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Pole Position MAME?
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SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: ArtMAME on May 16, 2008, 02:39:31 pm ---Now the shifter on the original PP only has 1 microswitch, and it stays either ON or OFF to control the Hi/Lo gear in the original game.  Now the standard version of MAME does not support the ON/OFF shifter scheme of the Pole Position shifter.  If you just hook up standard compile of MAME, you will have to change gears by moving the shifter DownUpDown or UpDownUp depending on which way you have it wired.  You will not be able to switch gears by just moving the shifter Up for Hi and Down for Lo.
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I don't have my laptop to look it up, but I'm pretty sure there is an IC that will give you the ON/ON state you're looking for. Something like a really simple PNP transitor and two slots on the encoder might do the trick at a minimum. Or using a NAND IC like the 7400, 7401 or 7403 might do the trick. Less a power filter capacitor (probably not even required) and some soldering time, dead bug it, and you've got yourself a MAME "adapter" that converts your On/OFF switch an ON/ON switch (still takes up two slots on the encoder) for about $1 or $2 US. Something like this HCF40107B with the open collector outputs should fit the bill... no?
deano728:
Wow, Thanks for the detailed explanation.  To think I was so excited about this project - you just crushed my hopes and dreams and left me feeling empty!  hehe.

Well, I have 3 working PP boards and recently had the cabinet rewired with a brand new power supply, so she probably won't die for a while.   I never thought I would be bummed about that.

Let me think about it.  My vision was to be able to play sprint, outrun and all of the cool driving games on my PP cabinet.  I even had visions of wiring up a couple of buttons to play spyhunter.  I do appreciate your offer to help me accomplish this task.

I just had a thought about the shifter.  Can you map each event (up) and (down) to a key through MAME. (Say up is "z" and down is "y")  Is this possible?  I think there are programs you can buy for windows where you can create macro's based off of keyboard commands.  Thus if "Z" is pressed, we could have the macro do "up/down/up" and "y" would do "down/up/down"  I haven't ever looked at the shifter, is there a way to accomplish this and separate the shifter into 2 separate commands?

Dean
ArtMAME:
Sorry dude... just letting you know what I had to go through. 

I got my Pole Position cabinet for $1 at a Superauctions, and it wasn't only merely dead, it was really most sincerely dead... so I did not want to go through the trouble of troubleshooting that, and paying for board repair, and who knows what else... plus I had to vacum all the rat turds out of it, clean up the rat pee... etc...

Anyway, I stripped it completely, and used a couple of mouse hacks to interface everything (I just wired a microswitch button to the pedal where pressing the pedal would actuate the button), and put a thrift store PC in there... got it done for under $100.

I later switched out the monitor for a 19" PC monitor because the Kortek I put in there was having fits.  The revamped Pole Position now now resides at a daycare facility where the kids are enjoying the heck out of that thing.  I may do another PP project later on when I have room for it.

Again, sorry to bum you out, I would say hit Ebay, CL, or the next auction and see if you can get another driving cabinet for cheap and use that for MAMEing.  If you have a nice working Pole Position, the best thing to do is to keep it that way...
ArtMAME:

--- Quote from: deano728 on May 16, 2008, 04:12:09 pm ---
I just had a thought about the shifter.  Can you map each event (up) and (down) to a key through MAME. (Say up is "z" and down is "y")  Is this possible?  I think there are programs you can buy for windows where you can create macro's based off of keyboard commands.  Thus if "Z" is pressed, we could have the macro do "up/down/up" and "y" would do "down/up/down"  I haven't ever looked at the shifter, is there a way to accomplish this and separate the shifter into 2 separate commands?

Dean

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I tried wiring up the NO and NC contacts to separate inputs on the IPAC, but it did not work...  tried a bunch of things... NOTHING!!!

Have not used macros, but I doubt that would work either since you are not really completing a keypress when you hit the NC contact from the alternate position...

You really need a recompiled MAME.exe or you could do what SavannahLion suggested with the ICs...  but that gets a little deep... you would need a breadboard, some soldering skills, some components, and some patience... and still if it has not been tried, you still don't know if it will work...

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: ArtMAME on May 16, 2008, 05:03:36 pm ---but that gets a little deep... you would need a breadboard, some soldering skills, some components, and some patience... and still if it has not been tried, you still don't know if it will work...

--- End quote ---

You can, but you won't need it. I may be wrong, but a resistor and capacitor to smooth out incoming voltage to power the IC (split from the USB might be a good source) and the IC itself. With three parts, there's almost no point in using a breadboad, deadbug it and voila. If you're building a decent cab, a soldering iron is a good idea to have and it's good practice.
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