Anyone using a serial trackball with Optipac?

[1UP]

I'm tyring to cut down on the number of cords I have to squeeze out the side of my rotating CP, so I was considering cutting the cord of my serial trackball (Kye Kidsball) and hacking it to my Optipac.  It seems a waste to only be using the Optipac for my spinner, so I might as well put one of the other connections to use.

Anyone had experience doing this?  Should I make connections to the Optipac from the serial cable, or directly from the optical sensors (bypassing all the chips, resistors etc?)

Thanks for any help!!  

[Lilwolf]

I might work out better if you create 2 opti boards (Andy has the designs on his sites.. they end up being 2 bucks of parts per board or something.... you can also just buy them from him).  Why?  it will probably cause less rollback (1) and it will then connect to the optipac.  Also, then you could later get a real 2 1/4 or 3" later and swap it out without blinking.

but I don't think you can hook your trackball directly to the optipac.  There would be two circuits trying to do the same thing..

[cdbrown]

Hey 1up,

Let me know if you try this and it works or if you find some other way.  I also have two kidsballs (hears the crowd snigger) and would like to utilise the optipac and the connectors I will be using for the removable panels.

Cheers
-cdbrown

[OSCAR]

I might work out better if you create 2 opti boards (Andy has the designs on his sites.. they end up being 2 bucks of parts per board or something.... you can also just buy them from him).  Why?  it will probably cause less rollback (1) and it will then connect to the optipac.  Also, then you could later get a real 2 1/4 or 3" later and swap it out without blinking.

but I don't think you can hook your trackball directly to the optipac.  There would be two circuits trying to do the same thing..

I'm not sure about a kidsball, but most PC mice & trackballs use those tiny encoder wheels.  The large opto's that you mentioned, same used on my Model 2 & Pro spinners, would be way too large to get a good read from those little wheels since they would cover half the wheel.  When you get too much coverage over the encoder wheel, it can't tell what direction it's supposed to go and may stutter back and forth, or may not even move at all.

It is possible to remove the mice optics from the trackball PCB altogether and wire them directly to the Opti-PAC, it only requires adding a resistor.  This is how my first Model 2's were made.  I have a schematic somewhere.... I'll dig it up and email it to you, 1UP.

Then again, since you are always up for a challange , you might be able to replace the little mouse encoder wheels with something like my new M1/M2 encoder wheels and then use the large optoswitches.  If you think you want to go this way, email me and I'll hook you up with the parts.



## EDIT ##

Perhaps I spoke too quickly about using the large opto's on a small wheel.  The mouse encoder wheels are slightly larger than I remembered, and they might work, but they definitely look borderline.  I would still look at using the original mouse optics first before jumping to the large ones.

[1UP]

I'm not sure about a kidsball, but most PC mice & trackballs use those tiny encoder wheels.  The large opto's that you mentioned, same used on my Model 2 & Pro spinners, would be way too large to get a good read from those little wheels since they would cover half the wheel.  When you get too much coverage over the encoder wheel, it can't tell what direction it's supposed to go and may stutter back and forth, or may not even move at all.

It is possible to remove the mice optics from the trackball PCB altogether and wire them directly to the Opti-PAC, it only requires adding a resistor.  This is how my first Model 2's were made.  I have a schematic somewhere.... I'll dig it up and email it to you, 1UP.

Then again, since you are always up for a challange , you might be able to replace the little mouse encoder wheels with something like my new M1/M2 encoder wheels and then use the large optoswitches.  If you think you want to go this way, email me and I'll hook you up with the parts.



## EDIT ##

Perhaps I spoke too quickly about using the large opto's on a small wheel.  The mouse encoder wheels are slightly larger than I remembered, and they might work, but they definitely look borderline.  I would still look at using the original mouse optics first before jumping to the large ones.

Are you saying that I would basically cut the connections from the optos to the original PCB, then wire them to the Optipac?  Couldn't I just scratch out the circuit traces so they don't connect to anything, then solder on some wires and connect them to the Optipac?

I may have found an easier solution.  I cut the serial plug off my Kidsball's cord, then dissected the plug to find out where the wires get connected (it only uses 4 wires).  Then I crimped female D-sub pins onto the 4 colored wires, took a sharpie and wrote down where they go on the side of the cable, covered with a piece of clear heat-shrink to keep the sharpie from wiping off.  Now I can just stuff the cable thru the small channel that goes up the side of my cab, drop it down to the PC, and push the pins into a female D-sub connector.  If I ever need to remove it, I can just use a pin extractor to pull them back out.  DONE!

[OSCAR]

Are you saying that I would basically cut the connections from the optos to the original PCB, then wire them to the Optipac?  Couldn't I just scratch out the circuit traces so they don't connect to anything, then solder on some wires and connect them to the Optipac?

Certainly.  Essentially you would be doing the same thing, removing them from the existing circuit.  The plus side to this is you are keeping the original mounting locations.

I may have found an easier solution.  I cut the serial plug off my Kidsball's cord, then dissected the plug to find out where the wires get connected (it only uses 4 wires).  Then I crimped female D-sub pins onto the 4 colored wires, took a sharpie and wrote down where they go on the side of the cable, covered with a piece of clear heat-shrink to keep the sharpie from wiping off.  Now I can just stuff the cable thru the small channel that goes up the side of my cab, drop it down to the PC, and push the pins into a female D-sub connector.  If I ever need to remove it, I can just use a pin extractor to pull them back out.  DONE!

Using this method, you are not planning on using the Opti-PAC at all, right?  Just making a way to disconnect your serial interface?  Does this cut down on the number of wires coming out of  your CP as you mentioned in your orignal post, or are you just trying to making it simpler to accomodate the extra wire?

[1UP]

Using this method, you are not planning on using the Opti-PAC at all, right?  Just making a way to disconnect your serial interface?  Does this cut down on the number of wires coming out of  your CP as you mentioned in your orignal post, or are you just trying to making it simpler to accomodate the extra wire?

Actually, I can fit a few more wires thru, but the serial plug wouldn't go.  TOO BIG.  I'm still using the Optipac for the spinner, so I'll have to do the same thing.  I got a coil of 9-conductor cable, so I'll put that thru and crimp pins on the ends, making an extension cable with removable ends.  So I'll have 2 serial cables running out the CP.