Spintrak, iPac Ultimate setup help - SOLVED

citaria

Hello all,
I recently added a Ultimarc SpinTrak Spinner to the build I am working on and I can’t get it recognized within Arkanoid, Tempest, etc. When I bring up the in game / in emulator menu the dial does nothing and can’t be configured.

The strange thing is within the Retroarch menu if I spin the spinner the cursor will move straight up and down so it’s definitely there. JSTest shows it as mouse0 and does give input in the test.

My setup:
Raspberry Pi 4b
iPac Ultimate IO
Spintrak, connected directly to the iPac. NOT usb
Emulationstation, 2.9.1RP
Retroarch 1.1.8
Mame2003-plus

Anyone have some insight on how to get this working?

Thanks!

mitu

@citaria Can you check how the mouse device is configured in the Core Options ? Is it set as mouse or pointer ?

citaria

@mitu

Thank you for the response. It is listed as “mouse”.

citaria

@mitu

Gah, been beating my head against a wall for days on this one. I’ve verified the spinner works and gives input showing up as mouse0 from the command line. Even in Retroarch menus it moves the course along the Y axis. It just doesn’t seem to show up from the in game menu when I try to configure a dial.

mitu

Check the 'Mouse Index' option in the "Settings -> Input -> Port 1 Binds" menu of the RetroArch's RGUI. Change it to different values and reset the game, see if it's detected.

citaria

@mitu

Ok. Thanks for the suggestion. I did try that changing the mouse index from 0 all the way to 12. I did reset the game between tries as well. Still no luck.

I did notice a few things that got me wondering. First the “mouse index” option doesn’t appear in control port 1 (or any other for that matter) in the .. not sure what it is called.. main menu? It does, however, appear in the “quick menu”

Is it possible that since the “mouse index” option doesn’t appear in the main menu that it isn’t properly set for the individual game?

Another thing I noticed was the mouse cursor moves only up and down. Does it need to move left and right to be registered in Arkanoid? If so there are no options I can find to switch its axis.

mitu

I don't think RetroArch has any options to change the mouse's axis. I'm not sure how Arkanoid expects the axis to register, but that's an idea to test - does the spinner have any control/dip switch to control that ?

citaria

@mitu

No, no dipswitches of any kind.

I am going to do some research and see if there are options I can put in the .cfg file of the individual game that will set the mouse index and change the axis. Problem there is it seems mame2003 has lots of options but there is little info on mame2003 plus.

I’d switch to advmame or something but I’m using RGBCommander.

mahoneyt944

@citaria
If it's connected through the ipac board, It's likely mouse index 0 assuming their isn't other devices connected.

This will be under: settings-> input -> port 1 controls -> mouse index -> 0

Arkanoid uses a "dial" input which is typically set to the X axis, or left and right. That's your issue if your spinner is set to Y axis. This would be a setting on the ipac board or the spinner wiring itself. Check how it's plugged into the ipac board. Orientation, which pins, etc.

Then if the wiring/ connection checks out. The board setting is set on the interface program bottom right corner:
IO board

Found this online that might help you too.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=160051.0

citaria

@mahoneyt944

Welp! That did it. Reconfigured the iPac Ultimate IO board to set the spinner from Y to X and the spinner was recognized in Arkanoid and Tempest.

Thanks much! I suspect I would have fiddled with Retroarch and cfg files for weeks before trying this! Again thanks much!

mahoneyt944

@citaria that's great 👍