Q: Betson Trackball molex wiring

[rampy]

Hi,

So I'm nearing the point where I want to hack my betson imperial 3" arcade trackball (i.e. not ps2/usb)  to a mouse.  I was just looking for some clarification on the wire color scheme:

Red = +5v
Black= - /ground

then theirs:

brown
yellow
blue
green

obviously they are the x+, x- , and y+, y- but which is paired to which (yellow + brown, blue + green? or vice versa?)

What kills me is someone else asked this question, and I posted an answer via a link to a google discussion about this very topic months ago, and I can't find the thread here, or in google groups. (I could have imagined posting here, and just bookmarked it... oy vey..)

thanks!

rmapy

[Rod1968]

I just got my Optipac the other day
and hooked my betson to it.

Here you go:
Yellow = X1
Green = X2
Brown = Y1
Blue = Y2

Rodney

[rampy]

thanks rodney... I appreciate it.

One additional question... did you bother with the green ground wire (the one that seems to ground itself on the roller bars)?   I don't really have an earth ground running through my cab...  Is that to dissipate static electricity from building up from the roller ball (just an off handed theory... I couldn't see why one would want to ground the rollers ..) *Shrug*

thanks,

rampy

[Rod1968]

thanks rodney... I appreciate it.

No problem

One additional question... did you bother with the green ground wire (the one that seems to ground itself on the roller bars)?   I don't really have an earth ground running through my cab...

No I didn't bother to hook it up since I just hooked it up to my main Box for testing puposes then had to put it away till Xmas "Thanks to the biatch"(lol)
But it will definitely get hooked up when it goes in the cabinet

Is that to dissipate static electricity from building up from the roller ball (just an off handed theory... I couldn't see why one would want to ground the rollers ..) *Shrug*

Thats exactly what its for according to the sheet of paper that came with my Betson. I'm not sure maybe somebody else can shed some light on this but couldn't you just hook it up to the other ground leads coming out of the TB.

Rodney

[u_rebelscum]

I just got my Optipac the other day
and hooked my betson to it.

Here you go:
Yellow = X1
Green = X2
Brown = Y1
Blue = Y2

Rodney

Mine's a little different:
edit red color text is wrong
Yellow = Y2
Green = Y1
Brown = X1
Blue = X2
(I think mine is rotated 90 degrees from yours; the wires are coming out of the bottom left corner).

This is close to happs wiring:
Yellow = Y1
Green = Y2
Purple = X1
Blue = X2

edit After testing on the happs USB adapter, my betson (and happs) is the same as Rod1968's:
Yellow = X1
Green = X2
Brown (purple) = Y1
Blue = Y2

Is that to dissipate static electricity from building up from the roller ball (just an off handed theory... I couldn't see why one would want to ground the rollers ..) *Shrug*

Thats exactly what its for according to the sheet of paper that came with my Betson. I'm not sure maybe somebody else can shed some light on this but couldn't you just hook it up to the other ground leads coming out of the TB.

Yes, you can hook the green to the other ground.  But now that the optic boards have diodes and such, you don't really need to worry about the static frying them or the game pcb.  Many users here don't hook up the greenies.

[Rod1968]

Mine's a little different:
Yellow = Y2
Green = Y1
Brown = X1
Blue = X2
(I think mine is rotated 90 degrees from yours; the wires are coming out of the bottom left corner).

Yep according to the betson diagrams yours is hooked up backwards, with the top center the wires should be coming out of the bottom right side. Thats how mine was hooked up originally because I followed the happs wiring diagram from the Ultimark site and substituted the brown for the purple, Then I actually looked at the beston diagram that came with the trackball and I corrected it. It might just be my imagination but with the correct orientation the ball seems to roll much smoother. I guess it really doesn't matter though.

Rodney

[u_rebelscum]

(I think mine is rotated 90 degrees from yours; the wires are coming out of the bottom left corner).

