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Zakk:
Just wired up the first of two minipacs I have.  Just thought I'd mention a couple of things I noticed:  The disconnects are too big for the standard microswitches, and the plug that is designed to be oscar-ready actually has to be modified a little bit.  

Now, with a wire crimper I bent in the disconnects so that they fit snug, and a quick shot with the dremel trimmed off the excess tabs on the plug, but I thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else was wondering 'hmmm?' when they went to do up their control panel.  It was -fairly- easy to follow the pinout sheet (after I printed it out...a pre-printed sheet would be very helpful with this product), and I had a panel with 2 players, a trackball and a spinner wired up inside of half an hour.  Would I buy one again?  Definitely, but perhaps Andy would like a little feedback on these issues from some BYOAC'ers before he officially offers the product on his site (for those of you who haven't seen it yet, it's a little hard to find: http://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html )

And so ends my tiny review :)

PaulG:
The crimping requirement is actually posted on his website.  And he has to do it this way, because how would he know what was being used for joysticks (which require them to be larger) and what is being used for buttons.

I suppose he could include 8 big ones and the rest small, but this would probably add unnecessary cost and cut down on user options.

mahuti:
Some of my "standard" microswitches are actually the larger kind, FYI.

Zakk:
Ah, strange though, all the tabs on my joysticks are the same size as the buttons, same cherry microswitches, just with different actuators.  Ah!  but I just looked at the joysticks from ultimarc, and they have the crazy big tabs!  Okay, now I'm catching on.  

 

Zakk:
Followup: I plugged it into a usb port and it fired right up...even went so far as to recognize it as a spinner and trackball! (which was unexpected).  So far a nifty product, I give it a thumbs up (as if that meant enything)  8)

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