This video is really very informative. I have already built my own arcade wall mount (I have two hugly videos showing it 😅) but with the help of your videos I will build something much more better and beautiful (and bigger 😁). Thank you very much!
Thank you for this excellent how to. I always wanted to go with RGB, but I was terrified about the actual wiring of the I-Pac 2. With the guide I feel confident on converting my panel to full RGB. If all goes well, I might convert my old SlikStic to RGB as well. Again, thank you for the clear guide!✌
Hi, my personal experience with Ultimarc is very good, but I can imagine that the company is sometimes overflown with questions. I hope these tutorials will help out a bit! Thanks, Daniel
Hi, I'm confused about one thing and wanted to ask if you can help me. At 5:00 you're showing two different connector sizes for goldleaf or microswitch buttons. Are these two different harnesses, or does the harness have a mix of two different connectors? I see you can order a harness that has both types from Ultimarc but does that mean it only has the larger one for joysticks and the rest are smaller? Or how does it work? Can I have both goldleaf and microswitch buttons on the same console?
Hi, The goldleaf buttons have smaller pins than the microswitches. If you order a harness at Ultimarc, you can choose which buttons you are going to use. As the Joysticks have normal microswitches the harness I ordered had both sizes. Hope this makes sense :D
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Thanks. :) I figured it out. The answer for those who may be interested, is that the smaller size harness has larger size connectors for the joysticks, player start buttons, and coin switches. Everything else is the smaller connector for goldleaf buttons.
I decided to rewatch this to get ready for my second build. I notice you talk about mapping everything to keys. I ran into trouble doing so using a u360 stick and getting buttons wired to the ultimate io to combine as a controller. Using x360ce saved alot of head aches for me and alowed me to play games from steam with no isues because alot of steam games dont enjoy multiple users using a keyboard. So hopefully that helps someone whos trying to get it to work with everything and not just emulators
Daniel, at 5:41 you can see there are two metal prongs that the connector would fit to. How did you know which one to pick? And what is the other one for?
This is just a normal switch. These two ‘prongs’ let current flow through them when the button is pressed. You need ground and signal, any orientation is fine 👌🏻
I got a question. At 5:42 in the video the remaining unplugged connector, is that where you put the black daisy ground wire? Excellent guide, I'm just a bit confused.😵
Great video. I really the software would highlight the button I pressed instead of me always trying to remember it. Would be great to show if you plug in the cable in the wrong pin
Yes! That is on my wishing list as well. I will talk with Andy if this would be possible. Maybe also find a way of getting X input AND LedBlinky to work on just one board.
Amazing breakdown of the Ultimate IO board - thank you so much - One question if you see this, where do I hook up Player 3 & 4's coin and start buttons? I'm lost! Thanks for all the videos....
Ah yes, you can use ANY free input and map it to the right keypress. See my latest tutorial here for more info about mapping: ruclips.net/video/6TCQ42mlVwc/видео.html
Your videos are really amazing! I've been trying to purchase a custom 4 player PC based arcade from a few guys here in the USA and have been getting the run around from all of them. The only really legit sellers want like $5-$7k and that's just not in my budget. I just started looking into how to build my own and I feel like I'm in over my head. I know nothing about wiring up electronics or what parts to buy. I was considering buying one of those cabinet kits that you put together with the cam lock systems and then buying a PC loaded with Hyperspin or Launchbox from one of those ebay type sellers. Then attempt to wire up the whole thing after I purchase the buttons and joysticks etc. It just seems like a daunting task for a newbie and there doesn't seem to be any good step by step instructional videos out there. I'm telling you....if you were to do like a "How to build an arcade for dummies" type of series here on youtube, you'd have so many subscribers and views. You're really good at explaining things and seem really helpful.
If you haven't done anything yet, I can't speak to building anything but Launchbox itself it really really easy to use. You can look up ETA Prime's videos. His step by step instructions are idiot proof. Probably the hardest emulator is Daphne. Seriously, Launchbox is easy sauce to get running.
Hi Daniel, why do you have two IO Board in your cabinet? And what is the best options to put the spinner and trackball directly to the usb port on the computer or on the IO Board?
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Just wondering..... but I see you have 41 buttons. I was wondering if I'm only going to have say 36 buttons and more than 4 of them are going to be non-led, can I just piggy-back off of a different button. For example, for my "pinball" buttons could I just jump off of a player one button? This is really the only thing I'm a little confused about. Thanks!
I love this cabinet, looks like to has everything I want in my build I'm planning. Do you have plans for the build on this one you can share? Panel layout, what monitor you used, etc.?
Why are are the harness cables so short? I have a two player control panel with trackball and the cables are too short? What do I do? Should I solder extra length in between each wire? I'm a bit annoyed that they just didn't provide crimp tips and extra wiring. I'm also confused about what extension harness to buy if I go that route.
The cables are not too short in my opinion. If you mount the board in the correct place you should be fine. You could try and ask Ultimarc if there are ready to go extension wires available.. Thanks D
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Thanks. That's what Andy told me also. But when I place the harness at the very center (which is my trackball) It barely reaches the right and left ends. I have an 8 button setup. Even if I had a slightly smaller control panel, there could be no wire management when some of the wires barely reach. They do have extensions but I think I'll just solder some extensions.
