R.M.A.F. Remap your buttons and configure autofire on any arcade stick!

[Arthrimus]

R.M.A.F.​

Re.Map.Auto.Fire.

Photos courtesy of jasenscustoms.com
The R.M.A.F. is a simple device that sits between your arcade stick's buttons and your controller PCB. It intercepts the button presses before they are sent to the controller PCB so they can be manipulated in a number of ways. The core features are on the fly remapping of any physical button (1- to any of the button inputs of the controller PCB, and individually programmable auto fire intervals for each physical button. These settings can be saved and recalled from any of the 8 available profiles, and the most recently used profile will be loaded by default upon power up.

The form factor is optimized for Brook boards with the 20 pin connector for button inputs. It stacks on top of the brook board and has a it's own 20 pin input header if you are using a 20 pin wiring harness, or something like the EZ Build PCB from Jasen's Customs. There are also screw terminal inputs for the buttons, if you don't use a 20 pin harness for your buttons.

If you are not using a Brook board with the 20 pin header, you will soon be able to purchase a breakout board that gives you screw terminals for all of the relevant inputs and outputs so you can connect the RMAF inline in any arcade stick.

This project is closed source and is currently being sold on my own site. You can purchase your own here!

Technical Info: The code is derived from the remapping and auto fire code that is present in my controller adapter projects, although this is a more refined and feature rich implementation. I've completely overhauled the timer system so auto fire speeds are more accurate than my older implementations.

• The code uses direct port manipulation for both inputs and outputs for the lowest possible latency.
• Outputs are configured as open drain. This is a safety feature that never allows 5v to be present on the output pins.
• Lag measures under .24 milliseconds from input to output. That's less than 1/66th of a frame in a 60fps game!

Instructions: Jasen's Customs was the exclusive distributor of the RMAF, and Jasen has put together a convenient graphical instruction set for the device.\

 

[meybarra]

I just ordered a couple earlier today. Looking forward to it

 

[djsheep]

Nice one!

 

[JasenHicks]

I'll tell you, I do love these little guys. @Arthrimus is a damned hero for designing them - the utility is beyond imaginable. I'll probably stream today or tomorrow (evening in Japan, morning in the US) installing one in my Panzer Fight Stick. If I wait until this weekend to do it, I'll just say F* it and build a new Panzer to put it in because you can't have enough fight sticks around to use (or in my case collect dust). Thanks to everyone who hit up the first wave last night. All orders shipped today, just please be mindful of the new shipping system I had to implement Link is on the home page.

This weekend Ill also be releasing a little helper board for these that breaks out the outputs of R.M.A.F. in case you want to use this with a non-UFB build (i.e. any stock arcade stick). They are done, I just need to find time to take some photos of them and post them up on the site.

 

[drfunk2k]

where to buy this? @ Jansens? site?

 

[JasenHicks]

Yes, Arthrimus linked it in the first post.

Jasen

 

[drfunk2k]

thanks i missed it reading on cell

 

[Arthrimus]

As you all may have heard, Jasen has announced that he will be closing his shop indefinitely after July 4th. This came as a shock to everyone involved including myself. With that said the R.M.A.F. will continue to be sold at Jasen's site until it's closure on July 4th, at which point any remaining inventory will be transferred to me to sold through my web store while I explore other distribution options.

In the mean time feel free to order with confidence through Jasen's store, I will answer any technical support questions here on this thread or in PMs if anyone has any issues. Sorry for any confusion that may have arisen due to these unexpected circumstances.

 

[Derick2k]

Awesome stuff as always brother and thank you for the work you put in to make stuff like this for our hobby. Will pick up a couple when I get a moment.

 

[8bitforlife]

this would be great in a candy or vewlix

 

[8bitforlife]

@JasenHicks did you ever finish the addon board and post it?

 

[JasenHicks]

I do have them, I just haven't listed them yet since I have been getting flooded with last minute orders before the official closing of the shop on July 4th. My photographer came over last week and took pictures of a ton of stuff, these included. I was holding off listing them until the photos were finalized but I may just list them without.

