Help with IPAC

[rick6668]

I've tried 3 times to program my IPAC, but each time it doesn't work. I am using the IPACUTIL programming tool in windows98.

I'd like the shift key to be different than Player1 start. I have 2 buttons on my control panel that light up and I'd like to use the left one as the shift key. When I program this as the shift key and then the right one as the combination to ESC. (Pressing the left one, holding and pressing the right would ESC.) I also programmed shift + Player1 start as coin1 and shift + Player2 start as coin 2. When I get done and reboot, I lose all functionality of the 2 keys that light up, and have no way of entering a coin, or escaping. Even when I go to notepad, these keys do nothing.

I did move the jumper to ALT prior to doing all this each time, but it wont work. I've managed to get it back to the default settings each time by deleting the config file, moving the jumper back and running the programming tool again and a new config file is created for the default setup.

ANY IDEAS?? ANYONE???

Thanks,
Rick

[JustMichael]

If the programming software didn't report an error then it most likely programmed the I-PAC just fine.  I would suggest checking your wiring.

[rick6668]

Thanks, but when I have the jumper set to MAME the buttons work fine.  So the wiring is not a problem...

Any other ideas..??  

[Thenasty]

I think your problem is that when you re-program the IPAC (jumpers in ALT) you can;t return the jumper back to MAME and expect to get the re-program result. You have to leave ht ejumper to ALT to get the result you wanted. You can't change the MAME default program. Try it. Leave the jumper to ALT, re-program what you want, and leave it to ALT and see that should work...

[metzer2]

Unfortunately, I'm seeing a similar issue, if not the same, under Win98 as well.

I set the jumper to ALT, program the i-pac the way I want it, receive a SUCCESS message, and use it as I programmed during that Win98 session.  As soon as I reboot, however, the settings are lost on the i-pac.  

The way I've gotten around it is to run a batch file in my startup menu that runs the command ipacutil ipacutil.cfg /B.  This way, it gets configured every time I launch into Win98.  I wish I didn't have to do this, however.

[Zipper]

Andy Warne at Ultimarc will be around again in a week or two. Send him an e-mail with your problem, because I think there may be a batch of i-pacs which aren't functioning correctly (losing programming after reboot). Not too sure where I heard this.
If it is an i-pac problem, I'm sure Andy will be able to help.

[Rick Sigouin]

I'm definitely leaving the jumper on ALT.

Looks like were having the same problem metzer2.  Problem is I'm running from DOS, so I can't do what you did.

I'll send a message to Andy and see.

Thanks for your help guys.  I appreciate it.

Rick

[ErikRuud]

Rick Sigouin,

You can do it from DOS, I do it all the time.

Just add the following command to your autoexec.bat

IPACUTIL MYCONFIG.CFG /B /S

Replace MYCONFIG.CFG with the name of your config file.  The /B tells the utility to batch load your config to the IPac instead of going into the programming mode.
The /S sets it to silent mode, this just means it won't display any messages while it loads.  You can leave the /S off if you like.

[rick6668]

Thanks Eric,  I'll try that!

Rick

[metzer2]

Thanks for the tip on the silent switch /S Erik.  I was tired of getting the DOS confirmation box and manually closing it.  I tried putting EXIT in my batch file but it wasn't performing the carriage return to execute it.

btw, I also used the switch to avoid timeout issues.  It takes longer to program but always succeeds.

metzer2

[ddebuss]

Not sure exaclty what I am remembering this correctly but...

Didn't Andy post some time ago that there is a limit to the number of times the IPAC can be reprogramed?  I don't recall all of the details... Has anyone else heard of this?  Think it has to to with the number of program cycles the flash memory id designed for.

I could be completely wrong, but I'm pretty sure I did read it somewhere.

[darkmanx]

i remember andy saying they had a bad batch of eeprom chips...that could be the problem.

[JustMichael]

Most eeproms are good for at least 100,000 times of being reprogrammed.  Many are rated for 1 million or more times. Even if the eeprom was only rated for 100,000 times, that would translate into 50 times a day every day for 2000 days (~5 1/2 years).  Will we even have PS/2 and USB ports then?

[Zipper]

I'm pretty sure yours aren't functioning correctly. I only flashed the eprom once, and it's remained the same for several months now.

[rick6668]

Thanks for all the helpful hints

[Andy Warne]

Sorry guys I missed this as I was away. If anyone has a problem with their I-PAC not keeping it's settings please email me and it will be fixed. There is no need to run the config at boot time.

Andy

[ErikRuud]

I run the config at boot time to make sure that I have the correct config loaded for GameLauncher.  With my setup, I am constantly reloading the config, and I can't be sure that the GameLauncher config was loaded when the PC was turned off.

I have set up GameLauncher to use batch files to run the games, that way I can have a custom config for every game that needs one.