Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: RobbyMac on February 02, 2010, 10:23:02 pm
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I may have fried my ipac-4 :banghead:
Or at least one input.
Most inputs to ground measure 9meg resistance or more. But the input I may have fried is measuring 62k. p1 joy up to ground.
Might anyone be so kind as to throw a multimeter at theirs and let me know what resistance they get on theirs?
I-pac 4. version 2908? A? Not sure if there are previous versions out there. It should be fairly new (purchased back in november)
I've got an email in to Andy, but not sure how long it might be before he gets to it.
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I've got an Ipac2; I don't see why it would be different than an Ipac4, and my resistance is 14.64 MΩ
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Thanks. Perhaps I can move it to another input and remap.
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Edited my first post - looks like the resistance changed once I connected it to the computer...
The resistance drops down to about 2.7 MΩ with no power.
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Oops yeah. I Should've stated that was without it being plugged in anywheres.
I will try plugging it in and see what I get.
If it's still too low I'll move that switch to another input and test it out.
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I realize I am digging up an old thread here, but I was wanting to do some testing on the individual circuits on my panel and I couldn't figure out how I was going to do it.
I am a super noob when it comes to electronics . . . When testing resistance as its discussed in this thread are they just probing on the iPac 4 or are they testing a specific switch connected to the IPAC. If I want to test if one of my switches where do I put the probes?
On my control panel, all of the switch connections have been individually soldered. When I test the controls individually they seem to work just fine, however this weekend with three of us going at Gauntlet together, player 3 ended up getting stuck and not being able to move without sort of moving the stick around back and forth a bit. After everyone left, I played exclusively with player 3 and it was kinda shaky - 'up' didn't quite respond and 'left' would get kinda stuck. The buttons were never a problem, and after Donatello had cleared out a bunch of foot clan guards, player 3 seemed to improve and was working like 'normal.' I tested again last night and player 3 seems fine. There is a slight initial wavering of the keystroke when I use the WinIPac tool to test the P3 joystick, but the key press is always solidly registered.
I'm wondering if the solder points on the p3 joystick are loose or something and just was interested in learning how to test them. How could I go about doing this with a multimeter? Is there a better way?
Does the iPac 4 have any kind of limit on how many key inputs it can accept at a time? Is there any reason why increasing the number of simultaneous keystrokes would cause this type of issue?
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The Ipac doesn't have any problems with simultaneous button presses.
If one direction on one player (or multiple directions) are an issue, I'd pop the CP back open again and see if the wire is wired properly, if the wire is hitting another wire or switch somewhere, if the ground came loose, etc.
Did the P3 joy get physically stuck or did the player stop moving? There are different items to troubleshoot depending on what was actually happening.
Considering the rats nest and wiring job that you got from the guy, I'm betting on it being a bad connection or short somewhere.
I think you're going to be better off being some quick disconnects, a few spools of wire, a pair of crimpers and spend an evening or two having a beer and redoing the wiring. It may be a pain up front, but it's going to pay off in the long run. :cheers:
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The joystick was not physically stuck, it continues to spring back into place without issue. . . I haven't really been able to repro on a different game or outside of that one play session, so thats weird. Its like I need 2 friends to agree to stress test the thing with me which makes testing spotty. . . I have more time to sit and think about these problems than I do to actually work on them, so I figured I'd just put it out there and ask, so thanks for your response.
I'm concerned about migrating to crimps because it involves de-soldering all the currently working connections. That sounds like me potentially making things worse, but maybe I'm exaggerating that in my head. I thought that I could learn something about testing these switches and potentially identify one or two troublespots, so i was just wondering how to do such a thing. For instance, if I want to find out if player 1 up is connected as well as player 3 up, could I use the multimeter to measure the volts or ohms when up was pressed and compare? Will I see a difference if one is somehow grounded 'better' than the other? To do such a thing do I connect the leads to the individual switch CN and Ground? If I touch the leads to the actual switch, will it test the wiring at all? Can I break anything by just touching the leads around in there?