Best Keyboard Encoder for 3 Sided Cocktail (with MaLa)?

[melarky]

I just recently cut out most of my cocktail cabinet (thanks to Crazy Canadian for the plans at http://quarters.ca/).  I am going to do a 3 sided machine with Player 1 on the left, Player 2 on the right, and then a 2 player panel on the side (for horizontal games).

I think I have decided on MaLa for the frontend, and really like that they have the built in menu flipping for cocktail cabinets (the menu will flip to the correct orientation depending on what controls are used - so if you sit at the 2 player right side and push a button, the menu will flip so that it is the right way up for that seat, etc...).  The only problem I see with this, is I was planning on having the side panel just hooked up to player 1 and 2 controls (not player 3 and 4).  But since they won't have their own unique controls, if someone sits at the side panel and tried to select a game, the screen won't flip correctly (from my understanding).

I have already ordered the EcoWiz (2 player only setup), but is there a better encoder for this?  Is there a way around this with that encoder?

I have never used or setup MaLa before, and I'm just going off of what I read on these forums, so maybe I'm completely wrong on how this works.  I hope I made sense, please let me know if I need to clarify anything, and I really appreciate everyones help with this.

-Mark

[RandyT]

There is a simple way to deal with that, but you'll need a hidden (or not) toggle or other non-momentary SPST switch.

Before running the ground line to the middle section controls, run it through the toggle switch.  When the switch is in the open position, the ground for all of the middle section controls will be severed and render them inoperable. 

RandyT

[Virtualmatt]

I was in the exact same situation as you, so I made MaLa use the 1st player controls to select vertical games, and the 2nd player controls to select the horizontal games.  It's not really a fix, and it's sort of annoying, but it works fine.

[melarky]

So, if I understand what you wrote correctly, that would disable the side control panel until the switch is flipped, and then when it's flipped, the ends would be disabled and the middle would work?

But that wouldn't fix it so that the monitor screen would flip to the correct position when the side controls are used.  Maybe I'm not sunderstanding this.

BTW: Thanks RandyT, I just got shipment verification in my e-mail, I have ordered from your in the past, and your shipping and customer service is always excellent.  I recently used another ecowiz on my Donkey Kong mini cabinet I finished, haven't had a chance to hook it up yet (use the cab for TV only at the moment, the computer isn't hooked up to, but have used your ecowiz in a few other projects without problem in the past), and it's always a real pleasure to do business with you.

[melarky]

I was in the exact same situation as you, so I made MaLa use the 1st player controls to select vertical games, and the 2nd player controls to select the horizontal games.  It's not really a fix, and it's sort of annoying, but it works fine.

I hadn't even thought of that.  If I can't get anything else to work, this sounds like the best solution, thanks for the info.

[RandyT]

So, if I understand what you wrote correctly, that would disable the side control panel until the switch is flipped, and then when it's flipped, the ends would be disabled and the middle would work?

But that wouldn't fix it so that the monitor screen would flip to the correct position when the side controls are used.  Maybe I'm not sunderstanding this.

BTW: Thanks RandyT, I just got shipment verification in my e-mail, I have ordered from your in the past, and your shipping and customer service is always excellent.  I recently used another ecowiz on my Donkey Kong mini cabinet I finished, haven't had a chance to hook it up yet (use the cab for TV only at the moment, the computer isn't hooked up to, but have used your ecowiz in a few other projects without problem in the past), and it's always a real pleasure to do business with you.

Thanks for the kind words.  But I guess I should have read your post more carefully.  For some reason I thought you were concerned about someone flipping the screen on you when you were trying to use the other controls.  In answer to your other question, however, to make the controls either / or you would need an SPDT switch.  Flip one way and the middle works, flip it the other and the 2 ends work.  Doesn't do what you want, but would keep the shared middle controls from interfering with the other player if that is desirable.

It's probably time I have a look at MaLa to see what options are available, but it sounds like Matt has a good solution for you.

I'm flying blind here, but if you have some inputs left over, you may also be able to call them "player 3" and wire them to whatever game selection controls are necessary in MaLa, and wire the rest in parallel with Player 1.  This would require some re-configuration in your games to have those extra inputs used in parallel with the Player 1 controls, but doesn't sound unachievable.  Or maybe I went off the deep end again 

RandyT