iPac Ultimate

[ginkgoblue]

First, I'm totally new to this.

Second, my only knowledge is reading through some posts on BYOAC and reading through tech sheets on Ultimarc.com.

I "think" I understand, but I just want to ensure that my setup will work before placing my order, so here it goes....


4 player panel

4 Admin buttons (not lit)

4 Player Start Buttons (LED RGB)

P1 and P2 with 6 buttons (LED RGB) and U360s - (underlit with RGB LED like Chance's Flynn cab, so cool)

P3 and P4 with 4 buttons (LED RGB) and J-Sticks - (underlit with RGB LEDs)

2 Pinball buttons on side of CP (LED RGB)

1 Utrack Pearl Trackball (LED RGB)

4 "coin in" buttons (no mechs, or coin door, just buttons) below CP  (LED RGB)

NOTE: I plan to wire joystick underlights and coin in lights in tandem, meaning that the coin buttons will always be slave to the joystick lights; i.e on one player games only one stick and one coin button will be lit, also on 4 player games, all 4 will be lit and color matched.

I do not plan to light the admin buttons.

From my math I come up with 31 RGBs: (93 outputs) 1 Trackball, [26 "buttons" and 4 "joystick/coin combos"- since the coin and sticks will share (is this possible/advisable?)]

If I use the U360s in input mode for P1 and P2 (and their 6 buttons each), then I would think I am sending 4 USB cables to the PC, 1 from trackball, 1 from each 360 and one from an interface controller.

This interface controller would need 30 inputs;

4 for ADMIN buttons

4 for Player start

16  (8 for each) P3/P4 (sticks/4 buttons)

2 for Pinball buttons

4 for coin in buttons.


Would this all work with the Ultimate I/O?

Am I on track?

Thanks in advance guys for any guidance!








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[leapinlew]

The pinball buttons could be wired to any other 2 buttons on the cabinet. You don't need dedicated buttons for it.

As for the admin buttons - you'll get lots of opinions on this one, but many people skip the admin buttons all together and instead go for the shifted feature of the ipac. When my cabinets are configured, the only physical admin buttons are coin up. I use the shifted feature of the ipac for pause and exit.

I have kids, and kids like buttons, so getting rid of buttons that could get them or guests in trouble has reduced people saying "the game broke"

[gravitar80]

You don't need more than 4 buttons for players 3-4 unless you want to play some emulated console games from consoles with more buttons, like Super Nintendo or Playstation. I have the same buttons on my P3 & P4 positions as I do on P1 and P2 but I probably wouldn't bother if I did it again.

I have 7 buttons for all my joysticks, not because 7 is required by any game but for layout flexibility for best feel across the most games. They're laid out sort of like this (J is the joystick and numbers are the buttons):

      5  6  7
J     2  3  4
    1

For most games that use 1-4 buttons my default first four buttons work great, but I can configure the buttons differently when that makes sense for a game (e.g. Street Fighter or most other fighting games). No single game uses all 7 buttons but they're still useful to have for the sake of comfort and flexible control layout.

I agree with what leapinlew says about the admin buttons, you don't need them. Use shifted buttons for admin stuff so people don't hit them accidentally. And just wire your pinball buttons in with a couple of player 3 or 4 buttons you'll never be using simultaneously.

[RobodocX]

I am most definitely not an expert on this issue so take comments with a grain of salt. I have also been considering setting up a four player controller with trackball. My understanding is that with the Ultimarc Ultimate IO board that if you design a four player setup you can't use the trackball or spinner inputs. With 2 player setups it works with both trackball and spinner but when you move to four players you lose that option. I would suspect you need to go back to the IPAC4 to do this if you want that trackball connected to the board.

Can anyone else confirm or deny?

please refer to: http://ultimarc.com/ipacuio.html. Middle of the page under "what to order."

Rick

[dkersten]

It is tricky, but if using u360's for p1 and p2 sticks, you free up enough inputs to get all those buttons/sticks/trackball/spinner.  I am running something similar, with only 2 coin buttons, but also with 3 admin buttons and 2 mouse buttons (left and right click) and got it all on one UIO.

ETA: I have no pinball buttons, and for clarification, the u360's use USB ports, not the wired outputs.  That also freed up the u360's to use the inputs as joystick button inputs if necessary, so you could put all your main buttons on it and free up even more inputs on the UIO.  With regular sticks for p1 and p2, you can't do it all and use a spinner, you come up short (short a couple other buttons too).