Syncing button leds with gameplay

Folly

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.

hopwon

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

Folly

@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).

Folly

@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.

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 ?

hopwon

@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

Folly

@hopwon

I want to get it working before I implement in emulationstation.

Ok, so I do need the emitter.

First I started with :

sudo ledspicerd -f

So for galaga I tried the command but got an error :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ emitter LoadProfileByEmulator galaga arcade
Error: Failed to open device 0xd209:0x1700 id 1
Failed to execute rotator 2 1 '2' 1 1 '2'

The led that I attached burns but there is no other effect when starting galaga.
Any ideas ?

All commands are done over 3 terminal consoles.

Folly

@hopwon

I am really not sure if I should spend more time on this.
Ledspicer seems a really nice and advanced program but I am missing the bigger picture on how it works and how all configs and xml's are connected to each other.
Perhaps I will ditch the elements from the ledspicer.conf except one.
That way I can see if 1 element will react if not I will probably stop trying.

Ps.
I have send a message to @MeduZaPaT hope he can help.

MeduZaPaT

@hopwon
Hey, I just read this, yes you will be able to do this, I read the whole section and looks like you are close:
you have this:
1 mame is sending the network data
2 ledspicer is set and running
3 you have a profile to load the galaga input.
4 you got the mapping names from mame (led0 and led1)

Create a profile called galaga.xml inside arcade inside profiles
Create a input called galaga.xml inside inputs
test the profile by running ledspicerd -p galaga

profile file galaga.xml:

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

Input file galaga.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LEDSpicer
    version="1.0"
    type="Input"
    name="Mame"
>
        <map
            type="Element"
            target="P1_START"
            trigger="led0"
            color="White"                      <!-- <<< The color to change -->
            filter="Normal"                    <!-- <<< Filter to use -->
        />
        <map
            type="Element"
            target="P2_START"
            trigger="led1"
            color="White"                      <!-- <<< The color to change -->
            filter="Normal"                    <!-- <<< Filter to use -->
        />
</LEDSpicer>

you need to place the files in the correct directories:

ledspicer
   |----animations
   |----inputs
   |----profiles
         |----arcade
         |----nes
         |----[another emulator system name here and so on]

Sorry for the late response, I am working on the LEDSpicer UI to make your life much, much easier

Folly

@MeduZaPaT

Thank you for your reply !

I used your xml's.

I understand your post like this :

create a profile galaga.xml file inside /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/arcade/
create an input galaga.xml file inside /usr/share/ledspicer/input/
run mame with galaga and "-output network" (tested and working)
run ledspicerd -p galaga to test and get it working (got errors)

Now I got this output :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ledspicerd -p galaga
Program terminated by error: Unable to read the file /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/galaga.xml
Error=XML_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND ErrorID=3 (0x3) Line number=0: filename=/usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/galaga.xml

so I moved the profile file one folder up in /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/ (solved not finding the file)
(edit : another solution is not moving the file and use ' ledspicerd -p arcade/galaga')

Then got this output :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ledspicerd -p galaga
Program terminated by error: Unable to read the file /usr/share/ledspicer/inputs/galaga.xml Error=XML_ERROR_PARSING_ELEMENT ErrorID=6 (0x6) Line number=7

My ledspicer.conf is in /etc/ and I connected one green led to gpio 4 :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LEDSpicer
    version="1.0"
    type="Configuration"
    fps="30"
    port="16161"
    colors="basicColors"
    loglevel="Info"
    userId="1000"
    groupId="1000"
    craftProfile="true"
>
    <devices>
        <device
            name="RaspberryPi"
            boardId="1"
        >
            <element
                name="P1_START"
		green="4"
                red="5"
                blue="6"		
		defaultColor="Green"
            />
        </device>
    </devices>
    <layout defaultProfile="profile_arcade">
        <group name="Player1">
            <element name="P1_START"/>
        </group>    
    </layout>
</LEDSpicer>

Can you see where the error is ?

Btw. using "sudo ledspicer -p galaga" did not make any difference.

