what have i done wrong????

[allroy1975]

 
I've had my cab working for 3 or 4 months now and (naturally) haven't stopped working on it yet.  Recently I've been having some trouble with my CP.  First it was just a 4 Player CP.  Then I added a Trackball and a Spinner.  The I got 2 Mounting Plates and restrictor plates from oscar.
Here is what I'm seeing happen, but have no idea WHY it's happening:
sometimes, if I push UP on my joystick (player 1) about 3/4 of the way up it will stop, then start again.  Maybe a better way to explain this issue is to say....In Windows if I start on the desktop on the top left icon, and hit down 7 times, the arrow will move down 7 icons.  then if I hit it back up on the way up it hits the up arrow 2 times, and one more time on it's way back to the center position....almost like there are 2 up buttons when I push up.  

Tonight I noticed (mostly on player 2) that sometimes in Donkey Kong I'll be running left or right and when I hit the jump button, Mario just jumps straight up.  That makes the game pretty unplayable.  

I unwisly used CAT 5 solid wire to wire all the buttons.  I don't know if there's a lose connection and I should rewire everything, or if this is a sign of a bad optipac, or if my microswitches are bad?

I can't think of how to troubleshoot this.  I've also messed around with the MAME/ALT jumper on my IPAC 4.  is there a difference between using it PS2 or USB?

I'm frustrated, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Matt

[HeadRusch]

Hmmm...have you tried replacing the microswitch?

or just swapping it out?  Also look at the actuator that hits the switch, make sure its not bent in some weird way that casues the switch to actuate "twice" by going in, slipping out, and going in again..

Thats a mechanical check you can do anyhow....

[allroy1975]

well, On Player 1 I was having that problem when going up, so I replaced the MS.  It seemed to fix the problem, but I haven't had it that long and to have 2 go bad in a week seems bad...and I took the MS apart and it looks like it's working fine.  That kinda makes me think it's a wiring problem, and just messing around with the wiring while swapping the MS fixed the problem.  I'm prolly gonna get all new female disconnects and stranded wire and rebuild the whole thing.  You can imagine how much I'm looking forward to that....ugh.
The actuators all look fine.  I think I'm gonna try to stop by Lowes tonight and grab more female disconnects and some wire.  
seems strange that I'd have 2 such similar problems so close together...maybe my wire is all falling apart...
I dunnno...
thanks though
Matt

[SirPeale]

Well, the good news is I sell female disconnects.  Check my .sig

[allroy1975]

well, the good news for me...bad news for you?
Lowes sells 20 for like a buck seventy.  So I got them Saturday.  
I re-wired my WHOLE control Pane using something like 22 guage Stranded wires.  So far, I haven't had any more problems....knock on cab...
cya
matt