Opti-PAC help needed!

[TOK]

Just finished building my trackball panel and hooked it up tonight.
When I plugged in my USB Opti-PAC, it loaded some stuff, but wasn't working in either MAME32 or Windows XP. I shut down the machine and looked at all my wiring and the jumper settings just to make sure I had everything set up right.

When I rebooted and plugged the Opti-PAC back into the USB port, I got the following error message: "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance solving this problem, click this message."
If I click on that message, it takes me to my USB devices and lists the Opti-PAC as an UNKNOWN DEVICE.

I did some of the troubleshooting steps listed on the Ultimarc page, and it would appear I have what is referred to as a "Voltage High" problem. I pulled all the trackball wiring off the Opti-PAC and plugged it in just to see what it'd do, and it still generates the error message.

Can anyone give me some pointers to get me going in the right direction?

[Matt Berry]

Go to the control panel, system, hardware, device manager. Scroll down and look for the opti pac. Right click on it and choose uninstall. Make sure the opti pac is disconnected. Restart the computer. Plug the opti pac back in without anything attatched to it to see if you still get the error. Do you have the updated USB drivers for xp? If you still get the error I'd recomend sending an email to Andy of ultimarc, he is pretty quick about responding to questions and problems

[TOK]

Matt, the Opti-PAC doesn't identify itself in Windows by name, or even as something generic like a Human Interface Device. It appears under the USB section as an Unknown Device... This is without any trackball wires connected or the USB I-PAC (which works fine).
 
My cab still has Service Pack 1 on it since I generally don't have it online. Not sure when the updated drivers you were talking about were released, but I can probably get SP2 on it if I have to.

As a test, I'm also going to try hooking the Opti-PAC up to this machine and see what it does. Thanks for offering some guidelines. I wanted to try to eliminate anything obvious before e-mailing Andy.

Edit to update: OK, I removed the panel from my cabinet and hooked the Opti-PAC up to my main PC, which is running XP with Service Pack 2. This one also puts the Opti-PAC in the USB devices tab in two instances and calls it an Unknown Device. Still can't get any movement with it.

[Matt Berry]

I'd stay away from service pack 2. The usb drivers have been out for awhile, but sometimes some machines don't have the updated version. Do you have the right power lines hooked up to the trackball. If the wiring is wrong your trackball will not work. Under the device manager what is the status of the device - working properly? Try uninstalling all instances of unknown usb devices or any relating to the opti pac and restart from a full powered down state. After reboot try the device again. What trackball are you trying to use?

[TOK]

It's wired according to the info on the Ultimarc page, and it's the trackball from there (Suzo, I think is the actual brand). I tried experimenting with the jumpers and still haven't had any luck, but I also found that at least one of the optical sensors seems to be working correctly. I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to it, but I did the test where you put a probe on ground and each of the terminals and look for a voltage change. I think I mis-read the test when I first tried it and stated that I have +5 all the time.

The thing is, that if the optical sensors are working, that means the ball is OK and I'm left with the issue of XP not being able to identify the Opti-PAC itself. I was hoping Andy might stop by and see this thread, but maybe I'll e-mail him tonight after I've double checked everything I've done and verified that both optical sensors are going from .5 to 4.5 when something is put in the sensor.

[Matt Berry]

So you have the jumper set to A/LO and the GND and +5 connected to the same terminal on the opti pac? The wiring should be like this

2 - Black   2 -Red    Yellow    Green    Yellow    Green
  GND          +5V            Y1         Y2        X2       X1

When the curser does move it will be really slow and not move much with each turn of the ball especially at windows default settings.

[TOK]

Yes, that is how they are hooked up. I also tried switching the axis and even the green/yellow lines in case the instructions on the web page were old. What is getting me is that the Opti-PAC generates an error even with nothing wired. I've sent an e-mail to Andy that basically sums up what we've covered to see if maybe I've missed something (which is what I was hoping, but I'm becoming a little more suspicious of the Opti-PAC itself).
I wish I had a cable to try it in serial mode. I'd go with that if I could get it working.

[Matt Berry]

Sorry that you may have gotten a bad board, on the nice side Andy is pretty quick about responding to emails and correcting problems. Even though you may not get a response tonight because of the time difference. Good luck and hopefully everything gets straightened out quickly. I know it really sucks when you are ready to use something and it doesn't work properly.

[TOK]

Thanks Matt. I appreciate you running all the ideas past me. Sometimes its possible to get stuck in a rut on something, and overlook the obvious.
I think the fact that I tested both of the optical sensors and found that the Opti-PAC isn't correctly recognized in two machines goes a long way toward proving that I have a hardware problem, but I'm still hoping Andy will notice something glaring from the info I've provided him.

Either way, I'll follow up with what I've found.