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My Arcade Shopping list - few newbie questions/ verifications
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Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: stoli7188 on April 30, 2007, 09:48:22 pm ---Also the spinner and trackball (links below) I am buying coming with either a PS2 or USB interface so that means there is no need for an optipac, correct?
--- End quote ---
Correct.

--- Quote ---Quite a few things require USB ports (guns, 360 joysticks, spinner/ trackball interface) will this cause some kind of interference issue- even if I have enough open USB ports?
--- End quote ---
Possibly - you will have problems if any two devices use the same controller circuit chip, and the same pair of USB ports - namely that the devices may swap positions (Joystick 1 becomes Joystick 2 on reboot).  The U360's allow you to specify a UID through software, which will avoid this, so your likely only conflicts are the TopGuns.  Plug each one into a different pair of USB ports on the motherboard and you shouldn't have any problems.

--- Quote ---The LCD TopGun WORKS with winxp and CAN have two guns working simultaneously, according to the research I've done.
--- End quote ---
AFAIK, yes, but I'm not certain of this.

--- Quote ----Trackball from http://www.dreamarcades.com/partstballs/white.shtml
--- End quote ---

Decent price on the T-ball, but I think Menace or others have used Happ T-balls for around $35 in the B/S/T forum.  The GGG Spinner that you switched to has a connection for these built in.

--- Quote ----Spinner from http://www.slikstik.com/spinfeat.htm
--- End quote ---
Recommend the TT2 spinner from GGG as Bfauska said also.

--- Quote ----Ipac 4 http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html
--- End quote ---
Saw this got changed to the I-PAC/2.  You might also consider either the KeyWiz or GP-Wiz from GGG as well.  Pretty much personal opinion and what features are important to you.  See http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/encoder/index.htm for my run-down of the options.

--- Quote ---One final question, the U360's connect via USB i believe and then the 2 Magstiks along with the rest of the buttons will connect to the Ipac4.  Once that is all set up I can configure it so the two U360's are P1 and P2 while the 2 Mag stiks are for P3 and P4, which is all done in the software/key mapping part?
--- End quote ---
Yes, basically.  You have three variables here:
1) What input you connect the buttons and joysticks to.
2) What key the input is programmed to send in software.
3) What key MAME is set up to receive.
For MAME it really doesn't matter what you do . . .
IOW - you can wire Button 1 to input P1SW1, and have it send L Ctrl, and everything will be fine.  You can also wire Button 1 to input P1SW5, re-program the encoder so P1SW5 sends "R" and remap MAME so P1B1 is "R" and that works fine also (but is a bear to keep straight for troubleshooting).
stoli7188:
hey guys thanks a lot for all the help, quick question about configuration now..

I am going to go with the GGG spinner, if I buy this with the Master config and the PS2 interface, does that mean I can hook up the PS2 trackball from dream arcades (as a slave) to the spinner interface card and connect both of these (trackball, n spinner) to the computer via one PS2 connection? 

I am pretty sure thats what you were saying Tiger but I just wanted to verify. thanks.
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: stoli7188 on May 01, 2007, 01:58:21 pm ---I am going to go with the GGG spinner, if I buy this with the Master config and the PS2 interface, does that mean I can hook up the PS2 trackball from dream arcades (as a slave) to the spinner interface card and connect both of these (trackball, n spinner) to the computer via one PS2 connection? 

--- End quote ---
Not exactly - The TT can be either USB or PS/2 mouse.  The DreamArcades is obviously PS/2 mouse with its own interface.

You only have one PS/2 mouse port.

You can either:

1)  Connect the TT spinner as USB and the DreamArcades as PS/2 mouse.
2)  Connect the TT spinner as PS/2 and one of Menace's Happ Trackballs to the TT Spinner using the same PS/2 mouse connection (through the TT spinner interface board).
3)  Remove the interface board from the DreamArcades Trackball and connect it to the TT Spinner using the same PS/2 mouse connection.  (You would have to figure out how to remove the PS/2 interface portion of the DA Trackball.)  This shouldn't be hard to do, but I don't know specifically how you would do it.  DA might also sell an arcade trackball with no interface, which would be an easier connection and should be cheaper, but I haven't checked into that.
4 and 5)  Connect the TT spinner as USB and either one of Menace's Happ T-balls or a modified DA t-ball (as above) to the TT interface and the same USB port.  (Not really recommended - unless you didn't have a PS/2 mouse port for some reason.)

Also keep in mind that options 3 through 5 require that the spinner operate as the Z-axis.  This is fine for later versions of MAME, but earlier versions didn't read the sensitivity of the Z-axis properly, and it could be a problem if you wanted to use the spinner to navigate your frontend or with non-MAME emulators.  Not likely to be a problem, but something to be aware of.
stoli7188:
hey thanks for the quick response, i decided to save myself some money and buy one of menace's happ trackballs and simply connect it to the TT interface which will plug into the PS2 port.

so basically I don't need any other connector or interface, just the Happ trackball from menace and I will be able to connect it to the TT interface?
scotthh:

--- Quote from: stoli7188 on May 01, 2007, 02:39:41 pm ---so basically I don't need any other connector or interface, just the Happ trackball from menace and I will be able to connect it to the TT interface?

--- End quote ---

Correct. Look at the TT2's OptiWiz in the attached picture. On the bottom right there are 5 sets of 2 pins. 2 for the x-axis, 2 for the y-axis, 2 for the z-axis and two sets of +5 and ground. You wire up one +5v and ground along with the x and y axes to the trackball. The TT2 gets the other power, ground and the z axis.

I'd recommend purchasing a cable from GGG. Just tell Randy exactly what you're doing with it (Happ track ball to TT2 version of the Optiwiz). For $15 he customized one for me with the little black Molex connectors on the Optiwiz end and the big white Molex connector on the trackball end. You can see my thread where I tried to make my own.  And once again, you save on shipping.
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