Blitz joystick stick help?

theyangman

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So I'm super close to finishing off my blitz 99 setup. I got the monitor back up and working and I've gotten everything dialed in.

But my joysticks won't respond. Like at all.

All the buttons work fine, but the controllers don't do anything when I move them.

I know it's not the i40 board. I swapped boards to my blitz 2000 machine and it fired up and played all four players fine. All the joysticks have also been tested on my blitz 2000 machine and worked fine over there too. So it's not the joys themselves.

When I get to the test menu the cursor just scrolls down constantly. I can manipulate it by unplugging the input or output or power leads and just slightly plugging them back in until it stops on the option I want.

When I enter the switch test menu player 4 is offset to position 42 (down and left are highlighted as if the joystick is pressed on that direction.) As per the photo.

When I unplug the player 4 joystick - no change
When I unplug the player 4 harness from the i40 - no change
When I play with any other the other players, 1 - 3 the player 4 position flutters rapidly.

If I remove any other cables input, output or power, the position lights go off and player 4 returns to center (24)

Funny thing is, when in the test menu and the cursor was scrolling, if I unplug player 4 from the i40, the cursor keeps scrolling.... If I unplug any two of the players though, the scrolling stops....

This seems like it's a stupid thing I'm overlooking but I'm frazzled here trying to figure this out! Please help!



ae2b0557c4b1aa19a19ead630efb934a.jpg
 
So this project really went South fast.

Decided to try and debug by swapping the controller harness from my known working blitz into the non working one to see if it would work.

Well it didn't. And when I replaced the harness back into my known working machine, those joysticks now no longer as well as p3 and p4 buttons all being dead.

The p3 and p4 buttons is a ground issue. When I swap the ground wire over from P2 the button registers on my diagnostic screen. So I must have messed up a ground somewhere. (Not sure how...)

But the joysticks not working on either machine is really disheartening. Now I have two semi broken blitz machines.

Ready to give up on this project.... It's over my head.
 
This ever get fixed?? I'm having the same issue , thinking about buying a new I40 board but not sure if it's the problem... when I fire up my blitz go to the test screen , the joy sticks for for about 1 min ... then stop working ..... very frustrating ... I swapped out the 2 fuses ... still not working
 
Pretty sure you can bypass the i40 board for at least two joysticks and to directly into the Seattle board. Another way of ruling i40 in or out. Also test voltage all the at joystick.
 
I gave up on thr project for the time being. Too many other games needed immediate attention. I did buy 4 spare joysticks and a complete harness right before i shelved this project though. I need to return to this soon.
 
This ever get fixed?? I'm having the same issue , thinking about buying a new I40 board but not sure if it's the problem... when I fire up my blitz go to the test screen , the joy sticks for for about 1 min ... then stop working ..... very frustrating ... I swapped out the 2 fuses ... still not working
Got around to looking at these two machines again. Seem to have different issues now.

Machine 1:

All the buttons are working for all four players. But the joysticks do not respond at all.

Machine 2: player 1 and 2 buttons all work, player 3 and 4 buttons do not. All four joysticks do not work.

Edit: i jumped a ground wire over to player three and now most of the buttons work. Pass and turbo both work fine. The jump button causes the joystick to go "up" on both 3 & 4, and pressing start makes the noise in the test menu but nothing lights up on 3 & 4.

I'm at my wits end with these things....
 
I can't find a manual for blitz 99. Does anyone have link to one?

Mecha states here you can bypass the i40 but it is possible the connectors are keyed differently.
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=3073956&postcount=8

I looked at mine and the on the seattle pcb p3 i/o and p4 i/o are both 15 pins with key at #4, pin #1 =gnd, pretty sure pin #2 is +5v (need to verify).

the more I looked, the wires split and come back together at least 3 times. So even though knowing it is possible it might not be easy just based on the harness and connector. almost need a custom harness to easily test these joysticks.
 
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Im seriously about to smash these two machines into pieces and burn them for scrap. Literally everything works minis the joysticks. Its boots fine and all the buttons work (almost)

Fuhhhhhh
 
I reread your first post and it says you tested all the joysticks in a blitz2k and they all worked, you tested the i40 in your blitz2k and it worked there as well.

