>> RASPBERRY PI - X-ARCADE MAME JOYSTICK - UPGRADED

A lot of people have been interested in the Raspberry Pi X-Arcade MAME joystick.

Just over a year ago when the Raspberry Pi 2 was released; I wrote up a blog entry on converting my X-Arcade joystick into a self contained MAME machine - unfortunately at the time I did not really finish it completely. I still had to deal with shutting down the unit properly to avoid corruption to the file system on the SD card and I wanted to tidy up a few things to make it travel friendly.

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Step 1: Install a more universal power connection
In the first edition; the means of powering the unit was via a 5V 2A power supply that I had lying around from my evangelism days at BlackBerry - it was hanging out the back and not friendly for non EU countries. I definitely had to make it more universal!

I eventually went with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) C14 coupler connection - the same ones used for desktop monitors and printers so they are very easy to find at your local computer store. Internally; I used the original charger what I already had and keep it simple.

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Step 2: Install a push-button for proper shutdown process
The Raspberry Pi's operating system is based on Linux; and there are tonnes of references to discussions about how the file system gets corrupted on power outages - not fun. Typically; in Linux you would issue a command to properly shutdown the device - not just pull the plug.

A few solutions exist; but using a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) isn't an option in this case nor would you want to fiddle around with extra batteries. The easiest solution is to simply add a push button that triggers the appropriate shutdown commands while it is powered on.

I wanted a push-button trigger - so I drilled a hole in the top near the power LED and installed one like this one - cheap as and will do the job perfectly. I found an excellent python script that uses the python package RPi.GPIO to monitor the state of a GPIO PIN and execute the shutdown command when the button is pressed.

It has two wires that then need to be connected to a GPIO and GND on the Raspberry Pi 2:

In my case; I checked in the pin out of the Raspberry Pi 2 and chose to use PIN 17 and GND as they were next to each other nicely on the board. I also had to modify the script slightly to work for this setup - as shown:

• #!/usr/bin/python
  
  import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
  import os
  
  gpio_pin_number=17
  GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
  GPIO.setup(gpio_pin_number, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
  
  try:
      GPIO.wait_for_edge(gpio_pin_number, GPIO.FALLING)
      os.system("sudo shutdown -h now")
  except:
      pass
  
  GPIO.cleanup() 

I saved this script into the home directory and called it shutdown-trigger.py and made it executable - the next step was to verify that it actually worked before integrating it into the startup process. The last thing you want is to mess something up and have difficulty getting back into your system.

• $ chmod +x shutdown-trigger.py
  $ ./shutdown-trigger.py

At the time of when I setup the Raspberry Pi 2 - the RPi.GPIO library did not yet have support for the device, so the system as it was configured back then said the RPi.GPIO library was not supported by the device. After googling around I found that all that was needed was to update the operating system and library to the latest version.

• $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get upgrade

After upgrading - no error messages. A press of the button. VIOLA! The system shutdown correctly.

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Step 3: Configuring the system to always monitor for the shutdown button
Now that I had verified that the script works - it is time to add it to the system so it is always running in the background at startup. The PiHut has a great tutorial on how to make this possible.

• #!/bin/sh -e
  #
  # rc.local
  #
  # This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
  # Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
  # value on error.
  #
  # In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
  # bits.
  #
  # By default this script does nothing.
   
  # Print the IP address
  _IP=$(hostname -I) || true
  if [ "$_IP" ]; then
    printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
  fi
   
  /home/pi/shutdown-trigger.py &
   
  exit 0

With these changes in place; a simple reboot and we can verify that everything is working as it should. In my case; I could start it up - play a few games and then simply press the button to shut it down. After a few seconds; the LED light goes off and the HDMI display disconnects.

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Step 4: Setting the default volume to 100%
While playing games on my TV I did notice that the volume wasn't as high as it should be over HDMI (in fact, it was only 25%). I did some searching and came across the ALSA amixer command and changed the .profile file to set the volume before launching mame.

• # set the volume to max and start mame
  amixer cset numid=1 -- 400
  /home/pi/mame/mame 

You may have to see what works for your particular environment and configure it appropriately.