I-Pac 2 Shift Confusion

[photorock]

         I just finished my CP and everything works great. I down loaded WinIPac and programed my Pause and Exit buttons. No problems there. I tried the shift function and nothing happened, so I went to Ultimarc's site to read up on it and tried again. Still no go... so I decided to reprogram the Shift function and try again, still nothing, but before I closed Mame I tried the button next to the Shift button and it worked.

         Here's what's happening I programmed player 1 SW6 to be Shift and in Mame when I use it nothing happens, but it works perfect when I hit Player 1 SW5 instead of 1 SW6. I thought I had the I-Pac wired wrong so I tried Programming Player 1 SW4 and same as before nothing untill I hit Player 1 SW3. Same thing on Player 2 side.

         Have I got something programmed or wired wrong? Or is this normal? It doesn't seem right to me and my wiring looks right!

          Also, what keycodes does everyone normally program for use with the shift function, besides the normal Start, Coin, Pause, Escape...

          Just in case you need this info here it is... I'm using...
Mame32 Plus v.81u1 and WinXP (SP1) on a P4

[NoOne=NBA=]

My guess is that your physical wiring is off by one terminal, so that the button you THINK should be P1-B5 is actually wired to P1-B6, etc....

[photorock]

          That's what I thought at first but it looks right. I'm starting to think the I-Pac may have been damaged during shipment or there is a problem with the WinIpac prgramming.

[whammoed]

Speak of the devil, I just had some weirdness programming the shift function on my ipac4.  First and second try no success.  Third try I picked a different button for shift and it worked. WTF?  Fourth try I picked the original button and finally it worked.  WTF?  So, maybe try choosing a different shift key or several, and then if that works try what you really want.   I had some weirdness programming my previous ipac as well...sometimes it would give errors and not program.  I found if I just hit some buttons before programming it had an easier time at it.  Programming may be a little buggy.  Since it probably is not used all that often and most people like myself get it to work, Andy probably doesn't get much feedback about problems.  I am using mine in USB by the way.  Perhaps let Andy know you are having difficulties.

[photorock]

         Thanks whammoed I'll try that and see if it works. I sent an e-mail off to Andy perhaps he may have an explaination for the I-Pac programming weirdness. I'll post here if I find out anything.

[photorock]

           I got it working after. I restored the defaults in WinIpac and started over. In panel design mode I must have had the conections wrong.
           Thanks all for your help...

[bigdog10]

What does the shift oprion do anyway??

[photorock]

            The Shift function reduces the need for extra Admin buttons, it allows you to program your player 1 & 2 buttons or other buttons on your CP to do things like insert coins, start, enter game menues, adjust volume, etc. Nice feature when you get it working properly.

[MrBond]

Besides exit, pause, ~ menu, tab menu, and enter, I use the shift function for f1 (cursor for shooting games), f2 (service), f3 (reset), f5 (for me, save game state), f7 (load state) , f10 (throttle), f11 (show frame rate), and probably some others that I forget.

I also make regular use of these buttons in my frontend.

[photorock]

          Ah MrBond Rocks... I thank you, that's what I was looking for.