Key repeat in minipac - some do, some don't

[adamhaeder]

I tried to send this email to Ultimarc support, but it bounced back with a 'mailbox full' error. I've read all of the minipac threads on this board, but I haven't found an answer to my questions.

I recently ordered a minipac with wiring harness, and I'm getting it
setup. I have a question about key repeat and I haven't found anything on
the arcadecontrols.com forums.

So far, I've only wired up the trackball, 2 mouse buttons, p1 start & coin
and p2 start & coin. I'm using the usb interface and everything is
detected correctly by my XP Pro system. I haven't done any minipac programming, so
all defaults are in place. I pull up notepad to check the keys. p1 coin
sends a '5' which is correct. p2 coin sends a 6, but the 6 repeats
forever. If I hold the button down, it does not repeat, but hitting it
once and letting go makes 6 repeat indefinately. Same for p1 start (1) and
p2 start (2). While one of these keys is repeating, hitting p1 coin (5)
will stop it. Is this the correct behavior?

According to http://www.ultimarc.com/minipac, "Dual interface USB or
Keyboard - just swap the cable and change a jumper.". I don't have a
jumper on my minipac. Does this make any difference?

Also, what program should I use to progam the minipac? I tried the
programs on the included cd, but they failed to detect the minipac. I also
found this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,19123.0.html and I
downloaded http://www.andywarne.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WinIPAC_Setup.zip.
But when I click "Program" is says "FAILED! IPAC is not connected". What
should I use to program this?

Thanks for any help
--
Adam

[cholin]

Well my only Idea would be that you connected the wires to the wrong side of the microswitches.

[microwrx]

It sounds very much like the problem cholin has mentioned with the microswitches connected to NC rather than NO.

As for your programming issue, does your Mini-PAC look the same as the one on the Mini-PAC page?  Does it have the pins for jumpers labelled ALT/ROM and PS2/USB?  If not then you shouldn't require jumpers.  Last I heard the new boards were going to auto sense USB or PS2 and would use MAME defaults until you program it.

As for the software, the old Mini-PACs used the software you downloaded and I programmed mine with it just fine (as an IPAC-2).  Don't know about the new ones though.

[adamhaeder]

Yes, that was indeed my problem. In my defence, the microswitches weren't labelled very clearly 

I do not have jumpers of any kind on my minipac, so it must be one of the newer ones.

I have a new problem now: after 5 days of perfect operation, the minipac is no longer recognized by windows. It says "Unknown USB device". Also, the green light on the minipac no longer comes on when I plug the USB cable into the PC.

If I disconnect the wiring harness, and then plug the minipac in, it is recognized and the light comes on. So it seems like I might have a short in one of my attached microswitches. Odd that this happened so soon. I'll start disconnecting them one-by-one to see if I can identify the culprit. I also just received my 2nd minipac so I'll give that one a try as well, maybe it's the circuit board itself. Hopefully I can figure out the programming as well

[AndyWarne]

Just a quick note: Apologies to anyone (including the original poster of this thread) who has emails bounced in the past few days. We suffered a massive spam attack with one particular spam email repeatedly being received about 50 times per minute. This swamped real emails.
Everything seems to have settled down now, so please do re-send any bounced mails.
andy@ultimarc.com

[crashwg]

Perhaps the minpac you recieved was already programmed by someone...

It sounds like 5 is your shift key.  If it is the case you should easily be able to figgure it out by holding the button down and pressing some other buttons or moving the joystick.  If it sends a different keykode then that's what was up!