Question on wiring a Omega Race Spinner

[DARRYLICSHON]

I just got a Omega Race Spinner , and wanted to know has anyone used one of these before , did they hook it to there i-pac or opti-pac and which wires are for what , I did a search , but i didn't find anything. Thanks

[DARRYLICSHON]

other side

[Lilwolf]

I believe it uses a 5k pot.

So the answer is no... neither ipac/optipac/jpac will do.  There will be a commercial product real soon to handle it (assuming I'm right about the pot) called the AKI (Analog Kontrol Interface).   This is a great little board that easily hacks (with screw terminals) 14 buttons and 5 axis joysticks.   I'm not sure on the release date.

Next... you would have to find out what the board itself does.  A good chance you would want to remove it... and hook directly to the spinner/dial.  

There is also a MS Dual Strike hack (the 1ups starwars hack) which will also work for you.  These joysticks are discontinued so ebay seems to be the only place to get them (about 15bucks shipped seems normal)

But without one... I'm only guessing with some old hearsay added.

[NoOne=NBA=]

It couldn't be a pot.
You could spin all the way around with it repeatedly in one direction, so it has to be some kind of spinner.

Whether any of the optical boards (Opti-Pac, etc...) will interface with it is a different story though.
You'd need to find the pinout and such for it, and then find out how to interface it to one of the encoders.
(Which it sounds like you are trying to do here).

[OSCAR]

Someone, perhaps Paige, said that the Omega Race spinners came in two versions: a 360-deg pot and a traditional spinner setup.  It may have been PJ who said this, I know he has a few Omega Race cabinets.

NoOne=NBA=, there are 360-deg continuous spinning pots.  There appears to be a coil or something showing on the spinner in the first photo, right at the very the top of the pic.

[DARRYLICSHON]

i think i have a 360-deg continuous spinning pot here is a photo of the hole spinner

[NoOne=NBA=]

So much for my three years at electronics school.

I have never seen a continuous 360 degree pot before.
I've seen the "multi-turn" ones that go 10-20 turns; but they all stopped at some point.

[spidermonkey]

I think Blasteroids uses some kind of odd ball spinner like this doesn't it ? Or am I just blowing smoke out of my arse ?  I seem to remember someone winning one of those on Ebay and being pi$$ed because it couldn't be interfaced easily. Boy, as soon as I think I've seen every type of controller out there another white elephant control pops up.

[OSCAR]

I think Blasteroids uses some kind of odd ball spinner like this doesn't it ? Or am I just blowing smoke out of my arse ?  I seem to remember someone winning one of those on Ebay and being pi$$ed because it couldn't be interfaced easily. Boy, as soon as I think I've seen every type of controller out there another white elephant control pops up.

Blasteroids used an optical spinner with a very basic optic board, like Tempest.  It had a funky 1/8" shaft with a molded on knob, though.

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/blst_knob.jpg

If you would like a pic of the Blasteroids spinner, let me know and I'll dig it out and snap a few.

[Brad Lee]

I got a Omega Race panel that had the 360' pot spinner. DIdnt have any optics or encoder like what your pics show

Bit of a disappointment at the time since it didnt interface, but I used the bracket, knob, bearing and shaft, grafted on the 3.5" disk and optics from Oscar's. Not bad for 10+s/h, about 10 for the new parts(optics and disk) AND it had the 4 LED start buttons included on the panel

[allroy1975]

Boy, as soon as I think I've seen every type of controller out there another white elephant control pops up.

Dude, that's a Zebra.

Allroy

[Lilwolf]

I dont' remember any omega racers spinning freeling.  I thought they where all 270 pots (or whatever the real turn radius was).

Anyway, I believe you will need a multimeter to really tell whats going on... Or take it apart.

If its an optical wheel inside then it could be very easy with an optipac.  If not... Then you will want to try a pot hack.  It will probably be one of these though.

[ErikRuud]

I have never played an Omega Race that did  not spin freely.  You could do a pretty good imatation of the "Death Blossom" because of it.