Buttons not working in Emulation Station

mwhitney

Hey Gents -
I'm Mike from BC, Canada. I've run into some issues with my current setup (I'm completely new to RetroPie et al.). My cab is complete and I was ready to plug-and-play but have run into some issues.

What I have:
Latest RPi
Xin Mo 2-player controller
Standard arcade 'Zippy' Joystick
Multiple buttons

THE STORY:

Before building, I set up a dummy CP and had a bunch of games working on a coffee-table setup. No problems.

With the build now complete, the last step was to lock and load the CP and finally play. Dreams were dashed, however as I can't get EmulationStation (ES) to hold onto the settings.

I've ran a 'command line' (terminology may be off) after hitting F4 to erase controller settings and restart ES. All good there.
When ES restarts, the controller config screen pops up - again, all good.
I proceed to run through the setup. The first 4 selections can't be skipped for some reason - those are D-Pad L/R/U/D. I was thinking that I'd want 'Analogue L/R/U/D' to be used for my joystick further down the menu, but with these being taken by the first 4 D-Pad slots, I just skipped the Analogue directional slots. (hope that makes sense).
From there, I have the 3 white buttons and the yellow and then P1 P2. I set P1 / P2 as 'start / select', respectively. I think the order of buttons in the sequence within ES is x,y,a,b or something - so I just went left to right with the whites and set the yellow as 'b' - just for now. Once I get going, I guess the trick would be to slice the wiring so the first white button (fire) and the yellow 'jump' buttons are the same.

Here is a photo of my CP:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Vr624k][img width=768 height=1024]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4280/35070800221_38988a4c73_k.jpg[/img][/url]

I haven't bothered with the two black buttons I've placed underneath the speaker grill return 'yet' - I was thinking these would be 'add credit' buttons or something else I determine I need.

THE PROBLEM:

With this all set, I skip past the last option and 'OK' is highlighted. None of the buttons will trigger the OK function except the first white button. I can only assume the settings are saved, but I don't know for sure.

I've tried both restarting ES from this point and moving back to the ES window with the same results:

I can scroll side to side with the joystick through the ES screens and I can choose a game with that first white button.
However, none of the button functions work in my emulators such as Atari 2600 (very basic, move / shoot) or other games such as SNES

I've gone through this process 6+ times hoping I'll catch something or maybe, magically, it will work. I've also watched YT videos and hit up Google to try to find an answer or a hack but nothing...

Any ideas? I'm at a complete loss.

I appreciate any help you can lend. Better still, if anyone is open to a phone call 'walk thru', I'd be grateful.

Thanks in advance -
Mike

ruckage

@mwhitney

Hi. First that's a lovely looking control panel, would love to see the rest of the cabinet :).

I've ran a 'command line' (terminology may be off) after hitting F4 to erase controller settings and restart ES. All good there.

Can I ask what was your reason for doing this? You can actually re-map the controls from within emulation station. I wonder if it's possible something has gone wrong by doing this manually - I can't be sure though.

I proceed to run through the setup. The first 4 selections can't be skipped for some reason - those are D-Pad L/R/U/D. I was thinking that I'd want 'Analogue L/R/U/D' to be used for my joystick further down the menu, but with these being taken by the first 4 D-Pad slots, I just skipped the Analogue directional slots. (hope that makes sense).

This would be correct, your joystick is digital so essentially the same as a d-pad - just simple switches.

THE PROBLEM:

With this all set, I skip past the last option and 'OK' is highlighted. None of the buttons will trigger the OK function except the first white button. I can only assume the settings are saved, but I don't know for sure.

I can scroll side to side with the joystick through the ES screens and I can choose a game with that first white button.

I have found getting past the OK prompt after configuring controls can sometimes be a bit finicky but if you've managed to close it the settings should have saved. The fact that you can navigate within Emulationstation tells me that the controls were indeed saved.

However, none of the button functions work in my emulators such as Atari 2600 (very basic, move / shoot) or other games such as SNES

Is it just the buttons not working in the emulators or the joysticks as well.

pjft

Just to add: when an emulator is launched, check whether the name starts with "lr", as those are easier to get the controls set up.

mwhitney

@ruckage Thank you for your comments and for your compliments on my build.
Here is a photo of the overall cab:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4267/34794492353_32871d128b_k.jpg

Drilling the holes in the plexi took me several goes - not easy stuff to drill!

I realize now that I can get to the config screen without the command prompt and I'm not sure if I've corrupted anything with that command line. Is there a way to tell, or a means to upload a new file somewhere to rule that out?

You're correct - the buttons don't work in the emulators. As such, I can't 'start' a game from the game's demo / welcome screen. Therefore, I can't test to see if the controller is working within a given game.

Thanks mate - I appreciate any help.

ruckage

@mwhitney
Lovely cabinet and it really fits in well with the rest of the room from what I can see.

You said you did a test setup beforehand, I'm assuming that the games worked correctly at that point?
If so it does seem likely that you may have inadvertently broken something when you deleted the settings - could you describe exactly how you deleted the settings as that may give us a clue.

mwhitney

@ruckage Cheers. Part of the build had to comply with my wife's tastes. Her criteria was 'nothing crazy' as far as colors, so I kept the palate tame.

Regarding the settings, this is the command I entered after hitting 'F4' from within ES:

rm /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg

on the next line I entered: 'emulationstation' to restart.

I agree - the fact that it was working before and not now is a head-scratcher.

As an aside, I wired the XinMo up a bit differently, but it is my understanding that wiring order on the Xin Mo is irrelevant and is trumped by the actual mapping within ES. Am I correct?
Thank you again!

mwhitney

@pjft I'll have to check that when I get home. Thanks.

mwhitney

UPDATE -
out of sheer frustration, I wiped my miniSD and re-flashed the Pi image. After plugging back in, all seems to be working well. I re-mapped the controls, installed a few simple 2600 games and all is working as it should!

Cheers!

ruckage

@mwhitney
Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, I only just woke up.

Glad you got it sorted, if you haven't set everything up it's often easier just to re-flash the sd as you have.
Once you do get everything setup how you want it's a good idea to make a backup img of the SD card, that way if something major goes wrong in the future you just have to re-flash the card and you're up and running again.