We still have plenty of RMAF in stock despite the mad dash over the last day and I think @Arthrimus would definitely prefer to not deal with the logistics of shipping any of these, so I would encourage ordering from the site since I have the infrastructure in place.

 

[Psyko-M1]

So I got one of the Arthrimus Brook to Vewlix IO converters, it's beautiful AF and works like a dream.
Would these shoe-horn onto one of those?

 

[JasenHicks]

Sorry for the rendering of the PCB only for the RMAF helper, but I have it up. I should have proper photos shortly. Basically, it serves as a little passthrough and validates you are getting proper power to the setup with an LED.

https://jasenscustoms.com/collections/arthrimus

I have the full bit of a power cable, feet, etc. too for easy one stop shopping.

 

[Arthrimus]

So I got one of the Arthrimus Brook to Vewlix IO converters, it's beautiful AF and works like a dream.
Would these shoe-horn onto one of those?

You can certainly do it but there are a few considerations if you do.

First of all the R.M.A.F requires a select and home button to be wired to the auxiliary harness of the Vewlix Console I/O. The R.M.A.F. needs combinations of start and select to be held simultaneously to enter button remapping mode, and combinations of start and home to enter auto fire mapping mode. You also need to be able to press and hold start, home and select simultaniously to change profiles or reset a profile to defaults.

Second is that the male 20 pin header is offset a few mm from it's original position on the Brook board. This means that the entire Brook board is shifted over a few mm so it no longer lines up with the mounting holes on the Console I/O. That's not a problem per se, but it means that you can't hard mount the brook board using the standoffs anymore.

 

[Psyko-M1]

So I got one of the Arthrimus Brook to Vewlix IO converters, it's beautiful AF and works like a dream.
Would these shoe-horn onto one of those?

You can certainly do it but there are a few considerations if you do.
WORDZ...

Thank you for the detailed pictures. I'll put these on my shopping list and consideration.

 

[RandomRetro]

Picked one up for my arcade stick. Super excited to get it hooked up. Thanks @Arthrimus and @JasenHicks!

 

[Arthrimus]

Hey guys, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am selling these on my website here. Actually I quietly added them to my website a couple of months ago, but I didn't announce them anywhere because of everything going on in my personal life, I didn't want to deal with the extra workload of selling these. Now I've finally got things together enough that I'm comfortable taking the extra orders so let this serve as an announcement that the R.M.A.F. is officially for sale again.

In other news, I have been having discussions with another arcade parts retailer about distribution in the future, but I'm not ready to reveal any further info at this time. For now you can purchase directly from me.

 

[WindyMan]

Hey guys, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am selling these on my website here.

I bought one and it's great! I've been wanting one for a while.

Just one question. What are the other headers on the board for? Is the two-prong next to the terminal is a power connection (5V I assume)? I would like to eventually hook up an LED for turbo activation. Are LED terminals supported?

 

[BroadwayJose]

@Arthrimus I have what appears to be a different potential use case for these and I wanted to get your feedback before I tried this out.

Rather than a console stick I would like to use this on a JAMMA cabinet. On this cabinet I already have a set of two Undamned USB decoders installed, although they are the old style with only terminal block connections. However there is a newer revision which supports the "standard" 20 pin header which is prevalent in many console PCBs these days, including the Brook boards this device is designed for. Here is an example:

Am I correct in my thinking, where I should be able to marry your device with the USB decoders through that pin header directly? I'm aware that the USB decoder already comes with a button remap feature but what I'm really after is a way to make this work on the arcade control panel. My setup currently is simultaneously splitting each signal between the JAMMA harness to the control panel and the USB decoders, which allows me to use either control option at any time. Each signal is live at the same time when the game is on.

FWIW, both of these boards fit perfectly together, no issues with connection:

If that doesn't make sense, do you think I might be better off wiring the JAMMA harness directly to R.M.A.F. through that 20 pin header and remove the USB decoders all together? I won't be too upset if the USB decoder doesn't fit into this design. I'm more interested in getting the remap features working on the arcade control panel more than providing a way to connect console controllers to the cabinet.

Either way let me know what you think. If needed it won't be a big problem to wire up additional buttons to simulate Select, Home, etc.