Pelican Universal Real Arcade Stick Problems, please help

[struby]

I hope this is in an ok spot on the board, anyway here it goes:

My name is Andy, I am pretty new to the MAME thing, but basically here is a little background on my problem:

My plan was get a ps2 to usb and use Pelican Universal Real Arcade Sticks to save money.
hook up a tv to the computer, build a cabinet, simple MAME machine.
Which brings me to the probem.

I have purchased 1 Pelican Universal Real Arcade Stick and have committed to buying 3 more that are on the way
I have a Super Joy Box 5 Pro (4 ports).
I use a fairly new dell with 6 usb ports in good working condition.
so I plug in the joybox and the joystick, and when I go to configure, the test lights are flashing and the joystick is not functional, same in MAME, buttons do not work, but are engaged randomly.
A PS2 Dual Shock 2 controller works fine, and the joystick works fine in a PS2, but...
I noticed in the PS2 the power light on the joystick was bright, and on the PC it barely lit up.
So I'm thinking lack of enough power is my problem, but after trying it on 2 other new Dells, one with a USB/AC powered USB hub, and getting the same results on both, I am stumped.
I have looked for alternative Joysticks, basically, I want 4 sets of joysticks/buttons, but I don't want to custom build, I would rather go with something like my initial idea for the project.

So my questions are:

Can anyone help me get the Pelican Joysticks working?

Does anyone know of a good alternative for me?

Thanks to everyone who helps in advance, I appretiate any help.

[infiniteomega]

Your problem is the converter.  The universal controlers generally are all xbox controlers first.  Get yourself an xbox to usb converter and you should be good to go.  I have this stick and use it w/ a supper joy box 10.  The start, select, and mode buttons dont like working w/ macmame for some reason.


Hope this helps...

[struby]

That does help, nice to have a little light at the end of the tunnel, anyway, while I would like to just buy it and have it work, can anyone else back him up on that, so I don't have to spend more money  unnecessarily:

Will that work with the universal fine, is yours universal?

Will it work fine with 4 of these joysticks?

Anyone else have any suggestions for my situation?

[JONTHEBOMB]

Here is a thread on hacking Pelican Universal Sticks:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=40849.msg371021#msg371021

Hope this helps you in some way.

[struby]

May I ask out of curiosity if anyone knows, why is it that this needs an xbox adapter, what is the difference, what I mean is, why doesn't my PS2 converter work, why wouldn't a gamecube one, and why does an xbox one, and is anyone else pretty sure that will solve my problem?

That link might help once I get them working, then I may have a closer look at that to see what extra things I can do, thanks.

[krick]

May I ask out of curiosity if anyone knows, why is it that this needs an xbox adapter, what is the difference, what I mean is, why doesn't my PS2 converter work, why wouldn't a gamecube one, and why does an xbox one, and is anyone else pretty sure that will solve my problem?

From what I understand, the XBox controllers are really USB but with a different connector.  So if you use an XBox adapter, it isn't translating the output to PS2 format, then back to USB.  It's basically a pass-through device.  I imagine that the PS2 adapter uses more power too.

[infiniteomega]

If you do a search on the shoryuken.com forums you'll find some more info about the problem.  I didn't go searching through them just now, but here's some more info based on my personal experience with the stick.

As I (and others) have said, it seems to be an xbox stick first, ps2/gamecube stick second.  It doesn't even seem to get power like normal ps2 pads when connected to a ps2.  If you look around on shoryuken you'll notice people talking about how they lost the rumble function on their ps2's because of this stick.  Same thing happened to me.  The stick gets it's power through the vibration circuit and I found out that my normal pads had no rumble when my stick suddenly stopped working.  Since I modded my ps2 to play imports, I wound up bypassing a fuse (not good, I know) in order to get the rumbles back in my normal controllers, and this stick to work again.  I'm willing to bet the guy in the link johnthebomb linked to had the same issue.

This problem probably stems from the fact that it's an xbox controller with ps2 adapter on one board and has some voltage regulation problems (which is probably why they say not to plug it in after the console is on).  Who knows.

[struby]

Well I am pretty convinced, just one more thing I am wondering at this point, will I be ok getting a Super Joybox 11 with 4 ports and using 4 joysticks, or will it not have enough power, will 4 joysticks work at all, even with 2 double or 4 single converters, just some last questions before I order, thanks guys, any other suggestions would be great.

[struby]

I'd like to order a joybox soon so if anyone can answer my above questions soon I would appretiate it.

[Spaz Monkey]

Well, I tried to connect my stick using a PS2 to USB converter (kikky joy) and troubleshooting said that it was wanting like 4xx% of the USB port's "attention".  How the heck could it ask for 4xx%?!?!?!

With that being said, I have a Pelican stick for sale

[krick]

Well, I tried to connect my stick using a PS2 to USB converter (kikky joy) and troubleshooting said that it was wanting like 4xx% of the USB port's "attention".  How the heck could it ask for 4xx%?!?!?!
With that being said, I have a Pelican stick for sale

You should really try hooking it up with one of these before you give up...

SmartJoy X2 USB Adapter (Connect Xbox Joypads to PC):
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?products_id=2701

[struby]

Yeah, that kind of breezes right by my question, can I get the 4 player one, or do I have to get 4 1 player ones or 2 2 player ones for power issues, with the xbox ones that is.

[krick]

Yeah, that kind of breezes right by my question, can I get the 4 player one, or do I have to get 4 1 player ones or 2 2 player ones for power issues, with the xbox ones that is.

If you get the 4 player one, then all 4 units will be pulling power from the same USB port.    I can pretty much guarantee that won't work.  I'd get 4 single adapters.

[struby]

  More expensive, o well, I think I am gonna get 1 or 2, make sure it works, then get the other 2 or 3, thanks everyone.