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Somebody make me an IDE->Centronics cable and sell it for ~$5... please?
Fozzy The Bear:
--- Quote from: Jess-- on November 26, 2006, 04:54:05 pm ---from what I remember 90% of farnell stock is available through CPC www.cpc.co.uk
dont think they have a min order
--- End quote ---
CPC is owned by Farnell.... and CPC have a minimum order of £40 if you want free delivery. Otherwise they charge a fortune for delivering goods.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
Fozzy The Bear:
--- Quote from: RandyT on November 26, 2006, 05:55:45 pm ---Which is more important, the Shazaaam! button or the +5v connection? I can't give you both in that connector.
--- End quote ---
Shazaaam key, without a doubt, is much more important... We could pick up a 5V suply from the PC when we need one. The 100ma limit on the keyboard connector is only barely enough to run a couple of high power LED's.
Routing the Shazaaam key through the connector also means you could cut out running the additional ground for the 5V supply as well.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
Grasshopper:
--- Quote from: Fozzy The Bear on November 26, 2006, 09:41:14 pm ---
--- Quote from: RandyT on November 26, 2006, 05:55:45 pm ---Which is more important, the Shazaaam! button or the +5v connection? I can't give you both in that connector.
--- End quote ---
Shazaaam key, without a doubt, is much more important... We could pick up a 5V suply from the PC when we need one. The 100ma limit on the keyboard connector is only barely enough to run a couple of high power LED's.
Routing the Shazaaam key through the connector also means you could cut out running the additional ground for the 5V supply as well.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
--- End quote ---
I have to say I disagree. In my opinion a shift/shazaam key is the least important of all the facilities potentially offered by a keyboard encoder because exactly the same thing can be achieved from within MAME itself.
However, a +5v line is absolutely vital if you're using an inductive or optical joystick. If you end up having to use an extra wire for +5v then it kind of defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.
RandyT:
Heh. now you know why I asked.
But I'm starting to lean toward what Julian wrote. The 5v line (or any power for that matter) might be better served by a dedicated power connector in the cab that comes directly from the PC power supply. Yes, it's an extra connector, but because it's power, it's probably not a bad way to do things.
In any event, I have the connectors on order. Just to make sure I understand, we are talking about a short "pigtail" that goes from 40-pin to 36 pos female, yes? I'll see if I can lay my hands on some centronics cables for hacking as well (gotta make sure there are more than 25 wires in them....)
Randy
Grasshopper:
Why not just supply the lead and uncrimped connectors as a kind of kit and then your customers can decide which option they'd prefer?
Also, it occurs to me that you could simply change the order of some of the wires before doing the crimping i.e. like the old style floppy disk cables that had a twist in them so you didn't need to set the drive jumpers.