HAPP USB Trackball slipping at high speeds

[maestroni]

I purchased a Happ USB trackball for my MAME project.  I found it does not register if rotated at full speed.  I searched the internet and found posts related to different mouse drivers and increasing the polling on the mouse. The polling on the mouse worked well for games like missile command but not golden tee when someone spins the trackball as fast as they could. 

My solution:  I found it does not work when spun forward at full speed, but backwards or diagonal was OK.  Diagonal makes both of the opto sensors go at half speed rather than one going at full.  I couldn't find a mouse driver with this setup so I just installed my trackball backwards and let MAME compensate.  I find the Happ ball pretty lousy that it can't perform, and at a higher price than the others.

After all my searching it seems that this forum post had the best solution for my case.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64225.0

Next time I am thinking of going with the ultimarc u-trak.  Does anyone have a bad experience with using the U-Trak in golden tee? 

[haynor666]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,148821.0.html

You can check sensivity options in mame. This helps for many games like Tempest for example.

[RandyT]

Adjusting the sensitivity would be something to try, but I doubt it will help in this instance.  Many trackballs (and even some spinners) which have integrated interfaces, use an inexpensive "off the shelf" mouse encoder chip, which was never designed to be used in conjunction with these type of controls in this application.  They are just too slow to deal with the rapid transitions they end up encountering.

The most likely reason it works when spun in reverse is that the ball is actually slipping on the rollers.  They aren't designed to be spun fast in that direction.  However, the slippage probably keeps the load lower on the decoder, so it doesn't miss steps / overflow.

The best thing to do with these types of units is to avoid them, unless you are using them only in low speed applications, like a mouse or slower games.  By the time one realizes the shortcomings, it becomes very expensive to replace all the parts required to turn them into a standard unit.

[infringer]

You can physically change the directions on a happ trackball by popping the pins out that are connected to the board really easy to do with a utility knife just don't push in to hard or you will ruin your pin and you may have to flare out the end a little so it catches again as well. I have gotten trackballs from happ that were wired wrong and had to do it.

Finally what you must realize is that trackballs are super easy to service in most cases it is just dirt build up or the trackball being too tight that causes such issues.

First thing to try is loosen the screws that hold the trackball to the keypad or trackball plate.

Next thing to try is to clean the trackball:

Remove trackball from trackball plate remove screws to open trackball very carefully inside you will see where the sensors are and the rollers that turn the sensors clean these all very well make note of any warn rubber that may be causing the issue.

One other thing to note is almost all keypads are angled downward by default thus this plays a role in why things wear unevenly and may not spin as freely up vs down due to this incline so it would be nice if it were possible to up the sensitivity for up indeed but I think sensitivity settings while likely possible to just adjust for 1 axis 1 way I have yet to see something that allows for such an adjustment although I must admit I haven't played with mame sensitivity options but I would guess it increases cursor speed in all directions more or less. It is a shame that mouse drivers do not allow for more intricate settings like this either it is just all out every direction on both axis.