New to this, needs help with trackball

[Tarrant2003]

I put together a mame cabinet that is working fine with the joystick and buttons i have wired to an i-pac.

[mahuti]

Re: Pictures.

You either need to use img / img and post a link to a picture URL OR, click on the "additional options" at the bottom of the "full reply" or "new post" window and you can add up to 2 pics. Once you open addn'l options, it's pretty obvious.

Re: Trackball. The trackball probably has 2 sets of wires / connectors coming out of it with 4 wires / connectors in each set. OR 1 big set with 6- 8 wires / connectors.

There are 2 axes on a trackball, one for x and one for y (horizontal / vertical) Each axis has a ground, 5v, x1, x2 (or y1, y2) those correspond to the screw terminals on an optipac. You run 1 wire from the each of those connectors to the corrsponding terminal on the optipac. You will have to figure out which wire goes to what. Posting pics, or providing more information about the specific trackball will go a long way, however.

[Tarrant2003]

Thank you for explaining how to put the pictures on there, i'm sure it'll help a lot being able to post those!  I've attached a pic of both the front and back of one of the boards on the trackball.  (There are two, they are identical)
Is there any way of telling which terminal in the white plastic box on the board corresponds with which screw terminal on an opti-pac?
I don't have any documentation with this trackball, nor the wire harness, so i'm not sure what is the best way to figure it out.

[Tarrant2003]

Here are additional pics of the trackball I am working with, incase it helps.
Thank you!!!!!!!

[RetroACTIVE]

Ahhh the Missile Command trackball!  That thing will suck your fingers right into it if you get too excited....

I LOVE IT! Wish I had one.

Sorry I can't add any help... just jealous.

[BobA]

Based on the 2 pics my analysis of the TB circuit is shown below.  Maybe someone can take a look at it based on my assumptions or maybe someone has the real circuit diagram. The gnd and + are based on the electrolytic closest to the connector.

X1 and X2 would be Y1 and Y2 on the other board and the 1 and 2 could be switched around depending on the direction of rotation required.

BobA

[Tarrant2003]

It is a cool trackball, can't wait to get it working!
Thank you for the help, I appreciate you taking a look at it for me.
I confirmed your findings with Andy at Ultimarc and it looks like that's the information i needed to get it up and running.
All that is left is to buy an opti-pac and start playing!

[mahuti]

once you get the gnd & 5v figured out, getting the x1/x2 stuff figured out is easy.

[RayB]

You tossed the wiring? You could have Ebay'd it.

[Tarrant2003]

Yea, in hindsight that was pretty stupid... could've put all the cabinet parts on ebay and probably recovered enough to pay for my i-pac and opti-pac boards. I'm definately learning from all the mistakes i'm making with this first cabinet. I'll know better next time.

[RayB]

oh... you had a whole cabinet...?   

[Tarrant2003]

The trackball is now up and running!!!!!
Not at 100% though, so that brings me to my latest question ---

I fire up Mame (windows version) and the trackball works perfectly on the screen where it lists all the games.  Once I select a game, it stops working.
Once I exit out of the game and return to the list, it starts working again.

I've looked through the settings where you map buttons, joystick directionals, etc... (by hitting "tab" after the game is launched) and have found some spots that mention the trackball but since the trackball has already stopped responding by that point, I'm not sure how to get it to work in the games.

Any help with this newest problem would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[markrvp]

You have to Enable Mouse Support for MAME games.

[Jabba]

Heh Heh, I have a Crystal Castles that *USED* to be a Missle Command. They actually (back in the 80's) overlaid a CC graphic over a MC graphic. I'm thinking of converting it back to a MC...

[Tarrant2003]

That was exactly what i needed to do, once I checked the box for mouse support it worked great.  The cabinet is now fully functional and I can die happy.    Thanks!