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    Syncing button leds with gameplay

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    led buttonsled cledspicer
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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>
                      
                      
                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • H
                        hopwon @Folly
                        last edited by

                        @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.

                        F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • F
                          Folly @hopwon
                          last edited by

                          @hopwon

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

                          H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • H
                            hopwon @Folly
                            last edited by

                            @Folly So I managed to get the command line options passed to lr-mame based on the info you provided. I can now see that (I am using Missile Command as a test), led0=0, led1=0, led0=1 led1=1, repeating in the console for any button press.
                            This tells me (I think) that mame is making two led's flash and thats it. No specific output regarding credit or I could be wrong.

                            From runcommand.log using -output console

                            led0 = 1
                            led0 = 0
                            led0 = 1
                            led0 = 0
                            led0 = 1
                            led0 = 0
                            led0 = 1
                            led0 = 0
                            led0 = 1
                            led1 = 1
                            led1 = 0
                            led0 = 0
                            

                            These represent a button press, I think one press = 4 log entries

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

                              @hopwon

                              Yes indeed that is correct.

                              It's jsut how the original hardware worked and that is implemented in mame.
                              It's basically the same with the galaga example I used before, only here you have to add 2 credits for 1 player and 4 credits for 2 players.

                              What you want is not implemented in mame so you need to get the information in an other way just like you did with inputseeker.
                              I tested that and indeed reading event becomes very easy but you need to add a whole script for doing stuff with that information.

                              I see the problem getting some uniform data for every game it seems a bit different.
                              Basically it could mean that for every game you need to make a script.

                              If you want more advanced ways you could look at mame lua plugin scripts.
                              With that you might be able to extract data in a different / better way.
                              FYI I used them for tests but I never wrote them.

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                              • H
                                hopwon @Folly
                                last edited by

                                @Folly @MeduZaPaT talks about doing the part to make credit flash here:

                                link text

                                If there was a way to set a counter or write to an output, then that's the solution...

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                                • F
                                  Folly @hopwon
                                  last edited by Folly

                                  @hopwon

                                  Ok, I used your ledspicer.conf and customised it for use with RaspberryPi (GPIO).
                                  For error sake I made all red, green and blue use the same pin (red=4, green=5 and blue=6) and added an empty profile which is explained over here.

                                  Now I don't get errors anymore when running :

                                  ledspicerd -d
                                  

                                  Then I tried :

                                  ledspicerd -f
                                  

                                  That gave me :

                                  2023-09-21 21:23:41 initCheckPermitted: 
                                  +---------------------------------------------------------+
                                  |Sorry, you don't have permission to run this program.    |
                                  |Try running as root, e.g. precede the command with sudo. |
                                  +---------------------------------------------------------+
                                  Program terminated by error: Failed to initialized Raspberry PI GPIO
                                  

                                  So now I know RaspberryPi needs running with sudo, like this :

                                  sudo ledspicerd -f
                                  

                                  I might have to check ledspicer.conf again for correct values and then I have to add some game profiles.
                                  Would like to check first if the mame "-output network" is detected without using emulationstation.

                                  sudo ledspicerd -f should do that trick right ?

                                  Will have look later again.

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                                  • H
                                    hopwon @Folly
                                    last edited by

                                    @Folly the -f option runs in foreground so yes, you should see something...

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                                    • F
                                      Folly @hopwon
                                      last edited by

                                      @hopwon said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

                                      These represent a button press, I think one press = 4 log entries

                                      Missed that part.
                                      No they aren't really button presses.
                                      On the other end you could see it that way but inserting a coin while playing the game does nothing.
                                      Taking galaga as example, it's that led0 goes on and off after inserting a coin and when the start button is not pressed yet and not playing the game.
                                      For missile that is 2 coins (led0) and 4 coins(led1).

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                                      • F
                                        Folly @hopwon
                                        last edited by

                                        @hopwon

                                        Was able to test the led on GPIO pin 4 with this :

                                        pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ledspicerd -l
                                        Test LEDs (q to quit)
                                        
                                        Select a Led (r to reset, q to quit):
                                        4
                                        
                                        Select a Led (r to reset, q to quit):
                                        r
                                        
                                        Select a Led (r to reset, q to quit):
                                        q
                                        

                                        So basically ledspicer is working.
                                        Have to look at the game profiles now.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • F
                                          Folly @hopwon
                                          last edited by Folly

                                          @hopwon

                                          It seems very hard to understand the docs and how everything actually works ;-(

                                          I am struggling with creating a single game input xml in /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/arcade.
                                          I added galaga in /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/profile_arcade.xml like this :

                                          <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
                                          <LEDSpicer
                                          	version="1.0"
                                          	type="Profile"
                                          	backgroundColor="Black"
                                          >
                                          	<inputs>
                                          		<input name="galaga"/>
                                          	</inputs>
                                          </LEDSpicer>
                                          

                                          I tried to begin with the example from here.
                                          Though I have to edit the file somehow as it is not accepted.
                                          Do you have an example for me ?
                                          Or, do you know what to edit ?

                                          I read over here that you can also use a "craftProfiles" option for multiple games.
                                          "LEDSpicer will attempt to use the pre-scraped data from mame (gameData.xml) along with controls.ini (if available) and colors.ini (if available) to set lighting based on the games control scheme. So... one profile_arcade.xml file to manage thousands of roms."

                                          They also use the emitter part.
                                          Is that nessesary to use ?

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                                          • H
                                            hopwon @Folly
                                            last edited by

                                            @Folly I use craft profiles, it only works for mame. You need a profile in the profiles dir called profile_arcade.xml and then you call emitter from "runcommand_onstart.sh" with LoadProfileByEmulator

                                            Craft profiles really take the heavy lifting out of LEDSpicer config and its an awesome feature.

                                            This is my profile_arcade.xml - there is nothing in it...

                                            <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
                                            <LEDSpicer
                                            	version="1.0"
                                            	type="Profile"
                                            	backgroundColor="Black"
                                            >
                                            </LEDSpicer>
                                            

                                            After that LEDSpicer takes care of the rest.

                                            I'll try and do a bit more of a write up but Friday night is calling! But check out this link for a guide on as I used it to eventually decode and get LEDSpicer running...

                                            LEDSpicer on attractmode

                                            F 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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