Qs about making 2 Fight Sticks from keyboard parts

[iFly900]

Hi guys!

I looking to make 2 8-button arcade style fight sticks but I have some questions before I shell out for parts, I want to use 2 USB number pads as the brains for the each controller, I would crack them open and solder my 8 buttons and joystick to the button points on the circuit board and put the whole thing in a housing but here's where I think a problem lies;

If I make 2 fight sticks out of 2 USB number pads how do I stop both fight sticks acting as one? Won't pressing a button on the P1 fight stick be the equivalent of pushing the same button on the P2 fight stick or will they be independent of each other all on their own without me having to do something about it?


I think I've understood the problem and how making controllers from a keyboard works but please correct me if I'm wrong!

[lilshawn]

no they will act the same.

just the same as having 2 mice plugged in, they still control the same cursor.

perhaps using a USB keyboard will suit this application better (whilst giving you more buttons to work with)

[jasonl2972]

why not just get a ipac keyboard encoder and save alot of time and trouble.Another problem you'd run into would be too many buttons pushed at the same time when playing,causing ghosting and lag.Ipac is set up for 2 players with all the buttons already and pre programmed for mame standard button layout.And thier not very expensive at all and easy to hook up.I'm all for saving money and diy type stuff,but in this case i'd spend the few bucks and save yourself alot of trouble and time,time you could be using on other parts of the build.

[Gray_Area]

Simplest and best way is to connect 'em both up, see whether they are indepedent (it should be OS determined, but....). Then map 'em to an emu, load up a game, and mash buttons on both and see what happens.

[lilshawn]

Simplest and best way is to connect 'em both up, see whether they are indepedent (it should be OS determined, but....). Then map 'em to an emu, load up a game, and mash buttons on both and see what happens.

no. a 2 is a 2 no matter WHERE you push it. you can have 100 keyboards or 1 doesn't matter. MAME is just looking at the characters coming down the pipe.

I want to use 2 USB number pads as the brains for the each controller.

a number pad has at max 16 buttons (0-9 + - * / . and enter) (numlock is a system button and probably can't be mapped.)

now, it seems to reason that you would have up down left right mapped for sticks 4 inputs... x2 thats 8 inputs that leaves 4 buttons a piece for gameplay for each player on one numpad. if that's enough, give er' if not, hack up a keyboard...you'll have at least 40 inputs you can use.