Trackball and spinner recommendation needed

[unclet]

I am posting this request for a friend.............

He wants to make a control panel only (not a full cab) to start off and was interested in making/buying a 2 joystick (6 buttons each), trackball and spinner control panel.

Question 1) :
Which trackball and spinner should he purchase?  He looked at the Ultimarc trackball (ie: trackball and mounting plate shown on the Ultimarc site) and was wondering whether this is a good choice and works well.

Question 2):
He also sees the Oscar spinner and Tornado spinner......so any advice with which works better would be great as well.

Question3):
What should he buy to connect the spinner and trackball to (ie:  is this what an Optipac does .....also does Hagstrom make something to attach spinners and trackballs to their encoders)?

PS: I could not help him with purchasing a trackball and spinner since I hacked mice to get my trackball and spinner working (which he does not want to do).

[Nailz]

1.  I can't speak about the Ultimarc trackball but it looks nice and the price is reasonable.  I own a Happs 3" and I love it.

2.  I own an Oscar spinner and it's awesome, very nice work done by Kelsey, don't know about the Tornados.

3.  Hagstrom does make an encoder for trackballs and spinners, the ME4.  This is what I have and it's been great, absolutely no complaints.  Although I hear the Opti-Pac is good as well, I may try one of these for my next cab.

[grafixmonkey]

1.
If you go for a Happ trackball, I highly suggest the standard trackball and not the Highball.  Much more comfortable, cheaper mounting hardware, and the highball tends to jump off its rollers and skip if you don't use your hand on it just right.  (although the more expensive mounting plate looks much nicer, and doesn't show any hardware through the top of the panel - the less expensive one makes you buy the hardware, and leaves the bolt heads showing.)

[u_rebelscum]

1.  If he doesn't mind a 2 1/4" ball, the one at ultimarc is great.  Most TB cocktail cabs had this size.  However, I like the 3" TB better.  Most of the upright cabs had 3 inchers, although a few had 4 1/2" or 2 1/4".  If you go 3" happs, betson, and wico all have great TBs; I favor them in the order listed, but would be happy with any of them.  (But like grafixmonkey, I don't recomend the happs high-ball model; happs normal or golden tee, aka high lip, models are great.)

2.  Check this spinner roundup

3.  I use the optipac and it's great.  Oscar's Controllers mouse interface is another way to go, but you'd need to do this hack if you hook both spinner and TB to the same interface (other solution, buy two and hook one to each).