First Time Confusion - help!

[helpmebuild]

Hey all.

I am just about to start ordering the parts needed to get my cabinet ready to go. I am in the process of converting the cab and getting it looking slick, but am very confused as to what is necessary to order to have a working CP.

I was lookin at getting the I-pac board, but am a little confused as to how these work. From what I understand this connects to a PC and your CP but is there any soldering required for this? Does the I-pac when ordered from ultrimarc include the crazy mess of cables/wires I see under everyones CP's, or is that ordered separate? I just want to be sure I order only what I need and no more or no less. So far all I have is a used Midway cab with a 27" monitor in it, and an older PC I'm looking to use in the cab. Could someone maybe list the "necessities" for someone looking to build a mamecab? Im thinking of 2 joysticks from Happ and 3 buttons per person with the possibility of a trackball. I also hear a lot about admin buttons, so what exactly are those used for and how many would I need? It would be very much appreciated if someone could make a small list of what I need and I can use that as a guide to purchasing my items.

[Xam]

To put it simply, an I-PAC (or any of the available encoders) acts as a keyboard input for the joysticks. It is basically the board in your keyboard that is responsible for the input.
Once hooked up, open notepad or some other text program. MOve your joysticks and press your buttons...it will type the letters and numbers of the corrensponding input on the encoder. Theoretically, you could typr using your joysticks and encoder.

That description probably did not come out right, but hopefully it will help with a basic understanding of what it does.

The mess of wires is your baby to create. I-PAC may have a harness available, but I am not sure on that point.

Hope this helps.

Xam

[protokatie]

From what I understand this connects to a PC and your CP but is there any soldering required for this? Does the I-pac when ordered from ultrimarc include the crazy mess of cables/wires I see under everyones CP's, or is that ordered separate?

Like the above said, but with some clarification:

Crazy mess of wires: Depends on if you know how to route wiring. And it really isnt a mess even if it looks like it. Each button gets a COMM (ground) that it can share with all other buttons and an individual NO positive connection for each button.

IPAC comes with no wiring, you need to buy 22 gauge wires for that (not pricey). from what you have said you want to do, buy a Minipac with the wire harness. It is made for us Newbs, and is a good buy no matter what.

[helpmebuild]

Sweet. So my main concern with the I-Pac is whather or not there is any soldering involved? Is it just a matter of plugging the wires in for connection or are they to be soldered in there? I only ask because i am a complete soldering noob and would like to avoid it if at al possible. Also, if anyone could let me know besides the I-pac and my buttons/joysticks, is there any other necseeities I need to get this thing going? Thanks for the replies so far, they've been very helpful!

[RetroACTIVE]

Sweet. So my main concern with the I-Pac is whather or not there is any soldering involved? Is it just a matter of plugging the wires in for connection or are they to be soldered in there? I only ask because i am a complete soldering noob and would like to avoid it if at al possible. Also, if anyone could let me know besides the I-pac and my buttons/joysticks, is there any other necseeities I need to get this thing going? Thanks for the replies so far, they've been very helpful!

As far as the IPAC... take a look at the product... it has screw terminals on it, no soldering...

I think you would benefit by a visit to http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Main_Page, just follow links under "Main Arcade Cabinet Portals".  Its really very good... and don't worry so much about soldering... if you buy all new stuff and aren't hacking anything up... there is a 99.9999999999% chance you will not need to solder anything at all... Crimping yes... solder no.

[ChadTower]

That's the catch - if you don't want to solder you have to learn to crimp.  One isn't really any faster or easier than the other and both require low cost specialized tools.  To be an effective cab builder, IMO, you really need to do both before you're finished.  Neither is difficult and both take a little practice to master.

[BORIStheBLADE]

I would go with crimping because you can always disconnect and replace easier with a crimp.

[RetroACTIVE]

That's the catch - if you don't want to solder you have to learn to crimp.  One isn't really any faster or easier than the other and both require low cost specialized tools.  To be an effective cab builder, IMO, you really need to do both before you're finished.  Neither is difficult and both take a little practice to master.

Personally I agree with you 100% but for some its like... "cookie dough from a plastic tube" vs  "recipe from the back of the toll-house bag" 

[ChadTower]

I would go with crimping because you can always disconnect and replace easier with a crimp.

Not once you're good at it.  It only takes a couple of seconds to desolder from a lug.  It takes just as much time to carefully work a tight QD off of the lug.  The only time that would really make a difference is when you're far from an electrical outlet.

As someone who mostly restores cabs I have to deal with other peoples' crimping "skills" all the time.  Sure looks to me like most field ops couldn't work a proper crimp if they had 100 tries.  I end up cutting the QDs off and soldering to the lugs more often than not.

[RetroACTIVE]

I would go with crimping because you can always disconnect and replace easier with a crimp.

