IPAC 4 Wiring Help

[Montell]

I did not want to ditch my zero delay encoders which simply plugged in and worked, but for a few reasons i purchased an ipac 4. I dont know much about wiring or electrical, but it is a 4 player cab, so I had my work cut out for me.

I wired everything up, but then needed an electrician i knew to do the grounds. The obstacles i ran into were each sanwa joystick has a black wire coming off of it. Ipacs only have two ground terminals.

I also have two different size disconnects, start buttons are bigger then my regular sanwa. All in all i daisey chained all the wires to ground, but i had to use more then just two wires. SO i had an electrician I know come to ground them.

And he used these to then daisey chain the ground wires into 2.

https://www.lowes.ca/product/audio-video-splitters-and-connectors/ideal-ur-i-red-idc-splice-connector-25-count-20178?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=10646580466&cq_con=106830637404&cq_term=&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=u&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&&cm_mmc=paid_search-_-google-_-aw_smart_shopping_generic_online_exclusive-_-71700000070203076&gclid=CjwKCAiA6aSABhApEiwA6Cbm_z6F5nYbiFnOb9lUgegc_jDIdhoPjXfRGDS_qN0YayCww0nFCsLiZhoClbMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

For whatever reason nothing worked. So i checked if a ground wire in the daisey chain came unplugged, sure enough button 1 for the second player did. I plugged it in, it worked, but no other button does.

Besides double checking all my wiring does anyone have any idea what this issue is? How does only 1 single button work now?

[PL1]

How does only 1 single button work now?

The IDC splices probably did not make a good connection somewhere between the first and second buttons -- and maybe (likely?) elsewhere in the daisy-chain.

- Those splices are rated for stiff solid-core wire (a.k.a. doorbell or hookup wire), not flexible stranded wire.  There's a reason you seldom see them used around here.

- Did your electrician friend do any continuity checks with a multimeter after building the daisy-chain?

- Any bad connection in the daisy-chain breaks continuity from that point on.

- If you have a multimeter, remove power from the IPac and start checking continuity.

- Seriously consider buying a pre-fab daisy-chain that fits your Sanwa buttons (0.110") and either make short adapters for the larger 0.187" or 0.250" tab Start buttons (shown below) or buy a pre-fab 0.187" (or 0.250") daisy-chain for your Start buttons.

              0.110" male QD -------------- 0.187" (or 0.250") female QD


Scott

[Montell]

Thanks PL1, i dont know much about electrical, I am more a software guy, but I am going to call him back and discuss your post with him.

I do have pre made daisy chains ground from ultimarc that fit sanwa buttons .110 and some .187 but given the sheer size of the cabinet i had two runs on both side (it has pinball buttons on the pedestal down below for visual pinball games) so theres a ton of buttons and area to cover. Its not a frankenstein cabinet, it just has 4 players and then 4 pinball buttons on the side. Then the JLF sanwa joysticks have these harnesses with grounds that also need to be connected for all 4 joysticks.

https://www.amazon.ca/JLF-H-Wiring-Harness-Joysticks-Seimitsu/dp/B01GE752BY

I noticed the only button that works on the ground wire daisy chain is the one strand that is going directly to the ipac ground terminal, the other strand is then going to one of these splices i posted above and then connected to another splice with the other ground connections, so i take it he just tried connecting each ground together with the final strand going to the ipac ground.

Someone more knowledgeable then me could maybe explain why that wont work, or perhaps like PL1 said they shouldnt be used for this or there is a bad connection.

Is there a better way to splice all these grounds together if you absolutely have to use additional ground wire strands like me and then combine them into the two ipac grounds?

[PL1]

Check out the wiring page on the wiki, especially the parts about QDs and insulated butt splices.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/Wiring

You don't need an expensive crimper for QDs and butt splices -- an el-cheapo pair of Harbor Freight ratcheting crimpers should do the job just fine if they are properly adjusted.
- Ratcheting crimpers give you a more easy, consistent, repeatable crimp than the non-ratcheting variety.

https://www.harborfreight.com/ratcheting-crimping-tool-63708.html

Don't forget to snag a 20% off coupon if you don't already have one.
http://www.hfqpdb.com/browse#coupons

Get some 20 or 22AWG stranded wire or maybe some 24AWG. (most prefab daisy-chains are 24AWG)
- Anything larger is overkill, anything smaller will be very hard to work with.

Buy more QDs and butt splices than you think you'll need so you can do some practice crimps.

Some people advise using the "pull" method to test if a crimp is mechanically solid, but if it fails you need another QD because the old one won't go back on the wire.   

It's better to use the "twist" method.
- Pinch the wire with the fingers of one hand and try to twist the QD 90 degrees with the other hand.
- If the crimp isn't mechanically solid the QD will rotate around the wire but it shouldn't pull off so you can try to re-crimp it.   


Scott