Should I use an Opti-pac or Oscar's mouse hack?

[AceTKK]

My panel will have both a trackball and spinner and I'm not sure what would be the best solution to interface the controls.  If I use Oscar's mouse hack can I splice the wires from both 'ball and spinner into one mouse hack?  If so, that will be much cheaper than the $40 Opti-pac.  If I need to use two hacked mice will Windows XP have a problem recognizing two pointing devices?  Is there any advantage to using an Optipac that I'm not aware of?

Thx,
-Ace-

[SirPoonga]

The advantage of the optipac is hooking up many tballs and spinners at once.

However, since the mouse hack is like $10, it's cheaper to get two fo thos or hack one if possible.

Windows sees all mouse like input devices as one mouse.  To get it to see as two mice for mame purposes see analog+ mame.

[Flinkly]

it depends on money or reliability.

[SirPoonga]

I think people have problem with the mouse hack because it is a hack.  It isn't something you simply plug into your tball and work right off that bat.  It might in some cases, but in others it may not.

All the mouse hacks I have done I have never had a problem.

[Matt Berry]

It's all a matter of persoanl preference and how much money you want to spend or save. I've used mouse hacks in the past, but have since converted to the optipac. I own two optipacs, and wouldn't dream of using another mouse hack.

[AceTKK]

thx for the quickreplies everybody.  I wish the Mini-pac were an option; it looks like a nice all-in-one solution.  The problem is that 28 inputs is just a couple shy of what I need for my CP layout.  Also, after the added cost of wiring harnesses the Mini-pac ends up being almost as pricey as an I-pac + Optipac. 

At this point I'm really leaning towards the Oscar interface, I don't feel the opti-pac offers anything more to warrant the extra cost.

-Ace-

[Sasquatch!]

I'm using the OSCAR mouse hack with my Vortex spinner and I've never had a single problem with it.

[Thenasty]

alot of us seem to forget that the SERIAL PORT exist. I still wish the standard MOBO has 2 ports but they cut down to 1. I guess only server MOBO's will have 2. There is nothign wrong with the serial port. So you can use a TRACKBALL in PS/2 and SPINNER in SERIAL all by themselves without any extra parts to make it work.
I have no problem with my mouse hack serial port spinner, and my Ps/2 port is taken by my 3"Betson Trackball. Just my .02

Now unless you want 2-3 Trackballs, 2-4 Spinners then thats a whole new ballgame.

[Flinkly]

well, if you can't make your own wiring harness, then the minipac is a bit expensive, but if you think that the minipac with the harness is the only one that supports the trackball and spinner, then your mistaken.  as for extra buttons, just wire them in as a shift button and another button, so if you get really carried away, you can double the button input.  i think i'm going to have to do that anyways.

also, you get two mouse buttons, so just wire those up as your extra buttons...so you really get 30 buttons for input, plus a trackball and a spinner.  if you buy your own wiring harness stuff, which you should since andy is just guessing with wire length, you just buy a pack of quick disconnects which is like 3 bucks, plus a spool of wire(cause if your real good, one color is all you will need).

[JODY]

I've got Oscar's board with the trackball wiring harness running on Windows XP with a USB mouse attached.

[Minwah]

I've never had any probs with Oscars' mouse hacks - I really rate them in fact.  IIRC Oscar has some info on his site with how to wire a trackball and spinner to one mouse hack at once, using a switch.  As said you could just use 2 mouse hacks also...

If you don't want your spinner/trackball to interfere with one another (ie if you have annoying mates who come along and spin whichever you're not using) then the OptiPac has a neat auto-select feature so only one works at once.  You may or may not need this feature.  If you like switching between trackball / spinner games very quickly then you have to wait for a short while for whichever control was last used to 'lose focus'.

[JODY]

If you think you may eventually want 2 trackballs or more than 2 spinners for multi-player games then the Optipac looks more attractive than if you only want 1 trackball or 2 spinners.

[AceTKK]

Thanks for the input Jody.  It's reassuring to hear that your trackball works well with the Oscar interface. 

I see your point about using two of the hacks with Windows; having the device order flipped upon Windows startup could be a major hassle.  I'd really like to get away with using just one mouse hack to control both devices.

Do you think it would be feasible to just twist the wires from the spinner together with those from the trackball's x-axis and connect both to the mouse interface?  Yes, I would have to avoid bumping / moving the trackball when playing spinner games and vice-versa but I don't think that will be too much of a problem.  Using a DPDT switch like the example shown on Oscar's site would alleviate the problem, but is a little less elegant.

Thanks again for everybody's input,

-Ace-

[JODY]

I think you'll have problems just twisting the data wires (axis wires) from the mouse and trackball together.

You can read some details on this site about how USB works:

[sodapopinski]

 

it depends on money or reliability.  now i'm not saying anything against oscars mouse hack, but different systems seem to react differently to the hack...and usually react in bad ways.  with the optipac, you know exactly how it's gonna work.  quite frankly, i'd get the minipac for 35 bucks plus shipping and you'll have all you need for your control panel...unless it's more than two player.

i just ordered the minipac. I'm not clear about the trackball. It supports the happs trackball, but how about the mouse buttons? are they wired of the trackball harness?

[Lilwolf]

When I think the opti-pac REALLY shines is on frankenpanels with both a trackball AND a spinner.

why? 

It shuts one down when using the other... So you don't have to worry about someone hitting the trackball when playing tempest.

Oscar mouse hacks are great.  I have 3 of them now and love them.