X Arcade Tank Stick Was Working Fine, Then...

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, thejamestownoasis said:

I finally had a chance to get back at this...

I start GT, hit TAB and then enter in the keyboard. Then I try to use the joystick or buttons to assign a command: nothing.

Again, the mouse moves the pointer and left flipper button acts as the mouse left button. Nothing else.

OK, something is for sure off. Did you confirm the switch on the back of the Tankstick is in position 1 like I mentioned? If it is then the left Flipper button should not act like a mouse button. On the side there are two buttons each. In the pic the pinball bumper buttons should be keystroke 3 and 4. The mouse buttons will be further back. 

I suggest starting from the beginning before attempting to remap anything in Mame. First, confirm your Tankstick is set to its default state. You have not mentioned if you did this or if you even opened a text document to make sure the buttons are registering key strokes. 

 

[thejamestownoasis]

9 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

OK, something is for sure off. Did you confirm the switch on the back of the Tankstick is in position 1 like I mentioned? If it is then the left Flipper button should not act like a mouse button. On the side there are two buttons each. In the pic the pinball bumper buttons should be keystroke 3 and 4. The mouse buttons will be further back. 

I suggest starting from the beginning before attempting to remap anything in Mame. First, confirm your Tankstick is set to its default state. You have not mentioned if you did this or if you even opened a text document to make sure the buttons are registering key strokes. 

 

thanks - switch is all the way to the right- TS buttons do not produce characters on docs.

[thejamestownoasis]

the left flipper button furthest away is acting like the mouse button, just fyi.

 

thanks

[Retro808]

6 minutes ago, thejamestownoasis said:

thanks - switch is all the way to the right- TS buttons do not produce characters on docs.

If they are not producing keystrokes in a text document then something is wrong with your tank stick. There are two internal boards. One for the trackball and two back bumper buttons. the other is for all other controls. Since the trackball and mouse buttons work something could be wrong with the other board. It is easy to unscrew the bottom of the tankstick. I would open it up and just make sure the connector to the board for all other controls is connected. I would hate to think the board went bad. But if it is not registering keystrokes at all this is the direction I would first investigate in.

3 minutes ago, thejamestownoasis said:

the left flipper button furthest away is acting like the mouse button, just fyi.

That's more like it. The one closest to the front are 3 and 4 on the keyboard.

[thejamestownoasis]

3 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

If they are not producing keystrokes in a text document then something is wrong with your tank stick. There are two internal boards. One for the trackball and two back bumper buttons. the other is for all other controls. Since the trackball and mouse buttons work something could be wrong with the other board. It is easy to unscrew the bottom of the tankstick. I would open it up and just make sure the connector to the board for all other controls is connected. I would hate to think the board went bad. But if it is not registering keystrokes at all this is the direction I would first investigate in.

That's more like it. The one closest to the front are 3 and 4 on the keyboard.

so what then are the odds that the side button works but all the others are shot if it/s a bad board? This all just seems so highly coincidental to me. It works perfectly fine, I don't use it for 3 days, and then it just stops working.  Again I'm confused as if the side button is "3" how come I do not see a "3" when I hit it when I'm in a text field? 

 

This is so depressing for a guy like me, lol. It's so unlike anything else that is "broken". I would pay someone $100 to get this workin in 10 minutes but I cannot even do that, lol.

thanks

James 

[Retro808]

5 minutes ago, thejamestownoasis said:

so what then are the odds that the side button works but all the others are shot if it/s a bad board? This all just seems so highly coincidental to me. It works perfectly fine, I don't use it for 3 days, and then it just stops working.  Again I'm confused as if the side button is "3" how come I do not see a "3" when I hit it when I'm in a text field? 

 

This is so depressing for a guy like me, lol. It's so unlike anything else that is "broken". I would pay someone $100 to get this workin in 10 minutes but I cannot even do that, lol.

thanks

James 

There are two boards I mentioned in my post. 

The trackball and bumper buttons are on one board. All other controls are on the main large board. I am not saying it is shot, but the fact they are not registering means it is something with the Tankstick.