Your tutorials are very helpful! Do you know a place or Do you by chance have a layout for setting up 2 I-PAC Ultimate I/O. I have a 4 player controller with 6 buttons for players 3-4 and 8 buttons for player 1-2, spinner, trackball, admin buttons etc Such as for players 3-4 the two extra buttons for the bottom press, what part did you connect to on the I-PAC Ultimate I/O. And did you connect to The 2nd board? Thank you again for your awesome videos
Hi, I connected player 3, player 1 and some config buttons to the first Ipac. Player 2 and 4 (plus config buttons) to the second Ipac. Having more than 4 buttons for players 3 and 4 could be a problem I think. I never tried that.. Thanks! Daniel
Great explanation, I have question though. What is the expansion used for? Only using 1 I-PAC io and I am running 4 player (8 buttons for player 1 and 2, and 6 buttons for player 3 and 4) I am wondering if I can use x1 and y1(trackball side) for player 3 buttons 5,6, and white and yellow (Spinner side) for player 4 buttons 5 and 6.
Awesome guide! I'm looking to upgrade to this from the i-pac 4, but I need a total of 45 inputs for the joysticks and buttons. Players 1&2 have 6 buttons, 3&4 have 4 but all have a coin and start button. Can just one ultimate I/O board support this? I don't see any places for players 3/4 "coin" and "start" inputs printed on the board. Thanks!
Correct, you can just choose any of the available ports for players 3 and 4. You normally need to use two Ipacs for a full 4 player setup, but without a trackball and spinner it might just work with one IO board. You can double check by asking Andy from Ultimarc.
Great video, but im trying to figure out where do you plug in the menu buttons, or pinball buttons on your ipac ultimate? Been trying to find that out but to no avail
Hi, Great Video, Thx. What is the black keypad thing above the second joystick? Where did you get it and what is it used for (seemed like front end launcher from the video). Thx
Amazing unit. I have an arcade machine but with the x-arcade controll panel which I want to update and make my own custom 2 player control pad. Can you let me know if you have a 2 player config and if you can also provide a list of parts. I love your setup and want to do the same for mine.
For two players you just need 1 Ipac! super easy. Also, buy a Hyper Arcade Systems drive from Chris that is pre-configured and you are up and running in no time.
Hey Daniel, quick question. Your CP is quite large. Did you put on extensions on the main harness for the buttons? Mine literally hangs because the wires are too short to work with.
I'm setting up a 2 player arcade with trackball and spinner. I'm having trouble with Emulationstation and setting up my player two controls. Originally my Ultimate I/O board was in keyboard mode but then I asked Ultimarc and they mentioned I should possibly have it in mode 2 Dinput... do you have experience using mode 2 or possibly mode 4 Dinput user custom with the I PAC Ultimate I/O and any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong? Love your videos.
Hmm I don’t have experience with Emulationstation + Ipac IO boards. But I did do an Emulationstation build a few years ago with a normal Ipac 4 that did not give any problems. Email me to explain what isn’t working and I will try to help out. Thanks D
Great video. I have a light gun. I am trying to get the uhid to output 5 volts when I push the trigger on the gun. I have a seperate pin allocated to this wire and I can get this pin to output 5 volts, but I can’t get it to link with the trigger. Its says in the u config manual I can do this under “uhid controlled leds” thank you
I'm trying so hard to get my ultimarc lux buttons and two ipac ultimate boards working. The LED's only light up on the first pin set of each side. Any help would be awesome. This has been a pain CP is 4 players spinner and trackball (hence the two boards).
This could be a defective board, wrong power supply, or lots of other stuff. You can make a video (in detail) and send it to me and I will take a look at it or, contact Andy (Ultimarc) for help. Thanks Daniel
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades I sent Andy and Email. I'm using the same connectors that came with the two boards. The molex connectors. the second board when connected has two that will light up at the same time, one from each side. Each button turns on when you plug them in one at a time to the top slot, but only the top slots. We just got hit with a snow storm so waiting until that goes away so I can get the connectors I need to attach the sanwa sticks to the ipac (they are the 5 pin with wires bare at the end) then I'll put it back together and see. Thanks for the fast reply.
Firstly, this video is great! I have a quick question regarding the ground, I have the harness but as you mentioned it only has one ground and because all buttons need to be connected to the same ground, how did you do it?
You will need a daisy chain ground cable (or two) to connect all the buttons together and attach it to the one free ground pin on the Ultimarc board :D
Hi, Newbie here. After doing research and watching your videos I went ahead and purchased the iPac ultimate, the gold leaf buttons and the servostiks. So…. My iPAC ultimate harness ground wire has the gold leaf size connector (small) and the daisy chain ground wire fits all the gold leaf connectors fine…. BUT the ground on the Servostick joystick switches are the larger size connectors. So basically my grounding daisy chain fits the button connectors but not the joystick ground connectors. I have another daisy chain with the larger size connectors but I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t see another ground terminal on the iPac ultimate harness. Am I supposed to bend or maybe solder the small connectors on the daisy chain to fit the joystick ground connectors? I can’t find anything online about this issue. I have hit a wall and absolutely ANY advice would be VERY much appreciated.
