happ mini trackball

[vrf]

So, I'm thinking of getting the 1 1/2" trackball. It's too frickin expensive, I know, but it might be my only choice for an arcade-quality trackball in my micro cab.

Anyhow, what else do I need? It has an optional mounting kit for $30, and a USB cable for $45! And a $7 button harness.

So...

Can I mount the ball without the mounting kit? (It'll be in a laser-cut acrylic panel.)

Can I use some other cheaper cable?   $45 bucks for a cable seems ridiculous.

Finally, is the button harness the only way of having mouse buttons? What if I wire up to a Keywiz or something?

Thanks for your help!

[menace]

maybe look for an old logitech trackball mouse or something similar--that price is ridiculous and by the time happ adds all their shipping fees its going to be one pricey little trackball..  I'm all for arcde authentic parts but sometimes economics wins...

[whammoed]

I'm sure its a quality item but I don't think its necessarily meant for arcade games...more likely kiosks.  Haven't heard from anyone whos bought one yet, so....
Look around, you may be able to find a kiosk trackball this size cheaper elsewhere.

[ArtMAME]

I am with whammoed, it looks like a kiosk trackball, like the ones they have at Target stores or in department stores. 

I am sure the kiosk trackball would be quality item and very playable, but you can get a Happ 2-1/4" arcade trackball for less $ from other sources like Ebay or maybe from one of the vendors on this forum.
Used ones would run about $5 - $50 on Ebay, but you may have to clean or even replace the bearings.  New ones could run $50 - $100 on Ebay.  Happ sells them for $100 - 160. 
The easiest thing to do would be to get one with a USB/ PS/2 interface, this makes it look like a mouse to the PC.  If you have an optical encoder interface, then you can just get a regular trackball and interface it that way. 

A mounting plate makes the trackball very easy to mount, but it is not really needed.  If you don't use a mounting plate, you may have the bolt heads sticking out over the panel (look at the X-arcade Trackball) There maybe a way to hide these with out one, but  I just went with the mounting plate. Some people just don't like the mounting plate thing so they chose to mount it a different way.

Or you could just use a PC trackball mouse and either lay it on your control panel, or hack it into your control panel.  If you would like to go this route, I would suggest you try the Logitech USB Marble Mouse, or the Macally iBall Pro ( have not hacked these, I have just used them as regular trackball mice and lay them on the control panel.)  They are both under $20 and seem to work smother than the other PC  trackball mice I have tried.  They are not as playable as the arcade trackballs, but if you are only playing Centipede, Millipede, and navigating Windows, they are acceptable, though far less than ideal.  GoldenT, Crystal Castles, Marble Madness...faghetaboutit!!!  These games are just not playable with a PC trackball mouse.

Hope this info helps...good luck

[Dizzle]

I was faced with a similar situation.  There's no room for me to place a regularly sized trackball in my panel (a HotRod SE) and I was thinking about the Happ mini trackball, but nearly fainted when I saw the price.  Like ArtMAME suggested, I picked up a Marble Mouse (Logitech) instead and lay it on top of the control panel when I'm using it.  I'm pretty happy with it -- it works fine for Marble Madness for me, and pretty good as an alternative for spinner games.  But for any games that require a hard spin on the trackball (Golden Tee) ... it's pretty bad.

Still worth the $20 for me though....

[vrf]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I poked around for kiosk trackballs, and I found one of those Devlin keyboard/trackball combinations on ebay. 50 bucks now, but it could go up. I'd also have to have someone cut the trackball out of the stainless steel shell. (I don't have many tools at my disposal.)

Anyhow, I'm a little under budget right now. I live in Taiwan, so I was able to save some money on a few of the other parts. And it is important to me to have a high-spinning ball like in the arcades. So I think I could swing the $200 dollars, if it doesn't mean I have to buy that $45 cable. Is that just an extension cable, or do I need it to interface to the PC? I suppose I do need the button harness in order to wire up mouse buttons?

As for the mounting plate, the footprint is a little too big. I'll have to rig something else up. I wonder if I can drill holes about 1/3 of the way down into my acrylic CP. That way the screws will fall below the surface and can be covered by my CP artwork.

[SteveJ34]

How about this one....

http://tinyurl.com/n7ooz

...not sure about what interface would be required but maybe you can email the seller and get a readable schematic and/or manufacturer info.

Best of luck with your project.

[RayB]

The problem with such a small trackball is it has no "spin". In many games, you want to be able to spin the ball and have it keep spinning for a while after you lift your hand off of it. These little kiosk ones don't spin at all (from what I've seen and heard). They stop right away

[ArtMAME]

Yeah, I was thinking that also.  Some some do and some don't.  Same thing with Trackballs integrated into keyboards.  I have seen only one keyboard trackball that keeps on spinning (it is less than 1 inch diameter), but most that I have seen don't keep spinning.  Same with kiosk trackballs.  You never know until you actually try it.

Just out of curiosity, how big is your control panel and what controls are you trying to put on it?  Have you considered swappable control panels?  Or maybe even a 2nd cabinet?

[vrf]

How about this one....
http://tinyurl.com/n7ooz

wow... that is a good price. I wish the seller gave more information about the footprint and interface. (The second picture he has is too small to read.)

I hear what you guys are saying about the spin. I definitely want a nice spin in a tiny package. That's what initially attracted me to the Happ ball. It claims it has a "big ball feel." ( ) But without a BYOACer confirmation of that, I guess it would be pretty stupid to order one. (Can anyone say that this Happ ball definitely does NOT have a free spin to it?)

As for the CP size, it'll be tiny, about 9.5" x 6.5", although I'll go a little smaller if I can't get a decent trackball in there:



Thanks for all the comments guys! You can check out "Project RGB" in the announcements forum for more info on this project.