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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Syncing button leds with gameplay

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    • H
      hopwon @Folly
      last edited by

      @Folly Awesome stuff thanks! I'll try the -network and I hope that gives me the output I need. This is really helpful as I have somewhere to start from now. Watch this space, I'll try this out this week and update later...

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      • F
        Folly @hopwon
        last edited by Folly

        @hopwon

        The mame network is on the localhost :
        http://127.0.0.1:8000/

        Outputting with curl did not work correctly but showed some response now and then :
        (--http0.9 was needed to get it working)

        curl --http0.9 http://127.0.0.1:8000/
        

        Wget did more showing 1 led status but probably not enough :
        (-nv is silent mode)

        wget -nv -O -  http://127.0.0.1:8000/
        

        I tried this program ( commenting out the serial and arduino stuff so it would start) :
        https://github.com/KabukiFlux/MAME-outputs-lamp-to-Arduino
        However it has an issue when mame stops it doesn't detect that.
        It should go to try and reconnect.
        I am not that good with python but if you are you could add your gpio stuff to it.

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        • F
          Folly @hopwon
          last edited by

          @hopwon

          It seems LEDspicer is the way to go but it's very daunting :
          https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21573/ledspicer-led-animation-controller-for-linux
          https://sourceforge.net/p/ledspicer/wiki/Deployment/

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          • H
            hopwon @Folly
            last edited by

            @Folly I am using LEDSpicer and I want to get it working as discussed. LEDSpicer does have a PulseAudio plugin to make cool VUE Meter type animations etc but I am not using PulseAudio :)
            So I need to make it work via maybe a program to watch a log file and when it see's "0" it runs a profile/animation to light the credit button.
            Not the most elegant solution but I am not going to use a ton of this type of animation/interaction so just for one or two situations I think is fine

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            • F
              Folly @hopwon
              last edited by Folly

              @hopwon

              I configured with --enable-raspberrypi and compiled.
              But the files are looked up in /usr/local.
              So I copied the rules files and the config file to that prefix and added the user to the groups.
              This command didn't seem to work :

              sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger
              

              After that I am lost.

              If you get it working let me know how you did it.


              I was only able to extract the led info if I used -output console.
              When using -output network and using wget, curl, netcat, telnet or socat I can't extract the data because it's refreshed on the same line.
              Very tricky to find a simple solution ;-(

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              • H
                hopwon @Folly
                last edited by

                @Folly
                sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger - missing sudo. I installed it as a Service, its just more convenient.
                I will try tonight when I get home but does the command spit out error codes as we can use them...

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                • F
                  Folly @hopwon
                  last edited by Folly

                  @hopwon

                  It took me more than 4 hours to find a solution in bash readout the socket info correctly.
                  The problem is that every line send by mame ends with /r (carriage return) only.
                  Therefor no new line is written to the sdio and so the info cannot be grabbed to do something.
                  Have looked a numerous options like sed, awk etc but nothing worked.
                  With this I came a bit further, showing more lines and the \r :

                  netcat 0 8000|od -c
                  

                  But piping it again did not work good enough.
                  Instead of netcat I found socat which will work somewhat the same and still had the same issue using it like this :

                  socat - TCP4:localhost:8000
                  

                  Now I found this site :
                  https://superuser.com/questions/942217/how-do-i-interactively-type-r-n-terminated-query-in-netcat
                  Which explaines to use ,crnl at the end.
                  I figured I only try ,cr and that worked like this :

                  socat - TCP4:localhost:8000,cr
                  

                  Now we can read the led info and do something with it :

                  socat - TCP4:localhost:8000,cr|while read line;do echo $line;done
                  

                  echo $line can be replace by an if function to enable/disable leds on the gpio pins.

