Need Trackball help/ KE72/WinME. Please read!

[Superdave]

I have a Happs 3" Trackball running through a Hagstrom KE72T. I am running WinME and FMAME32. I am having a heck of a time with my trackball on control issues. The speed in windows is really bad! it's very choppy and too fast even with the speed bar adjusted all of the way down and accelerate turned off. It is also giving very bad rollback problems even at moderate to slow roll speeds. This is in both MAME and desktop. I just probably need a different mouse driver(just guessing) to fix this but I didn't have this problem w/ Win 98 and MAME dos. I got a nasty virus on my PC and had to start from scratch. What I am looking for is a good generic 3 button mouse driver, and mabye some tips to get this thing smoothed back out.

[JLR2000]

SD-

Sounds to me that it's not the mouse driver, but the analog controls in the mame game settings need to be tweaked.  For example, I have a happ 3" trackball hooked into a KE72-T. When I go into a game like Golden Tee Golf, for the first time, I have to hit the "TAB" button to get the MAME menu, then I look for "ANALOG CONTROLS".  Not all games have this.  You will see "AD Stick Y/X Sensitivity" with something from 1-100%. Play with these settings, this is what really controls the trackball in MAME games.  Sorry I can't give you more info, I'm sure it's out there....this is just what I've figured out myself.  I'm sure you mouse driver you were using is fine, you need to tweak the settings in the game itself. Once you have it the way you like it you shouldn't have to mess with it again (barring a harddrive failure, reload, or accidently deleting the settings file). Good Luck.  

[Superdave]

Thanks for the reply, Its not the MAME in-game settings because like I said Im having problems in windows. I have found another generic 3 button driver that seems to be working alot better and without rollback unless I really rail on the TB but I cannot get the in-game config menu to accept the 3rd ( middle button) although windows itself shows it to be registering just fine.

[x-wing_]

The third mouse button isn't supported by official MAME.  Perhaps some of the enhanced derivatives like AdvanceMAME or MAME: Analog+ do, but I'm not positive about that.

BTW, what driver did you find that works better than the Windows native driver?  That might be useful info in case anyone else is having a similar problem.

[Superdave]

Well, I restarted my computer and it's back to the problems, Ive checked my drivers to make sure plug & play didn't override what I put in but that was OK. I dunno, I'm lost. Oh, Im using FMAME32 which does support 3 button mice

[u_rebelscum]

The third mouse button isn't supported by official MAME.  Perhaps some of the enhanced derivatives like AdvanceMAME or MAME: Analog+ do, but I'm not positive about that.

The official mame does support the third mouse, as long as the mouse driver is set up correctly.  Many mouse drivers let you remap pressing the physical third button to a double click of the first button (or other setting that's not a third button click).  In this case, the info that windows passes mame is limited to two mouse buttons.

Example: (mame sees the win side)  
mouse_button1 = win_button1
mouse_button2 = win_button2
mouse_button3 = win_button1(doubleclick).  

You might have to set the three button driver so pressing the third button is a click of button 3 in windows for mame to have three mouse buttons.

I have a Happs 3" Trackball running through a Hagstrom KE72T. I am running WinME. I am having a heck of a time with my trackball on control issues. The speed in windows is really bad! it's very choppy and too fast even with the speed bar adjusted all of the way down and accelerate turned off. It is also giving very bad rollback problems even at moderate to slow roll speeds.

I wonder if you trackball is getting enough power.  It needs 5V, and I'm not sure the KE72T can provide enough power from the ps/2 port.  I don't have a KE72T, though, so I could be way off base.

[OSCAR]

Superdave, I would recommend that you email Hagstrom about the problems you are having.  Their tech support is very knowledgeable and friendly.  They should have you up and running in no time.

The KE72-T is designed to handle the power requirements of the Happ trackball, but that doesn't eliminate the possibility you may have received a defective/damaged interface.

One other thing to check is to see if the encoder wheels on the ends of the trackball rollers look centered with respect to the optics.  Jumpy behavior with optical devices can sometimes be caused by misaligned optics.