[thejamestownoasis]

 

-by the way: I don't see a single screw anywhere on the tankstick cabinet. not the sides, top or bottom. I'm sure I'm sure there must be something obvious that I'm missing- are they under the rubber feet? 

 

I have a sneaky feeling that the controller is ok, unfortunately. 

 

thanks

James

[thejamestownoasis]

1 minute ago, Retro808 said:

There are two boards I mentioned in my post. 

The trackball and bumper buttons are on one board. All other controls are on the main large board. 

gotcha- sorry, I didn't realize the "bumper" buttons were separate- I thought that was just the mouse, my apologies!

 

James

[thejamestownoasis]

3 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

There are two boards I mentioned in my post. 

The trackball and bumper buttons are on one board. All other controls are on the main large board. 

I did just see a "failed usb" message on my desktop for the first time. gulp

 

James

Edited January 5, 2019 by thejamestownoasis

[Retro808]

https://support.xgaming.com/support/solutions/articles/12000003087-how-do-i-open-my-x-arcade-controller-case-

I would go to their page and download their test program (<---click there) just to confirm it is not registering keystrokes. Its a keyboard so the text document does the trick, but worth testing with theirs. 

[thejamestownoasis]

thanks did that- dloaded their program and tried it. Nuttin

[Retro808]

1 minute ago, thejamestownoasis said:

thanks did that- dloaded their program and tried it. Nuttin

I would open it up and make sure a connection did not come loose. I linked the video from their site. 

[thejamestownoasis]

"the last usb device you plugged in malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it"

[thejamestownoasis]

checking it now, thanks

[Retro808]

Try it with another pc if you can, switch usb ports as well.

[thejamestownoasis]

opened it up- connection definitely wasn't seated well. Plugged it in again, and then re plugged the usb back into the computer- at LEAST it made the "connection sound" and I didn't get the message. BUT, still nothing. Tried another game, fearing I might have messed up the controls for GT...again, nothin.

 

Was going to re-start and see what I get.

 

Thanks

James

[thejamestownoasis]

opened it up- connection definitely wasn't seated well. Plugged it in again, and then re plugged the usb back into the computer- at LEAST it made the "connection sound" and I didn't get the message. BUT, still nothing. Tried another game, fearing I might have messed up the controls for GT...again, nothin.

 

Was going to re-start and see what I get.

 

Thanks

James

[thejamestownoasis]

Yeah, nothing. Again, when I plug in the usb it will make the tone and I don’t get the malfunction message.

this shouldn‘t be this difficult, right? With the TS being recognized as a keyboard is there something I need to be doing in LB to have it set up correctly?

Hitting “tab” while in GT and trying to set up the TS is absolutely fruitless. All the same- again- clicking on a field in google for instance, tapping on the buttons should yield characters, correct? 

This, even though there’s another keyboard connecte via bluetooth?

maybe it IS the board? It should simply work outside of mame just as everyone has suggested. (?)

it’s just crazy that it just completely stopped working out of nowhere.

james

[Retro808]

It is a keyboard. It does not need drivers or anything, so if hitting buttons does not register keystrokes in anything (text file, google search field, or even their test utility) then chances are it is the board that went bad. Hopefully not......Whatever it is the signs point to the Tankstick and not software like Mame or Launchbox. I use one in my main cabinet, it still has a regular keyboard and a mini bluetooth keyboard connected to it and the Tankstick does not care. It works. I replaced a board that went bad on mine last summer so it is not unheard of. 

Also if plugging it into another USB port or even another pc still does not yield working buttons I would suggest calling their support line. Not much more troubleshooting from here can be done I am afraid. 

[thejamestownoasis]

I hear ya. Sometimes things just break I suppose. I’m going to try it on my other CPU too and see.

I’m just frustrated and overcomplicating this. As we have discussed: it’s a keyboard, forget all else, it should- at the very least- produce characters on regular text fields.

BTW: do they have a phone number, lol? They seem to do everything possible to NOT want to address twchnical issues over the phone.

 

thanks again so much- I’m going to plug it into my other cpu now just for laughs.

 

james

Edited January 5, 2019 by thejamestownoasis