I-PAC4 doesn't support spinner?

[Kremlar]

Can anyone confirm this is correct?  Long story short, but just purchased a custom built arcade cabinet from a local guy and it was a mess.  I fixed most of the wiring issues, but one thing I'm trying to confirm is whether the I-PAC4 supports a spinner or not.  I can't find anywhere that it does, but it seems odd that the I-PAC2 would but the 4 would not.

The guy I bought the cabinet from had it plugged to the pin headers on the IPAC-4 but I don't believe it's a spinner connector.  I can't find a description of these pins anywhere.

Thanks in advance.

[Mike A]

Who is the builder? Maybe you can save someone else from making an expensive mistake.

[Titchgamer]

I believe only the mini pac and the ultimate support spinners?

Do you know what spinner it is? Can you run it from USB?

[Thenasty]

why not goto Andy's (Ultimarc) and find the Ipac you have.


http://www.ultimarc.com

[Kremlar]

Who is the builder? Maybe you can save someone else from making an expensive mistake.

I know... I'm trying to get a partial credit for some of the things I ordered but did not get.  Will post more later.

Do you know what spinner it is? Can you run it from USB?

Yes, I did get it working via USB using a little board he included with a box of extras.  SpinTrak I think.  Was just trying to confirm 100% it was not supported on the board like he had it plugged in.

[Kremlar]

why not goto Andy's (Ultimarc) and find the Ipac you have.

I did.  It is an I-PAC 4.  I just could not find any documentation on the pin headers on the board.  Am I missing something?

And also I could not find anywhere that the I-PAC 4 did not support the spinner, so wanted to make sure it wasn't supported on the unlabeled connector the builder had it plugged into.

[Titchgamer]

The spin trak is a quality spinner, I have one runing via USB and works great.
But like I said above to my knowledge there is no way to connect it to a IPAC.

As for this "builder" of yours, he sounds more like a cowboy wanabe!

[Kremlar]

As for this "builder" of yours, he sounds more like a cowboy wanabee

Yeah, absolutely.  It's sad that I had to fix his wiring mistakes (to the best of my ability) when I have absolutely no experience with this stuff.

[PL1]

The spin trak is a quality spinner, I have one runing via USB and works great.
But like I said above to my knowledge there is no way to connect it to a IPAC.

The I-Pac2 has supported trackballs/spinners since the 2015 revision using the Dupont pin header on the left.

It is an I-PAC 4.  I just could not find any documentation on the pin headers on the board.  Am I missing something?

And also I could not find anywhere that the I-PAC 4 did not support the spinner, so wanted to make sure it wasn't supported on the unlabeled connector the builder had it plugged into.

You're not missing anything -- the Ultimarc documentation strongly implies (but doesn't clearly state) that IPac4 doesn't support trackballs/spinners and it is missing info about the unlabeled 9-pin header on the IPac4 that used to be on the old I-Pac pages, hence the confusion. (PM sent to Andy with several suggestions for documentation clarifications/updates)

The 9-pin header was on the pre-2015 version of both the I-Pac2 and I-Pac4 boards (i.e. before I-Pac supported spinners), but it is not on the 2015 version of the I-Pac2.

It looks like the "keyboard LED" header. Same pin pattern and location, but the revised I-Pac4 pin header is only used for initial loading of firmware -- the LED function is no longer available.

BobA found this diagram on the old I-Pac page in 2006.



The same diagram is currently 2/3rds of the way down the J-Pac page here because the J-Pac appears to have the same keyboard LED header.



Which is confirmed in the J-Pac description.

Supports I-PAC optional pre-assembled LED harness with 3 panel mounting LEDs which emulate the keyboard Lights.

The keyboard LED header was often used with Atari LED "volcano" start buttons that would blink when a coin was inserted.


Scott

[Mike A]

Did you pay with a credit card? Dispute the charge. That will get his attention. Most credit cards give you 60 days to dispute a charge.

[Titchgamer]

Ahh well there you go, cheers Scott!
I have the old models so no connection available LOL

[PL1]

The other matter is how to connect your spinner.

1. The mostly-easy way is to contact Andy about buyting a Spin-Trak USB interface. (they aren't listed separately in the Ultimarc store)



2. The easy and probably-slightly-less-expensive-because-of-international-shipping way is an Opti-wiz "No-Solder" -- you'll need to pull the pins out of the Spin-Trak's Dupont header to connect to the 5v, ground, and data pins on the Opti-Wiz, but that is easy to do.

Spin-Trak wire colors:
Brown    +5Volts (goes to the 5v pin on Opti-Wiz)
Yellow    X1 (goes to Pin A on Opti-Wiz)
Green    X2 (goes to Pin B on Opti-Wiz)
White    GND (goes to the "upside-down Christmas tree" symbol next to the 5v pin on Opti-Wiz)

3. The cheap way is to use StefanBurger's Illuminated Spinner firmware to "roll-your-own" optical interface with an Arduino.
------------
Got a reply from Andy:

- The 9-pin header LED function is not available on the 2015 revision boards.

- The 9-pin header on I-Pac4 is only used for firmware initial load.

Will correct my post above accordingly.


Scott

[Kremlar]

The keyboard LED header was often used with Atari LED "volcano" start buttons that would blink when a coin was inserted.

Wow, thanks!  Great info.  Yes, I was kind of expecting to see something like "Note:  Spinner not supported on the I-PAC4" since it was on the IPAC-2, but did not see that explicitly stated.  Thanks for the confirmation.

Did you pay with a credit card? Dispute the charge. That will get his attention. Most credit cards give you 60 days to dispute a charge.

I did pay with PayPal/credit card so do have options, but now that I got it almost straightened out I'm fairly happy with it and don't want to return it.  Was just a mess when I got it, and I was pretty pissed I had to spend hours to straighten it out.  Just want to move forward from here.  The seller has sent me a partial refund for the items I did not get and a small amount extra for my trouble.

I think he's a fairly straight guy, just rushes through everything instead of doing it right.

[Kremlar]

1. The mostly-easy way is to contact Andy about buyting a Spin-Trak USB interface. (they aren't listed separately in the Ultimarc store)

Thanks, I did have one of these in a box of accessories so got it working.  Just wanted to be certain I needed it - guess I do.