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Swappable Control panels: How to connect?

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JAZ:

I've arranged for the following swappable control panels to be wired up for my Jaleco Pony sit-down cab:

Each panel would have the following:
1 player start button
2 player start button
1 player coin button
2 player coin button

In addition:
Street Fighter panel:
2 x 8-way ball-top joysticks
6 buttons per player

Pacman panel:
1 x 4 way ball-top joystick
5 buttons

Robotron Panel:
4 x 8-way bat-handle joysticks (2 per player)
no buttons

Ikari Warriors Panel:
2 x SNK rotary joysticks
3 buttons per player

The guy who is making the panels has said he will "wire up to 12 way plugs so you can plug and play".

Once I have these panels, what is my best way of connecting them? The cabinet is JAMMA so I use a J-Pac. Do I just need an iPac2 for the sticks and buttons above the JAMMA standard?

Thanks for the help (I've searched the board extensively and Ultimarcs website but I'm now suffering from information overload..)

Lilwolf:

I used 2 25pin serial cables ends.  This was because I had a ton laying around.

works pretty well.

I'm considering building a system to make connecting easier... but I don't believe I will have the time / money for a long long while...  I was hoping to get something like car doors that would work with standard parts on the control panels.

most over the shelf solutions are expensive since you have to buy the male and female side of the plugs for each control panel.. even though you don't really use them.

I guess on the two cables... I could have had one male and one female on the cabinet... and on each control panel would be the same.  At that way I wouldn't have wasted so much.

krick:

I was going to go with DB25 connectors (like serial cables) but the connectors are really tiny and soldering on them is a b*tch.

I changed my mind and decided to go with .093 Molex connectors from Bob Roberts instead.  You can easily crimp your wires to the pins and they're much easy to change in the future than soldered D25 connectors.

This is what a 15 pin connector looks like...



jcoleman:

I went with Molex connectors for mine, but if I had it to do over (and in time, I will), I'd go with RJ-45 for sure.  First of all, you can just buy Ethernet cables and chop them in half.  Radio Shack has modular wall panels that make it super easy to connect one cable to another.  Also, Molexes are a pain in the ass to wire.

Now that I've re-read your posting, I see that's not really what you're asking.  :)  Ah well, I'll leave that response and write another one that's on topic...

I would scrap the JAMMA harness altogether (save it though!).  Since some of your panels are over and above the JAMMA standard, you'll need more connections...the IPAC2 can handle them all (so can the VE or MiniPAC, FYI) and you can easily wire connectors to match those that your builder uses on the panels.

Hope that was clear!  :)

Coleman

Bumblebounces:

When I was planning my cab (it took so long, I had plenty of time to change my mind a few times), I had originally planned to make swappable panels.  I eventually went the route of a Franken panel to prevent the need for it as I knew I would never swap the panels.  I know I am so lazy that I would just use whatever panel was there and play only games it would work with.  Terrible, I know, but no one knows me better than I do.

Oh, back on topic.  Anyway, what I was going to do was make the panels something that slides into place in slots and then gets locked into place with a pin or a cam lock or something like that.  Then, the wires would all be soldered to an edge connector similar to a JAMMA board.  The cab would have a mating female edge connector for all the inputs to the IPAC.  I even had an idea to use some of the extra pins on the finger board to make contact with some LED's mounted in the control panel that would confirm to me that the edge connector had seated in place and it was safe for me to lock it down.  Like I said, I abandoned the idea as I knew I would probably never actually use it.  Others have said, "I wouldn't want friends changing panels."  Then there's the "what do you do with the extra panels that are not in use?"  Some guys have gotten very creative with rotating designs that make the panels captive and this look great and are engineering marvels, but they wern't for me.  I know my idea could work well.  I always thought it was a good idea.  I abandoned the idea before I went looking for the finger boards and connectors so I don't have any sources for that but I am sure you could get these things from an arcade supply house.

Bumble

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