Ultimarc I-PAC Ultimate I/O USB Arcade encoder PC Raspberry Pi

The Ultimarc I-PAC Ultimate I/O board is a hyper-vitaminized USB encoder with 48 connection inputs and 96 connection outputs, that's 176 connections in total. With this board we will be able to connect our arcade buttons, Joysticks, Trackballs, SpinTrak Spinners and LED and RGB buttons. The I-PAC Ultimate I/O encoder has a multitude of features and configuration options that make it stand out from most encoders. Amongst them we highlight the following:

The board has 48 inputs, each with a microprocessor per pin. This means no LAG when pressing a button. Something very important in all types of games but especially in Street Fighter type fighting games and Shoot 'em up type games where reaction time is vital. The 48 inputs already have their corresponding wired ground so we do not need to use extra ground / GND wiring. The I-PAC Ultimate with its 48 inputs supports up to 4 players.

Ultimarc I-PAC Ultimate I/O USB Arcade encoder emulates a USB keyboard and yet the limit of 6 simultaneous button presses (plus ctrl, alt, shift) can be exceeded without affecting the operation of the encoder. This is a limitation that affects all USB keyboard devices. This is not the case with the I-PAC Ultimate. This is because the board has native USB support built in, and does not rely on any additional adapters.

The I-PAC Ultimate encoder can be configured in different modes within the operating system: emulating keyboard/mouse/LED, double gamepad/mouse/LED or a dual Xinput controller.

Another interesting feature of this board is that all input pins can be assigned to any keyboard key, gamepad button (including the hat switch), mouse button or power/volume control and sleep/wake function. The inputs can also be assigned to a trackball or spinner. The Spinner SpinTrak from Ultimarc which we sell at Arcade Express can be connected it directly to the board. Once activated, they take up 6 inputs of the 48 available. You can connect up to 2 trackballs or spinners per board.

You can also make use of the Shift function, which allows you to assign any input to a shifted secondary key code. The Shift key can also have its own function as well, so there is no need for an additional dedicated button in our control panel.

The I-PAC Ultimate I/O has a Self-Test LED instant check that will warn us if there is any bad input / connected wires.

In regards to the connections of our LED and RGB buttons, this PCB has a 96-channel LED driver with constant current drivers and also 6 high-current drivers of 1 amp. It also has 256 brightness levels of RGB colors. The I-PAC Ultimate I/O can be used with single color LED buttons as well or with RGB buttons (RGBs use 3 channels) such as IL's RGB button.

The Ultimate encoder has a Setup Software that applies and reads any changes on the fly without the need to reboot, saving also the board programming even after hardware shutdown.

These are some of the most important features of the fabulous I-PAC ULTIMATE I/O encoder from Ultimarc. Below in the features section we mention a few more.

Instruction manual

Controller configuration: Instruction Manual

LED configuration: Instruction Manual (English)

Configuration programs

Controller configuration: Windows / WinIpac / Linux / Raspberry Pi WinIpac

LED configuration: PacLED64

Connection example

Installation information

Features

• Stores programmed keys even when the board is turned off
• Controls can be mapped to any key code
• Connector for trackballs and spinners
• Controls can be assigned to any keycode
• Check LED. Indicates which input has a problem
• All button inputs are referenced to ground
• Proprietary software allows unlimited number of keycode configurations to be stored and downloaded on the fly
• No power supply required
• No need to power the controllers separately
• No LAG. Each input has its own dedicated connection to the board's CPU
• Interrupt-based fast-running software offers much better response than a standard keyboard controller
• Shift function
• No special drivers required. USB drivers are generic Windows drivers
• Fully compatible with all Apple Macs (excluding the setup utility)
• 96 LED channels with 256 brightness levels for a full mix of RGB colors
• Can be used with single-color or RGB LEDs (RGBs use 3 channels)
• Can be used with LEDs with built-in resistors if necessary
• Storage of 128 commands in flash for "attract mode"
• Software allows to customize and store LED sequence in attract mode
• Includes a power cable to connect to the power connector of the PC disk drive
• Extensive software support including a test application, a software development kit to add support for your own programs and third-party LedBlinky software
• 6 1-amp MOSFET drivers that are suitable for LED strips and other high-power LED applications