@thereincarnator Hi! Sorry for this delayed reply. I just sent you a replay to your email!
We will make it work!

@tacticaltoast I need to take a look into Manjaro - I have not tested the driver with it before. I am sure that the PowerBlock will also work with it. Probably switching the driver to systemd will solve it (comparable to how the ControlBlock driver is installed, https://github.com/petrockblog/ControlBlockService2/blob/master/scripts/insertLine.sh#L15).

I will come back here soon!

@efrank Hi! It should. I still need to test it out with the newest Volumio distribution, though. Thanks for the hint! On vanilla Buster Raspbian it is working.

@douga Glad to hear that things are working for you now!

@paradoxx Hi - I am glad to hear that things are working for you again. Hard to say, what might have caused your issue in hindsight.

@mitu Thanks a lot for the assistance!

@petrockblog, I took a chance, from reading from other posts, to no connect the PowerBlock directly to the RPI but instead run wires to the respective pins. Thanks for the advice as it works as expected with my UPS. Not sure if you've thought about this but I think it would be a good idea to sell the PowerBlock without the black 12 pin connector (as an option) and allow users to solder. I guess users could just solder it off if needed. Anyway. Thanks for you help.

I am afraid that you need to switch it back each time. The PowerBlock only listens to a certain GPIO signal that cannot be manipulated for the reboot process AFAIK.
Theoretically, I could be possible by modifying the current firmware of the PowerBlock and reprogramming it, if you are into that ...

@paul_uk I used to have a spare button assigned to TAB, so it is indeed possible.

From memory, you should have your spare button assigned to something in Retroarch (I believe this can be done from Emulationstation) that won't be used by a lot of games: mine was R3, for example.

Then configure Mame to show the menu upon pressing R3 instead of TAB (which can be done in that very same menu TAB brings up) and your spare button is mapped.

EDIT: just to note, this wasn't with controlblock. All my buttons are connected to an RPi with a Dragonrise usb-encoder, so I don't know if your setup will work the same...

I've waited a week and aeverything just works fine again...

Nevermind, it's solved. Problem was in the connectors...
Topic can be deleted.

Based on information provided in another post, it appears that PowerBlock is not compatible with Pi 400.

Info from other post: "The PowerBlock provides power to the GPIO pins 2 and 4 switched via a power switch IC.
The Pi 400, though, cannot be powered via it's GPIO pins, see https://www.hackster.io/news/raspberry-pi-400-design-change-puts-an-end-to-battery-power-gpio-add-on-boards-770826a23ed9.".

Thanks for your response - very helpful.

I'm a stubborn SOB...do you think it would be possible to connect this (https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/sparkfun-electronics/BOB-15100/9770720) to the PowerBlock to send power from the PowerBlock via USB-C to the Pi 400? I could then connect the relevant pins from PowerBlock to the Pi 400 (pins 5 and 6, I assume) and pins 2 and 4 to the BOB-15100 (USB-C adapter I linked to).

Alternatively, I may just have to purchase a regular Pi 4...

I want the external power button as I'm planning to put the Pi within a custom-built arcade. I bought the Pi 400 thinking this would be easier (with the built-in keyboard)....but I'm beginning to see that maybe that's not the case.

@petitssuisses Sorry if this reply is too late.
I would go for a new gamepad type to keep the existing in its current state as fallback. You could start with a copy of the MAMEGamepad.cpp file.

@auriuman78 I too, am having this exact issue. Controller is fresh out of the box. If I remove the voltage pin, I get inputs appearing on all buttons (ON) through jstest. Did you have any luck with it?

@lostless thanks!

Took a slightly different approach and called the multi-switch shutdown script from etc/powerblockswitchoff.sh So that I’d keep the main driver intact.

Thanks again! This was something so simple that I overlooked. Totally missed that the script could issue the necessary ES shutdown without tying it to a physical switch.

@petrockblog Excellent, thank you for the information!

@andros5000 said in Spinner and Trackball Suggestions:

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I have this https://dreamauthentics.com/product/tornado-spinner/ for my arcade machine. It works great with Tempest. I do not have a Trackball but I was looking at this https://www.ultimarc.com/trackballs-and-spinners/ as a possible solution.