Interchangable Control Panels

[Dave Leedy]

How are people making interchangable control panels? I thought I read somewhere that you could use a straight thru- db-25 cable.

I built a box that contained my I-PAC and coin, player 1 and player 2 buttons.  I cut a db25 in half and stripped some cable ends and plugged then into the I-PAC. (The coin and player buttons I ran direct).

Then in the control panel I attached the buttons to a terminal block and on the other end attached the db-25 and hooked them together.  I didn't build everything yet but my first quick test didn't work.

Would this work?  It there a better way?  I'd like to do something with interchangable controls - put don't necessarily want to buy an I-PAC for each device.

Any info would be appreaciated.

Dave

[JustMichael]

If done properly it should work just fine.  Make sure you are also supplying a ground in the DB25 cable.

[tubuku01]

hey, you can try:
www.mameroom.com
the dude is using interchangeable controls, although it is a 4 player panel, using a 2 player should be no problem.  if you have any questions you can email him and he'll be more than happy to help you. (i've contacted him several times.)

[SirPoonga]

How are people making interchangable control panels? I thought I read somewhere that you could use a straight thru- db-25 cable.

I built a box that contained my I-PAC and coin, player 1 and player 2 buttons.

[klutzo]

I've also designed my wierdo cab to be interchangeable.. but I already have pretty much everything I need...

trackball,
2 stiks
1 tron trigga stik
spinner..
removeable steering wheel.

Need to remove 2 cotter pins, unplug, a couple of wires, and voila... set to accept a new CP box.

[Dave Leedy]

If done properly it should work just fine.

[Dave Leedy]

hey, you can try:
www.mameroom.com
the dude is using interchangeable controls, although it is a 4 player panel, using a 2 player should be no problem.

[Dave Leedy]

been there, done that.
I will have three panels for my cab.
Ipac hooked with db25, everything else is usb.

http://kevin.jonas.com/images/ipac1.jpg

Kevin,
That link doesn't work for me...  

[SirPoonga]

whoops, take the one off.

[Jonathan_the_Red]

Dave--

What you're doing is pretty much exactly what I did, except I used HDDB-15 cables (one for each player). It works fine for me.

Get a continuity tester (preferably one with an audible tone) and check your cable. One very big caveat I found was this: my HDDB-15 cables had 14 pins (one of the 15 pins was missing) but 16 wires. A continuity tester showed me that two pairs of wires were actually the same. Make sure this isn't the case for you.

Strip more wire than you need, then fold it back on itself a few times. This'll give you something thicker to screw into the terminal blocks. Get a better connection that way.

Use your continuity tester to track down the problem. Start by checking for shorts. Then, one by one, check for continuity between ground and your buttons when they're pressed.

Good luck. Write if you have any questions.

[AlmtyBob]

What do you guys have against using 2 12 pin molex connectors? easier and kinda matches the whole arcade cabinet motif

[Frobozz]

Hmm... crimping?  

[Eddie Fantastic]

I used jamma boards for my 5 (when they're all finished) control panels - this gave me 56 connection points to wire in:

panel 1: 2player 6 button setup with optical sticks
panel 2: 2 player twin sticks / 4 player 2 buttons each
panel 3: Trackball 3 button
panel 4: optical steering wheel
panel 5: DC wheel

And with 3 jamma connectors leading to Mame, Dreamcast and Jamma it's easy to switch between inputs and outputs. And there's no conficts between the dc and the pc controllers - that was a real bugger - cost me an ipac and a dc controller board. Keep 'em separate!

All this and I turn my cab on and have a game of Mr Do.

[Dan]

I also have interchangeable control panels.  I started with a stock ArcadePC mini, removed the HotRodSE, and replaced it with a home-made enclosure with removable panels.  I'll submit the project with a URL to my website once I get all the pics up.  I used an I-PAC with a DB-25 cable.  Since I plan on only having one optical device per panel (too small to add more than one), I just have a USB extension cable inside the enclosure.  After this whole project, I have two pointers to give anyone who is just starting:

1)  Strip the DB-25 wires about twice as long as you normally would strip a wire and then fold it in half.  This thickens it and makes it much easier to crimp the quick-disconnects or to screw into the I-PAC terminals.

2)  Buy all your DB-25 cables from the same vendor!  I made the mistake of starting with a DB-25 cable which I had laying around.  Then I went to the store to buy another one.  Turns out, the pin-outs are not standard!  So I had to make a matrix of wire colors for each cable.

Here are my panels:

1) Wico 4-way joystick w/red ball, 2 buttons mirrored on either side, player 1 & 2 start buttons across top

2) Oscar spinner, Happ 4-way joystick w/button on top, two buttons on left side, player 1 & 2 start buttons across top

3) Two Happ Competition joysticks, 7 buttons per player, player 1 & 2 start buttons across top

4) Three Wico 8-way joysticks w/blue ball, 3 buttons per player, player 1, 2, & 3 start buttons across top

5) Oscar SWC w/10" Happ steering wheel, Happ 2-speed shifter w/turbo, two buttons, 1 player start button, foot switch (always mounted at base of cab)

6) Happ 3" Trackball, 3 buttons, Player 1 & 2 start button vertical on right side

The enclosure itself has three buttons for coin 1, 2, & 3.  I got away with using one I-PAC for a three-player panel because I only have 3 buttons per player.  I use the left over buttons for the third player controls.  All of the panels are the same shape except for the driving panel, which has a very steep angle in the front and angles down in the back.  You'll get a better understanding of all this once I finish my website and submit the project.  All the hardware is mounted except for the trackball, which will be done this weekend.  I still need to wire the fighting, 3-way, & trackball panel.  Everything that's complete works 100%!


Good luck with your cab!
Dan

[SirPoonga]

I also have interchangeable control panels.

[BASSOFeeSH]

USB is nice, but then you'd have to have duplicate hardare in each CP.

[SirPoonga]

USB is nice, but then you'd have to have duplicate hardare in each CP.

What do you mean?  I don't have duplicate hardware in any of my control panels.

[BASSOFeeSH]

Perhaps I misunderstood.  Were you talking about connecting the CP with an Ipac via USB?  If so then wouldn't you need an Ipac in each CP?

[Dan]

Perhaps I misunderstood.

[BASSOFeeSH]

I just misunderstood....I was actually going to suggest that same solution.  

[SirPoonga]

Yeah, on my cp I use a 25 pin connector to the ipac, everything else is usb.