SAMCO Arduino Powered IR Light Gun

samco · 10 Jun 2019, 13:22

Hi Guys,

I'm currently working on an Arduino powered light gun for Mame & Retropie have a look at the demo here.

Let us know what ya think, anyone keen to have a crack at building this? I hope to have a build guide up soon.

Febbweiss · 17 Jun 2019, 08:32

Any concrete information about this subject ?

samco · 17 Jun 2019, 12:47

@Febbweiss I hope to have a complete build guide including parts & code very soon. I'll post here when it's ready :)

grant2258 · 17 Jun 2019, 15:48

how much are the samco guns ?

samco · 18 Jun 2019, 09:50

@grant2258 The gun itself is an old PS1 Namco Gun. You'll have to find one second hand and prices vary alot. If you search Playstation Gun on eBay you should get an idea of what they're going for in your area.

grant2258 · 18 Jun 2019, 16:24

Well I got a few Arduinos and parts lying about might be able to rustle something up unless i need the guns electronics for something. Will check it out for sure when more details are available.

samco · 23 Jun 2019, 12:32

Hi Guys, just a quick update. Build Guide is now available...

cyperghost · 23 Jun 2019, 14:08

@samco The costs are little imho
20$ the gun
25$ the IR camera
10$ the itsybitsy
2.5$ for some hardware

hhromic · 23 Jun 2019, 14:37

@samco congratulations on your project!
This is indeed very well executed, spot-on and seems to give a very professional result. I think everyone will appreciate the simplicity and openness of your design.

Kudos!

janderclander14 · 23 Jun 2019, 16:55

@samco Thanks! That's certainly professional and straigtforward.
I have several questions, if you don't mind.
I assume any small arduino, like the nano or the micro, would work, don't they?
Also, do you think it would be possible to use a Namco Guncon 2 instead of 1? It already uses a usb cable and has extra buttons and a directional pad at the back. This would avoid the need for building the calibration button. I assume that the arduino code can be extended to add support for additional buttons (since the arduino has several input pins available) but I'm unsure whether a Guncon2 (which is smaller as has more internals for the extra hardware) would fit the arduino and the camera.
The IR camera you use can detect up to 4 IR lights. Do you think tracking could be improved by using additional leds around the screen? Or even avoiding the need for recalibration?
And, finally, I understant that the arduino is detected in Retropie as a standard mouse, so that it can work as is in all emulations that use mouse input as lightgun, is this the case?

cyperghost · 23 Jun 2019, 17:30

@janderclander14 said in SAMCO Arduino Powered IR Light Gun:

I assume any small arduino, like the nano or the micro, would work, don't they?

The micro yes ... then nano no.
You need a HID compatible device.
If I'm wrong then please correct me.

And, finally, I understant that the arduino is detected in Retropie as a standard mouse, so that it can work as is in all emulations that use mouse input as lightgun, is this the case?

yes

If you consider the costs ... you are equal to a DolphinBar (and if you already have a wiimote you are cheaper)

10-15$ the Dolphin bar
25$ the Wiimote
20$ a gun "case"

About the namco guns.... they are very cheap in Japan nowadays.
Take a look here

samco · 24 Jun 2019, 08:46

@janderclander14

@janderclander14 said in SAMCO Arduino Powered IR Light Gun:

@samco Thanks! That's certainly professional and straigtforward.

Thanks!

I assume any small arduino, like the nano or the micro, would work, don't they?

Yeah Like @cyperghost said any HID compatable board will work.

Also, do you think it would be possible to use a Namco Guncon 2 instead of 1? It already uses a usb cable and has extra buttons and a directional pad at the back. This would avoid the need for building the calibration button. I assume that the arduino code can be extended to add support for additional buttons (since the arduino has several input pins available) but I'm unsure whether a Guncon2 (which is smaller as has more internals for the extra hardware) would fit the arduino and the camera.

Yeah, I've already looked into this (most likely going to be my next project). You could have the mouse and keyboard libraries loaded on, so some buttons could be keyboard strokes and some some mouse buttons. A little more tricky due to how the buttons are configured but I'm hoping to work away around this. And yes the camera fits.

The IR camera you use can detect up to 4 IR lights. Do you think tracking could be improved by using additional leds around the screen? Or even avoiding the need for recalibration?

I have seen other projects that use 4 leds, but haven't looked into it to much yet. Also something I'm considering.

And, finally, I understant that the arduino is detected in Retropie as a standard mouse, so that it can work as is in all emulations that use mouse input as lightgun, is this the case?

Yes, but only a few do at this stage. No PSX yet. But I keep hearing rumours that this isn't too far off.

Cheers Sam

cyperghost · 2 Jul 2019, 12:22

@samco Do you think you can rewrite this to circuit-python?
Then you will make full use of the M0 board. You know it has a python interpreter on board ;)

samco · 2 Jul 2019, 12:22

@cyperghost I don't actually know python yet :) but from the little research I've done C++ actually runs faster than circuit-python (can anyone confirm this?). I am interested in circuit-python thou, definitely on my "to learn" list.

grant2258 · 2 Jul 2019, 15:37

c++ will be faster depending on what your doing speed might no matter that much in the big picture.

cyperghost · 7 Feb 2019, 19:02

@samco @grant2258 I think you're both on the wrong track. The Adafruit M0 controller has a file system enabled. So you just plug it in to any computer and it will show as a storage device. This device holds a file main.py where you immedialty can alter program code. So in fact you don't need an IDE ... just copy and paste code to that storage device and you are fine.
Speed does not matter in this case (imho) the camera does most of the work and the calculations done by C code or python is not really difficult.
Maybe I'm wrong .... but with the M0 you can even play wave-files ;) I think it is a feature that isn't usefull on a light-gun system (ironic!)

janderclander14 · 2 Jul 2019, 20:50

@samco I was told from another site that the author of this related project:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/22531/xwiigun-a-line-of-sight-accurate-wii-remote-lightgun-hack

may be willing to offer his automatic calibration code to be integrated into your project. I've personaly tested it and self-calibration and tracking is excellent, but support for mouse emulation in Retroarch emulators is quite limited. He should have posted into your git's issues.

samco · 5 Jul 2019, 08:13

@janderclander14 Yeah, he messaged me in GitHub. Thanks for linking us up!

samco · 29 Jul 2019, 10:48

Hey Guys, not exactly RetroPie related (unless PSX Beetle & Beetle Saturn works with the new RPI 4 fingers crossed) but if your interested I have a setup guide for the SAMCO working on PSX Beetle & Beetle Saturn on RetroArch in Windows.

By the way, if any does know if PSX/Saturn Beetle works on the new RPI 4, I'd love to know?

samco · 11 Aug 2019, 08:15

Hi Guys,

Just another quick vid showing the SAMCO Light Gun in action...