Hello everyone,

Instead of badgering Andy over email (I appreciate his patience), I wanted to try this out for ideas.  I am kind of hitting my limits here so I am hoping to get some more ideas and maybe solutions for what I am trying to get done.

What I have:

     1.	4 player pedestal cabinet (technically 5) running 
     of a PC/Windows 10
          a.	Technically 5 because I have a “center” 
     joystick with a few buttons based on the cabinet 
     guys template.  I believe its for an analog joystick 
     or spinner setup.  However, I am using it as just a 
     standard joystick and buttons for menus (more on 
     that later)
          b.	Trackball as well

     2.	For boards and pieces I have:
          a.	One (1) IPAC4
          b.	Two (2) IPAC2s
          c.	Four (4) PacLink Adapters

     3.	Hyperpie PC v.2 setup 

     4.	Steam Library

The Path so far?

Initially, I think I am a victim of my own stupid.  I think I was trying to do way too much.  I wanted to build a ROM and STEAM (PC games) cabinet.  I have gotten a lot of things partially working.  I started with an IPAC4 and flat keyboard mapping.  I was able to get a large chunk of MAME and early arcade stuff working with 4 players.  However, as many I am sure already know as well, anything new or PC games I had a HECK of a time.  Nothing seemed to work well and everything seems broken.  I spent a significant amount of time trying to get it to work through many guides and threads on retroarch and rocketlauncher setup… nothing seemed to work very clean.

As I researched, I found multiple threads that talked about keyboard inputs not working well with STEAM games typically and controller (specifically Xbox or emulated Xinput) to be the best route.  

I found this video on YOUTUBE:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idWbtQ8mRI0

This person is trying to do the exact same thing and appears to have done it successfully.  He uses two IPAC2, then using the expansion slots with PAClink adapters to emulate xbox controllers so he can get both new games and old mame running.  He also mentions at the time issues with the IPAC boards emulating multiple gamecontrollers on one board.  I had seen this same issue on other threads so I took his idea almost completely.  
So, I restarted.  I dropped the IPAC4, bought PAClink adapters and IPAC2’s with a plan to have the IPAC2’s all feed through 4 PAClink adapters using expansion slots.  The video mentions problems with menus in Hyperspin or similar but I have a spare IPAC4!  I just wired it to that random 5th player setup I have for menus.  Perfect.

At this point, I was caring less about MAME and old ROMs and am more focusing on creating a steambox first and worry about the rest later.  I figure I can use Xpadder or similar to map the gamecontrollers back to keyboard on certain emulators through Rocketlauncher or similar if need be.  (although that circle of life from keyboard to controller back to keyboard is utterly hilarious ha).

The big issues right now?

     1.	I cannot get all 4 controllers to detect 
        correctly with all 4 paclinks connected
         a.	I can get the P1 Expansion controls 
          working “Expansion P1”.  The P2 or “SPINNER/EXP 
          P2” slot “controller” never seems to work       
          correctly.  I have the PAClink adapter plugged          
          in to match the color marks on the board, 
          meaning:
               i.	EXP P1 – the red wire side of the 
                    Paclink connector matches the left to 
                    right RED to BLK marking on the board 
                    (following the text direction on the 
                    board for that side)
               ii.	EXP P2 – I flipped the paclink 
                    connector to match the BROWN marking 
                    on the P2 side.  I have tried both 
                    orientations and flipped this 
                    connector a few times but I haven’t 
                    restarted the PC each time.
               iii.	The P2 controller works perfectly 
                    if I move the paclink connection to 
                    the OTHER IPAC2 board and into the P1 
                    expansion slot for the PAClink.
                    b.	P3 and P4 – On the other IPAC2, I 
                    cannot get to do anything
               i.   There is some kind of an issue 
                    here as the PAClink adapters light up 
                    all 4 LED’s with no changes.  If I 
                    watch them during boot up of windows, 
                    the will cycle all 4 LED at once, but 
                    where the other PAClinks then light 
                    up whichever spot Windows detected or 
                    assigned (1 or 2), the 3 and 4 do 
                    nothing and go back to lighting up 
                    all 4 LED
               ii.	Windows detects 2 xbox and 2 
                    “Game controllers”.  I am guessing 
                    the generic are player 3 and 4.  I 
                    cannot calibrate through windows and 
                    the game controller tester doesn’t 
                    detect anything
        c.     All four PAClinks are set to Xbox mode, 
               not PC
        d.     I am using the windows “Game Controller 
               Tester” to test inputs.  I also use the 
               windows device setup when I can, but it 
               typically doesn’t show buttons and the 
               calibrate is grayed out.

     2.	Per Andy’s note, I shouldn’t need the adapters 
     with the new firmware.  I updated firmware on both, 
     unplugged the paclinks and put the usb cable 
     connections back into the boards but now nothing 
     detects through the game controller tester.  I did 
     not do anything with the firmware through the ipac 
     software after update.  I saw everything looked to 
     be set to gamepad so I left it as is and tried to 
     test the buttons with no success.

Goals?
At this point, I would be really happy with just a Steambox that detects 4 xbox controllers.  I feel like if I can get to that point, I can figure out everything else.  And if I can’t, I would be happy with just that anyways.
I don’t care if that happens via the paclink adapters or without.  The paclink is as close as I have gotten.  Ha.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.