Thank you all for your help -- and 1 more question

[Joel]

I wanted to thank you all for your assistance and knowledge in building arcade controls.  Through your expertise I was able to successfully assemble my 1st (of two) controllers.  It is a 8 way joystick with 6 action buttons, a 1P button, coin, ESC, enter, and Shazaaam button.

As you can imagine I went with the Keywiz Max model and it hooked up easily and worked like a charm.  I bought a new keyboard though as my original was not a USB one so I can keep the controller hooekd up to my PC and still use a keyboard.

I have one last question though.  Probably the maker of Keywiz could answer best but I am sure you guys out there have used the Keywiz.

I read in the documentation boldly, to no ground the +5V terminal on the KeyWiz, I fully inderstand why -- but, what would you use that wire for?  I have so far also used one of the two grounds that are available on the board.

Thanks again!

[seaner]

disclaimer.. I know nothing about the keywiz.
Assuming the +5V pin is an input to the keywiz, it is probably there so you can connect an external 5V supply if you want.  As you probably know, the keyboard port on the PC already provides a +5V output, but who knows how much current you can pull from that one pin.  Perhaps the makers of the keywiz figured they may need to pull more than a hundred or so milliamps of current, and provided this pin so they could connect an external supply.  Or perhaps this pin is connected directly to the +5V line form the PC, providing you with 5 volts should you need to connect any funky external circuitry (low current) like a couple LEDs or something.

And as for using one of the grounds, typically ground is ground, no matter what pin you are using.  They are usually all connected together somewhere.  Ground is just a 0V reference from which all of your other voltages are offset.

Sorry for replying.. perhaps I'm misleading you.. I've had "a couple" so far tonight in the process of mixing down my "ultimate 80s arcade background rock (plus ambients)" CD.

[JODY]

It provides +5 volts which can be used to provide power to a Perfect 360 joystick or a Druin interface used with SNK rotary sticks.  That is how I used it...

[RandyT]

Sorry, late to the party again..  


JODY is right.  The +5v line is intended as an output, to power whatever misc. and sundry 5v DC things you want to power....within reason.  Each motherboard will vary on how much current can be sourced by the PS/2 port.  Usually, it's a pretty decent amount.

I have a GPS, Pen Tablet, and Joystick that all are designed to tap the PS/2 port for power to run them, but not at the same time.  This tells me that that there is probably a decent amount of current available, but I wouldn't go too crazy.  If you want to put 10 incandescent lamps on your CP, then tap into the main power supply.  But if you want to run a P360 or a couple of LED's (with the proper resistors) for your coin door lights, you'll probably be fine.  And they don't need to be the "low-current" ones .

RandyT

BTW, don't ever hook an external power supply to your KeyWiz.  It's quite probable that doing so would be a very bad thing