MeduZaPaT

@Folly sorry, I wrote that out of my head :D

Yes, I can see the error "XML_ERROR_PARSING_ELEMENT" means that P2_START does not exist :D

My 1st mistake was with the run command, please run ledspicerd -p galaga, you already solved that by moving the file to the correct place.
My 2nd mistake was to assume that you have a full LEDSpicer config, I added the player 2 start button, but does not exist in the conf (that is why it error out), here is the correct input file:
Input file galaga.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LEDSpicer
    version="1.0"
    type="Input"
    name="Mame"
>
        <map
            type="Element"
            target="P1_START"
            trigger="led0"
            color="White"
            filter="Normal"
        />
</LEDSpicer>

Try that and let me know!
I can help you to setup your ledspicer, do you like to chat with me on slack? I can send you an invitation to the LEDSpicer group.

Folly

@MeduZaPaT said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

I can help you to setup your ledspicer, do you like to chat with me on slack? I can send you an invitation to the LEDSpicer group.

That's very nice of you. ;)
I wouldn't mind but then nobody can see the progress over here.
There are probably more people in the future that want to use this.
With this topic they will be able to find the information more easily.
Also I will be able to use the information to get using it to a higher level.
Do you agree ?

My 1st mistake was with the run command, please run ledspicerd -p galaga, you already solved that by moving the file to the correct place.

I found that this will also work keeping galaga.xml inside /usr/share/ledspicer/profiles/arcade/ :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ledspicerd -p arcade/galaga

Default Profile:arcade/galaga
* Background color: Black

* Input plugins:
------------------------------
Type: Mame
Elements and Groups mapping:
Target: P1_START
Trigger: led0
Color: White
Filter: Normal

------------------------------

So I got a working test output now.

What is the next phase to get the led blink ?
Do I use run mame and use "sudo ledspicerd -f" together with 'emitter LoadProfileByEmulator galaga arcade' ?
Tried above but it didn't work.

MeduZaPaT

@Folly I complete agree :)
anything we do, should be posted here for future use.

Based on your results, looks like the profile it is working fine, it passed the test
I discourage running ledspicer with sudo, but is up to you :)

Now we can try it on the real hardware.

The next phase is to run ledspicer daemon and check if that profile is doing what it should do.

Just to be sure that ledspicer is not running, use this command:

killall -15 ledspicerd

Now run ledspicerd in foreground mode, so we can check debug data and errors.

ledspicerd -f

That command will launch the ledspicer service and keep the terminal busy displaying some debug data.
open Galaga with MAME, so we get the MAME output.
now open a second terminal and type this

emitter LoadProfile arcade/galaga

or

emitter LoadProfileByEmulator galaga arcade

emitter will ask ledspicer to run the Galaga profile.
At this point, you will see the P1_START element been controlled by MAME
To stop ledspicer just press CONTROL C on the terminal that is running.

Let me know the results.

Folly

@MeduZaPaT said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

@Folly I complete agree :)
anything we do, should be posted here for future use.

Perfect !

Based on your results, looks like the profile it is working fine, it passed the test

I agree, I think it should work now.
Although in my ledspicer.conf the default color is Green.
Not sure how this works but in the galaga.xml we use White.
Does that matter ?

I discourage running ledspicer with sudo, but is up to you :)

Sure, running without that should be the case.
However the when using the GPIO of the raspberrypi with your program the led doesn't blink using it without sudo.
Here you can find the information of that test.
Perhaps I need to add the GPIO to the user pi group.
Strange thing is that raspi-gpio will work without sudo
Will have a look at that later.

Now we can try it on the real hardware.
Let me know the results.

Edit :
Great !!!
It works ;-)
Will take some time tomorrow to see If I can add some more stuff to it.

Just as you said, I got it working with :

sudo ledspicerd -f

&

emitter LoadProfile arcade/galaga

or

emitter LoadProfileByEmulator galaga arcade

I looked again at the permissions and groups for gpio.
Seems pi is part of the gpio group, also is dialout as I read that has to be in it as well to use the gpio as regular user.
As raspi-gpio also works without sudo one would expect ledspicer would too.
Is your check ok in LEDSpicer-development/src/devices/RaspberryPiGPIO/RaspberryPi.cpp as this throws a failed to initialized.
(see that there is a typo should be failed to initialise)

Folly

@hopwon

Are you still around ?

