[Fixed] Defender/Stargate controls go wonky on JROK

[alfonzotan]

I've had a @jrok card in my Defender cab for several years now. When I fired it up yesterday, I found to my consternation that the game controls are suddenly all messed up for Defender and Stargate. The Thrust button now triggers Reverse, and Fire is now Hyperspace. The other buttons (not counting 1p and 2p) do nothing.

The weird part: when I pull up the JROK button service page, every button checks out correctly. Joust plays fine. Blaster and Sinistar, buttons are bad. I have a switcher in this cab going over to a Moon Patrol stack, and controls are all fine there. Joysticks are fine across the board. I connected directly to the JROK today, bypassing the switcher, and get the same behavior.

Never heard of this one before. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: Just a settings issue; the Button Map Scheme in the System Settings was on Multi Williams; it should have been on Standard, with the Robotron and Splat joysticks set up accordingly. Thanks to @jrok for getting in touch.

 

[fleckopolis]

try one of these?

 

[alfonzotan]

try one of these?

I've kind of got that already, with the controls test screen on the JROK. Everything checks out there. Really weird.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

there is a setting for how you want the controls to be mapped, depending on your controls setup. Two different options to how the controls are mapped. I would check to see if that got somehow changed....

 

[fleckopolis]

I've kind of got that already, with the controls test screen on the JROK. Everything checks out there. Really weird.

the tester should show if a button is locked on/grounded. its a must have for troubleshooting
I had a problem once with a JROK. an input buffer needed to be replaced

 

[alfonzotan]

there is a setting for how you want the controls to be mapped, depending on your controls setup. Two different options to how the controls are mapped. I would check to see if that got somehow changed....

I did check that, and the setting is correct for this setup.

 

[VectorCollector]

JROK can be fussy on the +5VDC voltage applied to it. Just sayin'.

And, does the board switcher always apply power to both boards or does it only apply power to the selected board?
(Yes, I do realize you did test also without the switcher. I always wonder if an "always powered both boards" switcher is better/worse than an "only board selected is powered" switcher, i.e. transients causing damage/corruption etc. The power supply only provides a few 100mA for the JROK on 5V whereas a MP boardset would be in the range of a few amps therefore implying various voltage drops in your system (due to resistive drops vs amps drawn), where each board type would see more/less voltage on the logic volage rail - so, what type of power supply are you using?). YMMV

 

[alfonzotan]

JROK can be fussy on the +5VDC voltage applied to it. Just sayin'.

And, does the board switcher always apply power to both boards or does it only apply power to the selected board?
(Yes, I do realize you did test also without the switcher. I always wonder if an "always powered both boards" switcher is better/worse than an "only board selected is powered" switcher, i.e. transients causing damage/corruption etc. The power supply only provides a few 100mA for the JROK on 5V whereas a MP boardset would be in the range of a few amps therefore implying various voltage drops in your system (due to resistive drops vs amps drawn), where each board type would see more/less voltage on the logic volage rail - so, what type of power supply are you using?). YMMV

Yeah, I'll check that. It's a new-ish Happ Power Pro.

This particular switcher (RiddledTV) powers one board at a time.

 

[alfonzotan]

Eased the source power all the way down to just under 5v, no change. Moon Patrol still works fine, and just for grins I swapped in a BitKit2 in horizontal mode, and its controls are also fine.

Still suspect some kind of weirdness in the JROK, which of course is a surprise: their reputation for bulletproof-edness is legendary and well-earned.

 

[Phetishboy]

Eased the source power all the way down to just under 5v, no change. Moon Patrol still works fine, and just for grins I swapped in a BitKit2 in horizontal mode, and its controls are also fine.

Still suspect some kind of weirdness in the JROK, which of course is a surprise: their reputation for bulletproof-edness is legendary and well-earned.

I had one like this, probably 15 years ago now. Everybody gave me the same advice they gave you, including James himself. Eventually, after going through all the troubleshooting with him, he finally relented and took the board back and realized there was something wrong with the control interface or programming on the board he had never seen before, and was able to fix it. He was a lot more active back then and I'm not sure how active he is now, but it's certainly worth a shot to contact him and see if he'd be able to look at it for you.

 

[Cmndr Brain]

I've always wondered... When you get the board brand new, you have to load your own roms. Is it possible that it's just corrupt memory and need to erase and reload the rom files?
@jrok is really a great guy. I had a problem w/ my original board and he took it back and found the fpga wasn't soldered properly. A couple of the pins
were not lined up correctly on the pads. I think, he re-flowed the chip and it's been rock solid ever since.

 

[alfonzotan]

I had one like this, probably 15 years ago now. Everybody gave me the same advice they gave you, including James himself. Eventually, after going through all the troubleshooting with him, he finally relented and took the board back and realized there was something wrong with the control interface or programming on the board he had never seen before, and was able to fix it. He was a lot more active back then and I'm not sure how active he is now, but it's certainly worth a shot to contact him and see if he'd be able to look at it for you.

Thanks. Had it worked for a while, and then suddenly went weird, in your case?

 

[Phetishboy]

Thanks. Had it worked for a while, and then suddenly went weird, in your case?

Well, he tests every board so it obviously worked before it left him, and I had it for a few years before I used it. By the time I did, I think it already had the issue.

 

[alfonzotan]

there is a setting for how you want the controls to be mapped, depending on your controls setup. Two different options to how the controls are mapped. I would check to see if that got somehow changed....

Cliffy was correct all along: this was a settings issue; the Button Map Scheme in the System Settings was on Multi Williams; it should have been on Standard, with the Robotron and Splat joysticks set up accordingly. How that setting got changed I have no idea, but lacking anybody else to blame, I'm going to guess I did it my own dumb self.

Thanks to @jrok for getting in touch.

 

[Cmndr Brain]

Cliffy was correct all along: this was a settings issue; the Button Map Scheme in the System Settings was on Multi Williams; it should have been on Standard, with the Robotron and Splat joysticks set up accordingly. How that setting got changed I have no idea, but lacking anybody else to blame, I'm going to guess I did it my own dumb self.

Thanks to @jrok for getting in touch.