Official FA Sparky PWM RGB LED Controller Thread

Tech Talk
1

Hey all,

Most players in Tech Talk are familiar with the works of Eugene Andruszczenko (aka 32Teeth), the creator of the highly programmable Sparky PWM RGB LED Controller. With his blessing to work with this open source project, and the help of Paradise Arcade, we now offering a great version of this product at Focusattack.com. It is shipping today and worldwide for just $32.95.

Purchase the Sparky RGB LED Controller at focusattack.com

What is the Sparky?

For those who aren’t familiar with the Sparky RGB LED Controller is a programmable RGB LED companion light up activation controller for pushbuttons on gaming fightsticks. The controller allows you to create unlimited color combinations through varying levels of red green and blue, along with changing colors upon a combination of button press. It allows you to program lighting patterns either manually through specific button combinations, or via the “Configurator” - a multi-platform application that gives you total control over your color transitions.

http://www.focusattack.com/product_images/o/159/sparky-pwm-2a__89871_zoom.jpg

Sparky PWM Features

Among other features the Sparky PWM has the following:

[LIST]
[]Ability to display the full spectrum of color through RGB LEDs
[]Support for 6 or 8 button configurations
[]Ability to map color to specific buttons or button combinations (ie assign Red to Light Punch, Blue to Medium Kick, or Orange to Focus Attack (MP+MK))
[/LIST]
While the Sparky PWM itself isn’t new, the redesigned Sparky comes with 2 wiring harnesses to ease installation across buttons:
[LIST]
[]5-wire RGB and ground harness
[*]16-wire power and .110 quick disconnect harness for buttons
[/LIST]
To make the installation a solder-less experience, we currently include 34 wiring connectors. The connectors allow you to insert wires into the ports to replicate an electrical connection. Four per button are provided, plus one for each of the power connections for total of 34 connectors (8 x 4 plus 2, or 34 total).

Programming the Sparky PWM

The “Configurator” is a Windows and Mac OS X compatible application that interfaces with your joystick’s LEDs through its USB port. Once connected, the application lets you choose your schema (button or button combination), then choose the color you want. You can also choose fade/fade out options. Once completed, the action is displayed on your button LED directly on your controller. You can download it on the Sparky website.

http://sparky.32teeth.org/downloads.html

So what is the point of this thread?

This thread is meant to address questions you might have regarding the redesigned Sparky PWM, plus how to program your Sparky to it’s full potential. Several experienced builders will visit the thread to post notes, videos and answer some questions regarding both units. These people include
[LIST]
[]32Teeth - creator of the original Sparky PWM LED Controller has offered to post helpful notes once he gets the new Sparky.
[]armi0024 - founder of **Paradise Arcade Shop has expertise in many types of LED installs and components.
[*]Nerrage **- well known and respected member of SRK’s Tech Talk team and founder of the non-profit organization Sticks for Joy.
[/LIST]
And of course, you. We definitely welcome any feedback and helpful answers that you can give to players that ask questions here. We hope that this thread may complement the existing Sparky PWM thread here on SRK.

Resources

Related YouTube playlists
[LIST]
[]Focus Attack Uila LED and Sparky PWM
[]Sparky Jr RGB LED Controller
[/LIST]
Original Sparky RGB LED Controller Thread on SRK

Thanks for reading!

2

I should be getting mine this week to test and install.
Expect a few things from me.
Review, video, how to hack the device and more.

3

So I was hoping to get a little bit more specific information about programing my new sparky. To be perfectly honest I’m pretty novice when it comes down to it, but i’m def not an idiot and consider myself a fast learner and overall pretty savvy. I was hoping you could break down step by step what I’m going to need to do to customize my LED’s in an 8 button layout. Thanks in advance.

4

My FA Sparky PWM turned up the other day. I’m going to install it into my RAP VX-SA this weekend. I’m pretty much ready to roll, with Seimitsu buttons, Uila S LEDs and a FTDI cable to program it. But I was just wondering as I’ve never done anything like this before. Do I use the VCC and Ground on the usb to power and ground the Sparky?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3370/hrap3vxpcbedited2.jpg

Thanks.

5

Bookmarked. I’m looking into venturing into the world of LED’s for one of my sticks, and this will be a great asset.

Thanks.

6

I am not familiar with the Hori PCB you posted, but in short, yes. You can use those point from the USB to supply the Sparky with power (VCC/GND). I would recommend using the pin 4 GND as the pin 5 GND may just be a shielded ground.

If it makes more sense for your wiring, us the VCC from the USB and the GND from the joystick directions pins. There are no pins in between. But hey, thats just would be my style of wiring.

Lastly, if you really want to keep it clean, you can always use one of those empty capacitor headers (C3, C8, C13), the VCC is indicated with a + and the other point will be ground. But since i can’t see whats on the other side not sure it’s the best.

7

Yes.

8

Cool, thanks a lot. I’ll give it a go this weekend.

