New 4 LEDs diy lightgun system (with line of sight aiming)

[Stremon]

Hey guys,

I finally finished my gun system, that allows line of sight aiming among many other things.
It works perfectly with MiSTer, you just need to switch the lightgun to joystick mode 3, and set your own screen aspect ratio.

It's a completely DIY system that you can do with any old lightgun shell, my Arduino firmware is completely free for anyone to use (except commercial use of course) and I intend to keep it that way.

Once it's connected and detected correctly, you shouldn't need the aim cursor anymore!

Here is the link with all the informations:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.p ... c=161189.0
The post is still a work in progress, it misses a lot of schematics and pictures.

Not sure if it's ok to link the other forum of I should copy everything here instead, tell me what's ok to do I will modify my post accordingly.

[onaryc29]

great work! Do you have a demonstration video somewhere. In your experience, how much is the total cost of the electronic involved in your system?

[Stremon]

great work! Do you have a demonstration video somewhere. In your experience, how much is the total cost of the electronic involved in your system?

Thanks! Yeah the videos are on the way, I just have to edit the rushes I took

For the total cost, it depends on the price you buy the old lightgun you want to mod. Should be cheap tho, I got mine for 5$ each.

For the electronic inside, here is the average prices of the parts:

DFRobot - 23.55$ (33.55$ with sending fees to Japan, not sure if the US sending is the same)
Atmega32u4 - 5$
3m USB cable - 6.5$
Electronic cables - 1$

I also added an optional solenoid and a rumble motor to each of my guns, of course you don't have to add them if you don't need:
24v solenoid - 10~20$ depending on the model
IRL540 mosfet - 5$
Power cable - 3$
Rumble motor - 1~5$ depending on the model
Various electronic components (resistors, diodes, transistors...) - ~4$
Corrugated tube to hide and protect the cables - 3$

So in total I would say around 46$ with the simple gun, and around 80$ for the full experience.

I'm using a DC 24V 4A power supply for my solenoids, able to power them all at the same time, which cost around 20$. But you might find cheaper options or salvage one somewhere else for free.

And if you really want to premium experience, I would recommend also the 3D printed clicky triggers by Magic Trashman on Twitter, they are improving the console lightguns feeling greatly

Edit:
I forgot about the LEDs system, it should cost you around 5$

[onaryc29]

that is a very good price

I have some questions :
* is it possible to use 2 guns at the same time?
* is it possible (or is it plan) to support real console? i m thinking about ps1, saturn and dreamcast.

[Stremon]

that is a very good price

I have some questions :
* is it possible to use 2 guns at the same time?
* is it possible (or is it plan) to support real console? i m thinking about ps1, saturn and dreamcast.

Yes, you can use 2 guns at the same time
For the real consoles, I want to add support for ps2 and Xbox, because I know they are possible, but I haven't figured them out yet.
For the Saturn and Dreamcast sadly it won't work, they don't support USB, and won't work any way because of the different way they work.

[onaryc29]

i love lightgun games but i never check the different technologies used. I think the person developing the snac board managed to make dunk hunt work without led on a lcd (i imagine that only the white square surrounding the target count whether it is on a lcd or a crt, well more or less ).

I thought all lightguns use the same tech...

[Stremon]

i love lightgun games but i never check the different technologies used. I think the person developing the snac board managed to make dunk hunt work without led on a lcd (i imagine that only the white square surrounding the target count whether it is on a lcd or a crt, well more or less ).

I thought all lightguns use the same tech...

Most lightgun working on CRT use the same base principle, detecting a white flash of light on the screen, sync to the CRT scan.

They all have different ways to handle it, the Zapper only detects white square to know if you hit the target, but more advanced guns use the CRT screen scan to know where the gun is aiming. For instance, the Saturn uses the console precise timing to figure out where you are aiming on screen, but the Guncon1&2 use a sync signal stripper and calculate everything themselves before sending the raw coordinates to the PSX/PS2 (that's why it's easier to emulate).

The snac is just a direct communication protocol to let the core communicate directly to the peripherals like the zapper, I don't think it will work on LCD, since no LCD have 0 latency, and the timings would be off.
But of course I could be wrong, maybe he found a way? can't find any info on that anywhere.

[Stremon]

I just made a major update to this lightgun system, it's not beta anymore, if anyone want to test it

[redsteakraw]

Interesting project is there any input lag? What is the maximum polling rate supported?

[Stremon]

The input latency has been measured as between 3 and 7ms (depending of the modes you use) but mostly stabilize around 5ms.
On a crt it's as fast and precise as the real thing
It's totally in another league compared to aimtraks and wiimote
Of course it's mostly focused on people who play on lcd, on crt normal lightguns will always be simpler to setup.

And by the way, I just finished making a new settings UI for it:



Edit: I forgot to mention, now you can also connect a Wii nunchuck to the gun to have extra controls

[Sigismond0]

i love lightgun games but i never check the different technologies used. I think the person developing the snac board managed to make dunk hunt work without led on a lcd (i imagine that only the white square surrounding the target count whether it is on a lcd or a crt, well more or less ).

I thought all lightguns use the same tech...

The only way to get Duck Hunt to work on an LCD is to either A) have a zero-frame lag LCD, B) hack the ROM to show the white square for the duration of your LCD lag, or C) using a different/modified light gun . A is implausible, B is what LCDMOD does, and this idea falls under C.

I haven't been able to find any references on what you're referring to with the SNAC developer making it work on LCD, but I suspect it falls into one of those categories.