Hardware

Hardware is the inventory of devices available to this cabinet. Register a device here before you bind it in the Cabinet map or use it in controller routing.

Development status

The current development build can discover connected hardware, identify supported live pointer or motion input, store local device identities, register a logical type and primary player, and browse the inventory in Cards or List view.

Hardware does not map gameplay controls or assign LED channels. Cabinet owns the logical deck and its bindings, Controllers owns button mapping and feel, and LED owns lighting outputs.

Find connected devices

1. Open Hardware.
2. Select Find devices.
3. Leave Hide infrastructure on for a cabinet-focused list. Turn it off only when you need to inspect PCI devices, USB hosts, network adapters, and other system hardware.
4. Use Search, Player, Status, and Family filters to narrow the results.

The Status filter separates devices already In cabinet from New or Needs review results. You can view the inventory as Cards or List.

Identify a moving device

Use Identify device when several similar pointer or motion devices are connected:

1. Start the 20-second listen window.
2. Move the spinner, trackball, wheel, mouse, or lightgun pointer you want to identify.
3. ArcadeStudio selects the matching discovered row when it sees activity.

Caution

Keyboard and button-board HID capture is not part of the Identify listener in the current build. Find those devices in the discovery list and review their identity manually.

Register or configure

Select a discovered device, then review:

• Friendly name — the cabinet-facing device name.
• Logical type — such as spinner, trackball, arcade encoder, gamepad, lightgun, wheel, or pointer.
• Primary player — the player that primarily owns the device, or Unassigned.
• Calibration preset — the stored calibration starting point for supported devices.

Select Register device to add it to this cabinet. Reopen a registered device to update its configuration or remove it from the cabinet inventory.

For a two-player encoder board, register the physical board once and choose its primary player. Split its per-player input routes later in the controller and card-routing layer.

Review device identity

ArcadeStudio combines several identity sources. The current lookup order is:

1. Local identity overrides
2. USB database
3. PCI database
4. Arcade definitions
5. Heuristics or fallback

If a receiver has a generic name or only its vendor is known, select Review identity. Enter a clearer vendor or product name, choose Remember identity locally, and save the identity. The local correction is stored separately from the built-in databases.

Device cards show classification, logical type, source, VID/PID when available, and a confidence score. Review ambiguous or low-confidence classifications before registering them.

Continue the cabinet setup

Registration makes a device available to the rest of Studio; it does not finish the cabinet configuration.

1. Open Cabinet and bind the registered hardware to players and controls.
2. Select Save cabinet so LED, Overlay, and Publish can consume the map.
3. Open Controllers to configure gameplay mapping and feel.
4. Configure any lighting channels in LED.
5. Use Publish when the saved cabinet is ready for ArcadeServer.

Publish copies saved state. Unsaved Hardware or Cabinet edits are not made live by publishing.

Next: Controllers or Getting started.