Good God, I almost forgot about that thread. So cringeworthy, lol.
Lets keep on topic, please keep the lag stick talk in the lag stick thread.
People are getting rather hot headed over the issue as of late.
For the record I agree with eltrouble.
I used undamned’s usb decoder with a number of devices and configurations.
I did not sense any noticeable delay.
There’s not really such a thing as “feeling a 1/4 frame of lag.” If there’s delay it either delays your inputs enough to carry them over to the next frame or not. So a 1/4 frame of lag delays your inputs by one frame 25% of the time basically (this is probably oversimplification but you get what I mean). Obviously the situations where your inputs being delayed by 1f will matter are game and situation-specific.
Without dragging the argument about how much lag matters into another unrelated thread, I’ll just say that I play a game where most of the top players are pretty sensitive about lag and will be vocal about the setup if they perceive something is screwy. I didn’t hear many complaints so to me the initial test run was a positive experience for sure.
My bad for posting basically the same question in two threads, but I ran across this while looking for solutions; is there any way to get this to work with a USB keyboard (programmable) or would it just be a button mapping nightmare?
Looking to get a mechanical keyboard to work on console through a project box, and was hoping to not have to gut it and just solder directly to the switches.
Probably going to have to gut it or make a custom. I had this made -
PS360+ inside so it works with the decoders.
Hi @undamned. Picked up a USB>PS3/PS4 converter from Gummo a while ago and it worked excellent with my Qanba Q1, friend’s HORI HRAP3, and brother’s Hit Box. Great piece of equipment! However, it didn’t work with my brother’s new Qanba Q4 and I gave him the converter for his bday. No lights, no signal, nothing. Stick works alone on his PS3.
I understand that maybe it’s due to being a dual board but any chance you can add support for this stick that can be added via firmware update? Both the Q4 and Fusion are popular sticks so it seems like a good investment. What are you thoughts for this situation? Thanks in advance!
Well, no shocker that there are problems with the MAK Strike after looking at the power signals (15V spikes, anyone?). Since the MAK Strike has power connected to the controller ports before you even flip the on-board power switch “ON”, when you do finally flip that power switch, it’s super dirty (electrically noisy) as well as whatever power fluctuation is caused by adding a load (whatever arcade board is being used) to the 5V supply while it’s already live. I may be able to clean up the voltage spikes by adding more capacitance to the Decoder design, but I don’t think there is anything I can do about power bouncing around (sometimes down to 0V) when the on-board MAK Strike power switch is flipped “ON.” I will try to come up with some sort of solution, when I get back.
I’ve toyed around w/ the idea of adding USB keyboard support, but haven’t implemented it, yet. Definitely not high on my priority list, as it would be something to add when I run out of normal game controller support/features to add.
Have you tried both PS3 & X360 switch positions on the Qanba sticks? I think only one mode works and I need to fix the driver for the other.
-ud
I’m a bit confused here. Even assuming that the MAK Strike has a voltage spike when it’s turned on, this doesn’t explain why the UD DB doesn’t work properly when it’s connected to the MAK Strike turned off. In that case, it receives clean 5 volts and it should behave properly:
return one of the led-flash indicated by the user manual (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3FkmY_8ujMbaDNqZmZxa3FmTjA/view)
that are:
- Solid GREEN - Game Controller detected/ready
- Flashing GREEN - Button Re-Mapping mode
- Solid YELLOW - When the decoder was powered up, another 5V source on the USB port was
detected (not permitted) - Flashing YELLOW - Unsupported device plugged in
- Flashing RED - USB power problem (possibly a damaged device was plugged in)
- Flashing RED/GREEN - Bootloader mode
Now, I’m not sure if flashing a red light ONLY 2 times (and then nothing) is the Flashing RED category, but this is what happens when the decoder is connected to a MAK STRIKE powered on or off (but connected to the power cable).
The same happens when the decoder is connected to a MAK Strike already turned on with voltages already stabilized.
Are you getting a different behavior on your MAK Strike?
Note: The only thing I can do (using the connection with a MAK Strike) is to go in the bootloader mode and update the firmware properly thus I believe my decoders are working properly.
This was the same behavior i experienced with my new supergun. I hope decoders will be in my hands soon.
Finally, I managed to make the decoders work with the MAK Strike and ORIGINALS PS3 controllers.
Undamned is right! The ON/OFF switch generates a spike of high voltage which confuses the decoder. You can do the following tho.
