Trouble with spinner

[sl33p3r]

Hi everyone, hopefully you will be able to help with a problem I am having.

I am updating a cabinet that I built about 8 years ago, and have run into an issue with the spinner.

Here are the system specs:
Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit
MAME v166
MaLa v1.8.2
Betson Imperial 3" PS/2 Trackball
Slikstik Tornado USB spinner
All buttons and joysticks connect through an Ipac-2
Plus a USB keyboard for set up

Here is the problem I am having:
Trackball works fine
Buttons and joysticks work fine

Spinner is not working in MAME or windows.
When I plug or unplug the USB cable I see the the HID compliant mouse device show up and disappear in device manager
I also see the corresponding mouse devices for the Trackball and Ipac
Spinning the spinner does not move the mouse arrow in Windows
Going into the input option for a game like Tempest, and trying to set the spinner, the spinner does not register

Hopefully someone has seen this behavior and knows the fix. 

Thanks in advance
Dave

[PL1]

You may have burned out IR LEDs/optos. (the c-shaped black items at the bottom of this pic)



You can check both IR LEDs using a digital camera.



Related thread with more info and part numbers here.


Scott

[sl33p3r]

Thanks PL1. Using a digital camera, I as not able to detect anything emitting from the IR diodes.  I also checked voltages at the pins of the IC chip. The board on mine does not look like the photo in the other thread.  The numbers on the IC are different and instead of header pins mine has a USB connector right on the board.  However, checking for voltages pin 6 does fluctuate between 0 and 2.94 volts as I slowly turn the spinner.

I am assuming this indicates the board is bad.

Do you know of anywhere to get a replacement board other than Suzo-Happ?  Their $100 minimum order is a pain.  Or is there a better spinner you would recommend?

[adder]

hey, are you ok with electronics and using a soldering iron etc, and do you have a multimeter to check components such as resistors etc?

im just wondering if its an option to change the opto led's (and just check the resistors are ok, and capacitors if possible) .. note: you wouldnt have to replace the opto led's with an exact match, there are a number of different ones you can use, often inexpensive from eg. ebay

if you have some numbers/letters/codes/anything written on your opto led's, feel free to post here ok

[sl33p3r]

Yup. Good with a soldering iron and electronics.

[adder]

hey, just edited my post above ok while you replied 

[adder]

dont forget to do the basic checks, such as continuity test of the pins of the usb cable
try to test the resistors on the board, see if they are ok (you might be able to test them in circuit, or at least some of them)
if you get any unexpected readings of any of the resistors, test the resistor out of circuit
check your chip (IC) is seated ok and isnt sitting funny or dirty pins etc
and make sure the plastic spinner wheel itself is positioned properly with the opto LED's (eg. make sure the wheel has not become warped or is positioned incorrectly, which would mean that the 'teeth' dont line up properly with the opto LED 'eyes') 

[sl33p3r]

So I took some photos and check voltages at various points.  By the way testing the resistors out of circuit is not an option, as they are surface mount components, but I did check the resistance across them with the USB disconnected (aka circuit powered down).  They all registered varying ohms of resistance, and none of them showed as being open.  The IC (and everything else) is soldered to the board, so nothing to re-seat and no dirty connection issues.

The IC is a HT82M98A, and checking for voltages at the various pins, lines up with where I would expect to see them.  depending on if you have it set to horizontal or vertical mode, the Opto IR should show voltage changes on either pins 6&7 or 8&9. 

What I get is the following:
When in horizontal mode -
Pin 6 shows about 2.8 volts when its corresponding IR is unblocked, and drops to 0 when blocked
Pin 7 shows about 0.14 volts when its corresponding IR is unblocked, and drops to 0 when blocked

When switched to vertical mode, the same same behavior is exhibited on pins 8 & 9

The label on the side of the IR assembly reads:  ALPR0J0001-HC

Here are the photos I took...

[PL1]

That doesn't look good for the optos on your current board.

Good news: Per the Happ website, the commonly available Happ trackball optic "red board" (A052-1011-00) uses the same S822-SD opto as your board. (95-2780-00)   



If you can't find the optos or a suitable substitute for sale separately, you can use a optic "red board" from here, here, or here as an opto donor.


Scott

[adder]

here are the opto led's i used to fix my non-working taito 'arkanoid' spinner recently
i bought them from this guy (perhaps not useful to you if you are not in uk, but still):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262098418658
of course first you would need to check they are compatible with your happ interface, that's something i am unsure of
ps. if you go down the route of changing your opto led's as opposed to getting an all new complete board, incase you didnt know, you have to be careful with opto led's (or any led's) in that you really dont want to apply too much heat when de-soldering/soldering them (led's are more sensitive to heat than your other typical components).