                  The socat command can be reduced using 0 for localhost like this :

                  socat - TCP4:0:8000,cr
                  

                  Edit :
                  I have it running for 1 led :

                  socat - TCP4:localhost:8000,cr|while read line;do [[ $line == "led0 = 1" ]] && raspi-gpio set 4 op pn dh;[[ $line == "led0 = 0" ]] && raspi-gpio set 4 op pn dl ;done
                  
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                  • F
                    Folly @hopwon
                    last edited by

                    @hopwon said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                    does the command spit out error codes as we can use them...

                    With the -d option it gives an error something about a device missing.
                    Have to look again when I get home.

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                    • H
                      hopwon @Folly
                      last edited by hopwon

                      @Folly Just looking at my (default) runcommand output:

                      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame/mamearcade_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/1944.zip"
                      
                      

                      To integrate into this would probably mean recompiling with support for mame output features.
                      I see you are just launching mame with a different cli, default mame, if there is such a thing.
                      I think I am in above my head here!!
                      I might see what I can do with LEDSpicer. I have it working to the point that, when a game starts both start and credit flash until credit is pressed at which point it stays steady. Maybe a simple counter output to a file when the button is pressed and watched by a background process so that when it gets to 0 again, I can issue an Emitter command to make it flash again... just some draft thoughts!

                      Just looking into this:

                      LED Spicer Docs

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                      • F
                        Folly @hopwon
                        last edited by Folly

                        @hopwon

                        Indeed I use mame standalone for this.
                        Could be that lr-mame supports it too but it needs adding the options.
                        Will look at it later.

                        Edit :
                        I used my script to produce lr-mame runcommands for arcade :
                        https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone
                        (used mamedev.sh, the other is not updated anymore, installed arcade from the category menu item)
                        This will produce configs and runcommands where we can add the -output network option :

                        lr-mame-basename = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg.basename -S /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade -s /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade -v -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame/mamearcade_libretro.so 'mame  -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/lr-mame -c -ui_active -rompath /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame;/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/ '%BASENAME%''"
                        lr-mame-basename-network = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg --appendconfig /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg.basename -S /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade -s /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade -v -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-mame/mamearcade_libretro.so 'mame  -cfg_directory /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/lr-mame -output network -c -ui_active -rompath /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame;/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/ '%BASENAME%''"
                        
                        

                        Manually added in the second !
                        Testing it reveals THAT THIS WORKS !!!! ;-)

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                        • F
                          Folly @hopwon
                          last edited by

                          @hopwon said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                          does the command spit out error codes as we can use them...

                          pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ledspicerd -d
                          Program terminated by error: Empty devices section
                          
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                          • G
                            gomisensei @hopwon
                            last edited by

                            @hopwon If no ones suggested it yet, advanceMame has a scripting system that can take actions on emulated external outputs such as Led's, and other hardware...

                            https://www.advancemame.it/doc-script here is the documentation for the scripting and outputs.

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                            • H
                              hopwon @Folly
                              last edited by

                              @Folly The computer is telling the truth, you need to populate the /etc/ledspicerd.conf file :)

                              But this is fantastic, I will have a go at compiling and then give LR-mame a go. I looked at various scripting options last night and while I can create a counter which will increment every time the credit button is pressed, I could not find a way to decrement it, so I went to bed!

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                              • F
                                Folly @hopwon
                                last edited by

                                @hopwon

                                On which hardware do you run retropie ?
                                lr-mame can be installed from binary when using rpi.

                                Tell me, what script did you make to count the inserted coins and do you use a joystick or keyboard ?

                                mituM H 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • mituM
                                  mitu Global Moderator @Folly
                                  last edited by

                                  @Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                                  On which hardware do you run retropie ?

                                  First post:

                                  ... I am using LEDSpicer on RPI4.

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                                  • H
                                    hopwon @Folly
                                    last edited by

                                    @Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                                    Tell me, what script did you make to count the inserted coins and do you use a joystick or keyboard ?

