*UPDATE* info about ultimarc PSX adapters

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:33 pm

ive heard a lot of people complain about controls not working with some games...eg.) the joystick pauses the game....cant unpause....no controls at all....and had bad things to say about them due to this problem

andy at ultimarc has informed me that this is a glitch in the chips in the adapter that only affect certain PS2 models and certain games.....they did not find out about it for a long time because of this...

if you have this issue just contact andy and he will hook you up with replacement chips....the connection is socketed so its a simple matter of popping out the old chips and popping in the new ones...

i had this problem myself....i contacted andy and he sent me the chips free of charge....just popped them in a few minutes ago, and everything is working perfectly now...

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:18 pm

Yep, Andy is a helluva good guy.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:38 pm

how "new" are these replacement chips? because i had problems with my psx adaptor and he sent me a "new revision" adaptor with an orange sticker on it and it worked even worse. this was only a few months ago.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:41 am

well it works....and when he sent me them he asked if my adapter had a green sticker on it...when i said no he knew right away that i need the chips.....

works perfectly for me....im sorry to hear you are still having trouble

did you contact andy again to try and get it sorted?

and if so what was his response

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:02 am

ah, green sticker it was.

we emailed back and forth with what problems i had (and it was with every game i tried and on 3 different ps2 consoles) and tried testing different things and couldn't get any results so we called it a day. i've since hacked some ps2 controllers and hooked them up to my arcade cp and haven't looked back.

andy really is a good dude and goes above and beyond to help. these problems do seem to be totally random. maybe bad chip manufacturing? dunno.

good to hear the new chips got you back up and running though. nothing worse than flaky controls.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:38 am

what exactly were the problems....like how did they manifest?

andy says you just fell out of contact....are you getting power to the JPAC? cuz he thinks you might have the same issue i had originally, a blown force feedback fuse...which is where the adapters and JPAC draw there power

however its a very easy fix...just hack a 9 volt power adapter to the control adapter and you get power for both even without the force feedback circuit....which you obviously dont need for a cab cp

he also said some ps2's are just weird....consoles have glitches....

drop me a PM and i will explain the power adapter hack fix if thats the problem you are having

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:08 pm

i received the new version psx adaptor today and this one is problematic also, but in different ways. the player 1 side randomly pauses when an input is pressed (doesnt matter what p1 input, can be a direction or a button), can be unpaused using the pause button, but will pause again within 10-45 seconds. also, player one will randomly lock up in one direction. this is different than in the first psx adaptor because it will still accept other commands, and after a few seconds of pushing buttons/directions it will unlock and function normally again for about 20-45 seconds. player 2 side only suffers from the random pausing issue, same symptoms as p1 side.

^^^^^Self quote from another thread.

last time i talked to andy he said that if he couldn't figure out the problems with the chips he was going to send me a refund for the adaptor, but he's been so helpful over the last few months with a few different problems i had that i honestly didn't want the refund. he can hang on to the money for all the help he's given me.

my problem isn't a blown feedback fuse, as the consoles work fine and produce feedback with dual shock controllers. and i tested the adaptors originally with a fat ps2 and slim ps2, and more recently the fat ntsc-j console i picked up. same results every time.

but actually, i was trying to figure out how to get power to the jpac without using the adpators at all and couldn't figure out how. with the project box setup i'm using now i have two ps2's in my cab. one running games/controls and the other one with a psx adaptor plugged into it just providing power to the jpac.

my theory was that since the controller provides a 3.3 volt power line that that was what the jpac used to get power. i hacked a ps/2 cable apart and wired pin 3 to ground and pin 4 to 3.3v (going off the standard ps/2 diagram off wikipedia) and couldn't get it to work.

if you could post what you know about the 9 volt power adaptor hack, that would be awesome. might be able to figure out where my theory went wrong.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:59 pm

I got the ps2 adapters a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I had nothing but problems:

- The monitor adapter didn't output blue.
- The monitor adapter didn't work with ps1.
- The gamepad adapter had had input problems when you held the button down for a long time. It would randomly release the button even though still you held it down. This made all the Cave ps2 games like Espgaluda, Mushihimesama and DoDoPachi unplayable.

