KeyWiz Wiring Dilemna - PLEASE ADVISE!

[tonyarcade]

Ok, I've been talking about building a machine for years...and finally I got an old cab to play with until I get time to build it right. (i.e. I want to play RIGHT now!)

That being said, I'm trying to make use of the existing control panel from I believe a Dark Adventure machine to play games with until I build a better CP.

For those unfamiliar. On this crappy CP, there is one joystick with two buttons on each side of it. They are a red fire and a yellow weapon button for a left-handed player, and the same for a right (i.e. the two yellow are daisy chained together).

Anyways, I got the buttons all wired to the Keywiz right, but I CAN'T GET THE JOYSTICK TO WORK!!!

On the stick, There is a black ground wire to all sticks and buttons, and then a separate color wire for each terminal on the stick. I noticed they were attached to NC unstead of NO, so when they didn't work, I rewired them to NO to see if that did the trick. No luck! The black ground is run to COM on the sticks....

On the other end, I wired each terminal (Up, Down, Left, Right) to the U1, D1, L1, and R1 on the KeyWiz. No such luck!

AM I SUPPOSED TO WIRE TO SOMETHING ELSE? WHAT AM I MISSING HERE??

Please help.

-Tony

[ArtMAME]

Do you know if the switches on the sticks were working before you wired them up?

Get your multimeter and check for continuity between the ground and NO contacts when you press the buttons.

I just salvaged some buttons from a conversion panel and just about every one of the cherry switches was rotten.  Did not think those switches could go bad but they do sometimes...

[tonyarcade]

I have no idea. It just seems so weird that the buttons work and every terminal on the stick doesn't.
My thought is that the whole thing is shot (i.e. burned out or whatever, I'm not a wiring expert by ANY means), or I have it wired to the wrong Keywiz terminals.

-Tony

[RandyT]

I have no idea. It just seems so weird that the buttons work and every terminal on the stick doesn't.
My thought is that the whole thing is shot (i.e. burned out or whatever, I'm not a wiring expert by ANY means), or I have it wired to the wrong Keywiz terminals.

-Tony

Send me an email and we'll work through the issue.  We test every interface we sell 100% before putting it in the box to ship, so barring a static zap or some other unfortunate occurrence, the interface should be fine (if it was just recently purchased from us, that is.)   

RandyT

[tonyarcade]

Randy:
Is your email broken? it keeps bouncing back.

I still can't get the old joystick to work. I had grounds and wires running to the old stick, but no dice.

Could you help me problem solve this?

I sent emails with pics. Basically, the black wire is grounded. I hooked up new wires with quick disconnects to the NO spots on each directional and then the UDLR on the keywiz.

-Tony

[Guaranos]

Are you sure MAME is set for those particular keystrokes to move up/down/left/right?  Maybe your config is messed up.

[shock_]

Take the stick out of the equation and check the Keywiz first of all.

If you connect the wire from the p1-up terminal directly to the ground terminal, the keywiz should act like you're holding down a key (ie holding the stick in "up").  If you open notepad and try the same thing with the p2-up terminal, you'd see "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" etc.

If you're getting a response from a single wire connecting the UDLR terminals with ground on the keywiz, then the only other things it could be are 1) dead switches in the stick or 2) the actuator in the stick isn't actually making the switch engage its contact, maybe because the little lever is bent too far over or something silly like that. 

Sounds infuriating to me !!

[RandyT]

Randy:
Is your email broken? it keeps bouncing back.

It has been a little quiet, but the spammers seem to be getting through     If you don't mind, PM me a copy of one of the bounce messages so I can see what's happening.

I still can't get the old joystick to work. I had grounds and wires running to the old stick, but no dice.

Could you help me problem solve this?

I sent emails with pics. Basically, the black wire is grounded. I hooked up new wires with quick disconnects to the NO spots on each directional and then the UDLR on the keywiz.

shock_ had some good advice.  You might want to consider getting an inexpensive OHM meter and check for continuity between the terminals of the switches when both actuated and static.  It is an old stick, so who know what condition those switches are in.

Since you stated that your buttons were working, take the wires from a known working button and connect them to one of the switches on the stick.  What happens when you actuate the switch? 

Also, how are you testing for output?  Notepad isn't going to show cursor movement unless it is full of text.

Try sending the email again.  It may have been a momentary issue with the ISP.

RandyT

[Fozzy The Bear]

I have no idea. It just seems so weird that the buttons work and every terminal on the stick doesn't.
My thought is that the whole thing is shot (i.e. burned out or whatever, I'm not a wiring expert by ANY means), or I have it wired to the wrong Keywiz terminals.

-Tony

Tony.... Because none of the stick switches are registering, I would strongly suspect a fault in the common (Ground) wire......

1) Check the switches on the stick with a meter first to see that they work.
2) Check continuity between one of the ground terminals at the stick end and the other end of the ground wire.  I think this is where your fault is.

Just as a final check, you have connected this ground wire to the ground terminal on the keywiz haven't you???

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[tonyarcade]

I figured it out!

The "ground" wire, which my electrician friend said is really a "neutral" was not hooked up properly to the stick.

I rewired new ground wires to it and then spliced in to the existing ground, and wa-lah! The only problem is the stick doesn't seem to be sitting in properly (too much slack), so I put some washers in and it seems to be OK. (there was too much clicking sound before).

Now if I can just figure out the front end part I can play on.

I'm a classic gamer by nature, so I'm sticking to MAME32 with a simple emulator for now. Baby steps... Wish me luck!

-Tony

[tonyarcade]

I meant simple frontend.

[Fozzy The Bear]

I meant simple frontend.

Mame32 is the front end for Mame32..... It's built into it.

If you want a more arcade type frontend, then use regular version mame and a separate frontend.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[RandyT]

I figured it out!

The "ground" wire, which my electrician friend said is really a "neutral" was not hooked up properly to the stick.

"Neutral" is an AC term.  You are working with a  DC circuit, so he is incorrect.

Glad to hear you got it figured out

RandyT

[tonyarcade]

What would a regular version MAME be? Mame 1.15 or .115 (whatever it is) from mame.net?

Which version would you suggest grabbing?

[Hoopz]

You need to make sure the version of mame that you are using matches the rom(s) version that you have.