and set always active to true, the button does not light up as it does while setting up the Gameex default profile (This is why I didn't think it was working correctly, I never checked to see if they were working correctly in Gameex, I just ASSUMED that they weren't right because the buttons didn't show the changes I was making.)
   
2. On start up of the configuration program, when I go to the Gameex default profile, the buttons that I have selected have a tick next to them, and always active = true. If I go to the default profile for VisualPinMame (or I believe any other emulator), It does not show a tick next to the buttons, and always active = false, even though the buttons do light properly during gameplay. (Again more confusion, I thought that I was doing something wrong, and never checked to see what was happening during gameplay)
   
3. If I exit the configuration program without saving, it saves my changes anyway. (not a big deal)
   

I guess that didn't take me as long to describe as I thought it would, The only other comment I have is that if I run VisualPinMame (again I assume this will be true for any emulator), the buttons light correctly as I am playing a game, but when I back out into Gameex, the buttons for VisualPinMame remain lit, behaving the same as the game buttons in Mame, described above as follows:

The other thing was this:

Start Gameex: (I use the start page, and mame is on the start page)

At this point NONE of my game controls are lit

Select Mame: (I'm looking at my mame options - Adult, vector, lightgun, etc)

At this point NONE of my game controls are lit

Select All Mame Games: (The first game on my list is 005, so the P1B1 (and at this point P2B1) button is lit

Hit "back": (I'm looking at my mame options - Adult, vector, lightgun, etc)

At this point my P1B1 button remains lit.

Hit "back": I'm back on the "start Page"

At this point my P1B1 button remains lit.

I don't think the player button should remain lit when I back out of the lists. I tried the home button to go from the gamelist, to the start page with the same results.

[Tempest]

Crap! I had a nice reply all typed up, and IE couldn't connect..... Here I go again!

Edit: Double Crap! I retyped the whole thing, and now my first post showed up! If only I could get a better connection!

[Visitor Q]

As soon as I get my cab I'm going to be banging this all out, good to see you guys are putting in the leg work now. =]

[Tempest]

Mr. Headkaze (Sir),

I deleted my default.cfg, and the trackball lights! I must have something messed up (again ).

That only leaves the comments I had on the configuration program, and the lights remaining lit as I back into Gameex. If you want me to fix these myself, I will need the source code, I'm sure by this time, that you can see that I will be a great ASSet to your team!

I will edit my post above, and delete the trackball stuff...

[headkaze]

On your previous post, only use "Always Lit" in your GameEx profile if you want the button always lit. You can't turn off an always lit button, as they are meant for admin buttons that you always want lit. You can have a button lit but not set to "always lit" and then you can turn it off in other profiles.

When you come back into GameEx from a game it should light up the buttons according to how you set them up in the config. That is, if you have "Use GameEx Profile in List" then returning from the game the GameEx profile should show. Otherwise it will show the buttons lit for the game selected unless you turn off "Light Game Buttons in List" in which case it will light the emulator profile or GameEx profile depending on what the "Use GameEx Profile in List" option is set.

If it doesn't work the way it's intended (ie. as above) then let me know.

[Tempest]

I know I've been a pain in the a$$...

I tried it with the "light games in list" unchecked, and while it changes the behavior of when the buttons begin to light, it does not change what happens when you use the "Back" key to return to the Gameex lists. Please read this carefully:

The other thing was this:

Start Gameex: (I use the start page, and mame is on the start page)

At this point NONE of my game controls are lit

Select Mame: (I'm looking at my mame options - Adult, vector, lightgun, etc)

At this point NONE of my game controls are lit

Select All Mame Games: (The first game on my list is 005, so the P1B1 (and at this point P2B1) button is lit

Hit "back": (I'm looking at my mame options - Adult, vector, lightgun, etc)

At this point my P1B1 button remains lit.

Hit "back": I'm back on the "start Page"

At this point my P1B1 button remains lit.

I don't think the player button should remain lit when I back out of the lists. I tried the home button to go from the gamelist, to the start page with the same results.

The emulator profile buttons also remain lit while backing through the Gameex menus, so after running VPinMame, not only are my Gameex default profile button lit, but the VPinMame buttons are lit as well, Even though I am no longer in any section of the Gameex FE that relates to VP.

Also, this:

The profiles DO work correctly.

The confusion for me comes in the profile editor tab in the configuration program.

If I select Gameex, and edit the default profile, as I make my choices, the buttons that I am working on light up as I set them up, so if I set P1B1 to always active = true, it lights up white, and then changes color as I move the sliders. If I change my mind, I can set always active = false, and the light goes off. This is all as I expected it to be...

