SlikStiK control panel... Several (hopefully easy to answer) questions.

[Beijoguy]

Hello fellow gamers!

I have a customized SlikStik control panel. I brought it out of mothballs a couple of weeks ago, and I have everything working, except for a few buttons.

I have a few varied questions that I'm hoping someone or several of you can answer for me. Sorry if this is bad form etiquette, but I just didn't want to post four or five different threads for all of these questions and litter up the forums.

1. How do you reprogram buttons on the SlikStik control panal itself? For instance, I have a yellow button in the northwest corner of the panel, that I remember being the pause button ("P" on the keyboard), But now for some reason it's coming up as the letter "J". I would like to reprogram it to the "P" key again.

2. I have three buttons on the right side of the keyboard that, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they don't work. I know they worked before, but they are not working now. There doesn't seem to be any break in the current that I can physically see, and the buttons on either side of them are working. It's for my Stargate layout, so I'd really like to get these working. Any ideas on how to trace back why these three buttons aren't working?

3. I would like to get a joystick to play Sinistar. They don't sell 49-way joysticks that I can see, but is there a 360° joystick available at a reasonable price? Will this replicate the 49-way Sinistar joystick? Is there a joystick that I can switch in between a 360°, 8-way, and 4-way?

5. Is it worth it to upgrade to a newer USB iPAc 4, if my PS2 panel is currently (mostly) working? Are there any advantages? Both my spinner and trackball are PS2.

Any help to anyone or all of these questions would be super greatly appreciated!

[PL1]

2. I have three buttons on the right side of the keyboard that, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they don't work. I know they worked before, but they are not working now. There doesn't seem to be any break in the current that I can physically see, and the buttons on either side of them are working. It's for my Stargate layout, so I'd really like to get these working. Any ideas on how to trace back why these three buttons aren't working?

You may want to check the daisy chain ground path for those three buttons.
- If they are at the end of the path like buttons 4, 5, and 6 in the attached diagram, the connection might be broken between buttons 3 and 4.  It's rare, but sometimes a connection that looks good isn't electrically good.  A multimeter is your friend.

If damage to the daisy chain ground isn't the cause, try using a M-M Dupont jumper (or a length of wire with the ends stripped) to test the encoder inputs by shorting them to ground to see if the encoder is outputting keystrokes.

If the inputs are working but the buttons are not, the problem is either the wiring or the switches.

3. I would like to get a joystick to play Sinistar. They don't sell 49-way joysticks that I can see, but is there a 360° joystick available at a reasonable price? Will this replicate the 49-way Sinistar joystick? Is there a joystick that I can switch in between a 360°, 8-way, and 4-way?

There are several options to explore, depending on your preferences and how deep your pockets are.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,166081.0.html

The correct term for what some vendors refer to as a "360° joystick" is analog joystick.
- Most analog sticks use potentiometers, but some like the U360 use a magnetic sensor.

For a single stick that can do 4-way, 8-way, and analog, you might want to look into Ultimarc's U360 balltop or oval top.
https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade-controls/joysticks/ultrastik-360-oval-top-en-2/


Scott

[Beijoguy]

Thanks for the tips. I got one of those meters and I'm currently trying to zero in on the bad connection. I'll look into those joysticks you mentioned as well. Thank you!