Anyone ever tried this hack?

[ladysephiroth]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Arcade-Spinners-From-Old-Ball-Mice/

Anyone ever tried this? Any pitfalls to know about?  I think I can do this; I know how to solder and take stuff apart.  I also know it will save me some $$ to hack my own spinner -- I want an awesome control but I also don't want to break the bank to do it! 

[BadMouth]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Arcade-Spinners-From-Old-Ball-Mice/

Anyone ever tried this? Any pitfalls to know about?  I think I can do this; I know how to solder and take stuff apart.  I also know it will save me some $$ to hack my own spinner -- I want an awesome control but I also don't want to break the bank to do it!

Worked fine for me, but I didn't use it on my own machine.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,105759.msg1120261.html#msg1120261

Depends on how much you value your time vs your money.
Personally, I'd recommend just buying a spinner from groovygamegear or ultimarc.

[jeremymtc]

I did that using an old hard drive spindle and bearing 10 or 12 years ago. It worked fine but was slightly fragile and clunky. The mouse encoder was susceptible to input being reversed when spun at a very high speed, which I think products like Spin Trak and Turbo Twist have obviated. Having been there and done that, my last two spinners have been Turbo Twists.

[megamoze]

I wish I were a little more mechanically inclined to try stuff like this.  I like hacking to an extent, but ultimately I agree with Badmouth.  I just picked up a spinner from Ultmarc.  Very happy with it.

[pbj]

I made one that just spun something with a pattern on it in front of the sensor of an optical mouse.  It actually worked pretty well, but I had a chance to get an Arkanoid spinner cheap so I ultimately went with that.

[Ginsu Victim]

I have a ball mouse spinner hack right now, works great. My first one I ever built used an optical mouse (like pbj mentioned above).

[aldub516]

This would personally be a corner id choose to not cut and just grab a spinner. Too many things to go wrong with a hacked spinner. Real spinners themselves run into problems, I wouldn't want to spend the day trouble shooting a hacked mouse. Of course, kudos to those who pull it off successfully!

[yotsuya]

This would personally be a corner id choose to not cut and just grab a spinner. Too many things to go wrong with a hacked spinner. Real spinners themselves run into problems, I wouldn't want to spend the day trouble shooting a hacked mouse. Of course, kudos to those who pull it off successfully!

I agree. You can get a quality spinner for a good price, so why not?

[ark_ader]

I used a roller skate wheel and an used optical mouse.  Worked great until I needed to go rollerskating....