what does everyone ground their trackball to...?

[ts]

title about covers it.  just wondering since the happs trackball ground isnt the longest run of wire ever although i guess i could extend it if need be...

[CCM]

nothing.... my Happ's trackball ground wire isn't connected to anything and it's been that way for over a year without a problem...

[ItzMR2u]

I just added another nut to one of the bolts and grounded it in between.

[rdagger]

Just to be safe, you could ground it to the metal chassis of your computer.  

[Ken Layton]

It should be grounded to a nearby bolt on the control panel. That bolt should also have a ground wire daisy chained to the coin door, monitor frame, and power supply frame ground.

[saint]

Grounding the trackball is to bleed off the static electricity buildup from the spinning ball.  If you open up the trackball you'll see the ground wires attach to the rollers.  Not grounding it shouldn't hurt anything but you if you get a static shock , which of course is minor.  Won't hurt the trackball to leave it ungrounded.

Anyone know anything otherwise?

--- saint

[davidsz]

I grounded mine to a screw on the computers power supply.  I believe typically they are grounded through the plug into your house supply ?

David

[u_rebelscum]

Grounding the trackball is to bleed off the static electricity buildup from the spinning ball.  If you open up the trackball you'll see the ground wires attach to the rollers.  Not grounding it shouldn't hurt anything but you if you get a static shock , which of course is minor.  Won't hurt the trackball to leave it ungrounded.

Anyone know anything otherwise?

--- saint

Theoretically, it's possible to build such a charge that it could zap from the roller to the optical PCB, Frying the optical board in the process.  But you need a huge amount static, and probably a dirty/greasy encoder to zap that far.  (If the encoder was metal like some of the old ones, not as much would be needed, but still an enormous amount.)

Never heard of it happening, though.


Usually it's grounded so the players don't get small zaps while playing in cold, dry conditions.


I haven't grounded my happs or betson TB.  My wico didn't come with a grounding wire at all.  [shrug]  If you like to wear a belt and suspenders, ground llike others have mentioned.

[grafixmonkey]

Well, winter's coming, static electricity season...  I've built up three-inch sparks just from my shoes on the carpet.  Who knows how much a game of Marble Madness would generate.