@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.

@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.

@djmoss I am so glad that things are working for you now. Happy Holidays!

I had tried all 3 methods on my pi 3. I used the manual cmake steps, I had tried the wget install.sh method, and I had also tried the GUI option in the retroarch "optional package" menu. I ran into no errors during any method, but nothing worked. Nothing was responsive in jstest. When performing the GUI option pi 2.5, it worked. (I didn't try other 2 methods on the pi 2.5 as my first attempt worked).

I think its my pi. I bought it a few years ago and this was my first time trying to use the GPIO headers. I downloaded a pigpiod GPIO test script and it identified some of my pins as bad. I think I'll grab a pi 4.0 in the near future.

I made a video going over my gamepad design if anyone is curious.

Ok with the new recent version of amiberry it is possible to toggle the autofire on one button but it is still not possible to play the game with this because 3 types of buttons are needed:

Firebutton 1
Firebutton 1 toggle autofire
Firebutton 2

Is it possible to configure this to the gamepad buttons to 3 e.g. A, B, X? I can't find anything to setup a key for autofire.

Thank you for your help.

RetroPie is v4.7.1 Released November 4, 2020.
PI3 B+, SDXD-16GB ,
2x Logitech F710 Gamepads
keyboard + mouse are also connected

@vabchgent The orders are usually shipped within five working days. Shipping to the US then can vary between two and six weeks as I was reported from other customers. I keep my fingers crossed that your order arrives as soon as possible!

Hi!
Yes, in general, that is possible. I know from several customers that they did exactly that.

Can you show an image of your hardware setup?
Instead of using a switch you could try and only short-circuit the switch pins on the PowerBlock with, e.g., a jumper. That should turn in the Pi.
Does that change anything?

@tsarevfs Hi, unfortunately, the PowerBlock does not provide this capability because it does not loop through the data lines of the USB connector.

I am so glad to hear that :-)