chadmoe1 Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 Hi, I am excited to use Launchbox -- awesome interface, and so far it has worked great. I plan on installing 2 LED controllers to control lights on my control panel buttons. I intend to use the LEDBlinky software. Has anyone done this successfully with Launchbox? LEDBlinky works with other front ends, but I haven't been able to find anything specifically for Launchbox. Forum searches (arcade control form and google as well) have yielded no results. I can't be the only one trying to do this! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 Hi @chadmoe1, welcome. You might actually be the first, as I've yet to hear of it, believe it or not. I'll have to do some research; are you looking to configure it from within LaunchBox/Big Box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadmoe1 Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 Thanks for the quick reply! The software works with Ultimarc's led controllers, and my hope is to set it up to control button led color based on game selected (for example, only light buttons used in certain game, only light controls of players selected). The software has plug-ins for various other frontends and some general instructions for generic frontends, but nothing for Launchbox. I plan to reach out to the software creator as well. Your software has a great interface and is really simple to setup, much more so than other frontends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 Thanks @chadmoe1, sounds great. I might need to add plugin support to make this happen, which has been on my plate for a while but I just haven't tackled it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadmoe1 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Jason Carr said Thanks @chadmoe1, sounds great. I might need to add plugin support to make this happen, which has been on my plate for a while but I just haven't tackled it yet. @Jason I started playing around with LEDBlinky and Launchbox and it appears that LEDBlinky needs the front end to launch an external application (LEDBlinky app) and pass parameters. Can Launchbox do this? If so, how? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 Hi @chadmoe1, depending on exactly what it needs, it might work. LaunchBox can automatically run "additional applications" before or after games are run. Command line parameters are customizable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadmoe1 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Awesome @Jason this is good to know. I believe LEDBlinky needs to be executed upon startup of Launchbox and then needs to pass game information to the program when a game is started. Is there documentation on how to run commands in Launchbox? Is there a way to run a command when Launchbox starts (so I don't have to start and stop LEDBlinky each time I run a game)? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 Unfortunately right now there's no way to launch an app on starting LaunchBox. Also, additional apps require separate configuration for each game, so that's probably not a good solution either. You might be able to use the platform-specific AutoHotkey scripts as a better solution if you want to figure out the scripting, but from what it sounds like, it still won't be perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacto Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Hi guys, First I would like to thank you Jason for your work! LaunchBox/BigBox are simple, beautiful and useful. That's a really good job! I'm now using BigBox on my arcade cabinet. But I have two requests for you :) The first one is about LedBlinky support. I have a PacLED64 board to handle my LEDs (www.ultimarc.com/pacled64.html). It's working with LedBlinky. It's quite easy to add LedBlinky. Ideally we need to choose in LaunchBox the path to LedBlinky.exe Then, when LaunchBox starts, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe 1". When LaunchBox stops: "LEDBlinky.exe 2". When a game starts: "LEDBlinky.exe ". When a game quits: "LEDBlinky.exe 4". All commands are at the end of this document: http://www.ledblinky.net/Install.htm I didn't lied when I told that it's easy :p The second request is about UltraStik 360 support (http://www.ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html). It's an analog joystick. But for some games, it's good to change its configuration to just handle 4 or 8 ways, else it's really difficult to play :( The good news is that it's as simple as to add LedBlinky support :) We have to first set the path to "ultramap.exe" in main configuration and set a default configuration file. When LaunchBox starts, it will call "ultramap.exe .ugc" Then for every emulators and every games, we could set a file map that LaunchBox will call when the emulator is start: "ultramap.exe .ugc". You have some examples at the end of this page ("Running from the Command Line"): http://www.ultimarc.com/ultrastik_prog.html As an example, for Mame, I will launch by default "ultramap.exe 8ways.ugc". But for PacMan on Mame, I want to launch "ultramap.exe 4ways.ugc". And for some games I will launch a special configuration ""ultramap.exe .ugc". So this is important to let the ability to choose the config file name for every emulators / games. I hope you will add those features. It would be awesome, especially as my arcade cabinet is not fully working without these 2 features. If you need some more informations or a alpha/beta tester, I'm your guy :) Thank you sooooo much :) Adrien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 It sounds like you could already do some of these by using the additional apps feature. You could easily set up any game to run LEDBlinky.exe and tick the run before main application box same with the