Folly

@MeduZaPaT @hopwon

I added Player2 and P2_START to the ledspicer.conf and the galaga.xml.
I also assigned all green,red and blue from P1_START to GPIO 4 and P2_START to 5.
So now the full mame network output works and outputting it to two GPIO's.
I can confirm that MAME and lr-mame works and most likely lr-mess does too.
We are now at version 258.

I integrated ledspicer into RetroPie in a different way by using
(paste them in /opt/retropie/configs/all) :

runcommand-onstart.sh :

echo Load LEDSpicer deamon
#sudo ledspicerd -f &
sudo ledspicerd #edit : changed, see next post !

runcommand-onlaunch.sh :

# Get system name
system=$1
emulator=$2
rom=$3
command=$4
 
# rom_bn receives $rom excluding everything from the first char to the last slash '/'
rom_bn="${rom##*/}"
# rom_bn receives $rom_bn excluding everything from the last char to the first dot '.'
rom_bn="${rom_bn%.*}"

emitter LoadProfile $system/$rom_bn

runcommand-onend.sh

echo Kill LEDSpicer deamon
killall -15 ledspicerd

Would like to add some impulse / Blinker xml's too.
Tried some stuff but it did not work.
If I want to combine "mame imput" and "impulse" or "Blinker" xml's how do I do that.
Must I load multiple profiles with emitter to accomplish that ?

MeduZaPaT

@Folly said in Syncing button leds with gameplay:

@MeduZaPaT @hopwon

I added Player2 and P2_START to the ledspicer.conf and the galaga.xml.
I also assigned all green,red and blue from P1_START to GPIO 4 and P2_START to 5.
So now the full mame network output works and outputting it to two GPIO's.
I can confirm that MAME and lr-mame works and most likely lr-mess does too.
We are now at version 258.

Excellent news!

I integrated ledspicer into RetroPie in a different way by using
(paste them in /opt/retropie/configs/all) :

runcommand-onstart.sh

runcommand-onlaunch.sh

runcommand-onend.sh

runcommand-onstart.sh :
echo Load LEDSpicer deamon
sudo ledspicerd -f &
runcommand-onlaunch.sh :
# Get system name
system=$1
emulator=$2
rom=$3
command=$4
 
# rom_bn receives $rom excluding everything from the first char to the last slash '/'
rom_bn="${rom##*/}"
# rom_bn receives $rom_bn excluding everything from the last char to the first dot '.'
rom_bn="${rom_bn%.*}"

emitter LoadProfile $system/$rom_bn
runcommand-onend.sh
echo Kill LEDSpicer deamon
killall -15 ledspicerd

Good Work.
Just note that ledspicerd -f is only for testing,
What I mean is, the -f is not necessary for normal use (just ledspicerd is more than ok) but, while testing, gives nice debug output.
Also for normal use, when you get everything the way you want working, in the config, set LogLevel to Warning, so the log file don't eat too much space.
So change:

sudo ledspicerd -f &

with

sudo ledspicerd

I will check on my RPI how I did the permissions so the GPIO was accessible to the user and come back to you.

Would like to add some impulse / Blinker xml's too.
Tried some stuff but it did not work.
If I want to combine "mame imput" and "impulse" or "Blinker" xml's how do I do that.
Must I load multiple profiles with emitter to accomplish that ?

Paste the other plugins you need help with, I will fix the errors for you.

BTW, I am working on the dialog to add Input plugins right now :)

hopwon

@Folly Sorry, was tied up all week. Am back now and busy catching up. I can put some time in this weekend to work on this. @MeduZaPaT Thanks for joining in!

Folly

@hopwon

Sure, welcome back again ;-)

hopwon

@Folly @MeduZaPaT I have it nearly working but I think my issue now is network.
Following the instructions above, I have created the profile for the game, ledspicerd -p arcade/invaders works and produces output but nothing in game.
Whilst I have the game up and running, trying netcat (nc -v 127.0.0.1 8000) produces an error:

nc: connect to 127.0.0.1 port 8000 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

Running with -output console, I see the led0 & led1 in the runcommand.log.

I think this is a network rather than configuration issue. NC works if I set up a server on another screen (nc -l -p localhost) then run nc -v localhost, the command is accepted but no output fro mame.
I can confirm mame is running and the game is loaded OK.
Where to look now, any ideas?