Not once you're good at it.  It only takes a couple of seconds to desolder from a lug.  It takes just as much time to carefully work a tight QD off of the lug.  The only time that would really make a difference is when you're far from an electrical outlet.

I prefer not to use QDs on the old leaf switches... the tabs are very flimsy and sometimes getting the QDs on and off is risky... for those I tend to solder.

[shardian]

I prefer not to use QDs on the old leaf switches... the tabs are very flimsy and sometimes getting the QDs on and off is risky... for those I tend to solder.

Most definitely! I broke off a leaf terminal on one of the Wico 8-ways in my Dynamo cabinet. I had to replace it with a leaf off one of those chinese knockoff 4-ways.

[RetroACTIVE]

Most definitely! I broke off a leaf terminal on one of the Wico 8-ways in my Dynamo cabinet. I had to replace it with a leaf off one of those chinese knockoff 4-ways.

Not to mention they are like little tiny freak'n razor blades!

[mountain]

When I build my next cab, I plan on soldering a 2" extention wire on Wico leafswitches with a QD spade on the end.  I am planning on building a new machine right now and I would love to plug in some other joysticks to test them out but it would require yanking the Wicos (de-soldering).

[ChadTower]

When I build my next cab, I plan on soldering a 2" extention wire on Wico leafswitches with a QD spade on the end.  I am planning on building a new machine right now and I would love to plug in some other joysticks to test them out but it would require yanking the Wicos (de-soldering).

Don't do that.  Wire them into a Molex connector if you plan on swapping them later.  That makes it a two second no brain swap rather than having to keep track of what wire is going where and swapping all of those individual QDs.

[mountain]

The way I tie my wiring, it will be obvious. Good point though.

[CheffoJeffo]

Personally I agree with you 100% but for some its like... "cookie dough from a plastic tube" vs  "recipe from the back of the toll-house bag" 

I really want to say something about the baking analogy, but all I can come up with is bork, bork, bork!

To get back on topic -- I, as others have already mentioned, tend to solder with leafs and use QDs with microswitches.

[BORIStheBLADE]

I would go with crimping because you can always disconnect and replace easier with a crimp.

Not once you're good at it.  It only takes a couple of seconds to desolder from a lug.  It takes just as much time to carefully work a tight QD off of the lug.  The only time that would really make a difference is when you're far from an electrical outlet.

As someone who mostly restores cabs I have to deal with other peoples' crimping "skills" all the time.  Sure looks to me like most field ops couldn't work a proper crimp if they had 100 tries.  I end up cutting the QDs off and soldering to the lugs more often than not.

What if I'm the crimp master?

[ChadTower]

What if I'm the crimp master?

Then you have enough skills to not be asking questions about crimping.   

[DeLuSioNal29]

You know, this topic just gave me a good idea.  I think I am going to post a video on youtube of my control panel and how it connects to the computer.  This should help beginners tremendously.

Give me a week or so to get it captured and uploaded.  I have an ipac connected to my PC with a pass thru keyboard attached to the ipac.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[protokatie]

Give me a week or so to get it captured and uploaded.

Laziness is unnacceptable! (Unless it is me who is being lazy, as I wrote the book on it.. Or rather I WILL once I get around to it!)

Anyways, yes that is a good idea. In fact, maybe start a sticky thread with vids/pics showing how people wire up their CPs for others to peruse. This sort of thing is a good candidate for being stickied on this forum.

[CheffoJeffo]

In fact, maybe start a sticky thread with vids/pics showing how people wire up their CPs for others to peruse. This sort of thing is a good candidate for being stickied on this forum.

Or someone could write up an entry for the wiki ... 

In absence of that, there is always spystyle's tutorial on the subject (if I close my eyes tight enough, I can avoid noticing what is being done to a nice Williams cab):

http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/01/index8.htm

[helpmebuild]

You know, this topic just gave me a good idea.  I think I am going to post a video on youtube of my control panel and how it connects to the computer.  This should help beginners tremendously.

Give me a week or so to get it captured and uploaded.  I have an ipac connected to my PC with a pass thru keyboard attached to the ipac.

~ DeLuSioNaL

Man that would be SWEET! If you could do that, it would be much appreciated!

[DeLuSioNal29]

You know, this topic just gave me a good idea.  I think I am going to post a video on youtube of my control panel and how it connects to the computer.  This should help beginners tremendously.

Give me a week or so to get it captured and uploaded.  I have an ipac connected to my PC with a pass thru keyboard attached to the ipac.

~ DeLuSioNaL

Man that would be SWEET! If you could do that, it would be much appreciated!

Hopefully I'll have it by this weekend.  ;-)

[DeLuSioNal29]

Great news!  I finished shooting and editing the "Wiring a Control Panel for Beginners" video.  It's currently rendering out on my computer and I will post it tomorrow on YouTube (with an embedded link here of course!)

~ DeLuSioNaL