As a simple test, you can connect the decoder (already connected to the controllers via USB) when the MAK Strike is OFF (but connected to the power plug). You should have the GREEN LIGHT on. This means that the decoder recognize the controller properly.
Note: remember to update the firmware to the last version. At least, my decoders are updated.
Now, if you turn the MAK Strike ON, you will get the Double FLASHING RED effect (see post above) and the decoder will shut down completely.
Instead, if you passed the test above,
- disconnect the decoder from the MAK Strike.
- turn the MAK Strike ON (and wait 5 secs)
- plug the decoder to the MAK Strike (always with the controller already connected).
I got the good FIXED green light and the controller worked perfectly.
This fixes half of my problems, in fact I’m trying to use the decoders with this
xgaming.com/content/assets/2011/01/2in1-connection.png
This is the X-Arcade adapter for the PS3 (and XBOX), and I’d like to use my decoders in chain with this adapter to connect my Tankstick to the MAK Strike.
Unfortunately, I cannot even pass the GREEN LIGHT test with such adapter.
Tomorrow, I’ll test the X-Arcade adapter with a PS3 to see if it’s working properly.
Cya
Doesn’t seem like there’s been any reports of it, so I might as well post about it.
Tested my Hori Fighting Commander 4 with a UD-USB that’s inside my Consolized Naomi.
The HFC4 works just fine in PS3 mode, but doesn’t work at all in PS4 mode. In PS4 mode, it appears that Button 1 (Jab) is held down, and nothing else registers anything.
Which is an interesting contrast to both the Hori Fighting Commander 3 Pro and not-Pro who technically work on the UD-USB, but are buggy: D-pad’s Down is “inverted”, it’s always held until you press it, upon which it becomes released. All other buttons and directions work fine.
Yeah I mentioned this earlier. All hori ps4/ps3 controllers and the MKX pdp ps4 pad all work in ps3 mode but all fail in ps4 mode. I found that if a pad supports x input, it will work with the decoder but if it uses d input, its hit or miss.
Update:
My X-Arcade Adapter works with a regular PS3. Thus everything goes back to the UD-USB firmware.
The X-Arcade PS3 Adapter (you can have a closer look here https://youtube.com/watch?v=IMYj-SrMQBE),
has 2 columns of 4 leds each (can see them in the video after 0.45 secs). Each column represents Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 (where Chx is the x-th channel available to connect a device on the PS3), where the first column is for player 1 and the second column is for player 2.
Let’s say we connect only the P1 usb of the PS3 adapter to the PS3. The X-Arcade adapter does the following startup routine:
- The four leds of the P1 column will start blinking.
- The user needs to press START+SELECT on the X-Arcade Stick.
- The adapter will find the first available channel and will stick on it (i.e. if Ch1 is found, the led corresponding to Ch1 will be fixed and the other 3 ones will shut down).
- The X-Arcade stick is ready to be used with the PS3.
When I connect the X-Arcade Adapter using the UD-USB decoder, I usually get two outcomes: (note that voltage of 5 volts is correctly provided in each test)
- The decoder does nothing (not a single LED response).
- The decoder blinks RED only twice and then does nothing.
In both cases, the leds on the X-Arcade Adapter don’t blink.
I’m pretty sure this is a firmware issue which doesn’t handle the channel alignment.
Or maybe the decoder handles the channel alignment, and I’m doing something wrong.
Could you please help?
Thanks.
UD-USB doesn’t care about the channel of the controller. In my early tests I was fighting with the UD-USB over this because I wasn’t following undamned stated procedures, my controller would get on a channel and stay, and not work with the decoder. ud chastised me for it (well deserved I might add) and I figured out my problem, I was just “doing it” the wrong way. I don’t think any of my PS3 controllers do anything but flash the 4 channel lights the entire time they are plugged into my UD-USBs, its been a few months since I tried though.
Because the X Arcade seems to have some weird boot up sequence that requires a channel to be set before it does anything it would seem that its just not compatible with the UD-USB firmware; similar to the VLX requiring a valid system to be connected over USB before it sets the pins high on the MCU for the button inputs.
The firmware in the UD-USB is pretty robust in the handling of a lot of different controllers, but he states pretty early on that not everything is compatible because he needs to test them and write special code for each controller type that is unique. Those chips only have a certain amount of space for the programming so he might be able to get 80% of the console controllers working which will cover about 95% of the community.
I’m not 100% convinced that the X-Arcade controller boards are that great given the quality of the rest of the parts in those sticks; it might be worth investing in an MC Cthulhu or a plain Cthulhu and just making it better overall.
