Arcade Wiring (Grounding) for Beginners

[@delsarcade]

@poopyroses There should be a ground somewhere on the keyboard interface. It's usually labeled as such. Look for a black wire where the usb cable is soldered to on the keyboard interface board.

[@delsarcade]

@Namurashi You have to purchase them separately. Doorbell wire at Home Depot works best. Head over to Ultimarc's website and click on the info link for the ipac. You will see a close up pic there of the ipac. It's clearly labeled of what goes where on the ipac itself.

[@sonick808]

i switched from a daisy chain to a ground bus. I just punch everything down to a copper bar with tons of holes in it. eliminates the "christmas tree light" effect when a ground breaks at the switch

[@delsarcade]

18 gauge is fine. I used bell wire for my ground. If you head to your local Home Depot, go to the doorbell section. They have packages of wire that work very well for cheap! Radio Shack is a ripoff and more expensive and you get less! It doesn't have to be black for ground. It can be any color as long as you know it's ground. They usually sell many different colors to choose from.

[@LosCabezasDeAlfiler]

Very nice control panel

[@delsarcade]

Sanwa buttons will only have two connectors. The one labeled minus ( - ) should be connected to ground. You'll see it on the colored part of the button, not on the microswitch itself.

[@delsarcade]

Thanks! Have you seen my other vertical arcade? :)

[@jslime]

Thanks for this video.. what gauge wire should be used?

[@delsarcade]

It's still a work in progress. Once I finish I will be sure to have a video posted. :-)

[@delsarcade]

It terminates on one end only: At the iPac terminal block. There is a ground connection. The other end just ends at the last microswitch that you use.

[@delsarcade]

Yes, you can daisy chain the new test switch wire using the ground from the other buttons. :-) Either will work.

[@nick12882]

another question just curious did the ipac ship dhl?

[@slipperyphish]

question, I am wiring up my cab's test switch to one of the buttons on top of the control panel. currently it has its own ground coming from the coin door, can I daisy chain the new test switch wire using the ground from the rest of the control panel or do I have to snake up the one from the coin door?

[@Namurashi]

When you buy the iPac does it come with all the wires needed, or do you have to purchase them separately? Also, is there a tutorial on how to wire it? Your explanation was very helpful, but I mean like which button goes to which.

[@xtremeboy91]

cool arcade machine !

[@nick12882]

what size female disconnects are you using .187 or .25 Thanks

[@mrkrabs622]

If you're not using an iPAC, where do you terminate the last wire to?

[@delsarcade]

Which last wire are you referring to?

[@mrkrabs622]

@@delsarcade I was thinking of the grounding point (yes I am that dense when it comes to electricity), I realize now that whatever controller pcb I am soldering to will have a place for ground... I just have to figure out which it is.

[@deaglecrazy]

Hey I just got my ipac4 and have the control panel layout pretty much the same as yours, I was just wondering which buttons for players 1 and 2 are 1-7? and which buttons for players 3 and 4 are 1-4? Also just bought some 18 gauge wire for grounding everything and was curious if that was alright to use, thanks

[@trixster6d9]

Great explanation!

[@Eurocar-yz4kv]

Where do you hook up your special control buttons like enter, esc, pause, etc on the ipac? Ive noticed theres no label for these kind of buttons

[@delsarcade]

You can map those to any buttons using the Win iPac software. In my setup, I had plenty of button inputs on the iPac board left over from the unused player 3 and 4 buttons, since I only had 4 buttons for each player and the iPac had 8 buttons allowable per player.

[@Eurocar-yz4kv]

I have alot of inputs left over also on my ipac... So i can just use those for my special buttons? Or do i have to down load the software? Thank you

[@delsarcade]

You need to do both. Use those for the special inputs by connecting the buttons. Then you need to download the software to assign them to the input. Once you do it you will never have to again. The iPac will remember the settings.

