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minipac questions

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Bgnome:
you hafta pay extra for the wiring harness.  but it does come crimped and ready to go.

"pairing for more inputs" means that you can connect multiple minipacs/ipacs together.  this, however, is not as intuitive as it seems if you read a recent minipac thread..

megashock5:
Man, this is getting so confusing  ???

I was trying to follow the Project Arcade book. They mention having mouse buttons near the trackball as well as a couple of other administrative buttons - are these something that could be done with this "shift" funtion? (you'll have to pardon me, I don't really know how that works.)

I looked at the minipac diagram on Ultimarc's site - looks like it supports up to 8 buttons per player and I'm only going to have 6. I would assume that I could use the extras for things like pinball flipper buttons?

Also, is the regular iPac easier to hook up? You sounded like the screw-in type terminals were easier to deal with. I just don't know how much wire to buy or what kind of connectors, which is why the minipac looked so attractive. Plus the cost of an iPac *plus* the Optipac worries me.

My other problem is that my trackball is out of an old Centipede machine and I still don't know if I can hook it up to this.

Thanks so much for your help, everybody. I'm excited about this but I keep getting down about how hard this is going to be - never done any wiring in my life.

Knoxximus:

--- Quote from: Bgnome on August 13, 2004, 04:45:55 pm ---you hafta pay extra for the wiring harness.  but it does come crimped and ready to go.

"pairing for more inputs" means that you can connect multiple minipacs/ipacs together.  this, however, is not as intuitive as it seems if you read a recent minipac thread..

--- End quote ---

Naw, you only pay extra for the longer wires....it comes with the standard wiring harness.

Knoxximus:

--- Quote from: megashock5 on August 13, 2004, 04:46:23 pm ---Man, this is getting so confusing  ???

I was trying to follow the Project Arcade book. They mention having mouse buttons near the trackball as well as a couple of other administrative buttons - are these something that could be done with this "shift" funtion? (you'll have to pardon me, I don't really know how that works.)

I looked at the minipac diagram on Ultimarc's site - looks like it supports up to 8 buttons per player and I'm only going to have 6. I would assume that I could use the extras for things like pinball flipper buttons?

Also, is the regular iPac easier to hook up? You sounded like the screw-in type terminals were easier to deal with. I just don't know how much wire to buy or what kind of connectors, which is why the minipac looked so attractive. Plus the cost of an iPac *plus* the Optipac worries me.

My other problem is that my trackball is out of an old Centipede machine and I still don't know if I can hook it up to this.

Thanks so much for your help, everybody. I'm excited about this but I keep getting down about how hard this is going to be - never done any wiring in my life.

--- End quote ---

I never did any wiring wither, and when I first got my cab and looked at that bird's nest, I almost lost hope.  But once you start doing it, it's not that bad.  Kinda like how a music studio soundboard looks like a bunch of buttons and knobs, but once you learn that each "strip" is the same thing, it all makes sense.  I got confused when you said the 25 buttons thing.  If allyour gonna have is 2-joys, 6-8 buttons per player,a 4-way (that can "share" inputs) and the trackball and spinner, then you should be okay with the MiniPac.

Screw in terminals are better because if you hafta change an input or if you wire something wrong (which, as a 1st timer, you WILL), all you have to do is unscrew and re-screw, instead of clipping the wires to make already short wires shorter, and re-crimping them.

As far as buying wires, if your cab is used, the controls will already have wires hanging from them (hence, the "bird's nest").  If not, I think it's like 18-22 gauge wire will do the trick.

Shift function lets you use one button for 2 functions.  Like, if I hold down my Player-1 Start button and press player-1 button 1 (weak puch, so to say), I will "drop quarters" into the game.

Centipede trakball should work fine....minipacs use standard arcade trackball interfaces.

Bgnome:
Mini-PAC standard. Board only. Handles 28 switch inputs. with PS/2 keyboard cable $29       
Mini-PAC standard, with 28 switch harness plus ground harness and PS/2 cable. $46

that, to me, does not seem like the wiring harness is actually "included" when you purchase a minipac.  there seems to be a $17 difference there.. correct me if im wrong.

if you look at the wiring schematic, you will notice that there are 2 dedicated mouse buttons that do not count towards your number of inputs.
a shifted function allows you to press 2 buttons, the shift button (p1 start i think it is) and another button, to get a 3rd input like the shift button on a scientific calculator.  people generally use these as admin functions since you dont normally use them and it allows for less buttons on the cp.  there is also a way to wire a dedicated button to hit both the "shift" and an input to give you your shifted input, but this tends to get complicated and will shift any other button pressed as well.
so basically, with the minipac, you are looking at 8 inputs for joysticks, 2 inputs for player start, 2 inputs for player coin, 12 inputs for play buttons (6 per player or a 7th that is one of these doubled up, which is what the standard seems to be), and 4 admin buttons, not including the 2 mouse buttons.  if this does not suit you, nor do any variations on this theme, then the minipac is not the right choice for you.

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