4 Player Controls with 2 IPAC 2 boards

[oskywawa]

Hello,
  I am building my first MAME cabinet and have been having some difficulty with the controls.  I ordered all of the components through Ultimarc, and I appear to have wired everything correctly (when I load up WinIPAC in test mode all the buttons and joystiq directions respond with something).  The issue I am having is actually programming all 4 players worth of buttons.  Both IPAC2 boards are plugged into the computer using their own USB plug.  I wired players 1 and 3 to one board, and players 2 and 4 to the bother board.  How can I get WinIPAC to recognize both boards at once so I can setup the buttons and joysticks correctly?  Any help here would be greatly appreciated.  I have documented most of my build out here...  www.arcadebuild.com. 

[HaRuMaN]

Why didn't you get an IPAC 4?

If you are dead set on using 2 IPAC 2's...  you probably need to program them one at a time (plug one in, unplug the other one).

[oskywawa]

they were out of stock on the ipac4 when i placed my order I'm afraid or I would have.  the trouble i have when i do them separate is the fact that player 1 and 3 are on one board, and 2 and 4 are on the other, so the WinIPAC software doesn't show players 1-4 as mappable options (just shows player 1 and 2) if that makes sense.  It's annoying though becasue all the buttons do SOMETHING when clicked, I am just not sure how to map them.  I am going to try connecting the two boards with a ps/2 cable tonight then just plugging the main board into the computer with the USB and see if the software recognizes the two boards as one with players 1-4 as mappable options.

[Hoopz]

A few options:

Sell them and get the Ipac 4 or another 4 player encoder.

Configure one Ipac as players 1 and 2 first.  Then worry about changing players 3 and 4.  There isn't any reason to change three players when you can hook up P1 and P2 to the same Ipac.  Get it working then start on P3 and P4.

Email Andy at Ultimarc for help.

[oskywawa]

After a couple emails with Andy @ Ultimarc and these posts I was able to solve my problems here and wanted to share with the group in case this is helpful in the future for someone else.

The main thing I found was to NOT use the "panel" view within WinIPAC and instead use the "table/grid" view of the mappings.  Also on an Win & machine MAKE SURE you run the WinIPAC software in administrator mode or you will not be able to program the mappings to the board.

I created a big hand written grid off all of my ports, and the buttons attached to them to begin, then for each button i wrote out what key on the keyboard I would be mapping it to.  This was VERY helpful.

I then plugged in the first IPAC2, opened WinIPAC in admin mode, and mapped all the buttons based on the chart i created.  I then clicked "program" in WinIPAC and all the buttons saved.  I then unplugged this board, plugged in the other, and did the same thing.

After both boards were programmed, I plugged them both in, and you can then use your chart you already created to map the specific buttons to use in each emulator.

I am still having some issues however with phantom button clicks (i think one i mapped to "escape" is someone triggering while using an emulator and it's closing windows, showing the toolbar, etc, so i need to figure that out next).  I hope this is helpful for others!