Retroarch navigating issue with piboy 1up XL and pelican project

[xxxb9s]

Hi all
I built a pelican case with integrated 7" lcd screen for my piboy 1up xl, and obviously this setup needed a wireless controller.
My sf30 8bitdo pro was recognised by retroarch always as user 2, so i could only navigate ES with it but would stop working each time i would launch an emulator.
SO, i went to retroarch and selected my 8bitdo as USER 1 index then had the great idea of clicking "save confi upon exit".
Well, now i can still navigate ES both with my 8bitdo controller and physical keys of the 1up, but they now both stop working when i launch i game.
So my plan was to go back to retroarch and change the User 1 index back to 1up physical keys, but now i cannot navigate retroarch at all.
I tried with a wireless keyboard that uses to work, but only its arrows keys now work.
So i am stuck.
I hope there is a way to reset retroarch to recognise at least my 1up physical keys.
I am a noob as you can tell and can surely work on hardware but software gets to my nerves.
I will put more pics of my project in the relevant section.
Many thanks


[xxxb9s]

Ver 2.0
Replace lipo with a anker 20000mah powerbank.
Added usbc port to charge both the abker and the piboy 1up, and also an extra external usb socket (anker powerbank has 2 outputs) to charge my phone or the Pi controller.
Cheers