Help! i-pac stuck keys. Have I fried it?

[bigpete]

Hi everyone!

So I've got a couple of stuck keys in my cab, setup as follows:
4P, i-pac PS2 interface
dos mame (0.69) and mamewah running on Win98
Each of the 4 players has their own start button, but only 2 coin buttons (connected to coin 1 and coin 3 on the i-pac). Coin buttons are back-lit, running off PC power.

It was working great until i moved it to a friends place. I had to unplug the power to the 2 back-lit coin buttons and may have (ie probably) re-connected them incorrectly, which, with my limited understanding of things electronic, makes me think that the coin 1 and 3 i-pac connectors might have been fried.

I've gone through the forums and it's helped me diagnose the problem, but I don't know what to do next. The current situation is...
- It starts up fine
- P1/P2 start buttons work but P1 shift seemingly does not -> can't escape, etc.
- Coin 1 and Coin 3 don't work in MAME
- Using the i-pac diagnostic mode (ctrl-alt-P) tells me that coin 1 and coin 3 are in fact stuck
- Here's the bit i don't get... coin 1 and 3 remain in this "stuck" state, even if i unwire them from the i-pac

Help!! Have I buggered up my i-pac? Any advice greatly appreciated!

[postalp123]

I too have an I-PAC 4, recently after moving my cab, it exhibited the same behavior (Some inputs failing/sticking).

My solution was to migrate some of the CP buttons to my spare inputs elswhere on the board, but if you don't have that luxury I would give Andy at Ultimarc a shout, he has great customer service.

Another possibility is in the move some of the buttons' ground connections got bent up too close to the live connections if things were jostled too much. Try physically watching the microswitch as you press the button.

Good Luck!

[tetsu96]

I second that - had a JPAC which started losing inputs, ended up replacing the JPAC chips and it worked fine.  I had a bit of a hard time getting Andy's attention since he was having email issues at the time, but when we connected he was able to tell me what I needed and hook me up with it.

[bigpete]

Thanks for the advice. I've sent an email to Andy with my problem so hopefully he'll have time to offer his thoughts.

postalp123 - yeah, I should check the earthing coz, frankly, my wiring is a bit of a mess, though I suspect if I had stuck any "live" wires to earth I'd be seeing a lot more weird behaviour. I do have spare credit connectors on my I-PAC, but since C1 and C3 are staying stuck whether they're wired or not, I'll need to get to the bottom of that to get it working anyway.

Thanks again - I'll let you know how I get on! (My Robotron finger is getting itchy..)

[Jess--]

I have the same issue with a Jpac (coin 1 stuck) but also the text based programming is scrambled on mine.

think mine took a 12v hit on the coin1 input

[lettuce]

I had issues with my I-PAC4 too. Got in contact with Andy and was very helpful, sent it back and got it fixed. Maybe drop him a email

[Dazz]

Crap... My I-pac4 has started acting strange as well.  I've rewired my control panel a couple times trying to fix this issue, but finally ended up ignoring it.  My issue is that my Player 3 button 2 keeps acting like it is stuck, but it's not...  I ended up just unplugging my player 3 & 4 controls for right now.

[bigpete]

Ok, I got a reply from Andy (very prompt!) and he's said that from the the sounds of things - yep - I've blown the inputs by applying a high voltage from my PC power.

 
stupid! stupid! stupid!

I've learned my lesson anyway - specifically, I should take my time re-wiring these things, no matter how eager I am to show off my cool toy to my touring rock-star friends.

Andy's solution, as a couple of people have already suggested, is to buy a new pair of new I-PAC 4 chips from here: www.ultimarc.com/upgrade.html

Credit card out - to the Internet!

Thanks everyone