IPAC 4 programming problems

[wicketnezz]

I seem to be having issues out of my IPAC 4.  This is my first cab build so forgive me if im missing something obvious.  I have a 4 player CP and players 1 and 2 have 2nd joysticks for games like SmashTV these second joysticks mirror the controls for players 3 and 4's joysticks.  My admin buttons are wired to player 4 switches 5 - 8 and player 3 switch 5 for the 5 admin buttons i have.  When I try to program which button does what in the WinIPAC Interactive panel designer i have been running into all kinds of wierd issues, when i try to change the key assigned to a button it is changing in 3 different places at the same time, for example if i wanted to change player 1 button 1, it will also change player 3 button 2 and player 2 button 5 all to the same letter.  It wont allow me to change just one at a time.  I double checked the wires to make sure that none were crossed and touching to cause the mixup on the IPAC card and everything looks fine.  Any suggestions on how to get this to be programmed correctly?

[winstonwaite]

I had similar issues which I oddly don't remember happening the first time I tried it.

If you mess up there is a menu item that will put it back to default.

I think the issue is multiple buttons are mapped to the same letter or key. I think you can set them to "none" if you right click the other buttons that have the same mapping. I ended up setting most to "none", especially the shifted keys. I also noticed that it didn't seem to make sense on the screen if I made changes until I hit the "program" button which commits your changes to the ipac. Eventually I got it where only the IPAC inputs I am using are set to unique keys and all others are set to "none". I also used visible keys (not alt or ctrl) because it is easier to check the controls in notepad when all keys are mapped to visible letters instead of having alt suddenly navigate to the menu of the program I am in.

[gamer83]

Load up the the winIPAC utility,look up on the menu bar and click mode,click panel designer.Are all your buttons and joysticks showing here? If not, ad them in with the little box on the left.use the arrows to switch items(p1 start,p2 start,etc).Set up your virtual panel exactly as your real panel is setup.

Once you have you have everything placed on your virtual panel,click a button to highlight it,now look over to the left again underneath the box you used earlier.See where it says IPAC CONNECTIONS? This is where you 'sync' per se your controls to the ipac. Go through all the joysticks and buttons you have placed in your virtual panel,and set the switches accordingly.so if you highlight a player 3 button on your virtual panel to the right,and on the left in those little boxes that button is binded to ipac p1 sw3 for example,that will be an issue.Keep your eye sharp to the p1 p2 p3 p4 boxes when setting the switch numbers.

Map all the buttons to the correct IPAC connection,and save the control panel,I suggest you back it up somewhere safe.After that go back into key assignments editor,up in the mode menu,and start removing all the double bindings.This would also be a good time to remove ctrl,alt,and shift as primary buttons because they cause alot of issues.

I hope this helps.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Let me know if you need a copy of my WinIpac layout.  It's similar to yours, but I eliminated the CTRL, ALT, SHIFT and SPACE buttons.  They caused issues with heavy 4 player gaming such as NBA JAM where it would minimize with all the buttons being pressed at the same time (ALT-Enter).  Also, some emulators have trouble with using the ALT and CTRL buttons.

DeLuSioNaL29

[AndyWarne]

The problem is likely being caused by pressing buttons on the control panel when attempting to configure the keycodes. The program gives instructions on each step on the status line and if followed it will be OK. Use the keyboard and mouse only.