FIXED! (New Happ arcade trackball quickly stops working in Y-axis direction)

[unclet]

I bought a brand new Happs 2-1/4" arcade trackball (two "green" optic boards) from Ebay and connected it to a hacked USB mouse.  I connected the trackball to the USB mouse hack via a serial cable connector so I can disconnect the two parts if I needed to in the future.  

The first time I plugged in the mouse to test the trackball I found that the X-axis worked fine but the Y-axis did nothing.  A quick look at the PCB resulted in me seeing the molex 4-pin connector was not on correctly.  The connector was shifted over by one pin so the red power wire was sending 5V to through the wrong pin on the optic PCB.  As a result, the Y-axis PCB got very hot.   The guy from Ebay was nice and sent me a replacement optic board which I then installed, however I now have a new problem.

When plugging in my USB mouse the trackball works fine in both the Xaxis and Yaxis direction.  However, the Y-axis movement stops working in about 15 seconds.  I can connect the trackball USB mouse hack into the computer and roll the trackball up/down and see my WinXP mouse cursor go up and down.  While rolling the trackball up/down the movement starts to deteriorate until it hardly works at all going up/down. The X-axis (left/right) remains working no problem all the time.

The trackball USB mouse connection is connected directly to the computer (ie: no USB HUB).

Any ideas what is going on?  Do I have a bad mouse hack, bad Y-axis PCB board or something else?

I either want to buy another optic PCB board for the Y-axis or get rid of the mouse hack altogether and use something like an OptiWiz.

[unclet]

I connected my trackball USB mouse hack to another computer and it works fine forever.  The Y-axis never goes bad.   What the heck does this mean?

Is there a problem with me sending 5V through one of the thin serial cable wires?   Also, I have one 5V wire coming from the hacked mouse PCB and this one wire gets split to provide 5V to both PCBs of the trackball.  Not sure if this matters somehow.

Ugh, I have no idea what is going on here.

[unclet]

If I disconnect\reconnect my serial cable connectors (connecting the trackball and the USB mouse hack together) then the Y-axis starts working for a bit but eventually stops working again.   

I was thinking about getting rid of using the serial cable as a connector and simply wire the trackball directly to the mouse hack to see if this fixes the problem, although before I go through the trouble of doing this I want to understand why the trackball mouse hack works fine on my other computer in my house all the time.

Perhaps my power supply in my arcade computer is causing this problem?

[ubiquityman]

Try this:

1. Switch the optical boards for the X & Y and see if the problem follows the boards or if it stays with the Y-Axis.

a. If it swaps to the X, then it's a Happ optical board issue.

b. If it stays with the Y, then it might be a mouse controller problem.
If you can, next swap the X & Y connections on the mouse controller.
If the problem stays with the same axis, then you have a mouse controller problem.
If the problem switches axis, then you have an optical transceiver problem.  (not the red board, but the IR transmitter/receiver)

[unclet]

I swapped the molex connectors (ie: reconnected them to the opposite PCB boards) and the problem remains on the Y-axis, so I guess this means my trackball and optical boards are working properly and the problem is with the mouse (or mouse hack) somehow, correct?  If this does mean it definitely is the mouse then I am not sure it is worth my time trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with the USB mouse hack.  I might just get an Optiwiz and call it a night.  I just want to make sure before I spend more money.  So, are you saying that since I switched the trackball molex connectors to the opposite PCB boards and saw the problem stays with the Y-axis then it must be my mouse having the trouble?

I still do not understand why the trackball and USB mouse hack connection works fine on my other computer all the time.  How can this be explained?

[unclet]

Found out what is causing the problem

I had a USB Hub connected to the computer in which I had connected a Tornado Spinner and a mouse hack spinner as well.   When I then plugged in my trackball to the computer directly it worked for a bit but then stopped on the Y-axis.   If I disconnected the USB Hub (ie: removing the Tornado spinner, mouse hack and USB Hub) then the trackball worked fine all the time.   This explains why on other computers the trackball worked fine.

I then started playing around and figured that if I connect the USB Hub by itself without anything connected to the Hub, then the trackball did not work again so I guess my problem is that the current power supply I have installed in the PC cannot support the USB Hub and Happ trackball mouse hack together.

I am assuming I have a 250Watt (or 300Watt) power supply in my arcade PC and I guess I need to get a stronger one.   The power supply is currently powering two hard drives, one CD ROM drive and a USB Hub which has a Tornado spinner and a mouse spinner hack connected.   I guess this was too much stuff for the old PC to handle.

I am assuming a new power supply would fix this problem .... do you all agree?

PS:  For now, I can get away with plugging my trackball and Tornado Spinner directly into the PC and they are working.   I might just forget about connecting my mouse spinner hack to the PC at all and then I will not need to buy anything.

[ubiquityman]

It's possible, but maybe you have a bad hub and not a bad power supply?

[surface tension]

I would agree that it sounds like the hub rather than the PSU.

The difference in current drawn with and without the mouse hack/trackball would be low compared to components in your PC under light/heavy load.

[unclet]

OK, I will try to get a new USB Hub and see what happens.

[unclet]

Ugh    

I plugged my Trackball plugged directly into my arcade computer without anything else connected via USB and everything was working fine.   I left the computer on all night just so I could test it in the morning to make sure it still worked fine.  To my surprise, the trackball Y-axis did not work again.  This time there was no USB Hub, no Tornado spinner and no mouse spinner hack plugged into the computer at all.  

I am back to thinking this might be either my trackball mouse hack or the power supply.  

I have now connected my trackball mouse hack to my main home computer once again (where it always worked) and I am going to leave it connected over night and all day long to see whether it stops working as well.

(sigh)

[ubiquityman]

Keep in mind, $15+shipping would let you get away from the "hack", although it's still uncertain if that is the root of your troubles.

[drventure]

It sounds like you've already taken the hub out of the equation, but I had a PILE of trouble with my spinner and 2 trackballs until I replaced my UNPOWERED hub with a good POWERED hub.

That is what solved the probs for me.

There just wasn't enough juice on an unpowered hub for all the devices.

[ubiquityman]

I'm powering a UHID, 2x U360s from a hub. 
The UHID drives 2 spinners and a Happ trackball and 1 LED (plus a whole lot of switches). 
I've not seen any problems with this setup.  The hub does support externally powering but worked fine without it.
I will be adding 4 more LEDs per CP, but my guess is that these devices don't draw much current, although it's easy enough to measure.

[unclet]

Well the only reason I am not buying an Optiwiz yet is that I cannot explain why the trackball mouse hack works on my other main computer all night long.  I woke up this morning the and trackball works fine.  

Also, my USB Hub I was using was a "powered" hub.  Although since the hub is not connected to the PC anymore this cannot be the source of my problem.

I guess I will eventually just buy an Optiwiz.  If that does not work then I will buy (or find) a new power supply with more wattage than I currently have.

I have no other ideas.

PS:  If I buy an Opti-wiz no-solder version for $15.00+$7.60 ($22.60) then will the Opti-Wiz come with holes to allow AWG 18-21 sized wire to fit and be soldered?   Is there anything else to making the Opti-wiz work?

[ubiquityman]

According to the website, if you order the "solder" version, it doesn't have headers.
You should be able to solder 20awg wire directly to it.

[unclet]

I hooked up the Optiwiz and everything works fine now. 

It turns out the USB mouse I used for the hack had trouble working on the PC over time and also the USB Hub was not working properly either.  Having two things wrong really tested my patience, but now everything is working well once again.