Controller Interface Question

[meismr]

Hello Everyone,
The question: I want a 4p control panel with a trackball.  I like the ps2 interface more than a usb one...  I was thinking about getting an IPAC4 (because of the number of inputs) and an Opti-Wiz (because I like GGG) and think that will cover it.  Any glaring mistakes?  Any tips?
Thanks,
Eric

The extra info that explains how I got here... (just extra info, not pertinent to the question)
First post.  Just trying to hash some stuff out.  I've checked the wiki and have done many searches, but kinda want to tap all the knowledge here.  Anyway.  I want a 4p panel because I have 2 little girls.  I plan on getting most of my stuff from GGG because Randy was the person that got me into this hobby (found his interface for my real job and really helped our company out).  I followed some of his links and got here and realized that all the games in my youth (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Golden Axe, etc.)  aren't dead at all!  (Also his wizard dude reminds me of my swim coach and he's a wizard which reminds me of when I 'found the wizard' at the bottom of the pool.  Pretty cool coincidence.)  So that's about it.  Thanks for looking at the post.

[Green Giant]

A better option would be two U360's and an ipac2 or keywiz.  The U360 on players one and two would allow for autoformating of the controls on a per game basis.  Your girls wouldn't know it was being formatted and they wouldn't have to know when to use a designated 4way.

Then you could save money on a keywiz or ipac2.  They have enough inputs for two more players, all the buttons, menu buttons, and some pinballs too.  If you are looking to really splurge, you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

[pboreham]

...you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

Wouldnt you need different coloured LED's for this though? How does it work so the buttons light at different colours?

Also, I'd really like these ICE buttons - but could I have some ICE and some normal?

[northerngames]

A better option would be two U360's and an ipac2 or keywiz.

not really his way would be $65.00 for the Ipac4 and $15.00 for the opti-wiz for a total of $80.00 where it is $120.00 for the u360 joy's alone and that does not include the ipac2 for another $40.00 so it would cost double

 also when you press tab you can configure any controller or button to do wahtever you want signal wise and each games controls can be configured or they all can be done with the same all at once.

me I would stay with your origanal idea you will also get more control options for half the price of using a ipac2 and analog controls that mame does not use really.

[(+_+)]

A better option would be two U360's and an ipac2 or keywiz.

not really his way would be $65.00 for the Ipac4 and $15.00 for the opti-wiz for a total of $80.00 where it is $120.00 for the u360 joy's alone and that does not include the ipac2 for another $40.00 so it would cost double

 also when you press tab you can configure any controller or button to do wahtever you want signal wise and each games controls can be configured or they all can be done with the same all at once.

me I would stay with your origanal idea you will also get more control options for half the price of using a ipac2 and analog controls that mame does not use really.

True but, the slight cost increase aside, having 2 strategically placed u360's allows you to play pacman and qbert correctly without having to add additional dedicated joysticks.
Albeit, it is not exactly the same as a dedicated 4 way / 4 way diag stick, it does play quite well with the round restrictors and will avoid frankenpanelization. 

I have 2 of them and still bought the IPac 4 since I had no plans to connect my buttons to the U360s. That way it gives me more options later if I ever decide to change panel layout or go with different joysticks in the future. When your talking a few bucks difference, better to spend the extra money than be sorry you hadn't later on.

[steveh]

my plan will be to go with the 2 u360's and a mini-pac  for my 4 player setup

[Green Giant]

...you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

Wouldnt you need different coloured LED's for this though? How does it work so the buttons light at different colours?

Also, I'd really like these ICE buttons - but could I have some ICE and some normal?

You could have some ice and some normal.  Probably want all six street fighter style to be ice buttons.  The electric ice buttons from groovygamegear.com sale as a package.  They are pricey but worth it if you can afford it.  Each button is opaque to spread the light better.  They come with a RGB led mounted on a small board with the resistors already there.  You just feed each input, red, green, and blue, into a specific port on an ledwiz.  Cost goes up here depending on what kind of control you want with the ledwiz.

I ended up getting two of them so I could have every color for all 17 buttons.  This means 51 ports from the ledwiz to drive each color individually.  Then when you light up the rgd in different strengths, you can produce every color there is.  Essentially the same way old school projectors worked.

Some people just power one color saving money on having to buy multiple ledwiz's.  I didn't power any of my admin or player buttons with electric ice to save some money.

