Do I need an ipac2 or ipac 4?

[shateredsoul]

Considering my setup

pinball puttons (3? i think)
4 frontend buttons
trackball with no butttons
4way joystick + 2 buttons
2 8 way joysticks + 7 buttons
and 6 admin buttons

do i need an ipac 2 or ipac 4?

[mlalena]

I assume the 4-way & 2 buttons are simply duplicate Player 1 inputs. If so, you don't need extra inputs for them. Just run them in parallel to the other P1 buttons & joystick.

8 inputs for 2 joysticks
14 inputs for the 14 buttons
3 inputs for pinball
6 inputs for admin
4 inputs for frontend
35 inputs total
The IPAC-2 has 32 inputs. I believe some of the pinball inputs are duplicates of P1 or P2 buttons. I tihnk you can probably get away with an IPAC-2. You might need to drop 1 or 2 of the admin buttons.

I'm sure others will tell you that 10 buttons for admin + front end is way too many. so I won't bother.  I say build whatever you want, but mock up the whole thing first before investing real money. I think you will find that 10 buttons takes up a lot of room.

You didn't mention how the trackball is wired. You can get them with USB output built into the trackball. Some say that these skip more. The other option is to get a mini-pac which also has 32 inputs plus a trackball and spinner input.

[shateredsoul]

Yeah for the trackball I was planning to use the usb/ps2 version I've heard of

So for the admin buttons this is what I have (I want to make it very clear to everyone how to use the options in the front end).  After reviewing this, it looks like I may be able to get rid of the Escape button. that still leaves me with 9 buttons.  Any ideas of how I can consolidate?

Escape
coin
p1 start
p2 start
reset
pause

then I have 4 for my front end
-Select
-Exit
-Favs
-Back

[protokatie]

Yeah for the trackball I was planning to use the usb/ps2 version I've heard of

So for the admin buttons this is what I have (I want to make it very clear to everyone how to use the options in the front end).  After reviewing this, it looks like I may be able to get rid of the Escape button. that still leaves me with 9 buttons.  Any ideas of how I can consolidate?

Escape
coin
p1 start
p2 start
reset
pause

then I have 4 for my front end
-Select
-Exit
-Favs
-Back

Most front ends will exit when you hit escape (atomicFE and other also have a "password" feature that lets you prevent people from accidentally escaping the FE). Select? Do you mean to select a game or option? That is usually player one start. Back? I presume this is to get out of your favs menu, the FEs I have seen that have this feature let you just push left on P1 joy to do that. You prolly dont need a favs button either, as any of the FEs I have dealt with that have this feature have it in the main menu.

EDIT: Also, what is "reset" for? To restart the computer? If that is the case, it would be a VERY bad idea to have an admin button (esp if it is on the CP) for that. If you need to reset your PC, you can extend the power or reset button on it using some wire. No need to do it through a keyboard encoder.

Edit2: To clarify that leaves you with these admin buttons:
Escape
coin
p1 start
p2 start
pause

EDIT3: Wow I am not organized today:
You can get rid of Escape as well if you use a proggy called hyper attract. You can set it up to kill Mame and drop you back to the FE if there has been no keyboard input for a specified period of time (1 minute is good, except it will kick you out of Mame if paused after 1 minute as well).

[shateredsoul]

By select I meant reset, but ... maybe I don't need that huh? ok -another pushbutton

let me explain the other 4 for maximus

-Select - choose a game (i'd rather it be intuitive, so a button would help.. especially if I label it right)
-Exit - so I decided to just take this out and use the excape button as one
-Favs -
-Back - this is to exit the emulator list you may be looking at (snes, nes, mame, etc...) pressing left or right on the control helps you skip ahead or back on the list.  I like this feature especially for mame.

So that leaves me with

Coin, p1 start, p2 start, pause, escape

and

select, favs, and back  for the FE

Still a lot but better than before.  Now that's 7 buttons

coin, p1 start on the left
p2 and pause on the right

and exit, select, favs, back

Here's another option.  I can take out the select button, and just make all of the p1 or p2 push buttons as "select". It would be pretty intuitive for people to use the buttons next to the joystick to select a  game. Eliminating another button. I would want the other buttons labeled.

[protokatie]

I wrote out several paragraphs of info for you, but lost it 

What I CAN tell you is that you do not need as many admin buttons as you think. I dunno much about maximus, but try out a few other FEs to see if they work for you. I use AtomicFE .19 and refuse to "upgrade" to .20.

Once I am in a better mood I may try to retype what I did before... 

[shateredsoul]

Well I have narrowed it down to two buttons on each side (left and right) and 4 in the middle.  The middle ones will have a button surround so it will be distinguishable from the rest.

I might check out the new hyperspin before making my final decision.