Can i use a barrier strip for control panel grounds instead....

[2PacMan]

Can i use a barrier strip of some sort to wire all of the grounds from my control panel buttons and joysticks instead of daisy chaining them all together?  THen can i wire the strip to the IPAC? To me, that seems easier because then if there is a problem with one of the buttons, it will be obvious, instead of having all of the buttons linked.

Another question...if i'm using a ground barrier strip, do i even need to hook it up to the grounds of the ipac if i'm grounding it through the strip.

Then, if this is and OK procedure, where do i mount the grounding strip, somewhere on the wood cab? Do i need to wrap it in electrical tape??

Thanks

[Tiger-Heli]

Can i use a barrier strip of some sort to wire all of the grounds from my control panel buttons and joysticks instead of daisy chaining them all together?  THen can i wire the strip to the IPAC? To me, that seems easier because then if there is a problem with one of the buttons, it will be obvious, instead of having all of the buttons linked.

Yes, it will work.  I think the daisy-chaining method is a better choice, but a barrier strip isn't a problem.

Another question...if i'm using a ground barrier strip, do i even need to hook it up to the grounds of the ipac if i'm grounding it through the strip.

Not sure.  I know it will work if you run the switch gnds to the strip and the strip to the I-PAC GND terminals and leave it "floating" so to speak.  I don't know if hooking it to some other ground point as well creates problems or not.  My gut feeling is that if you did this, you would also want to connect the I-PAC GND terminal to the same gnd point as the barrier strip, i.e. if the strip is grounded to a metal panel in the cab, run the I-PAC GND terminal to the same panel.

Then, if this is and OK procedure, where do i mount the grounding strip, somewhere on the wood cab? Do i need to wrap it in electrical tape??

Mounting is not very critical (you don't want it hanging and running into hot wiring, but otherwise . . .  Electrical tape is not required.

[2PacMan]

Great...thanks for the input....why would you prefer the daisy chain method?  Is it just because there would be less wires to deal with coming from the cp?

Performance wise, it should be the same, right?  Seems like the non-daisy chain method would be easier for troubleshooting.

[Tiger-Heli]

Personal preference really -

Actually, what I prefer is a loop, I-PAC GND to switch 1 to switch 2 etc. and BACK to I-PAC GND.

This requires two breaks in the GND wire before a failure will have ANY effect.

[quarterback]

In the TOK encoder thread somebody mentioned P360s not working unless there was a common ground (or something like that).  Did I misunderstand taht post or is that true and why is that?

[CJK]

In the TOK encoder thread somebody mentioned P360s not working unless there was a common ground (or something like that).  Did I misunderstand taht post or is that true and why is that?

The P360's have a power connection, a ground connection and four connections for the principal directions (up, down, left, right). The ground has to be common to the +5 V power source and the keyboard encoder or nothing will work. (You won't have completed one of the circuits if the buttons go to a different ground from the power source.)

-- Chris

[quarterback]

The ground has to be common to the +5 V power source and the keyboard encoder

Gotcha.  I had interpreted the comment in the other thread to mean that ALL the buttons & joysticks had to share a common ground or the P360s wouldn't work, and I couldn't figure out why that would be the case.
Thanks

[markrvp]

The barrier strip should ground to the encoder's ground.

You can actually use a combination of a barrier strip and daisy-chaining.  For example, run a ground from the encoder to the barrier strip.  You can daisy-chain all the buttons for player 1 and go to the barrier strip.  Then daisy chain all of player 2's controls and run that lead to the barrier strip. 

You have a lot of options.

[Tiger-Heli]

The ground has to be common to the +5 V power source and the keyboard encoder

Gotcha.  I had interpreted the comment in the other thread to mean that ALL the buttons & joysticks had to share a common ground or the P360s wouldn't work, and I couldn't figure out why that would be the case.
Thanks

I had the comment in the other thread.  The inputs that you wire the P360s to have to have a common ground.  With an I-PAC or KeyWiz, it doesn't matter, as all of the inputs are common ground.

With a matrix-mode device, such as a gamepad or keyboard hack, I thought you were okay as long as all of the P360 inputs are in the same row or column, but now I am not sure of this.

[Tiger-Heli]

The ground has to be common to the +5 V power source and the keyboard encoder

Gotcha.  I had interpreted the comment in the other thread to mean that ALL the buttons & joysticks had to share a common ground or the P360s wouldn't work, and I couldn't figure out why that would be the case.
Thanks

Actually, there is a lot of confusion on this issue.  I recently got re-edumacated on this an hope I got it right.  What happens is in direct-mode the encoder supplies +5V per input, through the switch to ground.  As long as the encoder works this way, for at least 4 inputs, you can hook a P360 joystick to it.  If it uses Matrix mode, than this won't work.  Note that it might use a 23x1 matrix where all the COM terminals of the buttons go to the same column and you can daisy-chain wires, but you still can't hook up Perfect 360 joysticks to it.

The confusion in the TOKN16 thread came about b/c KevSteele originally said the encoder was direct mode, but used individual ground wires instead of daisy-chaining them, then MattP said it used two grounds in a multiplex, then MattP later said it used a Matrix.

I am now assuming you cannot use P360's with the TOKN16, but don't know for sure, maybe in a couple of days 

[Tiger-Heli]

I got re-re-edumacated.

If the encoder is 23x1, then P360's will work.

However, if it is 12x2, then you cannot use P360's (without a lot of extra keys being generated), even if you keep the P360 inputs in the same column or even if you keep ALL the inputs in the same column and leave column 2 unconnected.