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Wire length
GroovyTuesdaY:
Onenutt, i really like the idea you have going there!! The only thing, its like you mentioned, it would be nicer if they were small enough to plop on your lap. I think the best bet would be to make a small box to mount the ipac into, then run the wires from the panels into the box.
Just have to make the wiring so that if it gets pulled and yanked or worse case some trips on a wire,that it doesn't hurt the ipac or rips any wires off of your buttons. That would just plain suck.
I do think that using some wire that is encased (ie: CAT5 cabling) would make it alot safer and nicer.
Be sure to post some pics again when you get it all done to your satisfaction and maybe post some pics of the inards hehe :)
g~
bigmoe:
--- Quote from: JesterDEV on April 05, 2004, 01:26:11 am ---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.
--- End quote ---
I am in the process of building something very similar to what's described here (and also somewhat similar to what Tiger-Heli describes on his excellent website).
I *do* have an IPAC in a separate box connected via cables to a control box that sits in the lap. Right now I am only running about 6 feet, but intend the total cable length to eventually be 16 feet or so.
I am using dsub (serial) connectors and bundled cabling (using standard serial cables). At first, I was running into ghost keyboard presses; after emailing Andy (who was very helpful as is typical), experimenting with this, and researching on the Internet, we concluded (or I, which Andy confirmed as plausible, if not likely) I was experiencing a high degree of RFI.
The RFI could be due to my location (near several radio towers) or also due to the length of bundled cables. I thought since I was using shielded cabling, I was ok.
It turns out that the problem was solved when I realized I wasn't *grounding* the shielded cable properly. Shielded cable, if you cut it in half, has the signal wires encased in foil with an uninsulated wire that runs the length. This uninsulated wire is meant for grounding the shielding. It is connected over multiple cables via the metal connection housing of the cable ends (the part that surrounds the pins).
If you are using cable cut in half, be sure to ground this wire at one end. (Andy confirmed for me that it is ok to connect this to the IPAC ground.) If you are using full cables with, say, dsub female connectors, be sure to connect the metal housing of the connector to ground...you may have to solder a wire to it for this. (Some of the old switchboxes, if you take them apart, have a wire soldered like this.)
Sorry to be so longwinded...but save yourself some pain!
b
Lilwolf:
you might also look into hacking two gamepads instead.
Not as nice but cheaper, especially for a dual stick setup where the best answer is two encoders.
OneNutt:
I like the suggestion of an external Ipac box, I am going to consider that one. It will take an extra cat5 since the player 1 box has more control, but that's not a big deal. That might get me to keep my length to around 20 feet total so it might help any interference issues too....
bigmoe:
--- Quote from: OneNutt on April 05, 2004, 05:27:09 pm ---I like the suggestion of an external Ipac box, I am going to consider that one. It will take an extra cat5 since the player 1 box has more control, but that's not a big deal. That might get me to keep my length to around 20 feet total so it might help any interference issues too....
--- End quote ---
It works pretty neat, but you should know that I (and I imagine others, if some of the issues on other threads are due to the same thing) started experiencing interference issues at 6 feet. (Don't want to be a party pooper, just be aware ;).)
I'm using 9-conductor, and some other folks were using 25 conductor. I don't remember how many wires Cat-5 has, but maybe it will be few enough that you won't have to worry about it at all, I dunno. I know just about enough about wiring to frustrate myself... ;D
I toyed with the idea of having the IPAC in the P1 CP and having P2+ CPs be vanillas that hooked into the P1 CP, but with swappable panels and the mobile nature of the CP decided I didn't want to risk the IPAC et al. Plus, this will make it easier for console hacks, too.
Lilwolf's idea is a good one, too, if you're good with a soldering iron...comes preshielded. The big downside for me was the lack of administrative functions the IPAC gives you. It's neat hook up the laptop to the ole TV, fire it up, and pretty much do everything else without having to even lean out of the chair (except to get the beer).
b
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