Wiring help?

[Pharmer_Scott]

Hi all, I've been lurking on these forums for quite awhile now and you can look for my project announcement fairly soon.  I'm currently wiring my CP.    I have the Xin Mo2 board and the smaller PS2 trackball.  https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10758 When I plug in the USB for testing, it works fine until I try to make a button do double duty with the trackball. I've searched high and low and have found reference to, but no instruction, on how to make a button do "double duty".

This is a bartop cabinet with 2 joysticks which have 6 buttons each, and the trackball in the middle.  I want to use P1 buttons 4, 5 and 6 (the bottom row of 3) as Left, middle, Right buttons on the trackball.  I had assumed it was as simple as soldering/splicing the wires to the button switch.  For example - Button 4 has the Yellow wire (left click from the trackball) soldered to the button, along with the lead to the Xin Mo button 4 terminal.   The grounds for each (xin mo and tb) are also soldered at the switch terminal.  But when I try to assign it in MAME config, it doesn't register when I press the button.  If I ONLY solder the wires to the Xin Mo to the button it works fine.

I should add here that during testing, I'm only plugging in the USB from the Xin Mo to my laptop.  The trackball is a PS2 connector which my laptop doesn't have.  My target box does have a PS2 connector but it's not ready just yet     Would this make a difference since the TB has no power? 

Thanks for any help - I've been dragging my feet a little on this project since July and trying to wrap this thing up before Christmas. 

-Scott

[PL1]

I want to use P1 buttons 4, 5 and 6 (the bottom row of 3) as Left, middle, Right buttons on the trackball.

I'm not sure why you want/need these buttons to pull "double duty" as mouse buttons.   

Once you finish setup/configuration, why do you want/need mouse buttons for your bartop?

Seems like it would cause problems like unwanted right-click popup menus etc.

I'm only plugging in the USB from the Xin Mo to my laptop.  The trackball is a PS2 connector which my laptop doesn't have.  My target box does have a PS2 connector but it's not ready just yet     Would this make a difference since the TB has no power? 

I think you have successfully identified two key reasons why the trackball encoder will not register button presses.   

No PS/2 connection = no power to the trackball encoder and there's no data path from the encoder to the computer.


Scott

[Pharmer_Scott]

Once you finish setup/configuration, why do you want/need mouse buttons for your bartop?

PL1 - thanks for your reply.  I just want those lower 3 buttons to be the ones that operate when playing games like Missile Command or Centipede, etc. instead of the top row.  Is that something I can configure MAME on a per game basis?  Sorry - still way too new to all of this.  I've spent an insane amount of time building it and not much learning how the front end works .  If I don't need to wire those leads at all then I'll just secure them and forget about them. 

I think you have successfully identified two key reasons why the trackball encoder will not register button presses.   

No PS/2 connection = no power to the trackball encoder and there's no data path from the encoder to the computer.

Seems really obvious when I read it over again, but my thought process was that since the Xin-Mo, which is operating otherwise, was wired to button 4, I should still see a button press, even though the TB wires wouldn't be doing anything. 

Follow-up: Until I get the target PC up and running, does anyone see any reason why a PS2->USB adapter wouldn't work with the TB? 

[PL1]

I just want those lower 3 buttons to be the ones that operate when playing games like Missile Command or Centipede, etc. instead of the top row.  Is that something I can configure MAME on a per game basis?

Yes.  In MAME, press Tab to bring up menu then go into the "Input (this Game)" menu.

Remap controls as desired.   


Scott

[Pharmer_Scott]

  Mind blown.  Thanks