I managed to fix my issue with unplugging and plugging it back in.

Thank you @petrockblog , I found out the switch I used was a normally on momentary switch, and I expected it to be normally off. I've had those switches forever in my components to reuse bin. I never bothered to measure with multimeter based on the fact that pressing it did shut down Retropie as I expected. This one's totally on me and sorry to bug you, I appreciate you helping out.

@antomost I can only second @mitu 's advice.

@erik-m Ok, I pushed a fix a minute ago. Something changed with the system execution. I updated it accordingly.

@petrockblog thanks.

The powerblock arrived quicker than expected, and removing the mausberry script is easy enough.

so that's what I did.

I know that by default they use different pins, but that can be changed in the configuration settings or simply connect to the same pins.

The mausberry pins are labeled IN and OUT and the powerblock pins are labeled S1 and S2

so it is just a matter of testing if IN means S1 and if OUT means S2 - or the other way around.

that'll be a test for another day. For now it is working with the default powerblock installed bash.

On a side note, it would be nice if the 2x6 female header was offered optionally as unsoldered for those of us that don't use it and want the board to sit low and flat in the case.

Sorry for this delayed reply.

What does the ControlBlock installation do, if you you run the ControlBlock installation directly from the command line via

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petrockblog/ControlBlockService2/master/install.sh | sudo bash

(see https://github.com/petrockblog/ControlBlockService2#quick-installation)

Do you observe the same behavior?
Can you post the link to the OS image that you are using, so that I can try to replicate the error?

@Sabaro my problem.... I set the cable wrong
1 2 3 4. 4321.

I am sorry, must have overlooked your question.
Do you still have this issue? I could take a look into it then.

Hi, interesting project idea!
In case of simulating a controller towards a console it depends on the protocol and submission speeds.
Generally, you can control the GPIO pins of the ControlPins via the SPI interface of the Raspberry. As long as SPI is fast enough for your use case, things should work.
Hope that helps!

@mitu Hey, that did the trick, thank you very much, sir !!!!

@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 ...