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cp interface planning?
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Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: carl on March 24, 2004, 08:05:04 pm ---Hello again,
I just got word back from Andy at Ultimarc who said,

*The I-PAC does not support the Happ mechanical rotary sticks
unfortunately.  We don't have any interface for these sticks.*

when I asked,

*.. will it (I-Pac4) support two Happ mechanical rotary joysticks
with direct connections (of course that will burn up a bunch of inputs)*

so now what?  an I-pac2 with the o-pac or druins for the rotary portion of the sticks?

Thanks,
carl <-feeling a little dizzy and confused

--- End quote ---
I think Andy misunderstood your question.  What he means is you cannot wire the joysticks up to 24 I-PAC inputs and have it work in standard MAME.

You can do this and have it work with MAME Analog Plus or NoNAMEMAME because it DIRECTLY supports the mechanical sticks, but I think Andy may not be aware of this.

I hate to contradict Andy about his own device, but there is NO reason this should not work with MAME analog plus (but you might need to re-program the default I-PAC/4 inputs, but that's not a big deal).
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: carl on March 25, 2004, 03:00:20 am ---Now that I understand this a little better, I realize they are just talking about which joysticks are correct for the Druins interface.

--- End quote ---
The optical rotaries will work fine for IKARI, except you don't have the click-stop and the discrete rotation (turn 3 clicks left, etc).  Cost is almost a wash, the sticks are about $5 more and you need an optical interface, but you could use that for your trackball spinner as well, and you wouldn't need as many inputs as an I-PAC/4.

The opticals do need about another inch below the panel or 5.5 inches of clearance.
Lilwolf:
btw... If druins board can send 'l' and 'r' in realtime (one per click as fast as you can turn it...

then analog+ will work perfect (and probably noname haven't tried it in a while).

But if it buffers and sends a timed press and release... you will have problems turning it fast...

This will make it 6 inputs per joystick....

But hearing everything you have on your cp... without hotswappable control panels... I think you will want to go with a ipac4 anyway.



and I'm sorry to hear Ron is out of the encoder buisness.  I personally love his encoder and thought he would have done a GREAT job if he just added screw down terminals.  It was a little harder to setup because of it... but it worked GREAT when your done.  
Tiger-Heli:
Lilwolf, could you give more details on the IKARI problem you mentioned earlier?
carl:
Tiger,
funny you should mention the rotary for spinner... I was just thinking about that this am.  But then I remembered  back to my tempest days, and some of the levels required some pretty crazy spin styles (putting your hand on the side of the knob and jerking hard to get it to spin like crazy).  Might be difficult to do with a stick.

On optical rotaries for Ikari... how does the game deal with the linear data?  Does it move the character in smaller degree increments (compared to the stair step style degree increments provided by the mechanicals)?  Or does the character sit at the designated degrees rotation until the optical passes the next rotational increment?

I do like the idea of getting the optical rotary sticks, opt-pac and being able to use it later for the trackball and spinner... if it doesn't ruin the Ikari experience.

Wolf,
I've decided to trim down my master plan on the controls.  I'm gonna hold off on the trackball and spinner for now, and just do the two primary joysticks/buttons and try to squeeze the classic 4 way stick.  I'll put these in a mock panel first and see how it feels.  Then explore either hot swapable panels, or crowding more in.

I've sent an email off to Druins to see if his interface does the realtime or cached movements.  

thanks for all the great feedback guys, keep it coming.  One of these days I'll actually place and order, and then I'll be bugging you for info on how to set it up.

Carl
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