I recently ordered two and had a great experience. Shipping from Germany to the US took about 10 days, but that's not anything he can control.

I plan to buy more when I have additional projects.

@thrillho87 I had no issues passing wire through the pins.

@Mikester said in ControlBlock does not work:

Thanks for your reply.

It works! I tried to uninstall everythink and followed the steps. This time I was succesful.

Thanks for your help

When you say that you "uninstalled everything" are you talking about uninstalling/reinstalling RetroPie and everything as well? Or just the ControlBlock stuff?

Mine was working fine, and then stopped and is behaving exactly as you describe. I tried removing all the ControlBlock stuff and reinstalling but the problem persists. The only thing I can think of is to do a clean install of the entire OS...I just really don't look forward to going through all of that again.

I suggest to continue the discussion in your other thread at https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/8155/controlblock-not-functioning-properly.

@Loren said in 2 questions.:

How do I completely remove the powerblock software (per say) from retropie. I built a SNES with one, but then flashed my image to another card for a different build and I don't need/want it on that build. Is there any way this can be done?

You can find instructions for uninstalling the PowerBlock driver at https://github.com/petrockblog/PowerBlock#uninstalling-the-service-andor-the-binary.

I also wanted 4player functionality but I didn't want to mount 4 joysticks. So I made a 2 joystick machine and installed 2 USB inputs in the front of the cabinet for two others to play via a USB controller like a PS4 controller.

However your idea of 4 joysticks would be cool too. It depends if you want ball or batt style joysticks. For ball, the senwas are good. For batt, the happ.

The answer is yes. The issue might be finding the right power adapter the fit the plug as the OEM adapter for the nes was 9v, 1amp.

This is exactly what I did. I used wire that was probably to thick so it seemed like an easier way to do it.

I have a miniature sliding switch with 3 pins, I just soldered negative to the end pin and positive to the middle pin. I then covered the remaining exposed pin in hot glue to avoid any misdemeanours, and so if i removed the switch i knew which pin to use again. It's not a really clear photo, but you can see it in my picture here.

Unfortunately i'm in the UK, and I can't actually find it on their website, but my local Maplin (electrical hobby store) had one on the shelf, was about £2.

:: Edit - Switch I purchased is this one (it is tiny) ::

@petrockblog said in setting controlBlock service to gamepadtype: mame ?:

Yes, it will exactly do what you have written.

Thank you for your reply!

The answer is very similar :-) Try to follow the steps given at https://github.com/petrockblog/PowerBlock#powerblock-driver. It would be great, if you would post the outcome here.

@petrockblog thank you for that! Worked like a charm. The PowerBlock is truly a necessity for me, and once I'm done with my pet project, I'll be sure to share.

I use https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Wireless-Electrical-Household-Appliances/dp/B00DQDJJKU/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1482085935&sr=8-20-spons&keywords=power+switch+wireless&psc=1 and it works pretty well.

Yes, you need two ControlBlocks to support 4 players. The capability for stackable ControlBlocks was recently added.

From others I know that shipping from Germany to the US usually takes around two weeks. Customs can add some additional delay on that. So far, we do not have any retailer in the US, sorry.

@GtBFilms Fantastic, thank you very much!

You could adapt the driver according to your needs. As far as I understand you would need to adapt the classes DigitalIn and/or DigitalOut, see https://github.com/petrockblog/ControlBlockService2/tree/master/src/controlblock/hal.

There was a recent update of the driver. Maybe things are working for you with that then?

And glad to hear it is working for you now!