Atomarcade.net Encoder Review!!!

[ckenney11]

Review of the Atom Arcade Hydrogen arcade controller by Ckenney11

While trying to decide which of the Encoders to go with for the arcade that I

[quarterback]

My trackball was at first was pretty sluggish but after doing a little research on the forums came to the conclusion that my Imperial 3

[Tahnok]

I was going to buy one of those a while ago, but decided against it until someone else checked it out. Thanks for the review. I have no problem soldering the connections to save some (instead of buying a full mini-pac).

[ckenney11]

My trackball was at first was pretty sluggish but after doing a little research on the forums came to the conclusion that my Imperial 3

[RandyT]

Get a buddy to help and start pressing down buttons (joystick diagonals, etc.) one at a time until they stop registering and see how many you can press simultaneously.

They might have worked around the USB keyboard limits, but it would be a good thing to add to your review regardless.  Keep in mind that some of these things, a simultaneous keypress limitation in particular,  can get chalked up to player error when that really isn't the cause.

RandyT

[ckenney11]

I asked the creator of this product about key limits and losing key inputs and this is what he had to say.

"We have not seen any issues with losing keys over USB.  USB HID devices are "polled" (interrupt-in) approximately every 10ms and each USB keyboard report can hold 8 modifier keys and 6 standard keys for a total of 14 keys.  Also each key is a dedicated input into the controller so it should not be missed."

I'm not really sure that this a good answer to the how many input question but I will try to see how many you can press simultaneously for my self.  Thanks for letting me know.  I will post as soon as I find out.

[RandyT]

I'm not really sure that this a good answer to the how many input question but I will try to see how many you can press simultaneously for my self.  Thanks for letting me know.  I will post as soon as I find out.

The answer is good, but doesn't tell the whole story.  Based on their response, If you go with MAME defaults, the answer is a total of only 9 simultaneous keypresses.

If you want to use an application where modifier keys (CTRL, SHIFT, ALT and WIN) cannot be used, that number dwindles to only 6.

So it looks like one would need to carefully select the keys used to avoid potential difficulties.  FWIW, these types of limtations are inherent in some shape or form to all current USB keyboard based controllers.  Some, as does this one apparently, just suffer from it worse than others.

An actual confirmation of this from your tests would be helpful, so thanks in advance for providing the info.

RandyT

[Tahnok]

Found the original thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=48250.0

This may clear things up a bit.