Link for Happs trackball to mouse hack?

[crapjoint]

There is a link in the FAQ about a Happs trackball to a mouse hack using just wire nothing mechanical.  I'd like to do this but the link doesn't work.  Does anyone know how to do this, or can provide a good link?  Thanks

[Minwah]

http://mamewah.mameworld.net/mousehack.html

[Stingray]

Thanks Miniwah. I'm going to be doing this with a steering wheel before long. Good info.

-S

[Minwah]

Thanks Miniwah. I'm going to be doing this with a steering wheel before long. Good info.

-S

Thanks, that should be a bit easier - only one axis required

[Stingray]

That's why I'm planning to do the wheel panel first. I'll do the TB/spinner panel next after I've gotten a little practice.  

-S

[rampy]

may i suggest checking out oscar's usb pre-hacked mouse offering? (it's like 9 - 13 ducats if i recall correctly) and it takes the guess work/pain out of doing a mouse hack... Although that assumes you have USB ports available... and aren't determined to do it yourself (i've done both and would just buy Oscar's hack again, or spring for the opticpac next time)

*shrug*

rampy

[Stingray]

A little of both. I'm determined to do it myself, but I'm also running my cab on an older powermac that doesn't have USB. I could add a USB card if I had to, but I'd rather do it myself.

-S

[Lilwolf]

The oscar ones are nice...  better hack then I was able to do...

I killed 2 mice trying to hack it... and never got it really working (I WAS trying to do something else weird with them...that didn't work)... but anyway..

Money to Oscar was money well spent!

[SirPoonga]

Thanks Miniwah. I'm going to be doing this with a steering wheel before long. Good info.

-S

Want a prehacked 1 axis mouse?  PM me.  I am going to be in the market of selling mine.

[OSCAR]

I've hacked about 1200 mice now, and this is how I do it...

For the most part, I essentially do the same as the other mouse hack tutorials and links mentioned so far.  In the below pics, this is a 2.25" Happ trackball that I picked up just a little while ago.  It had been left for dead when I got it; the Happ optic boards and the wire harness had been removed, the bearings were frozen solid, and the white ball was very dingy and scarred up.  Side note:  I soaked the bearings and shafts in penetrating oil (WD-40) for a couple days to remove the crude and rust.  When I took the bearings out of the oil/sludge mix, they spun nice and free and the rust was removed from the shafts.  Then I put the trackball back together using some old Happ boards I had and threw in an 8-ball instead of the original ball.


Back to the mouse hack...

Most importantly, use a multimeter to determine where the +5V and GND are on the mouse board before you remove any components.  When working on an unfamiliar mouse, I decase the mouse and plug it into a PC.  Be careful not to cause a short on anything with it plugged in, it can smoke your PS/2-USB port.  Don't assume that the PCB plane is GND, I've run across PS/2 mice that have a "hot" board, and the GND is just specific traces.  All the USB mice I've used so far have the more conventional GND plane, with the +5V only on specific traces.

I've seen some websites mention removing the LED from the board to "conserve power".  DO NOT DO THIS if you want to follow my example.  The below pics show getting +5V from the middle pin of the phototransistor location, which is very common with the shared-base style 3-pin transistors.  On many mice I've seen, the middle pin of the phototransistor is powered from the cathode side of the LED, so if the LED is removed you won't have +5V at the middle pin location.  Don't try to remove the LED from the circuit and replace it with a jumper either, just leave it alone, it doesn

[OSCAR]

A BYOAC'er emailed me regarding adding a super-bright LED to the USB mouse board for use with a trackball, so I figured I would post the info here if anyone else wants to add one to their own mouse hack.

All I did was just crimp an extra wire into the .093" terminals that go in the the Molex housing that connects to the trackball.  I use the middle mouse button location as the trackall ground because it is a convenient place to put a header.  To add support for a middle mouse button, I crimped the extra wires into the terminals so it attaches to the middle header.  Naturally this can be done without headers or terminals and you can just solder wires to these locations.

[simplygriff]

A BYOAC'er emailed me regarding adding a super-bright LED to the USB mouse board for use with a trackball, so I figured I would post the info here if anyone else wants to add one to their own mouse hack.

That was me!  Thanks OSCAR!!!!!!!!!!

[SoundDoc]

Oscar:
Just a little off/bending the topic, but would you know if the mousewheel up/down axis information makes it into mame, and what it would be?

I'm looking at hacking a mouse for my interface, x-y for the trackball and instead of sharing the x for the spinner, was thinking about using the wheelmouse axis for it, but I haven't checked to see if it can be mapped in the emulators.

SD

[OSCAR]

It's been a while since I looked into this, but back a couple years ago (prior to Analog+), MAME didn't recognize a scroll wheel.

Robin (http://www.urebelscum.speedhost.com) and Jake (http://link.mywwwserver.com/~jstookey/arcade) are the input gurus, and they would probably be able to give you a better answer.  Or maybe this feature is already implemented in Analog+?