trackball hardware questions

[sdrob04]

I'm just about ready to drop the bucks on a Happs high-ball trackball and had a few questions.  My cp will be made of MDF, and I'm unsure how much of the following I'll actually need to mount the trackball in the panel.

(see attachment)

1.  If you buy the trackball mounting kit, do you still need to get the trackball plate?
2.  Is the trackball support plate necessary?
3.  Do the optical interfaces (OptiPac, etc.) make use of the standard AMOA harness on the high-ball, or do I need to buy something else when it comes to connecting/interfacing this device?

[pcates]

1.  If you buy the trackball mounting kit, do you still need to get the trackball plate?
2.  Is the trackball support plate necessary?
3.  Do the optical interfaces (OptiPac, etc.) make use of the standard AMOA harness on the high-ball, or do I need to buy something else when it comes to connecting/interfacing this device?

1. No, the mounting kit is all you need.
2. No.
3. Not sure on this one, sorry....

[Jabba]

I just finished interfacing a Happ 3" trackball to the Opti-Pac. There were 6 (acutally "8") wires coming out of the trackball connected to a 6 pin Molex connector. The wires were

2 Red wires for 5V
2 (black?) wires for GND
1 Purple wire
1 Yellow wire
1 Green wire
1 wire (forgot color)

The purple, yellow, green and ? wires connected to the X1, X2, Y1, Y2 of the Opti-Pac.

Does the color scheme look similar for the highball (look at color mouting picture on Happ). If so, then I would tend to think it would be the same setup.

Heck, how many ways is there to hook up a trackball eh?

Good Luck!

Edit: Typo

[NoOne=NBA=]

I used an Oscar USB Mouse Hack on mine.
My CP is modular, so I had to cut the wires and splice them to the Cat-5 cable I used for the disconnect.

If you are only hooking up the one trackball, the USB Mouse Hack works great though.
I think Oscar sells a wiring harness to connect the mouse hack directly to Happs trackballs.

[u_rebelscum]

1. No, only need one or the other.  Make sure to get the correct one, though: 3" high ball is different sized from the 3" high lip, golden tee, & original.

2. No, unless you really pound down on your trackball.  The support plate spreads the pressure over a square area, instead of the 4 bolt heads.  Most arcades didn't need this; OTOH it's fairly common for bars (golf).  
Note: if you use this, you can't illuminate the ball.

3. Yes AMOA standard, no don't need anything special.