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Replace X-Arcade Tankstick Trackball with U-Trak?
PL1:
--- Quote from: suds64 on May 25, 2022, 10:50:36 am ---This is what I'm going to order and it looks like what you recommened:
(2 Items)
Suzo Happ 3" White High Lip Trackball AssemblySuzo Happ high lip arcade trackball with 3" White ball.
3" White High Lip Trackball assembly.
Original Suzo Happ part number 56-0100-11HL
. . .
Trackball Cable for Opti-Wiz "No-Solder"
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Those two look good, but you'll also need an Opti-Wiz 3 encoder (w. 72" Micro-USB cable option?) to go with that "no-solder" cable.
--- Quote from: suds64 on May 25, 2022, 10:50:36 am ---It looks like the Suzo Happ 3" Trackball Mounting Kit is not required?
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That appears to be the case.
GeoMan posted this external pic of his mod where you can see the trackball carriage bolt heads and the original Tankstick overlay -- no additional mounting plate.
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One other thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that it would be a good idea to connect the Happ trackball's ring terminal with two green ground wires to the Opti-Wiz USB connector shield ground -- AFAIK that's the closest thing to Frame Ground on the Tankstick.
- These wires bleed off the static electricity generated by the acrylic trackball rolling on the steel rollers.
- You can connect them using a ring terminal and 0.020" safety wire wrapped 540 degrees around the outside of the Opti-Wiz Micro-USB housing like the attached image. ;D
Scott
retrometro:
--- Quote from: PL1 on May 24, 2022, 02:29:30 pm ---I assume you have an X-Arcade PS2/USB trackball like this one, right?
--- Quote from: suds64 on May 24, 2022, 12:22:10 pm ---i see this note with that trackball - Note: This does not support USB, it has a standard AMOA harness for arcade games.
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You want a Happ trackball with red boards and a molex connector. There are adapter cables and optical (mouse) encoders like the Opti-Wiz3, Opti-Pac, IPac2, etc. that will convert the quadrature waveforms from the red boards into USB mouse movements. Related post here.
Avoid the Happ trackballs with green boards and Happ's built-in USB encoder.
--- Quote from: PL1 on July 26, 2021, 11:35:26 am ---
--- Quote from: giantsean on July 26, 2021, 10:12:24 am ---What is the advantage of the red v. green? Better resolution, more reliable?
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The red board (P/N A052-1011-00) is an updated version of the green board. (P/N A052-1010-00)
- The red board has faster response time so it doesn't have problems with backspin which can be a big problem for games like Golden Tee.
If you replace the trackball, get one with red boards and a Molex connector. (white connector, lower right)
Avoid the version with a built-in USB & PS/2 encoder kit (P/N 56-0113-00K) that has the main PCB (P/N 55-0301-00) with the encoder and a satellite optical PCB. (55-0302-00)
- Not obsolete, but not recommended. Some people have complained about backspin problems.
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Scott
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After removing the 4x bolts, how do you remove the X-Arcade trackball unit? the instructions on x-arcade's site are there but the photo links are down.