Wiring a control panel for dreamcast and Mame

[jlampc]

Does anyone know if its possible to wire a control panel to both an I-PAC and a dreamcast controller? I want to be able to use the same control panel for my dreamcast and my PC. I have no room in my control panel design for anymore joysticks. if its not possible, I'll just make jacks to plug in the dreamcast controllers(which will be great for gun games like House of the Dead 2)
Help???

[CthulhuLuke]

Alright, here's what you want to do.  Go either to www.gamestop.com or go out to a local video game store, and pick up either A:Pelican or Gamestop digital psx controllers, or B:MadCatz digital psx controllers, they should range from 3-5 dollars, get two of those.  They are extremely easy to hack, and if you break one, you can just go buy another.  
   Then either go on Ebay.com, they're harder to find there, or search the web for 2 psx to dc convertors, the kind that's a solid looking box with a black input that sticks out for the psx controller is the best kind.  Now wire up the psx pads to the terminal strips the I-pac is connected to, or whatever you want as long as they're connected to the wires that go to the buttons, and fire it up, just don't have em both on at the same time.   Note:  if you're worried about having one draw too much power from the other incase someone accidently is stupid in your house and turns em both on, then for safety you can install a switch, a DPDT will do, and just wire the seperate grounds onto either side, so like
   
                              DPDT  Switch
       
                              ( )
                                \\
                         ___<=======>___
                     {___________________}
                        II        II          II
        [ I-Pac 2 Gnds ]:[ To buttons ]:[ Psx 2 Gnds ]

 *Always wanted to draw some ASCII art here, but there,
there's how the switch would look and what you'd wire it up like.

    -Good Luck
     -CthulhuLuke

[Dave_K.]

CthulhuLuke is right on.  A simpler way to explain this is that you want to isolate the dreamcast pad from the i-pac.  You can either do this as CthulhuLuke mentioned with a DPDT switch (nice ascii drawing by the way!  ) or you can simply put a molex connector or db25 connect in between the control panel and the i-pac.  Then hack the dreamcast pad to the molex connector.  This way only one or the other is plugged into the control panel.  Get it?  

[gnateye]

thats how i have mine, my CP is wires up to a 25pin  copnnector, then there is one 25pin connector for the pc and one for the DC, i just swap the connections and turn on whichever system i need, you will need seperate grounds though for the DC controllers so make sure you sire uyp the ipac the same way.