Joystick Leaf Contacts Question

[KC]

Hi all,

I've been playing around with my controllers, trying to get the X-Arcade and Hotrod to work side by side. I haven't used either of them in a year or so. While playtesting I realised that quite frequently (at least once or twice per minute) it would get stuck to the left, right, top...any direction. To unstick, I have to hit that direction with the joystick again...not good when hectic 1942 evsaive action is needed!

Since it happened with all 4 sticks I thought I have a config or keyboard problem. After fiddling for an hour or so I hooked up my joystick kit, which is my newest and most used controller. This works perfectly.

So, I wonder, do the leaf switches of the controllers get old. Do contacts wear out? Do they have to be exchanged after having been idle for a long time? Remember, I hadn't used HotRod or X-Arcade in ages, and last time I did they worked perfectly...

Any ideas?

Cheers

KC

www.mameworld.net
You know it makes sense!

[rchadd]

is this the famous issue of using 8 way joysticks to play mame games that originally had 4 way joysticks? its been discussed many times before here.

i'm putting a tstick plus in my cab just because of this - sop can switrch between 4/8 way mode depending on the game

[Bgnome]

i believe that the x-arcade and the hotrod both use microswitch joysticks, not leaf..

[KC]

Duh, yes,of course, microswitch.

No it's not the 4way/8way issue, I have a dedicated 4 way for Pac-man and such.  I believe 1942 and other similar shooters all use 8 way. In any case, as I said, my joystick kit controller with 2 Happs works perfectly without a hitch, but the hotRod and X-Arcade all stick

Cheers

KC

www.mameworld.net
You know it makes sense!

[NoOne=NBA=]

My guess is you're having some driver problems with the encoders on the HotRod and X-arcade.

Do these two controls work separately, and only have problems when used together?
Does your Happs control use a different encoder?
Does the Happs work when daisy-chained in with the HotRod or X-arcade?

It would be almost unheard of for ALL the switches to go at once like that.
If it were only one or two switches maybe, but not ALL of them.

[KC]

Hmm, you might have a point. The one that works uses an Ultimarc encoder.

On the MAMEWorld board Orc suggested the only time he saw this was an X-Arcade plugged into a laptop. And indeed I use a laptop. Could that be the problem? I guess I'll need to try everything on my other PCs, too...

Thanks!

KC

*edi* It IS the laptop...the controllers work fine on my other PC. Lesson learnt: Ultimarc encoder works with laptop. HotRod and X-Arcade don't....