Mounting a trackball without plate

[anoon]

The dimensions of my CP are 26 5/8" x  13 3/16". The CP surface was going to be wood, with a sheet metal overlay, then plexi or lexan over that.

I am going to have 2 sticks, 6 buttons each, a trackball and a spinner. (Maybe 2 spinners.)

Anyway, I am going with the happ 2 1/4" trackball. Do I have to use the mounting plate? That damn thing takes up so much real estate. Does any one have any suggestions as to how to put this all together?

[Xiaou2]

 The mounting plate is the best way to go.  Its not that much bigger than the actual trackball... maybe like 1cm on all sides.    

 The other thing you have to consider... is that when rolling that bad boy really fast... you will need a good 5inches in all diretions... otherwise you will probably slam your hands into other controls... or wont be able to roll it fat enough because you are trying to avoid the other controls.

 Try the setup on a piece of carboard,  by mounting all controls,  to help you avoid a problem setup.

[chanson]

A couple of things to consider....

If your lexan is really thin and you can get a really nice hole for the ball cut in the sheetmetal and the lexan, you may not have to have one.  If the lexan / sheet metal combination is too thick, however (more than 1/8 inch I would think), it seems better to have the mounting plate with a larger hole in the lexan / metal.  You don't want too much space between the edge of the hole and the ball.  If the material is too thick, you'll have enough space to pinch fingers and collect dust.

As far as placement goes, if you're using a pc trackball you may not be able to spin it hard or fast enough to need a lot of extra space around.  I have a pc trackball and use it for centipede and tempest (no spinner yet....) and the settings I use allow for pretty fine movements rather than really big ones.  I don't use a lot of space around my TB...

hope that helps!

[anoon]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I went and checked out a bunch of control panels from other peoples projects. It does look like a few people have done without the mounting plate. I'm going to give it a shot.

[anoon]

Now... I assume the same can be done for the Oscar joystick restrictors? I want to use the restrictors, but I don't want the mounting plate. I went with the pin style restrictors. I'm hoping I can just make holes for the restrictor plates to drop into. Anyone done this yet?

[Tiger-Heli]

Now... I assume the same can be done for the Oscar joystick restrictors? I want to use the restrictors, but I don't want the mounting plate. I went with the pin style restrictors. I'm hoping I can just make holes for the restrictor plates to drop into. Anyone done this yet?

See OSCAR's Hot Rod modification page on the www.oscarcontrols.com site.  He covers this modification.