So beyond verifying wiring, power and GND to the i40 and then on to the sticks in blitz 99, there isn't much left beyond testing your blitz2k pcb in your 99 cab. Probably lead you down a path that wouldn't matter by trying to bypass the i40 since you already proved the i40 and joysticks work.

Unfortunately, based on this info, your blitz 99 pcb probably has an issue.

I am still hung up on how you can bypass the i40 just for future reference for people that don't have two cabs but don't have a 4 player cab to figure it out.
 

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Whoops and then you said you reported different issues and basically have a scenario where some or all buttons work on both machines but none of the joysticks do.

so yea we are back to needing to verify the joysticks work w/o the i40 involved. BBIB
 
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I think the first step might be is to try and find a known working main PCB and ideally a known working i40...

Which might be easier said than done.

Who has an i40 for sale??? :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:
 
I had a very similar issue with my Blitz '99 years ago. The cursor would be in a continuous scroll in the test menu, and I was ready to pull my hair out as well...I was then told by a fellow KLOV'er to make sure all the fuses were getting proper contact. Low and behold, that turned out to be the issue. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Cheers! 😁
 
I had a very similar issue with my Blitz '99 years ago. The cursor would be in a continuous scroll in the test menu, and I was ready to pull my hair out as well...I was then told by a fellow KLOV'er to make sure all the fuses were getting proper contact. Low and behold, that turned out to be the issue. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Cheers! [emoji16]
Pretty sure i tested continuity on my fuses and they were all good
 
sorry, didn't want to read back all the way through but did you test +5v at the joystick pcb and at the i40? I am just looking at the diagram but the buttons probably bypass the i40 or are not multiplexed like the joysticks.

in other words, buttons don't need +5v but the i40 and joystick pcb does. There is a fuse there.

The chances of all 4 joysticks being bad is slim. I would suspect the i40 if +5v is good.

Also, doesn't hurt to reverify fuse and voltage again, especially if you were plugging and unplugging stuff. Hope you get this fixed.
 
sorry, didn't want to read back all the way through but did you test +5v at the joystick pcb and at the i40? I am just looking at the diagram but the buttons probably bypass the i40 or are not multiplexed like the joysticks.

in other words, buttons don't need +5v but the i40 and joystick pcb does. There is a fuse there.

The chances of all 4 joysticks being bad is slim. I would suspect the i40 if +5v is good.

Also, doesn't hurt to reverify fuse and voltage again, especially if you were plugging and unplugging stuff. Hope you get this fixed.
I reading the voltage coming into the i40 via the red and black wire connector and saw 5 point something. But when i read the joys it had dropped down to 1. Now thats if im reading the joysticks correctly which i might not be. Bit it should be as simple as unplugging one and reading red wire right?
 
I reading the voltage coming into the i40 via the red and black wire connector and saw 5 point something. But when i read the joys it had dropped down to 1. Now thats if im reading the joysticks correctly which i might not be. Bit it should be as simple as unplugging one and reading red wire right?

Yes, assuming your wiring looks like the wiring diagram I posted above, pin 1 (red/+5v) and pin12 (blk/gnd) on the optical pcb.

Wish I had a 4 player to help verify but it looks like the +5v goes into the i40 and then goes out to the joysticks via 9p3-6 on pin 1. If that is true, check +5v there as well, with all joysticks unplugged from i40. If good there, then plug one joystick in at a time and see if one of them is causing the voltage drop.

The other option is the joysticks get their +5v from same line that the i40 does. You just have to trace it out and see where the red wires go.
 
I wonder if I can jump from incoming power wire to the i40 directly to the joysticks.... bypassing the i40 entirely....
 
Did you confirm the joysticks +5v does go to the i40? If so, yes, you could do this. However, I think the likelihood of it fixing anything is remote. If something on the i40 is shorted and preventing +5v to joysticks, probably a good chance the i40 is bad.

Others could chime in here because I don't have experience w/ these boards or 4player setup. Just following along logically as best I can.
 
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