Oscar Spinner / Optipac Problem

[rygar]

I recently completed my control panel, but I can't seem to get the Oscar model 3 spinner working. It is wired to an Optipac (USB) along with a Happ 3" trackball. The trackball and mouse buttons are working perfectly, but the spinner won't even budge. I have it wired so that the trackball is connected to the Player 1 Trackball port, and the spinner is wired to the Player 1 Rotary port (X1, X2). I've also tried moving the spinner to the Player 2 port and messing with the jumpers. The only sign of life I see from the spinner is: 1) When I play Arkanoid and spin it, it flickers a pixel or two to the left and right, as if it's trying to move but can't. 2) When I remove the LO/HI jumper from the "rotary", the spinner now moves diagonally into the top right corner, but no other direction. Anyone have a clue what this could be? I'm completely baffled.

[REBIRTH]

I have an Oscar Spinner, had a couple of issues on first install (mainly because I didn't follow the instructions close enough, nothing wrong with the spinner).  Anyway,  here are some thoughts based on what I didn't quite do right when installing it - I realize some of these are basic things, so don't think I am talking down to you, just stating some simple issues:

1)  If you didn't already, try contacting Oscar Controls - I have found them to be very quick and responsive to questions

2)  I assume you are, but connecting the spinner via USB is different than non-USB (I didn't use USB).  Look on the Oscar site at the Installation directions (PDF document) and he explains the difference in the installation.  You use a different wiring harness for the USB connection (I assume you have done this correctly, just pointing this out).

3)  Which Mame ae you running?  If it is the standard DOS based version, I would first try to get the spinner to work in Windows first.  In windows the spinner should move the mouse left and right.  Depending on your version of Windows, the mouse drivers in DOS may be different than the drivers in Windows.  To ensure that the spinner is actually not defective, first try getting it to work in Windows.  Once you get it to work there, if it still doesn't work in MAME then the issue could be your mouse driver (though if your trackball is working in Mame this may not be the issue).  Download a new one and/or go into the mouse driver setup and (a) make sure it will also work in DOS (b) make sure your Mame.ini has the mouse setting to 1 (a setting of 0 will not load the mouse in MAME) (c) make sure mouse acceleration is turned off in the mouse setup.

3)  In Mame, see what changing the analog setting in games does - press TAB and go into "Analog Settings" - usually the Speed settings should be on the lower side (Below 10) and the sensitivity settings on the higher side (over 100).  That said, Arknoid needs specific settings to get it to work well (it should still work more than you are saying when not at these settings) - the speed should be 1 and the sensitivity around 150.

4)  Make sure your wiring harness wires are secured in the little connector tab correctly.  I had issues with this, since it didn't come pre-assembled, I had trouble connecting that little bugger.

5)  The only other thing I can think of is make sure the optical sensors are actually situated so that the encoder wheel teeth are driectly in their path.   Sometimes you can accidentally install the wfer board on the worng side of the metal mmounting bracket, so that the sensors are no longer "seeing" the encoder teeth correctly.  

Good luck.  

[zaphod]

5)  The only other thing I can think of is make sure the optical sensors are actually situated so that the encoder wheel teeth are driectly in their path.   Sometimes you can accidentally install the wfer board on the worng side of the metal mmounting bracket, so that the sensors are no longer "seeing" the encoder teeth correctly.  

This is what I did when I originally installed the spinner.  I mistakenly installed the wafer on the inside of the bracket and it did what rygar is describing.  

Oscar is great at answering your questions.  He's quite patient.  Email him if you still can't get it to work.

[jcoleman]

If your spinner is moving diagonally, you likely have it connected to one X and one Y connector rather than both X or both Y.  Think about it like this...if it's only moving up and right, and always in that direction, the signals generated must be up and right.  Doublecheck your connections and be sure that you don't have any stray wires that might hit the wrong connector.

Coleman

[rygar]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I finally got it working. As it turns out, I had everything wired and mounted correctly from the get-go, but I guess the sensors were a millimeter off or so and it wasn't picking up the signal. I toyed with them and shifted the wafer ever so slightly, and finally got it working. I'm surprised such a tiny adjustment was preventing any response at all. Thanks again for all the help.