LEDBlinky.exe4 and tick run after the main application box. It also sounds like if you wanted to play Pac-Man or any other game that used the 4way Joystick that you would just add ultramap.exe 4ways.ugc as an additional app to run before and then set it to run the 8 way config after you close out any 4way game. The ones that you want to automatically run when LaunchBox starts wouldn't work the same way. The LEDBlinky thing would be a pain in the ass though because you would have to do for every game. The joystick one would be very doable though (in theory). I'm hoping that Jason will add a way to add global additional apps which would allow you to set settings for either all games or a set of selected games at one time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacto Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Thanks for the tips DOS76 :) At worst I could use the additional app feature for sure. But it would be really easier (and complete) if it was integrated directly in LaunchBox :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Agreed but sometimes you have to work with what you got at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jking3 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Just wondering if LEDblinky official support is in the beta yet? Or does anyone know how to get this working or can point me to a youtube of it working? Back end story - I'm trying to decide what front end i'm going to using, new build. Hyperspin, gameex or LaunchBox. I'm leaning towards Launchbox, especially with the consistent updates happening. But I think LEDblinky is going to be important once I get my PacLED64's.... Just checking before I buy a license. Thanks. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Hi @jking3, welcome. Unfortunately LEDblinky support has not been added yet. I just added a ticket for it here: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/337/add-ledblinky-support I'm not really sure the timeframe as to when it will be added, but it is planned. I am doing my best to implement the features with the most requests first. Feel free to vote up that ticket at that link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacto Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 jking3: I totally recommend you to use Launchbox. It is for me far far ahead from the others frontend. You can make Ledblinky works as said @DOS76 but you have to configure each game to start and stop Ledblinky. It's a huge work and I gave up hopping @Jason will add Ledblinky support. So @Jason, I vote 100 times for this feature. My arcade cabinet is waiting for you :) And please please, don't forget to add Ultramap support at the same time, it would be awesome!! For new people that read this message, don't forget to vote for ledblinky support here: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/337/add-ledblinky-support Adrien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Additional app method worked I thought it would. Now you need either direct support of LEDblinky or Global Additional App settings for platforms where you could set an additional app and have it apply to all games in that platform Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jking3 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 batco, Totally agree. Just getting into this, I have played around with HyperSpin and RL for a few weeks. Its obviously very extensible, but the configuration and utilities scope creep is just out of hand. Too many tools needed for simple configurations, xml manipulation, database cleaning, etc. This is where Launch Box really shines. @Jason Carr- LEDBlinky has such a following in other front ends, and led control hardware that I think you will see a large bump in your license sales if you get this added, and along with adding it on the LEDBlinky webpage of supported front ends. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arzoo Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Hey all, I'm the dev for LEDBlinky. Just want to clarify one thing - LEDBlinky needs the name of the ROM or game passed as a parameter for the "game start" command. For example; ledblinky.exe {romname} . It also helps if LEDBlinky is sent a "game quit" command when the game is quit and control returns back to LaunchBox. I'm more than happy to work with the LaunchBox dev(s) to help with integrated LEDBlinky support. Contact me via email if you wish. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacto Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Hi Arzoo, That's good to see you working on that :) When LaunchBox starts, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe 1", so we can define an animation when we are on the frontend. When LaunchBox quits, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe 4" so we can stop any animation. When a game starts, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe ". When the game stops, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe 4", so we stop the game animation and load the frontend animation. Then, when LaunchBox starts, you need to execute "LEDBlinky.exe 1". When LaunchBox stops: "LEDBlinky.exe 2". When a game starts: "LEDBlinky.exe ". So we can define on Ledblinky side an animation for each game / emulator. When a game quits: "LEDBlinky.exe 4". Thanks for all. If you need some informations or test, just tell me :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arzoo Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Bacto said Hi Arzoo, That's good to see you working on that :) Sorry for any confusion but I'm not working on anything - I just offered my help if the LaunchBox developer wished to add LEDBlinky integration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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