Pixelcade LED Software Guide for Windows
Download and install the Pixelcade LED Marquee software for Windows (free). Note this installation will also install the free version of LEDBlinky which is required for integration with arcade front ends and run a one time setup utility for your particular Arcade Front End.
You should also have your respective Arcade Front End installed (GameEx, Big Box, HyperSpin, CoinOPS, etc.) installed prior as the installation will include a wizard to configure your Arcade Front End for Pixelcade.
- Power on your PIXEL board with the included 5V power supply. IMPORTANT: Only use the included 5V power supply. Do not use a 12V power supply or you will damage the board.
- Plug the board into your PC’s USB port using the included USB A-A cable.
- Ensure the toggle switch on the board is pointing towards “USB”, it will not work if it’s pointing towards “BT”.
- Your board will show up under Windows device manager in the Ports section as either PIXEL-LED (Windows 7) or USB Serial Device (Windows 10).
- If you’re on Windows 7, you’ll need to install the PIXEL LED board driver manually, it’s located under \driver, instructions here
Windows 7 – Requires manual driver install
Windows 10 & Windows 11 – PIXEL board will be auto-detected on Windows 10 and 11/ no separate driver installation required.
Follow all the setup prompts which will include selecting your respective Arcade Front end and answering some questions and confirming your Arcade Front end folder location. The installer will make the needed changes to your Arcade Front End configuration files automatically but you may also refer to this guide if you want to make them manually or for troubleshooting.
Once the install has finished, launch the Pixelcade Listener (pixelweb.exe). Note that the Pixelcade board will be auto-detected and you don’t need to specify the COM port. This program must always be running while the LED marquee is in use and the installer will add pixelweb.exe to your startup-folder.
The listener will launch minimized. Open the window and ensure you see “Established Connection” and the PIXELWEB LOGO which means the board is successfully communicating with your PC.
Let’s now test and ensure Pixelcade is communicating with your PC correctly. Choose “Pixelcade Companion & Settings” to browse the Pixelcade artwork.
Select any image and it will display on the Pixelcade LED marquee.
Choose “Browse Images”
Pixelcade has been tested with the following Arcade Front Ends:
- HyperSpin
- CoinOPS
- Launch Box and Big Box
- Game Ex and Game Ex Arcade Edition
- Maximus Arcade
- MaLa
Use the Pixelcade Arcade Front End Setup Wizard to configure. If you are using multiple front ends, just run the “Pixelcade Front End Wizard” again to configure the additional front end(s).
Select your desired Arcade Front end and follow the prompts to configure it for Pixelcade. The wizard will automatically make the needed configurations but you may also refer here if you want to configure manually or for troubleshooting.
Note that the paid version of LEDBlinky includes additional features like scrolling welcome text on start-up, updates on screen saver events, and scrolling text when existing the front end.
You can use the following special keywords (each keyword must be surrounded by tilde character).
~game~
~system~
~date~
~time~
For example:
Now Playing ~game~
Advanced video from Maverick’s Arcade on how to Configure LEDBlinky and Pixelcade. The Pixelcade installer takes care of the default installation but go here for more options.
Known Issues and Work Arounds
Pixelcade Companion can be used for Artwork Updates but note this will fail on some computers.
If you are getting this error after clicking the “Update / Install Artwork” button
Then instead, use the “Pixelcade Artwork Updater” shortcut instead and note that you’ll need Internet connectivity.
Pixelcade Companion does not have the ability to write the default marquee at this time. The default marquee is the animation (the default is a slideshow of arcade marquees) that runs while your Arcade PC is booting. When the Pixelcade Listener starts, it will take over control and the default marquee will no longer be running. Once the Pixelcade Listener is exited, the default marquee will loop again. To set a default marquee, choose “Write Default Marquee”
and then follow the guide here.
Optional Command Line Options
The Pixelcade installer will add Pixelcade (pixelweb.exe) to your Windows start-up folder to run automatically when Windows starts. If you want to further customize Pixelcade, you can add the following command line parameters to the startup command.
Usage of ./pixelweb:
-b string
optional bind address (default “0.0.0.0”)
-check-artwork
check Pixelcade artwork for updates. Exits with code 0 if no update available, 1 if update is available, 2 if directory does not exist, 3 if unknown error.
-d string
path to pixelcade device. Set to auto to scan for device. On Windows use COM# (default “auto”)
-debug
debug log level
-delay int
time (in seconds) to delay device init
-devicescan
scan for device if not found or not specified with -d (default true)
-font string
default font for text (default “Arial Narrow 7”)
-fontcolor string
default font color for text (default “red”)
-fontcolorrandom
random default font color. Overrides -fontcolor
-fontsize int
default font size for text (default 28)
-fuzzy
enable fuzzy matching for images
-image string
optional image to display on startup (default “mame/pixelcade.png”)
-install-artpack string
install art pack with license code
-install-artwork
install Pixelcade artwork to pixelcade root. Exits with code 2 if artwork already installed.
-logfile string
optional log file
-nointro
skips playing the startup text and logo. Screen will be black on startup.
-p string
path to pixelcade root (default “/userdata/system/pixelcade”)
-port int
optional port to listen on (default 8080)
-progress-stdout
print progress output as stdout only
-startup
startup mode
-swapbluegreen
swap blue and green. Only needed for certain panels.
-system-image string
optional system image to display on startup. Overrides -image
-text string
optional text to display on startup (default “Welcome to Pixelweb”)
-trace
trace log level
-update-artwork
install Pixelcade artwork to pixelcade root
-version
display the version number