LEDBlinky Support

[xantari]

@arzoo Thanks for the quick reply. I sent the debug.zip to the ledblinky support email since it contained my reg key and other info. 

Thanks for the FE button help in the controls editor. I completely missed it!

[xantari]

@arzoo Figured it out. On FE Options tab, if "All LEDs" is marked for "Button Flash" then that behavior exists.

What is that option meant to be for?

[arzoo]

It was a feature I added early on to quickly flash any FE button as it's pressed. But quite often it causes issues because the LED hardware can't keep up with the rapid commands (although your symptoms seemed different). I've considered removing it because it causes so many problems. Anyway, glad you got things working!

[johnstewart]

On 8/22/2017 at 1:47 PM, johnstewart said:

Done! We shouldn't post these publicly because they contain license information, right?

During the debug test, I fired up BigBox (which fires up LEDBlinky), ran Robotron, quit, ran SmashTV.

DOUBLEJOY8WAY was among the input codes for JOYSTICK_2, so during both games, Joy2 lit up. But none of the other joysticks did.

In the controls editor, I also tried Import > MAME Games, then importing both robotron and smashtv. They do import, and I see that P1_JOYSTICKLEFT_UP and P1_JOYSTICKRIGHT_UP are both listed under "Control" (along with others), so it seems that LEDBlinky is recognizing that those controls are part of Robotron (and SmashTV):

In GenLEDBlinkyInputMap, port label JOYSTICK1 is configured with input code JOYCODE_1_UP:

 

... but only the joystick with DOUBLEJOY8WAY (joy2) ever lit up.

 

 

I just saw a notification on this thread and realized I hadn't updated.

My problem ended up being that I didn't have all the input codes mapped correctly in GenLEDBlinkyInputMap. I went through each button in turn, clearing the existing settings and setting the correct ones.

All works great now!

[pattonthompson]

I’ve set up Launchbox + LED Blinky + MAME without a hitch before.  However, I switched to retroarch mame core because there’s a particular RA shader I love.

Curious if setting up LED blinky for controls for each game is possible with retroarch mame core?  

Problem is I can’t figure out how to generate a mame.xml or mame.cfg using a mame retroarch core?  Anybody know how?

[arzoo]

2 hours ago, pattonthompson said:

I’ve set up Launchbox + LED Blinky + MAME without a hitch before.  However, I switched to retroarch mame core because there’s a particular RA shader I love.

Curious if setting up LED blinky for controls for each game is possible with retroarch mame core?  

Problem is I can’t figure out how to generate a mame.xml or mame.cfg using a mame retroarch core?  Anybody know how?

LEDBlinky doesn't care which version of mame.xml you're using - so you can generate the file with the standard mame.exe. One thing I will mention is later versions of mame will generate very large mame.xml files which can slow down the LEDBlinky startup. The next release of LEDBlinky will address this issue by minifying the mame.xml (just for LEDBlinky's use).

[pattonthompson]

That worked perfectly.  I set up MAME separately from retroarch then pointed LED Blinky to those files as you said and it works perfectly.  I do notice a bit of slowdown on startup otherwise it runs great.

[Headrush69]

I have LEDBlinky working fine, but have an issue where some roms pass "unique" emulator and rom values.

I assume Launchbox just passes the following command on a game start:

Quote

LEDBlinky.exe <rom> <emulator> 

If that is true, where does Launchbox take these values from? (Emulator name, platform name and the rom name?)

I ask because every so often a rom passes a different emulator name.

Here is a sample from my LEDBlink debug log:

Quote

ATARI_2600|BERZERK_(USA)
_TARGET_FUN_(USA)|AIR-SEA_BATTLE_

    SEGA_32X|PITFALL_-_THE_MAYAN_ADVENTURE_(USA)
_KNUCKLES'_CHAOTIX_(JAPAN,_USA)|CHAOTIX_

First example is 2 Atari 2600 games, and the second is 2 Sega 32X games. You can see in the second example for each, a different emulator name is passed in.

I can make specific entries in ControlsEditor for these to "hide" the problem, but checking and auditing all my roms would be a lengthy task.

