some confirmation of controls please

[night]

ok, after many hours of reading the faq put together by Citzn, ive settled on 2 happ optical rotaries, 1 happ 3" hi ball (ouch), 1 oscar pro spinner, and 2 happ supers (for 3 and 4).

all tied together with an ipac and optipac (in serial).

all of it is pretty basic, but my table top box, i used snes pad hacks. but the soldering was a huge pita and i wanna move from that. im just not to terribly confident of this 'higher end' stuff yet. although i think my only concern is the oscar. it will wire right up to the opti right ?


my first cab was off lusids plans. i threw it together last weekend as a prototype to guage size and what i want done. gonna give it to a friend for his new house. my 2nd im gonna start this weekend and it will be much more custom. im going for the cool factor, but it may be tough competition from 1up's. will be just a matter of taste though

[rampy]

Hey man... sounds like you did most of your research! Good job for making the effort there (not everyone does)

Although I'm confused as to what your actual question is, is?

If you want some encouragement that you've picked parts that will work well together (and you shouldn't need soldering this go around w/ipac/4 and opticpac).

The only thing I wonder is if you should consider getting the USB optipac instead of teh serial ---> but that assumes you are NOT setting up a DOS based cabinet of course.

You'll probably want to use MAME ANALOG+ variant to maximize control over all of your rotating/spinning/trackball devices =P

Good luck with your projecT!
Rampy

[AlanS17]

Well you shouldn't really NEED a USB optipac unless you've got 2 trackballs going at the same time since you can split the optical rotaties into seperate X and Y axis. Theoretically a serial ipac should do just fine.

That being said, I'd probably go ahead and get the USB optipac just in case.

I'm noticing how long the optical rotaries are, though. Make sure your control panel is deep enough.

[night]

i just want to make sure i dont order all this then not have everything work together right and need to order something else.

i was wanting the serial so i dont have to mess with analog+. and it will be a windows cab. i will use it for music, d/l station, maybe some lan games when a friend comes over, etc.

the way yall are talking though, the USB has differences beyond just the 2P limit?

[night]

oh ya, does the x-arcade use an ipac ?
i found one local for cheap, and i wanted to scrap it for parts to save some money

[rampy]

oh ya, does the x-arcade use an ipac ?
i found one local for cheap, and i wanted to scrap it for parts to save some money

It uses it's own propietary encoder interface.  Unless it was super cheap you're probably best just getting the stuff you need in one lump from ultimarc.  

The x-arcade encoder works fine (and has the ability to use different consoles via adapter plugs) from what I understand... but if you are ordering an opticpac from ultimarc anyways you'll do best to save on shipping by getting what you need in one go.

*shrug*...  you CAN use it if you want - but it's a matter of preference.  You can buy the sticks for 5.95 each direct from x-arcade and 20 buttons for like 10 bucks so the parts you'd save from gutting one is negligible (save for the encoder)...

The x-arcade buttons/sticks are functinoal but a little bit chincy (although I use them on my cab without issue)

it's a preference thing as to which step you want to take next.

Rampy

[night]

well, it wouldnt be for mine. would use it for the 2P cab i made for my friend.

hmmm... he wants 100 for it. but maybe that is still a bit much to come out ahead.

[night]

anyway, why is it that yall recommend the USB. i wanted the serial so i wouldnt have to mess with arcade+.

i thought besides that they were the exact same thing