Need Mini-Pac Advice

[Rendour]

I am in the process of buying supplies for my first MAME cabinet build. I am using the plans from the Project Arcade book. I have decided to get a Mini-Pac as my encoder. I am a bit confused as to which version of the mini pac to get. I will have 2 joysticks with 6 buttons each, and a trackball with two buttons. I've read here that the wiring harness that comes with the mini-pac is not very good and longer wires will have to be used. I guess what I'm asking is would it be better to get a USB or PS/2 trackball and plug that right into the PC and go with the cheaper mini-pac just for the joys and buttons, or go with the more expensive mini-pac and an arcade wired trackball? Thanks in advance for any help.

[sodapopinski]

trackballs that plug right into the pc via usb or ps/2 tend to be expensive. Look at happs, nice but too much.

[dabone]

It will probally work out about the same unless you do a mouse hack for the trackball.

The main difference, if you want to add a spinner later, you would be able to connect it to your minipac and the minipac would handle both devices, disabling the one you are not currently using.

(much easier config, no multiple mouse devices.)

Also with the minipac, just 1 usb cable for buttons and trackball.


Later,
dabone

[Tiger-Heli]

I am in the process of buying supplies for my first MAME cabinet build. I am using the plans from the Project Arcade book. I have decided to get a Mini-Pac as my encoder. I am a bit confused as to which version of the mini pac to get. I will have 2 joysticks with 6 buttons each, and a trackball with two buttons. I've read here that the wiring harness that comes with the mini-pac is not very good and longer wires will have to be used. I guess what I'm asking is would it be better to get a USB or PS/2 trackball and plug that right into the PC and go with the cheaper mini-pac just for the joys and buttons, or go with the more expensive mini-pac and an arcade wired trackball? Thanks in advance for any help.

I know what you're asking.  You'll be surprised at the reply.  The cheaper Minipac (at least as of a couple of months ago) still has trackball support.  The more expensive one just has the harness for it.  So I would recommend getting the cheaper minipac and sacrificing an IDE cable.

And I agree, the wording on the ultimarc site is confusing.

[sWampy]

I am in the process of buying supplies for my first MAME cabinet build. I am using the plans from the Project Arcade book. I have decided to get a Mini-Pac as my encoder. I am a bit confused as to which version of the mini pac to get. I will have 2 joysticks with 6 buttons each, and a trackball with two buttons. I've read here that the wiring harness that comes with the mini-pac is not very good and longer wires will have to be used. I guess what I'm asking is would it be better to get a USB or PS/2 trackball and plug that right into the PC and go with the cheaper mini-pac just for the joys and buttons, or go with the more expensive mini-pac and an arcade wired trackball? Thanks in advance for any help.

I know what you're asking.  You'll be surprised at the reply.  The cheaper Minipac (at least as of a couple of months ago) still has trackball support.  The more expensive one just has the harness for it.  So I would recommend getting the cheaper minipac and sacrificing an IDE cable.

And I agree, the wording on the ultimarc site is confusing.

Email andy and ask him before buying one and assuming it supports trackball.  A couple of months back he told me he was getting new ones in that didn't support trackball, unless you bought the trackball option.

[Flinkly]

hmmm...first i was happy to hear that all the minipacs support trackball and that the more expensive one just has a harness.  so if someone does find out the difference from writing andy, can you include the answer here? i'd hate to swamp him with ten e-mails all of the same question...or if he wants to step out and answer our questions right here, that would also be appreciated.  maybe put ", ANDY?" at the end of the thread title.

[sWampy]

awls14521@blueyonder.co.uk    
to fordc
    More options    11/11/04
Well, the connections are different for the Happ trackball and the Ultimarc one. But the differences are shown in the table on the Opti-PAC page which might help.

Luckily at the moment the Mini-PAC will support trackball as well, if sold as a switch-only version, this will not be the case when a new version comes out shortly.

Andy

[Rendour]

I think I'm going to be repeating swampy, but let's see if I can make this clear for everyone. I have ordered the mini-pac without the harness and e-mailed Andy at Ultimarc asking him if I can still use an arcade style trackball and run it through the mini-pac. He said all mini-pac boards shipped have the trackball interface enabled so that should work fine. Hope this helps everyone struggling with the same decision that I was.

[sWampy]

I think I'm going to be repeating swampy, but let's see if I can make this clear for everyone. I have ordered the mini-pac without the harness and e-mailed Andy at Ultimarc asking him if I can still use an arcade style trackball and run it through the mini-pac. He said all mini-pac boards shipped have the trackball interface enabled so that should work fine. Hope this helps everyone struggling with the same decision that I was.

Cool, did he say if that was going to change in the future?  Cause on 11/04/04 he said it was, let's hope he changed his mind. ;-)

[Tiger-Heli]

I think I'm going to be repeating swampy, but let's see if I can make this clear for everyone. I have ordered the mini-pac without the harness and e-mailed Andy at Ultimarc asking him if I can still use an arcade style trackball and run it through the mini-pac. He said all mini-pac boards shipped have the trackball interface enabled so that should work fine. Hope this helps everyone struggling with the same decision that I was.

Cool, did he say if that was going to change in the future?  Cause on 11/04/04 he said it was, let's hope he changed his mind. ;-)

Read his reply in his E-mail to you (Reply #6)

"Luckily at the moment the Mini-PAC will support trackball as well, if sold as a switch-only version, this will not be the case when a new version comes out shortly."

So, yes, it will change in the future, and no, he didn't change his mind.