grounding the trackball...

[hulkster]

i know the ground wire is supposed to connect to a ground point, but does that matter what kind of ground point it is?  the reason that im asking is that ive seen some peoples ground point like, far away from the trackball.  right now, i have it just attached to one of the screws that the mounting plate has on the underside of the cp.  i just looped that little green wire around (its a happ 3" trackball by the way) the screw and put the nut over it.  is this right or should i move the ground wire somewhere else?

[Chris]

If the plate itself isn't grounded, that isn't going to help.  Eventually the ground should end up at the ground terminal of your power connection.

[hulkster]

If the plate itself isn't grounded, that isn't going to help.  Eventually the ground should end up at the ground terminal of your power connection.

so i can put the ground to my optipac?  but i thought the ground was like two wires or something, can i stick both of those in the ground connection?

[drunkatuw]

If you're using an mouse hack (like oscars) then all the electronics are grounded through the mouse (this would be the same for the minipac).  I'm assuming the optipac is the same (never used it myself).  So I hooked up the oscar mouse harness to the two circuit boards and just left the big green wire dangling, as far as I know, it's not attached to anything on the inside anyways.

[mp2526]

So I hooked up the oscar mouse harness to the two circuit boards and just left the big green wire dangling, as far as I know, it's not attached to anything on the inside anyways.

The big green wires are not for grounding the trackball electrically, but rather used to dissipate any static electricity build up from moving the ball around on the rollers.  The wires should be connected to a little copper strip that is usually rubber cemented under one of the bearings attached to each axis roller.  Some people hook these up, some don't.

[hulkster]

yeah, im talking about the green wires that have the little silver loop at the end of them.  sorry, didnt clarify that.  i already cut the main wires and hooked those all up like ultimarc's site tells you to do and the green ones are connected to the gnd on the optipac....i was just wondering about the two wires that come off the trackball and look like they hook onto something....im assuming thats the static thing.  i just attached that to a screw.  that was my question....whether or not i did that right.

[Apollo]

Yes that's fine it doesn't need to be actually "grounded" it's just to get rid of static on the ball. Just attach it like you already have.

[Minwah]

How about other controls?  Most of the arcade controls I own have a green wire attached to the metal housing of the control, and often has a round connector on the other end.

As it's connected to the metal housing, I guess this is an electrical earth - does it need to be connected up?

[CCM]

I have a Happs 3" trackball in my cab that I've been using for almost 2 years and I've never connected the green 'static' wire to anything and I've never had a problem with the trackball.

[mp2526]

How about other controls?  Most of the arcade controls I own have a green wire attached to the metal housing of the control, and often has a round connector on the other end.

As it's connected to the metal housing, I guess this is an electrical earth - does it need to be connected up?

Does it need to be hooked up to function?  Most likely not.  It's pretty much up to you and whether or not your environment builds up a lot of static electricity.

[DennisInMN]

How about other controls?  Most of the arcade controls I own have a green wire attached to the metal housing of the control, and often has a round connector on the other end.

As it's connected to the metal housing, I guess this is an electrical earth - does it need to be connected up?

Does it need to be hooked up to function?  Most likely not.  It's pretty much up to you and whether or not your environment builds up a lot of static electricity.

And what does happen if there is a lot of static electricity build up?  Does the trackball get fried?

[NoOne=NBA=]

My guess would be no.

I think the ground wire is there to prevent the trackball/roller/plastic housing/metal mounting plate capacitor effect.

I'm guessing that they had a problem with people getting zapped on the metal mounting plate when they came up to, or were playing the game due to the trackball rollers building up a static charge.

I pulled the ground wires off of mine, and haven't had a problem.