I ended up hacking a pad instead. I just use the player 2 side of the adaptors to power the monitor. I got the monitor apdapter to work with the ps1 by adding capacitors to the RGB wires.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:18 pm

hmmmmm....maybe a bad set of something........the image quality with the video cable is phenomenal.....

and with the new chips in the control adapters they work great now too....

as for the 9v power adapter hack.....heres is what i did following andy's instructions.....

i took a 9 volt power adapter and cut of the end and split the + and - ends apart.....

now open up the control adapter and you will see in the connector block for each controller a grey wire....cut both and tape the controller ends with electrical tape....

you now have 2 exposed ends...one for each controller.....tape one up, and to the other connect the + end from the 9v adapter....close up the control adapter feeding teh wire out along beside one of the controller wires....might have to notch the case a little...

now just connect the - line from the 9v adapter to one of the ground blocks on the JPAC and you are done

plug in the 9v adapter and your control adapter and JPAC are fully powered and no longer feed the power from the PS2

i can post pics of how it should look when finished if you need em

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:54 pm

jonny5 wrote:what exactly were the problems....like how did they manifest?

andy says you just fell out of contact....are you getting power to the JPAC? cuz he thinks you might have the same issue i had originally, a blown force feedback fuse...which is where the adapters and JPAC draw there power

however its a very easy fix...just hack a 9 volt power adapter to the control adapter and you get power for both even without the force feedback circuit....which you obviously dont need for a cab cp

he also said some ps2's are just weird....consoles have glitches....

drop me a PM and i will explain the power adapter hack fix if thats the problem you are having

so, you needed the 9V hack even with the green sticker chip replacements, because your PS2 was bad?

I tried a voltage hack with the green sticker replacements but it didn't work (ps1 and 2). as of july he had not found the problem

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:22 pm

jonny5 wrote:hmmmmm....maybe a bad set of something........the image quality with the video cable is phenomenal.....

and with the new chips in the control adapters they work great now too....

as for the 9v power adapter hack.....heres is what i did following andy's instructions.....

i took a 9 volt power adapter and cut of the end and split the + and - ends apart.....

now open up the control adapter and you will see in the connector block for each controller a grey wire....cut both and tape the controller ends with electrical tape....

you now have 2 exposed ends...one for each controller.....tape one up, and to the other connect the + end from the 9v adapter....close up the control adapter feeding teh wire out along beside one of the controller wires....might have to notch the case a little...

now just connect the - line from the 9v adapter to one of the ground blocks on the JPAC and you are done

plug in the 9v adapter and your control adapter and JPAC are fully powered and no longer feed the power from the PS2

i can post pics of how it should look when finished if you need em

sounds pretty simple, i'll take a look at this a little later and report back. thanks again!

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:29 pm

no....the 9v power adapter hack is to deal with the forcefeedback issue....

the control adapters and JPAC draw there power from the force feedback circuit....the force feedback circuit in my ps2 is fried, so no way to draw power....

so by lining in the 9v power adapter i am able to get power to the control adapter and JPAC...

this has nothing to do with control issues....if you are having glitchy controls or problems with controls this will not fix that....this is just a work around to power everything without a force feedback circuit in the ps2

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:50 pm

I had glitchy controls, so I sent the control adapters back. did he say he just found the problem? because he told me in july that he could not even reproduce it.

I agree that Andy and ultimarc rocks. I am ready to order again if he really fixed it.

Kenchan · Post by **Kenchan** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:56 pm

Yeah, ultimarc does rock, I had the same control problems with mine. Got that replaced, and it works great now! As for the video adapter, it shows up really dim, I'm not sure if one or all the colors are not working properly. It looks fine in a picture, but even with contrast all the way up it doesn't look right in person. I pretty much am not using it for this reason alone, it's pretty disappointing ):

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:01 pm

a ps2 needs a video amp for arcade montors. ultimarc's psx video adapter doesn't do anything to the colors, just the sync.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:10 pm

antron wrote:a ps2 needs a video amp for arcade montors. ultimarc's psx video adapter doesn't do anything to the colors, just the sync.

The PSX adapter page explicitly says it does video amplification

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:19 pm

So for hooking a PS1/2 up to a 15kHz screen through a J-Pac, the D-SUB one should suffice, right? That's what I'm planning on getting anyway.

Emph

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:23 pm

zakk wrote:
antron wrote:a ps2 needs a video amp for arcade montors. ultimarc's psx video adapter doesn't do anything to the colors, just the sync.
The PSX adapter page explicitly says it does video amplification

doesn't he offer both kinds?

