GP-Wiz40 or IPAC, which interface is best?

[UberCade]

Hey everybody, I'm still in the planning phase of my MAME cabinet, but I already have most of the materials purchased, and I'm trying to decide on an interface. I've been looking at the new GP-Wiz40 with Roto-X at GroovyGameGear and the I-PAC^4 at Ultimarc. I don't care much about the price, I just want the best possible interface for my setup. I'm building a 4-player control panel, and with all the buttons I'm going to be using I will need to purchase 2 of the GP-Wiz boards to have enough inputs, but I will be purchasing the eco boards because I have no problem soldering and they're cheaper than the screw terminal boards. I also will have 2 rotary joysticks so the Roto-X feature is appealing to me. The I-PAC^4 has enough inputs for me, but I would need to purchase a separate rotary joystick interface. I'm also going to be using two trackballs, although only one will be installed in the control panel itself because the only time I will be using two trackballs is on the rare occasion I want to have a Marble Madness showdown with somebody, so I plan to install one in a separate housing which will plug in to the main control panel via a molex connector. I'm also going to install one spinner. That means I will also need to purchase an optical interface, which would be either the Opti-Pac or the Opti-Wiz.

So has anybody actually been able to compare the two shops' interfaces? Does the I-PAC have any features the GP-Wiz doesn't have? Should I go with GGG or Ultimarc? Again price is not a consideration between the two, I just want the best my money will buy.

[opt2not]

I too would like to know!  *bump*

[ivwshane]

I'm partial to gpwiz's myself for their easy configuration as well as plug in play capabilities and multiple simultaneous button presses.

[genesim]

I LOVE my Ipac4.  It has been nothing but goodness for me.

I have never tried a GP-Wiz though..so I can only give you half of it. 

[Franco B]

I can't really comment on the interfaces but if you go with the GP-Wiz I would go for the screw terminal version if money isn't a problem for you. Not only will it be easier to initially connect your controls, it will also be 100x times easier if you have to do any maintenance etc.

[severdhed]

this seems to come up pretty often, and from just about every thread i have seen on the subject, we have never had a clear answer...and i think that is because that both Ultimarc and Groovygamegear make excellent products.    I have read alot of threads and have not seen anyone say " i had an ipac and it was crap" or "i had a gpwiz and it sucked"  those things just dont seem to happen.  while the two companies products do differ a little, they are both excellent products and you will probably be happy with either one.

i personally use two U360s, from ultimarc, which have supports for 8 buttons each, so i dont have any other encoder in my cabinet. (they work great by the way).  i do have an optiwiz that i use to run my Utrak and i am very happy with it.

my friend has an ipac4 in his cabinet and it has been great. after reprogramming a few of the inputs when we first set it up, it has worked flawlessly.  the only thing i would consider is are you going to be using PC games, or other emulators other than mame?  alot of emulators are not as configurable as mame is, and have hard coded calls to certain keys on the keyboard to perform specific actions.  (escape is often used as exit, and is not changeable)  that is where the Ipac has an advantage.  it shows up as a keybaord, so you can have one of the buttons mapped to Escape.  the gp wiz, shows up as a gamepad, so you would have to use a 3rd party app to translate gamepad input to keybaord mapping in order to get some of this stuff to work.  this is a problem i ran into when i switched from my x-arcade (keyboard encoder) to my u360s (gamepad).  i had a few pc games that i liked to play on my cabinet, but i cannot exit out of them because my buttons are all gamepad buttons

[jardine]

This is a must read IMO....http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=76828.0

I have the GP-Wiz40 and because i didn't want to hack off the wiring loom i had to buy the Ultimarc rotary interface with the GP to get it going. To say it then became a bit of a headache from there was an undertatment (no fault of the keywiz).

read, read and re read...then read some more. Also be aware that depending on how your cp is built, with the rotary joysticks from happ they were to long for my cp depth (if you know what i mean). So check this out before you build.

[isucamper]

I'll summarize some things I say in that long Rotary Joystick thread.  I started with an IPAC4, then switched to the GPWiz40 for the added rotary support for TinStar and Frontline.

Other than the rotary support, there was very little functional difference between the two.  The are very similar to hook up (screw terminals on both) and they both operate very similarly.  Hooked up and functioning, they act exactly the same and I wouldn't be able to tell the two apart if I had to guess. 

All that in mind, here's some things to consider:

1.  If you need more than 40 inputs, go with an IPAC4.
2.  The GPWiz is seen as a gamepad by your computer, which, for some emulators which prefer keyboard input, is not as functional.  You can get around this by running joy2key, which is what I do, but it's another app you've got to have running on your system.
3.  If you want rotary support, the GPWiz is the far cheaper solution.  An IPAC+Rotary interface will cost you around 100 bucks.  You get both in a nice package for $36 with the GPwiz.  However, as jardine states, if you have Happ Rotatry joysticks, you've got to cut off the nice wiring harness and connect each of the 12 rotary wires individually to the GPWiz.    Not an tremendous issue, but it's a lot more complicated than just plugging the harness into the Ultimarc interface.   Also remember, you get rotary support for Tin Star, Frontline, Wild Western, and Sherriff ONLY on the GPWiz (Ultimarc's interface doesn't support them).

[HanoiBoi]

Being new to this, I am trying to determine what the differences are between let's say and IPAC 4 and a KeyWiz.  I see a lot of folks posting 'reviews' rather than differences.  I understand that both are quality products, I just need to know what I will or won't be able to do with one or the other.

That said...reading this thread made me realize that I might not know what a rotary joystick, or 'rotary support' is (if they're the same thing).  I'm planning on a CP with 2 mag-stik plus joys, a spinner (most likely push/pull), a track ball and a flight stick (analog, I'm guessing)...this has been suggested; http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/50997000.htm   Do I need rotary support?


Anyone have a list of pros/cons, can's/cannot's for the boards out there?  

Oh, and I'm a Front Line fan too...