Daisy-chaning grounds

[jjhlk]

If I daisy chain the grounds between all of my controls, how do I fit two wires on a terminal at once? Could I crimp two wires in the female connector at once?

[mccall]

Yes, you can fit two wires in a female connector provided the barrel of the conector is either big enough or the wire used is of sufficiently small diameter.

The quick disconnect package/box will tell you what gauge wire is supported. The disconnects I used were for 18-22 gauge wire and I had no problem crimping two strands of 22 gauge in each.

[Lilwolf]

btw, dont' daisy chain all of them in one line.

Consider one ground per each player, and whatever else you want to group them...

why?

you can cut the ground and disable all those devices.

I like having all the button coins on one ground, so when I turn them off, you are forced to use the coin slots.

Also, I can disable player 3 and 4 (well, back when I had a 4 player CP... took it apart to redo it ages ago, and never finished it).

Also, having one master that disables all inputs from the machine since I use my main computer outside the cabinet sometimes... and hate working on code and having my daughter press the buttons and messing up my sourcecode.

[dendawg]

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F003%5F009%5F000&product%5Fid=274%2D658

This, or something similar to it, is what you need to help you wire in parallel.  Whatever you do, do not wire in series, because if one ground goes bad, they all go bad.  Wiring in parallel will also help you to identify the bad circuit faster.

[REBIRTH]

Most female connectors will accept 2 of whatever size wire they can hold.  Double check as stated above, but this is normally how you do it.

As for "series" vs. "parallel"... this is just my opinion.  A great thing about MAME is we all have our theories...  I completely understand the "don't wire in series" argument that if one goes bad, they all go bad.  However, wiring all in parallel is a major pain in the ***, isn't it?  Plus now instead of having one ground wire for your CP being connected to your keyboard interface, you'll have dozens (or dozens going to a bridge board and then one coming out).  

Myself, I went in series (I have 3 panels, each with it's own series).  I don't think finding a bad connector down the road is too troublesome - just have one long ground wire coming from the main ground and take turns touching the individual buttons on the CP until you find the one that went bad - start at the button farthest from the main ground and work your way towards the closest button until you find the one that allows the rest in the series to work - there is your bad one.  I did it that way when building the CP's and took a matter of minutes to find the fault each time.  I'd rather do that then have dozens of extra ground wires floating around.  

Again, just my opinion.

Doug

[BobA]

The wiring is series method makes for the neatest wiring and does away for the need for barrier strip or terminal strips.

One major thing to do when wiring your grounds is connect each end of your daisy chain to ground.  That way even an open wire will not keep the panel from functioning properly. It would take 2 faults to cause a malfunction and by wiring both ends to ground it is very easy to determine the fault locations if you know what your wire run is because only buttons between the faults will fail.

BobA

[REBIRTH]

The wiring is series method makes for the neatest wiring and does away for the need for barrier strip or terminal strips.

One major thing to do when wiring your grounds is connect each end of your daisy chain to ground.  That way even an open wire will not keep the panel from functioning properly. It would take 2 faults to cause a malfunction and by wiring both ends to ground it is very easy to determine the fault locations if you know what your wire run is because only buttons between the faults will fail.

BobA

BobA is a freakin genius (or I am a freakin numbskull).  That is such a simple concept yet overlooked by me.  I guess I am running some more wire tonight!