Ultimate IO / Ultrastik 360 options

[DietCoke]

I've got two Ultrastik 360s alongside 2 banks of 8 buttons each.  It looks to me like I have my choice as to where I connect each of those - the Ultimate IO or the Ultrastik.  Which is the better way to do it?  The Ultrastiks are connected via USB.

Thank you for this great resource!  I am really enjoying learning and building from information found here!

DC

[richzone717]

I've got two Ultrastik 360s alongside 2 banks of 8 buttons each.  It looks to me like I have my choice as to where I connect each of those - the Ultimate IO or the Ultrastik.  Which is the better way to do it?  The Ultrastiks are connected via USB.

Thank you for this great resource!  I am really enjoying learning and building from information found here!

DC

  I think both are fine.  Have you tried connecting both?  Trying out each connection and see which is better.

[EMDB]

If you already have an encoder I would connect the buttons to that. Most emulators better support keystrokes compared to joystick buttons. I would even connect the stick to the encoder to have more exact micro switch like emulation, again for better support in emulators and because if you connect the sticks as Windows joysticks MAME does its internal mapping on top of the U360 mapping which conflicts in some cases (e.g. QBert)

[dkersten]

Even if you have a 4 player setup, the UIO has enough inputs to use for buttons when using the u360 sticks, and as stated already, with keypress encoding, you get more flexibility and compatibility.  And also as stated, this would open up the u360 inputs to be outputs to plug in as microswitch inputs on the UIO, further increasing compatibility across other emulators. 

But it really comes down to what you want to do.  It will work with MAME and most other emulators as joystick buttons (and with the u360 mapping to emulate 4/8 way control).  In my case, I used the buttons with the UIO, but didn't use the u360 outputs, instead using the P1 and P2 joystick inputs for my P3 and P4 sticks, which I couldn't use because I had both a trackball and spinner on the UIO, which then makes those inputs unusable.  So it worked out I was able to connect 32 buttons, 2 digital sticks, 2 analog sticks, a trackball, and a spinner, all to the UIO (along with 31 RGB LED's) and use up all but 2 inputs and one RGB output on the UIO, and not need a separate encoder for my 4 player setup.  This isn't something I could have done with 4 digital sticks.

[Khenemet Heru]

dkersten, any chance of seeing a diagram of that setup? it mirrors what I'm thinking of since I have a couple happ supers laying around, except I'm probably going to to P3 & P4 as removable add-on pods.

[dkersten]

I can try to get a screenshot of the ipac mapper when I am home, but here is the basic gist of it:

On the main header:
P1 and P2 joysticks are u360 using usb (not connected to UIO)
P3 joystick uses P1 joystick inputs on UIO
P4 joystick uses P2 joystick inputs on UIO
P1 and P2 buttons 1-7, and coin and start are all on labeled inputs on UIO.
4 admin buttons are on the 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B inputs on UIO
I think I used the p1 and p2 button 8 inputs for left and right mouse click
I used shift functions for p3 and p4 credit (p1 b7 is shift).
I also used the empty pins correlating to ground for the trackball ground, and for some buttons to ground (just slid the 2.54mm pins into the plug harness)

On the other two small headers:
Spinner and trackball are connected to those ports on UIO
 (this disables 2 of the p4 joystick and 3 of the p3 joystick IIRC, maybe other way around)
P3 and P4 buttons 1-4 are on the labeled pins on the UIO (used 2.54mm female pins and a crimper to add these.  Ultimarc sells expansion harnesses, but you can't use them with the trackball and spinner unless you cut and splice those into the expansion harnesses)
I believe I used P3 and P4 start inputs for those buttons too.

I think I only had to modify the keys for the p1 and p2 joystick inputs, along with the mouse buttons, and one of the admin buttons