                                    A bit nasty but:

                                    I used inputseeker running in background to grep for a credit button being pressed on(6=P1, 7=P2 in my case) and when it successfully finds a 6 or 7 it increments a counter +1.
                                    You can do it with awk also but I got tired and when to bed :)

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                                    • H
                                      hopwon @Folly
                                      last edited by

                                      @Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                                      lr-mame can be installed from binary when using rpi.

                                      Installing it now

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                                      • F
                                        Folly @hopwon
                                        last edited by

                                        @hopwon

                                        I will look at ledspicer with inputseeker again.
                                        Seem a really nice package but I have to take some time to dig into it.
                                        Hopefully I will grasp it.

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                                        • F
                                          Folly @hopwon
                                          last edited by Folly

                                          @hopwon

                                          I uninstalled my previous install of LEDspice.

                                          This I what I did :

                                          cd ~/Downloads/LEDSpicer-development/
                                          ./autogen.sh
                                          ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --enable-raspberrypi 
                                          make
                                          sudo make install
                                          sudo usermod -a -G users pi #replace user with your username
                                          sudo usermod -a -G input pi #replace user with your username
                                          sudo cp /usr/share/doc/ledspicer/examples/21-ledspicer.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
                                          sudo chmod 744 /etc/udev/rules.d/21-ledspicer.rules
                                          sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
                                          sudo cp /usr/share/doc/ledspicer/examples/ledspicer.conf /etc
                                          ledspicerd -v
                                          ledspicerd -d
                                          sudo ledspicerd -d #seems to be the way to go with RaspberryPi
                                          

                                          Running with -d gives :
                                          Program terminated by error: Empty devices section

                                          Added the controller name in /etc/ledspicer.conf :

                                          	<devices
                                          		name="RaspberryPi"
                                              		boardId="1"
                                          >
                                          	</devices>
                                          

                                          or

                                          	<devices>
                                          		name="RaspberryPi"
                                              		boardId="1"
                                          	</devices>
                                          

                                          Still no dice.

                                          Any help would be appreciated.

                                          H 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • H
                                            hopwon @Folly
                                            last edited by

                                            @Folly You need to manually create your ledspicer.conf, I've attached mine to give you some idea (sorry admins no pastebin!), But basically the file maps pins #'s on your LED controller to an "Element", you can then create groups of Elements and address either the group or Element...

                                            FYI On this controller I have 2 x Joystick + Trackball, each player has 8 buttons, plus start, credit, hotkey and exit.

