Ultimarc trackball clunking

[rapomstage3]

It's brand new and I've never had a trackball before so it might be normal. When i roll the ball back and back down it has play, and makes a clunking sound that drives me bananas. The only way to keep it quiet is to start with your hand on it, but that's not easy in the heat of the moment in a game. So before i ask Andy Im asking you guys. Thanks heres a video i hope.

[DNA Dan]

I'd take it apart and make sure the bearings are seated in the housing properly.

[ed12]

hi
the angle of the rooler ball is most important
for the bearin's to seat right in there holder's
ie a little less the 45 more like 25-30

ed

[yotsuya]

Mine did that too at first. Open it up to make sure everything's tight. My decoder wheels were a bit loose. Also, there is a break-in period. Now it's fine.

[rapomstage3]

I did open it up at first but I will do it again.

[rapomstage3]

ok so.. to me it looks fine but .. what do i know. everything sits tight. I just think its slipping on the side and rear roller and making that sucky sound. Is this something that will break in? I figured break in times would be for bearings and things like that.

[rapomstage3]

short cheesy cell vids

[ed12]

hi
ya i know that track-ball as a happ's control style
bring em in by the 10 lot,for my pga golf's/golden-tee golf,etc
as i said the angle is most important
ie if it is flat,it will not track right
they need a angle to track right
also i never liked the red roller ball
it alway's seemed a tad to loose for me

ed

[Gatt]

I'm actually really interested in this as well,  I have a betson Imperial doing the exact same thing,  in the same direction even.  I was actually contemplating buying a new one,  but if there's a fix for it I'd be thrilled!

[rapomstage3]

So should I ask andy?i guess he'd probably know whats up?

[ed12]

as a rule i replace the red or blue roller ball with a white 1
the ball >red/blue< are a tad smaller if u :mic-it:
and this cause's the slop u are talking about

ed

[rapomstage3]

I only have the red ball and it's aweek old, so I'm going to try to avoid putting money into it..but thats good to know.i hope that it's not the case though

[tsaylor]

Mine sounds a lot like that... but I haven't used it enough to break it in and I've heard that it requires some break-in to cure that.

[AndyWarne]

All arcade trackballs work on the same principle (developed by Atari) where the ball simply rests by gravity on 3 rollers. Spinning the ball fast can cause the ball to jump off the rollers. In fact the design was not intended to be used in this way by Atari. It was designed for steering rather than spinning.

In Golden Tee, the effect of the jumping is reduced by mounting the trackball with the horizontal roller at the top, so that when the ball is spun towards the monitor, it is bearing onto the horizontal roller rather than tending to move away from it. The U-Trak can be mounted in this way but it means changing the wiring slightly to invert the axes. This is very easy to do. Then the arrow can be oriented pointing towards the front of the cabinet.

Another factor is, when the trackball is new, the contact points of the ball on the rollers are tiny points. What happens in the first 30 mins or so of use, is that the metal surface of the stainless-steel rollers develops a grain which can cause a slight rumbling noise. After several hours this grain wears off and the contact points widen as the ball wears a small curved groove in the roller. The noise disappears and also the efffect of jumping and slipping reduces as the contact points are wider.
But the jumping will never go completely if the ball is spun, especially in directions which run away from the support rollers.

[rapomstage3]

Now I feel much better.

[Cynicaster]

It's brand new and I've never had a trackball before so it might be normal. When i roll the ball back and back down it has play, and makes a clunking sound that drives me bananas. The only way to keep it quiet is to start with your hand on it, but that's not easy in the heat of the moment in a game. So before i ask Andy Im asking you guys. Thanks heres a video i hope.

Been there myself.  Thread:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110823.msg1175669#msg1175669

I'll admit up front I have very little experience with different track balls, but for what it's worth, after about 5 months of fairly heavy use, I love my U-Trak.  My brother, who has used a few different ones, always raves about how much he likes mine when he comes over. 

[yotsuya]

I messed with mine last night, too, and it's just a break-in period. Mine used to chunk like in the video, but doesn't anymore. Good luck!

[rapomstage3]

Andy set my mind at ease on this one.ive been spinning the crap out of it.

[Cynicaster]

Andy, I'm almost wondering if it wouldn't be worthwhile for you to print up a little "heads up" on a slip of paper to pack in with the product to warn new users of the break-in issue.  At the very least, it might save you from having to respond to this same question over and over again. 

[ed12]

hi
u see the reason i did not state andy's proper advice
is because i do commerical ppl
and they will tend to start to complain about 5 min's after a new track ball is put in,and trying to explain a break in period...welp u try it 1 day..and find out how fast they want the machine removed

ed