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Configuration

Two .ini files drive everything, each with a precise role:

File Role In one sentence
LedManager.ini The conductor What to display and who to send it to
PicoCommandSender.ini The hardware adapter How your board understands the orders

Graphical tools are coming

A visual configuration tool is planned. Meanwhile, this page covers the settings a user actually changes — the rest can stay as it is.

LedManager.ini — the orchestrator

Declaring your senders

Each physical panel (one per player, for instance) is a sender:

[CommandSenders]
Default=P1
Global=GLOBAL

[CommandSender:P1]
Name=Pico Player 1
Enabled=true
Player=1
Executable=PicoCommandSender.exe
Arguments=daemon --ini "PicoCommandSender.ini" --sender P1
StartupDelayMs=18000

The setting worth knowing: StartupDelayMs gives the Pico time to initialize at startup. If your LEDs light up late, resist shrinking it too much — a Pico that is not ready ignores commands.

Routing players and targets

[PlayerRouting]
1=P1
2=P2

[TargetRouting]
MATRIX1=GLOBAL
STRIP1=GLOBAL

Cabinet-wide effects (score matrix, strips) go to the GLOBAL sender, player panels to P1/P2.

PicoCommandSender.ini — your hardware

The serial port

[Serial]
Port=COM3
BaudRate=115200

Port is the first setting to check after installation: open Windows Device Manager and find the COM port assigned to your Pico.

Your panel

The [Hardware:P1] and [GPIO:P1] sections describe buttons and wiring — see Hardware.

The color policy

Not every LED renders every color faithfully. [ColorPolicy] lets you allow, deny or substitute colors without recompiling anything:

[ColorPolicy.Fallbacks]
GOLD=YELLOW
PURPLE=VIOLET
GRAY=WHITE

Here, if a game asks for gold, the panel shows yellow instead. GRAY is the canonical name for grey; BLACK means off.

Adapting to another LED program

LedManager does not know your hardware's final protocol: it fills in text templates defined in [CommandTemplates]. To drive another program, you only change those templates:

[CommandTemplates]
SetSlot=SLOT {slot} {color}
Flash=FLASH {target} {color} {durationMs}
All=ALL {color}
Clear=CLEAR

Available variables: {slot}, {target}, {color}, {durationMs}, {value}, {text}, {player}, {system}, {rom}… Integration methods are detailed in External LED boards.

Customizing a game or a system: overrides

Want Rainbow Road colors for Super Mario Kart? Create a sparse patch — only what you change goes in it, everything else keeps coming from APIExpose and its updates:

overrides\systems\snes.json          → every SNES game
overrides\games\snes\smk.json        → just Super Mario Kart (wins over the system)

{
  "schema": "ledmanager.panel-override.v1",
  "slots":   { "1": { "color": "GREEN" }, "2:3": { "color": "RED" } },
  "outputs": { "VR1 Lamp": { "slot": 1 } }
}

"1" = player 1 slot 1, "2:3" = player 2 slot 3; outputs keys are the game's output names (arcade lamps). The plugin's overrides\README.txt contains full examples, and the LedManagerSetup app will generate these files for you.

During a game

A few useful behaviours (no setting required):

  • when a game starts, the system panel is memorised (snapshot);
  • ingame effects are targeted overlays; an OFF on a button restores it from the snapshot;
  • after 2 seconds without activity, the system panel is restored;
  • START and SELECT live their own life, independent of buttons B1–B8;
  • MAME lamps keep their own state: a panel restore never relights a lamp the game turned off.

Ingame effects: default.mem.effects.json

Reactions to game moments (life lost, boss hit, coin collected…) are described in default.mem.effects.json, at the plugin root — an editable catalogue, no code involved:

  • Family rules (genericRules): one rule per family of moments (resources.lives, scoring.collectibles, combat.enemies…) — it applies to every game, no per-game mapping.
  • Effects: flash_restore, sweep, pulse, sparkle, health_feedback, matrix_score… with targets (ALL_BUTTONS, STRIP1, RANDOM_COLUMN, MATRIX1), colors, durations and anti-spam (throttleMs).
  • Game color: when the event carries its own color (arcade score deltas: 1944's orange plane…), it wins over the rule color — the effect takes the tint of the destroyed target.
  • Per player: events carrying a player index are routed to that player's panel (playerField), otherwise to GLOBAL.
  • Layers (effectLayers): ingame effects live above the game panel and below alerts — every source has its priority, nothing gets clobbered.

Example: golden flash on every treasure

In genericRules, the inventory.items family triggers a golden sparkle on ALL_BUTTONS + STRIP1 with automatic restore: grab a key in Zelda or an emerald in Sonic and the cabinet sparkles — two games, zero configuration.