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    Upright Arcade Build

    Projects and Themes
    cabinet custom build retro arcade
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    • GreenHawk84
      GreenHawk84 @aechadwick last edited by

      @aechadwick wow man, the theming detail is crazy. So much work! Very impressive. I would love to have a dynamic marquee on my bartop.

      aechadwick 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • h2805270
        h2805270 last edited by

        That's pure dedication right there...

        aechadwick 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • maschine
          maschine last edited by

          Love the digital marquee

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • aechadwick
            aechadwick @GreenHawk84 last edited by

            @greenhawk84 how i did it...

            from ebay... (3) P4 PH4 32*64 Pixels Dot Matrix RGB Full Color LED Module Board For Video Wall, i think they were like $20 apiece when i got them.

            that just happened to fit the arbitrary 30½" x 5½" marquee (i didn't plan a marquee, i decided to add it later) (this whole project is "oh you know what ELSE would be cool...")

            controlled by a second Pi with the Adafruit "RGB Matrix HAT + RTC"—maintaining the matrix just chews up too much power, i tried using one pi for both but decided against compromising gameplay for cosmetics.

            The two pi are directly connected with an ethernet cable, and the RetroPie runcommand scripts, onstart & onend, send ROM info to the MatrixPi to trigger the change.

            I'm glad to share the scripts if anyone is interested. there might be a better way, it's just how i did it.

            BritX 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • aechadwick
              aechadwick @h2805270 last edited by

              @h2805270 it's my distraction from work and stuff, so it's totally worth the time. priceless.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • aechadwick
                aechadwick @aechadwick last edited by

                he visibly flinched several times. GOTTA LEARN THE CLASSICS. IMG_6036.png

                h2805270 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • h2805270
                  h2805270 @aechadwick last edited by

                  @aechadwick
                  I didn't even know the Arcade Original used an Overlay.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • BritX
                    BritX @aechadwick last edited by

                    @aechadwick hey! great build!
                    Would you be willing to share you code for the marquee? im trying to get some LCD panels for the RGB hat working but failing big time...
                    I would like to use just one pie also so if you have anything like that illl take it..:-)

                    I have installed pimarquee2 but this uses LCD via a second HDMI port...its great software also but i cannot get it working with a RGB hat....
                    im not a coder either so its all trail and error....

                    Using a second pi perhaps a zero may work also....

                    thanks in adavance!

                    aechadwick 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • aechadwick
                      aechadwick @BritX last edited by

                      @britx Here is how i did it; i'm open to other ways, but this has worked constantly & consistently.

                      i named the units RetroPi and MatrixPi. They are connected directly with an ethernet cable; they connect to the network via Wifi, and to each other over ethernet. (I don't remember the exact instructions i used but it';s pretty straightforward.)

                      on MatrixPi, i created folders for Scripts and Marquees:

                      /home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/
                      /home/pi/Scripts

                      I made a script that, when called, searches the Marquees folder based on the arguments sent to it: the script will search for an image based on the ROM or SYSTEM. If it does not find an image (or is not sent any information) it will just display the "crash kitchen" logo.

                      I am using the Adafruit Matrix Hat with the hzeller library.

                      #!/bin/bash
                      
                      system=$1 # get the system name
                      rom_bn=$2 # get the ROM with full path
                      
                      exec 2> /home/pi/Arcade/Scripts/runcommand-onstart.log # send stderr to a log file
                      exec 1>&2 # send stdout to the same log file
                      
                      # first, make sure marquee is clear
                      sudo start-stop-daemon --stop --name  led-image-viewe
                      
                      function contains() {
                         local n=$#
                         local value=${!n}
                         for ((i=1;i < $#;i++)) {
                               if [ "${!i}" == "${value}" ]; then
                                  echo "y"
                               return 0
                            fi
                         }
                         echo "n"
                         return 1
                      }
                      
                      # rom_bn receives $rom excluding everything from the first char to the last slash
                      rom_bn="${rom_bn##*/}"
                      
                      # rom_bn receives $rom_bn excluding everything from the last char to the first dot
                      rom_bn="${rom_bn%.*}"
                      
