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Author Topic: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons  (Read 1960 times)

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06attaker

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3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« on: January 26, 2008, 11:16:09 am »
Is there a way to disable the buttons on the vertical sides of the cocktail when playing horizontal games?  Also the other way around, if playing vertical games can you disable the horizontal player buttons.  Altogether I would have 4 joysticks with six buttons each making that 24 buttons.  For example, wouldn't the same fire button for player one on the horizontal game be the same button on the vertical side.  I don't want someone fooling around on the other side of the cabinet pushing buttons while I'm playing.
Thanks for any info!!!!

SavannahLion

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2008, 11:53:27 am »
Let's see......

The absolute easiest way to do it is to use a SPDT switch. The center post would go to ground on the controller. One post would tie to the common ground of the horizontal side buttons and joysticks while the other side would tie to the common ground of the vertical controls.

When you play horizontal games, flip the switch one way. When you play vertical games, flip it the other way.

The way I might do it.

I like my things to be automated. One way I might look into.

Leverage something like the LED-Wiz. A hybrid controller such as the LED-Wiz+GP would work beautifully. Using one of the LED outputs create a simple IC switching circuit that acts like a SPDT switch. Wire it the same as above. Then go in and create the appropriate script/profile/whatever to light that specific LED output when playing horizontals and to turn it off when playing verticals. That would control the switching IC to switch the controls automatically and cleanly. You can even get a little fancy with the other LED ports (or even that same one) and light up the appropriate panel that's currently active.

leapinlew

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2008, 12:34:02 pm »
I think the easiest way to do it is to buy a ipac4 and run the vertical side to it's own inputs and map those inputs inside of Mame. It costs a bit more money, but definitely would work.

I suppose building a circuit board and and design some software might work, but seems much more involved, just like Savannah likes it!  ;)

ArtsNFartsNCrafts

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2008, 01:01:47 pm »
Or you could do what I do, and just deck your friends when they screw up your game of galaga.... :dizzy:

SavannahLion

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2008, 08:44:36 pm »
I suppose building a circuit board and and design some software might work, but seems much more involved, just like Savannah likes it!

It would probably be easier than even I made it out to be. I realized today at work that a paired NPN & PNP transistor and a front end GUI that supports something like the LED-Wiz would probably make it extremely easy. I'm not sure which NPN/PNP pair I would use though. It's just a signal line so I imagine just about any would work fine.

In any case, I'm reasonably certain a simple SPDT switch would be even simpler than buying a new ipac4 and reconfiguring MAME.

leapinlew

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2008, 10:26:16 pm »
In any case, I'm reasonably certain a simple SPDT switch would be even simpler than buying a new ipac4 and reconfiguring MAME.

I would agree with you if Mame and an Ipac worked great together right out of the box, but I find I need to customize games regardless of how they are wired. Sometimes their will be buttons on either side of the joystick, or I'll prefer some games buttons configured differently (like Neo Geo when using a 7 button layout).

Since it's a cocktail - you'll have to log into each game anyhow to configure the flipping mode. It's not much added work.

Bender

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2008, 11:01:11 pm »
Is there a way to disable the buttons on the vertical sides of the cocktail when playing horizontal games?  Also the other way around, if playing vertical games can you disable the horizontal player buttons.  Altogether I would have 4 joysticks with six buttons each making that 24 buttons.  For example, wouldn't the same fire button for player one on the horizontal game be the same button on the vertical side.  I don't want someone fooling around on the other side of the cabinet pushing buttons while I'm playing.
Thanks for any info!!!!

I'm pretty sure you can configure the MALA front end to just that

leapinlew

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2008, 12:21:33 am »
I'm pretty sure you can configure the MALA front end to just that

Since your my buddy bender, I'll respond.  :)

The button's and joysticks would be wired identical on the vertical and horizontal sides. For example: Player 1 joystick for both horizontal and vertical will use the same physical wire. Mala will have no way to know which joystick is being hit.

Mala allows the flipping to occur if they are different inputs (unless I'm misunderstand how Mala flips the image).

elsie

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2008, 10:50:29 pm »
I suppose building a circuit board and and design some software might work, but seems much more involved, just like Savannah likes it!

It would probably be easier than even I made it out to be. I realized today at work that a paired NPN & PNP transistor and a front end GUI that supports something like the LED-Wiz would probably make it extremely easy. I'm not sure which NPN/PNP pair I would use though. It's just a signal line so I imagine just about any would work fine.

In any case, I'm reasonably certain a simple SPDT switch would be even simpler than buying a new ipac4 and reconfiguring MAME.

Can you provide more info on how to do this with the transistors?  I'm looking to do the same thing and will also have a LED-Wiz.  Thanks.

SavannahLion

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2008, 01:10:21 am »
I suppose building a circuit board and and design some software might work, but seems much more involved, just like Savannah likes it!

It would probably be easier than even I made it out to be. I realized today at work that a paired NPN & PNP transistor and a front end GUI that supports something like the LED-Wiz would probably make it extremely easy. I'm not sure which NPN/PNP pair I would use though. It's just a signal line so I imagine just about any would work fine.

In any case, I'm reasonably certain a simple SPDT switch would be even simpler than buying a new ipac4 and reconfiguring MAME.

Can you provide more info on how to do this with the transistors?  I'm looking to do the same thing and will also have a LED-Wiz.  Thanks.

I'm just an amateur, so I could be wrong. I don't have an LEDWiz either so I can't test my designs. Maybe Randy can verify?

In any case, this is what I came up with.

Wire the control panels positive terminals to the appropriate connections on your controller (iPac or KeyWiz). However, each panel will get their own ground loop, don't connect them to anything yet.

Grab a PNP and an NPN (I haven't figured out the exact part # yet. The only complementary ones I know of like the 2N2222/2N2907 have all been out of production for a while.) and tie the collector of the PNP to the emitter of the NPN. If you use a standard TO-92 packaging, you'll find that if you place the flat of each pair facing each other, then the correct legs line up for soldering :). Mount the pair on something hard, they're less likely to get mangled or short out during handling.

Base of each pair is tied together which is connected to the LED-Wiz circuit.

The last pin on each pair is then tied to the two ground loops. One pin to one ground loop. The other pin to the other ground loop.

The LED-Wiz I have to guess on. I also don't know if Andy's design is the same. But I guess to play it safe, one should use a small general purpose diode like a N4004 (is that the right number?) and a small resistor.

Program the LED-Wiz + FrontEnd and you have an automatic switcher. :)

I'm uncertain of is whether the transistors will let enough current pass to drop the voltage across the switches enough so the controllers can sense it properly. I'd like to construct a prototype, but I don't have any controllers to play with yet. :(

Anyhow, that's my theoretical design. Do any of the circuit experts see anything I may have missed?
« Last Edit: January 30, 2008, 01:18:53 am by SavannahLion »

SavannahLion

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Re: 3 sided cocktail disabling buttons
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2008, 01:24:22 am »
Personally. I think Randy's Key-Wiz + LED-Wiz and Andy's iPac + Pac-Drive offer an astonishing amount of control power to the average arcade enthusiast. There are going to be some really awesome arcade designs once people get past the whole bling factor of having a CP lighting up.