ultimarc u-trak very draggy and laggy

[markiej]

I finally got everything running on the mini-pac.  Everything is buttery, including the spinner, except for the trackball.  It's very slow and laggy - in Windows and in MAME.  Should I switch to a USB controller for this device?  Is there another option?  It's also slower on the X than the Y, which is weird (it's not exactly smooth on the Y, just a bit peppier).

[Titchgamer]

I would run it as a USB device personally.

[markiej]

Thanks!! I'm tempted to do that myself - although I have to see - it weirdly partially resolved itself - so now it's slow, but more evenly slow and predictable, as if it it's struggling to move across all those 4k pixels at the same pixel-speed as a 1080p.

[Titchgamer]

Adjusted the sensitivity?
Bigger problem is why the hell are you playing spinner/trackball games on a 1080p wide screen!?

[markiej]

The X axis was originally much slower than the Y axis, which was also quite slow.  Now the X has caught up to the Y

Bigger problem is why the hell are you playing spinner/trackball games on a 1080p wide screen!?

The canvas is wide, but I'm playing pretty much the usual games at their intended ratios.  Tempest and Millipede are two of my top ten all-time favorites.  Also, I loaded up SCUMMVM and my littlest likes to poke around the freddi fish games with the trackball.  horses for courses

[Alaska]

The trackball gets better over time the more you use it. There is a bit of a break in period. I believe Andy originally recommended using a small amount of lotion... might want to doublecheck... to lube up the rollers. It does sound like your issue was more with X/Y sensitivity though.

[Mr. Peabody]

Resolution of device relative to screen. It's a simple equation.

[markiej]

Yeah I thinking it's working as designed now. But right after I installed it, X was much slower than Y.

[markiej]

For posterity's sake, here is the solution...

when I opened it up, I noticed that the skinny black wheel with the notches cut out (to tell the optical reader the speed/direction at which to move along that axis, was loose - meaning it was not spinning 1:1 with the axle it was attached to - slower, and would keep spinning after I stopped.  When I tightened it to the axle, it worked perfectly.

[Mr. Peabody]

Troubleshooting protocol is soft then hardware.

[markiej]

Troubleshooting protocol is soft then hardware.

that's what I did - except being basically an old-timey ballmouse turned upside down, there's not much to troubleshoot on the software side (no special drivers or software - it's a generic mouse).  Turns out it was a simple physical fix - a turning of a screw.

[Mr. Peabody]

Yes. If you had taken a moment to open it, you would not have needed to ask.

[KenToad]

I'm glad the OP shared his experience. My U-Trak also jumped around quite a bit and was definitely moving a lot more smoothly up and left than down and right. This thread convinced me to open it up. There was no loose screw in there, but somehow, after reinstalling, it does seem to work better.

[markiej]

There was no loose screw in there, but somehow, after reinstalling, it does seem to work better.

I was surprised by how simple and "analog" it all was when I went in there, and how all of it is held together by the box.  I actually did open it up before my first post, but didn't notice the loose screw (it's on the end of the x shaft).