Trackball Problem

[SalmonKing]

Hi everyone!  I posted a problem on the Mameworld Ultimarc board, but I thought I might try here as well.

I have a Happ 3" trackball hooked up to an OptiPAC.  They were working fine a couple of months ago when I 1st received them, but now I have my control panel built and am installing the controls, it is no longer working.

That's what I thought, anyway.  It turned out that I have put the plugs to the trackball on upside-down (woops!).  When I figured this out, and put them the correct way up, the vertical axis was working fine, but the horizontal axis was not working.

I tried swapping the horizontal & vertical plugs around, and all that did was make the mouse move left & right when I moved the trackball up & down.  That meant that the plug is OK, and is hooked up to the OptiPAC correctly, I am assuming.

If I just plug in either plug in the horizontal connection, I was just getting some shaking with the cursor.  I am now no longer getting anything no matter which plug I put in the connection.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[TalkingOctopus]

When I had this problem there was a command to reverse the mouse axis.  In your case I think there might be a jumper to reverse it on the optipac but look in the documentation for a command too.

[SalmonKing]

Thanks for the reply, but that's not really the problem I am having.  The horizontal connection does not seem to be working at all.  If I put either plug into the vertical connection, it works, but neither work when I plug it into the horizontal connection.

Is there a way to fiddle with the alignment of the optical sensor?

[TalkingOctopus]

Sorry about that I replied really late at night and was very tired  

[shumph]

you have a dead optical board in trackball


i had same problem once

[DarkKobold]

Could you have hooked the 5V to ground and ground  to 5V? This could cause your optic board to fry. Just an idea.

[SalmonKing]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure if it's dead, as I can get it to work *sometimes*.  It's possible that GND & 5V were swapped if I put the plug on the wrong way up, but I have been able to get it to work.

The problem is now inconsistent, as the vertical axis is now playing up as well.  I seem to just get some shaking of the cursor, but no real movemtent.  Then, after playing with it for a bit, I can get one of the axes to work.  Then, I'll lose that one & get the other one working.    

It just seems to me to be an alignment issue, as when I 1st hooked up the spinner, I would just get small amount of jittery movement.  I just played around with the position of the optic sensor, and it now is working fine.  Now I am seeing the same results with the trackball.

I could be wrong, and I guess that the swapping of the GND & 5V may have damaged it, though, and not killed it completely

I know it's hard to say, but could it be the trackball or the OptiPAC that's at fault?  It's quite expensive and lengthy to get this stuff to Australia, so I'd rather know who I should be talking to (Andy from Ultimarc, who I've already been speaking to, or Happ).  

If anyone knows where I can pick up a 3" Happ (or other) trackball locally to try it out, I'd be very appreciative!

[shumph]

trust me one axis board is dead


does it shake cursor like mad in say a 2 square inch area?

seem to jump way across screen?


unplug one board see it trackball moves correctly on one axis
if not try other axis alone

one will work fine


wont work right with both plugged in

then swap the working board to other axis and test it alone too


i bet it will operate one axis fine with good board but messed up with both tied in

[SalmonKing]

Thanks shumph.  That seems to be it.  Now, to solve the problem.....

[shumph]

you can order a new optical board from happs


http://www.happcontrols.com/wp/item_search.html?item-no=A052-1011-00