Trackball Ground to What?

[ladysephiroth]

I got my GGG trackball, and I read the instructions but i'm still confused on a couple of things ..

-- it has a ground loop connector but where do I ground it to? With the joystick controller it's on the board, but there's no ground on the Opti-Wiz so I'm sot sure what to do with it

--how do I tell which wire is X, Y, and power? I assume the red and black is power and red is positive like when you jump a car other than that, nothing's marked on the wires but the OW board is pretty clear on what's what. 

Thanks!   

[Hoopz]

The ground on the TB is for earth ground so attach it to your metal PC case or something like that. 

The Groovy-TB 3" Trackball has three wire pairs, each with .100" spaced connectors.  They are as follows.

Red and Black - +5vDC and GROUND respectively.
Blue and Purple - Y-Axis
Yellow and Green - X Axis

The orientation of the axis connection will vary, based on the encoder wheels ordered.  If either axis is reversed, just unplug that wire pair from the Opti-Wiz, turn it 180 degrees, and re-connect.

[ladysephiroth]

It's going into a standalone CP, the computer is in my entertainment center.  Should i get a small piece of metal to attach it to under the CP?

[PL1]

The ground wie on the trackball is there to bleed off the static electricity generated when you spin the trackball.

You can connect it to the outer shielding of the USB connector.

If you usse the Neutrik NAUSB-W-B feedthru connector, you can attach the ground wire using one of the screws on the back.




Scott

[lilshawn]

all metal on a machine is required by electrical safety code be connected to earth ground. in the event something should happen to some electronics and something blows and a piece of metal becomes live with wall voltage, having it connected to earth ground will ensure that your fuse will blow or your breaker in your electrical panel trips.

not connected to ground will result in possibly that metal becoming live with wall voltage and you will be electrocuted dead if you touch it.

all metal... monitor frames, computer cases, cable entry points, metal coin doors, metal control panels, a metal plate a switch is mounted to, quite literally ANYTHING metal.... is absolutely required be grounded for electrical safety. in only very limited specialized cases is a device allowed to be connected to line voltage and remain "ungrounded"

even something as ubiquitous as a trackball connecting to a USB controller....connected to a cable....connected to a USB hub...connected to a computer....connected to a power supply...connected to the wall outlet, still has the possibility, however remote, of being charged to 120 (or 220 depending where you live) volts AC. a power supply transformer failure could cause the computer to get fried due to 120 volts surging through the low voltage wires....charging the computer with 120 volts...charging the USB cable with 120 volts....charging your usb hub with 120 volts....charging your USB controller with 120 volts....charging your trackball with 120 volts...charging any metal that trackball is mounted to with 120 volts.

the lesson here is quite literally...

[ladysephiroth]

That makes sense, and I want to do this.  I'm not using that piece tho, the trackball talks to the Opti-WIZ which has the USB jack soldered on.  The only connections to the computer (which is a Mac Mini on my TV stand) are the 3 USB tails (TB, Spinner and Xin-Mo) coming out of the back,  which is what is confoosing me I know how to ground components inside a computer (I used to be able to build them) but here I've got no metal chassis.  Right now the prototype is cardboard, and the final will be made of wood.  Can I ground to a screw that I use to hold the wood pieces together? I want to do removable screws on the bottom so I can open it if I need to fix something. 

[PL1]

the trackball talks to the Opti-WIZ which has the USB jack soldered on.

Connect the trackball ground via the Opti-Wiz board.

You can either solder a wire to the small through-hole or connect to one of the three larger holes with a screw. (not sure what size, but definitely smaller than a #4-40)

(Verified on a TT2 board = a modified Opti-Wiz)


Scott