                      ArcadeArray=("lr-fbalpha", "lr-fbalpha2012", "PiFBA", "lr-mame2003", "lr-mame2010", "MAME4ALL-Pi", "AdvanceMAME 1.4", "AdvanceMAME 0.94", "AdvanceMAME 3", "lr-mame2014", "lr-mame2016", "lr-mame2000")
                      if [ $(contains "${ArcadeArray[@]}" $1) == "y" ]; then
                         system="arcade"
                      fi
                      
                      # set the image file to the first result matching the ROM name - accounts for various possible file extensions
                      img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/${system}" -type f -name "${rom_bn}.*" | head -1)"
                      
                      # check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE find an image based on system
                      if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                      then
                         img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/systems" -type f -name "${system}.*" | head -1)"
                      fi
                      
                      # check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE use Crash Kitchen logo
                      if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                      then
                         img="/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/systems/CrashKitchen.png"
                      fi
                      
                      # display the image, (6) 32-pixel panels, centered
                      sudo /home/pi/rpi-rgb-led-matrix-master/utils/led-image-viewer --led-chain=6 --led-daemon -C "$img"
                      

                      That's pretty well noted... (thanks, PASTaechadwick)

                      I called it "runcommand-onstart.sh" simply to keep track of it—it is triggered by runcommand on the RetroPi...

                      to trigger the MatrixPi Script, i added this line at the top of /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.sh on the RetroPi...

                      ssh pi@192.168.1.22 "/home/pi/Scripts/runcommand-onstart.sh \"$1\" \"$3\""  # tell MatrixPi to display logo
                      

                      (of course, use your pi’s IP address)

                      I also made scripts for -onend and -onstop, they simply revert the marquee to the “crash kitchen” logo.

                      #!/bin/bash
                      
                      # first, make sure marquee is clear
                      sudo start-stop-daemon --stop --name  led-image-viewe
                      
                      # set to crash kitchen logo 
                      img="/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/systems/CrashKitchen.gif"
                      
                      # display the image, (6) 32-pixel panels, centered
                      sudo /home/pi/rpi-rgb-led-matrix-master/utils/led-image-viewer --led-chain=6 --led-daemon -C "$img"
                      

                      That's it.

                      When i add a game or system, i can just drop a new logo into the MatrixPi’s “Marquees” folder, and it's all taken care of. (I always make custom images and save them as a PNG, but it will try to display anything it finds.)

                      Let me know if there's anything i can explain further. good luck!

                      BritX 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • BritX
                        BritX @aechadwick last edited by

                        @aechadwick Amazing....thank you so much for posting...
                        here is a burner email, nkfey6aod59a@opayq.com
                        if you ok with it send me an email and ill reply back with my personal one..i dont know how to DM on this site...

                        Iv been trying to get things working for weeks....so this may give me the info :-)
                        Also i have a good way of scrapping files automatically for the system..
                        plus i have over 1000 gifs in the 32x128 format...

                        thank again..i know what im doing tomorrow working from home...:-)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • BritX
                          BritX @aechadwick last edited by

                          @aechadwick hey quick question, does emulationstation have to be running for this to work?
                          I have everything done...but upon boot nothing is displayed? but if i execute the command manual then it displays the crashkitchen file?

                          Ill bash away at it....but you answered a lot of open questions i had teaching myself :-)

                          aechadwick 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • aechadwick
                            aechadwick @BritX last edited by

                            @britx i think the runcommand scripts are a function of retroarch, not emulationstation? regardless, i understand exactly what's happening:

                            at boot, there is nothing started nor anything ending, so you need one initial call to get an image on the marquee. i did that by simply having rc.local run the "onend" script after boot--that's functionally the same as your manual execution.

                            (also, you don't have to use the name crashkitchen.gif, you can change that to anything you want)

                            BritX 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • BritX
                              BritX @aechadwick last edited by BritX

                              @aechadwick hey thanks again...
                              Im nearlt there.....i have the image playing on boot :-)
                              have the stop gif playing when exciting a game from arcade:-)

                              I dont have the change when selecting a game... i have just the default retropie installed noting else and i chose lr-mame2003 as the default.
                              It appears its not picking up the "$img" through the system? as it does play the gif on the ELSE command when it doesnt find a suitable file....

