T-Stick Plus Help

[Razor]

Something weird has happened to my T-Stick Plus, it was working perfectly up until last night, when I took the control panel off to get inside, for some reason pressing "right" on the joystick isnt working.  As far as I can see no connections have been dislodged. 

Im connected to a minipac and thought it may be a problem with that at first, but I actually wiped all commands and re-programmed and still nothing (all other buttons and joystick inputs are working fine still at a windows level and in mame)

Anyone got any ideas, im pretty stumped and T-Stick has hardly had any use.

[destructor]

Do you hear (or see under panel) microswitch "click" when you move stick to right direction?

1. You can connect wires from right switch to left, and from left to right - don;t change it on I-PAC, change only at T-Stik microswitches. Now check if after move stick to right direction you get left.

2. The same as 1 but change wires on I-PAC only, not at T-Stik microswitches. And check what happen.

[Razor]

Okay mate thanks, ill try these things and let you know the outcome, the only problem with no 2 is I cant change the wires on the minipac end as all wires just go into a single connection which is plugged into the top of it.  Ill try 1 now though.

[Razor]

Okay I swapped the left/right wires over at the joystick end and still pressing right does nothing, does that mean its a problem with the microswitch?

[destructor]

Okay I swapped the left/right wires over at the joystick end and still pressing right does nothing, does that mean its a problem with the microswitch?

Yes.

[Razor]

Sadly not, I swapped the microswitch over and still getting the same problem, now I really have no idea apart from trying to re-program the minipac again to see if its that.

[Kaytrim]

Don't forget to check your MAME config.  I had a similar problem with another control and that is where the problem was.

[Razor]

Hi its not working at a windows level, even before mame.  I tried the alternate method of programming the minipac using "Cntrl-Alt-P" and when trying to program the "right" direction it wont even allow me to do that, which would point to the microswitch in my eyes, but as I said ive swapped it around with a brand new one 

[Razor]

Okay ive just totally wiped out all registry entries to the minipac, and reprogrammed from scratch again, still wont let me press right to even program it.  I tried a third microswitch, just in case it was possible I had 2 duds, but still no joy.  If the wires are working okay and the problem doesnt lie with the microswitches, does that mean its the minipac?  If so I dont understand how, ive checked the minipac over just in case, I cant see anything thats broken, or any bent pins.

[BobA]

Since you have gone over the switches and the minipac multiple times and still have a problem with the right switch on the jstick you might want to check the wiring again.  If you connected to the microswitch with connectors maybe the crimp has come loose and the wires are not making good contact.  If you have a connector on the minipac end maybe a wire has come unseated there.  To check from joystick to minipac you could use a dvm or multimeter to measure the continuity across the switch by measureing ohms between the connector pin that the right joy stick contact is on and ground.

Did you make your own cable or did you purchase the ultimarc cable?

[destructor]

Connect wire' connectors (GND and RIGHT), without connect it to microswitch. Touch it.

[Razor]

Since you have gone over the switches and the minipac multiple times and still have a problem with the right switch on the jstick you might want to check the wiring again.  If you connected to the microswitch with connectors maybe the crimp has come loose and the wires are not making good contact.  If you have a connector on the minipac end maybe a wire has come unseated there.  To check from joystick to minipac you could use a dvm or multimeter to measure the continuity across the switch by measureing ohms between the connector pin that the right joy stick contact is on and ground.

Did you make your own cable or did you purchase the ultimarc cable?

Hi thanks for your reply, in between posting the last message and this one, I did a restart on the machine and now none of the inputs are working at all in notepad and further more using the cntrl alt p method I am now unable to program anything, its simply not recognising any buttons or movement to actually assign a key to it.  I've looked over the wiring briefly but havent been able to find anything wrong, I dont have a multimeter here, but I can get hold of one and give it a thorough check soon though.  I didnt make my own cables no, I brought the minipac with a wiring harness.

[Razor]

Further update, unplugged the minipac and plugged in again, got all the buttons and joystick directions working again apart from the right still.  Will still try the multimeter soon though.

[destructor]

Touch (connect) GND and RIGHT connectors (these from microswitches). When you can move in game to right by touching these wires then it knows that wires are OK.

[Razor]

Touch (connect) GND and RIGHT connectors (these from microswitches). When you can move in game to right by touching these wires then it knows that wires are OK.

Hi im not sure ill be able to do that, as theyve got spade connectors on, the actualy wires themselves are inside the spade, will give it a try though.

[destructor]

I say about these silver connectors which are pluged on right microswitch - two.

Remove them from microswitch and connect. If you have cover on silver connectors, use one small wire to connect these.

[Kremmit]

Okay I swapped the left/right wires over at the joystick end and still pressing right does nothing, does that mean its a problem with the microswitch?

Yes.

No!  If you switched the wires, and the culprit was the microswitch, "Right" would have started working and left would've quit.  This shows that your problem is either in the wiring, encoder, or software.  The switch is eliminated, as it works fine when connected to the other wires.

Im connected to a minipac and thought it may be a problem with that at first, but I actually wiped all commands and re-programmed and still nothing (all other buttons and joystick inputs are working fine still at a windows level and in mame)

Hi its not working at a windows level, even before mame.  I tried the alternate method of programming the minipac using "Cntrl-Alt-P" and when trying to program the "right" direction it wont even allow me to do that, which would point to the microswitch in my eyes, but as I said ive swapped it around with a brand new one 

That pretty much elimates software as the issue- wiring and encoder are left.

The easiest way to find out which it is:

• Make a note of which pins on the MiniPac header (the pins the wiring harness plugs in to) correspond to "Ground" and "Right". 
• Unplug the wiring harness.
• Get a piece of wire, a few inches is enough.  Strip both ends.
• With the MiniPac plugged in to the computer, touch one end of the wire to the "Ground" pin, and the other end to the "Right" pin.

If the computer sees the keypress, it's the wiring.  If it doesn't, it's the encoder.

[destructor]

Okay I swapped the left/right wires over at the joystick end and still pressing right does nothing, does that mean its a problem with the microswitch?

Yes.

No!

If he move joystick to right, swap wires, move joystick to right again then it knows that something wrong is with microswitch.

But after swap wires he move joystick to left yes, it's no microswitch problem.

"pressing right" in Razor' words isn't clear.