A USB encoder turns the joysticks and buttons of an arcade panel into a USB device. It is the most universal solution for a bartop or a cabinet: it works on every machine Recalbox supports, including the Raspberry Pi 5 and PCs, unlike GPIO controllers.
| Family | Examples | How Recalbox sees them |
|---|---|---|
| Joystick encoders | DragonRise, Zero Delay, Xin-Mo, Juyao, Pandora Box | as standard gamepads |
| Keyboard encoders | Ultimarc iPAC / mini-PAC, X-Arcade Tankstick | as keyboards |
Plug the encoder in: Recalbox detects it as a controller and starts the visual configurator. Pick the arcade stick artwork matching your panel (4, 6 or 8 buttons), then press the buttons in the order shown.
Many two-player encoders present themselves to the system as a single device. Recalbox ships the fixes (USB HID
quirks) that make them appear as two independent controllers: Xin-Mo 18 and 20 pin, DragonRise Twin Shock, Juyao, 3H Dual Arcade 2P, XCSOURCE 2 Twin, ShanWan Twin, Micreal Dual Arcade, Pandora Box… so you can configure both players normally.
Keyboard encoders send key presses, not joystick events. They work as they are in the frontend (EmulationStation can be driven from a keyboard) and in emulators that accept keyboard input, but to be seen as real controllers the xarcade2jstick service must be enabled — see Keyboard encoders and X-Arcade.