Ultimarc Mini Grip stick for Tron and flight stick games

[Yoeddy1]

Hi guys,

I have a spot on my MAME cabinet that is begging for a replacement stick.  I'm looking for a Tron type of a stick as I already have a spinner on my deck and feel that this would be a good fit for my game preferences.  I'm just not sure what to go with.

How do you guys feel about the Ultimarc Mini Grip stick?  22 bucks doesn't seem bad.  Is there something better out there?

http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html

I have an IPac4, and I'm assuming this would wire up easily. 

Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jason

[Slippyblade]

I actually have a thread going about trigger sticks and this stick has been recommended a couple times.

Here's the thread if you are interested: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,144663.0.html

[AzureKnight]

I have the Minigrip from Ultimarc (my cabinet only got up and running recently so I don't have a ton of time logged on it).  I don't have a spinner so I haven't used it for Tron.  I have used it for Assault, Smash TV and Karate Champ.  I haven't programmed any of the flight games to use it yet but I will soon.

A few thoughts on it:

Out of the box it was so stiff it was honestly hard to get it to trip the switches.  Direction down was the worst offender and I actually found it hard to pull down while still firing the stick.  I cut off a bit of the spring and that helped a lot.  I might even trim off a little bit more. 

My primary sticks are Happ Competitions (Street Fighter sticks).  The throw on the mini grip is shorter than on the competition with a bit more resistance, so for two joystick games it has felt a bit odd to me at times but I've gotten used to it after a couple of weeks. 

I really like the buttons, they both have a good feel to me.

For Karate Champ and Assault the stick does really, really well and I like it.

For Smash TV it is OK but not great.  Smash TV is a fast game that makes you want to flow from direction to direction quickly.  I find that this stick is a bit too stiff to do that really well.  It is playable, but when I use dual competitions instead it works a lot better for this game.

As I said, I may trim off more of the spring but I worry that I'll make it too loose.

[fischb]

What controller board is the stick attached to?  I cant get either of it buttons or directions to register via my ultimate I/O

[MotoChi]

I bought this stick from Andy, specifically for playing Tron and Discs of Tron, and I also have an Ultimarc Spinner.  I love it.

Couple of caveats though.  The clearance to the base of the handle was an issue for 3/4" board for me.  I had the bottom of my board routed 1/8" to take it down to 5/8" in the MiniGrip area.  Also, I went one size larger on my circular saw hole than a standard size (don't remember the inch size, but it was closer to 33mm instead of 31MM).  With these two changes to the board, the mini grip works great.  Very happy with it.

[dfwdennis]

This may sound a bit odd, but I didn't want to dedicate space on my panel to a flight stick so I bought an old Wico Command and Control joystick on eBay and an Atari-to-USB adapter.  I put some velcro on the panel and on the bottom of the Wico and can attach it whenever I need a flightstick.  It isn't pretty, but it works for me.

[drewjbx]

Found this old thread.. is this simply wired up to any control board with joystick and button inputs. Interested implementing twin sticks fpr Sega AM2 game
Virtual On