I'm currently using the iPac 4 in keyboard mode. I've also connected an iPac 2 via USB, and I'm aiming to integrate an extra set of 7 buttons into the system using the iPac 2.
Windows sees an IPac as a composite device that has a HID keyboard.
Windows can handle having a large number of keyboards plugged in at the same time with no problem.
- There are 3 keyboards and 3 mice when I'm using the pinball controller in my sig and a wireless keyboard.
Obviously, you'll want to reprogram the IPac2 to send different keystrokes than the IPac4.
- If you want to send the same keystrokes, you can just wire several button/joystick microswitches in parallel to an IPac input.
Something that might give you problems is if you change the "multikeyboard" setting in mame.ini.
- It's better to leave this setting disabled (0) and program the second IPac to send different keystrokes instead of dealing with possible Windows device renumbering problems.
- With multikeyboard set to enabled (1), MAME looks for a specific keystroke from a specific keyboard number.
If you need to reprogram one of the IPacs, remember to unplug the USB on other one so the WinIPAC knows which board you want to program.
Scott