Once they are hooked up, mala has some great software that will read the game data and light up the correct buttons in the correct colors and speak their function.  I have some example videos on my cab topic:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67770.0

[Green Giant]

also when you press tab you can configure any controller or button to do wahtever you want signal wise and each games controls can be configured or they all can be done with the same all at once.

It sounded as though he wanted an option his kids could easily use.  I didn't even place a tab button on my control panel to make sure other people playing it don't hit anything they shouldn't.  I am not sure about you, but most of my friends just look at me and smile when I explain the details of my cab.  Then I tell them it plays the Simpsons and they are happy again.  Point being, his kids would probably get lost in all the configuration options available.

I have two 49way's using the GPwiz49 to auto set the controls.  I wish I had the U360, but it wasn't out when I invested in my controls.  The GPwiz is nice, but my sticks need new grommets and they are midway.  Point is that it switches for different games without the user ever knowing anything happened.

This is the same reason I got the electric ice buttons.  I never have to explain controls to anyone as my cab does it for them.

[pboreham]

...you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

Wouldnt you need different coloured LED's for this though? How does it work so the buttons light at different colours?

Also, I'd really like these ICE buttons - but could I have some ICE and some normal?

You could have some ice and some normal.  Probably want all six street fighter style to be ice buttons.  The electric ice buttons from groovygamegear.com sale as a package.  They are pricey but worth it if you can afford it.  Each button is opaque to spread the light better.  They come with a RGB led mounted on a small board with the resistors already there.  You just feed each input, red, green, and blue, into a specific port on an ledwiz.  Cost goes up here depending on what kind of control you want with the ledwiz.

I ended up getting two of them so I could have every color for all 17 buttons.  This means 51 ports from the ledwiz to drive each color individually.  Then when you light up the rgd in different strengths, you can produce every color there is.  Essentially the same way old school projectors worked.

Some people just power one color saving money on having to buy multiple ledwiz's.  I didn't power any of my admin or player buttons with electric ice to save some money.

Once they are hooked up, mala has some great software that will read the game data and light up the correct buttons in the correct colors and speak their function.  I have some example videos on my cab topic:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67770.0

So if I just get 12 buttons for the players (6 each), 3 trackball buttons and an ICE trackball. Then all the rest of the buttons (12 or 13) as normal Happ Horizontals - what would I need in terms of LedWiz/LEDs etc. And for controllers, can they all go through the KeyWiz?

I'm ordering from GGG pretty soon and as I'm in the UK, dont really want to keep paying for shipping because I've forgotten stuff!!

Thanks for your help Green Giant!

[Green Giant]

...you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

Wouldnt you need different coloured LED's for this though? How does it work so the buttons light at different colours?

Also, I'd really like these ICE buttons - but could I have some ICE and some normal?

You could have some ice and some normal.  Probably want all six street fighter style to be ice buttons.  The electric ice buttons from groovygamegear.com sale as a package.  They are pricey but worth it if you can afford it.  Each button is opaque to spread the light better.  They come with a RGB led mounted on a small board with the resistors already there.  You just feed each input, red, green, and blue, into a specific port on an ledwiz.  Cost goes up here depending on what kind of control you want with the ledwiz.

I ended up getting two of them so I could have every color for all 17 buttons.  This means 51 ports from the ledwiz to drive each color individually.  Then when you light up the rgd in different strengths, you can produce every color there is.  Essentially the same way old school projectors worked.

Some people just power one color saving money on having to buy multiple ledwiz's.  I didn't power any of my admin or player buttons with electric ice to save some money.

Once they are hooked up, mala has some great software that will read the game data and light up the correct buttons in the correct colors and speak their function.  I have some example videos on my cab topic:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67770.0

So if I just get 12 buttons for the players (6 each), 3 trackball buttons and an ICE trackball. Then all the rest of the buttons (12 or 13) as normal Happ Horizontals - what would I need in terms of LedWiz/LEDs etc. And for controllers, can they all go through the KeyWiz?

I'm ordering from GGG pretty soon and as I'm in the UK, dont really want to keep paying for shipping because I've forgotten stuff!!

Thanks for your help Green Giant!

From groovygamegear, you would order the electric ice buttons with Cherry™ w/ RGB-Drive and 2' cable.  This comes with the microswitch, leds, and the cable to connect them to the ledwiz.  They are pricey at 6.50 a piece, but comes with everything.  You might not need the middle mouse button because you could possibly hit the button on big swings in golden tee.  Also, most golden tee games used two control buttons, left and right, nothing in the middle.  Basically it would save you 6.50.