Here is the full debug log for the second Sega 32X game:

Quote

[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Event Completed: FE_START
[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Event Started: EMULATOR_SELECTED [Sega_32X] []
[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Emulator: [SEGA_32X] 
[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Event Completed: EMULATOR_SELECTED
[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Event Started: LIST_SELECTED
[07-31-2019 18:23:23] Event Completed: LIST_SELECTED
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Received Event - Queue:[1] Msg:[9~Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)~Sega_32X].
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Event Started: EMULATOR_SELECTED [ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)] []
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Emulator: [_KNUCKLES'_CHAOTIX_(JAPAN,_USA)] 
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Event Completed: EMULATOR_SELECTED. Fast Load.
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Event Started: GAME_SELECTED [Chaotix ] [] [Sega_32X]
[07-31-2019 18:23:34] Event Completed: GAME_SELECTED
[07-31-2019 18:23:36] Received Event - Queue:[1] Msg:[3].
[07-31-2019 18:23:36] Event Started: GAME_START
[07-31-2019 18:23:36] ROM/Game: [CHAOTIX_] Controls: [OTHER-DEFAULT]

Has anyone else seen this or is there a way to debug the ledblinky output Launchbox is sending LEDBlinky?

 

Solution: Turns out this was rather simple once I looked at it better. The ~ character is used to by LEDBlinky to separate message fields. These problem roms had ~ in their filenames which throws LEDBlinky's parsing off since it interprets the ~ in the filename as a separator. SImple fix, change the filename.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Headrush69
Solved

[skylesjk111]

I was struggling to find an acceptable way to get LedBlinky to work with Steam games.  I read responses on this forum but I never saw a real answer.  I thought I would post my solution in case it can help someone else.  First off,  I am not a computer programmer and know almost absolutely nothing about the topic.  I can however use google search and then trial and error.  If there is a better way to do this I would love to hear it.  I created an autohotkey script that runs after the main application.  This script forces LEDBlinky to start the user defined layout for your game.  When you are done, you press (in my case p) a button to tell LEDBlinky to go back to the LaunchBox active layout.  The script is below.  This is for the game towerfall.  The path is unique for each game.  The general script would be   run, E:\ledblinky\ledblinky.exe <rom> <emulator>  and you need to insert the appropriate rom and emulator name.  If you wanted to use a different button to exit the app just change the p in the line ~p::.    In order for this to work you have to create a game specific layout in the LEDBlinky controls editor (there are lots of videos on how to do this).  Anyway hope this helps someone.  If there is a better or easier way let me know.  

#NoEnv
#Warn
SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
#SingleInstance Force
run, E:\ledblinky\ledblinky.exe towerfall_ascension windows
~p::
run, E:\ledblinky\LEDBlinky.exe 4
ExitApp

[donkbaca]

So I have gotten everything to work EXCEPT I am using an Xbox 360 controller and LEDBlinky will not light my LT/RT buttons.  Any suggestions?

[skylesjk111]

I guess I was unaware that LED Blinky could interface with an Xbox controller.  I also don't remember my Xbox controllers having light up left and right buttons but maybe I'm wrong.  

[arzoo]

10 hours ago, donkbaca said:

So I have gotten everything to work EXCEPT I am using an Xbox 360 controller and LEDBlinky will not light my LT/RT buttons.  Any suggestions?

LEDBlinky does not support direct control of Xbox controllers.

[donkbaca]

I have the Xbox 360 controllers driving my cabinet control panel. Not lighting up the controller. I have a led wiz to light the buttons. 

 

I mapped all the buttons in the set up based on the button ids from windows, but when the games launch, for whatever reason, all my buttons light except the ones that are mapped to lt and rt.

 

I am running the latest Mame. In previous versions of Mame, the buttons were labeled as “button 1, button 2, etc” now, when I hit tab in Mame to set up my controls, they list the actual Xbox button, “X, Y, A,B, etc...”. Previously when everything in MAME was button 1, etc. the panel lit with no problem. Now that Mame recognizes the Xbox buttons, my X, Y, A, B buttons al light, but my LT, RT don’t.  So LEDBLINKY/Mame understand that button one is X, and it lights button one, but it doesn’t understand that button 3 is RT, so that doesn’t light.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by donkbaca

[Line]

8 hours ago, arzoo said:

LEDBlinky does not support direct control of Xbox controllers.

