Connect Suzo/Happ USB trackball without harness ?

[pumpkinpie]

Hello all - I recently picked up a suzo/happ 3" usb trackball on clearance but it did not come with the usb harness.

I have looked all over locally for one but cannot find one.  And you need to order at least $50 on the suzo/happ website to get them to ship you one and this only costs $10 there.

Has someone ever rigged up their own harness using a usb cable with one end stripped and connected to the board on the trackball ?

This seems like it should be do-able since there are 4 wires in a usb cable and there are 4 pins on the board where the usb portion of the harness would go.

If anyone can chime in that would be great !

TIA

[PL1]

Hello all - I recently picked up a suzo/happ 3" usb trackball on clearance but it did not come with the usb harness.

Welcome aboard, Pumpkinpie.   

Do you have an optical encoder board that is just missing the USB cable? (not the "red board" shown below)

Groovy Game Gear has the Trackball Cable for Opti-Wiz™ "No-Solder" cable that connects the two optical "red boards" to an Opti-Wiz™ "No-Solder" optical encoder.




Scott

[pumpkinpie]

Thanks for the welcome Scott !

I currently have an Ipac 2 board which obviously connects via usb.

When I picked up the trackball I was originally thinking I might be able to connect that to the Ipac but thought it would be easier just rigging up a usb cable to hook directly to the pc.

[PL1]

I currently have an Ipac 2 board which obviously connects via usb.

When I picked up the trackball I was originally thinking I might be able to connect that to the Ipac but thought it would be easier just rigging up a usb cable to hook directly to the pc.

Do you have one of the newer IPacs with the 2x10 input header pins? (right side)



If so, you can connect the output of the "red boards" to the 2x10 header and use the IPac as your optical encoder.
(The GGG cable above can connect the "red boards" to the header pins on your IPac.)

If you have an older IPac, you need an optical encoder board to translate the raw "red board" quadrature waveform output into mouse movements.

This quadrature waveform shows what you would see on the data lines (A and B) when you slowly turn the axis clockwise.



You can't connect a "red board" directly to a USB cable -- there has to be an optical (mouse) encoder board.


Scott

[pumpkinpie]

Hi Scott - yes i have the newer Ipac 2 board with the 2 x 10 header pins.

Not sure what you mean though by 'red boards'.

I have this trackball - https://na.suzohapp.com/products/trackballs/56-0300-16 which has green boards on the sides and one of the boards accepts the wiring harness which is what i dont have.

One part of the green board has 4 pins which i was assuming is the usb portion and the other part of the board has i think 6 pins which i believe is for adding some push buttons.

[PL1]

I have this trackball - https://na.suzohapp.com/products/trackballs/56-0300-16 which has green boards on the sides and one of the boards accepts the wiring harness which is what i dont have.

One part of the green board has 4 pins which i was assuming is the usb portion and the other part of the board has i think 6 pins which i believe is for adding some push buttons.

You have the less-common version 55-0301-00 PCB with a built-in optical encoder IC chip.



The USB cable connects to J1. (upper left corner)

There are 4 wires in a USB cable: (J1 right-to-left in pic above)
- V_BUS (5v)
- Data -
- Data +
- Ground

Check out the wiki page here for the pinout (right side) so you can verify which wire is which using a multimeter.

Do not trust wire colors since some cables use non-standard wire colors. (i.e. red isn't always 5v and black isn't always ground)

One way to hook it up is to get a cable like this one. (search for "USB dupont" for other options)
- Pull the 4 pins mentioned above out of the 5-pin Dupont connector body -- ignore the shield wire, you don't need it.
- Connect the female cable pins to the J1 male header pins on the 55-0301-00 PCB.
- If you don't have a 1x4 connector body that will work with the PCB, you can use heat-shrink to insulate the individual female pins.



To pull a pin, gently lift the plastic arm (next to the exposed metal) with a straight-pin or the tip of a knife and pull on the wire.

Not sure what you mean though by 'red boards'.

Most Happ trackballs come with these optical boards -- also seen in the first picture in this thread.   




Scott

[pumpkinpie]

Thank Scott - that looks like what I need !

Another question - the green ground wires coming from the trackball - can i connect that to the wires from my joysticks/buttons that go to the ground screw on the Ipac board or should they go somewhere else ?

[PL1]

the green ground wires coming from the trackball - can i connect that to the wires from my joysticks/buttons that go to the ground screw on the Ipac board or should they go somewhere else ?

Most of the time people ground the trackball, coin door, and other metal parts that might generate a static charge to the power supply ground, sometimes refered to as frame ground.

You can ground the trackball via the IPac daisy-chain ground if you prefer.

Ground is ground.


Scott