I don’t know if this has been mentioned before but I had a bit of a crazy idea.
Have you guys ever seen those lights that strobe to the music that’s being played? would it be possible to have a controller that is wireless from the system but then you could wire it to your audio/home audio setup so that the lights could be aware of the audio being output out of the system? That way it’d still only be one connected wire instead of two.
I guess you could make it all wireless but that would be even more complicated. is this possible? would it be possible to fit all needed components in an arcade stick?
they wouldn’t even have to strobe all the time, there could be a switch or different settings, it would just add the the features and complexity of what the LEDs could do.
That sounds nice Panzer. However it would be even more interesting if the leds somehow strobed according to punches/kicks (via rumble function). I think someone has done that but I can’t remember who it was.
Anyhow the master of mods would have to be programmable OLED screens used inside clear seimitsus… I had done a small research but couldn’t find any company selling such stuff.
Lol… thats one tall order… probably easier to make a board with a mic on it, and strobe based on that… interfacing with an external audio setup would have to be through a PC and quite a specialized project… I think the controller Bencao is thinking about will allow pre-programmed patterns… maybe he can look into the possibility of a PCB mounted mic to strobe to whatever sound it hears?
OLED may be possible, but it might make the button un-usable. The reason being is weight (unless you install an extra spring). For my translucent plungers, i couldnt go with a completely solid disc because it made the button heavier and less responsive. I had to make cutouts to reduce the weight… also, with OLED, there would also be wires that have to run to it, and they will get in the way when the screen is going up and down during button press… not sure how they addressed that in the optimus keyboard…
Considering the amount of effort you put in the Arc-Eye Purplearms, I’m very happy you are replying seriously to my crazy ideas !!! The weight issue, I can’t really say since I didn’t find a possible candidate. The cable issue could perhaps be more easily ammended. I was thinking sth in the vain of a small bore hard plastic tube although that’s a speculation. Have you done any research on this topic? Do you know any particular screen model that could potentially be used? I’d be interested to wet my feet (so to speak) in such a project…
I wanted this mod since ages If you connect the audio out directly to a led, then the quite sounds can’t be heard. Oki, so we need kind of a transistor circuit to solve this problem -> Master Strike
I`ve saw a mod with a 2222A transistor, but the ones in Master Strike should do this job, too.
Connect Emitter to LED Cathode,
Connect Basis to plus pole of audio out (add here perhaps a resistor about 330ohm if you try this circuit outside Master Strike)
Connect Collector to minus pole of audio out
Provide 5V to LED Anode
Connect GND to collector
Now the LED lights up even on quite sounds. For Mic this circuit should work too. But perhaps some more sophistacted ICs like LM318 is needed…
I try to help… lol… Yeah i had the OLED idea too…My gouken joystick barely has enough room for master strike as it is… haha… OLED screens on the optimus are rectangular… these buttons would require something round, so custom housing is needed to fit a rectangluar/square screen, and also needs to serve as the button cap… then theres the question of how do you program / control / power it… The optimus keyboard requires USB connection and DC power… just far too impractical and costly right now. Perhaps one day when OLED technology matures, becomes more portable and affordable…
There you go… an answer straight from the master modder
Hmm, with this set up even the slightest sound (even line noise) may end up lighting the LED full bore… want a neater idea?
Use the DC biasing scheme that you see in audio amplifiers, they have DC biasing to hold the transistor in a linear region so that any signal (audio specifically) will be transformed and amplified by the VCC line connected to the collector, following the linear region of the transistor.
Obviously this doesn’t require quite the considerations of a quality amplifier…but the benefit is that you’ll have the LED follow the amplitude of the audio. A little sound = low glow, someone screaming in rage from a bullshit loss = Christmas tree
It’s more tricky, and requires DC biasing of a transistor circuit, but you could just nab a general schematic for one. National instruments software actually has amplifier wizards built in I believe, but that’s an advanced software. You could find an easily built schematic in any tutorial on amplifiers.
Whether or not the master strike could do this is up in the air, but with a few parts this is definitely doable.
lol yeah I wasnt’ trying to sound like a demanding child, I think what you guys are doing already is mind blowing, I was just trying to get more creative ideas flowing.
and yeah, it doesn’t have to plug into an external audio source, I was just trying to think of another real way for the lights to interact with you besides button presses.
pre-programmed, canned light sequences are cool, but real time dynamic responses are awesome, so yeah, having a mic installed would be tight.
but yeah, no demands, I’m just trying to do my part to come up with more ideas to make these light mods the most awesome experiences ever.
thanks for actually responding to my post with serious thought
oh hey purplearms, since its getting near shipment time for arc-eyes, i was wondering if i was suppose to request for stronger resistors now or was everything already accounted for from our conversations? Also anybody got some brightness comparison pics of the arc-eyes running at 10ma versus the usual 20ma?
I will try to run some tests and post some pics before that… the funny thing is that 1/8 watt resistors are hard to find here, but I do know where to get SMT resistors… are you comfortable soldering those?
I should be getting them the first week of April… Will keep everyone posted!
Hey guys. Just an update. Arc-Eye manufacturing is complete. Right now i’m waiting for shipment of resistors and other parts. I anticipate will be in my hands during the week of April 5 (I will mail out pre-orderes ASAP as soon as I receive them). Almost there!!!
Here’s some eye candy for everyone to enjoy. Mind you these were taken on my cell phone.
Stick #1Video 1|Video 2: Leds light up red on activation and all light up red when rumble goes off (only on 360). This required diodes to be added since the same color was used for both activation and rumble.
Stick #2Video: Leds light up blue on activation and all light up red when rumble goes off (360 only). This didn’t require diodes because sperate color channels were used.
Lol im excited as well ^_^… im actually modding another stick just so i can past the time until i can get these babies into my own personal stick… Huzzah for progress =D
Well 360 only isn’t entirely correct. It will only work with controllers that have rumble motors. In the case of my sticks, they were only the 360 ones since they were using the madcatz pcb. For the ps3 side they were using chimps which don’t have rumble. If you were to be using a 360 TE then of course you couldn’t have rumble since the 360 TE pcb doesn’t have rumble either. You would have to us a sixaxis if you want the light up on rumble for ps3.
those were some awesome videos, I’d love to see color progression like where the farthest left buttons are yellow, then going right the next ones are orange, red, violet. etc.
If you connect the audio out directly to a led, then the quite sounds can’t be heard. Oki, so we need kind of a transistor circuit to solve this problem -> Master Strike 
