Atari FB Trackballs

[MinerAl]

I have acquired some Atari Football (giant) trackballs, and I'd like to connect them to an Opti-PAC.

Does anyone know which pins are which on the molex connectors on these?  Are they 5 volt or something else?  Do they put out signals that an Opti-PAC will recognize?

I guess I can do a mouse hack with them if worse comes to worst, but I'd sure rather leave them as original as possible, and with as little soldering (shudder) as possible.

Anybody know anything about these?

If not, I do have a multimeter... how should I go about figuring out what all the pins do?

[OSCAR]

Can you post pics of the optic board, like these?

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/atari1.jpg
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/tmp/atari2.jpg

If I can see the traces easily, maybe I (or somebody else) can help tell which pins are what.

On the Atari board I linked, the pins are X1, GND, +5V, X2 from left to right in the atari1.jpg pic.

[MinerAl]

I'll get some up later today!

[MinerAl]

Oscar-

Much later today and with a much worse camera than I had hoped, but here are a couple of shots of one of the boards.  The other board off of this trackball is identical.

I vertically mirrored the back (trace) side of the pictures, so that following the traces would be easier.  If that's bad, I can put up unaltered pics.  The numbers on the pins are added by me (obviously) but are the same as the ones printed inside the molex jack.

(temporary pic attached)

And here's one held up to the light to highlight the traces a little better.


Just to do a little stating of the obvious...
Pins 1 and 3 are bridged, and the only trace from Pin 3 leads to empty solder points
Pins 2, 5, and 7 also seem to lead to empty solder points
Pin 6 has no traces coming from it at all
Pin 4 leads indirectly to one solder point on the big-curved-black-thinggy (a technical term)
Pin 8 leads to one of the tripod-black-thinggies
Pin 9 looks like it directly or indirectly leads to 4 solder points under the big-curved-black-thinggy
Pin 10 seems to go directly or indirectly to the other side of everything Pin 9 goes to
The round-green-thinggy says ".IM  25V Y5F  MEXICO"
The tripod-black-thinggies say "NP  3643  EBC"
The shiney-tube-thinggy says "10uF  20V10X  7905"  (the "u" is actually the electrical symbol that looks like a p with the top chopped off, and the "X" could be a %)
The two maroon striped-tube-thinggies closest to Pin 9 have 1 yellow, 2 lavender, and 1 gold stripe (in that order)
The four beige striped-tube-thinggies have 2 orange, 1 black (or dark brown), and 1 gold stripe (in that order)
The two maroon striped-tube-thinggies farthest from Pin 9 have 1 orange, 1 white, 1 red, and 1 gold stripe (in that order)

Etched wording on the trace side of board itself includes:  "STEERING BD,"  "ATARI 79,"  "A009060,"  an "E" in a square, a "P" in a circle inside a triangle under and to the left of a "1" or "I", and "009061-01."

Sorry about the obnoxious detail, but too much is better than too little information I hope.

If you can do anything with these, I would love to hear which pins are which.

Thanks!

-Al

[OSCAR]

Okay, this is how I would hook it up to an Opti-PAC...

Set the Opti-PAC polarity jumper to Active Hi.
Pins 4 & 8 to the X1 & X2 inputs on the Opti-PAC.  If the trackball goes in the opposite direction, then just reverse the leads to the Opti-PAC.
Pin 9 to +5V
Pin 10 to GND

Pin 9 appears to go directly to one of the phototransistor leads.  If that side of the phototransistor is labeled "E" on the plastic cover, then that should be right.

If that doesn't work, then swap the +5V and GND wires.  Don't worry about it if they are connected backwards the first time.  I've hooked up these arcade optic boards backwards many times and I haven't blown one yet.  They are pretty much bulletproof.

If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll take another look at it, but that's my best guess right now and how I would connect it.

[MinerAl]

It occurred to me that looking at the wiring harness and male molex plugs might yeild useful info. (duh)

Both male plugs (X and Y) share a red wire which goes to both Pins 9, and a black which goes to both Pins 10
On one plug Pin 8 is a light blue wire, and on the other it's yellow
On one plug Pin 4 is a grey wire, and on the other it's white
On both plugs Pins 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are unpopulated

So at this point I'm assuming Pin 9 is +5V, Pin 10 is GND, and Pins 4 and 8 are axis1 and axis2...

Do you think there's a chance this would work with an Opti-PAC?  Is there anything in the pictures or descriptions I've given that indicate if it is a 5V device?  I don't want to damage these, so if they are something other than 5V, will hooking them up to an Opti-PAC fry them?  

I'd love to get these giant trackballs working smoothly.  They take up half the control panel, but they have a fantastic feel to them.

Thanks again.

-Al

[OSCAR]

I wouldn't worry about frying the phototransistors.  Most of the optics I'm familar with are good for about +30V.  I think +5V is pretty standard.

[MinerAl]

Cool.

I'll let you know how it goes once my Opti-PAC gets here.

Thanks a ton

-Al

[MinerAl]

One month later...

Now that I have a free non-holiday moment, I've successfully got my c.1979 Atari trackball optical boards talking to the Opti-PAC!

I put the track ball back together, plugged it into my G4 and managed to move the cursor up, down, back, and forth.  Naturally, I initally wired it so that up was down and left was right, but a quick reversal of the 4 and 8 pins' wires on the Opti-PAC solved that.  

For posterity's sake:
Pin 4 = X1 (or Y1) on the Opti-PAC
Pin 8 = X2 (or Y2)
Pin 9 = +5v
and Pin 10 = GND
Opti-PAC's jumpers set to "A/HI" and "USB"

I have a bunch of fine tuning to do, but I am very excited that I'm one step closer to an arcade-buttons only (no kb or mouse) MacMAME cabinet!

Andy and OSCAR: thanks so much for the hardware and advice (respectively).

[OSCAR]

Glad you got it working, it's nice to see someone put those 20+ year old trackballs to good use!

Naturally, I initally wired it so that up was down and left was right, but a quick reversal of the 4 and 8 pins' wires on the Opti-PAC solved that.  

Of course.... you would think you have a 50/50 chance of getting the direction right the first time, but from my experience its more like 20/80.