How many Trackballs and Spinners can connect?

[RubbrDug]

I am building a control panel with Trackball from Happ and Spinner from Oscar. I have an Opti-PAC Controller from www.ultimarc.com. So far so good.

When I placed my order at Happs I all of a sudden decided to go for rotating Joysticks. Now I have a Trackball, a Spinner and two rotating Joysticks to wire up.

No problem for the Opti-PAC if you go for MAME Analog+ and Win98 or WinMe. But it seems to be a problem if you use WinXP/Win2000.

Does anybody have an Solution or a hint where to go? Only idea that comes to my mind is to make a switch between rotary Sticks and Spinner.

Thanxalot,

RubbrDug

[shmokes]

Here's my understanding:

Optipac can handle 2 trackballs and 4 spinners or rotary sticks at one time.  It can be any compination of spinners and rotary sticks (e.g. 1 spinner 3 sticks, 2 spinners 2 sticks, etc.).  I think that you can only use 2 trackballs at once in Analog Mame in Windows 98.  In WinXP/2000 you can use only one mouse device at a time.  You can, however, use two spinners or two rotary joysticks at the same time in Windows XP/2000 by setting one to use the X axis and one to use the Y axis (at least I think that's how it works).  You can have it all hooked up at the same time and the Optipac will sense which one is being used when you start using it (i.e. if you quit using spinners for about 10 seconds and then rotate the rotary joysticks the Optipac will quit sending info from the spinners and start sending info from the sticks to your computer).

I hope you got the Happ optical rotary sticks if you want to interface with the optipac, though.  The mechanical rotary sticks (of the type used in Ikari Warriors) will not interface with the Optipac.  The optical rotaries have a smooth spin (like a spinner) while the mechanical rotaries have 12 distinct stops as you rotate the stick where it "clicks" into place.  If you want to interface mechanical rotary sticks you must use Druin's Mechanical Rotary Stick Interface or design your own.  I purchased a Druin interface about three weeks ago and it ran me $50 including shipping from Canada to the U.S.  It was shipped immediately and arrived about a week later.  Can't tell you how well it works yet as I'm just beginning construction on my cab this week (Happ order won't get here until Thursday or Friday).  People seem to be very happy with the Druin interface in general from what I've read, though.

Disclaimer:  This is all theoretical.  I haven't done any of it.  Like I said I am about to start work on my cabinet this week.  It's going to be my first set of arcade controls for Mame.  I apologize in advance for any misinformation and hope that someone with more experience corrects me where I have misspoke.

[RubbrDug]

Thank you shmokes for the reply.

Solely I fear this didn't bring me any farther, because I have

1 Trackball,
1 Spinner and
2 rotary Sticks

So I can connect 1 mouse (the trackball) and for the second mouse i.e. the 2 Sticks (as X- and Y-axis). But where to go with the Spinner?

And yep, I bouht the optical rotary sticks. I wouldn't exactly describe the feeling when rotating them as "spinner-like": Due to the inner resistance they don't rotate freely, but you can twist them very easy. If someone else is planning to use them, watch out for the inner height you need in your control panel. I don't have them in mind right now, but dimensions are on the happ-site. As a rough guess, I would say they are very much like an iceberg: two third are under the surface  

So this evening I will continue the wiring of my control panel, but leave the Opti-PAC out.

RubbrDug

[shmokes]

So I can connect 1 mouse (the trackball) and for the second mouse i.e. the 2 Sticks (as X- and Y-axis). But where to go with the Spinner?

The spinner will hook up the same as the rotary sticks.  The Optipac will just pay attention to which one is idle and which one is being used and send that information to the computer.  So if you're using you rotary sticks and decide you want to play a spinner game just quit using the sticks and start using the spinner and voila...Optipac does it's magic.  It will quit sending info from your rotary sticks to your computer and start sending info from your spinners.  I believe that it takes like 10 seconds or something to reset so if your using the spinner and you accidentally bump the rotary sticks no problem.  I could be wrong about that last bit, but I'm sure you can hook all this stuff up at once.

[RubbrDug]

Seems like I slowly get it I read this in the documentation but maybe I didn't understand the full meaning at first glance. In the meantime I finished wiring the Buttons & Sticks. I will continue like you recommend it and hopefully this will be ok   .

Thanxagain,

RubbrDug

[SirPoonga]

You can do what you want in XP.

With the optipac.
Make the trackball connections as normal.
put the spinner on rotory 1.
put the first rotory joystick on rotory 1 (assume optical joy)
put the second on rotory 2.

You can only use one optical devise at a time (note I am refering to BOTH joysticks as ONE devise)

[RubbrDug]

This finally is it!