Ultrastick 360 has a mind of its own ! need help

[david656]

i have 2 U360's in my cab and only today after months since i did the quite out of the box test have i noticed that one of them tends to totaly fly upwards with out even touching it ! and in pac-man it flys right ! its anoying because you just cannot play games and get round the corners with out it either jamming or going the wrong way or just bouncing back !

im thinking about getting the tuffer springs BUT it still shouldn't do this!

i have always been very happy with Andy and the guys at Ultimarc so hope i can get this sorted soon

thanks

[Donkey_Kong]

One thing to do is get a hold of Andy, but I might be able to help as I have had similar issues that turned out to be my own fault.

First, how do you have them setup? Restrictors, or none? (sometimes restrictors can be installed incorrectly which could cause this type of behavior)

When you play pacman...are you playing with the stick programmed to 4-way mode (correct way) or some another mode? analog, 8 way?

[david656]

I have no restrictors setup on them at present and i did have a problem with the original board on that joystick as the little black cover was raised at an angle but it took me a while to get round to changing it to the new board i got and i think that my teacher showing off what his students could do was wiggling the joystick about a bit and there was a clear ground down mark on the black cover ... could that of damaged the magnet ?

as for the modes the wierdest thing is in the Ultramap test screens its never drifting or doing anything it shouldn't its just when its in mamewah or mame itself .... there is also a problem in frogger where the frog jumps forward of the log on to the next log and then jumps straight back !

i haven't fiddled too much with the modes but i believe its on either 4 or 8 way atm ... i plan to loook into the loading all the different modes before the game with mamewah but if the joysticks are going to play up i might just not bother ! at the moment everyone who has played it (bout 4 people) have said that the joysticks are just all wrong and would prefer a swiitched joystick so at least you know its either on or off and not floating in the middle !

thanks again for your time

[Ginsu Victim]

Stronger springs will help with it bouncing the wrong way. Even with my stronger spring, Pac-man still goes the wrong way occasionally if I let off the stick too hard.

Since you have no restrictor, it's travelling further back to center and flying the opposite direction really easy with the light spring.

I suggest stronger springs and a restrictor (I use circular).

[fatfingers]

If this is actually your issue (and I'm not sold on it), you can always create a map with a larger "dead-spot" in the center and see if that helps you out.

Stronger springs will help with it bouncing the wrong way. Even with my stronger spring, Pac-man still goes the wrong way occasionally if I let off the stick too hard.

Since you have no restrictor, it's travelling further back to center and flying the opposite direction really easy with the light spring.

I suggest stronger springs and a restrictor (I use circular).

[Donkey_Kong]

I was going to recommend the exact same things as ginsu, but maybe before shelling out the extra dough...just to see, maybe do quick easy testing. Be sure that you are playing these games with the stick programmed to 4-way mode and nothing else. If that doesn't do it...try the restrictor and springs, then lastly there is the slight possibility that your pcb is damaged as you stated earlier. If you get the spring and restrictor, you will not be disappointed, it makes the sticks feel really nice.

Yea guys, he needs to do a little map testing before going nuts. He stated in his second post that he is not 100% sure what mode the stick is in...

[Ginsu Victim]

Another thing that seems easy to miss....make sure the magnet is attached straight. If it's not on right, it might cause issues (I'm not sure about this, but it sounds feasible)

[headkaze]

This may or may not be of help but you could try opening mame.ini and playing with the following. I remember someone mentioning it helping them.

Code: [Select]

joystick_map              auto
joystick_deadzone         0.3
joystick_saturation       0.85
Also AFAIK these joysticks should not be calabrated (correct me if I'm wrong), and the only way I know of to reset calibration is using the program Clear Calibration Utility

Another thing to try, is to load up UltraMap and set your joysticks to mouse emulation. If they are getting stuck you will probably see the mouse cursor move around on it's own.

[AndyWarne]

Can you drop me an email about this. I suspect the most likely cause is, as HeadKaze mentioned, a calibration setting incorrect. In Windows, they should always be left as default, so you can go into Control Panel, Game Controllers and reset to default in there.
Then try testing the stick thoroughly in that screen.
If you have UltraMap set for a restrictor being fitted this could be another cause.
andy@ultimarc.com

[mark6437]

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=5698&hl=u360