Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: ideft on April 30, 2007, 11:09:11 pm
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How hard is it to hook up a TurboTwist 2(a slave) to a Mini-pac?? I am assuming just splicing some wires. But I would like to be sure of this before I buy it.
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A spinner just has one optical board, so you just hook up each spinner to one axis. Basically the same as hooking a trackball up to the minipac.
EDIT: A TT2 is an all-in-one plug n play spinner - there is no need to go thru a minipac.
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I would like to go through a mini pac if possible. I was going to order the turbo twist 2(a slave-one without the optical board) just to avoid multiple circut boards in my CP.
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I am curious about this too. One advantage to hooking a spinner up to the mini-pac is if you have two optical devices (spinner and trackball) the mini-pac will disengage one optical device if you are using the other one. For example, if your playing tempest and are using the spinner, the trackball goes dead so you can hit it accidently and it won't disturb the game. This feature is great if you have a tight control panel or a lapbox type control panel where the optical devices might move if the cp is tilted.
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I know its not exactly the same, but I use the TT2 spinner in the slave version with an Optipac, and it works just fine. I would imagine that the Optipac and Minipac operate similarly. I have my trackball wired to the trackball input and spinner to the rotary input. It works very well, and just required me to strip a couple of wires to get it wired up. I would definitely recommend that configuration. My only problem is that sometimes I use the trackball to select games, so when I try to play arkanoid or tempest, I have to wait a few seconds to start using the spinner (not really a problem though).
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I am curious about this too. One advantage to hooking a spinner up to the mini-pac is if you have two optical devices (spinner and trackball) the mini-pac will disengage one optical device if you are using the other one. For example, if your playing tempest and are using the spinner, the trackball goes dead so you can hit it accidently and it won't disturb the game.
But recent versions of MAME map all mice independently, so if Tempest is mapped to the spinner (Mouse 2 X), moving the trackball (Mouse 1) will not have any effect regardless of interface.
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My only problem is that sometimes I use the trackball to select games, so when I try to play arkanoid or tempest, I have to wait a few seconds to start using the spinner (not really a problem though).
FYI, you can move a jumper around on the optipac to get rid of this delay. I didn't like it either. What would happen to me is in the middle of a game, between levels or something, I'd accidentally bump the trackball. Then the level would start and my spinner wouldn't move and I'd lose a man. If you're interested, I can look at my optipac when I get home and let you know which jumper (I can't remember).
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Are you using the harness on Minipac?
No Minipac harness:
1. The black Molex connectors on the TT2 (http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=268) fit on the pins that are on the bottom right of the OptiWiz. These pins look like like the same pins on the Minipac (http://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html). If they are the same, you just need to connect the black Molex connectors from the TT2 wire onto the Minipac.
2.If they don't fit, you'd need to either get new disconnects or solder the wires onto the Minipac
You are using the Minipac harness:
1.The white mini connector on the harness look a little bigger than the mini white connector on the TT2. If they are the same you could just plug the Minipac harness into the TT2. I'd double check the wiring diagrams before trying this.
2.You could definitely splice the wires together. This wouldn't be difficult.
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Thanks Tiger-Heli, I'm uprgrading mame from an older version in the next couple weeks. I was unaware that MAME now mapped all optical devices independantly and therefore I was dependant on the minipac to do the job for me. I'll look into that, thank you.
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so if MAME maps mice indepently then the switching between 2 devices ie.trackball and spinner is not really a problem??(this was one of my main concerns from the start) Also, the optic board that comes with the turbotwist 2, can you hook up a trackball to it?? on the x and y axis.(sorry a bit off topic)
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the optic board that comes with the turbotwist 2, can you hook up a trackball to it?? on the x and y axis.
I'll just lift my response from this other thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=66189.msg668980#msg668980):
Look at the TT2's OptiWiz. On the bottom right there are 5 sets of 2 pins. 2 for the x-axis, 2 for the y-axis, 2 for the z-axis and two sets of +5 and ground. You wire up one +5v and ground along with the x and y axes to the trackball. The TT2 gets the other power, ground and the z axis.
I'd recommend purchasing a cable from GGG (http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=261). Just tell Randy exactly what you're doing with it (Happ track ball to TT2 version of the Optiwiz). For $15 he customized one for me with the little black Molex connectors on the Optiwiz end and the big white Molex connector on the trackball end. You can see my thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65184.0) where I tried to make my own. And once again, you save on shipping.
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I am curious about this too. One advantage to hooking a spinner up to the mini-pac is if you have two optical devices (spinner and trackball) the mini-pac will disengage one optical device if you are using the other one. For example, if your playing tempest and are using the spinner, the trackball goes dead so you can hit it accidently and it won't disturb the game.
But recent versions of MAME map all mice independently, so if Tempest is mapped to the spinner (Mouse 2 X), moving the trackball (Mouse 1) will not have any effect regardless of interface.
Thanks Tiger-Heli, I'm uprgrading mame from an older version in the next couple weeks. I was unaware that MAME now mapped all optical devices independantly and therefore I was dependant on the minipac to do the job for me. I'll look into that, thank you.
No, no. MAME may map devices indepandantly, but the MiniPac does not. If you're running your TB and your spinner both through the same MiniPac, then as far as your computer and therefore MAME are concerned, there is only one device present. So, MAME cannot map to the spinner separately from the trackball. In order for MAME to see them as separate devices, they would have to be:
a) hooked up to two totally separate interfaces (two MiniPacs, a MiniMac and a mouse hack, an Opti-Wiz and a MiniPac, etc.);
b) hooked up to a single interface that appears to the computer as two mouse devices (OptiPac)
c) hooked up to a single interface that supports three independant mouse axes (Opti-Wiz)
If both the spinner and TB are hooked to a single MiniPac, then it will work as Juggle50 described.
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I think Kremmit is correct, but there was a recent post that said you can change a jumper to eliminate the delay on the Opti-Pac (both spinner and trackball would control the cursor in both MAME and Windows, then), don't know if this is true for the mini-pac as well or not.
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I checked last night. I mistakenly thought it was a jumper, but I think all I did was connect the spinner to player2 rotary and the trackball to player1 trackball per Andy's advice. There is no delay at all now. Both the spinner and trackball appear to MAME 0.114 as mouse1 however, which is a bit puzzling (I thought player 1 and player 2 were two different mouse devices).
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I just checked mine, there are no jumpers at all on the MiniPac.
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Hey ideft, I asked Randy that exact question, and yes, you can hook up a trackball to the optical inteface that came with the TT2.