The MiniPac. (Again)

[D_Harris]

Ok, I'm sitting here with two MinPacs.

Since the diagram on the Ultimarc site is confusing, has anyone here documented the steps or know of a website that covers these?

I have IDE cables but the wiring is extremely thin, and I was hoping to find out how others managed with this. I don't know if my wire stripper will strip anything this tiny.

I want to attach those wires to a terminal block.

Also, on the PCB itself the odd numbers(1 to 40) are silk-screened down the side edge, and I wanted to ask if these numbers represent the inside row of pins.

Laslty, the two output connectors(PC & KBD) on the board are the same as that of a keyboard/mouse connector(female) on a computer. But what kind of cable has that kind of connector on one end and a USB connector on the other?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[protokatie]

I have a minipac but also got the wire harness for it. I would recommend getting the wire harness and then connecting 22 gauge wire to the end sockets on the harness. It would be much easier to connect to anything than using tiny IDE wires.

Also on top of that, the diagram for the pins for the minipac are based on the wire colors of the harness, making it easy to see what each wire is for, without any guesswork.

[AndyWarne]

The wires from a Mini-PAC would not normally be connected to a terminal block. Is there some special need for this? You can crimp spade terminals onto ends of IDE cable wires and connect directly to the switches.
To crimp IDE wires, you can strip the end, then fold back the stripped part and crimp the terminal onto the folded stripped end and the end of the wire itself.
The wiring harness is neater though...
The USB cable supplied with the Mini-PAC does have a DIN at one end and USB at the other.
Andy

[D_Harris]

The wires from a Mini-PAC would not normally be connected to a terminal block. Is there some special need for this? You can crimp spade terminals onto ends of IDE cable wires and connect directly to the switches.
To crimp IDE wires, you can strip the end, then fold back the stripped part and crimp the terminal onto the folded stripped end and the end of the wire itself.
The wiring harness is neater though...
The USB cable supplied with the Mini-PAC does have a DIN at one end and USB at the other.
Andy

OK, then I just have to find the cables these MiniPacs came with.

I came up with the terminal block idea because the control panel is actually one of two I have that came with the SuperNova: http://www.massystems.com/SuperNOVA.html

And these control panels have 12 foot long cables that have parallel port connectors.

So rather than hack up the control panel, which I'd still want to use with the SuperNova, I figured I'd either add extra wires to the already wired switches inside the control panel and connect them to one side of a terminal block, and then the MiniPac/IDE cable to the other.

The other option was to not touch anything inside the control panel at all, but figure out a way to add a parallel port female connector to an IDE cable. This would plug into the end of the control panel's parallel port connector and serve as an adaptor for the MiniPac, which would be outside of the control panel in it's own little box.(But I'm concerned that the control panel cable is 12 feet long).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[D_Harris]

The wires from a Mini-PAC would not normally be connected to a terminal block. Is there some special need for this? You can crimp spade terminals onto ends of IDE cable wires and connect directly to the switches.
To crimp IDE wires, you can strip the end, then fold back the stripped part and crimp the terminal onto the folded stripped end and the end of the wire itself.
The wiring harness is neater though...
The USB cable supplied with the Mini-PAC does have a DIN at one end and USB at the other.
Andy

Ok, I had gone with a couple of Hydrogen controllers I had because just soldering leads to the PCBs was an easier solution than figuring out how to hook up the MiniPACs.

So to get back on track. I didn't get cables with the MiniPACs because my calculations determined they were not long enough for what I needed.

Now since the only solution left is using regular IDE cables the problem is that my wire strippers can only strip as small as 20 gauge and these look smaller than that.(But correct me if I'm wrong). And the IDE wires are just too flimsy anyway. That's the reason I figured connecting them to a terminal block situated close by would be the way to go. (Providing I can get that far).

Now I'm looking for a stand-alone solution, meaning I want to house the miniPACs in their own little small box.

