iPac vs GP-Wiz

[gryhnd]

My upright cab uses an X-Arcade Tankstick, mostly because I had a time limit and didn't have the luxury of researching all my joystick, button, trackball and encoder options.

However for the future cocktail cab, I'll be rolling my own.

I've heard great things about both the iPac and GP-Wiz encoder products and have decided it will be one of the two. However I wanted to solicit opinions from the peanut gallery first before deciding.

Please keep any rivalry civil, and more pointedly: to the facts as you know them.

Thanks in advance gang!

If this is too O.T. for the Gx forum, please spank me Tom and go ahead and delete

[bkenobi]

I can't compare since I've only ever owned GP-Wiz products. They work fine. RandyT has provided good support when needed. For reference, I own a GP-Wiz32 and a GP-Wiz32RX.

[lingpanda]

  gryhnd said:

My upright cab uses an X-Arcade Tankstick, mostly because I had a time limit and didn't have the luxury of researching all my joystick, button, trackball and encoder options.

However for the future cocktail cab, I'll be rolling my own.

I've heard great things about both the iPac and GP-Wiz encoder products and have decided it will be one of the two. However I wanted to solicit opinions from the peanut gallery first before deciding.

Please keep any rivalry civil, and more pointedly: to the facts as you know them.

Thanks in advance gang!

If this is too O.T. for the Gx forum, please spank me Tom and go ahead and delete

+1 for the i-pac. Although I've never used or owned a GP-Wiz. Install and setup was easy. Purchased a few years ago. Still going strong. PS2 adapter worked great with it.

[iano]

  bkenobi said:

I can't compare since I've only ever owned GP-Wiz products. They work fine. RandyT has provided good support when needed. For reference, I own a GP-Wiz32 and a GP-Wiz32RX.

I have an ipac and i'm very happy with it. Both Groovygamegear and Ultimarc make quality stuff.

[gryhnd]

Thanks everyone. I went with GGG's GP-Wiz40 MAX USB today.

It was really a toss up still b/w GP-Wiz and the iPac, but Groovy Game Gear had some other items I couldn't due without (like the TurboTwist 2 spinner and the NovaGemCDR buttons), so I combined everything in to one order. Plus RandyT over there got back to me the same day I sent a question in...can't beat that kind of service.

So soon I'll have most of the bits and pieces together and should be able to start building the cocktail unit in the near future.

BTW, the X-ARCADE TRACKBALL is currently 1/2 price ($49.95), which $10 cheaper than their "Trackball Assembly" DIY unit (and you get more buttons to boot). I am going to gut it and put everything in my own CP. If you've been looking for a t.b. for your cab, this might be the time.

No connection, just a happy Tankstick customer.

[gryhnd]

It's Christmas! Ok, well, my birthday is next week, so "It's my birthday!".

All the goodies from Groovey Game Gear arrived today. Quite exciting! I left everything wrapped but couldn't resist taking out the Turbo Twist. Wow! What a nice piece of equipment.

The X-Arcade trackball arrived last week. Unfortunately the ball itself had a deep scratch in it, but Xgaming sent out a replacement right away, and that is supposed to arrive today too.

So I guess I'll have to start making some time to get out to the the shop to begin the cocktail cab. The weather is finally starting to warm up here in N.E....well occasionally anyway.

[bkenobi]

I know you already chose your stuff for your build, but I was curious if anyone reading this has played around with the U-HID from Ultimarc yet? I was eying it when it came out and noticed that the LED-Wiz plugin supports it. It looked affordable especially for how flexible it is, so I'm hoping it can do great things!

http://www.u-hid.com

[Mayhem]

  bkenobi said:

I know you already chose your stuff for your build, but I was curious if anyone reading this has played around with the U-HID from Ultimarc yet? I was eying it when it came out and noticed that the LED-Wiz plugin supports it. It looked affordable especially for how flexible it is, so I'm hoping it can do great things!

http://www.u-hid.com

I have a Uhid. It very good. It just a Convert any thing to USB realy lol.

Leds to USb / Roller ball / Spinner , basicly any thing can be used ...

The biggist problem with it though is i wish it used screw on connectors insted of the pins.

[bkenobi]

That's one thing about RandyT's stuff that I really like. The screw down terminals cost a bit more, but they are definitely much nicer than pins. On the other hand, you can always connect the pins to terminal blocks and get the same effect for much less money. It's not nearly as slick, but it should work fine.

If I didn't have a GP-Wiz32 sitting in a box, I would probably buy one of these for the next project. Actually, I wish he had these when I built my driving cab because the Joystick hack I used for the pedals was a bit of a pain. I could have just connected the steering wheels and the pedals all up to this one device and been golden. The cost is a bit more than what I spent, though (I only have 6 buttons, so most of the connections would have been wasted).