Hi, I might make a video on that matter. For now: there are several sized crimp connectors. Goldleaf buttons use the small ones (2,8mm) , but joysticks generally use the medium ones (4,8mm). Sometimes your connectors don’t match. In that case you will need to cut the wires and solder them together indeed. Normally, if you order an Ipac at Ultimarc, you can choose the harness with the appropriate crimp connector dimensions. Most of the time no soldering needed.
Thanks. Yes I bought a crimp connector and added the right size connector to the daisy chain and all is well. Thanks for the reply and for creating such great and useful content. Much appreciated! 👍🏽👍🏽
Can it be configured to works in raspberry and works like an arcade controller separately? Example: I want to connect only player 1 on computer and play it without the raspberry operating. Im asking that because thar ultimarc io only have one usb exit, but can we choose what player to use?
I see what you want. You have a Raspberry Pi inside the control panel but would also connect it to a pc without switching usb cables? I did that in this build: ruclips.net/video/0ax99FeprEk/видео.html let me know if this is what you need? Thanks D
Could I get a little assistance. This video was very helpful. I was able to get the two IO boards, buttons, joysticks, spinner and trackball set up and they work. The issue is when I go to configure buttons on retropie it will only let me Map the controls for one player because it recognizes all the buttons as keyboard and not game pad. Is there a fix for this?
Well, you could set the IO boards to X-Input mode but then the RGB function does not work anymore. 🤔 I thought that Retropie had no problems with keyboard inputs?
have a pacled64 but dont know how to do the wiring. I checked your channel but didnt find a guide. Would you recommend the pac64led or something different if I wanted to add rgb led on my xtension arcade?
LedBlinky will find two different boards in their software if you flash the firmware to ID1 and ID2. For WinIpac, I just pull the USB cable out of the one I don't need during setup.
Thank you Thank you very much now I know what this shift key is for, I only have 32 buttons and this solution will be useful: P I have a question: Do you know how you can configure the ipac so that when you start a given game, the wheels recognize the wheels, switch between the keyboard and the pad (as you know, most new games for Pc like Mk9,11 etc only work on the pad, you cannot change the buttons on 2 players) great that Ipac is in multi mode but can you make a script etc to do it automatically ?
Hmm good question. I know that you can change the Ultimarc IO mode to via command line. I can imagine that we could run an AHK script with the start of each specific game. I don't have time to do this in my spare time but I think I can make the script. Contact me by email to further discuss. Thanks, Daniel
Can you set up this IPac as Xinput 1. and still use led blinky ? 2. Can I move the button layout in xinput for example I usually run LB=low punch X= medium punch A= fierce punch 3. If in xinput mode will the IPac always be player 1/2 ? Or if I turn on a separate Xbox controller can it turn into player 1 as well?
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades or you are saying a seperate led controller is needed to pull off led functions if I want to use xinput capabilities? You can’t reassign the button layout in xinput at all? I’m just trying not to buy the wrong stuff for my build. Thanks in advance for the clarification
Hi, yes the trick is to give them a unique ID. You need to flash the firmware for that. On the Ultimarc website you can download the firmware you need. After this the pc will recognize two different boards. Thanks, Daniel
Out of curiosity, what is the benefit of going this route as opposed to the gamepad setups available on Amazon? The plug and play feature is attractive to me, but if it robs me of something I'd rather go a better route.
I heard that Gamepad setups have problems with ID's in Windows. These Ipac boards are super easy to configure, fast and come with lots of features. I really like them.
Could you please make a video how to program a 2nd board. I am having a hard time with getting my PC to recognize it and where to plug in my player 3 and 4. Or should I plug in players 1 and 3 on one board and player 2 and 4 on the other. Please help. Thanks!
Having issues installing Ultimate IO here. Tried on 2 different CPUs with Win10 and Win11 and both give a msg "driver error" on Device panel. In Control Panel says " problem with Pnp devices". Removed all harnesses, driver, tried reinstall the driver, DX driver, .NET but no lucky.
You can contact Andy from Ultimarc for this. He is a great guy and is always willing to help! Let me know when the issue is solved or if you still get stuck somewhere. Kind regards, Daniel
Nice nice work! I don't like the preset mode 5 on all the IPAC: if you store keys on mode 1 and then switch to mode 5 for storing a new configuration in Xinput mode for gamepad, if you return to mode 1 manually with shift + sw1 for 10 sec, it doesn't maintain configuration stored on mode 1, but, the last stored on mode 5. mode 5 is not a real preset
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcadesalready talked with Andy. He confirmed what i said. Mode 5 is not a real preset. The board only stores ONE manual preset. Only way is switching user presets via command line. It works, nice for switch from mode 1 (keyb) to mode 5 (xinput user) BUT, the switch from mode 5 to mode 1 via command line TAKES..FROM 15 TO 18 SEC !!!!!! with frontend...is unaccettable!! Was better to do this manually pressing shift and sw1 or sw5 for 10 sec but...there is only ONE REAL PRESET: no solution
Hi Daniel, great video. I had a question about your button configuration. How did you get your default colors to stay those specific colors? I was also trying to mimic an xbox controller layout but I cant get the colors to stay or show active. I also have the led blinky software installed for the front end animations so my buttons always just cycle regardless of what I have running.
