Is grounding a must?

[truthfacer]

Hey Guys!
Do I HAVE to ground all my buttons on a controller connected to a pc through an interface??
And how do I ground 'em??

--->I want to wire a Neo-Geo-Joyboard to the x-arcade-interface. the case is plastic only ... so grounding? ....yes I am a non-technichian
Thanx Robert

[JonnyBoy]

Yeah, in order for the input to be triggered, it needs to be grounded. You can ground two ways. The first being you daisy chain the grounds of each microswitch together, just link them and send them all to a common ground on your encoder. You could also use a terminal block, you'd just take all the grounds to the terminal block and run a wire to the ground on the encoder. Most people chose to do the first.

[truthfacer]

Ok. I know the grounds for my buttons. How do I find out which is the ground for the knob? there are two connections to each direction.

[Farmboy90]

The ground is the same as for the buttons.  It is the "top" tab on the microswitch.  The one labeled common.

[thebrownshow]

Wait, grounding for the knob?  Are you confusing the "Ground" for the actual connection for the switch with something else?  Are you talking about actually grounding the plastic BUTTON?

[truthfacer]

Yeah that was a good one!

[truthfacer]

Alright I connected the neo-geo-joyboard to my x-arcade-single. If anyone cares about that newbie-loser mod. No probs......except: I have the worst tools ever! Hate nothing more than bad tolls. word
Thanx for the help.
Robert

[DrewKaree]

When you refer to "the knob", are you talking about the joystick? 

If not, unless Ashton70 is on your CP, we'll need more info