The I-PAC and Joystick arrived this week, so I was able to start testing the correct way to get everything working the way I wanted.
I’ve hooked up the joystick to IPAC and started working on it. 2D control (UPDOWN and LEFTRIGHT translations) have been tested. I’ve also tested the keypad. Unfortunately the IPAC has some limitations I was not aware of.
- It only supports one keystroke per PB.
- it support key combinations only via a “Macro” command (only 4 macro commands are available)
- when a PB (PushButton) assigned to a macro is presses the macro is issued only ONCE.
After consulting with Andy from ultimarc (creator of the IPAC) We have come to a conclusion that the correct way of doing multiple key strokes will be to program a Macro that will be triggered along with a keystroke . that means that each PB will be connected to both a unique keystroke and a “common macro”. this generates another problem, because all the PBs will share a common ground and the “common macro” once one of the PBs will be pressed they will ALL trigger. Again, Andy has given me all the answers I needed, and the circuitry would include 1N4148 diodes connected on each of the “common macro” “legs” to prevent this from happening.
I have also made a test drilling of the Keypad panel, This was done in order to evaluate the accuracy of my “blueprint” and to make sure I know what are the correct drill sizes I need.