                              I have also set it up to just run on one Pi for now as easier on reboots etc....

                              here is my runcommand-onstart:

                              #!/bin/bash
                              echo "message to log" >&2
                              	
                              # get the full path filename of the ROM
                              rom=$3
                              # get the system name
                              system=$1
                              # get the ROM with full path
                              rom_bn=$2 
                              
                              
                              exec 2> /opt/retropie/configs/all/runcommand-onstart.log # send stderr to a log file
                              exec 1>&2 # send stdout to the same log file
                              
                              # first, make sure marquee is clear
                              sudo start-stop-daemon --stop --name  led-image-viewe
                              	function contains() {
                                 local n=$#
                                 local value=${!n}
                                 for ((i=1;i < $#;i++)) {
                                       if [ "${!i}" == "${value}" ]; then
                                          echo "y"
                                       return 0
                                    fi
                                 }
                                 echo "n"
                                 return 1
                              }
                              	# rom_bn receives $rom excluding everything from the first char to the last slash
                              rom_bn="${rom_bn##*/}"
                              	# rom_bn receives $rom_bn excluding everything from the last char to the first dot
                              rom_bn="${rom_bn%.*}"
                              
                              
                              	ArcadeArray=("lr-fbalpha", "lr-fbalpha2012", "PiFBA", "lr-mame2003", "lr-mame2010", "MAME4ALL-Pi", "AdvanceMAME 1.4", "AdvanceMAME 0.94", "AdvanceMAME 3", "lr-mame2014", "lr-mame2016", "lr-mame2000", "retroarch", "mame-libretro")
                              if [ $(contains "${ArcadeArray[@]}" $1) == "y" ]; then
                                 system="arcade"
                              fi
                              	# set the image file to the first result matching the ROM name - accounts for various possible file extensions
                              #img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/${system}" -type f -name "${rom_bn}.*" | head -1)"
                              img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/${system}" -type f -name "${rom_bn}-image.*" | head -1)"
                              
                              
                              	# check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE find an image based on system
                              if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                              then
                                 img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees" -type f -name "${system}.*" | head -1)"
                              fi
                              	# check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE use Crash Kitchen logo
                              if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                              then
                                 img="/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/systems/intro.gif"
                              fi
                              
                              # display the image, (6) 32-pixel panels, centered
                              
                              
                              sudo /home/pi/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/utils/led-image-viewer -f -C --led-no-hardware-pulse --led-rows=32 --led-cols=64 --led-chain=2 --led-slowdown-gpio=2 --led-gpio-mapping=adafruit-hat --led-daemon "$img" 
                              
                              

                              Any ideas on what im missing...:-) i just cant nail it down...also the log is blank indicating the logic is correct?

                              I think its something here:

                              	# set the image file to the first result matching the ROM name - accounts for various possible file extensions
                              #img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/${system}" -type f -name "${rom_bn}.*" | head -1)"
                              img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/${system}" -type f -name "${rom_bn}-image.*" | head -1)"
                              
                              
                              	# check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE find an image based on system
                              if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                              then
                                 img="$(find "/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees" -type f -name "${system}.*" | head -1)"
                              fi
                              	# check to see if there was a file found (length of the file name not zero), ELSE use Crash Kitchen logo
                              if [[ -z "${img}" ]]
                              then
                                 img="/home/pi/Arcade/Marquees/systems/intro.gif"
                              fi
                              

                              maybe the path to where the gig/png/jpg are stored? arrrhhhhhh LOL

                              tree.png
                              thanks for your help....i have learnt so much just through this.......

                              BritX 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • BritX
                                BritX @BritX last edited by BritX

                                @britx
                                cracked it.....a simple $2........

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • LandyVlad
                                  LandyVlad last edited by

                                  Hmm, that's a LOT of buttons.

                                  aechadwick 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • aechadwick
                                    aechadwick @LandyVlad last edited by

                                    @landyvlad some games use more, some games use less. better over-prepared than under-equipt!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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