Posted by Agent Davis on January 23, 2002 at 14:41:43:
In Reply to: Couple ?'s posted by David C on January 22, 2002 at 22:47:43:
: Thank you Agent Davis for your help. I just have a couple questions because I don't know too much about how inputs/grounds work.
: 1)What would happen if I Just connected the input "up" of the ke72 and the "up" of the dreamcast, the "down", etc.? Would there be a conflict?
Read the other posts here. Basically it sounds like it can be done but I personally don't think it is worth the hassle. Turning a knob on a switchbox is got to be about the easiest thing to do and since you'll probably be going into the cab to change the DC games anyway, turning a switch really isn't going to require any more work. You will have to buy a switchbox, but look online and on ebay and you'll be able to find one for under $15 easily. Plus, if you get one that'll take something like 6 inputs you can always add more systems later one (xbox, gamecube, etc..)
: 2) Where would I connect the grounds? Into one of the inputs or just group them all together?
If you've read the tutorial on hacking gamepads then you'll know that you daisy chain grounds together (If not go read it. Not sure on the link.) On the Male DB25 cables you made they should all have a bare wire that runs with the 24 (maybe 25) other wires. This bare wire is attached to the frame of the cable end. Wire your grounds on each interface to this wire.
: 3) Is there a way to do it for 4 players because if u look at the pic of my cab in the post called "pic of cab" it's got 4 joysticks etc.
DB25 box gives you 25 inputs per player. For DC 4 players you'd need 44 I believe (11 per player). I'm not sure of any switch that can do that. However, an alternative to using a switchbox altogether is to just plug/unplug the various connectors into each other. In this case your control panel needs to be the opposite "sex"
of the interfaces. You could then use Two DB25's for every two players. IE: One and Two player are connected to DB25 #1 Female and Three and Four player are connected to DB25 # 2 Female. Dreamcast Player One and Two interface with DB25 #1 with one Male cable and Three and Four with DB25 #2 with one Male cable. You'd just unplug and plug for each different system. Doing it this way you could have have your panel set up for DC and half for PSX most the time and when you get 3 or 4 people playing you could change it to be all 4 for one system.
OR, you could connect one connector for each player and do the same as above but instead have 4 independent cables to switch around...
You COULD implement switchboxes doing this too but it would require more than one. I.E. Two switchboxes. One for player 1 and 2 and one for player 3 and 4.
: Agent Davis, lemme say again that your reply was extremely helpful. Thank you
: : 1) Get an ABC db25 switchbox with female connectors (standard, male will work to but for ease of this tutorial we'll use female.) Note: Male refers to the cables with the pins coming out and female refers to the end with the holes (yeah, like the birds and the bees).
: : 2) Get 2 Male to Male (shameless *snicker* here) DB25 Cables and cut each in half. You should now have 4 cables with Male ends and 25 wires coming out of each cable. (Note: Your cable may only have 24 pins in which case the 25th is the metal frame of the cable with a bare wire in the group of 25.)
: : 3) Now, wire everything up. Use one db25 cable for each pair of controllers and for the KE72. Make sure you wire everything with the corresponding pin. I.E. If you wire pin 1 to Player 1 UP on the control panel then make sure you wire pin 1 to Player 1 UP on the PSX, DC, and KE72.
: : 4)After wiring is finished just plug into the switchbox and now you have a very simple way to switch between systems.
: : I am currently implementing this method into my cabinet.
: : Any further questions just ask.