I feel you are giving the other parts of the X-arcade controller too much credit. When new Happ parts are a upgrade to the X-arcade parts we got a problem.
That said I agree the X-Arcade board aren’t good. As I see it the X-arcade stick is only great for it’s empty shell. And I am not a fan of their button layout.
Well, I totally agree on the fact the X-Arcade vanilla buttons and sticks are shit.
The problem is when you take an X-Arcade shell (which is built like a tank, and that’s the only TRUE thing about X-Arcade products) and you change every single component with THE BEST SANWA sticks and TOP HAPP competition buttons.
The result is a tanky stick with TOP components and a decent marble in the center. Oh, and it can be connected to almost any other device (except DB-15 SIGH) super instantly, using very cheap and tested adapters (which actually works very well, so I can’t complain at all about them).
prntscr.com/827rsx
Oh and building something like this is ALSO ultracheap (compared to overpriced custom solutions), considering the price of a Tankstick (during discount time) and a double set of PRO controllers from Japan.
Also the Hanaho-Hotrod (deceased?) electronics works like a charm. With 12 simultaneous button pressed, never had a single lag. And I ABUSE my stick when I use it, as If I was in front of a real arcade.
See, I’m not even talking about the Lifetime Warranty because honestly, we all know that X-Arcade customer support doesn’t even exists. And trust me, I emailed the CEO a couple of times.
So, since I payed $80 for the decoders I’d like to try anything before returning them, or even worse throw them in the closet.
Ehm, no.
True.
Alright, I don’t have time at this moment to re-read/answer the last few pages, but I’ll post up the status of things regarding the MAK Strike. First off:
NOTE: If you have ever used the on-board power switch on your MAK Strike* while the UD-USB Decoders are connected to the DB15 controller ports, all bets are off. It’s entirely possible and highly likely you’ve damaged them. It is no fault of the UD-USB Decoder design and 100% the fault of the MAK Strike design.
*My tests were done on a MAK Strike V3 board. I cannot vouch for versions before or after.
Moving on.
Here is my test setup showing a HAPP/Suzo Arcade Power Supply a MAK Strike V3 and my CPS2:
The waveform on the oscilloscope is the 5V signal after “turning on” the MAK Strike. The reason I use quotes is because 5V is already applied to the controller ports before you even turn the MAK Strike on. Because of this bizzare design choice (oversight?) when you flip the power switch, massive voltage spikes result when the power supply tries to compensate for the massive load of the arcade board dumped on it all at once. That combined with the fun characteristics of the mechanical switch results in 15V spikes on the 5V line along with multiple dips down to 0V. Thank you MAK Strike.
I tried adding capacitance to the 5V line (as well as the Decoder itself) and was unable to make a significant change to the results. Ultimately the sensible solution is to fix the MAK Strike’s problem.
Cut this trace on the bottom:
Solder a wire to these two points on the top:
Now everything (the Decoders and the arcade board) powers up at once:
Now perfectly safe for the Decoders.
I’d still like to find a solution for MAK Strike owners who are not so handy with soldering, but I’ll need to do a bit more digging on that. I’ll try and respond to the last few pages in the next few days.
-ud
So, I performed the easy fix suggested by Undamned.
The fix works perfectly:
- There is no voltage on the controller ports BEFORE the MAK Strike is turned on.
- When the MAK Strike is turned on, the controller ports receive 5V without a Spike and the decoders don’t show ANY problem at all.
Additional Note: I contacted the creator of the MAK Strike, and he told me that this simple fix WORKS and fixes the voltage problem of the MAK Strike. Also, it doesn’t alter any of the MAK Strike properties.
The next step for my particular case would be to understand why the X-Arcade 2in1 Adapter doesn’t blink at all.
My guess is that the UD-USB firmware works passively (meaning, when a controller is plugged into the UD-USB, the decoder just waits to decode the data received), while the PS3 console sends some wake up commands to the device (used to establish the channel transaction) which activates the X-Arcade Adapter.
Undamned, do you think it would be possible to for you to code in a custom firmware the activation steps sent by the PS3? You should only mimic the PS3 first transaction with the controller. That would probably help me (and probably enhance the compatibility of the decoder with all the controllers that use this first transaction).
Thanks.
Hey undamned, great to meet you at EVO this year, and thanks for selling me a couple of these awesome decoders.
I was looking through this thread for an answer, but couldn’t find it: Does this decoder support standard USB HID controllers?
I’m asking because I’d like to get an USB Super RetroPort adapter for using SNES pads on my supergun. (I like the SNES pads for beat-em-ups…)