Sinden Troubleshooting

First Things to Check

• Make sure the Sinden software is running and the Start button has been selected, closing the software will stop the gun from working
• Check the border is up - the border is needed at all times in order for the gun camera to position the shots correctly in real time during gameplay

Multiple Monitors

Full Multi Monitor setup guide

1. First you need to figure out the total width of your combined monitors in pixels - in this example this is 1920 + 1920 + 1280 = 5120
2. Then you calculate the ratio for the monitor you're going to be playing on - in this example this is 1920/5120=0.375
3. That's your X Ratio on the cursor offset tab - We recommend entering this in the custom 1 row on the bottom left
4. The X Offset depends on which monitor you're playing on - in this example we will be using monitor 2 so we need to basically skip the first monitor which is 37.5 (note this is basically the number from the Ratio times 100)
   1. if we was using monitor 1 to play, the offset would be 0
   2. if we was using monitor 3 to play, the offset would be 2 * 37.5 = 75
5. Through trial and error with different games, you'll figure out which ones need the X Offset and X Ratio to be set... it's easy to switch between values using the custom buttons

Guns with Same ID

If you have two guns with the same ID you will need to reflash the firmware on one of the guns. This can be done within the Sinden Software from v1.06 onwards

• Highlight the lightgun you require to change and hit the 'Select' box
• Select a new ID from the bulleted list (Red-Blue-Black or Player2)
• Hit the 'Update Firmware' button

READ THE WARNING and DO NOT UNPLUG YOUR GUN

Note You may need to manually reinstall the Windows driver.

Guns with Same Camera ID

Sinden Software 2.07 has the ability to handle 2 guns with the same Camera ID.

• NOTE: Follow these instructions if you have 2 guns with the same Camera ID and need to change one of them.

Jitter

Normal Jitter

Small amount of jitter around the cursor is normal, which happens because of your natural arm movements. This will not affect gameplay and turning off in-game crosshairs is recommended.

Abnormal Jitter

Excessive jitter or shaking of the mouse can be can be caused by several things:

• Border is not displayed N.B. The border is needed at all times in order for the gun camera to position the shots correctly in real time during gameplay
• Light in the room
• Standing too close to the TV or monitor
• The monitor or TV is too dim
• Suboptimal Sinden Camera settings (Contrast, Brightness, Exposure)

Reducing Jitter

Let's get some default settings that should work for you. These values are just a starting point. Adjust these settings (Contrast, Brightness, Exposure) until you get near to no jitter.

1. Open up Sinden Software
2. Go to Configure tab
3. Set Contrast to 60, Brightness to 120, and Exposure to -7 to -9 (range is -5 to -9)
   

1. Make sure that the Anti jitter option is disabled. It's known to cause jitter issues to worsen.
2. Select the Border tab > Enable Primary Border Color (RGB 0-255) to 255-255-255 and Enable Outer Border Color (RGB 0-255 ) to 0-0-0-0 and change the Percentage Width to 4 for both of the Enable Border settings.
   

1. Let's start up the Sinden light gun and turn the border on.
2. Go back to the configure tab and turn on the "show raw video"
3. Step back from the TV/monitor, so you are about 1.5 to 2 times the size of the monitor or TV
4. If you get the following that the display isn't bright
   

1. If you raise the value to 230 on the brightness setting. You start to see the outline of the monitor from the camera view. This IS NOT the best way to fix the brightness.

1. To fix this problem
   1. Check windows brightness is 100%
   2. In your monitor or TV settings, check its brightness, should always be 100%
   3. Still in your monitor or TV settings, check that it is not on Eco setting. You might need to change it to Gaming Mode.
   4. If you get the following screenshot. You are standing extremely close to the display. You will need to take a step or two back away from the display

1. If done correctly, you should get it looking like the following picture below.

1. Once it is working like above, change some settings one at a time, like border to 2 - 2; if this works, then you can keep lowing the border till it stops working.
2. NOTE! If you have a window in the room you are using, the lightgun in the settings might change due to how bright of the room.

Lightgun not responding

Some emulators cause the light gun not to respond while in Windows, it works correctly.

To verify if it's the emulators or Windows that is causing the problem, test on the Windows system desktop. If you can move the cursor around the desktop correctly and left-click on icons using the trigger, as well as right-click (offscreen shoot or pump handle) to bring up the menu, then the gun is functioning correctly, and you can rule out any hardware or compatibility issues.

If the gun does not respond on the desktop, there can be several causes of this so try the following:

• Click the Stop button and then click the Start button to restart the gun. If that still doesn't work, Click the Stop button & unplug the light gun from the USB port. Then plug it back into the USB port and click the Start button.
• Keep getting an "unhandled null reference exception" when you click either of the start or stop buttons after the computer has been in sleep mode? That can be caused by the power save options. Disable power save in the BIOS and Windows system settings. In Windows 10, disable the “USB selective suspend setting” in the Windows Control Panel’s Advanced Power Settings.

Unhandled Exception Errors

If you get Unhandled exception errors when you first try to start the gun, check the following:

• Make sure Visual C++ and .NET Framework have been updated.
• Delete the software completely from your system and reinstall a fresh copy.
• Some people have reported conflicts with Afterburner and NZXT Cam software. If you use either of these, please try closing them.
• Check that camera permissions are enabled on your computer; they need to be enabled for Windows to allow the gun to use the camera. You can access them in the Camera portion of the control panel settings in Windows 10 or type "Camera Privacy" in the Search bar on the bottom menu.

• If you are running Bluetooth (BT) on your system, this has been known to interfere with the gun. This issue is believed to be fixed as of V1.5, but if you do have an issue with it, you can check by disabling the Bluetooth controller in the Windows Control Panel and unplugging any BT devices from the system. Be sure to restart the system and then try again. If you do find this fixes the issue, please contact an Admin on the Discord with the info about your BT adapter.
• Unplug all extra usb devices, especially wireless keyboard and mouse USB dongles.
• Try different USB ports and connect the lightgun directly to your PC (i.e. no hubs).
• Adjust your Window's USB power settings.
• Try using a different version of the Sinden software => v1.08, v2.07, etc.
• Upgrade the Sinden firmware if it is on an older v1.6 firmware. Do not stop the software or unplug the gun during the firmware upgrade process.
• Test your lightgun on another PC making sure you have followed all of the steps above.