Need help with mouse hack

[steptoe]

Im thinking of making a 2 player 360 steering wheel cab. NOw, can i pull apart 2 ball type mice, use 1 mouse for the y axis, use the 2nd mouse for the x axis and just join the two ps2 cables together,(hopefully cable color will mean x or y) and just plug into the computer. Of course i will need to mount encoders onto the steering wheels some how, but totaly achievable. What do you guys think. A 3 player would be better, but Do you guys know of anyone who has built a 3 player driving cab. Im going for a cheap option, of course if there was something on the market affordable i'd look, but in OZ not much here.

Thanks

[JCL]

You can't just do this with 2 mice. There isn't an X and Y wire, all information is sent serially over 1 wire (2 if you consider ground).

You could do this by removing one of the transmitter reciever pairs from the mouse board and wiring up remotely ala the cheep spinner (http://arcadecontrols.com/files/Miscellaneous/spinner.pdf). You essentially need to make two spinners (360 degree steering wheels are basically the same thing) and wire one to the X part of the mouse PCB and the other to the Y portion.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

[Kremmit]

Yes, you can use two mice if you want to. 

There are people using two mice with both spinners/wheels on the same axis, people using two mice with both spinners/wheels on separate axes, and there are people using just one mouse with one spinner/wheel on each axis.  If you're going for two wheels, and don't anticipate ever needing to use them on two separate cabinets, then I'd still go with hacking both to one single mouse, but you certainly don't have to.

As for needing to mount encoders onto the wheels, do you mean your wheels don't have encoder disks on them, or are you talking about optic sensors?  There's info on a Do-It-Yourself optic at http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac4.html that's worth looking at.

[steptoe]

thanks for the help guys, might go with one mouse and move one pair of opticals, i think i might be over my head, but hey mice are cheap. i would love to see a pic of a cab.

[JCL]

Yes, you can use two mice if you want to.

[Kremmit]

True, missed the PS/2 part.  Still, I believe it's possible to use two PS/2 mice at once if you have the spare PS/2 port- which is, admittedly, rare.  Or a PS/2 to Serial adapter and a free serial port.  Or a PS/2 to USB adapter and a free USB port.

[steptoe]

So guys, can i use 2 usb mice, that would be easier, so would i pick up a different axis on each of the mice. Would there be a driver problem, or if both mice were hooked up they would both move the pointer ?

[JCL]

So guys, can i use 2 usb mice, that would be easier, so would i pick up a different axis on each of the mice. Would there be a driver problem, or if both mice were hooked up they would both move the pointer ?

You should be good to go with 2 usb mice. You still need to use 1 X axis and 1 Y axis as both mice will control both axis.