Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: StellarX on March 22, 2002, 07:08:02 am
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What's the best way to wire up your control panel?
I am using the ipac and wired all the controls up fine, but getting all the ground wires together was agrivating and i don't think i did it right. I just twisted all the ground wires together at a central point, except for the coin slots, which i twisted together and put in the other ground slot. Everything works great but everynow and then the whole thing just screws up and it's easily fixed by unplugging and plugging the coin slot wires and grounds in.
Also, when i test the coin slot in some games, it 'sticks'. I've tried changing the wires, the only thing i haven't tried is a new wiring method. I've heard about using a wiring block or something. Should I do that to get the best performance?
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'Daisy chain' the grounds of your controls. No need to have 2 wires coming from each microswitch.
Just make sure all the grounds are connected together. E.g. connect ground of button 1 to ground of button 2 to ground of button 3 etc. etc.
You only need the N/O wire coming directly from the microswitches.
I've taken this example from the i-pac website (I hope Andy doesn't mind!!):
(http://www.ultimarc.com/wiring.gif)
See how the grounds chain from 1 microswitch to the next...
hope this cleans up the birds nest of wires you must have!
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All I did was daisychain the grounds. One wire goes from the ground on the I-PAC to the COM tab on a switch, then from that tab to the COM tab on another switch, then from that tab to the COM tab on another switch, etc. (until they are all done), then a wire from the last COM tab back to the ground on the I-PAC. The second connection to ground just make the wiring a little more fault tolerant. You can have one break and everything will still work. Also crimp .187" female quick disconnects onto the wires for connecting them to the switches (coin switches may need .250" quick disconnects). To daisychain using quick disconnects, insert the wire going to this switch and also insert the wire going to the next switch and then crimp the quick disconnect onto both wires.
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It's very difficult to say what the problem is without seeing it, but from what you said, it sounds like something isn't right with the coin slot wiring. I would suggest double checking what you did there.
I did basically the same thing as you described, and mine works perfectly. Although I did use a terminal block. I ran all of my grounds to one central point and connected them, then ran a wire from there to the ground post on my terminal block, then ran a wire from the ground post on the terminal block to the ground on my encoder.
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they also sell a little 3-way combiner type thing if you dont like twisting them together. its a crimp connecter in a "Y" shape. just put one wire in each and clamp em down. ;D
:i have only seen these at true value, they dont seem to be too common.
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Daisy-chaining is the way to go, but just be sure you have a good solid connection from one switch to the next.
Remember those old Christmas tree lights where one bulb went out and the whole string wouldn't light up? Well, if you have a loose connection in the chain, all the buttons up to that problem area will work fine, but all the ones wired in after it won't.
But, you shouldn't have a problem if you twist the 2 wires together and use the .187" female spade crimp connector like stated above. Direct soldering is also an option, but more of a pain.
RandyT
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Another tidbit that may be of some use is that everytime i try to program the ipac i get a timeout error, but of course, when i unplug the coin connections...
wham progam successful...this is really bugging me.
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All I did was daisychain the grounds.
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Stellar. What coin mech do you have? Maybe try opening up notepad or something and see if it is working correctly.
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Stellar,
I'm an industrial electronics technician, and right away, a problem jumped out at me... you said you have your daisychain grounded at two points on the iPac, right?
This is a potentially bad thing. I know that if you daisychain grounds on relays together in an assembly line control panel, they tell you to NEVER ground the daisychain at more than one point, because it creates something called "dual ground plane potential shift" or some technical BS like that... basically, it just means that the amount of power travelling through the groundS varies depending on your switch's position in the daisychain, and the amount of resistance of wire in each direction... it's confusing, and I didn't completely understand everything the teacher at the factory I was training at was saying... but he got across the point to me that you're not supposed to double-ground anything wired in parallel OR series.
Hope this helps --dave
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if im correct, you dont finish off the ground like it was a loop. you go from ipac to switch to switch to switch and the last one u just leave it there.
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Stellar,
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Actually, it sounds like he's got NO daisychains, just 12 different wires all going into one terminal! Somebody didn't read the instructions...
It's easier to just make one big ground harness using the .187 female connects, crimping each ground wire with the next, ending with one long wire that goes to the ground terminal.
If you're going to be gronding a LOT of stuff and want to have multiple harnesses, get a "European Style Barrier Strip" from Radio Shack. It's just like the screw-in terminal blocks on the IPAC, but each terminal has two sides. Just daisychain all the contacts on one side and run that to ground, then connect your ground harnesses into the other side. I have a rotating CP where this really comes in handy.
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I'd read it again if I were you... he specifically states that he's got a loop... "iPac to com tab to next com tab to next com tab (ad nauseum) and back to iPac" it doesn't matter whether it's both to one ground on the iPac, or spread to both... they're the same ground, as far as the iPac is concerned... It's still a LOOP, which is bad.
as far as that parallel relay question is concerned, the link is bad... I can't bring it up in my browser (404 not found) sorry. if ya want to e-mail the link to me, maybe I can pull it up there. :)
so, umm, yeah. peace, yo. --dave
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i'm an idiot... I wasn't paying NEARLY enough attention to what I was posting to. Good thing I'm still a newbie, eh? I can just blame it on being a young punk kid, wet behind the ears...
As far as Stellar is concerned, yeah, he really needs to daisy-chain... i'm very intolerant of messy wiring... it adds HOURS to my workday... and I would DEFINITELY recommend putting all of his buttons AND coin doors in the same daisy-chained ground and see if it corrects his problem.
But I still stand by my NO LOOP declaration. It's just not a good idea. Have faith in the integrity of your wiring, and don't worry about "fault interruption" you guys built these things, and we all know it's not just because you like playing the games... so, if ya got a problem, whip your CP off, bust out your multimeter, and get crackin'! It's all part of the experience. ;D
Sincerely,
Dave the Newbie
Detroit, MI
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After re-wiring everything using the daisy chain method...I'm still having the same problems. Could I have damaged the ipac by doing the wrong way?
Btw I've come across an almost complete original arcade cabinet only the game board is messed up. what's the best way to turn this into a mame cab.? Should I keep the monitor etc that it already has?
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The whole thing still sounds like some sort of intermittent short in the coin mech.
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Stellar, in regards to the cab you found, yes leave everything inside except the game board, assuming it's a jamma cab. Go buy a j-pack and hook it up to the jamma harness. The ONLY thing you will need to rewire in the cab is the coin door LIGHTS. Everything else is taken care of by the j-pac, although you will need an amplifier between your pc and the j-pac for the sound.
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No, he doesn't have two grounds off a single daisy chain.