MiniPAC to SpinTrak - Don't have adapter. Need help

[mlalena]

I just got a MiniPAC and a SpinTrak but I didn't get the adapter:



The Ultimarc site doesn't specify which pins on the MiniPAC are X1 or X2.
MiniPAC Wiring info:  http://www.ultimarc.com/mp_inst.html
SpinTrak Wiring info: http://ultimarc.com/SpinTrak.htm

Also, there are a couple of inconsistencies that scare me.

• In the MiniPAC diagram from Ultimarc's site, I would have expected lines from J1 to J5 for pins 2 & 3 (X1 & X2), not 3 & 4 (X? & GND), making me think there is a mistake there. Not showing lines for the power and ground would have made it consistent with the two track ball connectors.
• Also, the site says pins 1 through 4 are Black. Blue, Green, Brown in that order
• In the picture, they are Black, Green, Brown, and Blue.
• The MiniPac I got shipped to me has them as Brown, Blue, Green, and Black.

There is a "1" indicator on the connector that is hard to see above. That is how I am determining Pin 1 in the connector.

Is this table below right, or are the Blue & Green pins on the MiniPAC backwards?

Spinner color	Connection	MiniPAC Color
Brown	+5Volts	Brown
Yellow	X1	Green
Green	X2	Blue
White	GND	Black

And, is my MiniPAC harness wired backwards?
Can power/ground be swapped?
Can I damage anything by swapping X1 & X2 or Power and Ground?
If not, I know power/gnd are the outer connectors and the data is the inner 2 connectors, so I can experiment if there is no chance of damage.

Please help.
Thanks

[BobA]

See if this thread helps http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90691.0

[mlalena]

Thanks for the link but it doesn't look like it will help.

In both the pin outs table and the pictures, he refers to X1 and X2 as "Spinner Data" without identifying which is X1 or X2.
The post also doesn't really settle the question of which side is power vs. ground.

[smalltownguy]

On my minipac, the outside pins were power and ground. Pin 1 was power, pin 4 was ground. From there, you just need to 'play' with the X1 and X2 (and Y1 and Y2) leads until you get the right movement.

For the record, your colors do match my colors. I'm not using the spinner header, as I do not have a spinner. But both of my trackball leads had power and ground on the outsides.

No, it won't matter if you hook them up incorrectly. Just to be safe, though, don't have anything else hooked up to your minipac, and don't test your setup on an expensive machine -- use an old machine for your testing. That way you won't ruin anything on the off chance that something does go up in smoke.

Hope this helps!

[BobA]

As long as your have your power and ground OK then the spinner data connections can be reversed if the spinner tracks in the wrong direction.  Same thing is done with trackballs to get the direction right.  If still uncertain use a VOM to check the 5V and GND before connecting.

[mlalena]

OK. So I plug in the Mini-PAC and get "USB Device not recognized". I figure I am missing drivers, so I take the voltage measurements. Looks like the documented pins #'s are correct - colors are wrong. On the Mini-PAC, Brown is +5V and Black is GND.

So now back to my "USB Device not recognized" issue. Looks like you aren't supposed to need drivers for the Mini-PAC. It uses standard windows drivers.

In the dialog, it shows the "USB Root Hub (2 ports)" is detected with "Unknown Device" and "Unused Port" shown under that.

Did some research and already tried:

• Let WinXP try to download new drivers - none found
• Unplugging, replugging in the driver - same/different port
• Uninstalling the driver, unplugging, plugging back it
• Tried the above with the harness unplugged
• Tried with no other USB devices connected - in case it was a power draw problem
• Tried it on another computer with no harness

Nothing has worked. No LEDs light up on the MiniPAC.

Both computers are Windows XP Pro 32 bit. Have used USB mice and keyboards with both computers previously.

The problem occurred before I checked the voltage, so I didn't short the board when I did that. Based on the input from "smalltownguy" the voltage worked on the first pins I checked.

Any ideas?

[smalltownguy]

My guess is Windows probably attempted to install an incorrect driver on auto-detect, and now it's 'stuck' in the registry.

Send an email to Andy Warne, his email address is on the Ultimarc website. He's very good about getting back to requests, and very helpful. He'll be able to get you up and running.

http://www.ultimarc.com/

[BobA]

Did you move the jumper to USB?   PS2 is the default setting.

[mlalena]

I see jumpers on the pic on the web site, but my board doesn't have them.
Just a couple of resistors and diodes instead. Maybe this is a new version.

I will email Andy.

[mlalena]

Final update: This was the wiring that ended up working (in case anyone doing a search finds this thread):

Spinner color	Connection	MiniPAC Color
Brown	+5Volts	Brown
Yellow	X1	Blue
Green	X2	Green
White	GND	Black