These follwing items are not as I expected, or consistent with the way the Gameex profile works:

1. When I go to set the default for an emulator, it starts out with the buttons set exactly as the default Gameex profile. If I uncheck P1B1, and set always active = false, the button stays lit. Also, if I check P1B2, and set always active to true, the button does not light up as it does while setting up the Gameex default profile (This is why I didn't think it was working correctly, I never checked to see if they were working correctly in Gameex, I just ASSUMED that they weren't right because the buttons didn't show the changes I was making.)

2. On start up of the configuration program, when I go to the Gameex default profile, the buttons that I have selected have a tick next to them, and always active = true. If I go to the default profile for VisualPinMame (or I believe any other emulator), It does not show a tick next to the buttons, and always active = false, even though the buttons do light properly during gameplay. (Again more confusion, I thought that I was doing something wrong, and never checked to see what was happening during gameplay)

Only refers to setting up things in the default profiles tab. So when I talk about "always lit", I am only refering to the buttons lighting up as I set them up, and has nothing to do with the way things work in actual Gameex use.

Go to the Configuration program, and try setting up a default profile for an emulator, and see if it behaves as I describe....

BTW: The thing that was stopping my trackball from lighting was that I deleted (set to "NONE") the Mouse (X,Y) analog (Inc/Dec), I wouldn't have thought that that would have made a difference.

[popcorrin]

Hi Headkaze,

I recently added some lighted joys to my control panel. I have them hooked up and configured in the plugin. They light up when animations are run but they don't light for the games that they should. I looked at the profile editor for mame and browsed thru some of the games and I noticed that the joys are always set to false. I know I could go thru there manually but I was wondering if there was an easier way.

Thanks

HK, I didn't know if you seen this post or not.

[Tempest]

There will be no posting in this thread from anyone but me until I'm done with Headkaze!

Did you:

1. enable the joystick in the "Led input map" tab?
   
2. set input codes for your controls in the "Led input map" tab?
   

IE: Joycode_1_up (down,left,right) if it's a game pad, or Keycode_up (down,left,right) or whatever you have your joystick set up as in mame?

[headkaze]

popcorrin: If you want joysticks lit, then go into the "LED Input Map" and next to P1_JOYSTICK/P2_JOYSTICK, enable them and assign the correct info. Then add a KEYCODE_LEFT to P1 and KEYCODE_R to P2. Next go into Profiles and then GameEx->Default and turn on P1_JOYSTICK/P2_JOYSTICK.

Tempest: Attached is PlugInLCD 2.80 (dll only so overwrite the one in GameEx\PLUGINS). What I've done is add some debugging info to help me figure out what is going wrong. Run the config, and under Options1->Misc Options turn on "Verbose Logging". Next run a game from GameEx and then return back to GameEx then exit. Then attach the PlugInLCD.log file here for me to take a look.

[Tempest]

Here it is.... I REALLY hope I'm not doing something wrong...

PluginLCDlog.zip

[popcorrin]

Thanks guys,

I had done all those things except for "Next go into Profiles and then GameEx->Default and turn on P1_JOYSTICK/P2_JOYSTICK."

I'll give it a go this evening.

He's all yours Tempest.

[headkaze]

Tempest: I couldn't see anything going wrong in your log file so it must be a config issue. Remember to turn off verbose logging now.

The first thing I can think of is that you don't understand how the configuration works.

- Only use Always Active if you want the button Always Active. The profiles work like this GameEx->Emulator Default->Game. If you have "Always Active" set in the GameEx profile for an LED, it will stay Always Active in Emulator's Default and Game. If you want to change the state of an LED, don't set it to "Always Active". Also if you have it set to "Always Active" in the Emulator default, no matter what you do in the Game profile it will stay Always Active. So as I said in a previous post, don't use "Always Active" if you want to turn off an LED for a particular reason. Always Active means just that, stay Always Active you can't turn it off after that. I use that for my admin buttons that I want to stay Always Active no matter what game or emulator.

If I uncheck P1B1, and set always active = false, the button stays lit.

Don't use the Always Active if you want to turn off the LED, you can't turn off an Always Active LED so go back to your GameEx default and make sure it's not Always Active. Also don't use the checkboxes to the left of the list, use the "State" checkbox to turn it off.

- The tick boxes don't mean "Light up this LED" they simply mean "I will be using this LED". In general you shouldn't use the tickboxes in the profile section because it takes away your ability to turn LED's on/off.

- The "State" checkbox is the one used to determine if you LED is lit or not. Use the State checkbox to say if you want the button lit or not.

