First Try At This - I think neurosurgery is easier - Question about wiring.

[AKA Statsman1]

I'd been reading the messages and had some questions answered, but finally gathered the nerve to build a cabinet and install Mame.

Up to a few days ago, my NEXT invention was going to be a time machine, so I could go back to when I thought doing this was a great idea, and punch myself in the head...

...however, enough has gone right recently, and now I have a question.

Wiring Block - I have one, the dude at Radio Shack said a telephone wiring block would do just fine, so I bought one.

Is this cool?  It's got 4 screws in it, and I presume that ALL grounds simply have to end at these screws (buttons and joysticks), but does anyone have any alternatives that seem...I don't know, more SENSIBLE?

I read somewhere on this board that you can just drop a big screw into the wood, and run all the ground/common wires to this, but that seems entirely neolithic.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Statsman1

[AKA Kaytrim]

Welcome to the group.  On your wiring question, just one wire chaining from one switch to another is all your need.  Look at these buttons on my CP.  The black wire is the ground.  It just chains from one ground connection to another.  The first one in the chain is connected to one wire in the CAT 5 cable.  This in turn connects to the ground in my encoder.

[grantspain]

i always run my control commons in a loop so there is only one wire in real terms,for instance if you start at the control output board whether it be a jamma or ipac you take one wire to the nearest control e.g joystick down and then link that wire around the joystick commons and then off to the other controls,sort of like christmas tree lights
i always break down things into area's e.g with a cab you have monitor,controls,coin handling,game pcb and power supply(pc tower in some cases) so when you look at this breakdown you have three output area's monitor,controls and coin handling
the monitor common will be on the graphics card wiring so you only need two commons,one for coin handling if you use it and one for controls.you should search a bit more through the forums to see if people have left photo's of their panels,it might make things a bit more clear
hope this helps

[AKA Statsman1]

Hey Guys...

Thanks for the info...I see the "Christmas Lights" solution that you both suggested as being my best bet - just chain 'em together and run that to the ground in my IPAC.

Thanks again for the tips - here's hoping I don't convert my house to rubble.

Statsman1

[AKA Kaytrim]

Glad we could help.  How about posting some pics of your progress.

TTFN 
Kaytrim

[AKA Statsman1]

I'd love to, but I have no place to store the pictures online, and I can't seem to insert them here.

If I figure out where I can store some, I'll do it.