Advice Please: Control Panel with 25 pin connector

[D_Harris]

I have a SuperNova and would like to try using one of the control
panels with my PC(MAME).

http://www.massystems.com/SuperNOVA.html

The control panels have 25 pin(male) connectors. So I'll obviously
have to use my parallel port.

Has anyone here done this?

Any hardware/software specs, and set-up advice would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Neverending Project]

With the disclaimer that I don't know much about the SuperNOVA (I haven't seen one before I just looked at the link you gave), I think I can say that you won't be able to just plug this control panel into your PC and get it to work, no matter how you configure your PC. The control panel box most likely houses the pushbuttons and joystick(s). These are all just micro-switches that would need some sort of keyboard encoder in order to interface your PC.

If you have a control panel that is only micro-switches (8-way joystick and pushbuttons) then you could connect the 25-pin cable to a KeyWiz or I-Pac (provided you trace out the pins), and then plug that KeyWiz or I-Pac into your USB port. If you gave a control panel with optical devices also (Perfect 360) you would need an optical encoder as well. Once Mini-Pac would do the trick in this case.

Search the board and wiki and you will find lots of information on interfacing joysticks and pushbuttons.

[D_Harris]

With the disclaimer that I don't know much about the SuperNOVA (I haven't seen one before I just looked at the link you gave), I think I can say that you won't be able to just plug this control panel into your PC and get it to work, no matter how you configure your PC. The control panel box most likely houses the pushbuttons and joystick(s). These are all just micro-switches that would need some sort of keyboard encoder in order to interface your PC.

If you have a control panel that is only micro-switches (8-way joystick and pushbuttons) then you could connect the 25-pin cable to a KeyWiz or I-Pac (provided you trace out the pins), and then plug that KeyWiz or I-Pac into your USB port. If you gave a control panel with optical devices also (Perfect 360) you would need an optical encoder as well. Once Mini-Pac would do the trick in this case.

Search the board and wiki and you will find lots of information on interfacing joysticks and pushbuttons.

I have a couple of Mini-Pacs and a couple of Hydrogen Player 1/2 Controllers.
http://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html
http://www.atomarcade.net/products.html

The idea was to put one of my Hydrogen controllers inside the control panel. solder leads from the joystick and buttons to the controller and make an adaptor so it can use the 25 pin connector. But from what you are telling me that wouldn't work.

So I guess I'll just use the USB cable I have.

But since I want to have the option of using this control panel with both MAME and the SuperNova, I was trying to decide between two ideas.

Should I hack a 12 pin connector to the leads coming from the joystick/buttons so I can have the option of swapping between the Hydrogen controller/harness and the parallel cable?

Or, would it be a better idea to just leave all the connections in the control panel the way they are, except to add additional(permanent) wires in between the joystick/buttons and the Hydrogen controller, so I wouldn't have to ever open the control panel up to swap anything?

Either way the control panel will have a USB and a Parallel cable.

Ideas?

Thanks.

Darren  Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Kajoq]

You could just dual wire it to the Supergun 25pin + Control pad USB pretty easily.  Just toss a barrier strip in it and that simplifies it a lot

[D_Harris]

You could just dual wire it to the Supergun 25pin + Control pad USB pretty easily.  Just toss a barrier strip in it and that simplifies it a lot

Actually, it is not easier. As you can see by the above picture, the parallel cable is already wired to the joysticks/buttons. Ripping it apart would be a PITA. All I need to do is add the Hydrogen controller.

With my multimeter I mapped out what joystick/button switches correspond to what pins of the parallel male connector. Now I'm searching to see if there is a female 25 pin connector with leads that I could just solder to the Hydrogen. That would be as simple as it can get.

What do you think?

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[D_Harris]

Can anyone tell me if it is a good idea to hack a 25 pin cable(with female connector) into a Hydrogen controller adaptor that I can just plug on the end of my control panel's male 25 pin connector? (The control panel's cable is already 12 feet long).

This of course would mean that the Hydrogen controller would have to be located outside of the control panel box.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.