Main > Main Forum

Encoder question (Mini-pac specifically)

Pages: << < (4/5) > >>

knave:

Just thought i'd chime in to remind you that the U360's each have there own 8 input encoder to add to those from the minipac.

So:
Minipac ......30(28) inputs
2XU360's....16 inputs (plus they save the 8 inputs normaly needed for joys)

Total...........46 inputs (44 prog)

Unless I'm mistaken this is right. (with that many you have room for lots of redundant buttons)

genesim:


--- Quote ---I really don't have my heart set on it and now that a few of you have brought it up, it really does make not sense to have the 2 seperate pause and exit buttons.
--- End quote ---

I think you are misintepreting my meaning.

I meant that instead of having each button as a separate command, just daisy chain them all together.   i.e.  "P" is the command, and have player 1, player 2, player 3...etc. all be "P".

But yeah, more then one is overkill to me, but then again it is personal preference.    But you don't have to make them all different even if they are physically different buttons.

They are only microswitches, so as long as you have them grounded correctly, which ever button breaks the continuity....it is the same difference.   Kind of like having a water line.   If you have several different valves, any of them will do the trick on shutting it off.

genesim:

oops I didn't read enough.   yeah...what they said.  ;D

Tiger-Heli:


--- Quote from: knave on November 13, 2007, 11:49:15 am ---Total...........46 inputs (44 prog)
Unless I'm mistaken this is right.

--- End quote ---
Not quite right - Andy correct me if I'm wrong.
I think the U360 has 8 gamepad buttons (not programmable), so the 16 inputs are read as J1B1, J1B2, etc.  Not much of an issue for MAME, but also not an additional 16 keyboard encoder inputs.


--- Quote --- (with that many you have room for lots of redundant buttons)
--- End quote ---
Again,  redundant buttons are not a problem, redundant inputs are.

You could have a 5-input encoder and want to have a pause button for each hand of every player and connect 16 buttons to the input mapped to pause and it should work fine.

Now if you take that same encoder and either program two of the inputs to "P" or leave one as "P" and one as "O" and map Pause to "O or P" in MAME, you esentially now have only a 4-input encoder b/c you can't do anything unique with that input.

Lakersfan:

Wow, great information guys. So many decisions, but this thread has helped me tremendously. At least I know if I end up getting a mini-PAC or an Ipac2/optipac combo that I wouldn't be stuck with the wrong thing(s).

One thing is for sure, I am convinced the pause and exit buttons for each player is redundant and not needed. So that leaves me with 2 extra holes that I can use as admin buttons.

Thank you!

Pages: << < (4/5) > >>

Go to full version