2nd X-Arcade Tankstick not working on FBA

wiggy808

Pi Model: 3 Model B+
RetroPie Version Used: 4.9.80-v7
Built From: Premade Image v4.4 https://retropie.org.uk/download/#Pre-made_images_for_the_Raspberry_Pi
USB Devices connected: Standard USB keyboard, 2 X-Arcade Tanksticks
Error messages received: N/A
Guide used: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/X-Arcade
File: n/a
Emulator: FBAlpha 0.2.97.43

Some other facts to help:
1.) I do have the Xarcade2Jstick driver installed.

2.) When one X-Arcade Tankstick controller is hooked up, it works for both (sides) player 1 and player 2 fine on both FBA and MAME roms.

3.) When two X-Arcade Tankstick controllers are hooked up, MAME works for all 4 players (albeit the buttons are oddly configured, 1 tankstick registers buttons as j:a, j:b, j2a, j2b, etc., the other tankstick registers as keyboard letters only, w, a, s, d, etc. ) but FBA does not work for the 2nd Tankstick.

4.) When I launch an FBA rom and go into input settings, User 1 and User 2 Bind Controls reflect an "X-Arcade Gamepad "device for controller, while User 3 and User 4 Bind Controls show "None".

Let me know where I should start, I'm not able to figure this one out, thanks!

Halvhjearne

tbh i dont know if xarcade2joy even supports multiple devices, but have you tried using a usb hub with external power?

edit:
its obviusly cause xarcade2joy is only registering one of your tanksticks, but a couple of things comes to mind.
like is it always the same controller that does not initialize and do they each of them work correctly, when connected when connected seperately?
also, i belive they recently released a new pcb and i am unsure if it is supported in xarcade2jstick yet.
is one tankstick somewhat new or have you exchanged the pcb in one of them recently?

wiggy808

Havent tried an external usb hub with power. The Tankstick uses 5v only and plenty ports on Pi, but I guess I could try that, unfortunately I don't have one.

Yeah, same controller always doesn't initialize (whichever is plugged in last). Each of them work correctly when connected only 1 at a time. Both purchased a little over a year ago, both with stock pcb. I just had my friend bring his over so we could do 4 player games.

Very odd though right?

Halvhjearne

@wiggy808 said in 2nd X-Arcade Tankstick not working on FBA:

5v only and plenty ports on Pi

that doesnt mean that the pi can supply enough power to support both.

i had the old dual stick model and it would sometimes act somewhat wierd when connected directly to a pi, but when i used it on a pc, it would work fine.

wiggy808

@Halvhjearne

Good thought, except MAME supports all four joysticks, its seems to be an FBA specific issue.

Any other ideas?

Halvhjearne

@wiggy808 said in 2nd X-Arcade Tankstick not working on FBA:

@Halvhjearne

Good thought, except MAME supports all four joysticks, its seems to be an FBA specific issue.

that is becourse mame can use a keyboard as a controller, but fba only uses controllers.

it sounds to me like only one of the tanksticks are accepted by xarcade2jstick (which changes keyboard inputs to joystick inputs), hence why only one of them works in fba.

as i mentioned before, it is highly likely that the pi simply cannot supply enough current to supply both tanksticks, but you can figure out by using an externally powered usb hub.

it is also likely that xarcade2jstick simply does not support multiple devices, hence why only one will work at a time in fba.

edit:
idk if it will work, but you could try ssh into the box and type xarcade2jstick to see if it will initialize a second instance of xarcade2jstick and if it does, does the joystick then work as expected (as a joystick)?

mitu

@wiggy808 When you have the 2 X-Xarcade Tanksticks connected, exit ES and run from the terminal

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

then post the output here. If there are 4 joysticks/gamepads detected, then they're correctly functioning.
Next, you can check in FBAlpha if the gamepads are assigned correctly to inputs by opening the RGUI (Select + X) and going into Configuration -> Input to check if each player has the gamepad assigned. You can change there the gamepad index for each player to see if all 4 players would work.

What ROM are you using to test the 4 players ?

funkotron77

Sorry to bring this topic back from the dead but I'm actually helping a friend set this up as well. They have two xarcade tank sticks and essentially the 2nd stick that is plugged in functions how these do when xarcade2jstick isn't plugged in. Meaning that it looks at it like one big keyboard.

I've kind of looked into hard coding keyboard to p3 & p4. That seems to be the solution. I'd say for my build I pretty much only need it for Mame. I tried hardcoding p3 to the all config control file but for some reason when I used the controls on the p3 stick it also controlled p1 so I must have goofed at some point.

Pretty much have the same setup as the OP.

barbudreadmon

@funkotron77 While there might be a way to get it to work as-is, turning your tanksticks keyboard into dual controllers would be more beneficial, did you install and ran Xarcade2Jstick as mentioned in the X-Arcade guide ?

funkotron77

@barbudreadmon
I did install that and it worked when there is one dual tank stick in there. When there is two dual tanksticks connected, the 2nd one that is connected behaves as a keyboard and not as a controller. that is why i want the second one to work like a keyboard that's acting like a controller if that makes sense