Solve this puzzle for me...DC control pad hack to arcade CP

[noisuf]

Hi Everyone,

I want to provide this puzzle for you all to try and solve. It's got a good ending as I've found a workaround (after 2 hours troubleshotting) but I'm intrigued as to why it was happening. Here's the scenario and clues, I bet you're going to tell me I did something stupid:

1) All buttons and joysticks are working well EXCEPT for 2nd player's button 1 which is connected to DC control pad button A. It will not select anything prior to game and when in a game, it will repeatedly shoot as if the button was held down.

2) The solder joint for button A is not accidently soldered to ground.

3) Workaround is to turn on my cabinet even though I didn't need the screen. Then 2nd player button 1 would then work normally. If I flick off the cabinet in game, the 2nd player button 1 would revert back to shooting continuously.

4) I am confirming my soldering and hack using an old cabinet without it turned on as I have the DC connected to a LCD tv (don't have my Blast City yet)...to check the control panel joysticks and buttons would work as expected.

6) No ground connection soldered on control pad due to using cabinet ground via arcade buttons & joysticks.

6) 2nd player button 1 on cabinet is functioning normally, shorts to ground EVEN when cabinet turned off.

Lookings forward to your ideas.



Cheers.

[antron]

6) No ground connection soldered on control pad due to using cabinet ground via arcade buttons & joysticks.

is your video ground in the cab connected to the button grounds internally? if not you need the button ground to the controller. in fact, you should connect it anyway to both controllers. I once connected it to one saturn pad only, and the other pad acted funny, even though their grounds were common through the console.

[brokenhalo]

unrelated to your issue, but be aware that the triggers on the official dreamcast pads lag. might be a problem if you plan on playing fighters on your cab.