So what I'm aiming for would look something like this:

Control Panel: Inside the wires will be attached to the switches with quick-disconnects, and will run to a female DB-25 connector secured on the outside on the control panel encasement.

There will be a DB-25 cable with male connectors at both ends between the control panel and the MiniPac project box.

MiniPAC: The MiniPAC will be inside of a project box with a terminal strip. One or two female DB-25 connectors will be secured on the outside of the project box and the wires will run to the terminal strip inside. The leads of an IDE cable will run from that terminal strip to an IDE connector plugged into the MiniPAC.

One or two DIN/USB cables plugged into the MiniPAC will run from the project box to the USB connection of the Computer.

Now all this assumes that I can figure out a way to connect 18G or 20G wires to a "DB-25 connector".

*** I hate the cluttered look of many of these custom control panels and this is the only way to use different control panels with a single MiniPAC.

Any thoughts?

P.S.: I have to find the cables that came with the miniPACs, but wanted to ask if something like these would also work: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400021502146

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Bender]

one thing I noticed is the numbering on my Mini-Pac is the opposite of the wiring diagram from the Ultimarc website, but the wire colors are correct so I figured it out, also in the diagram the connection is below the line under the name

[AndyWarne]

The converter will not work because that will convert PS/2 to USB signals and will not do it well enough for gaming. The Mini-PAC is a USB device so does not need any signal conversion. This will work:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PS2-KEYBOARD-MOUSE-TO-USB-PORT-CONVERTER-ADAPTER-FOR-PC_W0QQitemZ380100461920QQihZ025QQcategoryZ41993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Connecting to DB25 would be very easy. Just use a crimp DB25 connector which will crimp right onto the IDE cable. You might need two of course so you would need to split the IDE cable into two sections which is no problem.

This way you dont need to strip the wires, but if you do, then you dont need a stripping tool to strip these, they are thin enough to just strip with thumbnail.

The numbers on the board refer to the pins the numbers are closest to.

Andy

[D_Harris]

The converter will not work because that will convert PS/2 to USB signals and will not do it well enough for gaming. The Mini-PAC is a USB device so does not need any signal conversion. This will work:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PS2-KEYBOARD-MOUSE-TO-USB-PORT-CONVERTER-ADAPTER-FOR-PC_W0QQitemZ380100461920QQihZ025QQcategoryZ41993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Connecting to DB25 would be very easy. Just use a crimp DB25 connector which will crimp right onto the IDE cable. You might need two of course so you would need to split the IDE cable into two sections which is no problem.

This way you dont need to strip the wires, but if you do, then you dont need a stripping tool to strip these, they are thin enough to just strip with thumbnail.

The numbers on the board refer to the pins the numbers are closest to.

Andy

Thanks.

Ok, so I'm assuming that this is what I need:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260352610826

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220352176179

Problem is that I'd still need some sort of cable to reach the USB port of the computer.

Also, to get this straight, all I'd need to find are male and female DB-25 connectors. Then I can use IDE cables with the IDE connectors cut off, correct? Though I suspect normal DB-25 cables with male connectors on both ends are the best option for linking the CP, PB, and PC together. So all I'll need beside those are the IDE cables and female connectors that will go on them.

BTW. That diagram at your site does need some re-working. It's difficult to understand when you first look at it.

Thanks a lot.

P.S.: I remember these MiniPACs made it here to New York in something like two days after ordering, which is amazing because I wouldn't get a delivery here that fast if I mailed something to myself. 

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[AndyWarne]

Those are the correct adaptors. You should have had at least one cable with the Mini-PAC, this might be a PS/2 male-male which you can use.

Take a look at this:  http://www.ultimarc.com/Mini-PAC%20Manual1.pdf

This is an old manual which was written by someone else, and shows the older version of the board, but the wiring information might help.

Andy

[D_Harris]

Ok. I just picked these up: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=180282704904

Evidently, there is a difference between DB25 and db25. 

Nevertheless, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the best way to connect from "female db25" to terminal strips.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.