vertical cabinet control panel

[Iceman81]

hello, i am looking to do a vertical cab, and i wanted to use the "midway" style metal control panel that is converted for multicade.  Basically has 1 controller, 3 buttons, 2 1/4" trackball and 2 player buttons. 

My question is, should i put the 5 pushbuttons with an ipac usb board, or connect the 3 push buttons to the usb trackball interface, with the 2 player buttons by themselves on the ipac?

I have never used the I-PAC board btw, my main cabinet uses a "xin mo" board and doesn't have a place for a trackball(which im using usb).

If i use the ipac, do i need a usb/ps2 trackball, or just the regular one and connect everything to the ipac?

[velcrobomb]

The buttons and joystick will need a keyboard encoder, which is your iPac.  For the trackball, depending on what type you get, more than likely you will need an optical encoder.  I believe some brands of trackball have direct usb support.  I imagine your trackball has those pushbutton connectors for things like mouse buttons.

I'm fairly new myself so if I stated anything wrong, please correct me.

[paigeoliver]

I would definitely hook up 2 trackball buttons so you have proper mouse support outside of mame.

[Iceman81]

yeah that makes sense.  I have 3 buttons setup up on my main cab trackball and that works good in a pinch, but i also have a small wireless keyboard/mouse combo that i use as well.

[cj138]

You can wire a standard arcade trackball to an Ipac 2, so you do not need an optical encoder. I also would not bother wiring mouse buttons. Just throw a mouse in the cabinet if you need to do admin stuff.