Syncing button leds with gameplay

Folly

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/

hopwon

@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

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 ;-(

hopwon

@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...

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

Folly

@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.

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

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 !!!! ;-)

Folly

@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

gomisensei

@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.

hopwon

@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!

Folly

@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 ?

mitu

@Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

On which hardware do you run retropie ?

First post:

... I am using LEDSpicer on RPI4.

hopwon

@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 :)

hopwon

@Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

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

Installing it now

Folly

@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.

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.

hopwon

@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>

hopwon

@Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

@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.

Make sure when you are starting for the first time, run the daemon in foreground (-f) as it is the best way to troubleshoot. Its quite verbose in its output so if there is a problem you should get a good indication of exactly what it is.

Folly

@hopwon

Thanks, will have a look when I am using my pi.