Hi, I have a 'default' setting in my LedBlinky Control Config program that keeps the buttons the way I want them thru all the MAIN WHEELS. When entering a wheel then I have custom configs for all games or defaults for each emulator. Send me an email if you have anymore questions and I will try to help you :-)
Hi, that is of course personal preference (every joystick is compatible!) but I really like the Ultimarc Servosticks. The Magstik also seems to be a great joystick but I don't have much experience with these myself. Thanks, Daniël
Hi, Modes can be switched by pressing Start1 (or user-set alternate I-PAC shift) and holding this, and Player 1 button 1 through 5, for 10 seconds. If this does not work: do you have recent firmware? Thanks, Daniel
@TheDanielSpies_Arcades yep got led blinky to work. But with mamehooker you can get the buttons to react to damage, indicate lives left, clubs etc. ipac2 and pacled64 non issues but this board, it won't work :(
You convince me to get this board for my arcade project I appreciate the tutorial. Also have to ask the screen for your Marquee where did you pick that up and what model is it? Thank you for the tutorial
So far they haven't produced the Ultimate PCB as we want The Ultimate PCB for me is the one with 6 players, three trackballs and two spinners, because there are games like X-Man and Ninja Turtle Shredder's Revenge that can have 6 players, and there are also games like Sega Sonic where three players play with a three trackballs. I want to make a big arcade Machine, but so far I can't find a board with these features unless I buy it separately, like AIPAC 2 x3.
Hi thank you for the tutorial. I also ordered 2 ultimate io and have the goldleaf buttons. But one thing i did not pay attention to when i ordered is the power cable for the leds. I thought it was just all powered by the usb cable. I have a gaming pc i bought and theres no way to plug in the led adaptor. How would i power this another way? Thank you
You say MAME works better with keyboard inputs instead of gamepad. I'm using gamepad because I need to also play PC games like SFV and MK11. I tried mode switching but it was unreliable. I haven't noticed any issue with gamepad inputs.
When i get my 2 boards I'm also planning to make them act as x-input controllers (4 "controllers" in total) so that i can play Arcade-friendly games on Windows.
You might be interested in the last part of this video: ruclips.net/video/m94Q-k9ITb0/видео.html I am setting up UCR. This works reliable and is easy to setup!
This video is really very informative. I have already built my own arcade wall mount (I have two hugly videos showing it 😅) but with the help of your videos I will build something much more better and beautiful (and bigger 😁). Thank you very much!
Thank you!!!
Thank you for this excellent how to. I always wanted to go with RGB, but I was terrified about the actual wiring of the I-Pac 2. With the guide I feel confident on converting my panel to full RGB. If all goes well, I might convert my old SlikStic to RGB as well. Again, thank you for the clear guide!✌
Just bought one! And, wow what a machine that is you've got there!!
Thanks for making these videos, ordering from ultimarc is a 2/5 experience.
Hi, my personal experience with Ultimarc is very good, but I can imagine that the company is sometimes overflown with questions. I hope these tutorials will help out a bit! Thanks, Daniel
Your arcade cabinet is amazing. I am building my own and your design is making me rethink mine lol. Cup holders are genius level mouhahahah
Hi, I'm confused about one thing and wanted to ask if you can help me. At 5:00 you're showing two different connector sizes for goldleaf or microswitch buttons. Are these two different harnesses, or does the harness have a mix of two different connectors? I see you can order a harness that has both types from Ultimarc but does that mean it only has the larger one for joysticks and the rest are smaller? Or how does it work? Can I have both goldleaf and microswitch buttons on the same console?
Hi, The goldleaf buttons have smaller pins than the microswitches. If you order a harness at Ultimarc, you can choose which buttons you are going to use. As the Joysticks have normal microswitches the harness I ordered had both sizes. Hope this makes sense :D
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Thanks. :) I figured it out. The answer for those who may be interested, is that the smaller size harness has larger size connectors for the joysticks, player start buttons, and coin switches. Everything else is the smaller connector for goldleaf buttons.
I decided to rewatch this to get ready for my second build. I notice you talk about mapping everything to keys. I ran into trouble doing so using a u360 stick and getting buttons wired to the ultimate io to combine as a controller. Using x360ce saved alot of head aches for me and alowed me to play games from steam with no isues because alot of steam games dont enjoy multiple users using a keyboard. So hopefully that helps someone whos trying to get it to work with everything and not just emulators
Daniel, at 5:41 you can see there are two metal prongs that the connector would fit to.
How did you know which one to pick? And what is the other one for?
