Deciding something with IPAC2

[rdowdy95]

Guys I am going to be rolling with the IPAC2 pretty soon.  My question is my current design is going to have 4 admin black buttons on the control panel kind of above the p1 joystick.  The buttons in question are esc, tab, enter, and pause.  Now the thing is the ipac2 you can hold the p1 button down and then press directions on the joystick for three of those commands plus joystick up for mame volume.  Then I can do the p1 plus p2 buttons for the esc key. 

Guys I need help deciding should I just axe my 4 admin buttons and use the IPAC2 shift function or keep the admin buttons.

One pro is other people won't screw up admin stuff, and it will look cleaner.  Have you guys ever used the IPAC2 like this with the shift function.  Also is the IPAC2 like this out of the box with the shift functions turned on? 

I was going with a 6 button layout for each stick and then using button 7+8 from p1 and p2 to be the 4 admin buttons and just reprogram those buttons to be the 4 commands I listed above.  Now sometimes I hear the IPAC2 looses memory so atleast axing my 4 black dedicated admin buttons might be the way to go.  What do you guys think?  Here is an example in the pic of the four admin buttons.

[leapinlew]

Your decision should be based on who will be using your machine. I have lots of friends and family over to use my machines. Trust me when I say, the cleaner your CP, the easier it will be for others to use.

As for the CP example you showed... to me, it's a mess. The joystick is in the way of the trackball, the buttons by the trackball are unnecessary. 6 buttons for the 4 way stick is too much.

I would for sure have a dedicated escape button. People can't seem to figure out the shift keys. I wouldn't worry about the enter or tab admin keys. I pull out a keyboard the few times I need to make some changes.

[rdowdy95]

My cab is not going to look exactly like that one.  It will have the player 1 and 2 6 button look.  My dedicated 4 way is going to have three buttons, and I will have two mouse buttons above the trackball plate.  I would have it to where the 4 way is moved a little farther over to the left so I don't ram my hand into it.  LOL!!!!  Alrite I think I will look for a place to put the dedicated 4 way.  How long do you have to hold p1 start before you hit p2 start?  Cause I am sure my people will understand it.   

[ratabase1]

I'll throw out an idea that I used on my dedicated driving cabinet.  Why not just put dedicated ESC and Pause buttons on top the roof of the cabinet? This way they are out of the way, easily accesible, and won't be accidentally hit by a player.   You could also put your Tab and Enter keys on top also.  Just a thought.   

[javeryh]

I have 4 admin buttons on my panel - coin, start, pause and exit to front end and it works great.  I attach a keyboard to do maintenance.  I also have start + pause act as tab to get into the menu.  I also like the idea of hiding buttons on top or something for quick maintenance...

[Jess--]

I have always used my cab (basic jamma hackup) with the shift functions on the ipac (Jpac in my case) and have never had any problems

The delay between hitting pl1 start and pl1 UP (for pause) I would say is well below 250ms

one thing to remember is that with the shift button enabled the pl1 start button does NOT act when pressed (as its waiting for a shifted button to be pressed) it acts when it is released (as long as no shifted button has been pressed)

[rdowdy95]

I think I am going to go ahead and keep those 4 black admin buttons on the CP.  Then I will use the winpac program to program the 4 black admin buttons.