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four zero delay encoders for four player cabinet


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Hi Everyone, I'm hoping to benefit from our group knowledge.

 

I was wondering if anyone has had experience using FOUR of those cheap-as zero-delay joystick encoders in the one computer? Any problems with getting them all recognised at once?

 

I've got an old single player LAI lowboy cabinet (with an AT keyboard iPac and a 486 PC - yes, it's old!) and I recently picked up a lowboy 4-player control panel 2nd hand which should fit on the cabinet ok.

You can get the encoders on ebay for about $9ea with all the wiring and spades connected etc which is a whole lot cheaper than an ipac2.. and simpler to connect too (except my old PC pre-dates USB - but thats ok I've got a newer one to use).

 

Anyway, I'll probably need to replace a whole bunch of buttons and microswitches but I wanted to keep the cost down. I've found lots of comments about using two of them but none about four of them.

 

Thanks Guys!

 

Dan

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Unlikely you'll need 4. IIRC the zero delays come with a 5 pin connector for sanwa/seimetsu joysticks. If you're using any brand that can use that type of connector then you'll have more than enough for 2 players per zd. Assuming 3 buttons x 4 players, you should be able to get away with 2 zds.
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Weeeell, i have lots of ZD encoders, and one of my machines has two ZD's, a Vjoy virtual wheel with a real wheel mapped to it for a total of four HID game controllers, which might be close enough for government work.

 

Problems will arise when the device numbers change. If nothing ever changes with your system, then the device numbers should never change. Windows does not seem to have trouble telling which ZD encoder is which (at least with two of them it doesn’t, but I don’t see why this would change with four).

 

If you update hardware, windows, or possibly some software, or if you plug in any USB devices (esp. game controllers) or if you swap usb plugs around, the device numbers can change, and your control assignments with them. This goes for any USB controllers, of course. Fixes for this are swapping ports around again, or using software like devreorder. I’ve never had to use devreorder, but from reading the docs it might not function with devices with identical names.

 

The ZD encoders do lag a little bit, tests have shown, so an Ipac or similar keyboard-based encoder might be nicer and simpler all round.

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Ahh, so ZD encoders have a bit of a delay.. (hint is in the name, right?)

I get your point about reordering of devices. That was the essence of my question really if I have 4 identical ZD joystick controllers plugged into the same usb ports on the back of the PC - whether windows will enumerate them properly and whether they will interact with each other in amusing and unpredictable ways.

In looking through all my old stuff I found another old (ps/2) ipac2 so that should just about do it. As Each joystick on the panel only has 3 buttons, plus 4 starts, 1 coin, etc will just fit.

 

my goal with getting this 4 player panel is 4-player gauntlet or simpsons, I think they are both 2 button games anyway.

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The ZD encoders may be cheaper, but I wouldn't agree that they are necessarily better OR easier than using an I-PAC. The advantage of getting all the wiring included with the VD encoder is eroded somewhat by the fact that all the wires are of the same length, so you end up with a bit of slack on a connection that only needs a sort run, but worse is if the wire isn't long enough.

 

So the I-PAC2 is more costly and you need to purchase wiring to go with it, however the encoder is fully programmable and doing your own wiring will result in a MUCH neater installation that should be more forgiving to alter should you need to.

 

Cheap is only ever good to a certain point......

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doing your own wiring will result in a MUCH neater installation that should be more forgiving to alter should you need to.

 

Nothing stopping you doing your own wiring with the ZD's, but for a cab i'd go the iPac for preference. Noticeably more expensive but less lag and using a (optionally programmable) keyboard encoder means you don't get into trouble with device numbering as described above.

 

The ZD does simulate an analog joystick/hat if needed. It's not actually analog, just on off, but window's thinks it is. Most of the time any problems can be solved with joytokey, but using a an Ipac would circumvent that anyway.

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