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    Syncing button leds with gameplay

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    led buttonsled cledspicer
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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
      
      H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 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.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • 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 :)

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • 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.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • 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.

                                H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • 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...

                                  F 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • 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.

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

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

                                      F 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • 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).

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • 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 ?

                                            H 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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