I’ve found a shot of the front of the board. Posted by Nerrage. I think the other shot was JDM714.

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/7481/vxsapcb.jpg

9

I’m about to install my PA sparky. Figured I would post my simple wiring diagram see if any body sees any errors in it.

(Changing wiring due to error, sorry if anybody used this) please do not!

10

I just got my sparky pwm smd. I’m not very familiar with led boards,and I had it installed by gummowned. How do I program the led’s? I’ve been reading about something called a ftdi cable? Can someone please point me in the right direction. I downloaded the configurator, but don’t know where to go from from there. Thanks

11

I think this is what you need for the PA Sparky PWM… at least I hope because its what I got to program it.

12

Has the Uila LEDbeen tested on the new clear sanwa buttons? I am waiting for someone to chime in on compatibility. I thought I read 32 TEETH was possibly working on an LED specifically for the new clear sanwas.

13

Current Uila will not work with the Sanwa.
The LED get in way of the Plunger to be pressed.

14

Hey all,

Thanks for chiming in and asking questions. We’re reviewing them and will have answers for you soon.

15

Finally there’s a thread for this stuff. I have been thinking about doing LED for awhile now but did not have enough resource to know what I’m doing. This will come in handy.

16

I just got mine and have set it all up but I think I may of done something wrong, will it light up at all before I’ve programmed it?

17

So, first off, it has been a really humbling experience for an open source creation to be picked up and adopted by other individuals. In this case, Jaleel from FocusAttack and Brian from Paradise Arcade.

Jaleel sent me one of these bad boys for review. Got mine yesterday (been away for a while) and i plan to do several reviews as well as guides. I am not going to reserve posts in this thread, rather i will continue to edit this one.

Here we go.

Paradise Arcade / FocusAttack Sparky Jr review
part one (the basics)

Again, thanks Jaleel for sending me an evaluation version. As a heads up, i will be using the ArcEyeII for this implementation (mostly because i don’t have UILA) and i have an abundance of ArcEyeII already installed in several sticks.

Here is a close up shot of the FA/PA Sparky Jr

In the photo above, you will notice thread header pin breakouts.

Far left is the pinout for an FTDI breakout to plug into. If you are unfamiliar with an FTDI breakout, you can get one here (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10008). This is the one i used in this review since i couldn’t find a USB-B cable this morning (LOL) to plug in a SparkPlug (http://sparky.32teeth.org/#SparkPlug).

The FTDI breakout is used to reprogram the existing code on the chip. The chip ships with the Sparky code (http://sparky.32teeth.org/downloads.html) V2.0, and the Arduino bootloader. If you want to upgrade to the 3.0 you can do so grabbing the code from the link and uploading yourself using the Arduino 1.0 IDE found here (http://code.google.com/p/arduino/wiki/Arduino1). Arduino 0.22 IDE is here (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software)

Connecting an FTDI breakout
Method 1: By Wire

These 6 pin wiring harnesses are readily available from shops like Sparkfun, Adafruit, Macetech, Robotshop and so on. They are pretty dirt cheap and available in varying length.

In one of my fightsticks i use a 15" version as the Sparky sits near the other PCBs and the FTDI is mounted inside the cable enclosure. This allows for plug and play reprogramming or using the configurator.

Method 2: Direct

You would do this method in a few instances. Program once, close the case, forget about it.
Or if you don’t want the extra wiring harness and such, but you will need to open the case if you want to reprogram.

Here is a video of me uploading the Sparky v3.0 Code to the PA / FA Sparky
[media=youtube]v-vBTLxhnsI[/media]

The PA / FA Sparky Jr comes with 2.0 pre installed. No harm. You can still use the 3.0 configurator with this install. (We just made it happy that way!)

important
if you are updating or reprogramming the Sparky using the Arduino IDE, you will want to select “Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (5V, 16 MHz) w/ ATmega328” from the boards menu under tools. You see it quickly in the video above.

In this next video, we launch the Configurator (from uncompiled source) to demonstrate that it picks up the COM ports, and is able to communicate with the Sparky. The TX/RX LEDs on the FTDI breakout light up, indicating that information is being passed back and fourth.

[media=youtube]k_-TjS9nOK4[/media]

If you had this hooked up to some ArcEye’s or UILA’s you would see their buttons light up accordingly.

That’s it for now as a starting point for the review.
In the next few reviews we will:
[LIST=1]
[]show you how to "hack" the bootloader (if you wanted to)
[]hook this little bad boy up to the actual controller and LEDs
[/LIST]
Thanks Jaleel! Be sure to check out his shop for the PA / FA Sparky Jrs.
http://www.focusattack.com/sparky-pwm-smd-led-controller-pcb/

18

Where you guys doing a video on connecting to a TE?

19

Ok maybe someone can help? I have the sparky pwm from focus attack. I picked up a ftdi breakout http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716. I hooked it up to the sparky via usb to config via the config program. When I try to make a selection where it says select port, I have no ports to select from?

20

Did you install the drivers from the product page? http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716