If it's still not working for you then please zip up the following and post it here (from the GameEx\PLUGINS\PluginLCD folder)

- Events (folder)

- Profiles (folder)

- LEDInputMap.ini

- PluginLCD.ini

Also I wanted to say, I understand this is all very confusing. I never thought this plugin would end up so complicated and there were some bad design decisions made early on. But I think if you understand some of the fundamentals of how the profiles work then you should be good to go Unless of course there is a horrible bug somewhere causing things to fail for you which is possible as well and why I'm doing my best to help figure it out with you.

[Tempest]

HK,

I don't know how you feel, but this is really starting to bother me. I hope to God that there is a bug, and I am not driving you crazy... at least not without a good reason...

First things first, You were right, I didn't understand how to set up the profiles.

However, in regards to this:

- The tick boxes don't mean "Light up this LED" they simply mean "I will be using this LED". In general you shouldn't use the tickboxes in the profile section because it takes away your ability to turn LED's on/off.

- The "State" checkbox is the one used to determine if you LED is lit or not. Use the State checkbox to say if you want the button lit or not.

If I don't put a tick in the box, and set state = true, when I exit the config program (after pressing save), then restart the config program, it does not save my settings. If I put a tick in the box, then my settings are saved????

If I ever make it to Australia (not out of the question) I'm going to buy you a beer or two, and dinner....

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm running XP64

Here's my stuff:TempestPluginLCD.7z

[DJ Infinity]

Hi all,

I know I haven't been on here in quite sometime. I revently acquired a JPAC so I will be looking to update one of my Mame boxes. Headkaze or somebody could you plz give me a whatsnew for this plugin update. The last one I have (Not sure tho) was like 2.76 or something. Thanx. Shoot now that I think about it I only have one panel that still had the LED-WIZ boards in it. I completly decomissioned my CO2 panel and sold all the parts except for the IPAC & moved all the Electric Ice Buttons to my JAMMA cabs.

[headkaze]

No worries mate, I'm happy to help out the regulars here, you guys keep the place alive

If I don't put a tick in the box, and set state = true, when I exit the config program (after pressing save), then restart the config program, it does not save my settings. If I put a tick in the box, then my settings are saved????

You have to have a tick in the box to be able to set an LED's state that's why it's not saving, that's what I've been trying to say. It sounds like your still using those tick boxes to turn off an LED you shouldn't be using them. All your buttons should have tick boxes on especially in the GameEx default profile, then only use the "State" tick box to turn them on and off.

The only time your LED's don't need the tickbox is in the actual games profile. These tickboxes mean you can add buttons if the ones I create from Controls.xml are wrong. Say it has 3 checkboxes, P1_BUTTON1, P1_BUTTON2, P1_BUTTON3. Then if you wanted to add a forth button you would put a tick next to P1_BUTTON4 and then set it's "State" to on.

DJ Infinity: Not sure whats been done since 2.76. Not much probably.

[Tempest]

Hi all,

I know I haven't been on here in quite sometime. I revently acquired a JPAC so I will be looking to update one of my Mame boxes. Headkaze or somebody could you plz give me a whatsnew for this plugin update. The last one I have (Not sure tho) was like 2.76 or something. Thanx. Shoot now that I think about it I only have one panel that still had the LED-WIZ boards in it. I completly decomissioned my CO2 panel and sold all the parts except for the IPAC & moved all the Electric Ice Buttons to my JAMMA cabs.

You will have to excuse Headkaze, I have him confused....

He added the option "Use Gameex profile in List", and

He also made a change so that on alternating two player games only the P1 controls are lit, since that is the way the controls work in Mame.

[Tempest]

HK,

More baby steps for me...

I'm on the profile editor tab. I choose the Gameex default profile. I put a tick in the box next to P1_COIN. I set state to true. Always active is false. I set the color to blue, (the button lights) and click on save. (good so far)

I then goto the Mame default profile. There is already a tick next to the box next to P1_coin. State is set to true. Always active is false. The color is blue. (its already set that way, mirroring the Gameex profile, I didn't change a thing)

I put a tick next to P1_START, set state to true, always active false, color white, (the button does not light) and click save.

I exit the configuration program, and check the Gameex default profile, everything looks good, the P1_COIN button is lit.

I check the mame default, and it is set just like the Gameex profile, and the P1_START button is not lit, does not have a tick next to it, state and always active are both set to false.

Is that the way it is supposed to work?

[headkaze]

Okay I'm taking a good look at the files you posted.

Your "LED Input Map" section is wrong. Your reusing outputs from your LEDWiz which is a problem. See the attached image

I also took at look at your Profiles\GameEx.ini file. It's empty, so according to what you uploaded you don't have a GameEx profile. Your GameEx profile needs to have ticks next to all your buttons. If you don't want one lit use the State checkbox.

