Controls - Grounding problem??

[TurboC--]

Finally finished (??) my Pac-Man control panel today, and got it wired up to my PC using iPac (PS2).  Joystick seemed to work fine in Ms.Pac-Man.  Then I tried Galaga.  Start button 1 (doubling as fire button 1) seems to cause Bad Things (tm) to happen, at least when used in conjunction with the joystick.  It was causing the menu in mame to pop up (??) and other glitches.  Very odd.  I have only wired the buttons into player 1 and 2 start as they normally should be, and only use MAME in-game software settings to double them as fire buttons. 

So, I have a question about leaf switches and grounding.  On my 2 buttons, the outer leaf is the one which is wired to ground.  They came this way (used), I know because the outer leaves were wired together, both in orange.  However, on my joystick leaf switches, I kind of accidentally wired the INNER one to ground.     Is ground always supposed to be the outer one, on leaf switches?  Or do you think it's another problem entirely?  Is there any good program to run to test control wiring integrity?

[PileDriver]

Player 1 start is the shift key for the ipac so if your using that button to as fire your activating the shift function. eg. Start+joydown =pause
Hope this helps.

[TurboC--]

Bleh.  I see the shift codes now.  I'll have to wire P1Start as a generic button 1, change every game to recognize it as start, and give up having the ipac codes.

What about the grounding though?  Do you think there still might be any issues with the way I have the grounds?  Also, do I need to run any of my 6 ground wires (they are all connected to each other) to metal, like the CP or joystick housing?  I didn't know if the ipac took care of the grounding or not. 

[Pik4chu]

iPac has the grounding on it, assuming you connect the grounds to the ground pins on it of course.

[TurboC--]

OK.  It seems fine now, maybe not 100% on the buttons but I'm not sure.  Any advice for cleaning leaf switches?   

[NoOne=NBA=]

Any advice for cleaning leaf switches?