Turns out it was a PEBKAC situation

I had the board set to PS2 mode when it was actually plugged in via USB, so when I was hitting program it wasn't updating the IPAC, oops. As soon as I fixed that everything went as smooth as could be.
Turns out I didn't have to worry about an admin panel too much in the end as I am using shifted keys to do the basics. P1 Start + P2 Start exits all my emulators using a macro to hit a couple of assigned keys, also the same action goes 'back' in Hyperspin. The default P1 plus joystick movement gets my tab menu in Mame so it's very simple and elegant. I still need to address adding credits as I am currently doing that with the two buttons on the front of the control panel but they will eventually be dedicated to pinball shoot and launch ball buttons.
Also I need to set two shifted keys that will launch my rotation bat scripts in case I get a game that doesn't rotate the screen properly, I can just shift-key the P1 joystick left and right to rotate the panel myself, assuming I will use AHK for this.
Andy from Ultimarc is sending me the firmware for my PACLED64 that I managed to bork up so that should help me get the lighting squared away too.
Still working on the tablet. The app I want to use for software admin keys is being rewritten to work better for Mame, Visual Pinball and Hyperspin. Also I'll be using it for cab volume control, mute, pause etc. It's also going to control other things in the room like my Sonos sound system, Plex media server on my Projector, check email and who knows what else.