I then goto the Mame default profile. There is already a tick next to the box next to P1_coin. State is set to true. Always active is false. The color is blue. (its already set that way, mirroring the Gameex profile, I didn't change a thing)

I put a tick next to P1_START, set state to true, always active false, color white, (the button does not light) and click save.

It's really important you get your LED Input Map setup correct and your GameEx profile before you can do the Mame default profile.

Give it another go, and if your still having problems post your LEDInputMap.ini and Profiles\GameEx.ini and Profiles\MAME.ini and I'll let you know of any problems I see.

EDIT: I just realised the repeating outputs are actually a different LEDWiz Id so ignore that. How many LEDWiz do you have or is that a mistake?

[Tempest]

I have the 7 button layout, coin and start for each player. 1 lighted trackball, 2 flipper buttons, and 5 admin buttons, plus just for the heck of it, I put a led behind each of the coin eject buttons in the coin door. So that's 28x3=84 inputs, 3 LED wiz's! I probably didn't need to use 3 ports for the coin door buttons, because they show up red anyway, but it's pretty neat to see them flash during attract mode. I'm pretty sure they are wired and setup correctly in the mapping section, because each led lit up as expected as I set them up.

I bought a cab from DJInfinity that he had setup led's on, I will take a look at his setup tonight, and see if that gives me any clues. I should have thought of that before....

I had turned everything off in my profiles, out of pure frustration....

I also took at look at your Profiles\GameEx.ini file. It's empty, so according to what you uploaded you don't have a GameEx profile. Your GameEx profile needs to have ticks next to all your buttons. If you don't want one lit use the State checkbox.

If this means what it says, then this is the problem... I have to have a tick next to every button on my panel? Regardless of whether or not I want it to light up in the Gameex FE? Damn! $20 says that's what the problem is! Damn! damn! damn!

What about emulator profiles? Tick in every box for LED's I'm using, or not?

[headkaze]

What about emulator profiles? Tick in every box for LED's I'm using, or not?

Yes, only use the state buttons to turn them off. The tickboxes mean "I will be turning this LED to turn on and off using state". If you don't have a tickbox next to the control you wont be able to turn it on at all. The game profiles on the other hand only have tick boxes next to the controls it uses. But you can add extra tickboxes if for some reason you need to light up more buttons (as you know sometimes Controls.xml can be wrong so you may need to change a game's buttons for some reason).

[Tempest]

HK,

I bet you thought (wished) that you'd never hear from me again.

I deleted everything from the profiles folder, and started over setting up my profiles.

In the Gameex default profile, I put a tick next to every control that I have on my panel, then for my admin buttons (P1_CUSTOM 1-5) I changed state to true, the buttons light, and i can set the colors the way I want them to be. (Good so far)

Next, I go to Mame default profile. When I first look at the Mame default profile, everything is set to match the Gameex default profile. (I assume that is what is supposed to happen). I set P1_CUSTOM 1-2 state to false, change the colors for P1_CUSTOM 4-5, but the buttons stay lit as setup in the Gameex default profile. I then click on "save", go to the Gameex default profile, and then back to the Mame default profile, and the settings are reverted back to what the Gameex default profile is.

I wanted my admin buttons to light up differently in Gameex, than they do in Mame. Maybe this is not possible?

Would it help me if you uploaded your profiles for me to look at?

[headkaze]

Give it another go, and if your still having problems post your LEDInputMap.ini and Profiles\GameEx.ini and Profiles\MAME.ini and I'll let you know of any problems I see.

[Tempest]

I don't know whether to say Thanks, or Sorry... Whichever is most appropriate.

Tempest_PluginLCD.7z

[headkaze]

I don't know whether to say Thanks, or Sorry... Whichever is most appropriate.

Tempest_PluginLCD.7z

Thanks for sticking with it Tempest, honestly I want to get the plugin where your happy with it. And it should function the way you want it to. My main problem is that I don't have a LEDWiz hooked up to my dev machine and it's quite a hasstle to test on my cab, so I really am at the moment relying alot on you for testing, so as long as your happy to keep testing I'm happy to keep going as well. Don't feel like your a burden, your a regular here and you help out alot so please don't feel like you should be sorry.

If you want to take this into PM until we solve it I'm happy to do that.

Now you have already made me find a major bug that was introduced recently which screwed up the profile editor if you had some of those new options set. So I've fixed that particular bug in 2.81 so can you please test that, then get back to me in PM if there is still a problem. I will be dedicating as much time as it takes to get this working for you

BTW When you download the new version, all you need to do is copy over the PlugInLCD.dll located in the GameEx\PLUGINS folder.