Wireing an iPac4 and 6 joysticks

[squirrellydw]

I'm building a 3 sided cocktail table and not sure the best way to wire my joysticks.  The two end control panels are going to each have a reunion stick and a P360 and the 3rd control panel is going to have 2 P360s.  What do you think is the best way for me to wire these up??  I was thinking connecting a reunion stick and two P360s to player one and the others to player two.  As in the one end control panel with the reunion stick and the P360 and one P360 from the 3rd control panel to player one and then the same thing for player two.  Any other ideas?

Thanks

[Tiger-Heli]

The first advice is to look at what games you plan to play on the cabinet, and how the sticks will be used for those games.

The next thing that comes to mind is the simple rule - At least for MAME, you can always have separate inputs and configure MAME to use either one, but it is difficult to tell MAME not to use the same input.

In other words, if you wire the P1 End Reunion Stick, the P1 End P360, and the horizontal side left P360 stick to Player 1, MAME is simple to configure, but if you want to use the Reunion and the P360 on the P1 Side as a make-shift tank controller for Assault or Battlezone, you are SOL.  Similarly, if you little cousin figures out that the left side P360 stick also controls the Reunion and wants to make your PacMan head for the ghosts, you can't prevent it this way.

OTOH, if you wired all the sticks separately - you could easily tell MAME that P1 Up was Up on the reunion stick OR Up on the P1 End P360 OR Up on the end Left P360 stick.  You can do this in one shot under "Input - All games".  And then you could change PacMan to ONLY work with the P1 End Reunion stick if that was the best solution.  It takes a little longer in software to config this way, but it's a lot easier overall.

The other thing to consider is you have a 56-input encoder, and you are talking about a total of 24 inputs - so you will still have 32 inputs left for buttons after you wire this up.  If you were using an I-PAC/2, my recommendations would obviously be different.

[squirrellydw]

OTOH, if you wired all the sticks separately - you could easily tell MAME that P1 Up was Up on the reunion stick OR Up on the P1 End P360 OR Up on the end Left P360 stick.  You can do this in one shot under "Input - All games".  And then you could change PacMan to ONLY work with the P1 End Reunion stick if that was the best solution.  It takes a little longer in software to config this way, but it's a lot easier overall.

The other thing to consider is you have a 56-input encoder, and you are talking about a total of 24 inputs - so you will still have 32 inputs left for buttons after you wire this up.  If you were using an I-PAC/2, my recommendations would obviously be different.

I like this idea but not sure how to do it.  The iPAC4 has inputs for 4 joysticks, I still have to have 2 joysticks wire together right?  I plan on having about 20 action buttons and 2 or 4 admin buttons.

[Tiger-Heli]

OTOH, if you wired all the sticks separately - you could easily tell MAME that P1 Up was Up on the reunion stick OR Up on the P1 End P360 OR Up on the end Left P360 stick.  You can do this in one shot under "Input - All games".  And then you could change PacMan to ONLY work with the P1 End Reunion stick if that was the best solution.  It takes a little longer in software to config this way, but it's a lot easier overall.

The other thing to consider is you have a 56-input encoder, and you are talking about a total of 24 inputs - so you will still have 32 inputs left for buttons after you wire this up.  If you were using an I-PAC/2, my recommendations would obviously be different.

I like this idea but not sure how to do it.  The iPAC4 has inputs for 4 joysticks, I still have to have 2 joysticks wire together right?  I plan on having about 20 action buttons and 2 or 4 admin buttons.

I keep posting that the input labelling on the I-PAC was a bad idea and nobody (=NBA ?) listens to me.

No, you DO NOT have to have 2 joysticks wired together.  The I-PAC/4 labels the terminals as Joysticks 1 thru 4, P1-P4 SW 1-8, Start 1-4 and Coin 1-4, but these are ARBITRARY.

You can wire the Joystick 1 Up microswitch (which is at the bottom of the panel looking at it from above, BTW), to P1SW1, tell MAME that Player 1 Up uses L Ctrl, and everything wil work fine.  You can also wire the Joystick 1 Up microswitch to P1SW1, re-program the I-PAC so that P1SW1 sends "Up Arrow" and leave MAME alone.  Either way works.  (You don't have any two player 8-button games in MAME or 4-player games with more than 4-buttons, but that doesn't mean you can't use those inputs, or that you just wire buttons to those and let them sit unused  ) Got it?

Think of it as a 56-input encoder, and just decide what inputs you want to connect to it. (This gets further complicated by the KeyWiz and GP-Wiz encoders, which pretty much HAVE to have the joysticks connected as assigned because the joystick inputs can't be assigned shift keys and the way USB gamepad devices are treated, but I digress).

There is no point getting ridiculous with it and assigning each joystick to the Player Start inputs and then either reprogramming MAME or the I-PAC (or both) to work with it, and having to have a chart to keep up with everything, though.

I would decide if you planned on playing mostly Vertical 4-way, Vertical 8-way or mostly Horizontal games.

Vertical 4-Way Games - End 1 Reunion goes to Joystick 1, End 2 Reunion goes to Joystick 2, Left side P360 goes to Joystick 3, Right side P360 goes to Joystick 4, End 1 P360 goes to Joystick 5 (gotcha!!!) (goes to P3 SW 5 thru SW 8 ), End 2 P360 goes to P4 SW 5 thru 8.

Vertical 8-Way Games - End 1 P360 goes to Joystick 1, End 2 P360 goes to Joystick 2, Left side P360 goes to Joystick 3, Right side P360 goes to Joystick 4, End 1 Reunion goes to P3 SW 5 thru 8, End 2 Reunion goes to P4 SW 5 thru 8.

Horizontal Games - Left Side P360 goes to Joystick 1, Right Side P360 goes to Joystick 2, End 1 P360 goes to Joystick 3, End 2 P360 goes to Joystick 4, End 1 Reunion goes to P3 SW 5 thru 8, End 2 Reunion goes to P4 SW 5 thru 8.

(Many other options are possible. . .)

In any case, you end up with P1 SW 1-8, P2 SW 1-8, P3 SW 1-4, P4 SW 1-4, and the 4 coin and 4 start buttons available (for whatever you want to connect them too)

P.S. - Also note that the default codeset for the I-PAC/4 uses the same codes for P2 Buttons 5-8 and the P3 Directionals and also repeats one or two other inputs, so you will want to reprogram it anyway.

[squirrellydw]

thanks, I think I got it.  Now to order it and wire everything up.  thats going to be fun

[squirrellydw]

If I configure it to play mostly Vertical 4-Way Games, would I need to have a player 3 and 4 button?  Or could I just use player 1 and 2 buttons and configure it in MAME?  Since it can only play two player at the most I would like to just use 1 and 2 player buttons.

[Hoopz]

Or could I just use player 1 and 2 buttons and configure it in MAME?  Since it can only play two player at the most I would like to just use 1 and 2 player buttons.

You can do that.  As Tiger-Heli said, you can do it anyway you want to wire it and just configure it within MAME itself.

[squirrellydw]

thanks