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Yet Another: "Does this sound right?" Control Panel Thread
Trimoor:
I think MAME should just revert to the original 12 input for ikari wrriors. It seems silly to convert from absolute to relative, and back to absolute again.
What would be best is to build a stick with both 12 way and optical sensors on it.
Then you just need some sort of lever to turn off the mechanical resistance and clicking.
Similar to the switchable 4-8 way sticks.
Kremmit:
Trimoor: Absolutely agree with you, on both counts.
I guess way back when the MAME devs were adding the mehaniical rotary games, they thought nobody'd ever be wiring ls30s to their software. ;) It seems like it should be easy enough fix the code, but since I'm not a programmer I guess I should shut up about that. Mabye when U_Rebelscum gets the rest of the games working with direct connect in Analog MAME+, (hint, hint- you listening, Robin?) the MAME devs will see fit to incorporate his code to the official MAME build.
As for the rotary combo sticks, I've spent some time thinking about how to do that very hack. I started to describe it in detail, but it got really long, and we probably shouldn't threadjack Starchild's control panel discussion that badly. ;D The basic idea is to combine your mod and the pulley system from Mr. Curmudgeon's. Mount the optical encoder to the bottom of the shaft via your method, and a true mechanical rotary switch to the pulley system. Or mabye the other way around.
StarChild:
lol :)
You know, a threadjacking might in order because this is one of the areas I'm most curious about. All my control panel questions are pretty much answered, but I still had questions on the rotary sticks. sooo....THREADJACK APPROVED!
I used to go down to the supermarket on my bike when I was young to play Ikari Warriors there. Now, I can do okay with the sticks not being yellow, but the clicking was important to me. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of click on the opticals, but they were do-able. Now you guys kicked me in the butt to do what I should have done...figured out a way to make 'em work. hehehe
I originally wanted to do what your plan is, Kremmit, and wire them up to the ipac, but even using an ipac4 I was "out of inputs" with what I'd planned (see first post in thread for inputs). Something I hadn't really considered was doubling the inputs up. You can do that, right? Another idea I had to do this was to buy an additional ipac2 strictly to wire up the rotaries. (lol, you can do that too, right?) If I go this route, however, am I going to run into the same problem I would with "doubling up" the controls on the ipac4 (running out of keys to bind to) or can I bind them to different "non-shifted" key strokes without affecting the rest of the inputs? (bleh, that's a bit hard to understand...hope it makes sense)
I imagine as MAME progresses, rotary funtionality will probably improve (Ikari looks like the guys are on meth they way they spaz out) and I'd rather not rewire the whole thing with each release. The primary reason for me going with the rotary and Druin's board was to reduce the rotary input from 12 to 2 per stick. If I could have it both ways on my big control panel, it sure would be nice... :)
-*
Kremmit:
--- Quote from: StarChild on October 03, 2004, 12:13:10 pm ---...Something I hadn't really considered was doubling the inputs up. You can do that, right? Another idea I had to do this was to buy an additional ipac2 strictly to wire up the rotaries. (lol, you can do that too, right?) If I go this route, however, am I going to run into the same problem I would with "doubling up" the controls on the ipac4 (running out of keys to bind to) or can I bind them to different "non-shifted" key strokes without affecting the rest of the inputs? (bleh, that's a bit hard to understand...hope it makes sense)
--- End quote ---
First off, sure, you could buy a 2nd ipac2, and there shouldn't be any problem assigning it's inputs to different keys- after all, there are (at least) 101 keys on a standard keyboard, and 64 + 32 is only 96. But why spend the dough if you dont' have to- you're already buying an ipac4 and a druin's here!
Of course, I should point out that I haven't actually done this yet, so I can't guarantee it'll work. But I've seen several posts from other members that are wiring more than one control to the same inputs, and not heard of any problems from that. After all, electrically speaking, the ipac's inputs are really just a broken connection. Theoretically, I don't see why you couldn't wire an infinite # of controls to the same inputs. Which switch closes the circuit doesn't matter to the ipac. The real world limit will of course be that they can't be controls that are used at the same time- If you connected to, say, the same inputs as the fire, grenade, coin, & player start buttons you would be using during rotary games, then you're hosed. That's why you may want to consider connecting your rotaries as player 1 & 2 instead- then you can use the player 3 & 4 stick & button inputs for your rotary switch inputs, as there are no 3 or 4 player mechanical rotary games (as far as I know). Of course, you may not want to use yellowtop LS-30s for p1 & 2 during non-rotary game play, which is why the Happ variety starts to look more attractive. Or, you could do what I'm planning to do, and go with a modular control panel that allows you to swap the rotaries in and out at will.
Whatever you go with, good luck!