Any wiring suggestions?

[Shieldwolf]

Well I'm starting to wire up the controls today and I wanted to ask if any of you guys had suggestions on how to best setup the wiring. how much wire to cut per button and such.

Here is some info on my cab.
Hagstrom encoder
4 players with this design http://www.runriot.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/arcade

I would also like to add my dreamcast so I will need some quick disconnect or such.

[TalkingOctopus]

Hey I had the same setup minus the dreamcast.  You can check out a pic of my wiring here (although I am not sure how helpful that will really be):

http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/results.html

I hope you have the break out boards with your encoder.  They made wiring a piece of cake.  I tried to make the length of the wire specific to each button with a few inches to spare, in case I screwed up.  

Basically, you just screw one end of the wire into the breakout board and then insert the other end into the quick disconnect.  Then crimp the quick disconnect.  You really should go out and buy a cheap crimper if you don't allready have one - they help alot.  Also, make sure to pay lots of attention to pin 1 when attaching the IDE cables from the breakout board to the encoder.

[Shieldwolf]

couple of quick questions. Does it matter which wired button goes in a specific number on the breakout box? ie joystick goes in slots 1,2,3,4 and buttons 1,2,3 go in slots 5,6,7? How do I make one giant ground wire for all the buttons? Where do the ground wires go? and last but not least. What did you use to mount those breakout boards. It looks like a plasitc piece to keep the metal pins from hitting the wood, but I can't tell

[paigeoliver]

If you are using quick disconnects then what you do is just chain the ground wire from microswitch to microswitch Each quick disconnect for the ground will have a wire coming in from the switch next to it, and another one coming out to go to the next switch. Once they are all done you should have two wires left, these get hooked up to the ground spot on your encoder (assuming your encoder has two grounds, otherwise just hook them both to the same ground spot).

You always want to do a loop like that, otherwise a single break in the ground wire takes your entire panel out of comission. But if you do a loop, then one break does nothing, and it takes two breaks to knock it out.

[papaschtroumpf]

If you are using quick disconnects then what you do is just chain the ground wire from microswitch to microswitch Each quick disconnect for the ground will have a wire coming in from the switch next to it, and another one coming out to go to the next switch. Once they are all done you should have two wires left, these get hooked up to the ground spot on your encoder (assuming your encoder has two grounds, otherwise just hook them both to the same ground spot).

You always want to do a loop like that, otherwise a single break in the ground wire takes your entire panel out of comission. But if you do a loop, then one break does nothing, and it takes two breaks to knock it out.

Great suggestion!

[papaschtroumpf]

Any suggestion for building your own El Cheapo breakout box?
I'd like to have the option of removing my control panel and attaching a different one, so I would put the keyboard encoder inside the cabinet and connect as single breakout connection between the keyboard encoder and the CP.
(I'm also thinking about getting the keywiz eco for the encoder, and it requires that you solder the wires to the keyboard encoder PCB, so obviously it's not very removable).