[@Eurocar-yz4kv]

Ok thank you so much one more question... Why is there 2 ground outputs on the ipac 4? I have all mine connected to one ground on the ipac ... Will not putting any wires in the other ground output cause a issue? Is it needed for something? If so what it is used for? Thanks so much again for your help?

[@delsarcade]

+Marco Antonio Only one is fine. There are two just in case you have extra wiring and can't fit them all in one screw terminal. (Since ground wiring is sometimes multiple wires)

[@delsarcade]

.187 connectors fit Cherry switches perfectly.

[@DJSpecialSauce]

Quick question, if you don't mind? Can you break a daisy chain ground? In other words, can you skip over one or two of them and pick up at a later point with the grounding sequence... or will it cause an issue? Thank you

[@delsarcade]

+Jim Loftus Yes, you can certainly skip over buttons, but it needs to be continuous on the original daisy chain to the grounding source. So if you decide to ground those "skipped buttons" at a later time, you need to connect those new buttons to the ground. you can have multiple daisy chain loops connected to the same ground on the encoder.

[@delsarcade]

+DeLuSioNaL Arcade Alternatively, you can always create the connectors on the daisy chain and not connect them to any buttons. Then at a later time you can simply plug the connectors to the new buttons. But having the microswitches disconnected from the daisy chain will not cause any issues, so long as you do not sever the connection on the daisy chain wire itself. If you cut the daisy chain, obviously it will not carry the signal to the rest of the buttons. Make sense?

[@Oisterboy]

+DeLuSioNaL Arcade what about skipping a connection on the chain? For example I have a few extra terminals on my chain, and one button is too far away from the previous to reach the next. Can I skip a connector and not have an issue?

[@delsarcade]

+Oisterboy, That's perfectly fine. Just make sure the metal connector that's hanging loose doesn't touch anything else. A safe bet would be to wrap the metal connector that is not being used with some electrical tape, just in case.

[@Oisterboy]

+DeLuSioNaL Arcade thanks for the fast reply! I'll link to you in my blog post for the cab I'm building. Party on!

[@chrislopez2552]

Do you use a thicker gauge for this? Or do you use the typical 20-22 gauge?

[@delsarcade]

22 gauge. Same thickness as the rest of the button wiring.

[@delsarcade]

+DeLuSioNaL Arcade to clarify: I use 22 gauge for all wiring now. Cat 5 was a pain because it was so thin. It was a pain to crimp ends onto.

[@delsarcade]

I like it. My buddy runs that one and it's pretty slick. However, it won't run on a Vertical setup... at all. Bummer.

[@lukem23]

what do you think about hyperspin?

[@Billbmcse]

where does the daisy chain terminate?

[@deanfroley3008]

Thank you for this.

[@delsarcade]

@nick12882 Yes, DHL.

[@seriouslyWeird]

so what if you don't ground your arcade?

[@delsarcade]

No ground = No workie

[@seriouslyWeird]

oh sorry then, i must have been confused. i have ordered this whole set with a circuit board where there's a separate socket for everything. i guess the grounding will be taken care of

[@delsarcade]

To clarify. The ipac already has ground on it once you plug it into the PC with the provided plug (USB or PS2). The computer has a power supply which already has ground so it's easy. In order to get each microswitch to work, you need to have it connected to ground on the ipac one one conenctor and an input on the ipac to the other. These two points go from the microswitch to the ipac. Take a look at my other video "Wiring an Arcade Control Panel for Beginners". That will explain it better.

[@deaglecrazy]

ahhh need help, I have led buttons that light up and an ipac4 but have no idea how to light up the buttons :( please help! :D

[@delsarcade]

Thanks!

[@TheNews1990]

help me obi~wan your my ownly hope how do i light buttons like that to an ipac

[@slipperyphish]

cool thanks

[@ehstoney]

does the I-PAC have 4-8 way axe support on the joysticks?

[@gusto247]

ah... door bell wire eh. Thanks for the tip.

[@mpfdetroit]

Better long than wrong. amirite?