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Swappable Control panels: How to connect?

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telengard:


--- Quote from: DaveMMR on June 03, 2004, 11:35:47 pm ---I love Doc's modular design - definately a sleek, functional marvel.  Nevertheless I'm still going with full panels that are swappable.  However, I'm making it so that a good chunk of the games are playable with the main panel (no wasting a panel for a 4-way joystick when I'll have enough space for it on the main).  I also designed the cab so that extra panels can be stored at the bottom of the cab (though I can't store that many, but I don't envision making that many panels to begin with).  

I like the idea of just slapping an I-PAC onto each panel instead of fooling with connections.  I don't know how feasible that is though, cost wise.  I also loved the idea of the leaf connections (I just wish there was more written on the outcome, problems, etc. because I can't really afford to be experimental right now).  

Perhaps it's time to hit the ole' calc.exe and see the whole time vs. cost factor on the I-PAC (and OPTI-PAC) for every panel idea.  

--- End quote ---

Hehe, you're still going to have to connect the IPAC to your PC, but I do see what you mean.  I would think that multiple IPACs would be OK unless you plan on having more than a few panels.  I hade 8 panels before I switched to modular.  That would have been a little too cost prohibitive.    :)

JAZ:

Thanks for the replies. OK, would I be correct in thinking:

-I wire each one of my control panels up to a single molex of xx#inputs.

-I then wire up the iPac to a single molex with xx#inputs.

-When I want to change control panels I simply disconnect the panel and replace it with another

Is that right?

If this is correct, my next question would be what happens if I connect my Pacman panel (1 player start, 1 player coin, 1 x 4-way joystick, 5 x buttons) to the iPac. The iPac will be wired up for a lot of things that are on the other panels, but not this more simplistic one. Are the extra controls that are wired on the iPac simply redundant in this instance as they are not used or required? (ie, they just don't work)

 
/Rebirth, you mentioned that "Back to the topic at hand, won't each panel need 2 or 3 12-way connectors?  Can't you get larger connector blocks, so you could just use 1?  Not that it is a big deal, just thinking it might be confusing connecting 2-3 plugs as well as just more time swapping the panels"   Any idea what the largest size block is? I did a search and the largest seems to be 15 inputs - which would mean I would wire up a 15 pin for each player on each control panel, and the iPac.

krick:

I'm following the advice of Bob Roberts and using 12-pin Molex connectors for everything as described in his JAMMA harness hookup page...
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/jh.html
...and his Super JAMMA Harness page...
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/super.html
...and his JAMMA Plus page...
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/plus.html


This is the 12-pin molex connectors on the JAMMA harness side...

Player1:
01 GROUND
02 START
03 UP
04 DOWN
05 LEFT
06 RIGHT
07 BUTTON1
08 BUTTON2
09 BUTTON3
10 BUTTON4 (if present)
11 BUTTON5 (if present)
12 EXTRA GROUND

Player2:
01 GROUND
02 START
03 UP
04 DOWN
05 LEFT
06 RIGHT
07 BUTTON1
08 BUTTON2
09 BUTTON3
10 BUTTON4 (if present)
11 BUTTON5 (if present)
12 --


On the control panel side, I'm going to have this a 12 pin molex connector for each
Player position, 1 through 4:
01 GROUND
02 START
03 UP
04 DOWN
05 LEFT
06 RIGHT
07 BUTTON1
08 BUTTON2
09 BUTTON3
10 --
11 --
12 --

And a 12-pin molex connector
for all the extra non-JAMMA buttons:
01 P1 BUTTON4
02 P1 BUTTON5
03 P1 BUTTON6
04 P1 BUTTON7
05 P1 BUTTON8 (if present)
06 P2 BUTTON4
07 P2 BUTTON5
08 P2 BUTTON6
09 P2 BUTTON7
10 P2 BUTTON8 (if present)
11 P3 BUTTON4
12 P4 BUTTON4


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