4 player Control Panel, ipac4 and Xbox 360 Controllers

[bgmagic]

I'm currently building a 4 Player control panel and I'm using an ipac4.  In addition to using it with a pc, I want to wire 2 Xbox 360 wired controllers to players 1 and 2 for use on my Xbox .  I know how to do the wiring for both the ipac and the xbox controllers but I'm not sure how I can wire both at the same time.  I can daisy chain the grounds for the whole panel to the ipac ground terminal, but the Xbox controllers need individual ground wires for each button (I know there may be common grounds but i don't want to use them on the Xbox controllers).  Can I hook the ground wires from each Xbox controller button to the arcade buttons with them being daisy chained for ipac purposes?  Basically I'd have extra ground wires hanging off the daisy chain of grounds for wiring to the Xbox controllers.  Not sure if the daisy chaining would interfere with other Xbox buttons.

I really can't explain this any other way.  I just want to use the ipac and the Xbox controllers with the same set of arcade controls.  How would i wire both at the same time?   

[AndyWarne]

You can only do this if the Xbox 360 controller uses common grounds for all buttons. I dont know whether it does or not.

Andy

[bgmagic]

What if I were to run the grounds from each button to the ipac individually instead of daisy chaining the grounds.  Would that work?

[fallacy]

I tried to do this same thing with my 4 player control panel and it does not work. If you want it to work you will have to use the 360 controllers for both your pc and xbox. You cant wire the ipac and 360 controller to the same button it causes to many issues.

[bgmagic]

Crap.  Going to have to figure out another way.  I wonder if I can find a set of Xbox 360 controllers with 1 common ground point if it would work then.

[bgmagic]

I found out that the Gamestop branded Xbox 360 controllers (supposed to be made by madcatz) have a common ground.  Theoretically if there is a common ground on these then using the existing daisy chain for the ipac grounds should also work on these controllers.  Am I way off here or can I do this?  I dont really want to make a separate control panel to be used on the same arcade machine.

[tenex2mg]

I have a similar setup, but I ditched the keyboard encoder in favor of straight 360 controllers.  I picked up a kvm switch from Microcenter that let me share usb/vga/audio.  Much easier in my opinion.  And if you need a few more admin keys for the mame portion of your cabinet just use an Ipac for those extra buttons.

Just a thought.

[HaRuMaN]

Don't use the gamestop branded controllers anymore.

Instead, use the MadCatz Fightpad.  The triggers are already digital, you don't have to use transistors, and the pad is common ground.

I've switched to the Fightpad for all of my 360 wired hacks now.  Much much better.