This is just a normal switch. These two ‘prongs’ let current flow through them when the button is pressed. You need ground and signal, any orientation is fine 👌🏻
I got a question. At 5:42 in the video the remaining unplugged connector, is that where you put the black daisy ground wire? Excellent guide, I'm just a bit confused.😵
Yes correct :-)
Great video. I really the software would highlight the button I pressed instead of me always trying to remember it. Would be great to show if you plug in the cable in the wrong pin
Yes! That is on my wishing list as well. I will talk with Andy if this would be possible. Maybe also find a way of getting X input AND LedBlinky to work on just one board.
Amazing breakdown of the Ultimate IO board - thank you so much - One question if you see this, where do I hook up Player 3 & 4's coin and start buttons? I'm lost! Thanks for all the videos....
Ah yes, you can use ANY free input and map it to the right keypress. See my latest tutorial here for more info about mapping: ruclips.net/video/6TCQ42mlVwc/видео.html
Your videos are really amazing!
I've been trying to purchase a custom 4 player PC based arcade from a few guys here in the USA and have been getting the run around from all of them. The only really legit sellers want like $5-$7k and that's just not in my budget.
I just started looking into how to build my own and I feel like I'm in over my head. I know nothing about wiring up electronics or what parts to buy. I was considering buying one of those cabinet kits that you put together with the cam lock systems and then buying a PC loaded with Hyperspin or Launchbox from one of those ebay type sellers. Then attempt to wire up the whole thing after I purchase the buttons and joysticks etc. It just seems like a daunting task for a newbie and there doesn't seem to be any good step by step instructional videos out there. I'm telling you....if you were to do like a "How to build an arcade for dummies" type of series here on youtube, you'd have so many subscribers and views. You're really good at explaining things and seem really helpful.
Great idea. Thsnks!
i can do it for 4k
If you haven't done anything yet, I can't speak to building anything but Launchbox itself it really really easy to use. You can look up ETA Prime's videos. His step by step instructions are idiot proof. Probably the hardest emulator is Daphne. Seriously, Launchbox is easy sauce to get running.
Thank You. This thing is both expensive & overwhelming.
Hi Daniel, why do you have two IO Board in your cabinet? And what is the best options to put the spinner and trackball directly to the usb port on the computer or on the IO Board?
Hi Morten, The reason is simple: each board has 96 LED outputs = 32 full RGB buttons. I have 41 buttons so I needed to have a second board :-)
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Just wondering..... but I see you have 41 buttons. I was wondering if I'm only going to have say 36 buttons and more than 4 of them are going to be non-led, can I just piggy-back off of a different button. For example, for my "pinball" buttons could I just jump off of a player one button? This is really the only thing I'm a little confused about. Thanks!
I love this cabinet, looks like to has everything I want in my build I'm planning. Do you have plans for the build on this one you can share? Panel layout, what monitor you used, etc.?
Yes, I offer design sets for any of my builds. You can get in touch by email for this: thedanielspies at gmail.com (nice name btw !!)
Like the other tutorials you help explained a'lot for me thanks. I have a I-pac 4 but I will get this one for another project.
Nice! Have fun building 🕹
Why are are the harness cables so short? I have a two player control panel with trackball and the cables are too short? What do I do? Should I solder extra length in between each wire? I'm a bit annoyed that they just didn't provide crimp tips and extra wiring. I'm also confused about what extension harness to buy if I go that route.
The cables are not too short in my opinion. If you mount the board in the correct place you should be fine. You could try and ask Ultimarc if there are ready to go extension wires available.. Thanks D
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Thanks. That's what Andy told me also. But when I place the harness at the very center (which is my trackball) It barely reaches the right and left ends. I have an 8 button setup.
Even if I had a slightly smaller control panel, there could be no wire management when some of the wires barely reach.
They do have extensions but I think I'll just solder some extensions.
Your tutorials are very helpful! Do you know a place or Do you by chance have a layout for setting up 2 I-PAC Ultimate I/O. I have a 4 player controller with 6 buttons for players 3-4 and 8 buttons for player 1-2, spinner, trackball, admin buttons etc Such as for players 3-4 the two extra buttons for the bottom press, what part did you connect to on the I-PAC Ultimate I/O. And did you connect to The 2nd board? Thank you again for your awesome videos
Hi, I connected player 3, player 1 and some config buttons to the first Ipac. Player 2 and 4 (plus config buttons) to the second Ipac. Having more than 4 buttons for players 3 and 4 could be a problem I think. I never tried that.. Thanks! Daniel
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Awesome. Thank you for the help.
Great explanation, I have question though. What is the expansion used for? Only using 1 I-PAC io and I am running 4 player (8 buttons for player 1 and 2, and 6 buttons for player 3 and 4) I am wondering if I can use x1 and y1(trackball side) for player 3 buttons 5,6, and white and yellow (Spinner side) for player 4 buttons 5 and 6.
I don’t think that will work 🤔 to be sure you should ask Andy from Ultimarc
Thank you for the tutorial, can you connect three joysticks and a trackball or do you need a second controller?
