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Wire length
OneNutt:
I currently have 2 control panels built, one for player 1 and one for player 2. Both are made from USB keyboard hacks. I want to remake these and make them smaller so they will fit on a lap and I can play sitting on a couch where it's easier to pass out. The Ipac's look like a good solution to keyboard hacking, my concern is the length of wire from the Ipac to the buttons. My thought is to make 2 panels, with the Ipac in the 1st player panel (connecting to the PC via a USB hub), and the second would connect to the first using network cable as an "extension cord" for the buttons. Ideally I would like to have about 15 feet of cable, in case someone wants to sit on the floor or whatever, making the wire from the button to the Ipac roughly 25 feet in length. Does this sound feasible or am I dreaming thinking the signal will make it that far?
Sasquatch!:
You're talking about the wire from the Player 2 CP to the Player 1 CP, right? I don't *think* there would be a problem with that, but I haven't tried anything like that myself. You could always email Andy at Ultimarc and see what he has to say on the matter.
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: OneNutt on April 02, 2004, 10:00:30 pm ---Ideally I would like to have about 15 feet of cable, in case someone wants to sit on the floor or whatever, making the wire from the button to the Ipac roughly 25 feet in length.
--- End quote ---
Huh, the I-PAC is in Panel 1 and Panel 1 isn't 10 feet wide, is it?
You mean 25 feet from the P2 buttons to the PC, correct?
I don't see any of this as a problem, but I haven't done it myself, so can't say 100% for sure.
OneNutt:
No, I mean I have 2 INDIVIDUAL panels using 2 INDIVIDUAL keyboard hacks, and I want to eliminate the need for it and use 1 Ipac.
http://www.onenutt.com/Console/007.html
You can get a visual of current. I want to make it so player 2 plugs into player 1, therefore the buttons for player 2 would be connected to the Ipac in player1 using about 20-30 feet of wire. (roughly) It seems like it shouldn't be too much of an issue, just though someone might have an idea on how long is too long for a button wire to run. I am concerned about the signal not making it, but the only thing I know about electricity is not to touch it.
FWIW, I emailed Andy and his reply was:
"The USB part would be OK.
Regarding the cable extension, I cannot guarantee this will work. When the
switches are not presses, each cable is a long un-terminated end and could
pick up interference. I would say that 50 feet might well be rather long for
it to work reliably. Probably 15 feet would be a realistic maximium.
But there is no reason not to try it. I have not done so, but just have an
idea there might be problems."
JesterDEV:
Just an idea. But why not just built a small separate housing for the ipac, then run the cables from that to each control panel, or the the first one, then from there to the second? This may not cut down the the length, but might make it a bit easier overall.
I was thinking about this just today (wire length). So I decided to see what would happen. I took about 20 feet of wire and connected it to my ipac, and then to a button. I used notpad to test it out and it worked quite well. I didn't see any signal loss at all. But that was just 20' not 50'. I would think that the signal would still make it, but it would be off by a few milliseconds and maybe a second. Either way, I would try it with a single button and see what happens.
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