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Note: This will only work if you are using an I-PAC or another encoder that has a common "ground" for all buttons and switches on your panel. If you are using a matrix or keyboard/joystick hack this will not work.

I only showed the picture of the I-PAC to make it easier to understand. The terminals are marked right on the circuit board to let you know what inputs are for which buttons on your panel. The wires I showed coming out of the relays going to the encoder may not be shown going into the correct terminal, except the common "ground" ternimal, that one I remembered. Some of the new I-PACS are different than mine.

A relay is a very simple switching device, there is a common input that switches that input from one terminal to the other when  DC voltage is applied to the "trip" terminals. The relays I used switch four wires at a time instead of just one. You can get them at Radio Shack for about 5 bucks each.

There are four relays shown here, you may only need three. Just count four terminals for up, down, left, and right joystick. And then how many fire buttons you have. One joystick and six fire buttons is only ten switches, so three relays will do the trick. I used four in case I want to add more fire buttons later so I pre-wired them for future use.

Player 1's joysick and button switches do not need to go through the relays like Player 2's. Just wire them up the the Player 1 inputs on the encoder.

I only showed one of the switches hooked up, you will need to run every switch for the joysticks and all the button switches too. You just repeat the process for each switch on your panel.

Basically what happens here is when the relays are inactive, Player 2's controls are mapped to the Player 1 inputs ont the I-PAC encoder. When the relays are active, Player 2's controls get mapped to the Player 2 inputs on the encoder.

The yellow highlighted terminals are where all of the wires out of the Player 2 buttons and joystick microswitches go. Be sure to write down the order in whch you put them on. If you use different color wires it makes it a lot easier. I used Player 2 joystick up swich as an example.

The orange highlighted terminals go to the Player 2 inputs on the encoder

The red highlighted terminals get tied into the Player 1 inputs on the encoder. The I-PAC has pretty wide inputs and should accomodate two 18g wires twisted together easily.

I soldered my wires onto the relays to ensure they wont slip off, then I tugged in each one pretty good to check for a cold or weak solder connection. Be careful, those terminal are pretty close together on the relays and any loose strands touching another terminal will cause it not to work properly.

Before I soldered them on I made sure to "tinsel" each wire and terminal first so that way you just had to touch them together and hit it with the iron to melt the two together, this also made it go really fast.

I hope this explained a little bit better how I made the Player 1 and 2 controls work the same or seperately depending on whether the relays are active or inactive. If you never worked with relays before I would suggest you look at the diagram thats printed on the side of them first. Once you do that you will see how simple they really are.