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Severe Ghosting problem with J-PAC
BuriedEgg:
Okay, so I performed all the tests listed above. Thank you, everybody, for the helpful suggestions. Here are the results:
-Tested a PS2 connection (by attaching a PS2 adapter to the USB cable provided by Ultimarc).
-Have not found a shorter USB cable than what came with the product from Ultimarc.
-Disabled USB power-saving.
-Installed fresh copy of latest Winipac on a different PC (Windows 7) in the house and reprogrammed J-PAC on that PC.
-Disconnected J-PAC from arcade cabinet completely. Grabbed a spare unused Happ pushbutton, spare unused microswitch, and fresh unused wiring. Connected them alone to the J-PAC. Just one button connected to P2-B6 screw connector on J-PAC. Connected J-PAC via USB to brand new Dell StudioXPS laptop from work (Windows 7). Moved entire setup to another floor in the house far away from any electronics/speakers/cellphones/radios.
Through all of these tests it still auto-triggered every time. The most disturbing one was when the laptop was auto-triggering all by itself. I mean its a completely different PC, button, Wiring, OS, etc.
I've tried:
-Different J-PACs
-Different PCs
-Different OSs
-Different Winipac versions (up to latest posted on website)
-Different buttons/microswitches/wiring.
-Different button mappings (different letters mapped to different keys)
I can't isolate it. I don't know what to do except maybe try a different brand of key encoder. KeyWiz?
I think I need to state, at this point, that Andy at Ultimarc has been absolutely outstanding with his support for this product. He has been in constant contact with me over email for the last couple months now trying everything he can to troubelshoot this thing. He even sent me a couple J-PACs free of charge, in good faith, to test out. I've never seen customer support like this on any product I've ever purchased so I hope my experience hasn't put anybody off of Ultimarc's awesome products and support service.
I just don't know what is so unique about my situation that this particular product will not work on any application in my house.
I have a video of the laptop test I performed if anybody wants to see how I've wired it. Its the first video on the page (below) labelled "Laptop J-PAC Test":
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Dickjones/Arcade%20Cabinet%20Malfunction/
Thanks for the help and any further insight you may have!
Gray_Area:
....what about MAME controls configuration, I-PAC shift function, and sticky keys?
If none of those is the issue, I can only guess you have an arcade ghost. In which case, you'll have to find the secret power pellet, hiding somewhere in your home.
Forces21:
I noticed this as part of your test procedure
-Tested a PS2 connection (by attaching a PS2 adapter to the USB cable provided by Ultimarc).
Have you tried this with a dedicated ps2 cable? not an adapter? this would be a ps2 male to ps2 male cable.
I'm just asking but I assume that although you have tested accross 3 different JPAC's you have never changed this cable? Maybe this could be the problem?
Just putting out some more thoughts for you.
Regards
Forces21
Lilwolf:
When you tested the other buttons, I'm assuming you did it with new cable right? (ie, you didn't just plug one in that you already had wired, then another)...
If so, it sounds like you tried everything. You should really contact ultimarc. He's really good at helping out and might have a suggestion or two.
BuriedEgg:
Yes, I used new cable to wire each button when testing. I tried using a new microswitch, and brand new pushbuttons from Happ as well.
I will also try to find a dedicated PS2-to-PS2 cable. I have not tried that yet. Only tried with PS2 adapter so far. That is a very good suggestion.
What about "sticky-keys"? You want me to disable it? I'll check if its enabled. I don't think that's even enabled by default is it (Windows XP/Windows 7)? The second PC I tested on was a brand new Dell XPS. I'll check anyway.
Remember guys, nothing is too silly to suggest to me. All of the above advice is valuable to me. A lot of the time the strangest thing will usually be the thing that turns out to be the problem all along.
I'm tearing my hair out here!
Gray_Area: I will search around for that power pellet. I will also setup a camera in my gameroom at night and put talcom powder on the floor and get a Ouija Board going!
Remember, nothing is too "out there" to suggest at this point.