Trackball Issue

[mamenewb100]

Because it was my first ever cab and I just wanting to start playing games straight away, without having to fiddle with hooking up all the wires to the controls in the Control Panel.. I payed to have a completely pre-built control panel with all the wiring done already. Which worked ok except the trackball has an annoying issue that I put up with for awhile.

Basically it works fine and rolls smooth unless you roll it to the upper right hand corner. You can can tell the ball is catching on something because the ball rolls slower and comes to a stop much faster than other directions. In Golden Tee for example, if you just want to hit a perfectly straight shot, you can't because when you hit a shot it starts out straight but then moves to the left because the trackball is pulled in that direction. I've looked underneath the panel and didn't see anything obvious that would be causing it. I didn't want to completely take it apart as I am a novice at arcade parts and don't want to turn something into a whole day project and still not fix anything. Knew I should have just put it together myself but I couldn't wait lol. Now that the initial buzz has worn off, I'm ready to start figuring out how everything works.

So is it maybe a ball bearing that is not lined up properly on the track or something? A dry bearing?

[chopperthedog]

Sounds right on par (see what I did thar) with the way a happ 3" ball feels (twss). You didn't specify what ball you have but this is something I've noticed this for years on the 3" happ GT balls. It doesn't affect forward shots as much since GT is only capturing a split second of ball direction and speed upon initial forward ball movement. But it does come into play during the back swing to where you need to make sure the ball isn't being pulled in a different direction when performing a 3-A drawback. I suppose it has something to do with the design of the X Y axles along with an idler axle that has more drag for that certain direction.


good day.

[mamenewb100]

Sounds right on par (see what I did thar) with the way a happ 3" ball feels (twss).

I know it's a generic looking white 3" regular size (probably HAPP) trackball. Hard to believe it would be "normal" to have the ball behave that way and people would be ok with it. But it sounds like that is how it is.

Are there any balls of higher quality that don't do that? There are some games that capture the trackball movements for longer periods where it makes games unplayable (Like Championship Bowling). While I don't play these games much anyway, it still shouldn't be a chore to be able to get smooth movement in any direction.

[RandyT]

If it's a new unit, give it some use and time.  The bearings and rollers have a "break in" period where the moving parts seat together with use, and the bearings move more freely.  As mentioned, there will always be some differences in movement based on the direction, due to the way a trackball is designed, but it should get better over time.

RandyT