                                            pi@pacman:~ $ cat /etc/ledspicer.conf 
                                            <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
                                            <LEDSpicer
                                                version="1.0"
                                                type="Configuration"
                                                fps="30"
                                                port="16161"
                                                colors="webColors"
                                                loglevel="Info"
                                                userId="1000"
                                                groupId="1000"
                                                craftProfile="true"
                                            >
                                                <devices>
                                                    <device
                                                        name="UltimarcUltimate"
                                                        boardId="1"
                                                    >
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON1"
                                                            red="54"
                                                            green="53"
                                                            blue="52"
                                            		defaultColor="Red"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON2"
                                                            red="57"
                                                            green="56"
                                                            blue="55"
                                            		defaultColor="VeryDarkMagenta"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON3"
                                                            red="60"
                                                            green="59"
                                                            blue="58"
                                            		defaultColor="Blue"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON4"
                                                            red="63"
                                                            green="62"
                                            		blue="61"
                                            		defaultColor="Yellow"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON5"
                                                            red="66"
                                                            green="65"
                                            		blue="64"
                                            		defaultColor="Salmon"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON6"
                                                            red="69"
                                                            green="68"
                                            		blue="67"
                                            		defaultColor="Lime"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON7"
                                                            red="72"
                                                            green="71"
                                            		blue="70"
                                            		defaultColor="Violet"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_BUTTON8"
                                                            red="75"
                                                            green="74"
                                            		blue="73"
                                            		defaultColor="VeryDarkYellow"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_START"
                                                            red="79"
                                                            green="80"
                                            		blue="81"
                                            		defaultColor="DarkOrange"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_CREDIT"
                                                            red="93"
                                                            green="92"
                                            		blue="91"
                                            		defaultColor="DarkOrange"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_TRACKBALL"
                                                            red="28"
                                                            green="29"
                                                            blue="30"
                                             	        defaultColor="Cyan"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P1_JOYSTICK1"
                                                            red="49"
                                                            green="50"
                                            		blue="51"
                                            		defaultColor="Lime"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="HOTKEY"
                                                            led="85"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="EXIT_KEY"
                                                            led="88"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_CREDIT"
                                                            red="84"
                                                            green="83"
                                            		blue="82"
                                            		defaultColor="DarkOrange"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_START"
                                                            red="78"
                                                            green="77"
                                            		blue="76"
                                            		defaultColor="DarkOrange"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON1"
                                                            red="4"
                                                            green="5"
                                                            blue="6"
                                            		defaultColor="Red"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON2"
                                                            red="7"
                                                            green="8"
                                                            blue="9"
                                            		defaultColor="Green"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON3"
                                                            red="10"
                                                            green="11"
                                                            blue="12"
                                            		defaultColor="Blue"
                                                        />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON4"
                                                            red="13"
                                                            green="14"
                                            		blue="15"
                                            		defaultColor="Yellow"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON5"
                                                            red="16"
                                                            green="17"
                                            		blue="18"
                                            		defaultColor="Salmon"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON6"
                                                            red="19"
                                                            green="20"
                                            		blue="21"
                                            		defaultColor="Lime"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON7"
                                                            red="22"
                                                            green="23"
                                            		blue="24"
                                            		defaultColor="Violet"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_BUTTON8"
                                                            red="25"
                                                            green="26"
                                            		blue="27"
                                            		defaultColor="VeryDarkYellow"
                                            	    />
                                                        <element
                                                            name="P2_JOYSTICK1"
                                                            red="1"
                                                            green="2"
                                            		blue="3"
                                            		defaultColor="HotPink"
                                            	    />
                                                    </device>
                                                </devices>
                                                <restrictors>
                                                  <restrictor name="ServoStik" boardId="1" player="1" joystick="1" />
                                                    <!-- Player 2 with ServoStik -->
                                                  <restrictor name="ServoStik" boardId="1" player="2" joystick="1" />
                                                </restrictors>
                                                <layout defaultProfile="default">
                                                    <group name="whole board">
                                                        <element name="P1_JOYSTICK1"/> 
                                            	    <element name="P1_TRACKBALL"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_START"/>
                                                    </group>
                                                    <group name="Player1">
                                                        <element name="P1_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_TRACKBALL"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON8"/>
                                                    </group>    
                                                    <group name="Player2">
                                                        <element name="P2_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_START"/>
                                                    </group>
                                                    <group name="Players">
                                                        <element name="P1_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_TRACKBALL"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_START"/>
                                                    </group>
                                            	<group name="Whole board as a circle">
                                                	    <element name="HOTKEY"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                            	    <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_TRACKBALL"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_JOYSTICK1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON5"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON1"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON6"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON2"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON7"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON3"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON8"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_BUTTON4"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_START"/>
                                            	</group>
                                                    <group name="Ctrl keys">
                                                	    <element name="HOTKEY"/>
                                                        <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                            	    <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                                        <element name="P2_START"/>
                                                        <element name="EXIT_KEY"/>
                                            	</group>
                                                    <group name="TopRow">
                                            	    <element name="P1_CREDIT"/>
                                            	    <element name="P1_START"/>
                                                        <element name="HOTKEY"/>
                                                        <element name="EXIT_KEY"/>
                                            	    <element name="P2_CREDIT"/>
                                            	    <element name="P2_START"/>
                                                    </group>
                                                </layout>
                                            </LEDSpicer>
                                            
                                            
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