some USB Joystick encoder questions

[a.k.t.]

Hello,
I am thinking about making a button box, but first i want some more info on the USB joystick encoder (The yellow PCB boards in this case).

I have a few questions about these PCB's that i can't really find online.

1- How many buttons can i really hook upto it? i have seen wire diagrams that have button 01-12 labeled, but they also have some ports labeld with the following: up, down, left, right, mode, turbo, clear and auto. the ports are labeled with those names, but the ports really look the same to me... so how many buttons could i put on one board?


2- If i want to use multiple boards, how would i do so? After a few google searches i found out some people have the problem of having 2 boards with the same device ID (Wich seems more then logical to me, since it's the same device) but i also heared people running 3 or 4 boards at one time. so my question is; what is the work around for the Device ID problem? or what is another way i can have them register as 2 diffrent boards?

3- I also hear alot of rumors of these boards catching fire, however, i can't find ANY proof on it online. So is this just a rumour? or is it true? If yes, how bad is it?

Any help is well appreciated!
Greets from Holland,
Anton

 

[Elaphe]

Let me recommend you the Xinmotek Dual controller. It's tiny, unexpensive, no need for soldering and works great. Do you need more than 20 buttons?

 

[a.k.t.]

i don't know if i "need" more than 20 buttons, but I like having options for upgrading later down the line. Can i run more of those on the same device?

 

[Elaphe]

i don't know if i "need" more than 20 buttons, but I like having options for upgrading later down the line. Can i run more of those on the same device?

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to use several of the the same kind of controllers. They will be detected as different devices and if you have any problem with the order of them you can always use joyIDs to force the number of each device.

Another idea I use a lot is to assign 2 functions per button, one for quick press and one for when it's pressed for a second. It can be done with Autohotkey.