No trackball / spinner recognized if running AdvMame with iPAC2 and a keyboard plugged in

mikemolang

This one had me wondering WTH?!?! I was sure that I had AdvMAME working with trackballs and controls, and then all of a sudden they stopped working. Did I imagine that they worked? Nope. In short, using AdvMAME, if I have a keyboard plugged in, in addition to my iPAC2, Retropie won't use the iPAC2 trackball and spinner. If I unplug the keyboard before I launch the game, the trackball and spinner will work. (That ain't gonna work...)

Trackball and spinner both work well in LR2003, with or without keyboard attached. No problems.

iPAC2 from Ultimarc:
https://www.focusattack.com/ultimarc-i-pac-2-2-player-usb-pushbutton-and-joystick-interface-pcb/

Ideas?

Thanks!
MML

jonnykesh

@mikemolang What type of power supply are you using? What are the specs? Is it a branded PSU?

caver01

@mikemolang check your advmame.rc file for device_keyboard DEVICE and try setting it to raw which will make all connected keyboards behave as one. That way, your inputs won’t change as you connect or disconnect another keyboard.

Then, check how you are mapping the analog inputs in the same file. Are you just mapping one mouse? If the index is changing because of another device connected, you should map multiple mouse indices the same way so it does not matter. Like the raw keyboard, mapping multiple mice covers you if plugging in another device changes the index. Examples of this are in the docs here.

mikemolang

@caver01 said in No trackball / spinner recognized if running AdvMame with iPAC2 and a keyboard plugged in:
> check your advmame.rc file for device_keyboard DEVICE and try setting it to raw

The device_keyboard was already set to raw, but I made all of the other changes, and now the spinner and trackball remain present!

Getting close. Still no sound on Omega Race using AdvMAME and ROMs 0.106.

Thanks!
MML

caver01

@mikemolang said in No trackball / spinner recognized if running AdvMame with iPAC2 and a keyboard plugged in:

Still no sound on Omega Race using AdvMAME and ROMs 0.106.

Ok, you almost have it sorted. Sound works in Omega Race if you have the right sample file in the right folder. That's two clues:

The folder location referenced in the .rc file is key. You can point it to wherever, but make sure that if the reference in the .rc file says . . . sample that you are not using a folder called samples as this sometimes happens (and it recently changed I think!).
Finally, the sample file itself must be named exactly the same as the ROM. So, for this game I guess it is probably omegrace.zip right? Of course, the zip sample file has to be the right one for romset .106.

<EDIT> A little more advice for trial and error on samples:

If you think you have the right sample file and it still doesn't work, try a sample file from an older set (.37b5 for instance). I seem to recall a few that were wonky like that. I had no way to explain it, but an older sample file can do the trick sometimes. I think maybe the ones I had that were supposedly .106 were not, and the samples hadn't changed since earlier versions of MAME, so using an older one worked.

caver01

@mikemolang I just looked at my samples folder and I don't even have one for omega race. Are you getting audio at all for other ROMs out of AdvanceMAME?

Texacate

Hi all, This thread helped me resolve my issue. Thank you caver01 and mikemolang.

FYI for anyone else who comes along. The link is out of date.

@caver01 said earlier:
Examples of this are in the docs here.

This is the updated location:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Spinners,-Trackballs,-Lightguns,-and-other-Mouse-Devices

Thanks again. Very useful info.

caver01

@Texacate link updated in my post above.