What Are You using for controls?

[newFish]

On a dedicated Jukebox ...Are you using Ipac or keyboard Hack??........I have seen that Ipac has a newer/Cheaper Ipac......I am really confused what the cost/performance difference is worth It!?!  Have you all Seen it?

[Chris]

Performance really isn't that much of an issue with a jukebox as you don't have the same issues with ghosting/blocking, so really it just comes down to what suits your setup better.  If you are using a matrixed keypad, a keyboard hack is the easiest way to go; otherwise, any encoder will do.  You could theoretically even use a hacked gamepad, but that's only really efficient in Windows as there aren't enough buttons on most DOS-compatible gamepads.

[CC6264]

Newfish
I have been using a numeric keypad with my own labels for the past year - works well.
 I am going to build a new one this year and I thought I might use the ipac with colored lit buttons or ease & looks.

Craig 

[newFish]

I have Found KeyWiz is like $20 Bucks.....Is that a workable solution?   also I seen in these forums someone -I think it was Happ controls had 1 thru 9,0 lit push buttons and As the Arrow keys..They looked nice-but I cant find them anymore....it most not of been happ controls!     I find happs web site very difficult to navigate and slow!!

Thanks

[JustMichael]

Was it this one?

[Kevin Mullins]

Your link was hiding for some reason....it's there, but hidden.
http://www.happcontrols.com/gaming/gaming_parts/64005300.htm

EDIT: Nevermind..... just their site (Happs) being real slow trying to pull the pic up.

[newFish]

No thats Not it...The2x8 Keypad- on your link (keyboard) looks like it a Matrix unit......Matrix unit suck due to fact they are in matrix- you have to decode them- requiring about 3 addidtion cmos chips and so on-Yuck!   I did fine a perfect  2 x 8 keypad but it is in a darn Martix!!  To me it makes no sense to encode (decode) Matrix output to bcd run it through A selector chip ...to get common output!!!  AND then put it into a keywiz to Recode It!!!  They were Seperate arrow keys and Number / letter Keys.


 

[Chris]

No thats Not it...The2x8 Keypad- on your link (keyboard) looks like it a Matrix unit......Matrix unit suck due to fact they are in matrix- you have to decode them- requiring about 3 addidtion cmos chips and so on-Yuck!   I did fine a perfect  2 x 8 keypad but it is in a darn Martix!!  To me it makes no sense to encode (decode) Matrix output to bcd run it through A selector chip ...to get common output!!!  AND then put it into a keywiz to Recode It!!! 

No, just wire it to a keyboard hack; since keyboards use marixes too it works out perfectly, no KeyWiz required.

[newFish]

ok..I will search for Keyboard Hack.....I am unsure on the phycal hardware connections...DO i need a Broken up keyboard-and extend wires for the New keypad to old and plug tht into a ps2 port?  or just add a ps2 harness to the new kepad matrix 8 lead output?       "keyboard Hack"   is confusing to me.

[Chris]

ok..I will search for Keyboard Hack.....I am unsure on the phycal hardware connections...DO i need a Broken up keyboard-and extend wires for the New keypad to old and plug tht into a ps2 port?  or just add a ps2 harness to the new kepad matrix 8 lead output?       "keyboard Hack"   is confusing to me.

You're going to be opening up a keyboard and removing its interface board.  Ideally, this will be one of the cheap keyboards that uses two membranes, and not one of the good keyboards that has a large circuit board with individual keyswitches.  So if you have an old keyboard in the closet that has a couple of keys popped off that's otherwise useless you're in great shape.

Each membrane will connect to a connector on the interface board; these two keyboards are the two halves of your matrix.  Disconnect the membranes; all you need is the little board itself. Hook up the two wires from one side of your matrix to two points on one connector, and the other eight to eight points on the other connector. 



Here's an example from Dragon's Den. Along the bottom of the board you can see the connectors to the two sides of the matrix.

Once your connections are made, plug the keyboard cable into the computer and each button will send a keystroke to the PC.  Some of these keys will be shift keys and such, so use KeyScan (http://arcadecontrols.com/files/Utilities/keyscan09.zip) to help determine exactly which keys are being pressed. Of course, these keystrokes will bear no resemblance to what's printed on the key, so you'll need to remap the controls in your jukebox.  Note that not all combinations on a given keyboard controller are wired so you may need to experiment with the posistions of the two-wire portion of your matrix.

You'll find many writeups on keyboard hacks; they'll go into long detail about mapping out the matrix.  For your needs, you don't necessarily need to do this, as you're not going to be pressing more than one button at once so you won't care about blocking or ghosting.  You also can ignore any debates about diodes for the same reason.

See http://dragonsden.emuunlim.com/ddkeytutl.htm or http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/keyhack2.html for more information.

[jp]

other option : instead of keyboard-hak use  ppjoy (lpt-switch)
this ataches to the lpt output(input in this case) , and gives the possibility to use up to 32 buttons
which can be adressed by joy-button 1....etc.
the connection is in a matrix and you can define the buttons manualy
it can be found :

"http://www.geocities.com/deonvdw/PPJoy.htm"

[Karaokedude]

Just had 3 keywiz eco's and 1 max delivered if your ok with soldering then the keywiz solder version is a good option and quicker than riping a keyboard apart