Wiring the control panel for 2 players

First, i connect alle ground-pins of all pushbuttons and joysticks. I interconnect all pins of all micro- and leafswitches labeled with 'COM'. The first and last switch gets an additional 8 inches of cable. This wires will later be connected to the ground-terminals of the I-Pac. In fact it would be enough to use only one of the wires, but if one connection in the line would fail all switches coming after the cut would fail too. The ring-like wiring is failsafe.

Unfortunately i only had wires in 3 different colors, more colors would make things easier. I use black for ground, red for player one and blue for player two. The leafswitches and the microswitches on the joysticks only hace two pins, so wiring is easy. The start-buttons have a third pin beside COM (Common ground) and NO (Normally open) labeled NC (Normally closed). I only need NO which closes the electric circuit if the button is pressed (NC would open the electric circuit).

I planned to connect the single wires with the IDE cable via screw joints, but my local electrician told me to solder them and isolate them with shrink hose.

This picture shows the wires for player 1 and the IDE cable soldered and isolated. Soldering was much easier than i initially thought. The shrink hose is easy to slip on the wires and shrunken with a lighter. Good ventilation is important, as vapors of shrink hose and tin-solder are not good for your health.

After connecting all wires, i use cable ties to arrange the wires. This helps to prevent wires from blocking the leafswitches.

The finished wiring of the 2 player control panel. Despite all care i later found out that i had interchanged left and right with the joystick. Fortunately thats easy to change.

Q*bert control panel