You can get all the other happ buttons from groovygamegear too.  You can also get your joysticks and whatever else you might need, got some locks that all use the same key for my cab.

Yes, you do hook up the electric ice buttons the same way as all the rest, through a keywiz or gpwiz.  They have the same microswitch on them as all the rest.

For your setup, you have either 14 or 15 led lit buttons.  This is 42 or 45 individual color leds.  You could light up two colors per button and go with one ledwiz, or splurge and get two ledwiz's with room for expansion later.  The ledwiz can power any led's that you can get down at radio shack for future uses. 

Initially I was planning on blue and green, but then arzoo made the ledblinky which lights the buttons to their original colors.  Damn him for making me spend more money.  It is definitely worth it though, they look freakin awesome.  You can even have special colors for your nonmame emulators, not on a per game basis but per emulator basis.

[pboreham]

...you could get electric ice buttons that light up the buttons used for every game with the original game colors.

Wouldnt you need different coloured LED's for this though? How does it work so the buttons light at different colours?

Also, I'd really like these ICE buttons - but could I have some ICE and some normal?

Y

From groovygamegear, you would order the electric ice buttons with Cherry™ w/ RGB-Drive and 2' cable.  This comes with the microswitch, leds, and the cable to connect them to the ledwiz.  They are pricey at 6.50 a piece, but comes with everything....

I've just had a look at GGG and for the option you mention above, it doesnt say if the RGB drive includes the LED too? Looking at the RGB Seperately, you have the option to add LEDs.

Sorry if I'm being thick - my brain hurts today! 

[Green Giant]

I've just had a look at GGG and for the option you mention above, it doesnt say if the RGB drive includes the LED too? Looking at the RGB Seperately, you have the option to add LEDs.

Sorry if I'm being thick - my brain hurts today! 

This is what you want.  The RGB drive is the board with the RGB led and the resistors.  There is more than one way to order it, either through the pushbuttons tab or the led's and accessories tab, but in the end you will pay $6.50 per button with all the lighting stuff.

[pboreham]

I've just had a look at GGG and for the option you mention above, it doesnt say if the RGB drive includes the LED too? Looking at the RGB Seperately, you have the option to add LEDs.

Sorry if I'm being thick - my brain hurts today! 

This is what you want.  The RGB drive is the board with the RGB led and the resistors.  There is more than one way to order it, either through the pushbuttons tab or the led's and accessories tab, but in the end you will pay $6.50 per button with all the lighting stuff.

Cool, thats what I thought - thanks!

[meismr]

Hmm...  The U360's.  I was trying to avoid them because I'm not really into the classic type games... but the wifey is.  So the pro's to this approach would be:
2 joys that are easily switchable from 8/4/diag
I can use the opti-wiz and the gp-wizrx-st (so I can put in a spinner)

cons:
Harder to hook up cool led buttons
Expensive Joys (if there's a problem, replacing them will be costly)
Joys have a different throw than the pure fighter joys.

I think I got it...  Thanks for answering

[Green Giant]

Hmm...  The U360's.  I was trying to avoid them because I'm not really into the classic type games... but the wifey is.  So the pro's to this approach would be:
2 joys that are easily switchable from 8/4/diag
I can use the opti-wiz and the gp-wizrx-st (so I can put in a spinner)

cons:
Harder to hook up cool led buttons
Expensive Joys (if there's a problem, replacing them will be costly)
Joys have a different throw than the pure fighter joys.

I think I got it...  Thanks for answering

Three things:

The gp-wizrx-st is only for rotary joysticks.  If you want a spinner you will need something like this http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=268
There are only a few rotary games out there, and they require a special joystick or a joystick hack.  Basically they have I think 12 positions so you can move and turn your guy at the same time.

A much better option for you is the LED-Wiz+GP.  With a regular Ledwiz, you would have spots for 48 led's or 16 electric ice buttons.   This would save alot of money.  Then you would also have 16 input spots for whatever pushbuttons you use.  With two U360's, that gives you 28 inputs.  If I was building a cab all over, that would be the route I would take.  You also get 49-way, analog, 2-way, and more with the U360.

Also, your cons with hooking up the cool led buttons, they are really easy just messy.  Look at this pic.  The madusa looking thing in the middle is my mass of led wires.  Just strip them and screw them into their respective slots.

[meismr]

Ahhh...  Of course, thank you green giant.  I like the U360's if I have more money.  And thank you northerngames for validating my original plan which I may use to save some cash