@arzoo

This is the same issue I reported back in May at the byoac forums:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,73905.msg1686622.html#msg1686622

To overcome this I set a single frame animation for the FE. Only issue with this is the leds all flicker when scrolling through the games in LaunchBox, as it transitions between animations. (Does not happen with ”light FE controls”)

https://imgur.com/a/D3bfuzv

Hope you will reconsider how LEDBlinky parses the LaunchBox control files for those of us using XBOX controller mappings + LED controllers.

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Line

[arzoo]

9 hours ago, arzoo said:

LEDBlinky does not support direct control of Xbox controllers.

Let me clarify, LEDBlinky can't light any buttons on the xbox controllers.

[arzoo]

1 hour ago, Line said:

@arzoo

This is the same issue I reported back in May at the byoac forums:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,73905.msg1686622.html#msg1686622

To overcome this I set a single frame animation for the FE. Only issue with this is the leds all flicker when scrolling through the games in LaunchBox, as it transitions between animations. (Does not happen with ”light FE controls”)

https://imgur.com/a/D3bfuzv

Hope you will reconsider how LEDBlinky parses the LaunchBox control files for those of us using XBOX controller mappings + LED controllers.

 

I guess I'm confused here, if you're using an xbox controller with LB or mame, what buttons are trying to light up?

[Line]

Some of us are using hardware pcb boards like the Brook Universal Fighting Board, or others are using software like x360ce to make our control panels to look like an Xbox controller in windows. This gives us greater compatibility with current PC titles and emulators. We just sync up the LED controller to match the buttons & layout as usual.

Currently we cannot get the LaunchBox FE active lights to illuminate for triggers, the Xbox guide button, joysticks and trackballs. Additionally only Player 1’s lights illuminate For the FE Active controls.

Hence the need to use the single frame animation.

Jason is currently implementing XBOX guide button support in the beta branches.

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Line

[arzoo]

9 hours ago, Line said:

Some of us are using hardware pcb boards like the Brook Universal Fighting Board, or others are using software like x360ce to make our control panels to look like an Xbox controller in windows. This gives us greater compatibility with current PC titles and emulators. We just sync up the LED controller to match the buttons & layout as usual.

Currently we cannot get the LaunchBox FE active lights to illuminate for triggers, the Xbox guide button, joysticks and trackballs. Additionally only Player 1’s lights illuminate For the FE Active controls.

Hence the need to use the single frame animation.

Jason is currently implementing XBOX guide button support in the beta branches.

 

Thanks for the clarification. So just to confirm, the issue is only with lighting the FE buttons?

Edited October 2, 2019 by arzoo

[Line]

Player1 FE buttons bound to A, B, X, Y, RB, LB, Left Stick, Right Stick, Back and Start will illuminate. 
 

The Left Trigger, Right Trigger, Guide button, joysticks (or d-pad) and trackball (mouse) will not illuminate. Nothing from P2 and higher will illuminate from FE controls.

I was able to get the other joysticks / buttons / trackballs illuminated like normal in MAME, Emulators and PC games by modifying the xmls.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Line

[arzoo]

7 hours ago, Line said:

Player1 FE buttons bound to A, B, X, Y, RB, LB, Left Stick, Right Stick, Back and Start will illuminate. 
 

The Left Trigger, Right Trigger, Guide button, joysticks (or d-pad) and trackball (mouse) will not illuminate. Nothing from P2 and higher will illuminate from FE controls.

I was able to get the other joysticks / buttons / trackballs illuminated like normal in MAME, Emulators and PC games by modifying the xmls.

LEDBlinky uses the BigBox settings.ini to determine the keyboard codes for the FE controls and also if joysticks and trackball are enabled as FE controls. It's possible there have been changes to the format of that settings file since I last worked on the LB integration which is why some of the buttons are not lighting up. Please email me your BigBox setting.ini file and I'll look into this.

I recall looking over your debug log back in May to see what's going on with the button flicker when using a single frame animation to light the FE controls. Could you email me a more recent debug.zip and I'll give it another look. Thanks.