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Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:31 pm
by Tagnetti
Hey guys, I am close to defeated on this project. I started with an original PacMan cabinet and it had a 60 in 1 board. In my infinite wisdom smh. I decided it would be a brilliant idea to get a new control panel with a trackball and 3 fire buttons from Mike’s arcade and in the process upgrade to a 412 in 1 game elf. So I did that. Then I was frustrated with limited control over the games and then actually playing weird in several instances and thought ArPiCade after doing research.
I learned a couple of things quickly. I do not have power flowing through the original Jamma harness so everything is powered separate including the pi3b etc. and I mean I bought all the kits and all that to make it easy.
It’s not. I finally got the ArPiCade working and I’m happy overal until when working on the monitor the entire control panel fell and ripped the wires out of my new control panel so firebuttons don’t work because I was told to cross out a jumper on my pi to Jamma adapter well that rendered the wires I had just soldered useless. So now I have a stick that works and buttons 1 and 2 for fire and start. That’s just what I had from the outset of this project. I am so frustrated and I also got an ultimarc USB adapter for the trackball. Plugged it in and while in the CLI something is recognized when I move the ball but in ArPiCade. Nothing.
So I am ready to just go back to what I had in the beginning and forget it. Does anyone have an idea of how to get the trackball to register on ArPiCade. Mind you this all worked on my Game elf and now I feel like an idiot for taking on this project.
I mean I’ve edited configure files to get property rotation and such but if I can’t get the trackball to work I’m bailing.
Oh and I’ve even been soldering stuff to get it to work. It’s just become a nightmare and I’m hoping someone can walk me off the ledge as I’ve learned a lot and want to get it to work, but I’m at the end of my rope.
Thanks
Tom
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:01 am
by gt7766c
Hang in there. This is a pretty detailed and complicated hobby when you realize what’s going on here.
With that said, I have an ultimarc trackball with USB adapter that works with my Arpicade.
First off, check the usb connections. Make sure it’s plugged into the pi usb before turning the game on. It has to be plugged in first.
Load up centipede and go into Mame settings and make sure the analog controls are set to see and use the trackball.
If that doesn’t work I would get out my voltmeter, and see if I can see voltage at the pins on the connector.
Hopefully that helps. Don’t give up! Step back. Do some YouTube and internet searches as well if you haven’t. Good luck!
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:05 am
by dee2eR
If it's working on the command line it should just be config to make it work elsewhere.
Does the trackball work in Attract-Mode (the game select menu)? You should be able to scroll up/down the game list with it.
If it's working in the menu it should work in MAME 172, 203 & AdvMAME (106) without doing anything except possibly setting up the controls in MAME. Some games could have had the controls modified to work on joystick and will need setting back to the trackball. The Retroarch based emulators won't work with the trackball on the default ARpiCADE settings (some can work if you modify various settings), don't worry about them for now.
If not, not knowing the config changes you have or haven't made (or for that matter the software version you're on) I'd recommend starting with a fresh copy of ARpiCADE (ARpiCADE is just the name of the Linux distro, not any one piece of software).
One other thing that could be an issue: do you have a keyboard plugged in that has a mouse in it? if you have more than one mouse involved it can cause the trackball to become the 2nd mouse causing config issues with the default settings.
I don't understand
the entire control panel fell and ripped the wires out of my new control panel so firebuttons don’t work because I was told to cross out a jumper on my pi to Jamma adapter well that rendered the wires I had just soldered useless.
but I'm sure it's fixable if it's just wiring. I or someone else may be able to help with it if you put a photo of it up.
What stuff are you soldering? My experience with Ultimarc trackball + OptiWiz was solder free.
EDIT: this recent thread may help too:
viewtopic.php?f=20&p=6342#p6342
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:06 pm
by Tagnetti
gt7766c wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:01 am
Hang in there. This is a pretty detailed and complicated hobby when you realize what’s going on here.
With that said, I have an ultimarc trackball with USB adapter that works with my Arpicade.
First off, check the usb connections. Make sure it’s plugged into the pi usb before turning the game on. It has to be plugged in first.
Load up centipede and go into Mame settings and make sure the analog controls are set to see and use the trackball.
If that doesn’t work I would get out my voltmeter, and see if I can see voltage at the pins on the connector.
Hopefully that helps. Don’t give up! Step back. Do some YouTube and internet searches as well if you haven’t. Good luck!
Thank you for the encouragement. My issue in part, is everything I had learned about Retropie was with its default set up and not taking into account the customization of ArPiCade. So when I go into my SD card, things are not the same in regards to tips on making sure certain config line items are present and enabling things etc.
So it’s been a bit of a challenge there as I’m not sure, what if anything I need to manipulate outside of the normal cfg or sh files stored on the boot directory. I mounted the image and took a look deeper but didn’t want to screw something up.
