So if the Uhid nano and these others support more inputs, can I run my spinner and trackball off of this board as well?
Is there any benefit to separate interfaces such as the U-trak USB and Spintrak?
Should these be combined or left separate?
If I'm not mistaken, the USB board the U-trak & SpinTrak use is the u-hid nano (
might be non-reprogrammable versions, though). If you want to fit more than 4 axes (mouse, analog joystick, or digital need two pins per axis), you need either another nano, or the
full, 50 pin, u-hid model.
Why to keep them separate:
Mame supports multiple mice, and has problems with mouse Z axis. I'd suggest keeping at least the U-trak and the SpinTrak separate.
If you get the USB versions of the above, it works fine separately, and saves pins on the board you get for the analog joystick for other inputs (action buttons, admin buttons, digital joystick, analog sticks, etc).
You can only fit one analog stick and one U-trak on a nano; no buttons. if you went just the analog stick, and kept the U-trak separate, that leaves enough pins for 4 buttons. (Analog stick + spintrak leaves 2 buttons, and of course the u-hid full model has 50 pins, more than enough.)
Not sure if the U-trak & spintrak nanos are reprogrammable.
Why to join them:
Less USB cables between computter and CP.
Might save some money (but have not priced it out), if you don't get the USB versions of the u-trak/spintrak and put all on a u-hid. (Or if they're reprogrammable, get the USB version and reprogram it instead of getting another u-hid.)