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Control board comparison/questions
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Slippyblade:
I'm a little confused.  In the one cabinet I've built so far (a Vigolix style) I use a Xin-Mo board.  Easy enough.  I'm in the process of gathering the parts for a full size, full featured, cabinet at the moment.  I intend to use a standard Knievel layout.  Two 8-way sticks, dedicated 4-way stick, trackball, spinner.  Here's where I start to get confused...

Control boards.  There are so many different ones and I'm not totally sure what is what.  Groovy Game Gear has a few, Ultimarc has a bunch, even Paradise has a couple.  I'm a little lost in the list of features that each has, and there seems to be overlap and duplication within the products that each maker offers.

Ultimarc
I-Pac2: Vanilla encoder, outputs keyboard codes? Seems like the same board is used for PS/2 or USB interface with only a cable difference.
Opti-Pac: Trackball/Spinner controller.  This seems to be able to run 2 trackballs and 4 spinners all at once, is this right?  Seems like major overkill for my application.
A-Pac: This is pretty much an I-Pac2 that supports analog controls?
Mini-Pac: Is this an I-Pac2 with trackball/spinner control added in?

So it seems that if I go the Ultimarc route I would need either an I-Pac 2 & an Opti-Pac combo or a Mini-Pac.  Is this correct?

Groovy Game Gear
GP-Wiz: Encoder that is seen as 2 gamepads?
LED-Wiz+GP: This is a 16 input controller with eye candy, right?
Key-Wiz: Straight up switch encoder, outputs keyboard codes.  Only PS/2?
Opti-Wiz: Controls 1 trackball and 1 spinner?

So going with GGG I'd need either a Key-Wiz or GP-Wiz and an Opti-Wiz.

Wow, it's nice to see that this hobby has options!  What do you guys suggest or what have you used in the past that worked?  I'm trying to avoid doing any hacks.

Thanks in advance!
yotsuya:
iPac.
kahlid74:
Don't forget the howler arcade controller is still out there too: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2034467396/howler-arcade-controller

It really depends on what you use for the trackball, spinner, etc.  I've been a big supporter of the IPac because it's pretty straight forward and super easy to use.  I know GGG has good stuff too.  I also however always use HAPP trackballs which have a built in encoder so I don't need an additional one.
Asmotron:
I'm using the iPac2.  It just plain works and works well, and the Win iPac software is neat.  Also Andy at Ultimarc is pretty awesome.
severdhed:
i've used both the keywiz and the ipac 4 and they are both great products.  keywiz is a little cheaper, but has less inputs than the ipac 4...if you are building a 4 player cabinet, i'd recommend the ipac 4...if just a  2 player, it's hard to say.  the big difference between the ipac and keywiz is that the ipac remembers it's programming after power off...the keywiz does not.  if you keep the default config, it is irrelevant. 

i have an optiwiz i used with my wico and ultimarc trackballs, it works very well.

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