Yep according to the betson diagrams yours is hooked up backwards, with the top center the wires should be coming out of the bottom right side. Thats how mine was hooked up originally because I followed the happs wiring diagram from the Ultimark site and substituted the brown for the purple, Then I actually looked at the beston diagram that came with the trackball and I corrected it. It might just be my imagination but with the correct orientation the ball seems to roll much smoother. I guess it really doesn't matter though.

Rodney

I thought I had 90 degrees off.  But the wiring this match happs closer than turning the correct way.

And this would matter if I wanted to swap the trackballs.  I got molex stuff so I could plug and unplug pretty easy, but since the two balls have different wiring into their end of the molex plug, I can't just swap right them right now.  I'll probably clip and redo either the happs or the betson so I can swap with just unpluging/plugging the molex plug (into an optipac).  Depends on how wico wires their 3" and 2 1/4" balls also, I guess.

BTW, oscar, this difference is slowing down my testing a little.  I was only able to play marble maddnes this whole weekend.  And I mean: play the whole weekend.  

[rampy]

Well, I did the dirtiest of hacks to an old m$ ps/2 mouse... my original plan was to remove the optic decoder thingies and solder the wires in its place to a fresh matching molex connector... but damn my clumsy hands and worn out soldering iron tip (the tip is no longer pointy), and lack of desoldering braid and patience =P

I burnt/broke off the pads... so I had to follow the trace and found some parallel resistors that I sloppily soldered some wire to, and then glue gunned the hell out of, and then tiewrapped the wires in to twisted pairs to the mouse perf pcb (so that they'll stay put, look neater, and be less susceptible to metal fatique (strain relief).

Anyways... how can I tell which way is up?  With using where the wires comeout of the trackball unit facing north, I've got the correct X/Y action happening... so If I mount it like that I'll be fine/content... but if that's not the convention is there any reason why I'd want to orient it another way and/or swap the x/y's (etc) to make it physically face/lay another direction?  

yaknowwhatI'msaying?

rampy

maybe my reading comprehension skills suck... I just scrolled down and reread some of the other comments in this thread... but still would like to know disadvantages to semi haphazard mispositioned trackball placement/mounting.
 

[Rod1968]

[qoute]

maybe my reading comprehension skills suck... I just scrolled down and reread some of the other comments in this thread... but still would like to know disadvantages to semi haphazard mispositioned trackball placement/mounting.
 

The correct orientation is the wires coming out the bottom towards you on the right hand side.

As far as the orientation being wrong and the xy being right if your happy with it then theres nothing wrong with it as long as you happy with the perfomance

But the reason for the correct orientation is when you roll the ball forward you are actually pushing down on the roller and creating friction between the roller and the ball. If it is not orientated correctly then you are actually pushing the ball away from the roller creating less friction than if it was mounted correct and not gettig the full potentional of the roll other than that if you happy with the performance of you ball I would leave it as it is.

Rodney

[u_rebelscum]

But the reason for the correct orientation is when you roll the ball forward you are actually pushing down on the roller and creating friction between the roller and the ball. If it is not orientated correctly then you are actually pushing the ball away from the roller creating less friction than if it was mounted correct and not gettig the full potentional of the roll.

Rodney

Ah-ha! (slaps my forehead).

Yes, and most cp are slanted so you would want the roller on the bottom so the TB rests on it.  My (non-arcade) kensington TB cannot be on a surface slanting toward the top (ie, cannot be less slanted than it is designed to be) or else the TB "rides" off the sensor roller.

Also note that TBs have two sensored rollers, so two of the four orientations have a roller on the bottom.  I need to open the betson to be sure, but it feels like the wires need to be on the right for a roller to be on the bottom.  (looks for long, narrow phillips head screwdriver)

[u_rebelscum]

Opps, ignore my betson wiring in my prior posts; I was wrong about my happs wiring too.  Seems I took apart my happs TB and when reassembling, I put the X axis optic board on the Y axis and the Y board on the X axis, and was trying to match the betson to this.  

So I switched the optic boards correctly and compared this to my betson.    However, when hooked up correctly (wires coming out bottom right), my betson wiring is just like the happs with the brown = purple substitution, and the molex wiring is the same so I can just swap the TBs.