Main > Main Forum
Will I have problems if I buy and connect two i-pacs to my computer?
<< < (2/4) > >>
Fozzy The Bear:

--- Quote from: Optics on December 15, 2007, 03:59:25 pm ---Hi, i've just started building my mame arcade machine, and part of the niche of my machine is that it has a rotatable control panel, and in total i'm going to have over 58 buttons due to the multiple panels for different games.
--- End quote ---

You don't need two Ipac encoders!!!

Think about it!!...................... No?? Not got it yourself yet??.... OK I suppose I better tell you then  ::)

You don't need two because you won't be using all of these rotatable panels at the same time. You'll only be using one of them (unless player 3 and 4 are going to be on their backs on the floor using the Tron Panel while you're using the Pacman Panel on the top)

SO! Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 1, is simply parallel connected to Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 2 and Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 3 is parallel connected to Player 1 Button 1 on panel 2  etc etc etc for however many panels you have. Those three buttons then only used up ONE input on the Ipac.

You will only be using one of your panels at any one time. So the maximum number of Ipac inputs you need, is the maximum number of switches on any one panel. Not the total number of switches on all the panels.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear) 
Optics:

--- Quote from: Fozzy The Bear on December 16, 2007, 07:29:07 pm ---
You don't need two because you won't be using all of these rotatable panels at the same time. You'll only be using one of them (unless player 3 and 4 are going to be on their backs on the floor using the Tron Panel while you're using the Pacman Panel on the top)

SO! Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 1, is simply parallel connected to Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 2 and Player 1 Button 1 on Panel 3 is parallel connected to Player 1 Button 1 on panel 2  etc etc etc for however many panels you have. Those three buttons then only used up ONE input on the Ipac.

You will only be using one of your panels at any one time. So the maximum number of Ipac inputs you need, is the maximum number of switches on any one panel. Not the total number of switches on all the panels.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear) 

--- End quote ---

So I can hook up multipule buttons to one input?  Basiclly my goal is to create a One player, Two player, and Four player panel, each with it's own sets of buttons for varying games, so if I can just hook up all three panels "one player standard inputs" to the same slot that'd be awsome!

But the reason I made this post wasn't because of mame per say, rather it was because i'm using multiple emulators on my Arcade machine, and so I was wondering if I would be able to simply hook up all my controls to the I-pacs, plug them into a usb, and then simply map the buttons, button by button.  Instead of working with pre-set functions I was hoping to simply have "Button 1" "Button 2" Button 3" which I could then map each individual one to whatever I wanted; and by having two i-pacs I would have been able to double the amount of potential buttons I could map to different keys... which for other emulators might vary depending on the control panel.  I thought there was a piece of software that worked with the i-pac that allowed you to treat the arcade buttons as any other controller or joystick hooked up to your PC? It was my impression that I would be able to map the buttons game-by-game on mame this way, allowing myself to pick which buttons do what - for applications besides mame as well.
kelemvor:
Yes except you can't get enough inputs for a 4 player CP with only one iPac.

But you can put all the Player 1 BUtton 1 wires to the same slot on the iPac.  Same with everything else.

But when you get to P3 and P4 is when you need to add a second one.

Are these CPs all going to be connected at the same time where you just rotate it or something?  Or will you physically remove one CP to put on another?

If the second, then just use network jack plugs in between the buttons and the iPac to make it real easy to disconnect one and reconnect the other
Optics:
They will all be connected at the same time - the different panels are used for different games, so my projects goal is to simply rotate an axel and switch to another game with no hassle inbetween.  I don't really want to have to input specific controls into "Player 1 slots, Player 2 slots, etc." - all I want to do is connect the arcade controls to the I-pac so that I can plug the I-pac into my computer VIA USB and then map the controls to whatever I want... that way i'll have a list of every single button/Joystick/Trackball I have plugged in, so I can map them to anything - Mame games, Project64 games, even prehaps some PC games.  So if I have a button 1 plugged into some slot on my I-pac I don't perticuliarly care if it's used for the slot designated on the i-pac, I just want to have the control to make it do whatever I want it to for any use on my computer, including mame games.  That's the reason I want two ipacs, that way I can increase the potential pool of buttons so I have enough for all the different kinds of games i'm playing - as mame is only a fraction of what my arcade machine is going to be.
Optics:
Sorry to double post but just a quick update for anyone whom might view this thread in the future:  I emailed ultimarc with this question, and got the following response:
--- Quote ---Yes this is certainly possible. You would need to program one board with all diffeent keycodes from the other (if you need them to be different) and then connect both boards, each to its own USB port.
--- End quote ---

So it is possible from a wiring perspective, but i'm sure that on the software side I can customize each button to what I need to as well for other emulators. Thanks to everyone who replied... if I can repeat wirings for the "one player" buttons for example I will; as long as this works for other emulators as well.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page

Go to full version