I will do as you suggested. Thanks
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:15 pm
by Tagnetti
dee2eR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:05 am
If it's working on the command line it should just be config to make it work elsewhere.
Does the trackball work in Attract-Mode (the game select menu)? You should be able to scroll up/down the game list with it.
It doesn’t. That’s why I’m confused. The only place it seems to do anything is at the cli of the pi. But even that doesn’t tell me much. Just that it’s picking it up in some capacity through my usb. I used a ultimarc USB adapter where I plugged the pins into that adapter and then into usb. I wonder if it matters what USB port I use?
If it's working in the menu it should work in MAME 172, 203 & AdvMAME (106) without doing anything except possibly setting up the controls in MAME. Some games could have had the controls modified to work on joystick and will need setting back to the trackball. The Retroarch based emulators won't work with the trackball on the default ARpiCADE settings (some can work if you modify various settings), don't worry about them for now.
If not, not knowing the config changes you have or haven't made (or for that matter the software version you're on) I'd recommend starting with a fresh copy of ARpiCADE (ARpiCADE is just the name of the Linux distro, not any one piece of software).
One other thing that could be an issue: do you have a keyboard plugged in that has a mouse in it? if you have more than one mouse involved it can cause the trackball to become the 2nd mouse causing config issues with the default settings.
Ahh. Yes. I do. I had a mini keyboard with a mouse touchpad feature. I wonder.
I don't understand
the entire control panel fell and ripped the wires out of my new control panel so firebuttons don’t work because I was told to cross out a jumper on my pi to Jamma adapter well that rendered the wires I had just soldered useless.
but I'm sure it's fixable if it's just wiring. I or someone else may be able to help with it if you put a photo of it up.
I mistyped there. It was a pac to Jamma converter I needed at first and it has buttons that enable you to use player 1 and 2 start also as fire buttons. So I was advised the cut the jumper on that board which I did.
I had to solder fire buttons 1-3 onto the board itself which did work initially until I did that and I’m not sure if my issue is with the dropping of said control panel or cutting the jumper disabled those buttons. So I may need a more modern pac to Jamma board which Mike’s arcade has.
What stuff are you soldering? My experience with Ultimarc trackball + OptiWiz was solder free.
EDIT: this recent thread may help too:
viewtopic.php?f=20&p=6342#p6342
Thank you very much. My kids are all getting older 14-22 and I find myself with time on my hands to do things I enjoy, but now I’m just not sure. I think I will unplug the usb dongle from that keyboard first to see if that’s the issue. It’s good to know that it should work by default that way on the menu. So thanks.
Tom
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:53 pm
by Tagnetti
Update. I tried what you guys recommended. Unfortunately nothing. I will say that the keyboard mouse I have that is small trackpad is being picked up. So I tried unhooking it. I tried multiple USB ports. No luck with Trackball. I actually reached out to arcaderenovations.com where I got the USB adapter. Maybe it’s bad as I noticed it is very touchy with green light coming on depending on position of micro usb.
I did figure out the other parts of my control panel but I still have that crossover with player one and two being fire buttons 1 and 2. So I’ll probably pick up the pac to Jamma adapter from mikes arcade which can bypass that with dip switch.
Thanks again. Not sure how I can test this any more that I have. Retropie isn’t picking it up from what I can tell. Maybe I’ll try it on an on ArPiCade build just to see if it picks up.
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:21 am
by dee2eR
Do you have a Pac to JAMMA adaptor? As I understand it they are wired for p1 and 2 start buttons to be used as fire buttons too. Maybe part of your button issue.
I have no idea how RetroPie handles mice, I don't really use RetroPie except sometimes their setup script as it makes compiling some things on Pi convenient. Sorry.
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 12:56 am
by gt7766c
Timeout before you buy anything from Mike’s arcade. If you had a 60in1 and game-elf working in that can it must have a jamma adapter already in it. You shouldn’t have to buy anything.
I have a Ms.Pac with original control panel and have the original wiring going through the Mike’s arcade adapter to make it Jamma to work with ARpiCADE.
I didn’t quite follow what your setup is. Anyway you can send a photo of the wiring harness? Also, what is your control panel setup again?
Re: Help Before I just give up
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:54 pm
by Tagnetti
Thankyou. So I got my arcade control panel working again. Except the trackball. The seller of the USB adapter has been unresponsive, but honestly it could be something on my end and I’m really not sure how to properly test it.
I tried some different CLI commands I read about and it seems I’m picking up something but not much.
I wasn’t sure how to add images as I hadn’t posted to the group an image before. Hopefully these help shed some light. Thanks for the help. I’d love to get the trackball working and for the life I’m of me I can’t figure out how to make my own custom game list without deleting existing Roms.
Thanks for all the help. It means a lot.