MiniPac or mouse hack better for my needs?

[Texasmame]

I want to have a 2.5" trac and a 360 steering wheel (likely a Pole Position one) on the same cab.  No spinner, however.   So. . .

1. Am I better off going with an MiniPac or doing some sort of mouse hack?

2.  Are there any 2.5" tracs that are USB compatable out of the box?  Wanted to get an original Centipede trac but if there is a USB option out there, would likely go with that instead.

3.  I'm presuming any interface for a steering wheel would be handled the "same" as an interface for a spinner, since it's just a big spinner!   

4.  Any place to buy the old Oscar mouse hacks?  Guess they were about $10 or so when he was taking orders. . .

So, in all, for my first cab, looking at:

3 joys (2 dedicated 4 ways and one switchable 8/4 way)
1 steering wheel
2 pedals (gas, break)
1 trac
about 12 or so buttons, and that includes any 1P, ESC., etc. buttons.

From what I gather, an MiniPAC would take care of all this, correct?

AND lastly, neither of the panels will be swappable - plan on doing just a simple (?) two sided rotating panel for my first cab.  So perhaps USB doesn't matter much in the end. . .

TIA!

[Texasmame]

**wink, wink**  **nudge, nudge**

[NickG]

Hi.  If you live near Arlington,TX,  I know a store called ElectronicDiscountSales on Pioneer Pkwy. at Collins St. has $3.00 usb mice.  I bought one there and I hacked it to my spinner.  Also, I live up the street from that store and I have a white 2.25" trackball for sale.  It is PS/2, not usb.  If you'd like to buy it I'll help you hack mouse to it from down the street or something.     

[Texasmame]

Hmm. . . still don't know if I can do both a trac and steering wheel on same setup with a mouse hack, tho.  Guess I could mouse hack in a steering wheel, too.  They both have to be able to remain plugged in at the same time, but not necessarily USED at the same time.  Will a couple of mouse hacks, one for the trac and one for the wheel, allow for this?

[NickG]

Yes, by disabling one device in Device Manager and turning on the other one.  Another way is to attach a switch to the steering wheel and one axis of the trackball.  This is the cheapest way.  One $3 mouse, one switch and a discrete input device(encoder?) for your buttons and joys   OTOH that mini-pac looks so much easier to install/maintain, and it does that auto-sensing switching thing.

[Texasmame]

Ugh.  Thinking I'll go with a Minipac as it allows for the two to coexist.  Thanx for the offer, tho.