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Control Panel - Internal Construction (1 of 2)

     Wiring the control panel took about eight hours to do.  It's all rather simple.  Buttons push down on a cherry micro switch which has three connectors at the bottom (only two are used with the I-Pac).  Joysticks use the exact same cherry micro switches, except they have four per joystick to allow for all of the different directions.  A ground connection is daisy-chained from one micro-switch to the next (eventually ending at the I-Pac), and another wire is run directly from the switch to the I-Pac.

     Think of it as wiring your own home theatre system, with the exception that you have about 50 different speakers, and all of those speakers are really tiny and crammed together very tightly.

     Not using so many buttons will certainly save you time and energy.  I used 8 action buttons, one start button, one coin switch (inside the coin door), and four joystick switches per player (resulting in 56 different switches connected to the I-Pac 4, the maximum it can handle).  8 buttons per player is COMPLETELY overkill.  Most games only use one, two, or three buttons.  Some fighting games use six.  Unless you're planning on using your control panel with other emulators that use eight action buttons, don't bother going over six.  A downside to having so many buttons is that it confuses and scares novice users.

Early Wiring (Missing the Trackball Lights and Some Other Stuff I Added Later):

Panel Hinged Up (Note the Trash Can - I Never Added Anything to the Design that Keeps it Open):

Panel Hinged Up Again:

Organized Chaos:

Opti-Pac and I-Pac 4 Wired Up:

Bottom of TrackBall and TrackBall Light:

     I used a 12V DC powered 4-way LED light for the TrackBall light.  This allowed me to interface it with my PC's 12V DC power supply, keep the trackball from heating up (LED's emit hardly any heat and it's undetectable in this case), and it'll take decades before they burn out.  The other option is to use a small light bulb, but they're hot and they burn out.

     You can see a small opening at the very bottom of the trackball that's blue in color.  The light rests right below that when the panel is closed shut.  Another note about the trackball; wiring it wasn't very hard using the Opti-Pac.  Following the instructions was cake.  There are two green wires that come out of the trackball to use as a ground connection.  These prevent static buildup on the trackball, keeping users from being shocked while using them.  Grounding these are not necessary, but it's recommended.

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