Hi, yes that can be done. But then leave out your spinner :-)
Awesome guide! I'm looking to upgrade to this from the i-pac 4, but I need a total of 45 inputs for the joysticks and buttons. Players 1&2 have 6 buttons, 3&4 have 4 but all have a coin and start button. Can just one ultimate I/O board support this? I don't see any places for players 3/4 "coin" and "start" inputs printed on the board. Thanks!
Correct, you can just choose any of the available ports for players 3 and 4. You normally need to use two Ipacs for a full 4 player setup, but without a trackball and spinner it might just work with one IO board. You can double check by asking Andy from Ultimarc.
Nice video - what about RGB configuration? I just want to be able to program the RGB only, I have a Xbox controller board for connecting the buttons.
Sure you can do that 👍🏼
Great video, but im trying to figure out where do you plug in the menu buttons, or pinball buttons on your ipac ultimate? Been trying to find that out but to no avail
You can plug them anywhere and map them inside WinIpac. I always see which ports are still available and connect them to these :-)
Hi, Great Video, Thx. What is the black keypad thing above the second joystick? Where did you get it and what is it used for (seemed like front end launcher from the video). Thx
Ah that is the Elgato Stream Deck. You can use that to make shortcuts for almost anything :-)
Amazing unit. I have an arcade machine but with the x-arcade controll panel which I want to update and make my own custom 2 player control pad. Can you let me know if you have a 2 player config and if you can also provide a list of parts. I love your setup and want to do the same for mine.
For two players you just need 1 Ipac! super easy. Also, buy a Hyper Arcade Systems drive from Chris that is pre-configured and you are up and running in no time.
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Thank younfor your reply and for the info. Again, amazing work you do. Really inspired.
Hey Daniel, quick question.
Your CP is quite large. Did you put on extensions on the main harness for the buttons? Mine literally hangs because the wires are too short to work with.
Now a days I mount the ipacs closer to the buttons to do as little soldering as needed. But… i still make many custom extention wires nonetheless 😅
I'm setting up a 2 player arcade with trackball and spinner. I'm having trouble with Emulationstation and setting up my player two controls. Originally my Ultimate I/O board was in keyboard mode but then I asked Ultimarc and they mentioned I should possibly have it in mode 2 Dinput... do you have experience using mode 2 or possibly mode 4 Dinput user custom with the I PAC Ultimate I/O and any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong? Love your videos.
Hmm I don’t have experience with Emulationstation + Ipac IO boards. But I did do an Emulationstation build a few years ago with a normal Ipac 4 that did not give any problems.
Email me to explain what isn’t working and I will try to help out. Thanks D
Great video. I have a light gun. I am trying to get the uhid to output 5 volts when I push the trigger on the gun. I have a seperate pin allocated to this wire and I can get this pin to output 5 volts, but I can’t get it to link with the trigger. Its says in the u config manual I can do this under “uhid controlled leds” thank you
Hi, I am not exactly sure what it is you are trying to do, but you can always email me and I can see if I can help! thedanielspies at gmail.com
I'm trying so hard to get my ultimarc lux buttons and two ipac ultimate boards working. The LED's only light up on the first pin set of each side. Any help would be awesome. This has been a pain CP is 4 players spinner and trackball (hence the two boards).
This could be a defective board, wrong power supply, or lots of other stuff. You can make a video (in detail) and send it to me and I will take a look at it or, contact Andy (Ultimarc) for help. Thanks Daniel
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades I sent Andy and Email. I'm using the same connectors that came with the two boards. The molex connectors. the second board when connected has two that will light up at the same time, one from each side.
Each button turns on when you plug them in one at a time to the top slot, but only the top slots.
We just got hit with a snow storm so waiting until that goes away so I can get the connectors I need to attach the sanwa sticks to the ipac (they are the 5 pin with wires bare at the end) then I'll put it back together and see.
Thanks for the fast reply.
Man, you are a legend! Subbed!
Haha, I am not - but thanks!!
Can the LEDs be programmed as latching for momentary press buttons ?
Hi Kevin, hmm I need to think about a way... Do you have a specific scenario in mind?
Firstly, this video is great! I have a quick question regarding the ground, I have the harness but as you mentioned it only has one ground and because all buttons need to be connected to the same ground, how did you do it?
You will need a daisy chain ground cable (or two) to connect all the buttons together and attach it to the one free ground pin on the Ultimarc board :D
Hi, Newbie here. After doing research and watching your videos I went ahead and purchased the iPac ultimate, the gold leaf buttons and the servostiks.
So….
My iPAC ultimate harness ground wire has the gold leaf size connector (small) and the daisy chain ground wire fits all the gold leaf connectors fine…. BUT the ground on the Servostick joystick switches are the larger size connectors. So basically my grounding daisy chain fits the button connectors but not the joystick ground connectors.
I have another daisy chain with the larger size connectors but I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t see another ground terminal on the iPac ultimate harness.
Am I supposed to bend or maybe solder the small connectors on the daisy chain to fit the joystick ground connectors?
I can’t find anything online about this issue. I have hit a wall and absolutely ANY advice would be VERY much appreciated.
