Getting started

Installing LedManager is a single installer: download, run, activate. Five minutes, tops.

Before you begin

You will need:

a working RetroBat installation;
the APIExpose plugin installed and running — it feeds game data to LedManager;
the .NET 8 Desktop runtime;
an LED panel: a wired Raspberry Pi Pico (see Hardware) or a compatible board (see External LED boards).

Installation

Download LedManager-Setup.exe from the releases page.
Run the installer: it installs the plugin into RetroBat\plugins\ and registers the EmulationStation start hook — you get:
```
RetroBat\plugins\LedManager\
```
Start RetroBat as usual: LedManager now starts automatically with EmulationStation.

What does the hook do?

The installer simply registers this file on the EmulationStation side, without touching anything else in RetroBat:

emulationstation\.emulationstation\scripts\start\LedManager-start.bat

Check that it works

When RetroBat starts, your buttons should light up after a few seconds (the Pico needs time to initialize). Browse the systems: colors change with each system's panel. Launch an arcade game with lamps (e.g. seawolf under MAME) to see native outputs come alive.

If nothing lights up, head to Troubleshooting — the first reflex is to check the COM port in PicoCommandSender.ini.

Stop or uninstall

Action	How
Stop LedManager (and its senders)	Double-click `stop.bat`
Remove the automatic startup	Double-click `uninstall-es-start-hook.bat`
Uninstall completely	Remove the hook, then delete the `LedManager` folder

Updating

To update, replace the folder contents with the new archive — back up your customized .ini files first.