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:37 pm

if you get the video cable that goes straight to the monitor it has a video amp....for the one that connects to the JPAC, the JPAC has a video amp

either one will work fine.....just one involves hardwiring to the montior and the d-sub one hooks into the JPAC

as for andy not being able to reproduce the issue....it seems to be an issue only for certain models and games...which ones remains to be seen....

hopefully he will have it figured out soon.....he hasnt been able to get his hands on a ps2 that has this problem so he can trouble shoot and fix the issue

i am selling him my ps2 so he can figure it out, so hopefully in the near future he can eliminate this issue completely

as for the picture being dark.....ive found on high res games its more apparent, while on low res stuff(mainly the cave ports) its not nearly as bad......ive just had to turn the contrast and brightness up higher than would be normal if using a PCB.....the picture looks amazing....it might just be an issue with your monitor.....like on mine dai ou jou looks almost identical to the PCB.....with careful adjustments it looks perfect.....no issues for me video wise

so ya i will keep everybody posted on andys progress working out the controls issue and hopefully it will be all sorted, but in the meantime, at least for me, the replacement chips have fixed the problem

so if you have an older control adapter that is glitchy, contact andy and he will set you up with some chips....

and hopefully once he figures out what is causing the problem, any newer ones sold should be problem free

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:59 pm

i see. my older J-pac doesn't have the amp. that's why I was left without one. ps1 looks great though.

Kenchan · Post by **Kenchan** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:13 pm

antron wrote:i see. my older J-pac doesn't have the amp. that's why I was left without one. ps1 looks great though.

You know, this might be the case. I need to check if I'm using one of my older J-PACs or the two new ones I picked up recently. This might fix my problem :O

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:15 pm

jonny5 wrote:i am selling him my ps2 so he can figure it out, so hopefully in the near future he can eliminate this issue completely

good man. i'd like to see him get this fixed.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:45 pm

a question for others with the control issues:

are your PS2's modded?

andy had theorized that the problem might be related to modchips

mine is modded....curious if others are too

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:12 pm

happened with my modded ps2 and unmodded ps1. same problem with both. player 2 ships just keep moving even after you release. they keep flying until you press that direction again

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:03 pm

no mods for me.

slim us ps2 tested. fat us ps2 tested. fat jap ps2 tested. adapter one gives its own unique issues across all three systems. adapter two gives its own unique issues across all three systems.

i'd like to see if andy is able to recreate the problems with your ps2 though. i have a feeling it's just random bad chips.

Kenchan · Post by **Kenchan** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:10 pm

I'd have to agree, I got a replacement unit which does work fine, whereas the old one did not on the same PS2. I have several PS2s in right now, all different model and region, I could do some testing. Could problems be with the revision of the J-PAC?

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:43 pm

no, it happens with a plain keyboard too
for me at least

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:00 am

UPDATE:

so andy has had my ps2 for a week or so and he says he has any issues worked out now....he cant even get the problems to present themselves with a keyboard, so it will be fine on a cp

i should have the new chips for testing in a few days and i will post findings here

andy asked me to put the word out to everybody cuz he wants to see this tested on as many ps2 models as possible......

if you have a psx control adapter, whether it works fine for you or not, please email andy@ultimarc.com and ask him to send you the new chips....it should solve any problems you might have had, and it will help give andy a better idea of whether he truly has the problem fixed if he has test results with as broad a range as possible......if he can narrow down exactly what models, if any, present the issues, he can hopefully figure out what is causing the issues and fix it

i think its really awesome that we can help andy make his already awesome products better just by playing more.....lolz

so come on guys.....lets get testing....please post results if you get the new chips

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:44 pm

email sent to andy. good stuff, did he give you any indication what the problem might have been?

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:17 pm

I got my PS2 installed in the cab yesterday and did notice the controls "hanging" sometimes in both DDP-DOJ and Mushihimesama. Mainly going left with player 1 I think. Is this an issue known to be due to the PSX adapter? If yes, then I might have to mail Andy and get a test chip.

Or could it be that the gamepad socket is dusty?

Emph

shmups.system11.org

UPDATE info about ultimarc PSX adapters

UPDATE info about ultimarc PSX adapters