Hooking up Pole Position controls to a Mame Cabinet?

[ratabase1]

 
I would like to hook up a Pole Position steering wheel and gear shifter to a Mame Cabinet.  Could somebody guide me through this?  Do I need to use an Opti-pac card, or is there other alternatives?  What else do I need to hook the steering wheel up?  Thanks.  

[jimmyjet]

For my driving mame I hacked a mouse for the steering wheel (making a really big spinner).  For the gas, brake, coins, start, and shifting I hacked a 8 button joystick (generic brand).  It works fairly well after playing around with the analog control settings in each individual game.
jimmyjet

[ratabase1]

What type and brand of mouse did you use?  How did you go about attaching it to the steering wheel?  Thanks.

[jimmyjet]

It was just a crappy mouse I picked up at the local goodwill.  Basically I put the encoder wheel on the end of the steering wheel shaft and rigged the mouse hack to line up appropriately.  Check out the threads on build your own spinners to see what I'm referring to.  

jimmyjet

[telengard]

I'd be curious to know also.  I have a wheel and dual pedals.  A long time ago I bought one of Oscar Controls' wheel contraptions but I have yet to set it up.  I'm hoping the pedals will be easy to interface.  I assume they are pots.

[SirPeale]

I had the opportunity to pick up a PP wheel for nothing a year or so back.  I should have taken it.  Thought I'd never want it, but now I just want to experiment.

[dirt]

i used oscars mouse hack and his encoder pcb. just replace the pp pcb with oscars and plug it in. you do have to open the mounting holes up a little bit to get the pcb to fit but it is an easy setup. as far as the shifter and pedals go, i just hotglued a microswitch the the pedal assembly so the pedal engaged it and the shifter was just hooked up the way it came( i haven't got around to hacking it yet). hope this helps.

dirt

[jimmyjet]

The picture is kind of crappy, but it's the best I could get without climbing inside the cabinet.  You can kind of see how the mouse hack is suspended over the gear driven encoder wheel.  Notice the tacky pushpins holding the mouse hack to the 1/4" plywood.  Cheap but effective.

For the pedals mine are activated with microswitches.  Either on or off. They are wired into the joystick hack.  Seems pretty good to me.  
jimmyjet

[Minwah]

See my trackball mouse hack here: http://mamewah.mameworld.net/mousehack.html

You can do exactly the same but you only need to use 1 axis.  You can use the original Pole Position optics

[ratabase1]

 ???Okay, finally got around to getting a mouse hack from OscarControls with the spinner wiring harness.    Has anybody used one of these to wire up a Pole Position Steering Wheel using the existing optic board on the steering wheel?  If so, would you be so kind to point out which wires from the Pole Position Optic board attach to which wires on the wiring harness.  I assume I would cut the red connector, which all four wires connect, off the wiring harness and hook the Pole Pos optic wires to them.  Thanks in advance for your help.  

[Chris]

???Okay, finally got around to getting a mouse hack from OscarControls with the spinner wiring harness.    Has anybody used one of these to wire up a Pole Position Steering Wheel using the existing optic board on the steering wheel?  

The existing optic board is NOT directly compatible.  Someone has a hack posted here somewhere for removing most of the circuitry and making it a dumb encoder compatible with a mouse hack...

--Chris

[SirPoonga]

Talk to oscarcontrols about interfacing a steering wheel.  They even have a $9 mouse prehacked.

[ratabase1]

I emailed OscarControls last night and this is what they said.  "The original Atari optic boards will work with the USB interface.  The Atari board has the same pinout as the Happ board as shown here:
http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac4.html."  
I guess I will give it and see.  

[Karman]

There are lots of ways to do the steering wheel and pedals, but what I want to know is: How can you interface the shifter?!  It has a miscroswitch that is either on or off (hi or low in the game) but the mame code works off of a button press to switch between high and low.  Anyone have any ideas?

[Minwah]

There are lots of ways to do the steering wheel and pedals, but what I want to know is: How can you interface the shifter?!  It has a miscroswitch that is either on or off (hi or low in the game) but the mame code works off of a button press to switch between high and low.  Anyone have any ideas?

Actually there are 3 ways MAME handles shifters (AFAIK):

1) Same input toggles hi/lo (eg Pole Position)
2) One input for hi, one input for lo (eg OutRun)
3) Input on = lo, release = hi (eg ChaseHQ)

3) is exactly how (most) shifters work, so will work perfectly with a real shifter.
2) would work if you wired a separate input to the NC contact on the shifter microswitch, but it will always be sending keypresses (with a keyboard encoder anyway).
I'm not sure the best way to deal with 1), without some coding work in MAME.

I would be interested to know if the shifter inputs in MAME are accurately emulated.  From the little research I have done I think some at least are not.  I get the impression this is another case of the driver author doing 'what they think'.

[Chris]

I emailed OscarControls last night and this is what they said.  "The original Atari optic boards will work with the USB interface.  The Atari board has the same pinout as the Happ board as shown here:
http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac4.html."  
I guess I will give it and see.  

I made this assumption once and for my Pole Position wheels it was not true.  However, it is possible that there are more than one flavor of Atari interface boards...

[captainpotato]

There are lots of ways to do the steering wheel and pedals, but what I want to know is: How can you interface the shifter?!  It has a miscroswitch that is either on or off (hi or low in the game) but the mame code works off of a button press to switch between high and low.  Anyone have any ideas?

1) Same input toggles hi/lo (eg Pole Position)

[snip]

I'm not sure the best way to deal with 1), without some coding work in MAME.

Would it work with a shifter with a microswitch on either side of it, both linked to the same input? That way, when it is moved, it is just the same as hitting the same button to change from low to high gear (and vice versa).

[Minwah]

Would it work with a shifter with a microswitch on either side of it, both linked to the same input? That way, when it is moved, it is just the same as hitting the same button to change from low to high gear (and vice versa).

I think so, as long as there is a slight gap between releasing one switch and hitting the next, so it does not appear as one long keypress.

What would possibly be better is a microswitch that is only momentarily hit, when shifting either up or down.  I'm not sure if this could be added to a shifter easily or not...I will find out when I get to make my steering wheel panel!

[captainpotato]

I think so, as long as there is a slight gap between releasing one switch and hitting the next, so it does not appear as one long keypress.

What would possibly be better is a microswitch that is only momentarily hit, when shifting either up or down.  I'm not sure if this could be added to a shifter easily or not...I will find out when I get to make my steering wheel panel!

What about using a spring to break the contact?

I haven't got Pole Position handy to test it, but perhaps if the button is held in, it doesn't change gears constantly, but requires distinct individual presses?

[Minwah]

What about using a spring to break the contact?

I haven't got Pole Position handy to test it, but perhaps if the button is held in, it doesn't change gears constantly, but requires distinct individual presses?

That's right, I think MAME sees the shift hi/lo the instant the input is pressed down (closed)...so you have to release (open) and repress to change gear.