Stein's trackball build, finished.

[Stein]

but something to look at anyhow  just waiting on the light kit from Happ.

I was thinking of adding this to the project list, but I haven't seen too many small projects there, with all the great cabs I feel a little silly braggin about my tabletop controller. LOL

is it just me or does anyone else find happs trackballs a little on the loud side?

I put some "super slick stuff" lubricant on my bearings to try and quiet it down a little, that didn't work but it did add probly a good two seconds to the spin time

Stein

[Birdtales]

Pics?

[Stein]

how'd that happen?

http://webpages.charter.net/mjellis1/index.htm

[BobA]

Truly great wood working.  Very professional and looks mighty fine.  You even kept the wiring super neat.  WOW

BobA

[SirPoonga]

what interface?

[Stein]

Thanks Bob, since I'm not quite ready yet to tackle a full mame cab I had some fun doing everything I could think of with this little controller

I'm using the Happ interface for the TB SirPoonga, I honestly wasn't familiar with all the other interfaces out there right now. I didn't know about Oscar Controls either,  this hobby has really taken off.  I've known about BYOAC for a couple years since trying to decide weather or not to buy a Hotrod but was never a regular until I was in the process of building my TB.

I'm so impressed with some of the work I've seen here...

Anyhow the Happ interface makes things easy in that you just plug it in and everything works, I was really surprised that I didn't have to tweak the speed of the trackball for games like Missle Command, Centipede, Shuuz etc. it just worked

[SirPoonga]

WEll, I figured you used happs because of size, otherwise I was suprised you didn;t get an optipac.

[rampy]

so are you a luther, i.e. make guitars?

Do you have any pics of those?

rampy

[Stein]

well a real luthier I'm not, tho I know one or two, I'm not on that level. I can do certain modifications and tune-ups are no problem, dress frets, align truss rods, intonation, pickups, wiring etc... but build an acoustic guitar out of a block of wood I cannot, I've seen it done and played some nice customs, but just a wannabe really the only pics I have are of my own non-modified guitars and equip.

[u_rebelscum]

but something to look at anyhow  just waiting on the light kit from Happ.

I was thinking of adding this to the project list, but I haven't seen too many small projects there, with all the great cabs I feel a little silly braggin about my tabletop controller. LOL

is it just me or does anyone else find happs trackballs a little on the loud side?

I put some "super slick stuff" lubricant on my bearings to try and quiet it down a little, that didn't work but it did add probly a good two seconds to the spin time

Stein

Yes, my happs ball is louder than my wico or betson TBs.  It's quited down some after using it a bit, but still is louder.  Funny thing is that the free spin time in the happs is longer than either the wico or betson, without adding any lubricants.  The wico and betson aren't silent, however; they're pretty loud too (in a quite room), and louder than my PC TB.  I went to an arcade and could hear TB spinning there, so I think it's normal to have "noisy" TBs.

I think there's three possible causes to the noisier happs TB:
1.  Since happs case is more "open" than the other two, the sound is not mufled as much.
2.  Happs rollers and/or ball is not as perfectly round as the other two.  If it's the rollers, the noise will decrease as they wear down.  I've swapped balls, and didn't hear any noticable difference (happs was still louder w/ betson's ball, betson still quiter w/ happs ball), so I don't think it's the balls roundness.
3.  The roller bearings, roller positions, roller mounting, and/or TB case in the happs conduct sound better.

My guess, a combo of reasons 1, 2 (roller only, though), and maybe some of 3.

Other way of quiting it some is cleaning the ball and where the ball sits on the rollers.  *shrug*

BTW, great work!  How thin did you route the wood down to?  The taper looks very good.

[Stein]

UR, that was exactly the kinda stuff I was wondering. I was definitely impressed with the happs spin time, even when you roll the ball slowly the momentum keeps it going for an appreciable amount of time. It's getting smoother now after a week of playing with it (the actual pointer movement has always been incredible smooth tho).

I think it's probly a combination of all three things you mention, also one thing I discovered while lubricanting the bearings on the shafts... all bearings definitely are not equal, some were louder, some would spin longer... I suppose the thing to do is have a whole bucket full of them to pick and choose from oh well...  minor thing, the noise from the tb is reminiscent of the old days of playing in the arcades, so it's cool either way.

The board is 3/4" and I routed down to 1/4", plenty strong for oak, could probly go to 3/16" even but then I'd have a problem aligning the router bits bearing to the hole for beveling. The bevel is an 1/8" corner round.

I had thought originally I would build my future cab out of oak too, after getting more familiar with what people have done with acrylic, printed gfx and t-molding I'm back to undecided

thanks for the comments btw
Stein

[u_rebelscum]

.... It's getting smoother now after a week of playing with it (the actual pointer movement has always been incredible smooth tho).

Guess you'll have to play some more to get it even smoother.

.. also one thing I discovered while lubricanting the bearings on the shafts... all bearings definitely are not equal, some were louder, some would spin longer...

Ahh, yes: another possibilty.  Though, I didn't notice a big difference between the bearings in the happs TB, nor between those and the ones in the betson TB.  I looked, but just to see if any of the bearings were broken, so could have missed it. *shrug*

the noise from the tb is reminiscent of the old days of playing in the arcades, so it's cool either way.

Yup.

The board is 3/4" and I routed down to 1/4", plenty strong for oak, could probly go to 3/16" even but then I'd have a problem aligning the router bits bearing to the hole for beveling. The bevel is an 1/8" corner round.

Very nice.  Thanks for the info.

[DeathMonk]

Very clean and professional!  Im considering doing one like that.

[Stein]

UR, what I found with the 6 bearings in my unit was that one was actually louder than the rest, and the slowest one spun on average for 4 seconds while the longest one spun for about 7 seconds, quite a difference! the loud one was neither the slowest or fastest... I should in the future make the trip to the bearing shop and see if I can find some higher quality ones.

DeathMonk, thanks! always nice to hear. If you do plan on doing one like this I would make my sidewalls 1/2" higher than my plans show, things got a little tight

Well, I'm all done with the building of it now, my light kit from Happ arrived and (long story short) I scrapped it and brought some RadioShack parts :p the page is up and there is some new pics and me babbling on about things.

Stein

http://webpages.charter.net/mjellis1/index.htm

[Dartful Dodger]

Great job!

I'm thinking about doing the same type of thing with the track ball for my, soon to be cabinet, this way I can take out the ball to make room for a clip on a steering a wheel, with out much effort.
I was afraid it would look crumby, but your's looks good.

[Smack]

Nice job with the woodworking end of it, not to mention the design!

Still got all 10 fingers after using them thar tools?

Smack

[Stein]

thanks you guys...

yep, all fingers still attached  the worst I've done is drill my left middle finger with a 1/4 drill (while installing a garage door for work)... that hurt, but it didn't come off


I see a lot of people looking at my site are only seeing the first page... maybe I should put the page links at the top of the page too?