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about to make my first parts purchase
clickhea:
i noticed that ggg has a cable which from what i understand allows a trackball to interface with the turbotwist 2 spinner, would i be better off going this route, and just switching to a ipac?
or would i be better off getting the ipac, and than an optipac to interface with my trackball, and just use the turbotwist interface board to take care of the spinner it self.
clickhea:
damn.. replies are slow today :hissy:
Pops:
2 U360's will cover the joysticks and up to 16 buttons.
The minipac will give you 2 joysticks and 16 buttons (pos 18, not certain), trackball, spinner and two mouse buttons.
Using both gives you 2 sticks and up to 34 buttons, trackball and spinner.
3 usb's to connect all the items.
To light the buttons - other than aways on - you'll need another encoder the minipac won't do on it's own. I think.
Check out other encoders and optical encoder in combination with the U360's.
But first decide on how many inputs you need, then see what encoder combination will cover that for the least cost.
Also I don't know if the 360's have a shift function, check that out, it may cover the admin buttons.
protokatie:
Odd that I just noticed this thread, since I have JUST (as in 5 minutes ago) made my first cab parts order.
I got the minipac regular (no need for spinner/trackball support for me)
Plus some esticks and a bunch of the usual buttons..
I decided to go with esticks for my first cab since they are.. well easy to install, and I am green at all of this.
Also, I am going to have to have a shift button that is dedicated (and have p1 start be mapped to another unused button) as well as a dedicated pause button. unfortunetly I will have to have the esc button be used while holding down on the shift button. So here is the question, can I map the esc in the minipac to be the p1start/shift button and still have it behave properly?
(IE will pressing and holding down on it make it do a shift and an escape, or just the shift?)
DeLuSioNal29:
I used GGG for all of my parts, so here's some info.
Spinner: Comes with it's own interface, so there is no need to plug it into the Trackball with another cable. GGG just offers the option of the interface cable if you are installing a spinner that does not have it's own interface built in. Again, the TT2 spinner comes with its own interface and it is USB. In Win XP, etc... Plug it in and bingo, no drivers needed. Nice and simple. (choose USB device # 1)
Trackball (I got the ICE T model): Comes with it's own interface, so again, there is no need to buy any other interface cards. It is USB (choose USB device # 1). It will not conflict at all with the Spinner. Win XP will detect it with no drivers needed.
My quick comments on the ICE T model - A) It looks cool lit up. B) It comes with the Trackball Booster Kit pre-installed - which will upgrade the trackball's performance and precision. C) It comes with it's own interface board (USB) and is plug and play. It may be sold out, but I would contact Randy T (owner) to see when it will become available. It's worth the wait.
A word on device #'s. You should usually always select device # 1 when ordering. The other device #'s are there in case you want to order multiple trackballs, spinners etc running from the same interface.
As far as lighting up the buttons with LED's - You'll need the LED Wiz to do that. Encoders only control the keyboard/joystick interface. However, GGG does make a LED Wiz+GP, which has the LED Wiz for LED's and 16 inputs and outputs for controls. It's the best of both worlds. But again, it all depends on how many controls and buttons you are installing.
One last thing. GGG stocks Happ Controls and buttons as well.
Hope this helped.
~ DeLuSioNaL