How do you guys place the IPAC?

[apu95]

well, as u can see in my pic im working on my CP. ive solved the wiring issue in another thread i opened (thx for all the replies guys).
im curious as to how to place the ipac tho. can i just leave it on the actual wood, and just securing it in place, or should i suspend it in some way?

take a look at this pic (sorry about the quality...its a webcam)
i wanna have it in that position.

thx!
Apu

[Tahnok]

Wood does not conduct. I don't own an Ipac, but I would have to guess that it would not care about where it is placed. Just make sure you don't get anything in there that my short out the circuits (stray wires, cut leads, solder...). I would also recommend securing it to the actual CP board and not the box below. It makes it much easier to work on IMHO.

[MinerAl]

As long as you don't mount it so that the solder points on the back are touching metal, you're ok.

Most mountings that I've seen use standard motherboard offsets.  I have used offsets and just screwed it barely-snug to wood.

[Goz]

Even with it resting on wood, I'd recommend using PCB feet or the cut up BIC pen trick.

-Goz

[RayB]

Don't mount it on the underside of the top. If you (or some angry friend) were to slam the control panel in frustration (say, after having your ass handed to you in Street Fighter), the vibrations/shock is not good for the IPAC.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I mounted mine inside a project box from Radio Shack, and then put it beside my monitor inside the cabinet.

That kept it out of my control area, so that I didn't run into any problems down the road with a control that wouldn't fit into an area because of the I-pac on my modular system.
If I had a fixed control panel, I still would have put it inside a project box, but I would have put the box inside the control area for accessibility.

The nice thing about the project box, as opposed to mounting the board directly to the wood using PCB feet, is that it allowed me to put cable restrictors on the wires coming out of the box.
That prevents the wires from pulling directly on the terminal connections if something were to snag up while being removed.

[spidermonkey]

Once you decide on how to mount it you have to decide on where to mount it. #1 don't mount it near a flourecent light fixture as they cause interference with the encoder. I originally mounted mine inside the control panel. I also had flourecent light fixtures in the control panel to light up my translucent buttons. The computer kept beeping as if one of the keys were stuck on my keyboard. Two keyboards later and after several headaches I realized the light fixtures were causing interference. I relocated the i-pac inside the cabinet and the problem went away. #2 The other advantage of having the i-pac in the cab is that if you have swappable control panels you can switch control panels and plug into the same i-pac. My cousin has three different control panels for his cab. He mounted his i-pacs inside the cp so he had to buy three i-pacs instead of one. Needless to say he has more money then brains.

[Nefesis]

Even with it resting on wood, I'd recommend using PCB feet or the cut up BIC pen trick.

-Goz

what's the bic pen trick?

[DougHillman]

cut the barrel of a cheap Bic pen into mounting feet for PCB's instead of spending $$$ on them.  

[Nefesis]

is the barrel the part where you write or the long thin part that you hold?

[pocketbikez]

remove the writing part, the ball point and ink straw, then what you will have is the hollow plastic tube. cut the plastic tube into four little 1/2" sections and mount the pcb with some screws thru the holes of the ipac and hollow tube. make sure the scrws dont touch any connections on the ipac.

[Kremmit]

Bic pen trick:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=21159

[daeven]

I bought 2' of 3/16" outer diameter clear plastic tubing from ACE Hardware for $0.32.  I believe I now have a lifetime supply of PCB mounting spacers.