Blamcon Manual – Getting Started Guide

Overview

With your IR light bars set up, let’s check some of the requirements before plugging in your Blamcon lightgun for it’s first use.

Power Requirements

Your Blamcon lightgun has a few specific power requirements for operating correctly.

Most importantly, the device requires a steady 5v 500ma power supply, which is standard for USB ports. When idle, the current draw is relatively low at 65ma. However, many feedback components will be activated during gameplay, such as the addressable LED, rumble or haptic motor, and the solenoid.  The current draw will increase depending on which components are activated, and which settings you have configured. For example, in our testing with the latest components and the rumble setting configured to Max output, the measured current reached 130ma, far below the USB standard of 500ma.

If your Blamcon has a solenoid or recoil action, it must be powered separately using a 12v power supply. Blamcon lightguns come standard with a GX16 6-pin cable that allows you to plug in a 12v adapter to power the solenoid.

USB Ports

Home PCs are usually designed to provide different USB ports to support various types of hardware. Typically, you’ll see USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, and you need to know which your computer supports. The older USB 2.0 ports have a lower data transfer rate and lower power output, which only supports up to 500mA.  In some cases, depending on the components you have installed, using this type of port may not work with your Blamcon, as the port cannot support the required current draw during gameplay and will likely result in the device restarting and disconnecting. The newer USB 3.0, SuperSpeed, ports have faster data transfer rates and higher power specs supporting up to 900mA. Our testing has proved that USB3.x ports are the most reliable.

USB Hubs

Blamcon may not work correctly with passive pass-through USB hubs because they split your USB power between all connected devices. Powered hubs are generally more efficient and can support more devices without performance loss.

USB Power Settings in Windows

Windows Power Management profiles will configure its ports to reduce power usage by putting devices to sleep. This can negatively affect the operation and performance of your lightguns. It’s recommended that you disable these power settings specific to your USB ports.

There are two settings you should consider disabling:

  1. USB selective suspend setting
    1. Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > USB settings > USB selective suspend setting > Disabled > OK
  2. Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power
    1. Control Panel > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click on each device > Properties > Power Management (tab) > uncheck (disable) Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power > OK

Using your Lightgun for the First Time

To use your Blamcon lightgun, there are only a few steps:

  1. Plug it in and power it up
  2. Test the operation
  3. Calibrate your Blamcon

Start by plugging in the USB type-A plug into a supported USB port. If you have a lightgun with a solenoid, you can power it with a 12v adapter and connect it to your GX16 cable using the barrel plug.

You can quickly test a few basic operations once the lightgun is powered up. Start by pointing your lightgun at your screen. The cursor should move around with the movement of the lightgun. If the cursor doesn’t move, then start by checking your IR light bars are set up and powered correctly. If you have a solenoid, try pressing the trigger to activate the recoil. You can activate the onboard menu system by holding the B button for 4 seconds. This will cause the LED to illuminate, and you’ll feel the rumble motor activate. You can exit the onboard menu by doing the same action and holding the B button for 4 seconds.

You will notice that the cursor tracking will not be accurate at this point, but it should move the cursor around the screen. The next step is calibrating your Blamcon lightgun with your home set-up. There are a few ways to accomplish this task: using the onboard menu system or our Advanced Remote Console (ARC) desktop application. ARC is a free desktop application that you can download on Steam. We recommend using ARC because it will be helpful for other operations like changing configuration and settings, testing input functions and feedback components, checking your IR LEDs, upgrading firmware, and more.

Troubleshooting

Please read through our Troubleshooting guide to help answer common questions and identify or diagnose issues with your Blamcon lightgun.

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