iPAC QUESTIONS FROM A NEWB

[reptileink]

So now that the weather is warming, I can dig the arcade out from winter storage and finally get this thing going.

For those not in the "know", I am converting from a modded Xbox/X-arcade/TV setup to a PC/Ipac/LCD setup.

I plan on re-using the x-arcade sticks and buttons, but wiring them to the Ipac. Now, I notice that there are jumpers between all the buttons(wired from X-arcade).

Will I still need to do those jumpers, or does everything just hook directly into the Ipac??

I am very nervous about tackling this wiring project.....

[taylormadelv]

The X-Arcade is an animal all to it's own. Each bank of leads has its' own ground, so each x-arcade molex plug has 4 switch leads and one ground lead and they have to used together. You cannot "gang" grounds like you can on an ipac or GP-Wiz, a huge drawback with x-arcade that I discovered. Nice to see you moving up in the world to an ipac!

[Sir Headless VII]

Can't an X-arcade plug into a pc anyways? What are you gaining from the ipac?

[reptileink]

welllllllllllllll

I took the X-arcade out of the housing, extended some wires, etc, and now it only works with the xbox. No emulators. It's very weird, and was discussed here "way back when".


I guess my question is not clear.

I am going to strip down the whole X-arcade, and just re-use the sticks and buttons wired to the iPac. I am thinking that stripped down, the components will be just like any other buttons/sticks, correct?

or am I in a world of crap having to buy "actual" arcade components?? 

[Donkbaca]

If you want to sell the xarcade pcb, send me a pm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wweumina]

welllllllllllllll

I took the X-arcade out of the housing, extended some wires, etc, and now it only works with the xbox. No emulators. It's very weird, and was discussed here "way back when".


I guess my question is not clear.

I am going to strip down the whole X-arcade, and just re-use the sticks and buttons wired to the iPac. I am thinking that stripped down, the components will be just like any other buttons/sticks, correct?

or am I in a world of crap having to buy "actual" arcade components?? 

You don't have to buy new buttons/joysticks, though if you've come this far it might not be a bad idea.

RE: the nervousness, just have a go.  You'd struggle to do anything that would actually harm anything. Worst case scenario you would have to buy a couple of new bits (and I can't even think how you would manage that)

[Epyx]

I am going to strip down the whole X-arcade, and just re-use the sticks and buttons wired to the iPac. I am thinking that stripped down, the components will be just like any other buttons/sticks, correct?

You will be fine...just need new wire and wire them to the IPAC.  If you don't like the X Arcade microswitches you can replace those but it isn't necessary. Just get new wire and connectors to go to the existing microswitches on the X arcade end and wire it to the IPAC. 

[notroubleclubber]

Can't an X-arcade plug into a pc anyways? What are you gaining from the ipac?

this is what i was thinking. normally people replace the buttons and joysticks - not the encoder!

[taylormadelv]

I personally really like x-arcade microswitch pushbuttons, I actually move the x-arcade micros around to my favorite games, I really like the way they feel.
The joysticks i don't like so much, I'd replace those.

[Epyx]

this is what i was thinking. normally people replace the buttons and joysticks - not the encoder!

It's actually the encoder that many don't like, followed by the microswitches.  I personally never noticed much lagging/ghosting on their encoder but that was me...using the IPAC now too which I prefer from a customization point of view but performance wise I never noticed much difference.

[reptileink]

You guys are kinda missing the issue....lol.

I bought the X-Arcade, and took it all out of the factory housing to install into my CP because I was originally using an Xbox as the brain of the arcade.

For some reason, no matter what I tried, the controllers would only work with Xbox games, and not roms/emus. I tried to configure every Emu, with no success. Then buttons stopped working, blah blah blah.

So I wanted to strip off all the wiring, and just wire the buttons/joystick to the Ipac.

My question was this: Do I have to "jump" the buttons together? On the X-arcade, each button is connected to the next with a "jumper" and then to the PCB. With an Ipac, can I just wire each button directly, or do I have to mess with jumping wires to each button?

Also, does the Ipac have instructions?

[BobA]

Buttons on an xarcade are in groups of 4 with a ground.  These go back to the xarcade PCB.  Once the xarcade wires are taken off the switches and joysticks then you wire all the COM or common connectors on the buttons together in a daisy chain.  This is your ground for the ipac.   Each button NO or normally open is then wired to the ipac. 

This is the instruction page for wiring and ipac.

Ipac Wiring

[llars]

It shouldn't make a difference where the pushbuttons come from they all wire the same. You will have two wires coming off of each switch, one ground and one to the NO post. You run a single wire from the NO of each button to the terminal for that button on the ipac. For the ground you typically chain all of them together from button to button to button, and then finally it connects to the ground on the ipac.