Some encoding questions

[MarkF]

Sooo,  I am in the initial planning of my first cab.  Here's what I got going on so far.  I will be using the following:

2 - UltraStik 360's
1 - Tornado Spinner
1 -  Happ Trackball
28 - switches.
1 - 4-way / Rotary / flightstick - Not sure yet

I can connect 16 of the switches to the 360's and  2 switches used for mouse buttons to the Trackball.  That leaves 10 switches + the extra joystick to encode.

1) What would be the best option to encode these extra inputs (keywiz/ipac/minipac/...)

2) The 360's use USB, the Spinner uses USB/PS2, the Trackball uses USB/PS2, and the extra encoder uses USB and/or PS2.  If I use USB for everything am I going to run into problems.

3) Can I run all these USBs into a hub?

4)  Would it be better to get an encoder that accepts the extra switches + the trackball + the spinner and have only the 360's and the encoder going to the computer.

Whew! Lets work on these.... more to follow I am sure.

Thanks,
Mark

[MarkF]

After 2 1/2 hours of more research, I am going to try to answer my own questions.

1) I think I will go with a Ipac - I like the keyboard pass thru

2)  Wont be the case wont go USB for everything

3) Dont need a hub

4) The 360's will show up as gamepads with 8 buttons each and will be USB into the computer. The trackball and mouse buttons go to the PS2 mouse port of the computer.  The rest of the buttons and extra joy and keyboard go throught the ipac2 into the computer keyboard port.

[Tiger-Heli]

Glad you figured it out, but just to help others that may be debating this.

1) What would be the best option to encode these extra inputs (keywiz/ipac/minipac/...)

Personal preference based on features desired.

2) The 360's use USB, the Spinner uses USB/PS2, the Trackball uses USB/PS2, and the extra encoder uses USB and/or PS2.  If I use USB for everything am I going to run into problems.

You want to assign different UID's (can be done in software) to each U360.  (or plug them into different USB ports (pairs of connections)).  Also would apply if you had two of the same model and brand or trackball, two of the same model USB mouse hack, two same model GP-Wiz encoders (for the GP-Wiz, you need to specify this when you order them.)

3) Can I run all these USBs into a hub?

Yes, you might need a powerd hub depending on how many devices you are hooking up.

4)  Would it be better to get an encoder that accepts the extra switches + the trackball + the spinner and have only the 360's and the encoder going to the computer.

From your response, I assume you are using a PS/2 trackball (with built-in interface of some kind).  Otherwise, I think your question is whether you are better with the mini-pac or the I-PAC and an Opti-Pac/Opti-Wiz, etc.  This is also somewhat personal preference.  The mini-pac is a better value, but somewhat harder to wire up . . .

One thing to consider - The 360's can be used either as a gamepad or wired through the I-PAC.  You might want to check that any emulators you plan to use can accept gamepad inputs (either directly or through RBjoy or Joytokey, etc.), and then decide how to wire them up.  For MAME it won't matter.  If you wire them through the I-PAC, you lose 8 inputs, unless the sticks where included in your 28 above.