Coin Door Problem

[mikeyv23]

Hey everybody!

I just tried wiring up my coin door to my IPAC and it is not registering when I trip the switch.  Any ideas?  I have the switch grounded to the screws on the door.  Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks again!

Mike

[SirPeale]

Ground the switch to your I-PAC?

[mikeyv23]

That's what I was thinking, but I did not try it yet.  I was worried I might fry the thing.  I will try it though and we'll see what happens!

Mike

[SirPeale]

Why would you fry it?  It's a switch like any other.

[mikeyv23]

not the switch, the IPAC.  i am still kinda new with a lot of this.

Mike

[SirPeale]

I know.  But you're hooking up another two dozen switches (your control panel).  The coin door switch is just like them, just shaped a bit differently.

[mikeyv23]

Thanks for the advice.  I am going to try it later this evening when I get back from shopping (sister's wedding coming up, need to get a gift...and somehow I don't think she or her future husband want an arcade cabinet   ).  I will report my findings later tonight or tomorrow morning.  Thanks again!

Mike

[mikeyv23]

Okay so I tried grounding the coin doors to the IPAC and now the IPAC is not recognized by the OS.  Accroding to Ultimarc.com, the cause of this is usually a wiring problem.  So I unhooked all of the Coin Door wiring from the IPAC and rehooked the buttons I had been using for the coins.  And of course the OS now recognizes it and it works fine.

So here is the problem I guess:  I cannot use the grounding wire from the IPAC that all the other buttons are hooked up to because it won't reach that far.  When I attempted to use a separate wire to ground the switches on the door the OS won't recognize the IPAC.  So is there another way to hookup the coin doors so that they are recognized by the OS and in MAME?  I would consider even buying another IPAC if it would work.

Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.  Thanks again.

[rsoandrew]

You've got to be doing something very simple incorrectly. Peale is correct. It

[mikeyv23]

I know it's something simple, but I have tried each suggestion you made.  I had each grounded with a separate wire and jammed into one of the grounds on the IPAC.  I did have to make my own wires because the ones that I got from Game Cabinets, Inc were too small to fit on the switches on the coin door.  I would not be surprised if I messed up something with that, but I am not sure.

I am soo frustrated with this right now that all I want is a simple and easy answer.  That's why I thought of buying another IPAC.

[rsoandrew]

Well, I'd start by troubleshooting the wiring if you think it might be messed up. If you have a multi-meter put in on ohms (or circuit test if it's got it), unplug the wires from the Ipac, hook one lead to the NO on the switche and one to the COM, press and hold the coin switch and see what you get. You should get 0 ohms when the switch is not pressed and some reading when the switch is pressed.

If you don't have a meter - get one - but in the mean time, use a flashlight bulb, battery and some wire. Rig it up so the coin switch operates the light (if you need more detailed explanation let me know).

If this doesn't work, then you need to use the same procedure to check the switch only and the wire only.

Ps. Harbor freight always runs sales on meters for 2.99. They're cheap but for three bucks not bad.

[mikeyv23]

I will go get a multi-meter tomorrow and see what happens.  Thank you for the detailed instructions too.  I am rather new to this so the more info I have the more confident I feel.  I will post back tomorrow with my results.  Thanks again.

Mike

[mikeyv23]

Okay I got a meter and tried both switches.  They both start with 0 reading and register a reading when tripped.  So what does that mean?

The only thing I could think of is that the ground wire is too long, but I don't think that would be the case.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks again.

Mike

[SirPeale]

Did you say that you have individual ground wires?  Try a known working one.  If that works, try replacing the wire.

[mikeyv23]

I can't try a working one without cutting it and putting a bigger connector tab thing on it.  The switches on the coin doors have bigger tabs than the ones on the buttons and joysticks.

I tried the multimeter with both wires on and wires off and still got the same reading.

[dmsuchy]

I was having a similar issue, what I did was have the wrong tabs hooked up "the open/closed" terminals could be diffrent than your push buttonslike mine.

[mikeyv23]

So which ones did you end up using?  I was thinking about that too, but did not know if there was a obvious way to check.  I will try switching them and hook it up to the IPAC.

[SirPeale]

I can't try a working one without cutting it and putting a bigger connector tab thing on it.  The switches on the coin doors have bigger tabs than the ones on the buttons and joysticks.

I tried the multimeter with both wires on and wires off and still got the same reading.

You can just hold the wires on with your fingers; you're just testing after all.  Also, what dmsuchy stated may be true; try switching the data wires from one to the other.

[mikeyv23]

dmsuchy is the WINNER!!!!!!!!!!  It was the #%&*@ tabs!!  Thank you everybody for putting up with me and all this stuff.

I have one last question though.  I now have 2 extra buttons (used to be for the coins), if I hook them up to the SW7 and SW8 spots on the IPAC what can I use them for?  Could one of these be my shift key or something?

Thanks again!!!!
 

