Dave's Electronics

[SavannahLion]

http://dave.bit2000.com/

Anybody do business with him? It seems his two products are more narrowly focused than either Ultimarc or GGG offerings.

I see a few mentions of his site (most recent in January of 2007) but his site hasn't been updated since 2004.

I'm not planning to buy from him at this point. I'm just curious how his offerings compares with similar boards.

I spotted a link to his AKI board from a site that converted a Hang-On cab to a MAME cabinet. The site complains about the A-Pac not functioning correctly with the handle bar so he resorts to using an AKI. THe author does concede that his A-Pac is a prototype that's recognized as a G-Pac in Windows so it might be firmware issues or board configuration.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I've got an AKI, and an SJC (Dave's 49-way controller), but I bought both years ago.
Both function flawlessly.

I've hooked all kinds of stuff to the AKI (Star Wars yoke, analog joysticks, 270 wheel and pedals) and never had any problems with the hookup and function.

The SJC is a little outdated now that GGG came out with their controllers.
The user-mappable features on the GGG controllers are really nice, and a big step up over the SJC.

[u_rebelscum]

I got a couple AKI boards sometime in late 2005, IIRC.  (Tested it a lot; never finished that CP though yet )   He had the first analog interface that could do 5k (arcade standard) & 100k (PC standard) POTs, and the first 49-way interface.  The AKI still is comparable in features to other analog interfaces out there, IMO.

Personally, I like his product better than the original A-Pac that was out at the time, since no extra capacitors are needed, even though it has less buttons and no 8-way feature.  The newer analog-only apac v.2 looks like it doesn't need capacitors, either, but it doesn't have buttons, and GGG doesn't have an analog interface.

As NoOne mentioned, the GGG 49-way interface is more feature rich than the SJC.

I don't know if dave2000 is still around, though.

[blueznl]

Well, one could try to reach him 

[SavannahLion]

Personally, I like his product better than the original A-Pac that was out at the time, since no extra capacitors are needed, even though it has less buttons and no 8-way feature.  The newer analog-only apac v.2 looks like it doesn't need capacitors, either, but it doesn't have buttons,

I saw it mentioned elsewhere as well. What are the caps for in the circuit?

and GGG doesn't have an analog interface.

I thought their Opti-Wiz was the equivalent to the AKI and A-Pac. 

Well, one could try to reach him 

Not much point really since I don't intend on buying any controller at this moment.

[Kremmit]

and GGG doesn't have an analog interface.

I thought their Opti-Wiz was the equivalent to the AKI and A-Pac. 
[/quote]

Nope.  Opti-Wiz competes with Opti-Pac and Mini-Pac.  GGG doesn't have a competitor for the AKI or A-Pac.

[SavannahLion]

Thanks for the information. Would've saved me some head scratching.

[u_rebelscum]

Personally, I like his product better than the original A-Pac that was out at the time, since no extra capacitors are needed, even though it has less buttons and no 8-way feature.  The newer analog-only apac v.2 looks like it doesn't need capacitors, either, but it doesn't have buttons,

I saw it mentioned elsewhere as well. What are the caps for in the circuit?

The old way PCs read analog sticks hooked to the gameport was based on how long it took a cap to discharge, one per axis.  Each cap was charged through a POT; the lower the POT resistance, the more charged the cap, and the longer it told to discharge.  Usually a 5k POT needs a different cap than a 100k POT; and the APac is like this.  Not sure how AKI or APac v.2 do it, as they look solid state.

And FWIW, there are a lot of other analog interface products out there at the same level as AKI & APac, mostly for the flight sim & race sim crowds.  Many can do 5k and 100k POTs.  A few to look at BetaInnovations, FlightLink, and Precision to name a few.


And a little more back to the original subject, found a pretty good read on encoders vs POTs.