how do I hook this trackball up to a computer?

[unix4hire]

   It came out of an old bowling game but rolls pretty good.  How do I connect this sucker?

[Thenasty]

Opti-pac or hack it to plug into Ps2 port (use ps2 mouse).

[Jabba]

To connect it to the Opti-Pac, you'll need to cut off that Molex connector (or make a harness with a female molex ), then wire it to the Opti-Pac.

The Opti-Pac has 4 screw connections for a Trackball

[unix4hire]

Opti-pac or hack it to plug into Ps2 port (use ps2 mouse).

I was thinking this is the way to go but got a little hestitant when I took it apart to examine.  Basically would I be replacing the entire "mouse" itself with the trackball unit, and reconnecting the cables?  I didn't know what order to connect each one as.  I'll have to hunt for a nice link on doing this.  trial/error

no it doesn't light up.

what's the recommended way then (i.e. the easiest), optipac or ps2 hack?

[vader]

Did I miss something, where's Oscar

tim

[mahuti]

Easiest? Optipac... unless you're a whiz at soldering, then ps2 hack.

Optipac- easy, can handle 2 trackballs, 4 spinners, reasonably priced, but not cheap.

ps2 hack= 1 trackball, cheap.. may already have a mouse lying around.

[mahuti]

Oscar has other commitments with "Real Life"

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/

has been offline for months now.

[vader]

 

Thats unfortunate, I just searched and read some past posts that he how other things to take care of.  Hope all returns to normal for him.

Tim

[Jabba]

I agree with mahuti, Optipac easiest, but most costly. Viable if you wanted to put more than 1 PS/2 device on the computer...Otherewise, Mouse hack is good. I thought Oscar had the mouse hack documented on his site somewhere. Searching here will definately bring it up...

[SirPoonga]

It's not that hard to hack to a usb mouse.
The 6 pins are +%V, Ground, X+, X-, Y+, Y-.

Grab any mouse to hack.  Look up the mouse controller chip on http://www.datasheetarchive.com/.
Desolder the IR parts from the mouse.  Take the 6 pins form the tball and solder them to the appropiate pins on the mouse chip.  Plu gin mouse

On the tball, the red wire should be the power.  The black wire should be ground.  For Then follow the other wires to determine axis pairs.  Then it is trial and error on which one is + and minus.  When plugged in if you move the tball up but cursor goes down the + ad - need to be swapped.

You are probably not going to find that connector.  Best get the 6 pin connector form radioshack and make your own plug.

[J-Rod]

Yeah Poonga is right, I did most of mine through trial and error, and using a multimeter to figure out what was what. + and - is just a matter of swapping. Make sure you wire up the power and ground directly to the ps2 cable, and not off points on the PCB. I tried that and kept getting +3.3, because of a resistor on the board. My .02