J-pac and Mini-Pac

[Love Rhino]

Hi guys!  You all were so helpful on my last question I wanted to reach out to you again.

I was unable to get my video running with an arcade vga breakout cable, but I realized that my cabinet was a modified Jamma cabinet, so I was able to get a J-pac, and I finally have video!

I kick myself (for this and other things!) for not understanding this earlier and saving myself some effort (and $).

Now, the control panel has 2 joysticks, 6 buttons per player, 4 coin/start buttons, a trackball, and a spinner.  I already had a mini-pac for the controls, because of how easy it is to hook up the things with the wiring harness.

My question is: is there a reason to hook up the controls to the j-pac at all?  Or can I just use the J-pac for video and the mini-pac for all the controls (it hooks up via usb to the PC mame).  Is anyone familiar with this?  I realize i've made this more complicated for myself than I needed, but now I'm just looking for the easiest solution to complete things.

Thank you again!

[AndyWarne]

Yes the J-PAC could be used only for video.

It needs to be connected to a USB port for power even if only being used for video.

Andy