Hi, I might make a video on that matter. For now: there are several sized crimp connectors. Goldleaf buttons use the small ones (2,8mm) , but joysticks generally use the medium ones (4,8mm). Sometimes your connectors don’t match. In that case you will need to cut the wires and solder them together indeed. Normally, if you order an Ipac at Ultimarc, you can choose the harness with the appropriate crimp connector dimensions. Most of the time no soldering needed.
Thanks. Yes I bought a crimp connector and added the right size connector to the daisy chain and all is well. Thanks for the reply and for creating such great and useful content. Much appreciated! 👍🏽👍🏽
Is there an ipac option for 8 button setups for players 1 and 2 and 6 buttons for players 3 and 4?
Yes this is not a problem
Can it be configured to works in raspberry and works like an arcade controller separately? Example: I want to connect only player 1 on computer and play it without the raspberry operating. Im asking that because thar ultimarc io only have one usb exit, but can we choose what player to use?
I see what you want. You have a Raspberry Pi inside the control panel but would also connect it to a pc without switching usb cables? I did that in this build: ruclips.net/video/0ax99FeprEk/видео.html let me know if this is what you need? Thanks D
Thank you again!
Could I get a little assistance. This video was very helpful. I was able to get the two IO boards, buttons, joysticks, spinner and trackball set up and they work. The issue is when I go to configure buttons on retropie it will only let me Map the controls for one player because it recognizes all the buttons as keyboard and not game pad. Is there a fix for this?
Well, you could set the IO boards to X-Input mode but then the RGB function does not work anymore. 🤔 I thought that Retropie had no problems with keyboard inputs?
have a pacled64 but dont know how to do the wiring. I checked your channel but didnt find a guide. Would you recommend the pac64led or something different if I wanted to add rgb led on my xtension arcade?
You can email me if you get stuck somewhere: thedanielspies at gmail. Com
Great video, what PC do you use or recommend.
I would go for the best gaming pc you can afford, depending on the type of games you would like to play...
How do you jump between boards in the software when you have two boards?
LedBlinky will find two different boards in their software if you flash the firmware to ID1 and ID2. For WinIpac, I just pull the USB cable out of the one I don't need during setup.
Thank you Thank you very much now I know what this shift key is for, I only have 32 buttons and this solution will be useful: P
I have a question:
Do you know how you can configure the ipac so that when you start a given game, the wheels recognize the wheels, switch between the keyboard and the pad (as you know, most new games for Pc like Mk9,11 etc only work on the pad, you cannot change the buttons on 2 players) great that Ipac is in multi mode but can you make a script etc to do it automatically ?
Hmm good question. I know that you can change the Ultimarc IO mode to via command line. I can imagine that we could run an AHK script with the start of each specific game.
I don't have time to do this in my spare time but I think I can make the script. Contact me by email to further discuss. Thanks, Daniel
On the I/O Board, where would the pinball buttons go?
Ah, you can choose any of the available inputs and then map them to the corresponding keys in WinIpac. Thanks, Daniel
Can you set up this IPac as Xinput
1. and still use led blinky ?
2. Can I move the button layout in xinput for example I usually run
LB=low punch
X= medium punch
A= fierce punch
3. If in xinput mode will the IPac always be player 1/2 ? Or if I turn on a separate Xbox controller can it turn into player 1 as well?
No, when using XInput, the RGB functions are disabled. second question, no. :-)
You can use a PACLED board for RGB of course.
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades I thought the ultimate has RGB functions ? A pac led would be used if I had a pac mini or something with none rgb right?
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades or you are saying a seperate led controller is needed to pull off led functions if I want to use xinput capabilities? You can’t reassign the button layout in xinput at all? I’m just trying not to buy the wrong stuff for my build. Thanks in advance for the clarification
Hi how do you get 2 ultimate io boards working at the same time? I only seem to beable to do it one at a time
Hi, yes the trick is to give them a unique ID. You need to flash the firmware for that. On the Ultimarc website you can download the firmware you need. After this the pc will recognize two different boards. Thanks, Daniel
Thank you so much!
Out of curiosity, what is the benefit of going this route as opposed to the gamepad setups available on Amazon? The plug and play feature is attractive to me, but if it robs me of something I'd rather go a better route.
I heard that Gamepad setups have problems with ID's in Windows. These Ipac boards are super easy to configure, fast and come with lots of features. I really like them.
Thanks for this video. Love the cabinet. My question is - does this only work with windows or can I also use a Pi 4 ? Many thanks in advance
Yes it works with Raspberry Pi4 as well :-)
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades Very cool, thank you very much
Could you please make a video how to program a 2nd board. I am having a hard time with getting my PC to recognize it and where to plug in my player 3 and 4. Or should I plug in players 1 and 3 on one board and player 2 and 4 on the other. Please help. Thanks!
Email sent 👍🏽
Could i also get an email? Thanks much!