[mikeyv23]

This is just not fair.  So the coin switches work.  But now I hooked the extra two buttons into 1SW7 and 2SW7 and they are not being recognized.  The rest of the buttons and switches work, just not these two.  They worked when they were coin buttons but now they don't.  Any ideas?

[Thenasty]

1sw7 and 2sw7 are not map to any COIN INPUTS (5,6,7,8) by default. You need to switch the IPAC to alt and re-map 1sw7 and 2sw7 to what you want.
Which IPAC do you have ?

[mikeyv23]

Sorry about the confusion, I did not word that too well.

I know they are not for the coins.  I just want to use them as active buttons mapped to a key.  I already have the IPAC set on ALT.

[rsoandrew]

Glad to read that you got the problem solved and a multi-meter too.

As far a the ipac goes you can use the buttons for whatever you want. I have sw7 as the enter key and sw8 as the pause key. Just program the keys with the Ipac programming utility.

If you just got the Ipac you'll need to use the newer WinIpac IPD program and not the older WinIpac. Also don't forget to change the Ipac jumper to alt for programming. If you installed the older utility, uninstall both and reinstall the IPD version. Also in the software don't forget to 1) set which type of Ipac you have and 2) set if you have it connected via USB or PS/2 (can you tell that I recently had a problem programming my Ipac?)

[mikeyv23]

Thanks!  And thanks for your help and suggestions.

I have it set to USB (which is what I have) and ALT.  I am still using the older WinIpac, so I will try the newer one and see if that fixes the problem.

In the older version of WinIpac that I have it doesn't even register a key press for either sw7 or sw8 even though they are hooked up.

I will report back after trying the new WinIpac program.

[mikeyv23]

I tried the new WinIPAC program and still no change.  I get no response from 1sw7 or 2sw7.  Any other thoughts?

[Thenasty]

try notepad to see if you get the character you assigned. If you do, maybe your swicthes are bad.

[mikeyv23]

That's the problem, I cannot assign anthing to them.  The switches and buttons were working when I had them hooked up as coin1 and coin2 without the coin door.

And then this part makes no sense to me.  The new WinIpac detects my USB as PS/2.  I doubled checked all the connections and I just don't get it.

[Thenasty]

That's the problem, I cannot assign anthing to them.  The switches and buttons were working when I had them hooked up as coin1 and coin2 without the coin door.

Before you had this wired up to COIN1 and COIN2 not 1sw7 and 2sw7. Thats why it work. Those are assigned to 5 and 6.

And then this part makes no sense to me.  The new WinIpac detects my USB as PS/2.  I doubled checked all the connections and I just don't get it.

I am kinda lost of exactly what you wanted to do. What do you want the 1sw7 and 2sw7 buttons for ? Some games really don't need 7 buttons maybe you are trying to run a game and using those buttons and of course it won't respond cause the game don't use it.

[mikeyv23]

I wanted to map them to keys like return or esc.  Several other people have done this and I am just trying to figure out how.

[Thenasty]

then you need to re-configure them using the utility. Read the docs of the uitlity that will tell you how to re-assign a key to any of them. If you can't figure that out, then re-configure MAME ESC to whatever character is set for 1sw7 or 2sw7 and so forth.

[mikeyv23]

I know how to use the utility, that is not the problem.

I uninstalled the new WinIpac and reinstalled the old one.  The buttons that were programed work fine and even are recognized in the WinIpac.  But when I try to program it, it tells me it's not connected, even though it is working!!!

At this point I am too tired to worry about it anymore tonight.  I will fight with it more tomorrow after work.

[dmsuchy]

Im da winner about asigning the extra keys, drop Andy a line and ask him.

[rsoandrew]

When did you get your Ipac. I assume recently. This is the same problem that I had (Andy had to provide some support). You CAN'T use the old version of Winipac to program the newer Ipacs. If the old version is even installed, it will screw up the new version (IPD) when you try to program the Ipac. You need to uninstall everything and then reinstall only the new version (IPD).

When you run the IPD version the first time, you have to tell it what kind of board you have. Then you have to go into the config (can't remember the actual name of the menu item and my mame machine is in pieces getting ready to move to Africa - but that's another story-anybody going to be in Eritrea this fall?) and tell it you're using the USB interface.

Then you will have no problem programming the ipac (unless of course you forgot to move the jumper from mame to alt-it needs to be on alt to be programmed)

Also, if your want to test your buttons you could put move the jumper back to Mame and then use notepad as suggested before.

[mikeyv23]

I have had my Ipac fior quite a while actually, at least a year or so.  I have never had problems with it until recently.  I will try to get a hold of Andy later today.  Although last time I tried, I got a message back from him saying he couldn't email me because he got a message telling him he wasn't allowed to send an email to my address.

[mikeyv23]

After talking with Andy from Ultimarc.com I resolved the problem...sort of.  I hooked the Ipac up to a different PC and was able to reprogram it.  From there I hooked it back up to the pc in my cab and it works fine.  Thanks again to everybody for suggestions and advice.  You guys rock!!