question about ipac and mini pac

[stephenp1983]

I'm on the border as to whether to build my own or buy a prebuilt one.  I'm not worried about the woodwork, but more so the wiring.  I have a few questions.  I saw both the ipac and the minipac, and to be honest the mini pac with the included wiring harness looks like the simplest solution.  Do you just plug on end into the intereface and the other into the joystick or button?  I had one question, what is the ground for?  Woudl I have to connect anything to it or what.

[kiddk1]

for the ipac( I have the keywiz and I think they operate the same) you plug in the wires from the joysitck(s)/Buttons to the appropriate input on the ipac.  Yes you do need a ground each microswitch has a ground they can all be connected together, I used a wiring block from home depot, from there you connect it to the ground(common) on the ipac.  it is alot of wiring depending on how many buttons you have( I had about 27) but is not hard to do, just time consuming. hope this helps

[stephenp1983]

gives me an idea to go on does anyone have any input on the minpac?>

[cholin]

Ive got opinion on the minipac.... get it.  Seriously, the minipac is wonderful and Im constantly backing it up over other products.  The difference between the two is really size and the trackball support...  the minipac has more than enough buttons, 2 joysticks, the shift function and a trackball / spinner interface!

Seriously, its the perfect product IMO for arcades and the price is right...  now as for grounding:
     - each button has a ground on its microswitch (as stated).  One of the best ways Ive found for grounding would be to just get one long ground wire that goes from the minipac to all of your buttons (through eachother) and back to the minipac, sorta like this:

MINIPAC   ->   BUTTON   ->   BUTTON   ->   BUTTON   ->   BUTTON   ->   BUTTON   ->   BUTTON   ->   MINIPAC

That way, if a ground is faulty, you will definately know which button(s) are causing the problem, because all the rest will still function, whereas at the same time, you save all that time wiring everything (like 30 wires) to a central space, which causes alot of clutter.  Go out and buy a few feet of cheap green wire for like a dollar (not at like radioshack, i dont get why all these people go out and buy top-of-the-line crap for like 15 bucks when dollar stores have the same!) and just cut it to lengths long enough to go between buttons.  Make like a chain effect with them and just link them all together......

[kiddk1]

good point on the wiring but if you do have a fault finding it can be a pita, I wired each mircoswith with a ground(what a pain) but if one goes out I know which it is.