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades i too am in the same boat and would appreciate some info on this :) Thanks
Having issues installing Ultimate IO here. Tried on 2 different CPUs with Win10 and Win11 and both give a msg "driver error" on Device panel. In Control Panel says " problem with Pnp devices". Removed all harnesses, driver, tried reinstall the driver, DX driver, .NET but no lucky.
You can contact Andy from Ultimarc for this. He is a great guy and is always willing to help! Let me know when the issue is solved or if you still get stuck somewhere. Kind regards, Daniel
Nice nice work! I don't like the preset mode 5 on all the IPAC: if you store keys on mode 1 and then switch to mode 5 for storing a new configuration in Xinput mode for gamepad, if you return to mode 1 manually with shift + sw1 for 10 sec, it doesn't maintain configuration stored on mode 1, but, the last stored on mode 5. mode 5 is not a real preset
Thanks! You can maybe send Andy (Ultimarc) an email about this? He might be able to help?
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcadesalready talked with Andy. He confirmed what i said. Mode 5 is not a real preset. The board only stores ONE manual preset. Only way is switching user presets via command line. It works, nice for switch from mode 1 (keyb) to mode 5 (xinput user) BUT, the switch from mode 5 to mode 1 via command line TAKES..FROM 15 TO 18 SEC !!!!!! with frontend...is unaccettable!! Was better to do this manually pressing shift and sw1 or sw5 for 10 sec but...there is only ONE REAL PRESET: no solution
Hi Daniel, great video. I had a question about your button configuration. How did you get your default colors to stay those specific colors? I was also trying to mimic an xbox controller layout but I cant get the colors to stay or show active. I also have the led blinky software installed for the front end animations so my buttons always just cycle regardless of what I have running.
Hi, I have a 'default' setting in my LedBlinky Control Config program that keeps the buttons the way I want them thru all the MAIN WHEELS. When entering a wheel then I have custom configs for all games or defaults for each emulator. Send me an email if you have anymore questions and I will try to help you :-)
Is there any way to make two buttons mouse buttons and still shift them for keyboard inputs?
That would be a good feature to add to the software indeed. At this moment it is not possible.
@@TheDanielSpies_Arcades thanks for the answer! Keep up the great videos!
what is the best joystick to use for fighting games that will work with this board?
Hi, that is of course personal preference (every joystick is compatible!) but I really like the Ultimarc Servosticks. The Magstik also seems to be a great joystick but I don't have much experience with these myself. Thanks, Daniël
Does this work for retropie or does it have to be run from a pc?
Yes, Retropie will also work with the IO board. I am not sure how well LedBlinky software runs though 🤔 need to try this out some day. Thanks Daniël
My ultimate i/o has game mode greyed out. Why might this be? Tried it on retro pie and windows.
Hi, Modes can be switched by pressing Start1 (or user-set alternate I-PAC shift) and holding this, and Player 1 button 1 through 5, for 10 seconds.
If this does not work: do you have recent firmware? Thanks, Daniel
How do you get mamehooker to fire the rgb buttons?
Not Mamehooker, Ledblinky! It is super easy :-)
@TheDanielSpies_Arcades yep got led blinky to work. But with mamehooker you can get the buttons to react to damage, indicate lives left, clubs etc. ipac2 and pacled64 non issues but this board, it won't work :(
Hello everyone I am a bit lost I need help with finding a power connector for led power I can not find one so any help would be greatful.
Hi, Send me an email with exactly what you want to do and I will help out :-) Email address is mentioned in many of my video's
Does this software also work with the pacled64?
LedBlinky works with Pacled. WinIpac is only for Ipacs as Pacled does not have player inputs
You convince me to get this board for my arcade project I appreciate the tutorial. Also have to ask the screen for your Marquee where did you pick that up and what model is it? Thank you for the tutorial
Hi, the screen is made by IIyama, 28 ultra wide streched 1080p. Not cheap but really good 📺 thanks, D
So far they haven't produced the Ultimate PCB as we want
The Ultimate PCB for me is the one with 6 players, three trackballs and two spinners, because there are games like X-Man and Ninja Turtle Shredder's Revenge that can have 6 players, and there are also games like Sega Sonic where three players play with a three trackballs.
I want to make a big arcade Machine, but so far I can't find a board with these features unless I buy it separately, like AIPAC 2 x3.
Hi thank you for the tutorial. I also ordered 2 ultimate io and have the goldleaf buttons. But one thing i did not pay attention to when i ordered is the power cable for the leds. I thought it was just all powered by the usb cable. I have a gaming pc i bought and theres no way to plug in the led adaptor. How would i power this another way? Thank you
I found out you can buy power cables that plug into the wall for the adaptors for the rgbs incase anyone is also lost
You say MAME works better with keyboard inputs instead of gamepad. I'm using gamepad because I need to also play PC games like SFV and MK11. I tried mode switching but it was unreliable. I haven't noticed any issue with gamepad inputs.
When i get my 2 boards I'm also planning to make them act as x-input controllers (4 "controllers" in total) so that i can play Arcade-friendly games on Windows.
You might be interested in the last part of this video: ruclips.net/video/m94Q-k9ITb0/видео.html I am setting up UCR. This works reliable and is easy to setup!